4 Things I Found Today

• Guuuuuys (literally, guys), now you can get in on the DIY fun too. Man Made DIY is an entire website dedicated to "creativity and and the handmade life for the postmodern male". 

• Sad. "Too Hard To Keep" is a blog where people can upload photographs that are too difficult to keep in their lives. Beautiful, eerie and heartbreaking all in one. 

• Want. These milk bottle measuring cups from Anthropologie. 

• I'm so effing happy after watching this video. You know those things that are SO CUTE you almost just want to smother them to death? This is one of them. Oh. You don't know what that feels like? Yeah, yeah me neither...that'd be so weird..

Things Organized Neatly

Yes, there is an entire website dedicated to you crazy anal folk who revel in the perfect arrangement of objects. This is like porn for you isn't it? Get in touch with your own inner OCD on Things Organized Neatly 

God Bless America (And Beer)

Just in case you want to be a little extra patriotic in your festivities this next week. Via Hello Giggles. 

What you’ll need:

• A piece of 1 to 1.5 inch thick wood from a home improvement store (at the Home Depot they will cut it to the perfect size for only $1 per cut)
• 2 sawhorses for your wood to rest on (you can buy wood or metal sawhorses at home improvement stores – likethis sweet yellow one)
• Paint colors of your choosing
• Painter’s tape
• Paint brushes and rollers
• Screws (to secure wood to sawhorses)

Do it:

• Choose your pattern for your table top (could be a flag like Smiley’s or maybe a nice summer plaid)
• Tape off your pattern
• Paint your table
• Set the table-top on your sawhorses
• Secure wood to sawhorses with screws (most sawhorses have screw holes. *Make sure your screws aren’t too long to stick through the top layer of the table). Optional step but you may want to in case someone tries to do a victory dance on said table.
• Buy beer and plastic cups, balls, paddle and friends… well, don’t buy friends. And please recycle. Not the friends, the cups.

It's the Best...

It's true and you know it. 

{via LittleThings}

Gasp.

I covet this dress from Katie Ermilio with a flaming passion. I want to twirl in it. I like twirling. 

{from emmadime via From Me To You}

Tunes I Heard & Loved Today

This is cheating. It's more of the dance I fell in love with. But I fell in love with the song because of the dance. She is so effortless and graceful and amazing and why oh why oh why would I ever give up dance?

Favorite Bruno Mars song to date? Definitely. 

Hey Your Windows Have a Little Rainbow on Them

The brilliancy of Helmut Smits. While this is totally cool, I would probably question the sanity of someone driving around with rainbows on their windshield. Still love it. 

101 Ways to Have a Great Day

Did Monday suck? Let's make Tuesday ultra spectacular. 

She's got the right idea. 

Bright Ideas For An Awesome Day

1. Get enough sleep the night before your awesome day.
2. Clean your room the night before so that you wake up to a nice clean room.
3. Have a refreshing shower or a nice warm bubble bath.
4. Pick your favourite oufit or one that flatters you.
5. Eat a healthy breakfast.
6. Go for an early morning jog.
7. Read the newpaper.
8. Have a cup of tea or coffee.
9. Have scones or muffins with jam and cream.
10. Let someone else drive.
11. Spend your day with friends or your family or your loved ones.
12. Go to the beach.
13. Go shopping and spoil yourself.
14. Get a haircut. If you are a woman, get highlights too.
15. Take your phone with you in case you need it.
16. If you are very overwhelmed with life leave your phone in the car whilst you walk on the beach.
17. Put your toes into the ocean.
18. Wear suncreen with a goog SPF.
19. Be around people that make you feel good about yourself.
20. Say a prayer.
21. Do something that you have been meaning to do for a long time.
22. Spend some time on your favourite website.
23. Look good wherever you go. That will help you to feel good.
24. Smile!
25. Tell a joke to make other people laugh.
26. Do something for the poor.
27. Eat your favourite food.
28. Watch your favourite tv shows.
29. Do some gardening.
30. Spend some time with the kids.
31. Wear a cool hat.
32. If it is winter, go for a wak in your new coat.
33. If you don't have a new coat, buy one.
34. Go onto your favourite social networks.
35. Read a book.
36. Paint a picture.
37. Don't think about things that make you stressed or angry.
38. Express your feelings in art or poerty, or by talking with an understanding person.
39. Spend some time with your pet. Animals love attention from their owners.
40. Jump in puddles if it is raining.
41. Go to a park with a group of friends.
42. Have a picnic.
43. Sing a song.
44. Cook something.
45. Pick a flower in your garden.
46. Read a joke book.
47. Write in your diary.
48. Go for a jog or to the gym.
49. Relax in your slippers.
50. Avoid arguments and be nice to other people.

