woodley park-zoo

Brinca Dada Dylan doll house

2011-09-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist this from Gilt Groupe... when it gets here I'm going to be in a 3/4 - 1:16 scale making frenzy.

Karl Lagerfeld / Impulse / Macy's

2011-09-08T07:04:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot, this too...

Yes, I am happy it's almost Fall.

Done with rainy and humid summer! Although will be sad the sailing season will end too soon...

Zara online today

2011-09-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

mine.

mine.

being reasonable. not mine.

I want to make one of these.

(no subject)

2011-08-08T12:19:00.001-07:00

C to WPZ
1:10 PM
I went to the cafeteria to buy an apple for today. It cost one million dollars!
Reply
Forward

WPZ to C
2:27 PM
Bastards taking advantage of the desperation of the health-conscious! Was it wrapped in plastic?
Reply
Forward

C to WPZ
2:36 PM
No. And it's sold as 'jumbo' fruit. Despite the apple being clearly medium sized.
Reply
Forward

WPZ to C
2:46 PM
Grannnnde apple.

Jolie laide?

2011-07-21T06:41:00.001-07:00

I wish. Uglyish, but totally in love with the rainbow enamel heel.

$860, down from $1505

L.A. Gear for Lyfe

2011-05-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

It used to be an annual back to school ritual -- my mom, me, the Swap Meet (the place we'd also seek out a meringue of a birthday party dress each spring). Throngs of people browsing the tented lanes, Spanish music blaring from tape sellers' booths in the corners, luridly coloured pistachio shells strewn on the ground. One mission (in my mind): To find a pair of L.A. Gear sneakers. I'd hug the box in the car ride home, rush to my room, and commence the lacing. Three sets, maybe one white, one flecked with silver lurex, one light pink chiffon with serged edges, would be worked in to a dense interlace obscuring all but the tip of the tongue. And so, the shoes would journey with me through the year, squeaking against black rubber padding as I careened towards the monkey bars, getting soaked sluicing rain puddles, worn with EVERYTHING. This went on until they were supplanted by slip-on Keds personalized with glittery puffy paint, or white fringed and perforated Payless cowboy boots, and eventually lyric-scrawled Converse. Now I wish I could say I only need one pair of shoes per annum (although looking not too far back there have been those that served me almost exclusively some seasons, like the thrifted-as-new Nine West red patent slingback flats that I wore through Spring-Summer rain-or-shine until they were peeling apart). It's probably both a blessing and a curse to have discovered the fun to be had in a broader range of expression, but I sometimes dream of a time when I might settle in to a singular identity (perhaps when I'm too busy making shoes to worry about which ones I'm wearing?!)

Memory triggered by the discovery of these today

If they weren't Men's sizes only, I'd be all over them! (maybe... minimalism... ahhhh...)

2011-04-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

Dries Van Noten shoe auction, size 39.5

Sometimes you wish your feet were two sizes bigger. But then again, crazy short as I am, I think that might look noticeably freaky...

Oh man, I love these too... leather details just kill me.

Prada, size 40

Nifty fifty!

2011-04-05T05:38:00.000-07:00

Really excited! This is on its way via Ebay:

Canon f1.4 50mm lens

Now I'm going to read a downloaded guide to my Canon XSI camera which I've had for two years but still haven't figured out how to custom white balance and such.

And visiting certain portfolios for inspiration, daydreaming, and visions of glorious light in the future!

Everything's gone bean-shaped

2011-03-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

Context: C has not only a button phobia (Koumpounophobia), but also a bean phobia.

*the two of us peering into a pyrex dish in which kidney beans soak for eventual chili-con-carne-fying, now in a partially wrinkled state*

kidney beans are considered safe according to C

C: So, do the skins come off when you soak them?
Me: I don't know... maybe... or maybe they'll just hydrate better later.
*pause*
Does that distress you?
C: No, it's ok, because they're kidney shaped.
Me: But aren't all beans kidney shaped?
C: NO, other beans are bean-shaped.

