Music to Grill By

It's Friday, and if you live anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, there's a good chance that you will spend part of this weekend cooking things over a flame, drinking Corona and eyeing up that cute hipster in the vintage 'Pee-Wee Softball' t-shirt. So why don't you impress your friends with music meant for grilling?

This mix is a little bit dancy, a little bit sparkly, but not without moments that might warrent a bit of fist pumping. Here's what you can expect (maybe not in this order):

• Black Magic - Magic Wands
• Raindrops - Basement Jaxx
• Help I'm Alive - Metric
• Soft Shock - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• I'm Good, I'm Gone - Lykke Li
• Mouthwash - Kate Nash
• Lisztomania - Phoenix
• Dream City - Free Energy
• Drivin' Me Wild - Lily Allen and Common
  
  These songs have been on repeat in my head and on my stereo since late May. What are you listening to these days?

Interview With a Painted Lady

Approximately everybody has tattoos these days, right? But do you know anybody with TATTOOS (all caps and bolded)? I have known Jill since we were awkward teens running the streets of rural Minnesota. She's a world champion cupcake maker, the owner of The World's Best Dog and also? A real, live painted lady. She kindly agreed to tell us about her millions of gorgeous tats.

How many tattoos do you have?
Right are sleeve – zombie, graveyard extravaganza

Left arm sleeve – Great White Shark battle w/ giant squid

Chest – bat

Behind left ear – Treble Clef (for Elvis)

When did you get the first one? And what was the thought process behind it?

My very good friend and I decided to get the same tattoo together for our first time. The thought process at 18 years old was --- tattoos are SO awesome and we happen to share a really special, weird bond. It’s corny but we always knew we’d separate and go on our separate ways, we were too much a like & WILD.

We chose a tiger to rest on the inside forearm, hers was a girl, mine a boy who I named after Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy. Oh, to be 18. We also saw it as a way to identify each other, either living or dead. Kinda creepy but we both really didn’t know how or how long we’d last after high school. No worries! We are both very happy, still close friends & living large!

Do you have any tattoos that you regret getting?

No, none. Never. You can change your tattoos as you grow, either with cover up work or add on to them. No regrets, it could all be over tomorrow. My zombie arm design I came up with after playing Resident Evil 4 but it also serves as a reminder of my own mortality. If I, personally, worried about what I’ll be doing in 30 years I’d forget to live right now in this moment.

Which one is your favorite? What's the story behind it?

FAV: I really am in love with my shark battle scene. I can’t wait for it to get finished; the colors are going to be AMAZING. Imagine a gloomy Lisa Frank scene with sharks & a giant squid instead of a kitten and puppy. (FYI: Lisa Frank designs the super hyper colored stationary) WHY: I watched Jaws with my mom when I was 4 years old on a low-key Sunday afternoon in our basement den. It absolutely terrified me and I quickly decided that being eaten alive was my “worst way to go”.

She tried to put me down for a nap but I just pretended to be sleeping on the floor. About a year later my mom remodeled my room and installed blood red carpet—no kidding folks, Dead & Bloodied Along the Way Red Berber carpet. Aaaaaaannnnddd, I have a very colorful mind a.k.a. total spaz or anxiety ridden. I was certain there were sharks swimming in that carpet. I remember hearing them thrash around trying to jump up on the bed for a snack (me!). As an adult, I can barely look at a Great White Sharks without feeling like there’s a rope around my neck, choking my rationality.

But I LOVE them. They are beautiful, fascinating animals. Here’s a little tidbit: A shark's skin is covered by small, razor-sharp teeth called denticles. Sharks never get cancer; scientists are studying their cartilage in hopes of a cure. How awesome will it be when sharks cure cancer!?!!!

How do people react to your tattoos?
My favorite thing is this: when people get to know & like me AND THEN see my tattoos. I love breaking that stereotype down. Yes, I am a lady. Yes, I am polite. Yes, I care about people & the world in general. Yes, I have a good job & make a decent wage. Yes, I have a troop of rotting zombies digging their way out of shallow graves on my arm.