...See the other 51 right here. 

{image via: Glitter Guide}

Brews on the Go

Having a "why didn't I think of that?" moment. 

From OOOMS. 

Brenna

Well this song's just fun. 

{via designlovefest}

Note to Self: Go to Med-School

This is what your living quarters look like when you're a successful psychiatrist in New York. The Warhol-themed home belongs to Samantha Boardman, who married her husband (famed NY architect Aby Rosen) on that rooftop deck up there.  

Dear Blank Please Blank

These letterpress cards from Jared Wunsch and Sappling Press happen to have made my day. 

S'mores Cake in a Jar

Yeah. S'mores Cake in a jar. I said that. 

S’mores Cake in a Jar

Via: How Sweet It Is 

makes 4 16-ounce mason jar cakes

For Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 stick butter

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter and mix in graham crumbs and salt. Mix until moistened. Spray 4 mason jars with non-stick spray and press graham crust into jars. I began by adding a tablespoon to each, and repeating until graham crumbs were gone. They don’t need to look perfect. I pressed the crumbs down firmly with the flat bottom of a clean screwdriver.

For Cake: (from peanut butter hot fudge cupcakes)

1 1/8 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons sour cream

For Topping:

1 bag of large marshmallows

In a bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add milk, cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix until batter is smooth. Using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to mason jars one scoop at a time. You only want to fill them up about half way, and the batter should work evenly for 4 jars. Again – don’t worry if it is perfect. Place mason jars in a baking dish and add about 1 1/2 cups of water to the bottom. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cake is set.

Remove cake from the oven and press large marshmallows down on top, being careful not to burn yourself. There is no set number of marshmallows to use, I pressed down as many as I could, about 4-5 each. Heat the broiler on your oven and watching carefully, brown marshmallows for about 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Do not take your eyes off them! Serve immediately.

Notes

*The recipe looks really long, but it is actually really easy! *When you put the marshmallows on top and broil, they may sink down below the edges of the chocolate cake. This is normal. The cake it still more than halfway to the top. *These are pretty rich and sweet, and make a really great dessert for two people to share with two spoons… but can still be eaten by one. *You can use other sizes of jars, just use your eye to decided how much batter to use, never going over half way. If you have too much batter, just make a few cupcakes.

I Now Want to Live in a Barn

Is this their real life? Why can't I be them? COUPLE: WHY CAN'T I BE YOU???

They make living in a barn so sexy. Dear future whoever my husband is: we will be having a ping-pong table in our garage. The end.

{photos via: designlovefest via the selby} 

Color Block

1/2

Give Time

“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…

Remember, to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, “I love you” to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person might not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.”

— Bob Moorehead

Pay It Forward

When was the last time you did something spontaneously nice for someone? Something that you did without any expectations of it being reciprocated? Sometimes we carry out the day a little more selfishly than we intend (guilty. regularly. "I threw in your laundry with mine, why didn't you buy me cupcakes?" Fair's fair.). There's no better day than today to do something small for someone else, something that doesn't require a lot of time or money. Here are 15 random acts of kindness from Design*Sponge: 

Like helping your lady friend over a puddle, so chivalrous. 

1. Buy the coffee for the person in line behind you at the drive-thru.

2. Pay the fare for the car behind you at the toll booth.

3. Pay the entrance fee for the car behind you at a beach or park.

4. Swipe your Metrocard for the person behind you at the turnstile.

5. Buy the movie ticket for the person behind you in line (at a matinee!).

6. Offer your seat on the subway or bus to a senior, pregnant woman or person with special needs.

7. Help a mother (or father) with an infant or toddler put groceries in her (or his) car.

8. Leave gathered wildflowers on the windshield of your neighbor’s car.

9. Scrape the ice off the windows of other cars on your street.

10. Help someone with a flat tire or impaired vehicle (even if only to offer use of your cell phone, should they lack one).

11. Write a letter of praise to the manager of a store detailing the outstanding service you received from one of their employees.

12. Compliment someone’s smile, eyes, hair, outfit, shoes, etc. (This is one of my MOST favorite things to do!)

13. Allow someone with fewer items to get ahead of you in the check-out line.

14. Let the driver with their turn signal on pull out in front of you.

15. Donate blood.

{photo via: Suz & the City}