10 things...

 via Acidstorm

Bear with me. I've been one big cranky lady lately. And in the spirit of my crankiness I thought I'd share 10 things that are driving me to the brink these days (this photograph is, of course, not one of them - his cranky face is divine!).

1. Baby boy clothes with lame writing on them like: "Mommy's New Man" or "Say Hello to Mr. Wonderful" or "Chicks Dig Me." Why are we now dressing our baby boys like ugly American tourists in brash slogan t-shirts?

2. Blog posts that are overtly paid for product placements and the bloggers of such posts who don't fess up to that fact outright.

3. The amount of talent/dance/performance shows on TV right now.

4. People who make that heart shape with their hands in pictures - especially when those people are full grown adults.

5. Cicadas (hearing them at night makes me think that this summer will never end).

6. The catchiness of Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night."

7. Strangers who tell me whether they think I'm carrying a boy or a girl based on how I look, stand, or what I eat (without being asked, of course).

8. People who are so tactless as to blow other people's news on facebook by declaring "congrats on the baby!," "sorry you guys are separating," or "my condolences to your family" on the walls of their supposed "friends" thus outing the friends who had yet to decide whether they even wanted to share that news with the world of facebook.

9. The fact that I can't reach my toes.

10. August.

listography

Image courtesy of chroniclebooks

list: a series of items written together in a meaningful grouping.
-ography: a writing about or a representation of a thing.

Chronicle Books publishes this super cool series of listography books designed by Lisa Nola and Nathaniel Russell. They describe a listography as "a perpetual work in progress, a time capsule, and a map of your life".

The books provide the starting points for a collection of lists that come together to form an autobiography of sorts. There is not only the original listography, but volumes for specific topics such as-music, friends, my future, and kids' listography.

Each page in these funky journals prompts you with a subject/question/directions and leaves space for you to list your ideas and responses. The concept is simple and the format equally uncomplicated, but once it is all filled out- what an extraordinary way to record the details of life.

Images courtesy of listography.com

The Sally Draper Reading List

via Booklicious

Inspired by this 1955 found photograph of an 11 year old girl engrossed in her book despite sitting in the middle of living room amongst her non-reading family members, a blogger for the New York Public Library blog saw a resemblance to "Mad Men's" own Sally Draper and so imagined what the fictional girl may have been reading (aside from Nancy Drew) during 1964 and 1965, the years in which the fourth season of the show is set.

And so here's the NYPL list of books published in 1964 and 1965 that might have been right up Sally's alley:

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - Roald Dahl
"Harriet the Spy" - Louise Fitzhugh
"Over Sea, Under Stone" - Susan Cooper
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" - Ian Fleming
"The Phantom of Pine Hill" - Carolyn Keene
"The Long Secret" - Louise Fitzhugh
"The Black Cauldron" - Lloyd Alexander
"The Mouse and the Motorcycle" - Beverly Cleary
"The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" - Paul Zindel

I love this list and want to read or reread all of these works - don't you? And be sure check out the post's comments section too for great books that Sally would have totally been reading even though they weren't necessarily published in 1964-'65 like "Seventeenth Summer" (1942) by Maureen Daly and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1943) by Betty Smith.

back to blogging

via SweetLoveVintage

I have been a very bad blogger as of late. I decided that in order to finish my dissertation this semester I was going to write like a madwoman for a month or so. Of course, this was not the brightest idea since I ended up isolating myself from everything that I actually like about my life including our little blog.

I've recently decided that it's okay to take an extra semester of graduate school in order get back to being a normal person now. And I'm so happy about this decision. I've cleaned my office, played scrabble on facebook, and am sheepishly starting to explain myself to the oh-so-patient friends who's emails and calls I've so rudely backburnered. Will they take me back? Who knows. Keep your fingers crossed. But I do so miss every day stuff like tea with my friend Ruby, going to the movies with my bf, stalking my favorite blogger, taking naps with my cats, and just being a normal person.

