Catching Up with a Double Post

September was a crazy month, you guys.  Especially the last week – hence this getting posted so late.  But I did it!! I made it through Dresstember!! I just have to do the Weekend Recaps.

September 26 – 28

Monday – So, I wore this grey dress (Target - again) and this fantastic stripped blazer from Express to work.  Then, we had plans to go the Giants game so I came home and threw on tights and coat.  Of course I ended up putting on purple.  What are the odds that the one time I go to a Giants game we're playing the only purple team?  Yeah... I changed.

Tuesday – This is my first Kate Spade dress.  I was shopping with my best friend and "Our Mom" over Christmas and fell in love with this dress.  It was on sale, but it was still just too much... so "Our Mom" marches up to the sales lady and goes, "My daughter loves this dress but there's a loose string. What can you do?"  And you know what?  I got a discount.  It was a very Phyllis Nefler moment.

Wednesday – One of my favourite vintage inspired dresses from Banana Republic.  I love their jewel tones and they bring out my eyes... Also, this has like a flap that I can flip up and not have as much cleavage (as if I have boobs, right?!) at work.

September 29 & 30

Thursday – Boyfriend got me this Shabby Apple dress for Christmas last year.  I feel like a starlette when I wear it, but I don't wear it all that often.  Fabulous butons. 

Friday – A J. Crew strapless dress to celebrate the last day of Summer.  I love how it fades from dark pink at the bottom to white at the top and it reminds me of Gwen Stefani's wedding dress.  One last light and airy dress before the rain started this week.  Perfect timing. 

Stay tuned for the Weekend Recap and then my introduction for my October Theme!!

Blocks of Colour

WTF, September?  Why is it suddenly 6 billion degrees?  I'm not really complaining because a) I prefer warm weather, and b) I get to keep wearing summer dresses a little bit longer.  Though, I won't lie – Autumn is my favourite season and I kinda can't wait for that change, too.

September 19 – 21

Monday – Back when I live in downtown Palo Alto, I used to walk past Anthropologie every day on my way to work.  Good news for my body, bad news for my wallet... their visuals are so awesome that I kept stopping to try things on.  Luckily, since I was there often enough, I managed to score quite a few sale items like this one.  Seriously, I would almost never buy anything there full price.

Tuesday – Another Target dress, great for laying around on a crazy hot day when you're dead from gluten poisoning.  Oh, yeah.  Good times.

Wednesday – Another sale Anthropologie dress.  I didn't even realize that until just now.  For some reason, I got a ton of compliments on this dress today.  And on my hair.  Huh, that's what happens when you skip the gym and have time to get ready at home in the morning.  Noted.

Also, can we just say how cute Boyfriend's set ups for these quick shots are?  I love the colours in the background and yeah, my house has a lot of colours.  We're festive.  Or indecisive.  Whatever.

High Maintenance Machines

I'm learning a lot from Dresstember so far.  For one, I don't own nearly enough dresses with pockets.  This is an issue at work when I need to carry my phone around, but even more so because I have nowhere to clip my security badge unless I'm also wearing a belt.  Secondly, I'll never regret wearing tights (you can always take them off), but I pretty much always regret not putting them on.

September 14 – 16

Wednesday – This was a holiday dress from Target last year or the year before...?  The only problem is that it basically does not have a back, so I always have to wear a sweater when at work.  This time it was a problem because the office seemed to make up for the broken air conditioner on Tuesday by cranking up the air on Wednesday, so no back and no tights... freezeville.  But cute, yeah?

Thursday  – God, I look tired in this picture.  The dress is H&M and  I learned my lesson the day before and packed tights so that when I went to my class in The City I could be warm enough, which was good since I got into a row with the ticket machine at the BART station and missed a train to the city and then again on the way back.  But at least I was warm.

Friday – Again an H&M dress, which I only have a few of because I generally think it starts for Hit/Miss.  I actually really love this dress with the flower tights.  It make me feel whimsical and fun.  And perfect for unintentionally spending 3 hours at my favourite mexican restaurant with some of my favourite people on a Friday night.