Most people love finding out about them, good conversation starter. Tattoos are really fun & easy to talk about. Others that see them first are blown away for the most part; my tattoos are one of a kind & look like paintings. I’m very proud, it’s art. On. My. Body. People always want to touch me (I don’t mind) & awesomely I get the most positive reaction from older (than me) women ages 40-65. Double awesome.

Do you plan to get anymore?
After my left arm is completed, we move to my chest (the bat will get covered) & then to my back. My husband and I are planning to on a union tattoo but haven’t put a firm “YES” on any particular design yet. Some kind of anatomical heart/skull with antlers has been discussed. FUN! His will be on his chest & mine on my back. We’ll see!

What advice would you give to anyone who interested in serious tattooing?
RESEARCH! I researched for 6 months before I settled down with Tom Strom at Uptown Tattoo. This will also give you time to mull over the seriousness of major tattoos, go through all the w’s. Tom is an amazing artist and generally my kind of dude, he’s into a lot of the same stuff. We banter back and forth like siblings. He’s into metal music, a movie fanatic like yours truly & appreciates all things bizarre.

You can check him out at thestromrefinery which is a site he shares with his wife to showcase their creative endeavors. He is a completely devoted father and husband, totally self-taught (painting, tattooing, etc. !!) and really just an awesome guy. I feel good about supporting him and the work he does.

Do you have tattoos? How do you feel about them?

30 New Things: Put a Message in a Bottle

* note: I don't usually wear houndstooth peacoats

in old fishing boats whilst releasing bottles.

And then I stared Death in the face (and by 'Death' I mean a stripper's cho-cha)

Friends, have you ever been to a bachelorette party? I mean, like, a proper one? With penis headbands and 'suck for a buck' games and the like? I attended my first ever real bachelorette party last Saturday. This is not to say that I don't have married friends - I have heaps - but they're a bit more 'Let's drink some beer at the pub and call it a bachelorette party' type of girls.

The bacherlorette party itself was fun and par for the course (drinks at swanky dance clubs, dancing to lots and lots of Michael Jackson, flirting with bachelor parties, feeling smug that we were the least ridiculous of the many bachelorette parties we saw). Things became significantly more interesting (?) when we had the grand idea to bust up the bachelor party, which happened to have taken up residence at The Double Deuce.

Please allow me to paint you a picture of The Double Deuce. Imagine your average VFW: fake wood panelling, pull tab cage, meat raffle, neon beer signs adorning every vertical surface. A dart board. Fried cheese curds. Now: imagine, in the corner of this bar, a fully lit, tiny, elevated T-shaped cat-walk, staffed by the strippers rejected from Minneapolis's more esteemed strip clubs. If you've been looking for a place where you can scratch your pull tab while simultaneously eat a hamburger and oggling boobies (all without paying cover) your search is over!

So we stopped into this fine establishment to suprise/embarass the groom-to-be and his friends, all guys that I've known since junior high. My friend Tara and I took seats at end of the cat walk between songs to hassle these normally well-behaved boys. And we were so busy attempting to shame them, that we didn't notice that our friend Jason had sneakily placed money on the cat walk directly in front of us.

We didn't realize that the stripper was crawling towards us until we heard a round of guffaws filter through the crowd and turned our faces to see what? Why, a grinning face followed directly by two tiny bouncy breasts being thrust into our faces! I think Tara and I both both emitted tiny shrieks of terror while the stripper purred into our ears "If you don't want to get hit in the face, look down." Wisdom for the ages, folks.

After the boobies in our faces, the stripper then attempted to play piano scales, with her head, on the keys that were apparently our boobs. Up the the piano and down the piano while Tara and I disolved into hysterics over the wood paneling, the florescent lights and this woman mashing the crown of her head into my B-cups.

Things quickly become moved from PG-13 to NC-17 when she turned around to literally twirl her cho-cha in a figure-8 inches from our faces while Tara and I became intensely interested in those aforementioned beer signs and fake knots in that woods panelling. Not to be deterred, our friend then flipped over and offered her bum up for inspection, jiggling it, spanking it and at one point snapping her thong. Indeed.

And that was approximately enough. As one of the bachelor party decided to 'make it rain' (aka act like a douche and throw a bunch of dollar bills all over the stage) we made a hasty excape, ducking out before she could showcase her actual womb.

But I hear they'll do that for, like, $7.

