she&him

i can't get over this video. it's so campy and cute and bizarre. love the song, but the video feels like a morbid mary kate and ashley video from the 90s. your thoughts?

how to be an explorer.

i love all these hints on living life as an explorer. wouldn't life be better if we all were constantly exploring in everything we do - job, family, friends, fun, religion, etc.? i'm committing to be an explorer today and hopefully i'll get something done at work. maybe i'll start by actually working and not blogging.

found at bits of beauty

love.

watched great gatsby last night after reading the book earlier this month. the movie is very true to the book and i just couldn't get over all the beautiful dresses and hairstyles and the men all looked so handsome and dapper in their suits and hats.

i'm really looking forward to the gatsby-esque party this weekend!!

this song is one of my favorite love songs from a movie. i just watch annie hall again and again for this part. such a beautiful film:

exhausted. but worth it.

Went to the fleet foxes show last night at the 9:30 club. Clarification: went to the "late" fleet foxes show. The openers didn't even go on until 11:00 and FF started around 12:15. We left early, but not because I didn't love it - because I didn't want to completely regret going.

TH and I started the night at Amsterdam falafel - i'm finally learning how to do the toppings to get every bite to taste delicious. Then we drove over to the 930 and waited in the longest line I've waited in at the 930. The opening band, Espers, was literally like being at woodstock. I wasn't that into it and thankfully neither was TH, so we just made fun of them while they belted out songs that sounded exactly like the moody blues. (don't get me wrong i actually went through a moody blues phase about 4 years ago and i totally respect what they do, but seriously who recreated moody blues??)

Fleet foxes was amazing and my heart was pounding the entire show, against my will - the drums were so loud, and the music just filled every little corner of that room. Pretty amazing.

But the last couple shows I've been to, both me and boyfriend are like - "why do we come to these shows? too many people. too many drunk people. too crowded. etc."

i'm just getting so old and crotchety. it's starting so much earlier than i thought it would.

steel + weather = power

did you know one of these guys weigh as much as 20 elephants? and that they're about 150 feet tall? i didn't know that before last week.

thrifty shopping

i found some great thrift stores in seattle, including the little consignment shop where i found this amazing marc jacobs dress for $20. it reminds me of a hazy cloudy sunset. i need to do more shopping like this. oh, don't mind my silly conference nametag i had to wear all week. ug, so glad that's over.

student loan consolidation

have you done it?

who did you go through?

what made you make the decision?

i'm looking into this, since i have 10 billion different loans, but the only thing i would save would be my sanity. i have 3 payments right now, but if i consolidate i lose out on lower interest rates that would be raised a bit. unfortunately my loans are all fixed and were taken out at a time when the banks had not-great-rates.

is it worth it to consolidate and lose out on a couple thousand? i'd really love some feedback from anyone who has advice. this stuff makes me want to jump off a bridge.

weekend getaway to nyc!

governors island is the little island right next to manhattan - just a quick (and free!) ferry ride away. me and joshy went to explore and exploit the free-bike-rental friday, but the line was like 10 miles long, so we walked around the island. and there's this super tacky palm tree that i just fell in love with after i saw 3 elderly asian women freak out and take their picture next to it. i had to do it, too.

riding the ferry from manhattan to g.i.

joshy a.k.a. "george"

la la la, i love vacation!

we had such a fun, albeit short, trip to nyc. took the 6am friday train to nyc, had a short rest in central park, then TH to work, me to explore. I walked around boehrum hill, prospect heights, and park slope. Then met joshy at keste pizza and we set off the explore governors island. Later TH met up with me and we had dinner and reconvened with joshy to watch a movie on his roof! It was quite the fun get together.

watched persepolis and snuggled with all my nyc besties. love them. miss them!!

saturday was shopping all over town to find duds for the lawn party this sunday. TH found some great stuff and i scored a cute dress. we had lunch in the park by the flatiron with friends and an early dinner with fondue and mark's friends, then 9pm train back to dc!

fun weekend. very fun.

i also found the best black and whites thus far in nyc: nussbaum and wu's. i walked by that place every day for a year and had no idea.

i can't wait to visit again. i just love that city.

seattle.

