Completely random

I spent the first half of the month researching and writing the Ten Things series for this blog with only one random post in the midst of those. Now I have a lot of random things that have no relation to each other but I decided to put them all in this post anyway. Bear with me.

Lemon Yellow

 Fabric from Mood 
(This picture does NOT do it justice.)

I have a new obsession with all things lemon. In the past, lemon scents and flavors have never been on the top of my list. I've never particularly cared for the color yellow either. (Wearing yellow makes me look a little ill!) When we went to L.A. last month and were shopping at Mood, I found some beautiful metallic gray (not silver though) linen with big, bright yellow flowers on it. It is completely not my normal style, but I was very drawn to it and kept coming back over and over. I bought some, having no idea what I was going to do with it (I think it's going to become new kitchen curtains, requiring a complete kitchen makeover). Anyway, it started my new obsession with yellow and, subsequently, lemons.

Ounce for Ounce

I really like shopping on Alice.com. One of the newer features is showing you how much a product costs per ounce so you can compare how much you'd save if you bought the giant bottle of laundry detergent verses the smaller one. Today I was looking at eyeliner and it is $75.00 per ounce! Good thing it's only 0.08 ounces. I don't think it's unreasonably prices or anything; I just think it's funny to see it priced out per ounce.

Preening Peacock

Peacock ring from Schmutzerland

This infatuation started last winter when I bought a deep turquoise wool coat that, at least according to the receipt, was peacock colored. This shade has been infiltrating my wardrobe in everything from scarves and shoes to eyeliner. Similar to the yellow flowers on the Mood fabric leading to my new found love of lemons, this hue has resulted in me now adoring actual peacocks. How can you not love these beautiful birds? They get to wander around their entire lives in showy, black-tie-affair, luxurious formal wear. Did you notice peacocks infiltrated several of my Etsy picks for the Ten Things series?

São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos

 Photos from Wikipedia

I want to visit Salvador, Brazil, also know as the "Capital of Happiness." As far as I can tell, it has about everything I want in a vacation destination: beautiful beaches, 500 years of architecture, museums and a lively local culture with native, Portuguese, African and Spanish influences. Plane tickets are quite pricey and there doesn't seem to be any direct way to get there. The best I found was three flights to get there and four to get back. Some of the routes have five or more flights!

Wikipedia has an extensive page with lots of photos and Seth Kugel wrote a very good article called 36 Days in Salvador for the Times. I have a couple of books on the area in my shopping cart on Amazon. I don't know if it's feasible yet, but I do have a week off in June. I've never been to South America or anywhere south of the equator. Have you been to Brazil? I'd love any suggestions.

A Few More Random Thoughts & Happenings

Last night one of our cats (Alven) brought something into the bedroom and was making a lot of racket. Upon investigation, he had brought some mail to us. It was an envelope with a clear window that he apparently like crinkling for the noise. Some people's dogs bring them the newspaper. Our cat brings us the mail, while we're still in bed. Beat that. 

Today I opened the closet in my art room only to find a deck of tarot cards all over the floor. When I bent down to pick them up, a 20 pound tool box full of art supplies fell on my head. Ouch. Again, I believe I have Alven to thank for this. 

If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there for this very long, very random post.