Thoughts on Looking Back

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30 New Things: Get My Tarot Cards Read

How do you know that your tarot reading is going to be awesome? Clue number one: there are no less than 75 different types of incense for sale in the store front. Clue number two: the woman who answers the phone literally uses the phrase "kinda cool, kinda groovy." Clue number three: your tarot card reader appears to be Corky from Waiting for Guffman.

Awesome and awesome.

This is particularly awesome because I've had my tarot cards read once before (so technically this isn't a completely new thing) but it was such a ridiculous experience I thought I deserved a do over. Last time, my reader spent a good twenty minutes talking about her dead Persian cat and then told my future with a set of cards she made herself, line drawings of animals on pastel office paper that she then laminated. The BFF could hear me laughing from another room.

But this time was better! Un-nervingly accurate and positive.

I told Corky that I was interested in my career, travel and relationship. We started with career and Corky turned over the queen of wands, which was hilariously accurate. She's a woman after my own heart: apparently she knows exactly what she wants and pursues her goals with nothing short of tenacity. Then he turned over the magician (I have all the skills I need to succeed, I just need to create opportunities) and a man on a horse with a cup (a mentor is coming who will offer me book deals and world travel) (okay, I made up that last bit). So that was lovely!

The relationship bit was a bit rockier starting out with that lovely card that features a heart with three swords through it. Grrrrreat. But accurate. Corky obviously concluded that I'd been through a Very Bad Breakup and we moved onto a card with a man laying on a slab of marble, apparently pointing to my current self-imposed dating hiatus. But then it got good! The king of wands! A perfect match for my queen card! And the last card? This one. Sooooo. I'm happy with that.

The group of travel cards was a blur I don't particularly remember, though Corky said that they pointed out that I should definitely travel and when I did I would feel completely satisfied and at home in my new surroundings. I assured him that my concern was not if I should travel, but when I would have enough money saved up to do so. So we pulled out this little number, which apparently means that I'll be traveling in the lap of luxury sometime next Spring.

I'm not sure how much faith I put in these readings, but it's always nice to believe that good things are coming down the line. If you live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, I can heartily recommend Eye of Horus in Uptown. 15 minutes for $22!

Have you ever had your tarot cards read? How did it go?

Web Time Wasters

Because I'm an animal nerd. The 10 most diabolical fish on earth!

I want to do this when I grow up. Or next week. 20 Subversive works of Guerilla Street Art.

You guys know I love tiny houses. So I obviously love tilt photos, which make everything look miniturized.

I'm pretty sure these are the romance novels of choice in my hometown. Whatever floats your boats, guys.

I'm a little bit in love with this girl's outfit choices. And by 'a little bit in love with' I mean 'I just went through her whole flickr stream.'

I'm totally not into planned communities (I'd like to be able to differentiate my house from my neighbor's, thanks) but what if it was an eco-community?

Are you a cusser? Or as my college roomate liked to say 'a swear bear'? Apparently, Americans lovelovelove to do it.

If you live in the Twin Cities, maybe you've seen St. Paul's art signs? They're metal and shaped just like real traffic signs, but feature funny pictures or strange sayings. Apparently, they're supposed to help slow fast traffic in the residential neighborhoods.

How cute is this delicate, a-symetrical necklace?

Two fantastic house tours: one feminine and lovely, one full of bizarre, museum-worthy curiosities.

Y'all, bookmark this business: The cheapest places to live in the world, $500 a month.

I need this adorable paper-clip hoarding birdie on my desk yesterday.

And remember, you can still comment for a chance to win this swanky, $125 clutch!

Happy hump day!

Since You Asked ... Part 2

Hello! This is the second day in which I blather on about myself, answering the questions that you lovelies gamely asked me.

What has been the one experience that has changed your life the most and why? - Sherin
Oh my. I think my post-college Summer in Brazil was a turning point in my life. My time there completely changed the way I viewed life: what I needed to be happy, what I was capable of, the sort of life that I wanted to lead, what constituted a fulfilling and successful life. Prior to my time in Brazil, I'd been working towards a career in a marketing and advertising. I wanted to land big accounts and work in a corner office and have impressive business cards stuffed into my expensive handbag.

