This week, a random round-up of stuff to keep you amused.

To Look At:
These are some of my favorite websites/blogs to check out lately.
Design Sponge
Living The Beautiful Life
Color Me Katie and
Whorange

You can see that they all have slightly the same theme… cool things to look at, beautiful artwork, the DIY spirit… I guess this is where my head is at even though I’m not making much at the moment. I like to look and dream. I wish my website were more like these but, well… maybe someday!

I am about to embark on an embroidery project. I bought a dress at Value Village that is cream with tiny brown polka dots (picture coming soon). It’s XL though, so I need to cut down the bodice and then shorten it. Once that’s all done, I’m going to embroider a whitetail buck with lovely antlers on the upper right and then hopefully leaves and smaller woodland creatures around the entire hem. Ambitious? Yes! I hope to one day wear the dress roller skating.

I’m taking my deer from a whitetail deer coloring book I received at a bowling tournament a few years ago. It never occured to me before just how awesome coloring books are for geting embroidery patterns. This coloring book is really disturbing though. I happen to know that it was purchased at Mill’s Fleet Farm and the theme is more hunting than cute deer. It stops just short of having a picture of the deer taking a shot to the head but the overall theme is, “Look, deer! Shoot them!” There is a page of the hunters hanging out in their, I don’t know, hunting blind (isn’t that what hunters call it?) with their rifles. I had never thought about how coloring books could be used for indoctrinaton. Maybe there should also be a PETA coloring book complete with pages of beakless chickens in cages and extremely upset looking pigs.

Things To Do Around Town:
Don’t miss seeing the documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor at the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis. It’s also showing out at the Theatres at Mall of America but if MN Film Arts is going to keep programming films, then I’ll support them over MOA. One just wishes Film Arts could get their act together once and for all! It’s like a couple who keeps breaking up and getting back together; you never know if they are on or off and you find you have to ask everytime you see one or the other of them. On Thursday, an assistant curator from the Goldstein Museum of Design will give a short presentation about Valentino and his fashion before the show at 6:55 p.m. Yes, 6:55 p.m. I like that.

If you haven’t tried Obento-Ya at 15th and Como Avenue in Minneapolis, you should. It’s a tiny place though, so try to go off-peak if you’re concerned about having to wait or if crowds just make you nervous. A later lunch is a perfect time to go and enjoy. I’ve been for both lunch and dinner and both time it was delicious. Try a bento box.

And this garage sale in Minneapolis looks like a winner to me! So does this estate sale. It’s not everyday you get a crack at 42 cuckoo clocks but you gotta get there early and get your number. Sometimes estate sales make me as nervous as a crowded restaurant.

What I’m Reading:
Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl
The Mindful Way Through Depression by Mark Willliams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn (note about this: yes, I’ve been majorly depressed in my life and it’s something I haven’t shared very often. So here I am, talking about it on a blog! But maybe this can help other people – this book is great for finally understanding some of the causes of depression and why our usual problem-solving skills don’t work to “cure” it. There is interesting research about how pathways are formed in the brain once you’ve experienced a major depression that actually make it more likely you’ll experience it again. Basically, “depression forges a connection in the brain between sad mood and negative thoughts, so that even normal sadness can reawaken major negative thoughts.” So what’s the way out? Mindfulness and meditation. Turns out you have to be as much in the present as possible to escape some of this stuff and that takes practice. But if you’ve ever been really, really depressed, it’s worth it to cultivate mindfulness – it can feel like a vacation for your brain. More and more I’m realizing that depression is not something to be silent about (unless you’re meditating. Then- sssshhhh.)

What I’m Watching:
Battlestar Galactica Season 1 – Oh, those terrible Cylons! Note: I hope to move on to new stuff soon; this is beginning to feel like a rut!

Something to Look Forward To:
Mark it 8, Dude! Lebowski Fest is coming to Minneapolis on September 11th & 12th as part of the Speed of Sound Tour. Start crafting your costumes and let’s bowl!

This is Jeff Dowd, the inspiration for The Dude!