Spring 2011 Wardrobe

2011-03-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

Spring 2011 Favourites by woodley park-zoo featuring a colorblock dress

First day of Spring tomorrow, and first day of another year in my life. Wonderful weather this weekend and totally ready to turn over the wardrobe!

Uniqlo hoarding

2011-03-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

It's probably not a good thing that sitting in my office chair in +J Super Slim jeans feels like my knee cap is dislocating due to denim-binding. But then I like to stand at my desk anyway, so this is encouraging that.

The jeans are so fantastic that I am endeavoring to order more from the Uniqlo UK site... 1-2 sizes up as that is what is available and probably better in the long term anyway. I'm not usually a multiples person but I love the oatmeally pair of Uniqlo skinny jeans I got when I was in London in 2009 so so so much that I regret not getting more pairs (especially since they were £9.99 on sale). The beige ones in the super slim cut would be a better-than-consolation prize.

debating the white pair... all pairs on sale to £19.99

I was going to get one of C's besties to accept delivery but now I realize that when I register with his address, it reads it as the billing address and there is no way around that. Sad... second game plan then is to ask C to use his UK card details and have them shipped to his mum's, where the card is billed. I won't ask them to forward them to me though, I'll just have to wait to get them next time we visit.

Mad idea: They did have a ton of this very pair I am wearing on the rack in NY, smallest and last size available... if the UK thing doesn't work out I may just phone order at least two more pairs of these for lifetime replacement. Ponder.

In a campaign to find an answer to 'What's For Dinner'

2011-03-03T11:38:00.001-08:00

According to the husband party

prease to excuse my lo-fi-hack-graphics

Missoni love

2011-03-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

65% off at Outnet!
Totally still out of reach, but maybe someday when I'm old enough for Palm Beach...
Ah, and sold out anyway, thank goodness... :P

Good place as ever to note my probably most giddy find ever... Loehmann's with my mom when she visited to go to my first bridal gown fitting, the Barneys' rack, Missoni aqua-tan-cream chevron knit leggings... marked $200 from goodness knows how much, definitely over $1k. I brought them in to the dressing room 'just to try'... LOVED THEM. Thought, oh hell, I'll get these over all other items I was considering... rang up for something like $40, plus an additional percent off.

PSYCHED I TELL YOU
PSYCHED
Have worn them once, on our honeymoon with a long drapey tailed white chiffon silk tank (dubbed the 'bridal tunic' by my maid-and-man-of-honour when I wore for wedding-prep-morning) and lucite-and-tan-suede Margiela wedges. Really want to find a perfect creamy knit dress to winterize them.

New York weekend

2011-02-28T07:43:00.000-08:00

+ First time floating in to Penn Station rather than an abrupt dropoff on 33rd via Bolt Bus... smooooth... carrying new Le Trop (LOOOOOOOOOOOVVVE) containing three magazines, minimal clothing packed in a fake-bought-in-Mexico-Le-Sportsac, and the Sigerson Morrison pony shoes bought recently to exchange for a larger size in their shop

I thought it was going to look like this

but instead it looked like this... blah

- New Yorker Hotel strict about 3PM check-in time, so we had to kill some time just sitting in the lobby

+ Immediate window seat at the John Dory Oyster Bar because we were so early (before they were even ready to reveal the evening dinner menu). Cucumber rickeys and jalapeno tinged margaritas. Uni smeared crostini over oyster pan roast (a buttery and bright soupiness to be sopped up with added Parker house rolls) was the highlight, also an octopus dish was delicious with its seared edges and tender flesh.

other people's pictures, eeps

+ Saturday breakfast at a Belgian bistro where I had the lightest-airiest waffle ever in my life with strawberries and a massload of whipped cream I probably shouldn't have finished while C had french toast.

pic from here

+ Uniqlo: Sale priced skinny +J jeans, totally solid dark navy through the stitching and hardware so very nice clean look, and then a full price but very useful +J cream short hooded parka that I will wear for a long, long time.

