Sweaty hands, sweaty feet. And tears too.

I've never watched a movie before that made my hands and feet simultaneously sweat. Man on Wire also made me cry. Sweat, tears, that's a lot of bodily functions for one movie.

The pictures atop the World Trade Center (WTC) are captivating. Footage of the massive buildings going up are totally awesome. The whole story is really awe-inspiring, from the creative process of the Frenchman Phillipe Petit and his friends figuring out how to get the wire across the 140-foot gap between the WTC to accessing the roof with guards manning the then unoccupied top floors.

And to know that he was up there on the tightrope for 45 minutes, going back and forth 8 times, doing tricks like lying down and kneeling.... all I can think is unbeliavable as my hands start to sweat a little even now.

The walk between the towers happened on August 7th, 1974, on my mom's 20th birthday. The movie never goes into 9/11 but that makes it all the more thought provoking. Times were different then, even though one of the Frenchmen called America at that time, a litigious nation. He, one of Petit's friends, was expelled from the country, while Petit comparatively was let off with the sole punishment of entertaining American crowds.

Man on Wire is an amazing documentary with piano music at all the right times. The only thing I desired was some kind of closure at the end. There have been 34 years since the event took place, after all.

Pink of Perfection's "the whole story"

I'm bummed that I haven't yet finished my quilt or even learned how to knit or crochet yet - I'm still stuck on those damn cross stitch chairs - 2 down, 2 to go!!! But I recently read the author of the blog, Pink of Perfection's "whole story" (her life philosophy) again, and now I can relax and enjoy the simple things, like finishing my last 2 cross stitch pieces. Then I'll learn the rest of what I want to learn (that's what life's about, right?) and finish my quilt - there's still time - it's not a race. Forget bummed-ness, Pink's mantra is dead on:

In the past few months, I have finally been able to pinpoint the ingredients in my recipe for happiness. It's my guess that my criteria for a rich life are not unique to me, and that's what the Pink of Perfection is all about.

A lot of people I know want the same things in life: to give and receive a lot of love (from a cocker spaniel, Mom, or, ideally, a sexy playmate), and find a way to express themselves creatively. I've found that if I can manage to also cook dinner for my friends and loved ones on a regular basis, I am well on my way to to a pretty peachy mood.

From there, a lot of other stuff seems to fall right into place: I find myself having cheerful exchanges with the guy at the deli, the line at the bank bothers me less, and I roll my eyes when I spill my coffee rather than having a Starbucks-style breakdown. In general, I am more present in my daily life and I look more kindly at the world around me. Not a bad worldview adjustment for anyone, I'd say, all for the price of pulling out the knitting needles or inviting a friend over for a slice of lemon pound cake.

I think of the Pink of Perfection as a guide to good living, thrifty la dolce vita. "Thrifty," isn't necessarily about doing things the cheapest way possible, but rather knowing when to splurge, when to pinch, and always being happy with the charming imperfections of doing things yourself. There's no reason why a lush life should come only to those with a plush bank account. When you put your precious time into your apartment, your birthday gifts to friends, your outfit, and your dinner, instead of just handing over dough at the cash register, you're living in the Pink of Perfection.

In the Pink of Perfection, we love the highs (homemade pate and Charles Jourdan) as much as the lows (street hot dogs and three-in-a-pack Hanes tanks), and we adore lots of vintage charm (ladies with gloves and cocktails served with rooster embroidered napkins). We are young, and we live in basement studio apartments with kitchens that may leave something to be desired. We pick up furniture off the street, and we buy chandaliers at yard sales. We plot to make throw pillows for the futon and we roast chickens in cake pans. We have to improvise a lot, but we have a lot of curiosity, creativity, and we love beautiful things.

Personally, I want to turn off my television more often and actively add more beauty to my life with sewing projects, big pots of stew shared with a gaggle of friends, and more red heels. If we're purposefully crafting a life, then we're consciously adding to its beauty. I have one window in my apartment; I need all the beauty I can get. Don't you?

So this website is at once my promise to myself for a creative, yummy, party-packed life, and a place to share those ideas with you. I have some party tips up my sleeve, lots of ideas for crafts with ribbons, and I may even break out the fondue pot.

Lest there be any misunderstanding, the Pink of Perfection is not about doing things flawlessly. I will make mistakes along the way, rest assured, and I will definitely opt for the lazy route in my projects. I'm not a faultless maven of the domestic arts, and I'm still learning along the way, too. After all, perfection is so boring and inert, but the Pink of Perfection -- that's dynamic, totally fun, and imperfectly lovely. So thanks for reading, visit often, and comment as much as you like. Let's play!