I need a new pose

So, I'm jumping around a bit because I had one of the most awesome weekends I've had in a long time.  And because of that, I have dress photos from last Wednesday, Thursday, and today.  This weekend will be covered when I get the pics back from Boyfriend and my amazing photographer friends, and suffice to say that Sunday and Monday were lost in a haze of a partial hangover and then pure laziness (I didn't ever change out of my yoga pants or leave the house...).

September 7th, 8th, and 13th.

Wednesday – this was a thrift store gem I found 10 years ago.  It originally had these hideous bell-sleeves that my Mom helped me remove.  It's light and flattering and one of my all time favourite dresses.  Also, please note Bunnydict Cumberstatch – my bunny with a mustache.

Thursday – Speaking of my Mom, this is her favourite outfit that I wear.  The dress is a Jessica Simpson (that reminds everyone of a Spirograph) and the jacket is is People's Liberation – both from ideeli.com (such a shopping problem for me!).  Of course, my Mom thought this was actually a dress Jessica Simpson wore at one point, so I stopped explaining brands to her.

Tuesday – My Kate Spade giraffe dress came last week and I got to rock it today.  Everyone loved it and lucky for me the air conditioning in my building was broken so I didn't have to put a sweater over it or anything!  Seriously, I could just wear her stuff forever.

But seriously guys, I need a new pose for these pictures.  I should work on that.

Photo Envy

Considering Boyfriend is a photographer, I do seem to end up with some lame photos.  It's not his fault, of course.  I always wait until the last possible moment before I ask him to take a picture of the dress I'm wearing.  Over the past 3 days, only one of these has been durring daylight.  I should work on this – I get envious of all the fancy fashion blog photos I see!

Well, as usual I'm late in updating, so here are the past 3 days worth of Dresstember outfits.

September 4 – 6

The first dress is from Target – I have it in 3 different colours, which you may see soon.  It got suddenly cold on Sunday and so we added tights, boots, and a sweater. Ta-da! Fall clothes!

The second is either from the GAP outlet or the Banana Republic outlet... I have no idea which because it was years ago.  I think it was actually marketed as a sweater dress.  It has a giant ribbon, which is good to hide my ice cream tummy when needed ;)

Finally, the third dress is from Ross as picked out my mom, The Queen.  It's warm and springy (as suddenly it was summer again on Tuesday).  You know I'm a sucker for purple of all shades.

Well, so far so good.  This would be way harder if I had to wear pants for a month!

Introducting Dresstember!!

Well, I'm back!  I needed a short break after Awesome August – turns out that committing to write an entry for 30 days without anything really planned was harder than I expected.  My only goal was to post something which was both freeing and limiting as I didn't want to bore anyone with what I had for lunch, so often it was hard to find something interesting to write about.

I also learned that as much fun as the challenge was, I didn't want to put my life on hold just to make sure I posted something, hence the missing 3 days at the end – Vegas was just too distracting!  But having a goal did help me get in the habit.  And so I introduce my new challenge:

Dresstember!!

My friend Di challenged me to wear a dress every day of September and document it.  An excuse to wear nothing but dresses?!  I accept!  I have so much going on this month that the dress challenge just seems to add more excitement to it.  So, we shall see how that goes.

September 1 – 3

Banana Republic is doing this gorgeous Mad Men line right now.  OK, so I've never seen Mad Men, but that doesn't mean I don't LOVE everything in the line.  Especially this lace white dress... but I didn't love it $100+ worth.  So, I bought the $13ish version at Forver21.  I'm rad like that.

The second dress I bought at one of those little shops in downtown Santa Cruz years ago when shopping with Bear.  I asked her if it made me look like a gumdrop (because I usually think I'm fat).  She said no (because she usually tells me the truth about when things make me look fat).  My scarf has giraffes on it because my Bestie gives me wonderful birthday presents.

