i'm conceited

I don't want to brag but I had a bit of a reputation back in the day for being a prestigious white female rapper in Dallas, OR. I'd typically rap in history class or the soccer bus about mullets, science, my stanky coach...you name it, I rapped it. Once I went to college, my pseudonyms were shed and I took up rapping covers of flyyyyyy lady rappers, of which Remy Ma and Nikki Minaj are my favorites.

Remy Ma's I'm Conceited was the first full rap I ever memorized. I used to perform it in college for any ear that would listen. I rediscovered the video the other night and still can remember every word. Three cheers for badass women spittin a little self pride like Remy.

holy ghost

dear holy ghost,

hiiiiiiiiii. it's me. the one that's obsessed with you and is tumblin all your shit. i love your blog.

mmmkaybye,

kt

p.s. follow them on FB, twitter and tumblr and get gripped

p.p.s. feel free to peep my labor of love while you're at it

the bonfires

after finding TWO gray hairs this weekend (TWO!), i really needed something good in my life. enter: the bonfires, an unsigned band of lifelong friends from london who i'm batshit crazy about. my first taste of them was "same heart" and i got the same feeling one gets when locking eyes with the love of their life. since they've got nothing on iTunes, soundcloud will have to do for now but play the hell out of them and spread the word.

cosmic love

DY. ING.

pretty much describes how i feel about florence + the machine's song "cosmic love". gives me ch-ch-chills. happy friday peoples.

paris

showing some pre-weekend love for all two of you who read this thing on fridays. it cut my heart deeply to have missed my new obsession at wakarusa last weekend (post on that coming next week) because, quite frankly, grace potter and the nocturnals have stolen my heart. and in all honesty, i'm jealous of her. her badass-ness. her raspy, rocker voice. her LEGS FOR DAYS. oh and her bangs are awesome. i tried fake bangs last night and in the wise words of andria, "uh...you look like a total hippie" - and not the good kind. it probably didn't help that my hair is on a 5 day, no wash binge and looks strikingly similar to a lion's mane.

i have to give solid ups to one, forrest j. underwood, for bringing grace into my life. i'm pretty sure he a) wishes grace's name were actually paris and b) truly means it when he sings, "i wish i were in paris" along with the ear snack below. PLEASE, if you do anything good for yourself this weekend or in your life in general, put GP on heavy, heavy rotation. your body, mind and spirit will thank you for it. she's currently making the rounds @ america's greatest music festivals but has a bangin' tour schedule going on right now as well.

if you're interested in hearing more of grace & the nocturnals you can do one or both of the following:

1. email me at kbarnes@spu.edu and i will dropbox you the entire album or,

2. turn on your favorite local country station and hear her sultry croon cover the multitude of sin's kenny chesney's voice creates on their duet, "you and tequila"

happy friday fellow music lovers. happy friday.

p.s. the aforementioned forrest j. underwood just happens to be an extremely eligible bachelor who also happens to bring the party wherever he goes and happens to be a C-130 pilot for the air force...interested?

summer come quickly

spring is fine. it's cool. whatever.

while spring may remind others of daffodils and the easter bunny, it quickens my heart at the thought that summer is just around the corner. because summer just makes everything better. it means more: sun, vacations, happiness and adventures while wearing less: clothes, worries and cares. it's pretty much everything i love the most all wrapped into four delicious months (since i let september weasel its way into the summer category). although it's three months early, i'm prepping for summer '11 like it's the second coming of Y2K. today i made some anticipatory purchases to get me all sorts of summa-fied and even got inspired to throw together some sunny weather digs on polyvore. here's to the next 3 months flying by!

i've been growing out my locks for the past 5+ years and they're finally the optimum everything to pull off a mean head of beach hair. with that in mind i bought some osis "dust it" to help perfect my mop. this mattifying powder creates texture, volume and separation to give your hair that effortless, faux dirty look (or real dirty in my case).

i also stuck some aquage sea salt texturizing spray in my shopping cart. i've swiped some of my brother's bumble & bumble sea salt spray but aquage came highly recommended and is less money for more product. as michael scott would say, it's a win-win-win.

thanks to both of these products i will be whipping my hair like willow all.summa.longgggg

i also treated myself (finally!) to a coveted bueno bueno texas key necklace from the loverly brandi & kelly at mucho bueno. the best year of my life was spent in the lone star state and now i can flash my allegiance loud and proud.

