you're a big girl

I keep feeling like the past few days have been exciting. I loved how yesterday so many bloggers made mention of NieNie Day. There is nothing as hopeful or amazing then to see so many people rally for such a great purpose.

And today I love how the internet is a'flurry with political posts and thoughts since the Obama presidential acceptance speech and the Sarah Palin vice president nomination announcement have fallen within 24 hours of each other. Though I will be voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, I get goose bumps thinking that this has the potential to be such a great race (cus nerd).

In not worldwideweb news, I am not much of a boob girl. Not to say that I don't like boobs, but rather, I don't have much. So you can imagine my joy yesterday when one of my San Francisco H&M purchases gave this little girl the opportunity to shine like chesty woman:


My shirt was totally busting open at my bosom! It makes no difference that it was busting open all the way down because while H&M is fantastic, there might not be the best consistency is sizing and quality, but no matter. Plus I totally (mostly) kept it covered with the sassy nun tie, so people only got a peep show when I wanted them to. Win/win!

easy to love

Roommate Naomi has been a follower of the blogging sisters cjane and NieNie but I really only had read when she'd sent me links. However, I've been glued to my computer the past few weeks anxiously awaiting updates and news since NieNie and her husband were both badly burned in a plane crash. Cjane has been writing really beautiful posts about the experience that have made me cry every time. And going through NieNie's archives I find her to be every bit as charming and amazing as a mother and a woman as the blogging world has said she is. I don't know these strangers, but I can't stop thinking about them and loving them and hoping for them.

So I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to help. There is a NieNei Recovery Fund you can donate to directly. But also, DesignMom has declared today NieNie Day and has organized all the blog auctions available through this weekend, and all the proceeds from the purchases will go directly to the Fund. I'm bidding on a couple of Emily's awesome bracelets (but if any of you outbid me, I will punch you).



In the middle of the millions of posts about trips and weekends or jokes about celebrities, what a great thing this internet can be...

san francisco days

So let's get to me blabbing more about San Francisco!

I have yet to visit many awesome cities in this country but I've hit up some East Coast and some West Coast and one Midwest place and so far Seattle has been the number one place I would move to in a heartbeat. And there are lots of reasons but at the top is jackets and scarves. I love jackets and scarves. I love jackets so much that if there was a way I would marry all the jackets in the world and grow old surrounded by all of our scarf babies. So you probably know where this is going because San Francisco has all the benefits of jacket/scarf wearing but not the rain that messes with outside activities like bikes and sitting in the sun. Winner!

So here is my ode to the city of scarves and jackets.

Brittanie scarf at Dottie's for breakfast.

Seriously people, cold cans of soda everywhere (beanies are also in on the love for me).

Since I am nerdy about music I can say that seeing Radiohead with 60,000 other people at Golden Gate Park is pretty awesome and hallelujah for scarves and jackets there at night.

Kai wasn't wearing a scarf or a jacket but he lives there so he can have it anytime.

Wearing a jacket, Megan made a very smart boot choice on Haight and Ashbury.

When we were leaving Emily got double points for wearing a head scarf she got in Hippietown, U.S.A. and also for looking like a famous boarding the plane.


So thanks San Francisco, for being the perfect place and for renewing my summer lost love of all things layering in purpose. Maybe before jackets and I get married, we can get together and make out.

little bit

Guys I'm a little stressed out right now because I just realized I have 19 photo albums on Facebook. So I think that makes me either a 14 year old or just a pathetic person...neither of which are very great options really.

But the obscene amount of pictures I take, iPhoto and the Facebook Exporter just makes it all so easy! And if I get rid of any albums that mostly means I am getting rid of both memories and the faces of people I know.


Why can't life just be easy!??!?

good vibrations

I am home! And it's Tasha's birthday! So I am off to celebrate the birth of The World's Most Awesome Human Being. But first here are my first 5 reasons why San Francisco is thebombdotcom.