The third is from Express (and wow, I didn't think I'd wear Forever21 and Express in one week. How odd).  It has 3/4 sleeves and evoked the coveted "You've got a Jackie O. look today" from my co-worker.  But then I got cold and put a H&M blazer over it.  (and yes, to anyone who is reading this that I haven't seen in a few years – I wear blazers now. what up.)

So, now I'm back to trying to get this updated more regularly and perhaps with less randomly blocks of text. Happy Labor Day everyone!

Awesome August : Day 30

My best friend T lives in Orange County, so since high school we really haven't gotten a change to spend as much time with each other as we would both want.  But when we do spend time together we are awesome at eating frozen yogurt and shopping.  And it's T that I blame for my newish Kate Spade addiction.  T's always been a fan and either the Kate Spade line has changed or my tastes have changed, but I LOVE it all now.  And T knows this.

Which is why this morning, I got an IM from her with nothing but a link to a Kate Spade sample sale.  And then she asked why I hadn't bought the giraffe dress yet – good question!  So, I may or may not have bought two Kate Spade dresses this morning...  But I will say that with the 75% off, both dresses combined were less that either of them full price!

The one on the left is the Two By Two Dress – it's so ME isn't it?!  And the second one is an Ikat Caroline Dress that I hope to transition from summer to fall.  I swear, I should just not buy anything at all and just wait for these sales to come around.  I'm smitten with both (and more to be honest)!

Awesome August : Day 19 (one day late)

Yesterday was insane and I did not have a second of downtime to actually update this thing.

First off, I woke up at 5:30 for Warrior Dash training, then to my desk at 8:00am.  After work there was a quick run to the store, then I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip rice krispie treats for Kate, whose birthday part I was running out the door to get to.  Don't get me wrong, it was a great day filled with fun and friends and board games, but it was loooong. 

Plus, I got to wear this amazing outfit to work.  It was my take on Casual Friday and a nod to my training and my favourite super hero.

All the superheroes live in the city.  Spiderman, Daredevil, and Captain America.  But Thor’s the best.  He fights the forces of darkness.  Forces of darkness beware!

Awesome August : Day 2

Giraffes are one of my most favourite animals ever.  If you ever are in a situation where your life or thousands of dollars depends on knowing how I feel about giraffes, for the record I find them majestic.  And have you ever seen them fight? Damn!

I think my love of giraffes comes from these wooden giraffe statues my mom has and this painted giraffe art I've had in my room since I was a baby... But I had no idea so many people were on board with this giraffe love.  For example, I recently acquired a Kate Spade iPhone case that has giraffes on it!

Boyfriend once got me a book called "Giraffes? Giraffes!" by Dr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey, which documents the history of Giraffes.  This is the best book of all time and you should read it right now.

So, including the iPhone case that I carry with me all the time, I had 3 giraffe things in my outfit today.

The earrings were another birthday gift from Bear.  They are made of wood ad so light I can't even tell that I'm wearing earrings.

This amazing giraffe shirt was passed on to me by my dear friend Indiana, who I was lucky enough to spend a few hours with last week.  Indiana and I went to college together, but hadn't seen each other in 3 years!  We walked around our old stomping ground catching up, talking about The Lord of the Rings, and marveling over the fact that she has a baby now!  And then in our typical way, I left and drove an hour and a half home with her wallet in my purse, which she needed for her 5:00am flight the next morning.  But in between all that craziness, she gave me this much admired shirt.  It's adorable and probably would be even if it wasn't covered with giraffes!

So, I know Indiana loves animal clothes and accessories, and as you can see, I'm a sucker for giraffes (and I still have a new giraffe scarf to rock soon).  Do you like animal print or animal inspired designs? What animal do you love enough to base an entire outfit on?

PS.  Please excuse the amazingly grainy photo booth pictures...

Fashion Friday: June 13 – 17

This week felt pretty fast probably because I had a few things to look forward to: Fellowship in theaters and a photo shoot with the lovely and talented Barb – I hope to share the photos when I get to see them.  So this week's wardrobe was all over the map, including a purple Hawaiian-esque dress I wore with pearls on Wednesday that I managed to not get a picture of (which is OK, because it means I can wear it again and you guys will never know).

