cake day.

Listening To: Don't Forget to Write by Burlap to Cashmere
Lyric Obsession: "I am at ease/ the ocean's near/ the sun is sinking. The moon is tame, the fever's gone and I feel fine ..." 

Hey beauties (& beastlies). I owe you a proper post, and I have some fun ones coming. There's some giveaway action and also a post about something rather ... unusual that I found in my brother's car. I'm also writing about dangerous books and why I love them so much. I wanted to post that one in time for Banned Books Week, but it wasn't ready yet. Many of these-here-blog-posts are written every bit as quickly as they seem, but I let other posts simmer for a while before I share them. In the kitchen of metaphors, my blog is a ginormous stove and my posts are all boiling and bubbling and catching fire. Some are ready before others. Some = Flambe!

Speaking of kitchen fires.

Did I mention I'm making dessert for a get-together tonight? Cooking isn't my savvy, but I sometimes like to bake. Sometimes. I like the exactness of baking, which is a bizarre realization I've come to. (Note: I like the exactness of baking when it works. I hate it when I follow the directions to a fault and I end up with flopsy-crapsy-cake-stuff.) That's not to say my baking adventures ever go well, but, lucky for you, they usually do make for some fun blog entries. So I'll be sure and show you pictures of my catastrophe creation. I'm making a caramel cake for tonight; because it's seasonal (and not pumpkin) and the icing is amazing (it cools to a fudgy consistency) and the color is so pretty. Caramel cake tastes kinda special but it's actually not hard to make. Not usually. Not always. *fingers crossed*


While I go make a cake, I wanted to share some fun links with you:


- My very dear (and far too adorable) friend, Lola, officially became a naturalized US Citizen! Confetti! Lola's co-workers gave her a cookie cake to celebrate:

When I saw the picture I was all, "What's congrade?" But I see now that it reads: congrads. Congrats/Congrads/whatever (seriously - I'm not a stickler for spelling). In fact, I feel like this cookie-cake-writer is a kindred spirit. This is how it looks when I try to write with icing too. I usually write "Happy Bir..." and then I get bored and squirt the rest of the icing onto the surface, so that it might congeal into a gooey heap of awesome. I like my cake decorations abstract.

For serious though, Lola has such a cool concept of culture and home and what it means to find your place in this world. She's a born adventurer. I love her dearly.


- The dark circles under my eyes right now are most likely the product of age come courtesy of my friend Jenny B. Jones and her compulsively readable new novel. 


There You'll Find Me came out this month, but you probably know that already. And you know that it's amazing and sad and sweet and hilarious and romantic. I'm trying not to say anything else about it right now, because I'm doing a separate post about There You'll Find Me (and giving away a signed copy! Yowza!). But I have a hard time not gushing about it. For now, I can most assuredly say this: Finley's story will rock your soul. I can't believe how hard her story pulled me in. This book is a keeper. Scrape the change out of your floorboards for this book. Give up Starbucks for a week so you can buy this book. Trust me. (Did you catch what I just said? That the story is better-than-Starbucks good?) I finished my copy very, very early this morning and I can't stop thinking about the people. I miss the characters already.


- In other book news, I read the sneak peak of Maggie's Stiefvater's new novel, The Scorpio Races, and I have come to the following conclusions: 1.) I will buy it and 2.) it will probably freak me out and 3.) Maggie Stiefvater could write about tap-dancing earthworms and it would still read as gorgeous prose. She's ridiculously talented. The Scoripo Races is based somewhat on a scary legend/myth/sea-story I had never, ever heard of before. I think this book is totally Gaiman. By which I mean: it will be scary-pretty. Scary-pretty so much that I might have some busted dreams as a result, but alas.


- I loved reading about Mary Blair's Google Doodle. My favorite part is when they talk about how Mary Blair's work inspired the movie Up.


- This is my favorite thing that I've pinned recently. "The Beat-owls" is my second favorite recent pin. Heh. :) I feel like I don't understand Pinterest though. Because while most people (normal people?) are pinning recipes and pictures of Duchess Kate, I'm pinning ... a picture of a T-Rex chasing a toddler and instructions on how to make a lego ornament that looks like The Death Star. I'm really not as bizarre as my Pinterest would lead you to believe.


- I watched a new TV show called "Once Upon a Time" last night and I thought it was super fun. I love re-tellings of fairy-tales, so I had a hunch I would be into it. Did you catch it? Think you'll keep watching? I've also seen "The New Girl," and I like it a lot. But my absolute-favorite new show (so far) is called Person of Interest, starring Jim Caviezel. I can never remember the name of the show so I've been calling it The Jim Caviezel Show. (I've loved Jim C. since "Frequency." That's one of my favorite movies ever.) "Person of Interest" = Oh. My. Lanta. GOOD. It's a mash-up of revenge and who-dunnit and story and action. The motive behind what the lead character does is what really intrigues me (unless I've missed something, his motive is only being revealed in pieces). If you watched, and adored, "Alias" (I have every season on DVD) (don't judge me), then you need to give The Jim Caviezel Show a whirl. It is quite intense. And he's such a great actor for a part like this: smart and tough and fearless. Sometimes (well ... most times) he looks crazy handsome. But sometimes he just looks downright-psycho-crazy. There are so many emotions that play across that man's face during an episode. There is no love story in this show (not yet) (well ... not exactly) and it's lots of punchy action; very Bourne Identity-esc. I'm all over it. (I also like the show "Unforgettable" but I still can't decide if it's because I truly like the show or if I'm just crazy-go-nuts about Poppy Montgomery's hair.) Are you watching anything exciting this Fall that I need to DVR?

- I'm hanging out with my bffSarah this week and we're commencing in our annual Halloween Festivities of Awesomeness. I cannot tell you exactly what we're doing. But I can tell you that I'm pretty sure we'll be running through Trevor Bayne's mind this week. Zing. (Unless it rains. If it rains, we're totally just staying in and watching Hocus Pocus and eating candy.) Do you every do the corn maze thing? They're weirdly fun, yes? We're professionals so I'm estimating it will take us 3.5 minutes to solve The Bayne Maze. (PS, while I know zilch about racing, Trevor Bayne seems like a great guy.)

Also ....


- I really want to see the new Puss in Boots movie. And I even-more-really, really want to see this:




- This bracelet is gorgeous. And I want on my wrist.


- And this song is beautiful. And I want to keep it in my heart:



Welcome back, Burlap to Cashmere! I have missed you so.


I'll be back later this week with pictures of my caramel catastrophe. How was your week? Reading anything awesome? Doing some fun adventuring? I would love to hear what's new with you!