I taught for the first time in Brazil and realized that, try as I might to avoid it, teaching was kind of my genetic destiny (five people in my family work in education). Spending time in a developing country also changed my ideas about wealth and success - I realized that I needed good food, inspiring friends and nice weather to be happy. But not heaps of money. And traveling the length of Brazil, on my own, to bum around the rain forest? After that, I knew I was capable of just about anything.

What is fake bacon and where do I get some? - Ms. Constantine
Fake bacon is heaven in a the form of frozen meat-like strips. My heart belongs to Morningstar Farm Breakfast Strips, but I'm sure there are other fake bacons out there. I doubt breakfast strips are available outside of The States, but if you can get your hands on some: watch out. And if you carnivores are nay-saying, consider the fact that these bacon strips are 30 calories a slice!

Which is why I eat them by the boxful.

What are the most important qualities you look for in friends? - A
I prize all of the usual things - sense of humor, intelligence, loyalty, a wardrobe I can pillage. But as I've gotten older, I realize that I like to surround myself with people who inspire me and possess traits that I would like to have. I've got a few incredibly wise, good advice-giving friends, some friends who can get anything they want with charm and wit, and a couple of driven, crazy talented friends. I guess I'm hoping that some of it'll rub off!

What is the first thing you do in the morning? - Magatha May
1) Feed my cat Rasputin who is licking the door in an attempt to wake me up
2) Turn on MPR
3) Drink a protein shake
Riveting, I know.

Where would you most like to travel to next? - Erin W
I'm actually working towards saving up for another world ticket, in a year or so! I'm considering stops in heaps of places ... maybe England, Germany, France, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, India, Nepal, Russia, Mongolia, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. Honestly, it depends on where I have friends at the time and what sorts of work I can find. But I am determined to do the Mt. Everest base camp hike and the Tran-Siberian.

If you could be anyone of any age/gender for a day, who would it be and what would you do as them? - Kate's Irrelevant
Good lord that's a hard one! Honestly? I think I'd be Michelle Obama. I could discover what it feels like to possess The Best Arms in The Land, how it feels to be completely in love with one of the most powerful men in the world, what it's like to be a mum and what it's like to be a minority.

During my day as Michelle, I'd probably wear a variety of fantastic things, make out with my husband a lot and hang out with heaps of amazing people.

What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? - Triplux
Can I cop out and make a list? Okay, good.

1. The sunsets in Santorini

2. The sunrise over Angor Wat
3. Pretty much the entire south island of New Zealand

How you get inspiration for your blog posts? Do you think of topics in advance and write them down? - Anne In Reno
Honestly, a lot of ideas just come to me through conversations with my girlfriends. A lot of times, I'll be trolling other blogs or reading a magazine and think "Ooooh, I wish someone would write an article on non-traditional adulthood/converted spaces/scars." But eventually it just occurred to me that I could write those articles. I also find inspiration by looking through the quotes section of visualize and we heart it.

Being a Virgo, my posts are usually written several days in advance of when I publish them. Because I'm nerdy like that.

How has writing this blog changed your life? - Erin
What's the best thing that's happened to you as a result of blogging - Corrine
Ummm, it's eaten up a large amount of my free time? I kid! I kid! Well, not really. But I have so much fun putting Yes and Yes together, I'm not fussed.

I would say that blogging has reinforced my love for writing and made the world seem a smaller, more loving place. Stop puking in your mouths. It's true! I've been writing for ages, but it's always been in the form of newspaper articles/press realeases/academic papers, so it's been great to write in my own, strange way and get so much positive feedback. And all you guys? I feel like we're all kindred spirits, spread all over the world.

Again, stop puking in your mouths.

What made you start blogging? What ispires you to keep it up? - R and Brittany
I've always been a bit frustrated by women's media - I feel like we're constantly being pigeon holed into ridiculous mutually exclusive catagories:

Fancy Ladies Who Get Brazilians and Buy Expensive Purses or
Hippie Vegetarians Who Travel and Want to Save the World or
Career Women Who Want the Corner Office or
Girls Who Are Happy Working in Coffee Shops and Playing Video Games

And I'm a little bit of all those things! And so are most of the women I know! So why do so many magazines (and a lot of blogs) seem to be aimed exclusively at one group of women? I surely don't know. Because I'm equally interested in seeing the world, saving the world, wearing cute outfits and throwing good parties. And surely I'm not the only one, right?

