A Gentleman's Fire and Brimstone

Shot this at a stoplight yesterday. At least they're polite.

Giveaway Winner!

Just joking! The high profile blogs have giveaways all the time and since my friend (and one of my most supportive readers) Melissa happened to be hanging out with me tonight, I thought I'd pretend to host a giveaway. Since Daniel is in LA I had a girls night with Kate and Melissa...sleepover style. So I'd like to announce Melissa as the winner of my first giveaway: the winner and a friend got to spend an entire evening with me out on the town. For her prize we went to the glamorous historical downtown Lee's Summit and took in the local culture at Jerry's Bait Shop. We enjoyed the house band cover classics like "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Sweet Caroline" while watching the locals cut a rug on the dance floor. (More on this experience in tomorrow's post...it was that good!) Reese the dog got to join the sleepover, so we had a full house of 3 gals and 3 pups. Toby was the odd man out in the girl dominated party, but he made due. A night to remember for sure. I bet you wish you won the giveaway. A night with me and the gang is always full of adventure.

Reese, the life of the party.

While the husband's away, the TCM will play.

"Three Cheers for TCM!" (picture from Shadow of a Doubt)

Whenever Daniel is out of town I typically preoccupy myself with movies during the evenings. I have an affinity for Alfred Hitchcock and some of the classics on TCM. Daniel does not share my appreciation for old movies, so while the husband's away, the TCM will play unrestricted on the living room TV. I am trying to work my way through the entire Hitchcock catalogue and tonight am finishing up the third film from my most recent batch of rentals from the library.

Here's the latest three:

Vertigo (1958) with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. Awesome. Though the story lines can often be predictable, this one had me guessing till the very end. There were so many plot twists that I literally thought the movie was ending at four different points. The design of this movie poster is so cool. The opening credits have the same aesthetic and are so fun to look at.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)- This film is said to be Hitchcock's personal favorite. Ehh, not mine.


The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. It works. The look is great between the exotic location of Morocco and some nice costuming between Stewart's suiting and Doris Day's "resort wear". The scene in the taxidermist's office is so unique visually and the way they utilize the stuffed animals is comical and brilliant.


I didn't know that the song Que Sera, Sera was written for this particular film. Day performs it a few times charming the audience each performance. The lyrics are so sweet and I'm taking a lesson from the song.

Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be)
When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here's what she said to me.

Que Sera, Sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here's what my sweetheart said.

Que Sera, Sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.

Que Sera, Sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Reason #44 Daniel is Cooler Than Me

No this isn't a week long series I had intended on doing listing the reasons why Daniel is cooler than me because for the record I don't actually think that he is. He may get to do cooler things than me, but that by no means is any indication that he is in fact cooler at his core than I am. Question: Is the correct grammar, "cooler than me" or "cooler than I am"? I kept it casual using me in the title of the post, but is it actually correct to say "cooler than I am"?

Riding the coat tails of yesterday's post, comes another instance of Daniel's cool factor rising beyond mine.
Tonight- YL Kid: "Hey Hattie, is Dan getting paid for those commercials?"
Me: "What commercials?"
YL Kid: "You know the singing in the car ones."
Me: "What? Another one?"

My own mother is only adding fuel to his cool burning fire.
Earlier today (yes even before this evening's comment from YL Kid)-
Mom: "We saw Daniel's commercial last night."
Me: "Oh they're still running those?"
Mom: "We hadn't seen this one before."
Me: "Yeah they've been playing for a while now."
Mom: "No, this one. We've seen the other one. I think this one's new."

His fame continues. First it's a one liner in a commercial. Then his denim clothed butt is plastered across websites. And now it's another commercial where his word count seems to have exceeded one line status. Is this reading as frustrated? Is my annoyance coming across in my tone? If not let me just state how irritating it is to be married to a golden boy. Sure I'm proud but it gets old when even sitting at a high school sporting event all the guys ask, "Where's Dan?"(happened again just yesterday at basketball).

Oh hello, how are you doing Hattie? Thanks for coming. It's so good to see you. Nope, none of that.

I would make a terrible first lady. "Yes, yes Barack is doing great. Leader of the free world. I know. We're so proud. He is cool isn't he? Thanks for saying that. Hey speaking of cool, have you seen my new jacket? Thank you, my inaugural suit was gorgeous wasn't it? I know I do get ignored a lot. Thanks for noticing." (PS- I do not mean to say in this mini conversation that there is nothing to Michelle Obama and other first ladies than their clothes. She is amazing and accomplished. I used clothing as an example only to make an illustration concerning coolness. So calm down before you take offense at the appearance of a lack of appreciation for first ladies. Go Michelle!)

