I routinely use YouTube to listen to music. I pick a song, listen, and click onto one of the suggestions that pop up when the song is over. I think this particular stream started with Don’t Take It Personal by Monica and was followed by I Wanna Be Down by Brandy.

Officially Missing You came out a full decade after the two former songs and wasn’t by a teenager. I’m not quite sure why the computer chips over at YouTube deemed the three related– perhaps females using a single first name as a moniker?– but I’m so glad they reminded me of the beauty that is this video.

It pretty much follows Tamia in a cute outfit (especially loving all of the gold necklaces and the open pink shirt), as she strolls around a neighborhood and is gazed upon (oogled) by various men. She’s really missing someone specific and isn’t interested in their lonely eyes. She heads home after buying a soda at the corner store and sitting inside a phone booth for a bit. Upon entering her super-cute apartment, she walks around and sits in front of a fan blowing ribbons at her. Not groundbreaking, surely, but it is pretty nice to look at.

Does it remind you just a teensy bit of another video with a pretty gal stopping at the bodega and going on a stroll?

Watch Officially Missing You by Tamia here.

About a decade ago, on a visit to my dad’s house, I spied a magazine floating around the house. One morning it was in the kitchen. That evening, I found it in the bathroom. The next day it was on a chair on the back porch. I was in the middle of an engrossing book at the time and, once into a story, I am known to carry titles from room to room to read as I do everything from taking a shower (one look at the crimping and curling tomes on my bookshelf tells you that I am a serial shower-reader) to letting the dog out, a vice that restricts me from being truly and firmly present in my own life in a lot of ways. I digress, as that is a can of worms for an entirely different post. The point is, I didn’t pick up the magazine with the black and white photo on it for a few days because I was nose-deep in something else. I should have done so immediately. Someone liked it enough to move it from room to room as they went about their day and that should have told me it was special.

The Sun is an independent, ad-free magazine published in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The publisher, an interesting character who pens a monthly column in the magazine that readers seem to love or hate– I’m one of the lovers– started it in 1974 with fifty borrowed dollars. You can read the inspiring story about The Sun’s birth here.

Browse the back issues to get a taste of what The Sun offers. Read pieces from the latest issue. If you’re into photography, short stories, personal essays, and just regular folks’ lives (offered in the touching, funny, and sometimes downright heartbreaking Readers Write series), subscribe. Just don’t wait a few days like I did! I’ve been a reader since that fateful day on the porch and I implore you to be one, too.

When I started blogging in late 2009, I didn’t really know what a “design” blog was. I knew I liked writing and that I wanted to share some thrifty finds, my transformation of our vintage, kinda-in-horrible-shape apartment, and the cool apartments of my friends. I didn’t know that there was something called a “reader” that I could plop all the blogs I happened upon into and keep track of them. I also didn’t realize that I would spend countless hours a week reading, clicking and starring their posts. But I do. And I finally added some of my daily reads to the links page. Go check it out– and tell me what blogs you read on a daily basis since you’ll probably notice my list is a wee bit short. I’ll be continually updating it as I add more to the good old reader.

I also added links to some of my family and friend’s ventures. They’re all amazing, so click around and check them out, too.

LINKS

Hope you’re staying warm this Tuesday night!

This post by ModFruGal yesterday made me long for holiday decorations in our apartment. Her simple, beautiful little “tree” can fit anywhere and make a big impact. Maybe a couple vases with dressed branches in each, grouped together on the credenza or bookshelf, of even on top of the fridge?

I haven’t done any decorating for the holiday season since we lived in California, where we bought a crappy little tree that caused a big old mess. I have too many things in my apartment. Too many “accents.” Too many decorative objects, plain old kitschy stuff. Granted I love these items and I appreciate waking up in the morning and looking at the pretty tableaus scattered throughout the house but right now I’m thinking of putting everything up for the season and adding some holiday cheer to the space.

This is another lovely take on branches from nicoletter, a beautiful German blog penned by a graphic designer.

How simple, how pretty. Easy to throw together and it would fit right in with the vintage feel of our kitchen. I surmise I’d have to remove the candy canes every morning before leaving for work lest the puppy get a hold of them. Via jutta on Flickr.

The bowl with ornaments, the JOY sign. All elements I can add to my branches and mini tree. Via simplygrove on Flickr.

Now I’m in the spirit. Are you decorating this year? Did you get a tree yet?

I’m so far gone on new music and in turn, it’s videos, that it’s embarrassing. I was linked to this video from Rihanna today and I watched it at work, excited to come home and post some stills.

Ri-Ri looks amazing, the way the vid is shot is absolutely perfect and I don’t even mind having to look and listen to Drake (whose rapping I abhor) so you know the video must be great, right? Watch it here.

I started thinking about other videos that have caught my eye in the last year or so. I haven’t seen many, and I’m probably kinda late on all the love people have shown them but humor me.

John Legend’s Save Room For My Love is a clever little thing; watch the girls. Plus the interior in the beginning of the video? Swoon.