- tried to find in multiple H&Ms this dark denim tunic with a black leather pocket that I fell in love with in Maryland (but they only had a tiny size 2). Sadly, the shopkeepers said it was pretty old and all gone. There was ONE in the window display of one shop, but I knew from past experience they would not take it down for me (still sad I couldn't get my hands on a tribal-ikat-mix print dress that I saw also on a NY mannequin a few years ago, or at least gotten the canvas bag instead... at least I got that print in a bikini). I already bought a tank mini dress in this denim/black colourway from the DC store as a consolation, but maybe this jacket which the site seems to indicate will be available in March would be a better piece...

ooo or shorts!

+ Able to exchange my supposed-to-be-final-sale Sigerson Morrisons for a half size larger, because I called ahead to their shop and and made arrangements with a very nice manager.

- Topshop - Too pooped from carrying bags and wearing my heavy leopard fur coat in to overheated shops, so by the time I got there, I didn't really want to try things on... plus I'm really in a quality, core pieces mood so their prices just seem so crazy for trend and frivolity. Although they had a giant-aurora-borealis-sequin-on-white bodycon dress that I had eyed on the website before for only $20, which I have absolutely no need of, and yet...

+ regrouped with C who was watching some Premiership in a pub while I did my whirlwind of shopping and went for lunch at Hung Ry -- hand pulled organic noodles in delicious broth

mine: Szechuan pepperry duck, slices of squash, kumquat rind

(both images from here)
his: pork belly, some sort of root vegetable?

+ in spite of C's desire to rush back to the hotel for the requisite weekend nap, he was willing to delay it for a trek to the new NARS store where I planned on buying a Blonde Venus lipstick but was steered instead to Honolulu Honey (less sheer but still neutral) by the sales associate. I was super psyched to receive a free black tote bag which seemed to be connected to the premier of the store.

tote image from here

+ evening in an Irish pub, tons of Buffalo wings (rated about a 7 on a scale of 10, which is sufficient for a beer filled night) and fries and enjoying the very 90s playlist

+ breakfast at the Breslin - Bubble and squeak type dish for me, pumpkin pancakes for C in the midst of gentleman-farmers'-lodge decor. Good, but maybe I could have done with a bit more texture in my hash.

+ another smooth ride home via train to find DC weather nicely temperate (but our apartment REALLY COLD, too insulated or they've turned off the steam radiators too soon?) Korean bulgogi for dinner and cheering on The King's Speech in the Oscars.

hip hip hooray!

Mohair lubbins

2011-02-23T18:45:00.001-08:00

At various points during my teenage years, I would raid my mother's closet for things I could appropriate for my own use. A floor length red and black floral suspenderesque dress seemed worthy to wear over baby tees to the dances at my nerd camp, ruffley cravat blouses served for romantic, goth-y pirate looks, and a short sleeved baby blue mohair sweater worked well on pin-up-ish days, worn with the ever-present double row rhinestone festooned black velvet collar.

Mohair conjures up images of Liv Tyler in Empire Records

Kurt Cobain

(aside: There was an RA at camp that sang this just like this in the talent show, a hottie in geeky black rimmed glasses way way way before they were universally trending, I'll tell you, got alllllllll the girls swooning. probably a big reason this is my favourite Nirvana next to Lithium)

or my most formative heroine in her Debut

Recently, this editorial put furry sweaters back in the forefront of my mind

and I started rationalizing whether I wanted to/should go ahead and buy the fluffy giant pine green Dries Van Noten mohair cardigan that was at the time on Yoox. I was also obsessed with pine green that week, so it seemed to kill two birds with one stone, but it was a size M, and knowing from some of my ebay-Dries or ebay-designer-goods-in-general experiences, it's not such a good idea for a petite person to try to 'make giant sizes work' sight unseen.

Imagine like this but with a zipper down a V neck front, and piney turquoise richness

from jak & jil

On my second trip to a J. Crew store ever, earlier this year (I've only recently started that retail-gateway-drug) I happened upon this fluffy monstrosity, also a size M.

