Amen!

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Uh, We Lied...

Know how we just got done saying that we had the best Christmas Card idea ever? Well, we were wrong. It looked good online and sounded hilarious when we discussed it, but once we received it, we saw how completely awful the product was. Now that I have just mailed the box back and you won't be getting them, I'll just come out and tell you that they were.... whoopee cushions. That's right people, whoopee cushions! Tell me that's not a genuinely funny idea, especially with our message on it:

I personally was holding out to put "Merry Christm-ass" (please tell me you get that) as the greeting, but Jess vetoed the idea. Granted, I also think some of my relatives might have a coronary if they saw it, so I had to reluctantly agree. But you have to admit it was a brilliant play on words.

So why did we return them you ask? For several reasons, one of them being the size of the writing on the cushions:

Uh, yeah. We could barely read it too (and we have young eyes). We would have had to supply magnifying glasses with our cushions and that would have gotten even more pricey. However, they did come in a nice assortment of colors that were pleasing to look at.

Still, the bold and bright colors did nothing to add to the actual function of the cushions. In fact, not much would. At times when you sat on an inflated cushion, nothing would happen. It was just a hard nobbin of air underneath you. At other times, a gigantic rip-roaring blast would erupt that sounded absolutely un-human. Seriously, if someone emitted a sound such as the one produced by this cushion, I would be afraid that they had just torn apart their butt. Let me tell you... this was no "Bronx Cheer"...

Now we just have to figure out what to do instead. Sigh.

Home Group Girls Sleepover

Last night my Home Group (youth group) girls came to my place for a sleepover. We had a ton of fun with the Photo Scavenger Hunt and the String Game! Check out my pictures of the night at my Picasa photo page. Click on "Home Group Girls Sleepover". If you've never experienced the String Game then you need to look at these pics! Seriously fun.

Christmas Cards Coming Soon

Know how Jess and I always do a "Family Christmas Letter"? Last year we thought we were clever by making you hold it up to a mirror to read it. While a pinnacle of brilliance, that letter was only a small peak next to the Matterhorn that is this year's idea. Jess and I have a history of making ridiculous decisions after 9pm (remember the hideous collage bulletin board?) so when we erupted in gales of laughter and cracked pun upon pun after I voiced my brilliant idea well past our cut off time, we decided to hold off until the next day to see if it still sounded as genius. I have to tell you, it certainly did. It has been ordered and we await it's arrival in a week or two. Let's just say that this year's letter is more interactive than normal and should be more fun than any others you may get. Stay tuned for more updates...

Shopping!

I hate shopping, but I love these sites. I'll take one of those, and those, and those...

One Good Bumblebee. Vintage shopping experiences that are amazingly cute. Check out my wishlist for my favorites.

The Modish Holiday Gift Guide. An online directory of such cool stores. I want to just spend hours looking at these places.

Homemade Julz. Gorgeous graphic design rings and necklaces.

BAGS, BAGS, BAGS

If I were to have a single typical female vice, it would be bags. Not purses mind you, but bags. Criteria: large, colorful, and able to hold at least one book. These sites were nothing but pure sugar for me.

Mod Cloth. Who wouldn't love the Paper Airplane Bag, the Lovebirds Tote, or the Owl Messenger Bag.

Gerbera Designs. Sweet messenger bags.

Anne Taintor. AWESOME ironic vintage bags... "Honey, you couldn't handle half of me"

More More More

Here's some more fun links from the past few weeks:

SF has Public Open Spaces that companies create for public use by their office space. There is a group dedicated to reclaiming these spaces. Go to this site and click Paraformance 4 on the right hand column to see strangers playing a game in one of the spaces.

Want to play 20 Questions but don't have anyone to guess your answer? Go to this website and try to stump the computer!

People's Faces and their Shoes. Enough said.

Crafty people posting their projects online. Such great stuff! If you like great ideas, this is definitely the place to look.

How to turn a picture into a screened T-shirt. The things I want to do with this...

A cool design alternative to online invitations. Small selection, but no cheesy graphics.

Hipster E-cards. Completely awesome and funny ways to say pretty much anything.

Designers were asked to share their favorite music. This is hours and hours of listening candy with unusual flavors.

Type in a band or musician and Music Plasma will come up with a web of related musicians.

Pictures Tell The Story

I often find things online that I enjoy and pass on to a few select people. Instead of being stingy with the wealth, I decided to post it for all to see. Below are some of the pages I found today.

The Border Film Project gave cameras to both the undocumented Mexican migrants at the Mexico/USA border and the American minutemen who are trying to stop them. Great photos are turning up. I will admit to a bit of nerdiness by saying that I listen to NPR on occasion and remember a couple of segments on the conflict. I looked them up for you to hear the migrant protest songs and a first-hand look at the border. Incidentally, there is a funny story of students and a principal right before it talks about the border conflict and I find it worth listening to.

Check out the interactive public art that allows people to scratch off parts of the wall. It is called the Hidden Love Song (scroll side to side to see the entire project) and this is a wonderful blurb from their website:
"If we could scan our surroundings with a special love detector, perhaps we would find a lot of hidden love songs, under park benches, in people's pockets, lying in the stomach, and behind their ears where their hair rests..."

Brilliantly done are the human versions of classic computer games like Pole Position (race car driving). It took 6 hours of shooting, 49 extras, and 400 photos.

Because I love photography, I am absolutely enthralled with the galleries at The Morning News. One of my favorites is the cheeky Drop Dead Gorgeous collection. Here and here are the best from the deaths. I also love the humanity in A Day In The Life, especially this and this.

That's all for now, but you can expect more posts in the future as I find them.