1. cold cans of diet coke EVERYWHERE

2. Kai + this fan in Chinatown

3. The Black Keys and Megan

4. weed necklaces

5. Rebecca's excitement when Betsy made a funfetti cake.

leaving on a jetplane

I've said before that I only do things if people say it's cool. So it's no wonder that when Emily decided to go to San Francisco this weekend, I hopped on board. I'd been throwing around the idea before because of this:



But Emily going really sealed the deal for me. Oh and brother and sister-in-law Sterling and Megan have moved to San Francisco. And Kai lives there as of recently. And Rebecca and Betsy and The Bakers too. And I've never been to San Francisco, so there's that.

I plan on seeing Radiohead (!!!) and figuring out what all the hub-bub is about that city. I'll see all y'all Mondayish...

that's that

I haven't done this in a while so here are my camera randoms from the last little while...

This is summer in my apartment.

This was a pretty leaf I picked at Kai's house that dried funky in my car.

This is Kristina at the ghetto laundromat.

This is cleaning a rug that might have been too big for me to handle.

This is winning at life.

This is my map paper being used wisely.

This is the awesome and random statue I see on Vine Street when I take Trax to work.

This is worth $4.50 because delicious and vegan.

This is when I realize I should pay better attention to shaving my legs regularly.

And finally, this is what dedicated American citizens look like because yes, that is a line wrapped around the whole Capitol Rotunda in order to see the Declaration of Independence.

push and pull

Since we are now masters of eating healthy (yeah right) Naomi and I have our sights set on THE ONE HUNDRED PUSH UP CHALLENGE!!


Because I have decided to become one of those people. You know how when you're telling someone a story and you're like "I was at dinner with my friend and she had crafted a craft and baked a cake and run a half marathon all before 7:00am yesterday." And then the other person goes "oh...she's one of those people." And neither of you even really knows what that means but you understand it means something...something about that person is different from the rest of us. And it works in lots of different cases; when speaking of someone who has a doctorate from Juilliard in viola playing or someone who actually likes to eat spinach as a treat or someone who is a democrat.

So I plan to get to the 100 push up level and then I'll just break out doing them all the time in hopes someone will at some point be like "oh my friend Emily...she just does like 100 pushups all the time." and then someone else can finally say back "oh, she's one of those people."

Then my life will be complete.

Until then...I am currently topping out at 6. And that's girl style push up. It did come after I'd already done 5 intervals of 4-7 push ups but still...weak. Naomi could do 13 and do them without the series of grunts and yelps and whimpers that seemed to come from me during the set. And then also today I have been wondering if you should feel like you got punched in the ribs repeatedly? Yes? No?

airline to heaven

Two of many reasons why last night was so great.




(I knit Morgan that beanie thankyouverymuch)

I'm always in love

My older brother Sterling is probably the number one influence on the young musical tastes of all the other Cliffords. He never pushed anything, but was always bringing great stuff into the house. Specifically, I remember one or both of the discs from Wilco's Being There album pretty much always in the family room CD player rotation when I was in high school. I wasn't super interested in it, but later on when others like A.M. and the first Mermaid Avenue appeared I started paying more attention and really actually liking them.

Time passed and one day on a campus computer at the U, I was 20 years old and ran across a review of a new Wilco album. From what I read it sounded cool and I remembered those Sterling CDs.

So I bought it. And it was Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

And I fell in love with it because falling in love with inanimate objects is kind of something I do. And yes, I'm about to say something super lame about how a band makes me feel so vomit now if you want. But the truth is, that album really moved me and getting it kind of felt like a defining moment for me in figuring out some new tastes and sounds on my own. I know that sounds nerdy but I'm okay with that.

So tonight I will see Wilco for the second time in my years of loving them and it feels like Christmas Eve. I know Jeff Tweedy can be an a-hole but he is so great on stage and Red Butte is such a fantastic venue. A newer favorite, Fleet Foxes, is opening, Morgan is going to be there (with cotton in his tiny ears) and we're taking hoity-toity treats like expensive cheese and grapes. Fun!

And because I want others to experience my joy, THIS LINK IS 16 OF MY MANY FAVORITE WILCO SONGS just for you.

when it flows

It's Friday which is great. I might have gone to lunch twice as long as I should have really. Oops! Tonight I'm going to watch the third stage of the Tour of Utah, the Flat Fast Criterium, and I think it should be cool.