I also wanted an opportunity to yammer on about living life on your own terms. For me, that's meant traveling heaps, putting off marriage and babies and taking a job I love that pays two dollars. But your terms could be adopting the baby you've always wanted sans dude! Or taking the dream job in NYC inspite of your family's misgivings! Or getting a PhD in something obscure and amazing! I guess I've wanted Yes and Yes to be about saying yes to the things that make you happy, whatever those things may be.

Thanks so much for all the questions, lovlies. Yes and Yes loves you!

Since You Asked...Part 1

Many of you guys were sweet enough to humor my entirely self-absorbed call for questions to help ring in Yes and Yes's one-year blogoversary. I was wicked impressed by how deep and meaningful y'all got! I was expecting queries more along the lines of "what is your weekly cheese budget?"

How do you decide where to go on your travels? - A
Honestly, I'm a a bit of a travel slut and willing to try any country once. Many of my travel choices are motivated by having friends who currently live in that country or the fact that a country is cheap to travel through. I'm also more likely to visit a country if I'm a big fan of the food - which was a motivating factor behind my trips through Italy, Greece and Thailand.

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? - Magatha-May
Despite my attempts at sweet corn ice cream, I'm not terribly fussed about ice cream! I've got more of a cheese-tooth than a sweet tooth. However, when I do dabble in the sweets, I quite like pistachio gelato. Yummo!

I curious to hear more about your teaching career - Jaka Merriman

For a long time I resisted going into teaching. Both my parents are public school teachers in a low income, rural school district, so I grew up very aware of the reality of teaching (long hours, discipline issues, uncooperative parents) . I had no interest in that foolishness. I was gonna sell my soul to the advertising industry and make a million dollars!

But then I went to Brazil and changed my mind. When I went home, I worked as an event planner for year before having the ubiquitous quarter-life crisis. I worked as a teacher's aide with special ed kids and then moved to Taiwan to teacher ESL. I've been teaching since then, literally from 4-year-old Chinese kids in Taiwan to a 72-year-old Korean man in New Zealand. Now I teach South East Asian refugees in St. Paul, Minnesota and I absolutely love it. I'm not sure that I'll always teach (as I do enjoy dabbling in the writing) but I'd like to keep it for a bit longer. It's also one of the easiest ways to see the world!

What has been your absolute favorite place that you've been to? - Erin W.
Ooooh, tough one! There have been heaps of places that I've loved, but I think my heart belongs to Greece. I'd been wanting to go there since the ubiquitous Greek Gods unit in fifth grade social studies class, and it's one of the few places that I've been to that has well and truly lived up to my expectations. I was there for a month volunteering with a wildlife rehabilitation center and got to know every blessed corner of the little island I was living on. It really was everything I'd imagined - tiny white churches tucked between mountains! fields of poppies! old men with giant mustaches!

My affection for the Greece may also have been helped along by a romance-novel caliber travel fling and, well, all that cheese.

I want to know why you're a vegetarian - Erin
Honestly, I think I was born vegetarian. I spent most of my young life battling my parents' 'two bites of everything' rule. I won that battle when I was 12 and gagged some summer sausage back up onto my plate after attempting the classic "swallow it whole with a giant gulp of milk" trick.

For me, it wasn't really about the ethics behind eating meat - though I am a total, total animal lover. I just didn't like meat - the texture, the smell, the creepy chewy bits. Just like I don't like sweet pickles. Or radishes. Or button mushrooms. I don't judge non-vegetarians (I realize that we have canine teeth for a reason) but meat's just not my scene. Though I will judge you for eating veal. That's bad karma, yo.

As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate the environmental effects of vegetarianism. Of course, that's not why I stopped eating meat but I'm glad that I'm inadvertently having this positive effect.

I'd like to know which languages you speak and how you acquired them. - Sal
Sadly, I really only speak English. At various points in my life I've been able to hold my own in German, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian but those words just seem to spill out of my ears as soon as I leave the country in question. I've only ever studied German, for two incredibly mediocre years in high school, but then did an exchange program to Stuttgart for a summer when I was 18. The Portuguese, Spanish and Italian were all learned on the road and, obviously, go hand in hand with each other.

