Amber & Le French

You may not know, but Coffee, my on-again-off-again lover, and I broke up again.  I'm totally head over heals for the bean, but we're just not a good fit.  It's not you, Coffee; it's me.  And my shaking hands and acid reflux.

And, I totally recognize that I am on the rebound.  I went back to my old flame, Red Lipstick.  Although I know in the past Lipstick has treated me wrong, it claims to have reformed.  And, I believe it--although I recognize that I may just be taken in by its obvious charms.  Only time will tell.  And my Scramble 2 scores.

When we're going out together, I feel like I can be myself--more monochromatic--just because lipstick is with me.  (That makes Purple my BFF, the third wheel, who will be waiting for me patiently and comfortingly when Lipstick and I are on the rocks again.)  So, today's outfit revolved around a black and white striped t-shirt.  And that made me think of France, and then I had to know why.  So I Googled.  And lo!  It's because of their naval uniforms.

And that made me think of all of the other great things the French have given us.  Herewith, a list of my top five favorite French things.

1.  Striped shirts.

(Even better with red lipstick, which is not French.)

2.  Mayonnaise.  Great with fries, burgers, Sapporo rolls, and turkey sandwiches.  Really, great with just about everything.

3.  Casablanca.  Without Paris, what would we always have?

4.  Jacques Lacan.  Because without the Symbolic Order, I wouldn't have a BFA.  And if I hadn't gotten that degree, I wouldn't have met James or Kevin, and CRD and I wouldn't have half the jokes we have now.  And I wouldn't have really utilized these over-active mirror neurons.

5.  That really great episode of Murder She Wrote where Jessica is in France.

Merci beaucoup, les grenouilles.

Amber & Tomanoocheese

Today is the kind of day where you just need alot of comfort stuff: it's cold and gray outside, and there seems to just be alot of stress in the air.   This might be the kind of day for which Jesus Air Spray was created.  But it is definitely the kind of day for which Grandma Louise invented Tomanoocheese.

Tomanoocheese is Campbell's Tomato Soup, any kind of noodle (by which I mean pasta), and melty molten chunks of orange cheddar cheese.  (See how clever I was at naming things when I was six?  Get it?  Toma-noo-cheese!)  And to me and my belly, it is THE comfort food.

Also, my belly is trying out a new kind of comfort today, the belly band.  These devices, available for sale on my BFF Etsy, are circular strips of stretchy fabric you wear around your middle under a shirt and over the top of your pants.  They are originally intended for pregnant ladies to help keep their bellies covered and warm when the babies inside make them expand and their shirts rise up.  Only, I figured they could offer the same service for non-pregnant ladies with bellies that expand, well, because of Tomanoocheese.

I got mine in purple, and I happen to be wearing a purple shirt, so it might be kind of hard to see in the photo.  But, I can assure you that it's great.  It's like a belly cozy.  Take that, too-low-riding-pants matched with too-short-shirts!

And take that and that, cold gray sad day!

Amber & Neck(lace)ing

I like jewelry.  There's nothing wrong with that.  I like rings and necklaces, mostly.  In both, I have a dual loyalty to two designers who have similar sort of products.

First, there is Small Things Designs. I have a few of her pieces from the "originals" series-- a lotus flower on a black background large ring and a swallow on a red background as a necklace.  A bonusly joyous thing is that when Amy Bee got married, she gave her bridal party necklaces from this designer, with whom she became acquainted when I gave her the two flying bird necklace one Christmas.  So, wearing my necklace and/or ring (but never both at the same time) makes me think of Amy Bee, whom I love.

The other jewelry studio I really like is Blend Creations.  Very similar concept: you pick a shape and then a thing to go in that shape, but the things you can pick are pretty papers or natural textures or mah jong tiles. My Halloween Haiku won a Facecontest and so I just got this beautiful piece in the mail.

It's a purple washi floral pattern.  I think it's lovely. Happy New Year, Neck!

Amber & Family

Notice I am wearing my new Fraggle scarf that my parents gifted unto
me? It's purple!

Amber & The Sunday News

So, it snowed.  Those people who say things about weather said it was going to, and it really did.

The prediction was for between 4 and 18 inches-- allowing for a pretty ridiculously wide margin of error, proving that meteorology is not a real science (like dentistry and veterinary medicine and especially veterinary dentistry).  They hit the mark here at the top of Manhattan; the National Weather Service reported 6 inches just to my north in Inwood.  Sure looks about right.

In the quest for wet food for Woody, I ventured out early enough to bring back some virgin snow from the railing for kitties to play with.