I love this dress.  It's from Target and is actually more of a coral-orange than the pink it look in this pic.  It's cotton and drapes like a dream and has enough detail to keep it interesting; the sweater is another Christmas gift is is probably from Nordstrom or Macy's or something; the shoes are Tom's wedges which I live in (I think I wore them 3 times this week... is that a valid reason for buying more pairs?); the belt came with a skirt and the earrings are also Target.

You may recognize this outfit as it was peaking out behind me polishing off a pizza before LoTR the other night.  I really like how this came together... The blazer is actually an awesome red lined with white polka-dots on blue and it's cropped so you roll the sleeves; the shorts are super high wasted and I thought it was a skirt at first, though I also thought the pattern was bunnies (they're deer) – both items are from H&M; the shirt you can kinda see blue and from Anthropolgie and I've worn it before; earrings are from a Kate Spade sample sale and you can't see them but, you guessed it, Tom's wedges!

So, this is something that I had wanted to try for a while now: shorts with tights.  I think it kinda worked.  The tights are from Target and the unseen boots are Cathy Jean; the shorts are H&M and I adore them because a) they are purple and b) they were under $20; the shirt is from the Van's Outlet which I used to pass all the time driving between the Bay Area and Monterey, and it's paird with a boring Old Navy tank top underneath; And another mysterious Christmas sweater – it matches the one in the above post because it was given to my sister who traded it to me for another sweater I got.. now I have twinsies!

 I guess I'm inadvertently doing a monochromatic thing if I ditched the sweater.  I didn't actually realized that I own this much navy blue nor did I intend to wear it all at the same time...  Anyway, we see a repeat of my favourite Genetic jeans and – oh wow! – Tom's again (but at least they are flats this time); the shirt is shirt is Jones New York from Ross and the sweater is from Nordstrom; you can hardly see the necklace but it's this awesome beaded mess which I discovered in the communal jewelry drawer at home! 

To round our this busy week, I have band practice tonight (actually it's happening right now in the other room).  Boyfriend and maRk are playing with some amazing sounds in Logic and I'm polishing off a bottle of wine and writing melodies.  And that's just the start of this weekend that will be full of awesomeness – I'll be seeing Harry and the Potters for the first time in a few years and going to a Jurassic Park themed birthday for my dear friend, Peter! 

Any else have awesome plans this weekend?

Last Week's Outfits

When I decided to post my outfits, part of the motivation was to force me to update this more often.  However, I worried that posting outfit posts daily would bother people, so I started Fashion Friday – which lasted about 2 weeks before life got in the way.  I figured no one noticed, but believe it or not, I've had a few request to bring back those posts – apparently people like them.  So my question for you, Dear Readers, is this – weekly photos? Daily photos?  Only photos when I really love an outfit?  Some other option?  I want this place to be a representation of me and all of my interests (hence random stories, recipes, clothes, etc) but I don't want to bore you...

Well, until I get some feedback, I think I'll try some daily posts and see where that gets me.  This was, after all, partly a New Year's Resolution to write more, so here we go!

I tried to get Boyfriend to get pics of all of my outfits last week.  We successfully captured 2 and I managed to use Instagram to get my more interesting accessories...  It's a start, right? Right!

Now that it's finally feeling like spring, I've taken to wearing nothing but skits and dresses.  This skirt is from H&M; the shirt is from Nordstrom Rack; the sweater from Target.  I got the necklace at a gem & jewelry show.  I don't know what shoes I was wearing, but I do know that I'm in front of the washing machine because I was on a mission to get a diet coke from the garage fridge when this was taken.  Mission accomplished, in case you were wondering.

I didn't get a full outfit pic on Tuesday, but I was wearing this purple dress from Target with this fantastic dragonfly necklace, that I think might be from Chico's – my sister and I are the youngest people that shop there, but only for jewelry; their jewelry is fantastic!  And, hey, my hair actually looks OK in this pic – it's been up most of the time recently because I've been running before work and can't be bothered to get up that much earlier just to do my hair...

