happy friday!

Photo by Shanti Knight

Austin, Texas, March 2011 (SXSW)

These are the gorgeous blonde locks of Casey of Bits of Yum

What a big day!! I'm on my way back to America, and just in time. Southern Japan had delightfully light, breezy, perfectly warm and perfectly cool weather for the past month, until yesterday, when without warning it switched to outrageously sticky hot and humid weather. In Japan they call it mushi mushi! (Which is different from moshi moshi. That's what they say when they answer the phone.) Today I'll be making a trippy time zone jump when I cross the International Dateline. I will arrive six hours before I left! How wild. Here's some fun from around the Web for a Friday afternoon.

a fantastic fun art blog via my university

ideas for beach reads (I adore this writer's description of trying to read David Foster Wallace's The Pale King as "jogging backward in sand while drunk")

girl power via the great Susan Hyatt

Since I'll have access to a kitchen again, I'm wanting to make these yummy-looking popsicles.

thoughts on valuing children, by my friend JoAnn

I'd love to get this face cream for my papa

I really love Pink and Carey Hart's first family photo with their newborn daughter

welcome, summer. by my pal Chelsea Sanders

happy friday!

ready for adventure! via The Steward


It's my final weekend in Japan. Wait, what? I've been working-working-working and spent today in Kyoto, but still managed to find some exciting tidbits from around the webs...


gorgeous custom leather luggage tags
I got this fun mug for my papa for his birthday last month! (Canon, of course.)

inpsiring travel quotes (sets 1 and 2)
my friend Chelsea Sanders is selling her sweet little house in Bloomington, Indiana. If you're looking to move, you should most definitely check it out.

a fascinating breakdown of the recent events in the Middle East

101 revolutionary ways to be healthy
a report on food in Turkey and global meat consumption makes  a case for quality and conscious eating (I unfortunately picked up the habit again this winter after being 4 years clean... now I'm working on weaning myself back off!)
great news for Representative Gabrielle Giffords!
please please please do what you can from wherever you are to help in the search for Lauren Spierer (visit findlauren.com) (And congratulations to the Indiana Daily Student on the great feedback they're getting for their on-the-ground reporting)

Also, today is a very special day for birthdays! Leah, Katie and Karina, you June beauties add warmth to my life! xoxo