--Sarah

Check out Pink of Perfection

Shiny Happy Kitties Holding Paws!

My family makes fun of me because I am a borderline crazy cat woman. They'd probably even tell you that I'm not borderline, I'm already there.

Melissa made the comment that I won't need to potty train my kids, they'll just use the litterboxes too.

But here's my declaration as cheesy as it is: I know of no other thing that greets me on a daily basis with such happiness. I often get home before Eric and when I walk up our basement steps, I already see Boss's paws in the crack of the door. That's love.

For some reason, maybe because I am crazy in love, they follow me around all over the house, and could care less where Eric is. That's love.

And when my cats look at me with the sweetest longing in their eyes... I know that's love. And they do the most silly, dumb things like chase around receipts crinkled up just so and PJ chases around a ball in circles that she'll never get (damn cat toy). And Boss watches me eat popcorn so that he can catch any dropped particles. And this all just makes me fall even more ridiculously silly in love.

When I brought my babies home from the vet the other night, they looked sad and acted funny, so much so that the next night they hid away from us. So nothing could make me happier this morning than waking up to Boss purring in my ear. That’s the sweet sound of love.

I’d go so far as to say that these furry-butts keep my sanity in check. And maybe that’s insane… but it works for me.

Ready for winter!

I haven't had waterproof boots since I was a kid! I can't wait to put these on and run in the snow and jump in some puddles! There's nothing worse than wet, cold feet.

Holidays here we come!

Put your Santa cone hat on!

Oh the love I have for thee....

One of these (more commonly referred to in these parts as "UDF") is right up the street from our little neighborhood. And in the fall, the pumpkin icecream always makes me go "MMMMMMMM!!!" And for the first time ever this year, I tried a pumpkin MILKSHAKE!!! So. DAMN. Delicious. Everyone needs to try one in their lifetime!!!

Bring on the waterworks

picture from the blog nienie dialogues, from this post

The story of a married couple (Stephanie and Christian Nielson) surviving a plane crash:
http://tinyurl.com/58da27

Update on recovery:
http://tinyurl.com/62sjqc

Stephanie's sister's Courtney's blog documenting their journey since the crash:
http://blog.cjanerun.com/

Stephanie and Christian's love story:
http://tinyurl.com/4wygxs

Stephanie's own blog:
http://tinyurl.com/6md2ke

I've never yearned so much for the healing of people whom I've never met. But because of Stephanie's blog and her sister's continuance of her story, this family is remarkable. Stephanie's online journal is so beautiful and makes you grateful for one thing: family. Oh, and art, creativity, living in the moment, marriage, etc.

Corrupt voting

Why oh why is our voting system in this country so corrupt?!?! Not only did our system (lack of one) create a huge fiasco eight years ago, but now you can be inebriated and vote at the same time!

Last night, we attended the Vote Early Rock Late event in Fountain Square: http://vote-ohio.net/. I've never attended an election event before, and was a little pumped up for this one, thinking maybe something cool would happen. However, I was less than inspired. First, the accoustics at Fountain Square are horrible. I could barely tell the difference in melodies between some of The Breeders more popular tunes. Then, the lineup of speakers did little to pump up or engage the audience. Thirdly and most importantly, they were selling alcohol and encouraging early voting (right there in fact) at the same time. And since this rally was all for Obama, I also wouldn't be surprised if he was the only name on the ticket. Since when did alcohol and voting mix? And why the early voting? What happened to election day just being a singular day after all of the tireless campaigning was said and done?

One of the main reasons Eric and I stuck around was to check out Natalie Portman. She was announced with little fanfare, and before I knew it this little pixie girl was dropped out of the sky from fairy land. We could barely hear her, all she said was "There's my grandma. And my mom went to Ohio State. and blah blah blah. Oh, and go vote." Of course she was chic in her navy blazer, huge scarf with white T, super high heels and tiny dark jeans. Her whole booty was the size of just one of my booty cheeks. And that was that.

BOO EARLY VOTING!

Caesar salad dressing and homemade croutons

Karen, you'll be glad to know I've been cooking from this book that you gave us for our wedding! Courtesy of Sensational Salads, I made some Caesar salad dressing and delicious croutons! Everything was so easy too.

For the dressing:
2 cloves garlic (halved)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp heavy cream
4 anchovies (optional, but I used them!)
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, grind up the garlic with the lemon juice and white wine vinegar. Then through the pour spout, slowly add the olive oil until mixture becomes thick. Add the rest of the ingredients until well blended. Dressing will keep covered in the fridge up to 2 days.