I tried so hard to love it in the dressing room, as it really gave me that Bjorky feeling, but it was so thick, heavy, practically felted, and at the same time badly fitting around the neckline that I couldn't convince myself to give it a home.

I then discovered, through the J. Crew grapevine that consists of obsessively poring over J. Crew fans' blog posts, the existence of this cardigan...
the Mohair Souffle in heather camel

I missed the chance to buy one secondhand, again I think it was an M but I probably would have bit if it wasn't already sold. I figured I would just keep an eye out, maybe it would pop up eventually. Old Navy also had a 'mohair blend' option which had the same fiber contents listed as the Mohair Souffle, but the colours were more on the brights side (which I considered, but never settled on).

Tonight, as C was at his football(soccer) game, I perused my 'Shop It To Me' account, with an eye out for camel coats and leather jackets. Luckily, I had also kept the sweaters category checked, because what popped up but this

mohair
camel
Dries
cardigan sans buttons (C has a phobia)
half price
XS
!

Suffice it to say, I have now placed my first Yoox order ever. Beware of gateway drugs and enablers like Shopittome. And I'll soon be having a love affair with my sweater, going on wistful romantic walks like this...

Superlative, lifetime things

2011-02-22T10:59:00.000-08:00

wishlist:
Belstaff bomber jacket
Mociun mismatched triangle studs
Comme des Garcons gold wallet
Uniform Wares watch

quintessential items:
Dries orbis print shirt
Paul Smith stripe rollerball pen
thrifted Guatemalan belt
Hanae Mori perfume
Frye Harness 12R boots in tan
Clare Vivier Le Tropézienne
Mociun and Piaget wedding rings

Some of these are already in my possession but others are wishlist items, to be acquired once in a lifetime and never replaced. Most important of all of these are my Mociun engagement ring and Piaget wedding band.

(how exciting a thought that I might be happy only buying 4 more things in my lifetime ever? As... if...)

monkey week on 20x200

2011-02-16T11:50:00.000-08:00

bay beeeeez

rent a monkey for a week?

Clare Vivier dilemma

2011-02-16T05:36:00.001-08:00

So I've dropped the idea of the PS1... instead, I really REALLY want a Clare Vivier bag. Love that she's based in LA (local to my heart and hometown) and drooling over the luscious pure celebration of leathuh. Have been hemming and hawing over which to get:

Le Tropézienne

or

Messenger in Navy

Man, when I see that tan Italian hide I can't really think of anything else. But then I ponder the crossbody abilities of the messenger... I think both will be in my life eventually but...

I think I should go for Le Trop today (which is the opposite of what I determined in my last email with a friend on which way to go!) It just feels so ready for Spring, Summer, etc. I know I'll be happy with it and it will be nice to just be DONE with this debate, sheesh, AND seriously, I'm well and done with the whole crinkled canvas thing, ick, it's totally bringing my look down. Clare on her blog is talking about how she's shopping her line to Vogue, so I feel like I have to go go go before the prices hike up again (it kills me that you can find old links to shops when the bags were even cheaper!)

Edit: Eet eez done! Troppy goodness on the way!

One point five month adjustments

2011-02-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

I have my five year journal under my wrist right now, as I'm a little under a week behind. Bah... will have to scrawl short notes of what I can recall, but basically haven't done enough in the sewing realm at all, nor have I ordered any copperplate nibs yet. But I did receive my roll of alphanumeric paper yesterday which will make it much easier for me to trace and re-trace pattern parts over the IKEA wrapping paper I've been using. Long weekend up ahead again, so let's see what I can muster.

I've gone J-crewzee, as in, totally upgraded many parts of my wardrobe with (very on sale) J Crew items. Of course, then I also 'crossed over' this weekend and bought a full price item, but I'm pondering whether the guilt will do me in and I'll return it. I have to figure out if it truly is an item I can wear enough to justify the price. But at least I have been putting myself together better... for a moment, I was reading too many 'you're 30 now therefore wise up and dress mature/appropriate/boring/safe' blogs and almost got brainwashed in to paring down my wardrobe TOO much but eff that. I'm not baring my nonexistent boobs or anything so let's not get crazy here.