5 days in seattle for work, found some time for exploring with co-workers and with my favorite danny roy!

pike's market where i spent too much on the best salmon of my life.

some wind turbine action for my job

back to market, this time for crumpets!

by the seattle aquarium with my main seattle squeeze.

jellyfish!

gum wall!

for some reason i still have jetlag, but i had an amazing time loving up on the city of seattle. my favorite place was pioneer square - cobblestone streets and ivy lined buildings - i felt like i was in europe! also, being in seattle just made me want to be back in alaska. maybe its time for a vacation to juneau??

came back from seattle and 24 hours later, after sleeping and eating salmon and mini pineapple upside down cakes, i hopped on a train to another island - manhattan!! more to come...

beisbol.

one of the things i love most about summer is baseball. it includes so many of my favorite things: being outside, warm humid nights, food, cheering crowds, and TH.
Someone in our section started the wave and it went around the entire stadium. I loved being a part of a big coordinate effort for fun.

(see? even the lady in the background is happy!)

Who won? I don't know - that is not the reason I go. I go because TH is the cutest at baseball games. And because I get to eat fries and mooch off his soda and peanuts.

don't you just hate flying? yes i do. and i told the worst lie to a friend of mine. i said flying.

but seriously. bad flight to seattle and nasty flights back. marooned in charlotte, being attacked by credit card merchants, and swindled out of my money to check my bags ($20 for the 1st and $30 for the second?! ridiculous).

anyway i had a great trip to seattle. lots of pictures and fun memories. a successful first business trip. now i'm off for the weekend to the city i love to love, new york!

what? i like parties. no big deal.

what happens in a week that makes it pass by too quickly? dance party on monday, bbq birthday party on tuesday, party planning dinner on wednesday, bridal shower party on thursday. and today? baseball game...does that count as a party?

one of my dear friends is having a gilded age lawn party (think gatsby era) and i'm helping her plan a bit. looking for the perfect dress to wear and long pearl necklaces to match! and a cloche, oh if i could just find a lovely cloche. dc, i'm finding, is not the place to look for this. i'll be in seattle next week, so i'm hitting up those stores. i also might go to nyc next weekend to check out vintage stores (and of course to eat at absolute bagels, levain's, and black and whites). any suggestions of vintage stores in either of these cities?

oh the perils of party-going.

i cannot wait for this movie

it just looks so much like...life. you know what i mean? sometimes i'm sad to be a somewhat grown-up. truth.

congrats iggy!

And the rug giveaway winner is DC's own Iggy Bloggit! My co-worker picked the magic number and now this pretty girl will be sitting in a pretty girl's NE rowhouse, if she's lucky to make it in.

Thanks everyone for participating. Giveaways are fun!

xoxo,
gnomie

last day for rug give-away!

hey loves. remember to leave a comment on this post to enter for the rug give-away! Ends at midnight tonight!

the beach. in pictures.

driving.

besties.

trish. so pretty.

middle-school best friend pose.

summer feet.

skeeball.

lots and lots of tickets.

what fun we had! i need more beach. like pronto.

caught playing games.

a classic game, peek-a-boo.

can't wait to see you soon, boyfriend. you are cute.

summer.

Saturday:
Rehoboth Beach with nyc besties, and bone and richie (pictures to follow when they get developed), a bike ride to the monuments for light painting.


Sunday:
church in mount vernon. brunch at dos amigos. afternoon at holocaust museum. nyc besties leave - i watch 2 movies and fall asleep reading pride and prejudice.

what's not to love in that weekend?

and guess who comes back today? th. th. th-th-th. me=excited.

dc. making the transition.

i've been in dc now for 40 days. i absolutely love it some days and other days i just feel complacent. the problem is not dc, rather it is that i am longing for another place. you guessed it - nyc.

however, my friends are coming down tonight to bring some nyc cheer with them! and i'm discovering there are a lot of things to do in dc, but getting friends to do these things with you is the tough part.

on my list:
tour the pentagon
tour the us naval observatory
visit some mid-century design buildings including this museum, and this house
learn to be a trapeze artist
visit many many many restaurants still in the queue (although TH and i are doing a pretty good job of knockin those off the list)
hike/fish/camp in the shenandoahs
outlet shopping in leesburg
antiquing in virginia (near charlottesville)

those things could take up the rest of the summer, along with shows and trips i'm already scheduled for.

how is the summer so good at breezing right by?


garden update: everything we planted is sprouting, minus the broccoli. we'll work on that.

also, don't forget to enter for the cute rug giveaway!! last day to comment is july 15th!

in the mood for a friend.