But yesterday my non-boyfriend boyfriend Danny reminded me that Great Lake Swimmers were playing at Kilby Court. I love those guys and they put on one of my favorite shows last summer so I was in for another round. The night was nice and we ran into my good friend Hillary and her sister so the four of us sat outside for a long time and laughed at Danny's jokes. Great Lake Swimmers were reflective and calm, like your ears are strained to hear something still in between the instruments and his voice. There were like 10 people there total and one of the light bulbs above was flickering in time with the drum peddle...all was as it should be.

They didn't play this one, but I love the video. Catching faces, it kind of perfectly shows why I love both still photography and motion film.

so many cakes

Last night was one of the best nights of my life. Okay that is an exaggeration, but the evening consisted of a fantastically cool and easy craft, rosemary lemonade, awesome treats, a handful of really great women, and some Olympics. So obviously a recipe for success.

It happened because I sit around on a computer all day, and I may or may not spend a lot of time on the internet. And while I make sure to be productive by staying on top of the important things like celebrity gossip, all y'alls blogs, and gofugyourself, I also keep myself busy hopping around too many design sites for my own good. Queen of them all is probably DesignSponge because it is organized well and very useful. And every Wednesday that clever Grace posts a brilliantly simple DIY project...and simple DIY projects are exactly my kind of craftiness.

I showed Tasha and Naomi this easy cake plate project and we decided it warranted a get together. So everyone brought some plates and some vases/candlesticks/goblets and 10 minutes later there were cake plates everywhere.

Here is Naomi's doctorate program partner in crime Kristen and the ever delightful Frances figuring out which plates work best with which bases.

Frances, Emily and Lizbot getting their craft on.

Emily had the idea to make a set of three. She used the same plates and two cups for the short two and then a taller vase for the third.

And they turned out really great because Emily is really great.

Liz was clever and made this adorable little tiny guy.

I was so happy that Michelle showed her cute face because she is one half of one of my favorite roommate duos EVER.

And Tasha came with the awesome rosemary lemonade even though she is a brand new mama (I don't know if I've mentioned I have a nephew). She also made a set of three but used different brass candlestick holders for her plates.

Julia is one of the most inherently creative people I know so of course she kind of made a killing as far as really cool finished plates went (those are her 3 and she left with 2 more).

Naomi made this really pretty one. It was the sole cake plate made for our apartment last night because you know, no extra space.

There is something really lovely about a table full of these guys. So many possibilities! And it was easy! How perfect!

We even still have some straggler supplies hanging around so please feel free to stop by anytime with your favorite plate...

jerk it out

oh hey...thanks Facebook.

friends they are jewels

So sometimes you pick up friends along the awkward jr. high and less awkward but still not not awkward high school path and they turn out to all be really good eggs. And through those jr. high and high school years you do a lot of things that you and your little crew think are so funny/awesome/clever/cool even if upon reflection you realize they were perhaps, none of those things. But who cares?! Because you had so much fun!

And then sometimes maybe they all get married and start becoming baby factories and you are all different places so you get to see each other only every once in a while. And even though YOU ARE SO COOL AND HAVE SO MANY COOL SINGLE PERSON THINGS TO DO!! you end up sitting forever on a Friday night laughing yourself silly with those really good jr. high and high school eggs.


And then you post pictures of them all over the internet.


I kind of wanted to steal Heather's baby.

I love Mamas and babies so you will get three of these in a row.
Molly and Alli

Lexie and Macie

Brittany and her THREE...Sarah, Abi and Gracie

Another Macie because I could also steal her.

Obligatory husband/dad picture

OMG, it's so obvious that Brittany and Callie were the song and cheerleading captains!!

This is what old ladies trying to figure out predictive text looks like,

and this would be really funny if you knew the joke (but I'm not going to tell it cus, it's totally an inside joke)

Typical...

Finally of course, one of everyone except Teresa and Shawni who did not show up even though they both said they would (and obviously I am getting good at the How To Try To Look Skinny In A Photo By Bending Your Leg Pose).


So see you at Christmas guys! And uhhh, and just for the record that was really a lot of work to put in all of your links and be doing it on a laptop so you better be grateful.