a resolution to keep?

it's no secret that i am fairly susceptible to flattery. so after a friend suggested that i grow out my bangs in the new year ("i mean, bangs look good on you. but they look good on everyone"), she sent me this:



"you know, i really think you look like her" she said, "and i can totally see you wearing that."

and.. just like that, my 2k9 hairstyle has been determined. now i just need to save up for some balmain & gucci, and ms. alt and i will be indistinguishable.

all i want for christmas (part one)

i don't even care what it smells like, this christmas i must own a bottle of miss dior chérie.



call me a hopeless romantic, an unabashed francophile or another casualty of aspirational advertising, but this will be my signature scent of 2009.

special thanks to sophia coppola for, once again, filling my (day)dreams with balloons, bikes and cupcakes, all wrapped up in a delicious haze of sunlight and cotton candy pink.

oh, the places you'll go!

i always knew this day was coming, i just thought i'd be more prepared when it did. i know that growing up and moving on is inevitable. that even though your playpen grew bigger, it was still too small to hold you in forever. i'm just not ready to let you go yet... but, i have no choice.


i will miss how, no matter how bad my day was, i could peek in on what you were doing and feel happy. i worry about who will play with you once you're not all together. i worry about how you will sleep when you're not piled on top of each other.


from the moment i saw the crate, i knew the end was coming. i knew no matter how much i worried, no matter how much i cared, no matter how much you meant to me, that you were going to leave not only me, but each other as well.

i will cherish the time we had together. i will try not to begrudge the slideshow that will now play on for eternity. and, most importantly, i hope that your new (webcam-free) homes will love you as much as i loved you. though i'm sure others will try, no one can re-create the magic of your puppycam.

just as my mother sent me off to university, so i send you off - with dr. seuss:

so... be your name autumn or aki or amyui
or amaya or ando or akoni
you're off to great places!
today is your day!
your mountain is waiting
so... get on your way!