Risk!
“True Stories, Boldy Told”

I started listening to Risk! after meeting the host, Kevin Allison, at an event. “I know your podcast,” I said, “because my husband made me listen to an episode, and I was sooooo uncomfortable! It’s inappropriate!” He laughed and said, “You will NOT like the story I’m about to tell tonight, then.” He then got on stage and told the tale of meeting a heavily-accented Asian man at a club and having awkward sex with him which he descibed in detail while I slid down in my seat and covered my face with my hands.

I’m kind of a prude.

On the podcast, Kevin usually tells one of his own stories in the hour-long broadcast, and notable comedians and story-tellers (and sometimes every day folks, too, from all walks of life) tell stories, too; stories that they swore they’d never tell. Stories that are awkward and embarrassing: think pooping your pants on a date or drug-induced hijinks in the 90′s. I refuse to listen to it with anyone else in the car, and have to be careful while listening on the subway: I tend to bust out laughing to myself, making me look like a crazy person. If you’re like me, though, and you love the stories of other people, this is for you.

Fruit Ninja

Pay the $2 and get the full version; it’s worth it. Fruit comes flying up from the bottom of the screen and you have to use your samurai sword (your index finger!) to slice it before it falls to the bottom. There’s a magic formula to an iPhone game that makes it good: Quality graphics, simple premise, challenging game play. This game has it all.

Tiny Wings

I know, everyone is obsessed with Angry Birds, but I’m more partial to the squat little chicken with wings too tiny to fly. The game is sweet: you touch the screen to wake him up, and when time is up, the sun goes down and he falls asleep again. Gameplay is a little tricky to master: the ground is a series of islands covered in dips. Since the bird can’t fly, he has to use gravity to be mobile. You touch the screen to fold his wings and make him heavy to slide down one side of a dip, and lift to make him light so he goes flinging forward. It takes a little practice to get the timing down, and then the obsessing begins! You start with a series of three objectives, and when you complete them, you get three more. Each set is a score multiplier, making it a constant challenge. Also fun: the design changes every 24 hours, so you want to check in every day to see what wonderful combination of colors, hills and coins the designers have in store.

Two wonderful, inexpensive art projects to cover your poor, bare walls with something other than mass produced stuff from Ikea.

This one by How About Orange uses office supplies to create the modern-looking red photo. Click over to see how it’s done – totally simple!

Here, Jordan went back to kindergarten with some potato prints! I love her reminder about brights and neutrals, which translates to all sorts of visual art, including home decorating and getting dressed: “If you are going for a colorful end result remember you need the neutrals in the artwork to make the brights really pop.”

Go here for instructions and more photos.

Happy long weekend!

A few weeks ago, we randomly acquired a 10 oz. tub of wet dog food – stuff we would never feed the dogs normally because it’s full of chemicals and weird by-products.

Gross, right? It smells even worse.

I felt bad chucking it, though, and since it was only ONE tub, and I knew they would love the crap out of this gooey, smelly stuff, I decided to make it a treat. I portioned out it out into small plastic cups and put it in the freezer. When the temperature outside got really hot, I passed them out. Dog popsicles!

When I went to take her photo, Leeloo grabbed her popcicle and started running!

It’s ok, girl. I really, really don’t want to share.

I tend not to post about my parties often because I want people to feel relaxed when they come over and not worried that they’re going to get written about after they drink too much and puke/make out with a new friend/go home with a new friend of an entirely different gender than they are used to going home with/get naked/declare “the party has moved to the shower!”/pass out in my living room and wake up spooning one or two of my dogs/etc.

Because that shit is fun.

But I’m breaking this rule thanks to Gavin (who comes over, like, once and then I can’t stop talking about forever) and his instant camera photography. And for the record, no one pictured here did anything (too) debaucherous.

Photojojo gave me an Instax 25 camera and a dual pack of film at a Mighty Events party I went to months and months ago. I was “saving” the film for a project, which is a horrible idea. We all know “life” counts a special occasion, right? Right. Well, I forgot, but Gavin didn’t, which is why we are friends.

