TGIF!

I know, I know. Could that photo be anymore 2009? I just get ridiculously sappy this time of year about going out to breakfast in the morning and trudging through the leaves in my bean boots. These are the moments I will savor when it is 38° and raining (but not snowing) in the middle of January. Tennessee really knows how to do Fall–winter not so much. Anyway, that’s what’s happening in our neck of the woods, here’s what I’m digging on the rest of the interwebs…

When I first started following @thedogist on Instagram, I got ridiculously excited and told all my friends. Having a bad day at work? Check out @thedogist. The line for coffee is ridiculously long? Check out @thedogist. I couldn’t get enough of his pup portraits. Well, Elias Weiss Friedman was recently profiled on CBS Sunday Morning, and it turns out he’s published a book.

[image source: The Dogist]

Click here to order The Dogist on Amazon! (I’ve already bought a couple extra copies for Christmas gifts.)

In that same vein, photographer Caroline Fontenot and writer Jess Graves have collaborated on a site: Southerners & Their Dogs. It’s been around for a bit, but I just ran across it because of this fab image. Definitely worth a bookmark!

Hope you don’t have plans for the next few hours because if interior design is your thing, allow me to point you to Pandora’s box: Lonny’s seriously in-depth map of Hollywood’s designers and their squads.

Lena Dunham released the first full episode of her new podcast, Women of the Hour, this week, and it totally exceeded my expectations. The first episode was on friendship. Between readings of the first letters between Lena and her pen pal, writer Ashley Ford (who has a super sultry voice), were conversations between BFFs young, old, and famous.

Other highlights from the podcast was an advice segment with Emma Stone and June Squibb and a profile on Edna St. Vincent Millay. (P.S. Millay has become a favorite of mine, and I got to see the very narrow house Lena mentions when I was in NYC earlier this year with the Madcap Heiress. So cool!) Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Finally, this performance knocked my socks off. Check it out!

Paint the Town Red… Coral… Tangerine… Persimmon

Here’s a dirty little secret: I am super unproductive as a creator of fabulous things when Husband goes out of town. I do not paint the town red. I kind of get in a funk and only do the bare minimum–laundry, dishes, shower. Last night, I went to an HOA meeting and then got completely engrossed in the Walt Disney American Experience on PBS. Also eating ice cream in my pajamas. My original plan was to write thank you notes and do some design work… Fail.

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So to remedy this, I’ve made a To Do list full of mostly left-brained tasks that can easily be completed and checked off. At the top I’ve written:

“Pick out pretty paint chips.”

Tonight, I’m hoping for my own Mrs. Blandings moment… because my bedroom is currently beige. Beige! And that’s not a color I choose to recognize.

If you’re in a painting mood, here are a few posts I wrote about painting our first house:

Picking an Exterior Color Palette

Then, Hannah Went Over to the Dark Side

The Mary Tyler Moore Show Apartment Style File

When I was little, sick days meant red Gatorade, VapoRub, and television—more specifically videos of the Mary Tyler Moore show. This week, I found myself on the couch again turning to Mary Richards for support. She really can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile. And you know what stood out this time? The Mary Tyler Moore Show apartment! The working girl’s ultimate abode and every little girl’s first 1970s house crush. So today, I thought we should talk about the six things that made her pad so dreamy.

1. She lived in a storybook house. Turrets + stained glass would normally denote an over-the-top Disney movie (Pollyanna, anyone?). Instead, The Mary Tyler Moore show made it the ultimate single girl pad.

2. Long before the days of Carrie Bradshaw, Mary Richards had a walk-in closet. To be clear, she slept on a sofa bed in the middle of the living room, but her mini skirts and go-go boots had a place all their own.

3. Before the Spice Girls chanted #GirlPower and Destiny’s Child invited all the “honeys who makin’ money” to throw their hands up, their was Mary Richards who hung an ‘M’ on her wall. This independent woman did not need a man to monogram the hand towels. She knew she was important enough all by herself.

4. She rearranged her furniture all the time just because she could. Growing up, my mother was a serial rearranger. The fact that my father and I have any toes left from tripping over the couch is beyond me! But Mary Richards could change the layout of her studio sitting area every week if she wanted… and sometimes she did.

5. Confession: The only shag carpet I have ever loved was in this apartment. I think my affection has something to do with the knee-level library.

6. Forget shattering the glass ceiling, Mary Richards had 10 foot beauties with windows and draperies to match that she leased all by herself. #winning #girlpower

I’m just going to leave this list here and assume I’m not the only one that ponders 1970s tv set design when I’m sick.