The super-adorable Janie of Monster Girl Writes gave the Versatile Blogger Award to me! You definitely need to check out her blog ’cause it’s fantastic and so well-written. Go. Do. Now.

I think this is my first blog award ever and now I feel all special and like I just won an OSCAR or something. Omigosh, I cannot believe it! I would like to thank…

4 Rules go along with this award:

Rule 1: Thank the person who gave you this award.
Thanks Janie! <3

Rule 2: Share 7 things about yourself.

One: I don’t particularly like much of the music that originates from my country. There is plenty of it around, but in all honesty I find most of it to be terribly, well, crap. Except this song which I am rather fond of at the moment: ‘Young Blood’ by The Naked And Famous (for some reason embedding isn’t working for me). I saw them live when they opened for Nine Inch Nails and they were pretty good. This song kinda reminds me of MGMT.

Two: If being a psychologist doesn’t work out for me, I’ll probably do interior design. I have a very big love of making living spaces look delicious.

Three: I love drinking tea, but I prefer Earl Grey over ‘regular’ black tea. Like, really prefer it. I’ll have the regular stuff if it is the only type of tea available but when I’m sipping it I can’t help thinking something is wrong with it.

Four: On the subject of beverages, I am very predictable when it comes to what I will order at certain places. For instance, at Starbucks I almost always get a grande green tea frappechino, half the sugar syrup, with whipped cream. If it’s freezing and I want something warm I will either get a chai latte or hot chocolate. Sometimes I do try different things, like at Christmas when they have festive flavours.

Five: I love my hair being played with. It makes me want to go to sleep because it’s so nice and relaxing.

Six: I love high heels but I rarely wear them. They hurt… but I own like seven pairs.

Seven: I don’t like swimming at the beach if the water isn’t calm. Surf beaches are for sunbathing only! I have a fear of drowning in rough water that I manage to forget by avoiding rough beaches and not going on boats.

Rule 3: Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic.

1. Girl’s Gone Child – Fabulous blog of a fabulous mama. I’ve been reading for a few months now and I really enjoy her posts, especially the brutally honest ones.

2. Today Is My Birthday – Pretty much every post has me in fits of laughter. This wonderful lady has such a great writing style. Loooove.

3. Today’s Letters – Super-sweet blog of daily letters about random stuff and to her husband.

4. Sometimes Sweet – Danielle’s blog may actually be my favourite find of the year. I am so, so pleased to have stumbled on it. She is a truly fantastic person!

5. Vannyyy – Really nice blog I’ve very recently found. Vanessa is studying to be a pastry chef so, yes, very yummy things do feature from time-to-time.

6. Of Mice and Manticores – Stevie’s insightful blog focuses on belief systems, science, and other interesting topics.

7. Our City Lights – Another very recent find. Diana’s blog is awesome, as is she.

Along with Janie, I’m stopping at 7 because I, too, do not have any other recently discovered blogs. In fact, some of the ones I’ve listed may not even be classed as ‘recently discovered’. More like ‘six months ago I found this blog and now I’m addicted to it and am sad when my Google Reader doesn’t have a post from them in it’.

Rule 4: Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

Off to do that right now! And then it’s wash face, get dressed and go do stuff time.

The first professional manicure I ever had was at age 12 and I got fake nails put on. I thought it was pretty neat but they didn’t last that long, and because I’ve always had fairly decent nails of my own I could never justify spending the dollars on getting fake ones. Or professional manicures for that matter. I still don’t, really. However, a couple of weeks ago my sister-in-law treated me to a professionally done set of false French tips and, quite frankly, I fucking love these things. My own nails, while perfectly fine, are a little on the thin side and once I let them get to a about half a centimetre in length they start to break pretty easily. But these fake babies are as hard as anything and have served me well. I can’t bite and/or pick at my own nails and my nibbling at the skin around the nail bed has decreased as well. I am going to get another set put on later in the week because, well, why the hell not? It’s not like I spend a fortune every month doing my hair and on make-up and professional beauty services, so the occasional set of false nails is something I am highly supportive of! At lest until my bank balance says otherwise…

Mid-century furniture

I have a serious addiction to mid-century anything,  but especially furniture at the moment. I want to my future house to be mainly mid-century pieces. I wish I could afford this cabinet! It’s to die for.

Scrambled eggs

One delightfully filling, protein packed meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner! My favourite way to make them is with a couple of tablespoons of milk, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sometimes I like ‘em with herbs, too, and sometimes I like ‘em with toast. I’m lucky enough to know exactly where my eggs come from (the chickens that have free range over our property, except inside the house) and what those chickens eat. I can assure you that eggs from happy, healthy chickens, freshly laid that day, are a zillion times nicer than those from battery productions.