I can also haggle and give directions in Chinese: "Dwo shao chen? E buy quie? Tie Guay! (How much is it? 100 NT? Too Expensive!)"

What's your favorite smell? - pinkapplecore
Can I cop out and say lemon grass/cucumber/cilantro? Anything fresh and green smelling, really!

I'm curious as to whether you were an adventurous child, or if your sense of travel and adventure developed more in adulthood, and if so, why? - DaddyLikey
Hmmm, I wasn't an adventurous child so much as I was weird/imaginative. I wasn't ever the kid jumping off of the roof with an umbrella, I was more likely to be dictating elaborate stories to my stuffed animals or choreographing awful dances and forcing my neighbors to watch.

But I was definitely always curious about far away places and different people. I loved my sister's Korean fairytales (princesses hatching out of gourds!) and I couldn't get enough of incredibly macabre Russian stories (a house with chicken feet!) My parents had both traveled extensively before they had me and, as public school teachers, we had the summers free to road trip all over the place. I think I was just brought up believing travel was a normal part of life: that's what you did in the summers.

And I find that the more I travel the easier it gets. You learn how to haggle, you're not thrown off by the tuk tuks and the beggars. And, more importantly, you make heaps of travel friends who understand your wander-lust and sort of normalize it. It's fantastic to call up my girlfriend in Japan and calmly and realistically discuss meeting up in Mongolia next year. Or maybe India.

Are you domestic? - Magatha-May
I really am! I'm all over the interior design magazines and crafting and futzing over homemade Christmas tree decorations. Actually, one of the things that I really like about being back in The States and having a permanent(ish) living space is being able to embrace my inner Martha Stewart. I've found when I'm living abroad, especially in a non-English speaking country, simply suriving and existing consumes most of my energy. When it's a three hour struggle to pay your phone bill, you don't have a lot of time left for make lemon curd.

Tomorrow - fake bacon, morning routines and bloggery!

High Tide

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Every one of us is called upon, probably many times, to start a new life. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, a loss of a job. And onward full tilt we go, pitched and wrecked and absurdly resolute, driven in spite of everything to make good on a new shore. To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another — that is surely the basic instinct.

Crying out: High tide!

Time to move out into the glorious debris.

Time to take this life for what it is.

- Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson

What Summer Feels Like

It has often been said that those of us who live in the Midwest are locked in an abusive relationship with the climate here - the majority of our time together is spent questioning why we live here, trying to overcome Seasonal Depression and glaring out frosted windows.

But then! It's June! And everything's beaches and corn on the cob and dirt roads - we're pretty sure that this time it's going to be different. We forget about those nine months of snow and salted roads. We forget about the terrible produce and the itchy sweaters. We're all strawberries and sundresses.

For these reasons, I suspect that Midwesterners love Summer with a fervor usually reserved for family members. I actively plan my life around these three months, returning to this state of my birth just in time to experience the long days and dandilions. I reserve time-consuming, indoor activities for October.

And Summer even feeeeels different than other seasons doesn't it? It's cut grass sticking to your feet, ice cream dripping out the bottom of your cone and sand on the mats of your car.

It's eating peaches over the sink, listening to Tom Petty as you drive on dirt roads, making bonfires in backyards, the smell of sunscreen on slightly sweaty skin.

Barbecue smoke, wearing a wet swimsuit under your clothes while you run into the gas station to buy blow pops, heart shaped sunglasses, eating the tips off of honeysuckles and cannon balling your friends. It sounds like this. And this.

What does Summer feel like to you?

$125 Worth of Purse! For You!

As you guys may know, my little corner of the internet has been kicking around for about a year now, and though I can't even begin to express how much I appreciate you guys making Yes and Yes part of your day, I can try! And how better to show my love than offer y'all a swankity swank clutch purse?!

The lovely folks at Chickdowntown were gracious enough to sponsor all this blogoversary fun and supply us with one of these great little Monya handbags. Though I'm particularly partial to this bag, I'm also a little bit in love with the J.A.K. Plaid shirts. Because grunge is on it's way back, eh?