I brought it in and put it on a baking sheet on the floor.  The big cats were uninterested, but the little guys sniffed and swatted and licked and had crazy head.  I even threw a snowball at Pickles!  (He fell over trying to bite it off his own head.)

I like the snow.  It's super grounding and pretty.  It makes me smile at strangers.  It also gives me a chance to amortize the value of my Wisconsin boots.

With my booted feet and purple puff coat, all I needed was the red flag to help me cross the street and it would be just like Wisconsin.  Except better.

Amber & Fancy Dress

I am all in my fancy dress today, mostly in the American sense but also a little bit in the British sense since my costume is someone who dresses up.  Really, what constitutes fancy for me centers around three main elements which I will outline herewith.

1.  Princess Eyes

You probably can't tell at all, but I am wearing mascara and eye shadow in order to create a princess-like sparkly-ness around my eye area (not to be confused with Sparkle Eyes from that Goats movie).  I went with shades of a coppery-pink today instead of my usual purplpe princess look so they would match my shoes (discussed in depth below).  It's really important, when displaying princess eyes, to open your mouth and stick out your tongue a little-- you know like a princess.

2.  Giant Earrings
When asked to name one adjective to describe my earrings (seen above), Nick described them as "hoopy."  So, true.    My personal choice has been, in the past, HUGE.

3.  Kitten Heel Shoes with Copper Roses

See those little roses?  They totally match my eyes, which I am sure everyone at tonight's event will notice.  My favorite thing about these shoes is not that they have two straps or the fact that kitten heels remind me of kittens, but rather the purple racing stripe on the back of the heel.

Vrooom!  Meow!

Amber & Birthday Jimmy

Happy Birthday to James, seen here feeling the excitement of the crowd before an NYU graduation ceremony that was apparently held at Yankee Stadium. (Not the swarm of purple in the club seats.)

I feel the same level of excitement when I think about how glad I am to have James as a friend.

Thanks for being born, James!

Amber & My Inner Barney

Once in the vaguely-late-80s, I saw an episode of Family Ties. I didn't watch the show regularly, but I saw this one episode that made a long term impression on my thinking. In it, the Tina Yothers character, whose name I only learned today, is about to celebrate a birthday. Wikipedia recaps thusly.

Jennifer — bored with her nice but unspectacular friend Beth, and desperately seeking popularity — wants to make some new friends, but has trouble at first. Mallory offers some well-meaning advice to act like a valley girl, which Jennifer takes seriously when she approaches a cool cliqué of snobbish girls, all having trendy clothes and hairstyles. All this takes place as the family prepares to celebrate Jennifer's birthday. As usual, Steven plans a series of kiddie-style birthday activities, at which point Jennifer loses her temper and leaves with her new friends.

Wikipedia, in typical fashion, leaves out the critical detail. The dad's fatal error in planning the birthday festivities is that he does all of the decorations-- streamers, balloons, cake plates-- in purple. This is the Tina Yothers's character's favorite color. I'm not sure if it is her favorite color for just the episode, or for the whole series. Anyway, she normally loves purple. But her "snobbish" friends think purple is for babies.

In 1987, I was devastated. Purple? For babies? I loved purple. Tina Yothers and I had so much in common-- the middle name Louise, a surprise younger sibling, and a love of the color purple (not that musical by Oprah). And purple was uncool?

Of course, this was a two part episode, and I missed the second part. Who knows if Tina ever embraced the purple and accepted her love thereof?

The scars from the episode may have finally healed. Check out this Barney action I'm sporting today.
Purple, I love you.

Amber & Indecision

Okay. So yesterday, I had decided to adopt cranberry as my signature color for knit accessories. This raised an enormous amount of controversy amongst Amber & readers. Some of you pointed out that this was not the most versatile choice of colors. After all, my accessories need to match my purple puff coat (seen here with a stripey wool scarf, now riddled by moth holes)...

... my blue wool coat (pictured with a purple scarf I made which a kitten peed on)...

and my dusty pink fleece coat (seen here with a teal towel which became a kitten environment).

What color goes well with these options? Probably not cranberry. Please comment or vote on the side bar. I want to knit!

Amber & Ouchy Headaches

I had a killer headache last night. In addition to flashes of light in my peripheral vision and blinding pain in my eyeballs, the purple ghosts in front of my eyeballs gave it away as an m-word.


Apparently, headaches might not be all bad, but it might mean I am po'. Who knew m-words were such a timely hot news topic?