When I made some for lunch today, one of the yolks broke as I cracked the egg and it looked like Pac Man for a few seconds. It made my day.

Chihuahuas

I’ve had the privilege of knowing three Chihuahuas in my life, one of which currently lives in my house. I can say, without a doubt, they are my favourite breed of dog, and this is coming from someone who is pro-rescue, which usually means mix-breed. I love mix-breeds too, but there is something really special about Chis and I am utterly desperate for a pup of my own right now! Possibly because I’ve been having extra maternal urges lately and since I can’t have children yet, the next best thing is a dog.

Matryoshka Dolls

I adore matryoshka dolls, though I do not own one! Never have. But I am on the hunt for the perfect doll so I will be sure to post about it when I bring it home. In the mean time, I will happily swoon over pretty photographs of other peoples’ matryoshkas.

From here

From here

I would actually be tempted to have those as wedding rings!

From here

From here

From here

And now I shall finish my French assignment! Have a wonderful Sunday evening, everyone, and a fantastic week.

The only unfortunate thing was, when I was buying my sushi for lunch, a girl reached passed me in line (I was about third in line, so people were in front and behind me) to get a pair of chopsticks. The problem was that she was balancing her open sushi container on her ring binder, and there was so little room that, as she reached, I turned slightly and accidentally knocked the binder causing her sushi to fall off onto the floor. I felt bad, but also peeved because she could have said excuse me before reaching across and then I’d have had time to move out the way, while she wasn’t so close to me. Oh well. The sushi place gave her another meal for free, which was nice of them.

Lately I’ve been spending far too much time looking at my favourite sites with images of homes. Sweet Home Style is so full of great inspiration. Most of the houses featured are of styles that I quite like. Then of course there is the fabulous Saucy Dwellings. What I like about this one is that it’s generally the members posting photos of their own spaces, so they seem a bit more real. They are spaces that are lived in, that have to be functional for the people who inhabit them, etc. Plus, I’m insanely nosy and I love looking inside other people’s homes! It’s especially nice when they caption the images, explaining what’s what, why they did something, how they did it, and so on.

Of course, looking at all these homes only makes me insanely envious and want one of my own. I told Josh last night that I’d like a winning lotto ticket for my birthday.

Credit unknown

Design Sponge Online

Rachel Whiting

Tim’s Sally

Littlebeane Boutique

Claudine Hellmuth

John W. Golden

What colours do you love?

♥

• Yoga! Definitely loving yoga this week.
• Very much wanting a pair of these 3/4 length yoga pants in black, from Victoria’s Secret.
• Napping, not that I’m doing much of it, but naps are nice.

What are you loving today/this week?

• My brand new nephew, Tyler! He was born on January 13 at 12:06pm. I may be biased, but he’s perfect, really! Hehe.
• While he’s technically not the only thing I’ve been loving this week, he’s the only one I really care about sharing! Hehe.

• San Smith’s blog posts about how she turns her goals into wonderfully illustrated and colourful visual representations inspired me to turn a boring list into something fun. Visual goals also remind me of the vision boards that The Secret talked about. Check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of San’s tutorial.
• Anticipating the arrival of my new nephew, Tyler. My brother’s partner is due on January 18 but judging by the activity of recent days Little Mister might grace us with his presence early! In preparation, I have been shopping for a gift; I am probably getting way too much enjoyment out of buying baby stuff…
• Weet-Bix for breakfast, preferably with some tinned peaches and yoghurt!

What are you loving this week?

• American-style brownies might actually be my #2 after cupcakes. Goodness me, they are quite yum!
• Kissez on Tumblr. I’m hoping it’s not actually creepy to like looking at photos of people kissing, more beautiful and romantic. I’ve never denied being a hopeless romantic but I have denied being a creep!
• Raiding my grandmother’s wardrobe and scoring two excellent dresses. One is an emerald green satin 70s-looking number with long sleeves and matching belt; the other is powder blue cotton, probably 70s but reminds me of the 40s a bit, short sleeved and very comfortable.
• Roasted almonds and pistachios sent over from my brother-in-law’s parents in Iran. You don’t understand until you try, but they are so good.

What are you loving today?

This kitty is adorable and most definitely one of the things I love today!

• On the subject of kitties, check out Surprised Kitty!
• She & Him, the duo of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Check out a live video for their song ‘Change Is Hard’. I have fallen in love with their debut album Volume One.
• Zooey Deschanel in general actually. She. Is. So. Amazing.
• Summer! Finally, some weather that is summery has arrived and it’s been wonderful.

*I forgot to post this yesterday, hence why it’s being posted on this here Friday afternoon.