I decided to be slightly whimsical and went with a bow theme.  Who knew I had this many things with bows?  The dress is a Betsy Johnson that I got on crazy clearance a few years ago; the shoes were an impulse buy via The Daily Candy's Swirl; the sweater was a Christmas present and thus of unknown origins; and the earrings are pink with little heart-shaped bows, which I borrowed/stole from my mom and they're Channel.  Also, no I'm not wearing white tights, thankyouverymuch.

I didn't end up getting a full outfit pic again, but you can see all of the important elements here.  The dress is from Anthropologie, again something I picked up on super clearance when I used to walk past the store every day to and from work... It's full of these bright flowers and it has pockets, which is the best!  The sweater is a TJ Maxx find, I think?  It has those patches over the elbows like a tweed jacket, so that's fun.  But the best part of this is the necklace – this is from an open market in Málaga, Spain.  I spent a week in El Costa del Sol with Si in 2003 pretty much drunk constantly, eating pizza, and bumming around with buskers we met.  It was awesome.

On Friday, I felt like crap and due to a mix up at 5:30 am, I forgot to bring the right shoes to change into after the gym.  This left me in jeans and a t-shirt, which is something I do not like to wear to work, even on a Friday.  But, what are you gonna do?  And since I left work and went to bed for 2 hours, I didn't get any outfit shots.  It's OK – you aren't missing much.

So, here's to sticking to keeping this updated a little more frequently.  Please let me know if you think I should do more or less.

I am an over-packer

This sounds like such a "white whine" but it is hard to pack for multiple climates in one trip. See, I'm heading to Philly tomorrow for my Cousin's wedding then Boyfriend is meeting me in Orlando for WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER!! on Monday (can you tell I'm excited?) So, anyway, I'm attempting to pack for a place that hasn't decided if it's winter or spring, plus I need a dress for the wedding and the rehearsal and whatever other family events that are planned.  And then essentially summer in Orlando, which was easy: a summer dress, sandals, and my "This Guitar is a Horcrux" shirt.

I got overwhelmed and brought out the big guns, so to speak.  But the problem is once I decided to use my Europe suitcase, I didn't have to limit myself... So in went everything I think I might, maybe wear over the next week... and probably a bunch of other stuff.

And finally, I've been trying to decide if I should bring my MBP and my iPad AND my iPhone, but that seems too much - so I'm testing this blogging app for the iPad. Really, I just think I need a MacBook Air to solve all my problems. 

So my next post might be from the air or Philly... Who knows! It will be exciting tho. :)

Fashion Friday: March 28 – April 1

Sorry for the radio silence, folks.  And I was doing so well with updating last week. And then I woke up Sunday morning with a itchy throat and was knocked out for the next two days.  Super lame.

 So, I have no style photos from Monday or Tuesday because I figured no one would want to see me in my old pajamas two days in a row.  But I do have a picture of the view from my sickbed.

That's my quilt, my movie collection, and you can kind of see my record collection (at least the 45s).  You can also see (from the left) the complete Harry Potter series & Percy Jackson series, a bunny with a mustache, Clerks Animated & Oscar Wilde action figures, a severed foot autographed by Chuck Palahniuk, and two years worth of Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club EPs. There is a whole lot of awesome (read: nerd) going on here.

My first day returning to work I did the unthinkable: wore jeans and sneakers... But I still felt like crap.
The jeans are Rock & Republic – hand-me-ups from Bear; the shirt is J.Crew and you can't see it but there are sequins on it; the shoes you can sort of glimpse are Puma and are usually reserved for my hip-hop class :)

You can tell I was starting to feel better by Wednesday because I have a skirt on.  And also, while I was sleeping, it suddenly turned into spring.  I swear I only own like 4 things from Anthropologie and I'm wearing two of them here – the shirt and the skirt, both on sale; the shoes are Me Too from Nordstrom, which I'm breaking in cousin's wedding next week.