We all know that black and white works with nigh-on everything, and this pattern is funky enough to work with your show-going, weekend gear, but sophisticated enough to match your schmancy cocktail-swilling ensembles. See?

Zoe stuffs her clutch with blow pops, a compass, glossy glossy lip gloss and her favorite fortune cookie slips. She enjoys sucking seductively on the blow pops and then feigning ignorance over the mayhem that ensues.



Raquel is a trail lawyer by day, bar fly by night. She favors Jameson on the rocks, largely because she enjoys being the sort of woman who drinks whiskey. Her purse contains only her phone, a money clip and the sort of business cards that would give Patrick Bateman palpitations.

Annika is an art student who specializes in the graphic novel, filling square after square with delicate cross hatching. Her purse contains a marker with which she be-spectacles and mustachios all of the posters around her fair city.

Would you like this lovely littly purse? If you would, just leave a comment detailing what you would pair it with and what you would tuck inside. A winner will be chosen at random on July 30th. Sadly, this particular give-away is limited to those living in The States. I'll get you non-Yanks next time!

30 New Things: Try Miracle Berries

Ever one to embrace to the theme party, last Friday I decided to kill two very fun birds with one stone, combining my house-warming party with a Miracle Berry 'flavor tripping' party. (Go ahead an roll your eyes over that 'flavor tripping' bit. I certainly did.)

Miracle Berries are gorgeous little numbers that produce a protein that makes sour food taste sweet for an hour or so. Crazy, right? I opted to buy Miracle Berry tablets rather than the actual berries - the tablets are heaps cheaper and keep longer than the berries. So then you can keep the extras in your purse and pop one before you head to that awful work potluck. Because hot dish will taste better if it's sweet, right?

I invited over a few of my favorite ladies to dabble in sour food and show off my tiny new pad. Everybody brought some mouth-puckering food to share and generally expressed nerves/excitement over altering our tasting abilities. So we all took a deep breath, took the tablet and quickly had our minds blown.

Really, you guys? It was insane. Raw rhubarb was sweetly tangy, dark bitter coffee didn't need creamer and I was convinced that dill pickle chips dipped in goat cheese equaled awesome. In fact, we found non-dry wine and champagne almost too sweet to drink. And what's this?

Why, that's me drinking a Guinness. If you look carefully, there's also a pig flying in the background, because that's about how often you'll find me drinking beer.

Now, I can't say the Miracle Berries were directly responsible for the awesomeness of the remainder of the party, but maybe if you try them you, too, will find yourself:

• taking photos in which you recreate classic graduation poses
• taking a series of group shots that recreate the ANTM final photos where someone is eliminated each week
• taking photos wherein you pretend you're all dinosaurs

• going to ridiculous college bars where everyone thinks you're a bachelorette party because apparently it's rare to see so many women who like each other in a group
• dancing joyfully to awful, awful Top 40s Pop and loving it
• befriending strange boys you see laying on a lawn, looking at stars
• introducing the boy who looks like Chris Isaak to your cutie single friend
• chatting about Bret Easton Ellis and low income housing policies at 1:30 am in a crowded bar
• being asked for your number by a poindexter-y blond lawyer who tells you he will take you to a play, that you can both secretly research it ahead of time and then try to impress each other with your knowledge of the theater.

In summary: Miracle Berries? Recommended. House warming party full of all your favorite people? Very, very highly recommended.

Would you ever try Miracle Berries?

Because Big is Soooo 2007

In college, a friend once accused me of being the human incarnation of The Fancy Feast Cat. He probably made this comparison because I want to be carried everywhere on a pillow and eat all my food out of a crystal goblet ... but I'd like to think it also had to do with the fact that, like a cat, I'm constantly trying to fit myself into the most awesomely tiny and cozy space available.

In that paper bag. Under your dresser. Inside a sock.

I lovelovelove tiny living spaces. Anybody can make a 3,000 square foot McMansion work, it takes true talent to make a postage stamp studio look lovely and uncluttered. There are so, so many benefits to living in a small space. They're cheaper, they force you to be a conscious consumer and you can actually afford do them up in high style. It's pretty hard to swing 1,000 square feet of mahogany flooring, but 15 square feet? I bet you could do that.

