VMS Digest: Volume VIII

Happy Friday, friends! Today I’ve got an extra long Digest for you, hot off the presses. There have been lots of good links and fun videos I’ve been saving for a couple weeks now — I hope you enjoy! A few personal updates below too, along with great sales to shop this weekend. Here’s wishing you a good one…

?  // 56 new emoji are going to be released, any day now! Some are pretty random…and some will go straight into my emoji rotation, stat!

FILE UNDER SITES I WISH I DESIGNED AND WROTE COPY FOR // Cards Against Humanity…for her. You miiiight want to read the whole thing before you get too excited. But I dare you not to laugh out loud at the FAQ at the bottom!

IN LIVING COLOR // Vox posted this awesome video to Facebook a few weeks ago, about artists who can bring old black and white photos to life by adding (realistic!) color to them. The images themselves are absolutely incredible, but when you see the painstaking work that goes into it, you’ll appreciate them even more. This is definitely worth a watch!

FYRED // I know I posted about this last month, but Vanity Fair wrote an in-depth piece this month about the Fyre Festival mess, with lots of background on the co-founder (and his long history of being, well, kind of a douche and a fraud). If you’ve been following this story since April, check out this long form piece!

JUST OUTSTANDING! // Have you ever seen those Pinterest images with super long tables set up in beautiful places outdoors? Odds are good that the shot might’ve come from an Outstanding in the Field dinner. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this organization, but I came across it through a newsletter from my lawyer, of all places! The organization hosts incredible family style dinners all over the country (actually, the world!) to celebrate local farmers and ingredients that are in season. Check it out here and see if there’s a dinner in your area soon.

HELPING HOARDERS // I never got into that reality show about hoarding, but I did find this article about how commonplace it is (and what people can do to help those who suffer from it) really interesting. Who knew it was a condition that even local municipalities have learned how to handle?

CHASING PAPER // I’ve posted about the removable wallpaper company Chasing Paper before, and was delighted to see a profile about it in Inc. recently. It’s such a cool startup story!

ANTS ARE KINDA COOL // Ok, if you REALLY hate bugs and they creep you out, don’t click on this link. But this science video showing how ants approach architecture (no, seriously!) was pretty cool. Even cooler that the research done on these critters can actually help human engineers!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAHA AND HAHAHAHA // You know what I mean, right? There’s a whole silent language around communicating amusement, laughter, and absolute hilarity through texts and emails. I loved this article breaking it down (with input from linguists) and found it totally true to how I express laughter online. You?

OFF THE SHOULDER FIX // Have an off-the-shoulder top that never stays in place? Here’s a quick hack on how to fix that little problem.

THE BEAUTY OF MARBLES // An awesome video showing how glass marbles are made. It’s mesmerizing and beautiful! And it totally makes me want to take a glass blowing class. Have you ever taken one?

REGRETTING YOUR BIGGEST SUCCESS // I thought this article about how one of the designers of the iPod and iPhone kind of regrets the invention was really great. It’s interesting to see teams that created these products (which have impacted the world so significantly) look back at their design and design processes and realize what could have gone differently. I’d also never thought about gender played a role in how these devices were developed — the article was saying that the vast majority of people who worked on these types of projects were young, 20-something men. They never anticipated what something like an iPhone might mean to family time. Interesting, no?

UGH // Just, ugh.

AND THE FINAL ARTICLE GOES TO… // Emmy nominations were released this week! Did your favorite show make the cut?

read & reading

My current reads are kind of random! I don’t have any fiction picks in the queue at the moment, as I’ve been engrossed in some non-fiction reads that are very specific to my own life right now!

+ Bringing Up Bebe — Don’t read too much into this. I’m not expecting, and we’re not trying! But in talking about thinking about what life would be like if we did have a kid in the next few years (and with so many friends becoming new parents or expecting!), I was interested to see why everyone seems to have read this book. I think it’s a pretty interesting read even if you never want to start a family! My one beef is that as logical as all the advice is, it seems like some pieces are a lot harder to do when you are living in American culture versus French. Do you agree? Have you read it?

+ Books about adoption — I am planning to write a larger post about this at some point, but I’ve been spending some time the last few months exploring my Korean roots and options to learn more about my biological parents (oh, if you missed this at some point and my last name didn’t give it away — I’m adopted!). My adoption is something I’ve known about my entire life (I mean, given how different we look, it’s not like my family could’ve hidden it from me!). But due to a number of factors, it’s only been until recently that I have become interested in exploring the topic more, specifically issues around transracial adoption (that is, a family of one race adopting a child of another). It’s a topic that’s been in the news a bit recently too — check out this story Vice News did recently about Korean adoptees being deported. Sorry if shit just got real in this post, but this whole search process has been a big thing around here lately, and thus, on my mind a lot. Anyway, the two books I’m reading about Korean adoption specifically are here and here, in case anyone happens to be interested!

 

cool shops / cool sales

+ Have you heard of the clothing company Modern Citizen? They just opened a shop on Union Street here in SF! I’d seen them mentioned online before, but my friend Heidi sent me a longer article about them this week and I finally got around to really browsing their site. They have a lot of swoonworth pieces at great prices. Check it out here!