So Gavin oh-so-wisely busted out the film and loaded up the camera, then walked around snapping shots of everyone. I had a piece of orange photo paper left over from a photoshoot that I assisted on and it came out for this party, held up by duct tape which is what you see in a few shots.

Go get an Instax to have on hand for your next party, and go ahead; stock up on film so you don’t end up hoarding it. It’s cheap enough, and worth it!

Edited to add: The photos come out about the size of a credit card, perfect for tucking away in a wallet as an impromptu party favor.

I won a gift certificate for some cake pops by Emily of Nomnivorous in a charity raffle, and cashed in for at a recent party. I requested them non-chocolate but let Emily do whatever all else she wanted. She sent over white chocolate with vanilla cake insides and fun oversize sprinkles. Love ‘em!

If you’re not hip to cake pops, they’re the cute little bits of cake wrapped in a candy shell on a stick, invented (or at least wildly popularized) by blogger Bakerella, who literally wrote the book on them. You also might see them for sale in “arebucks-Stay”, but those versions are chemically tasting and not fresh. Not like Emily’s.

They’re $24 per dozen if you’d like to order them, and the colors/flavors are customizable. Email Nomnivorous@gmail.com since she doesn’t have a website (“yet”, if I have anything to do with it.)

Thank you, Gavin, for your stellar hand modeling skills, and for biting one open so I could display it. You are a good friend.

Gavin brought us this crazy good root liquor over the weekend that we mixed with cream soda. I highly recommend it.

Happy weekend!

We need to talk about my awesome shoes.

I was looking for a few things in a summer sandal; it had to be strappy, absolutely flat, caramel colored, vegan, and under $50. They also had to cover the back of my heel completely. Tough sell, but Zappos helped me find it in a few clicks.

The backs even have a sassy ruffle!

Sanuk is commited to being eco-friendly, so these babies came packaged in a bag made from corn, not plastic. LOVE. IT.

You can buy them on Zappos here (they come in black, too!)

I dragged Jen and Stu! into Forever 21 at the mall on Monday on a quest for cute, inexpensive headbands. I didn’t find any, but I did find these shades for $1.50 and they’re pretty much perfect.

The store had a bunch of colors (including pink!), and they’re online here.

You need these.

In fact, you probably need one pair in each color. And some for your bridal party. Maybe your twelve best friends, too.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

I’ve been wearing a whole lot of Old Navy for over a decade, but I’ve never been specifically proud of the retailer, until now. Starting Monday they are taking a stand for gay marriage with a series of four limited-edition rainbow tees, with 10% of their profits will go to the It Gets Better project. This is a pretty ballsy stand for a mega-retailer to take; thus far it’s only been the small, high-end designers like Marc Jacobs that have done tees like this (and American Apparel, who has never made an effort to appeal to middle America).

There’s going to be a lot of inequality supporters squawking about family values and the “sanctity of marriage” I’M SURE, but they can blow it out their ear, amiright? Let’s go support Old Navy for taking a stand against hate.

The shirt above is my favorite, and the one I plan on getting my hands on. The other designs are kind of “meh” in my opinion (I’m allergic to white tee shirts and crew necks), but here they are.

Are you planning on wearing one?

Rob got a tattoo a few weeks ago; we finally got around to photographing it on Saturday. He was actually waving to someone in this photo, which turned out to be handy for taking a photo of it. It was done by Michelle Tarantelli at Saved Tattoo (in Williamsburg, Brooklyn) who also tattooed the feather on my foot.

(He’s having a People’s Pop ice pop.)

The new specs are from Warby Parker. They are the Roosevelt Eyeglasses, which he already has in chestnut brown, so when I ordered them as a surprise (because I am the greatest) I knew they would fit his face nicely. It took me a while to get used to them, honestly, but now I think they’re fun.

Here is what they look like dead on.

Mmmm-mmm-mmm!