The shirt is Forever21 and it's too bad you can't see the super cute flower details on it; the belt is my mystery brand belt from Nordstrom Rack; jeans are Genetic from the aforementioned Blue Jean Bar; the shoes are Lucky Brand also from Nordstrom Rack (I love that place); earrings are from the communal jewelery drawer in my home and who knows where they originated from.

I'm so happy it's spring now.  Can't wait to break out the spring/summer dresses!
Is there something you can't wait to wear this year?

Fashion Friday : March 21 - 25

Don't worry, Dear Readers.  This isn't turning into a fashion blog (yet).  I fairly certain that I am too lazy for that at this point, inasmuch as I don't have the ability to a) pick out a nice outfit, b) take a picture of me in it, and c) write about it every day – but, gosh, I admire those who can!

I have been wanting to keep a record of what I wear to work – despite the fact that Big Computer Company is casual, I consistently wear skirts and dresses, and other more business-y attire while most everyone else wears jeans (in fact, the first time I wore jeans to work, it caused quite a ruckus).  After 13 years of wearing a uniform and then working a number of jobs that required me to put a t-shirt over whatever I wore, I'm embracing the fact that I can wear whatever I want.  And I want to wear cute skirts and boots, usually.

But see, the other reason that I'm not sure if I want to turn this into a daily showcase of what I wear is that 90% of my daily choice of clothes is based on what can be thrown into a gym bag and not get totally wrinkled. Which also means that my clothing choice is either picked out right before I fall asleep the night before or at 5:00am the morning of.  This has resulted in a lack of accessories, strange colour choices, and one time, wearing what I thought was a dress, but was actually a shirt that was inappropriately short for work.

All that being said, this is my attempt to keep track of what I wear each week, and maybe through that process figure out a bit more what works and what doesn't. . . Also it give me an excuse to take silly pictures with Boyfriend, who is the official endlessmeg photographer. Observe.

The sweater and tights, which are footless and the BEST thing in the universe if you have long legs, are from Target; the skirt is J.Crew and the boots are Miz Mooz (from Nordstroms) – both things I picked out and then were gifted back to me in the original shopping bag from The Queen for Christmas; sunglasses are BP and the ring is vintage – my Grandma had the best costume jewelry.  

The dress was surprising find at Forever 21 and the belt is an unknown brand from Nordstrom Rack.

I had been wearing the same boots from Monday, but this was way late at night and I hate shoes, so I had switched into Uggs (which are an annual purchase for me since the days of swim team).

This is one of my most favourite outfits ever.  The dress and belt are from Anthropologie – I used to live on the same street as one of the stores and I walked by every day on my way to work.   This dress was in the window and I tried it on 3 times before I finally broke down and bought it.  The tights and sweater are Target; the boots are Benetton and were a birthday gift 3 years ago (and kind of a long story...); the earnings are from a Gem & Jewelery show.

And some days I like to dress up for no real reason.  The skirt and top are H&M (which I tend to find is very hit or miss... maybe that's what it stands for... hmmm); The jacket is Kensie from Nordstrom Rack; the ankle boots are Steve Madden.  Also, yes, those are bowls on my ears – it was my cone of silence.

First off, I'm dancing in my head to Hall & Oats in these pics.  Now, let me tell you about these jeans.  There is a place on Santana Row in SJ called The Blue Jeans Bar.  You must go there.  First you tell them your size, then what style you are looking for and it's like personal shopping.  These are DL1961 which I had never heard of, but LOVE; the sweater is Banana Republic, from an after Christmas sale 2 years ago.

So that is my week in fashion and silly pictures.  What do you think?  Too many pictures in one post?  Should I try to do every day or every other day rather than once a week?  You tell me.

Paddy's Day Shoes

About 5 years ago I was shopping with Bear.  This, as some of you may know, can lead to awesome (read "sometimes disastrous") purchases of things that we may not really need.  Most recently, we both bought Betsy Johnson dresses with Pterodactyls on them.  Did we need these? No.  Was it a fashion imperative that we buy them? Oh, yes. There were Pterodactyls on them!