Snoop and Jay-Z’s I Wanna Rock is my favorite video of the last five years, easy. It makes me want to have ten sons and spoil them to pieces.

While I love Cee Lo Green’s official F*ck You video, the Spanish and German sing a longs make for great entertainment. So go ahead, sing along.

What are you favorite videos, past or present?

BUT: this weekend I actually did give it a try, spending all day Sunday messing around with the art I found in the closet, a few random thrifted pieces and even pages taken from a book on African Market Literature. I tried to do one of those neat-o collage-above-the-couch-thingies. You know, like this, except above the couch.

via art hound

It didn’t really work and no I will not show you pictures. In all, I spent over four hours trying to get it right and I’ve got somewhere around forty-two thousand holes in my wall to prove it. I know what I did wrong– using the same color frames would have unified the space better and I did some spray painting in those hours to test my theory and it actually started to look okay for a little while– but even after my realizations, I don’t think a wall art collage is really what I want in the space.

I want shelves that art can perch upon. Dark wood, thin, with spots for vases and framed pieces and little figurines maybe. I don’t know how to pull off the look above without it looking too busy. The room is busy enough; it needs symmetry and balance. So, shelves.

Or, I want one big piece similar to what we have in the front room. I’m just not sure. I need some help. What do you think should be above my couch?

I’m putting this into the universe and hoping not to disappoint myself with my lack of progress the next time this living room is revisited. What’s above your couch?

I stumbled into an internet rabbit hole after last week’s Boardwalk Empire and it led me to Gibson Girls, illustrator Charles Gibson’s lady subjects from the early 1900s. I love them.

These two are my favorites. I’ve been meaning to get a new tattoo for awhile and I wouldn’t be surprised if the one above ends up adorning my body as early as next week.

The “Gibson Girl” is probably the best remembered of the artist’s images. With her hair piled atop her head and a waist so tiny as to defy belief, the Gibson Girl represented a serene self-confidence that could surmount any problem. The envy of all who knew her, the Gibson Girl remained aloof of her surroundings but not to the extent of haughtiness. She was at once remote but yet accessible. The “Gibson Man,” equally as handsome and self-assured as the Gibson Girl, provided her perfect partner. The Gibson Girl and the Gibson Man in some ways represent the “Barbie and Ken” dolls of the early 1900s as icons of popular Culture.

via Eyewitness to History

With the living room re-do in progress and relocated books threatening to to overtake the front room as a result, I’ve got shelving on my mind. I’ve always been crazy averse to track shelving and thought it too sloppy, too pedestrian, too utilitarian. Then I saw this photo on a desert fete, my favorite new-to-me blog, (that I just discovered twenty minutes ago and am still drooling over) and changed my mind. The thin wood she used looks about a thousand times better than the melamine shelves you normally see for track shelving and the look is more polished and natural as a result.

via dear diary

Even this white looks good on a white wall, kinda blending in, not drawing attention to itself. Can a shelf do that? I haven’t had coffee yet today.

What’s your verdict on track shelving?  It’s cheap, seems fairly simple to hang, and it’s cheap.  My favorite word so I used it twice.  Like or dislike?

]]> http://urbancasita.com/2010/09/02/maybe-track-shelving-isnt-that-ugly/feed/ 2 may cute track shelving white track shelving http://urbancasita.com/2010/08/24/easy-plant-vessel-vintage-drawers/ http://urbancasita.com/2010/08/24/easy-plant-vessel-vintage-drawers/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:38:49 +0000 may http://urbancasita.com/?p=3792 Continue reading →]]> click on photo for source

Color me happy. I’d never have thought to pop a plant into a vintage drawer. Looks like I have another item to add to my thrift wish list this week.

About the living room update: it’s coming along. I’m a little frustrated with the amount of stuff we have in this apartment and lamenting about that is taking up much of my time. I’m a brooder. So guess what? Rummage sale time!

Details to follow. If you’re in Chicago, I hope you’re free Sunday morning!

First is Buka Sessions, a new bi-weekly Happy Hour event at Brooklyn’s newest Nigerian resto and bar. The party is hosted by Freeform+Deform, a design and architecture collective that my frequent blog subject and brother-in-law Lekan is part of, and it looks like a very good time. Go and have a beer for me this Friday, why dontcha?

You also have-have-have to check Lek’s Tumblr and then head over to the Freeform+Deform blog for more design goodness. I love this post on the table the gentlemen from FF+D made from scratch. Isn’t it gorgeous? Look at the shine! The white sides! I need it in my life.

Buka Sessions
rsvp @ facebook
946 Fulton St
(between Waverly Ave & Washington Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Another thing I wish I was in NYC for is my buddy Drea’s group show at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts. “Ain’t I A Woman,” is up until December 19th but you can go check it out this weekend! Read all about it at the NYT Blog here.

Ain’t I A Woman?
MoCADA
80 Hanson Place
Brooklyn, NY 11217

So there. Two things to do if you’re in New York. Chicago’s still better though. Take that take that take that. © Puffy.