Here are some of my favorite tiny gems that I've found while trawling the internetz.

Wee West Village Rental

How cute is this tiny little place? It's rented by Apartment Therapy bigwigs Maxwell and Sara Kate. Would you believe that they've lived in these same 245 square feet for 14 years? And now they share this space with a baby!? Impressive.

I think this is actually bigger than my kitchen.

Look at those genius doors! The renters made these
themselves out of industrial felt.

Clever, clever putting lighting in the bedside bureaus.
Magical, I think.

400 Square Feet of Awesome
Compared to the above 275 square feet, this place seems nigh-on enormous with it's luxurious 400 square feet. The renter is a girl after my own heart, decorating almost exclusively with Ikea and Craigslist finds.

So clever! Tara converted her high-ceilinged walk-in

closet into a wee little nest of a bedroom. I would

love to snuggle up in there with all of those books.

Is that red bookcase fantastic?

Mirrored armoire = hallway seems a gajillion times bigger.
Gajillion, it's an official measurement term.

Tumbleweed Tiny House

We're all a little big in love with the Tumbleweed houses aren't we? They're made from beautiful materials and filled with the same gorgeous details you find in huge, expensive homes. I can't get over what a delicious little morsel this house is.

Not an outhouse.

I love the modern/cottage look. Look

at that cheeky little portrait to the left of the door!

Flip up table = genius.

Lil Lake House

Vacation homes are expensive, eh? But maybe you could afford a one-bedroom, 11' by 11', vintage tourist cabin? The current owners bought it in 2006 for $500! People own shoes that cost more than that! They completely furbished it, trying to stay as true as possible to the cabin's humble roots.

I love the period-appropriate fan.

Delicious!

Would you ever want to live in a super small space?

In Which I'm Hugely Self-Absorbed

Did you know June 19th marks Yes and Yes's one-year blogoversary? Probably not. I didn't actually know till my domain provider asked me to re-up ... so I'll forgive the lack of cards in my mailbox. But just this once, m'kay? Next year I want those cards that play music.

Stealing a page from every other blogger ever, I wanted to commemorate this blog's birth by blathering on about myself. To make this slightly less awkward for everyone involved, I wanted to answer any questions that y'all had for me. You know: "Why are you so obsessed with cheese?" or "How can you possibly eat an entire box of fake bacon in one sitting?" or "Is that your natural hair color?" (I get the latter all.the.time.)

You can post your questions in the comments section or email me at sarah_vonbargen@yahoo.com. I'll even answer anonymous questions - as long as your not an a-hole. I'll put my responses in a post next Monday.

Ask away!

Malaise de l'Orange

credit

What A Girl Should Pack

photo

She packed up her potential and all she had learned,

grabbed a cute pair of shoes and headed out to change a few things.

Her heart glowed with a degree of happy assurance.

- Leigh Standley

Idea Thief: DIY Fashion Edition

Here are some things I love: cheese, kittehs, fashion. Here is something I don't have: piles of money. You don't have piles of money, either? Weird. Well, don't you worry your pretty head, friend! The web is rife with cute, inspiring, (relatively) easy DIY fashion ideas! Here are some of my favorites - links to instructions embedded in photos.

In the event that you want to re-live your gothy
high school years. Or just embrace this season's goth-inspired looks.
Sweetly edgy, no?

I would love to rock this be-feathered blazer
at a business meeting. If I ever had business meetings.
Really, I would wear it and my students would be all
"Teacher, why are you wearing a bird jacket?"

Why indeed.

Would you believe it if I told you these crazy earrings

are made from plastic bottles? Yes, you probably would.
But aren't they cool?

If you feel like your black stillettos still need more
sexy. Or more cowbell.

Okay, there are actually no instructions for this ring.
But I know a smarty like you can figure it out.

Sexify an old t-shirt. Probably best layered over
something else, unless you're planning on employing
some strategically placed electrical tape.

Put those ripped tights to good use with this
uber-hip necklace. Created by the one and only Lady Smaggle!


I think this lovely little number could
work for the office or drinks. Because chain =
drink-worthy, right?

What DIY fashion have you dabble with?