and finally, a little polyvore set i put together of an outfit that screams summer

little kid scientist

as of four o'clock this afternoon, i was stumped for what to post today. who knew that my 5 year old BFF would provide all the inspiration i needed? tia root is my GIRL (pronounced guuuuuuuuuurrrrrl). i first laid eyes on her at all saints church in 2005 when she was a chubby, rose-lipped little sushi roll with scattered wisps of black hair, reminiscent of an old balding man. luckily, her looks have significantly improved and she's an absolute doll. that girl is 5 going on 25, has some serious chops and scares me with how smart she is. i don't like to refer to myself as her babysitter but more of her best friend who happens to be 19 years older.

tonight after i gave her and the boys a shower, we gabbed like a couple of old hens while i gave her a leg and foot rub. in true little girl fashion, she's got bruises peppering her shins and blames them the the hard knock life of a preschooler. so while i massaged all her worries away, we had an interview of sorts.

Tia: Some scientists believe in God and some don't. They just don't. They think science things just happen.

KT: I'm a scientist and I believe in God.

T: Me too! I'm a little kid scientist!

K: Hollerrrrr. So let's talk about dreams. What do you dream about?

T: I want to either dream about me being a queen, science or me and a kitty cat cuddling together.

K: What do you mean science?

T: You know, science questions - like planets and how you find out things about them and volcanoes and weather.

K: Are you going to be a scientist?

T: Oh yeah - a doctor, a scientist, vet, a nurse, a famous ice skater or Clara in the Nutcracker.

K: Oh. My. Gosh. I love you.

T: Yeah, thanks.

K: Be a scientist because you can change the world.

T: I can?

K: Uh huh. You know how I told you that we all have bits of God in us - that we were made in His image, so that means we are like Him? Well you can show people who He is and how He lives in you by making people feel better and healing them and making new discoveries.

T: RIGHT!

K: I believe in you. Girl power.

T: I have one more thing...I pray to God every night for sweet science dreams and I love the dreams I get.

K: Science dreams huh...

T: Yeah, craaaazy ones.

tell me she isn't the most perfect cherub on Earth.

a crafter's paradise

the only person on earth who makes a bigger hullabaloo over their birthday is my mom. genetics at their finest, eh? this requires me to think about her gift months in advance! so, in true KT fashion, i began planning a week ahead of time and discovered the perfect present for the perfect mother. the idea for these hand-crafted plush hearts is courtesy of katie kukulka of "i go by katie". she was a guest blogger for the fabulous moorea seal and posted a darling tutorial that i had to try.

after work one day, i meandered over to joann fabrics in ballard with this project in mind. i peeped some adorable striped fabric in the bargain bin, chose five bright and spring-ish flavors of embroidery floss, grabbed a pack of needles and went to town. no pattern needed! i simply folded the fabric, cut out two identical hearts, embroidered the edges in a variety of stitches and stuffed them with batting. back in the day, i got all caught up in an amish christian romance novel (so many things wrong with that phrase) and swore up and down i needed to start working on a dowry - tea towels and quilts and pillowcases, OH MY! so i learned how to embroider like a champ and, though the dowry has long fallen by the wayside, my skills with a needle & thread are alive and well. this whole project ended up costing me about $7 and a whole week of my social life, not to mention early-onset carpal tunnel, but it was so worth it. in retrospect, i probably should have invested in a new pair of scissors as mine are a prehistoric pair of shears once belonging to my aunt back when "groovy" was the "it" phrase but...i didn't.

the whole gist of this gift was to give my mom tangible reminders of my love for her. i sewed 14 hearts of different sizes and drove to OR for the weekend to hide 13 of them all over her most-frequented household locations. the 14th was lovingly wrapped in a miniscule box and presented with an antique robin's egg blue mason jar tied in a cherry red ribbon. shame on me for not taking pictures of the final presentation because it was so cute. in her card i wrote that, whilst sewing all of these little lovies, i recalled my most favorite memories with her and prayed like crazy for my little mother. so all of those golden memories and my heart and prayers were sewed into these guys (along with a little KT DNA after pricking my fingers a million times). in her card i admonished her not to go looking for them but to let them find her. i really felt like they'd be discovered when she most needed some extra love.

here's cold hard evidence that i do indeed have a crafty bone in my body. it may be small and little used, but it's there! what do you think?

p.s. yesterday, a whopping 351 people visited northwest is best. yay and thank you! i love sharing things that inspire and encourage people (:

my final product. not bad right?

date a girl who reads...

via weheartit

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

— Rosemary Urquico (via oh, mishka)