Anyway, 5 years ago we wandered into the shoe department at Nordstroms and I was immediately taken with these amazing green heels.  I rolled up my jeans and I strutted all around the shoe department.  Bear had located the same pair in blue and was also trying them on, which is just shows how awesome we thought they were because Bear almost never wears heels.

"I must have these!" I informed the shoe guardian.

So, I bought these amazing shoes and decided that I should wear them to my College graduation, you know, as a justification for buying them.  Only, I quickly realized that a) the heels were way too high for me to walk into the graduation stadium with out falling because b) there is no ankle support!  I ended up wearing flip-flops and then sitting at my Graduation lunch wearing the heels so I didn't have to walk much.  Fantastic.  Another useless purchase…

Except that they haven't just stayed in the box collecting dust.  I have worn these shoes at least 5 times – I wear them each year on Paddy's Day!  I remember the first time I wore them for this occasion because my friend Siobhan and I went to every grocery store and liquor store in the Monterey area looking for Smithwicks… needless to say, they weren't the best shoe of choice for a park, run into the store, run around the isles, and run back to the car kind of mission.  At least this year, with my desk job, I should be fine…

Also, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I decided to make treats for the office (like I need an excuse) and I was excited to try out this recipe, albeit slightly modified to be GREEN!  Judging by the fact that I don't typically like brownies and yet I tried to eat my weight in the batter, I would say these were a success.  My only fear was that they might end up looking moldy… Instead my co-workers asked me if I had any "special" ingredients in them!

And then tonight, I will probably kick back with my favorite Irish beer, the aforementioned Smithwicks (pronounced without the W), and watch either Darby O'Gill and the Little People and/or Father Ted.  And possibly eat some greenish food of some sort.  My shoes will be sitting on the floor next to me, looking pretty.

Not sure how to celebrate?  Want some recommendations on my favorite Irish/Irish inspired media? Check out these gems! Note:  If you're not familiar with the accent, you may want to conceder turning on subtitles for some of these. . .

• The Boondock Saints (1999) :  I can't believe I forgot to add this to the list – this is one of my favourite Irish inspired films.  A uniquely told story of two Irish emigrant brothers who become vigilantes after a rowdy St. Patrick's Day.  Fun drinking game: drink every time they use the F-word.
  
  
  
  

• The Commitments (1991) : One of my all time favorite movies about a group of Working class Dubliners (Northsiders) who form a Soul group.  Amazing music, fun story, generally considered one of the best Irish films ever.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) : A Disney production based off of a collection of Leprechaun stories about Darby O'Gill catching King Brian, King of the Leprechauns.  This staple of my childhood features a ton of Irish folk lore and creatures, plus a young (and singing!) Sean Connery.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Father Ted (1995) : A Graham Linehan (IT Crowd) sitcom about 3 Irish Priests who live on  Craggy Island, isolated off the coast of Ireland.  Very funny and absurd, and though you don't need to be Irish or Catholic to find it funny, being so adds a whole new dimension. 
  
  
  
  
   
• Intermission (2003) : A love story/crime caper set in modern Dublin involving a breakup, a bank robbery, and a ton of Brown Sauce.  As a drawing point, it stars Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell.  Oh, and Colm Meaney – he's in everything (including my flight from Dublin to LA once)!
  
  
  
   
• Once (2006) : I'm sure you've heard of at least this one.  A musical of sorts played out in modern Dublin.  Very low budget but beautiful music and nearly perfect. Fun fact: Glen Hansard was also in The Commitments.
  
  
  
  
• The Quiet Man (1952) : If you've never seen or heard of this, you may be surprised to find a movie featureing John Wayne on this list.  He plays an Irish-American who returns to Ireland to reclaim his family's farm.  Known for it's famously long fight scene, it's a classic that I grew up watching with my Grandparents.
  
  
  
  

Hope you check some of these out. . .
Do you have any St. Patrick's Day traditions?  Any movies that are a must watch for you?