But I digress. I love Daniel. I'm happy for him. But where's the love America? Is he going to be the grandpa with all the cool stories and I'm going to be the lame boring grandma? I need to broaden my life experiences (or just fabricate some convincing tales of grandeur). I will step out of his shadow by whatever means necessary, lying included. Ah ha! Even he will tell you I'm an excellent liar...something that he is incapable of doing. Lying that is. Perhaps that isn't something to be boasting about, but I truly am an astounding liar.

So if you haven't gotten in all your Daniel worship for the week yet, you can check out the SECOND commercial below. His snippet is in the very last seconds. They saved the best for last. And as jealous and competitive as I jest here, he really is the best.

PSS- Oh and spelling! He sucks at spelling sometimes. I am definitely a better speller, and liar.

Reason #43 Daniel is Cooler Than Me

Thanks to Baldwin Denim and the Denim Debate, Daniel is getting famous on the internet...or at least his butt is (this link is from Valet Mag and yes that's my babe of a husband in the picture).

Butt seriously. Sorry. Seriously though Daniel gets to be a part of this awesome project called The Denim Debate. For one year he is wearing a pair of selvege denim and will document the breaking in process along with around 25 other folks. Matt Baldwin, the owner of Standard and Daniel's boss and friend, launched his own denim line this past fall so Daniel will be wearing a pair of Baldwin 77's. Bookmark the site for the debate if you want to follow Daniel and the rest of the crew throughout the year. Also look at these rad pictures from the Baldwin campaign shot by photographer extraordinaire Ryan Strong.


Reason #43 Daniel is cooler than me: he gets to wear dope clothes, collaborate with other creative people, and get paid for having good style. I guess that's three reasons, but you get the point. I wear the Baldwin Ten if anyone cares.

Is it Bad?

Is it bad that I want to crash my Volvo just to test its safety features?

The day before Thanksgiving I bought my Volvo XC90 after leaving my Acura with 208,000 miles (thank you very much). Between the consumer reports and the dealer we visited, we were informed of Volvo's exceptional safety features. The XC90 features side curtain air bags even on the rear row of seats, anti-rollover technology that compensates for sudden swerves, and many other great options. The most impressive feature to me is the specially engineered steel used in each of the 4 columns that make up the frames of the windows and windshield. If the car were to rollover (which apparently would never happen thanks to the anti-rollover feature), the entire weight of the car could be supported by just one of those columns. Picturing this sounds awesome to me and instantly made me want to test out the claim.

I told my dad about all the safety features and I must take after him because his first question was, "So does that make you want to crash it just to see what would happen?" I responded, "Absolutely!" Driving down I-70 I have thought about what would/could happen if I "accidentally" veered into the concrete pole supporting the overpass above. Thoughts like this occur frequently in my slightly irrational mind. I am a crazy person. I'll settle for crash test videos though because I love my car and would hate to see her come to any harm.

I am an intense Twilight fan. No shame here! So it certainly helped that New Moon came out right as I purchased my Volvo. Edward gets an upgrade from the hatchback featured in Twilight to the brand new XC60. The XC90 is a little different from the sportier new model, but I felt pretty cool that my new car looks just like Edward's new ride (black and all). I thought about naming my car Edward, but I can't picture her as a male. It's just nice to know that Edward cares about safety too. We have so much in common.

Amateur

One of my earlier posts was about being an independent contractor, and below I've posted pictures of my latest work. These are the small window displays in the kiosks at Zona Rosa. I have been doing the displays for my sister when she is unavailable. Each month stores supply a few items for display and then it is up to us to merchandise them and create an attractive window. The small scale of the display is a creative challenge that I try to improve upon each month. Last month was full of pink and red and glitter and hearts since the displays were themed for Valentine's Day. I scanned the internet for inspiration ahead of time and came prepared with a few ideas in mind. After completing all 8 displays I was in one word underwhelmed. Despite my extra effort and attempts to research visual merchandising, my work still came off looking amateurish. I loved an old window from Anthropolgie that featured a paper chain motif and tried to recreate the look in one of my kiosks. I had images of grandeur in my head, but the display looks just okay. Good not great.

So not failure, but certainly imperfection. I really want to delve into more creative fields of work, but I fear that I will forever come off as an amateur. I have to remember that whoever is designing the beautiful and inspiring storefronts that I admire, have probably been doing it for a long time. Their first windows probably didn't look like much either. I was pretty impressed with myself on the Vintage Market window though. I used some frames I had made for my old office that were backed with cork and covered in fabric. I pinned vintage hats and a purse into them making a 3-D display. I should be bragging about my performance as I completed the outdoor displays in 35 degree weather. That's actually pretty good work for frozen fingers.