I need a bombshell weekend. Like the kind where you just want to die you're so happy. I had one last weekend, and I need another. Why? Because it is summer time.
I hate my bangs right now, and I've been waiting patiently for a month for them to grow out. So I haven't been taking a lot of pictures of myself due to that fact. But summer pictures make me so happy. My goal this weekend is to document summer. I'll do a post next week about it!
Hoping for a beach trip on saturday with some of my new york besties! Try and tell me how that is not summer. Well, you can't. You just can't tell me.

tip of the day: removing chewing gum from clothing.

Sunday night I dropped off my boyf at the airport for his overseas journey. His trek. His global excursion. We sat on the window ledge under the 1970's architecture that surrounded us and ceiling that promised to cave in on us were it not for the miracle of i-don't-know-what but i'd like to say buttresses? (wishing i knew more about architecture).

So canoodling. There we were, canoodling on the window ledge, being silly, and then I walked him to the security line and said our goodbyes. As I'm walking away I put my hand on my bum (as I often do for some odd reason) and feel sticky sticky gum. Yes, during the canoodling I must have sat in gum. Oh the shame.

How do you get chewing gum off your favorite pair of jeans?

Ice? no

Scraping with a knife? no

Soaking in hot water and scrubbing with the dishes brush and now you have to buy a new dishes brush? yes!

That is the story of the chewing gum incident. Moral? Don't sit on nasty surfaces. And always sit on someone's lap. The end.

rug giveaway!

Ok my dear readers, your loyalty is finally paying back. With the help of the lovelies at CSNrugs, I'm giving away a fabulous rug to one lucky commenter.

Here she is:Isn't she pretty? A quaint size for a quaint space (2 feet x 3 feet), perfect for separating a space, for a small hallway, or a childrens play area. Or something else I haven't thought of.

CSN is where I bought my yellow Thomas Paul rug for a break neck price, and they sell tons of beautiful area rugs. Plus the rug was delivered to my door in less than a week. What? Crazy, I know.

So here are the rules: Comment once and only once to enter to win this darling rug! Pass around the love. If you want to link it to your blog, cut and paste:
Check out Gnomie in the Capitol City for a Almafi Spring Circles Rug giveaway from CSN area rugs!

Leave your comments by midnight, July 15th!! I'll randomly pick a winner from the comments, probably out of a hat, because how fun is that?

xoxo, Gnomie

quote.

"Every plant knows this: It’s only when you get crap thrown on you that you really start to grow. "
-Scott Sorrell

fabulous fourth. and big big week plans.

this year we celebrated the fourth in style. a 3-day celebration! every 4th of july should be 3 days of celebrating!

friday: TH woke up early so we had an early breakfast at jimmy t's, one of our fav spots in dc. then to frager's, where we were so inspired by all the plants and seedlings that we bought supplies for a garden!
we went home and sweated the day away, clearing weeds and brush and replanting flowers to make room for the new garden, little kansas. or maybe babylon. we haven't quite named her yet. we planted cukes, brocc, maters, squash, and beets!
that night we went to manassas to celebrate in style.

the newlyweds even joined us!deb debs birthday celebration. the girls decorated the cake! doesn't my mom look too young to be a grandma?

we went to Willards BBQ for a debdeb birthday/pre-4th family celebration.saturday: my roommate hosted a pancake party. delicious banana pancakes!

my roommate. she loves the pancakes.

then we spent the entire afternoon and evening in dc. first georgetown shopping where i got some cute cute things, including this orange number from anthropologie. and TH got a periodic table shirt from urban, and i quizzed him on the elements. he's very smart.

we walked to the jefferson to celebrate with our friends, then walked back to georgetown. it was a good, very exhausting, but very fun day.

sunday was church and reading and then i dropped TH off at the airport for his london getaway. he's there for awhile, so i'm using the time to catch up on much needed activities.

big big plans for the week.

last night i finished the great gatsby which is such a great summer read. its on my netflix. i started this book on saturday and finished it monday - i couldn't put it down. its nice to finish a book since i can't seem to do that lately (probably because i've been reading books like this and this).

this week is a blast so far, and will only get better with friends coming into town this weekend (i hope so much!!!)

a new segment: where do you wiffle?

at 22nd and grant:in the sunroom: the 2009 summer activity? wiffle ball.