All you do for the CROUTONS is take some crusty bread and break it apart into 1 inch pieces (about a cup full). Pour 2 tbsp. olive oil in a saute pan and heat on medium-high heat up to 7 mins. If the bread browns too quickly, turn down the heat. Stir often, then place on paper towels. YUM!

"The Business of Blogging"

From marthastewart.com:
It may have started as the stepchild of reality TV for voyeurs seeking 15 minutes of fame, but contrary to stereotypes, blogging is not just for people who want to post pictures of their cats or rant about their political views to anyone and everyone.

OH MY! That made me chuckle.

Here's another pic of my cats:and another political view: nah, I'd rather look at my cats.

Oh birdie, you don't have to be in the dark anymore!

Because we have power again! After almost a full week without, we can now shine the outside light on our little friend again. Living in the dark is not for the birds!

Some observations on this pretty fall-like day

Glendale, Ohio kind of reminds me of Savannah - some sun near the gazebo on my lunch break was just the ticket.

I want a camera and a Flickr account.

Cats like Louisiana spices too. My black and white buddy in just about one of the only Glendale shops enjoyed licking some remnants of my Popeyes' red beans and rice. And I thought I had licked them all off already - those are some strong spices.

When I get nervous, I can feel my pulse in the back of my head.

Yogi Chai Black tea is darn right tasty.

Yogi has also run out of motivational sayings; after about 10 different ones, I've realized that's all there is.

I want to get back to cross stitch - a monkey could do it, but for some reason, it's fun.

Em and I are going to score some wool at Young's on the 20th! I bet a monkey couldn't knit. Well maybe a really smart monkey could.

After rubbing pink goop off of my teacup, I'm wondering how my Nars lipgloss isn't bad for my arteries. What is in this stuff I inevitably ingest every day?

To clarify...

OK, no more political forum here after this, even though I do like hearing from friends and their views - I'll just save that for email! Until then, I'd like to clarify my last post. What I meant by openly dissing - both sides are always dissing - was lacking concrete facts to support a diss, don't just go and downplay somebody's job. What Palin said comparing her job as mayor to Obama's as community organizer wasn't even a good defense to her detractors and seemed silly; she was unintentionally comparing apples to apples.

Politics! P-SH! Off I go to read all of the candidates' convention speeches, check out websites, etc. (not right this minute unfortunately, I'm at work)!

I want to see U2 again so badly...

Go here to see why U2's last tour rocked so much.

One of his comments I like that applies to the election right now:
".....you [Bono] refuse to dig at Bush or the US Government. You are about solutions."

Why are the Republicans openly dissing and criticizing the Democrats? Boo! I certainly wouldn't diss anybody in a job interview, so how is an election different? (e.g. Sarah Palin saying with an annoying smirk that her job as mayor of a 6,000 person town was way more challenging than Obama's as a community organizer - puhlease!)

I don't wholly side with either party; I just want to learn more than I attempted to last election, which wasn't much.

But what I already know is U2, I love you.

Stuff White People Like

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/I am not on top of things. This blog and book have been around for a while and I first saw the book at Joe's bday party a few weeks ago - you will enjoy the website if you are just now discovernig it like me. Have any of you seen it before? Tell me what you think. I am white and I like it.

First outfit

This getup is kind of PTA yuppie mommish isn't it? I like the top, pants and earrings together, but I'm not sold on them paired with the jacket and shoes. This site is fun! Get on it!

P.S. I just ordered that shirt on clearance a few days ago! - should be on my doorstep when I get home. SWEET!

New obsessions...

Daily emails from The Very Short List - "Very Short List is a collection of distinct, free, daily e-mails that each recommend one must–see gem a day." I haven't received one recommendation that's let me down; the VSL always has something interesting.

Creating outfits on Polyvore - "Polyvore is a unique web application that lets people mix and match images from anywhere on the web, to create outfits, interior designs, or any kind of collage." I've just started; I'm going to go make my first outfit!

1995 - it was a very good year

Saved by the Bell was HOT! Go to Flickr, enter any year and pick a photo. Check out those jackets! When I was in 5th grade, my grandpa died, and my immediate family inherited all of his coats. I remember wearing one of his green Members Only ones, thinking my grandpa was part of some sweet secret club.

Quote of the day

From LC of Fops and Dandies (one of my fave fashion blogs):

"I hate the whole ex-pat thing, mostly Americans who were in places like Europe and Asia. They're so into being ex-pats! And when they come back they think they're like f****** Ernest Hemingway or something."

I wish I had..

YouTube when I was in school.