+ EVERLANE // The Day flats and Day heels are back, in pretty, summery colors. Shop them here if you missed out the first time around (I think the heels sold out in like a day!)

+ M. GEMI SALE // The twice yearly M. Gemi sale is happening right now! Some of their beautiful shoes are as low as $75. The sale runs until the morning of July 17, so shop here and see what’s available in your size!

+ CLUB MONACO // All sale items are currently an extra 30% off! No code needed, the discount just gets added at check out. If you’re in need of a dress for any upcoming weddings, they have a ton on sale!

+ ANTHROPOLOGIE // Anthro’s having a sale on sale too! Also an extra 30% off all sale styles. Shop it here, and check out tops on sale in particular. I thought they had a ton of cute tops this season!

+ HEY, DID YOU HEAR NORDSTROM IS HAVING A SALE? // In case you didn’t see the 500,000 posts online about the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, it’s on now for people who have a Nordstrom credit card. Which doesn’t include me, so all it means is that I’ve bookmarked exactly three items that I’ll consider buying in another week when us peons get access to the sale: this jacket (because I have been looking for a short, dressier jacket for date nights foreverrrr and this fits the bill!), sneakers (the last pair I bought were from the sale two years ago!), and this Vince sweater, because despite the beautiful summer we’ve been having in SF, that thing just makes me want it to be fall tomorrow.

 

Studio Life // Real Life

I’m writing this late night, so here’s more of what’s been happening around here, each in a single sentence.

+ We’re headed to LA this weekend to visit some dear college friends who just bought a house AND are expecting a baby!

+ My mama is visiting me next week, for a few days filled with lots of good meals, furniture shopping (due to her house renovation project), and some fun in the SF sun.

+ ICYMI, I mentioned the upcoming launch of <em>press, our new WordPress themes shop last month; you can check out the splash page and sign up for updates here.

+ It’s Lucy’s 5th birthday on Sunday. I’m breaking my one sentence rule because LUCY! My baby! To brighten your Friday, here is a photo of her as a puppy, and another from the day she came home with us (she’s with her dad here). And I’m totally THAT mom, so last one, promise: here is one of my favorite pictures we ever took together. Isn’t it funny that in dog years, she’s now older than me? I She really needs to be better about posting to it, but if you want MORE LUCY, check out her Instagram.

Hope you have a wonderful, relaxing weekend!

 

9 Comments

  1. 7.14.17
    Lauren said:

    I don’t own a TV but whenever I’m at my mom’s house you can bet TLC is on. Hoarding Buried Alive and few other shows are fascinating to me! You just never know what goes on behind closed doors!

    It’s always a delight when I come to your blog and see a VMS Digest post. No one does this type of blog post better than you. I appreciate the mix of interesting, educational, fun and light hearted articles you share with us. All of your posts are meaningful and well thought out. It’s the reason why I check your site every day even though I know your posting schedule is Tuesdays & Thursdays :)

    • 7.17.17
      Jill said:

      Agreed with the above poster. Your links are always SO good. You always have one or two long form articles that I end up reading in their entirety. I appreciate that the articles are timely, also. Some bloggers who do this type of post end up posting things that have already made the internet rounds and it drives me nuts. Keep doing what you’re doing– you are one of the only blogs I still read.

      • 7.17.17
        Victoria said:

        Thank you both! It makes me so happy that you enjoy these posts so much! :) And I’ll work on that whole Tuesday/Thursday schedule thing, haha!

  2. 7.16.17
    Maggie said:

    Happy 5h birthday to Lucy!

    • 7.17.17
      Victoria said:

      Thanks! She had a good one, though she was tired after a weekend at puppy camp. We made her sliders with ground beef, peanut butter, parmesan, bacon, and a blueberry on top (all her favorites!). Yes, we are totally THOSE dog parents.

  3. 7.17.17

    These are my favorite types of posts from you! I bookmarked everything to read throughout the week.

  4. 7.20.17
    Sarah M said:

    I’ve been a reader for a few years and I have to agree with the previous posters – I wish you posted more because I always love your content!! You always have different items and articles than the other blogs I follow, which is SO nice. Your voice is just alway unique among the masses. So, I guess if you not always following your tues/thurs schedule means your content is better/more unique/genuine, I’m still in!

    PS – you’ve prob already done a post about this, but maybe I missed it. How do you keep up with work, books, magazine content, podcasts, etc.? I’m a pretty quick reader, but I’m just generally overwhelmed with the amount of awesome content out there – and that doesn’t event start in on how much ridiculously good TV there is out there!! There’s not enough time, I can’t keep up!

    • 7.21.17
      Victoria said:

      Thank you so much, Sarah! I so appreciate your comment and promise to keep writing — as frequently as I can! :)

      I actually haven’t done a post about that before, but will talk about it in the future! I’ve had a “Day in the Life” type post on my to do list for you guys, so that could be a great place to incorporate my recs for keeping up with things!

  5. 7.26.17
    Robyn said:

    Loved this post. I’m dying to hear more about your capsule/more curated wardrobe efforts. I’ve been trying to do this for months and I seem to be failing at it – would love to see an update on where you are in the process.

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