Anyway, in order to not get caught up in another marathon of writing/mental breakdown - I've looked into ways to better manage my time and right now I'm all about the Pomodoro Technique. Essentially, you just time yourself in order to get work done in 25 minute increments (broken up with 5 minute breaks). For some reason this system seems to be working well for me probably because I find such pleasure in making lists (manage your own time on the free mytomatoes.com). And yes, indeed, you should expect to be reading posts written in 5 minute breaks between 25 minute blocks of work, but it's 5 minutes (or so... one can cheat a little after all) of time that I am so happy to finally be giving myself again...

does anyone (aside from me) need this list?

{via If I had my own world...}

Happy for the Happy 101 Blog Award!

We are so flattered to have been tagged by Valerie of the lovely cabin + cub for a Happy 101 Blog Award! That makes us very happy. It also encourages us to dig deep into our rain-soaked souls and come up with our own list of things that make us smile (though coming up with 10 blogs that make us happy was a breeze - there are so many great ones!)

So here are the official rules:
"List 10 things that make up happy, tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day. For those 10 bloggers who get the award, you then link back to our blog and create your list of things that make you happy."

And because we refused to be penned in by anyone's "rules" (or simply because there are 3 of us at Hiving Out), we'll be modifying the rules slightly for ourselves so each of us can share 5 bits of personal happiness and 5 inspiring blogs. Hope that's okay. :)

5 things that make Mae happy:

1. Being lunch mom for 22 earnest kindergarteners twice a month (any more frequently and this might not make my list)
2. Neko Case's song "This Tornado Loves You"
3. Buttons
4. Handmade valentines
5. Decidedly non-literary audiobooks

5 things that make Vivi happy:

1. The smell of my cat's stinky post nap breath when she yawns in my face
2. cowl necks
3. The fact that my bf knows how to make my tea exactly how I like it and knows when to make it exactly when I need it
4. a big fat crackling fire in the fireplace
5. my 4 year old nephew's fondness (and persistent demand) for family hugs

5 Things that make Lorelei happy:

1. Drizzle
2. When my kids get lost in play with each other (and there is no bickering and/or tattling)
3. Getting to the point in a drawing where it really starts to look as I intended/imagined
4. Funyuns
5. Reruns of "Remington Steele"

And now for the blogs:
(All of these blogs are amazing must reads, but here are the 5 each of us has selected as sources of happy reading.)

For Mae:
1. Junior Society
2. sugar city journal
3. katie did journal
4. How About Orange
5. In My Shoes

For Vivi:
1. life according to celia
2. Smile and Wave
3. The City Sage
4. Her Name Was Lola
5. alice b. gardens

For Lorelei:
1. elephantine
2. Little Green Notebook
3. Theodesign blog
4. oh, hello friend
5. Stickers and Stuff

The Year in Lists

Image courtesy of strawberryluna

It's the end of the year, and so the annual "best of" lists have been written and spread across the world of information. I love these lists, comparing them to my own, arguing with them, using them to fill in gaps in my cultural literacy. Actually, I just love lists. Their orderliness gives me hope for my own cluttered life.

So please enjoy this list of my favorite 2009 lists:

Best Under-The-Radar Books of 2009 (part of NPR's comprehensive list of the Best Books 0f 2009)

The New Yorker Blog's Best Ten Films of 2009

All Songs Considered Reader's Poll Results for the Best Music of 2009 (where you can also listen to all the picks in their entirety)

The Chicago Tribune's Best TV shows of 2009

The People's Choice Awards for the Best Podcasts of 2009 from PodCastAwards.com (And if you'd like some personal recommendations, I consider myself a podcast connoisseur.)

And of course, PC Magazine's Favorite Blogs of 2009 (where sadly you will not find Hiving Out listed. Of all the nerve.)

Enjoy browsing and feel free argue with these lists in the comments. We'd want to hear your picks!