In a side note, I bask in the image of the Sigerson Morrison printed calf shooties that are coming in the mail... safe my arse, and SUPER ON SALE (70% off!), I can rationalize a piece like that!)

I ordered a New York Ballet workout DVD set from Amazon, so I think instead of the Kinect (maybe someday, especially for the benefit of streaming Netflix, but just not yet) I'll do these routines to get lean, mean, and super-stream(lined). I remember when my gymnastics coach who was also a modern dancer would put us through hundreds of repetitions of ballet type moves, it would Hurt So Good, so I can't wait to try this out. I have some super skinny red Acne jeans to fit in again as well (they fit for like, a month, before the wedding...)

New PJ Harvey album comes out today, that will come with the ballet DVDs too, as well as a Professional Sewing Techniques book. Good stuff!

I almost forgot a major change for me... I cut my hair short, inspired by images of Arizona Muse, only I have bangs so it's a little different, but loving the change and loving the asymmetric feeling when the hair is tucked behind one ear. Love that I got the cut for free in one of those training sessions but then the British instructor did much of the cut himself.

C's 30th in a little over a week, NYC trip via train for once (usually we Bolt Bus it.) I got him a monogrammed leather valet for bedside wallet-phone-keys depositage, and then some bespoke Stubbs & Wooton linen slippers with the 'Darwin' (MONKEYS) embroideries which sadly won't arrive in time for the actual occasion (I originally thought I'd get him a J Crew sweater, but dude, how unmemorable is 'I got a sweater' for your 30th? I still reallllly want to get him that sweater though...) I internally squeal with glee over the image of him pottering around the apartment in the morning as he makes his porridge and espresso. Only need to make him a smoking jacket to accompany.

sweater of the phyooture

Missing Supplies

2011-01-14T10:01:00.000-08:00

I feel like there are a few essential items missing from my toolkit:

gold spray paint
loads and loads of jet black sequins, various sizes
hoards and hoards of multicoloured seed beads

If I had these, I think much could be improved.

outdoorsy

2011-01-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

I've been caught out unexpectedly on a hike up to Twin Peaks in vintage 70s disco diva plastic and cognac suede butterfly stiletto sandals before (must haves from the Wasteland, for a then-significantish-hunk-of-change from my student-days budget) but just think, I could have been wearing these instead and much more appropriately shod...

grey ant x teva stilettos

They'd come in handy as well when I finally have a yard to garden in...

Half way through January... projects

2011-01-14T06:01:00.000-08:00

I ordered from Amazon some Copperplate calligraphy books, but have yet to get pen nibs to start working. I should do that today. The other thing I got from that order was a five year diary. I love it, mostly because I've written in it consistenly since the 1st and it helps me look back at the day and gives me a little nagging feeling if there was a little too much time-wastage. Also, I really hope that over the course of the next five years, what I'm doing now will develop to deeper and new levels.

I've been drafting my bodice block, and my dressmaking dummy is out, modelling garments as I alter them.

Sometime maybe last year, I bought this midi-length dress on Ebay in the midst of a paisley craving (you know, intense perusing of page after page of variations on a search). Lightweight wool printed in a rich brown border-print, very Russian, 70s, regal-peasant feeling, black buttons up the shoulderline to a mandarin collar and long lantern sleeves cinched at the wrist with same black buttons. French maker, really lovely, but just a little TOO MUCH for me to pull it out and wear to work. I thought I'd be just taking it up in the skirt (from the waistline, so that the border would remain intact at the hem) but then, unfortunately AFTER I already started seam ripping the waist I remembered my thought of turning it into a peplum blouse and making a skirt of the remainder -- two pieces out of one! I pinned it to see how it would look as a blouse and thought it was great, so I set to resewing all that I had just ripped apart. After I bit the bullet and cut the skirt, I tried it on and it's SUPERFANTASTIC as a top... will totally wear it in real life. So weekend project will be finishing that up. And working on my Perfect White Shirt. So glad it's a long weekend!

2011

2011-01-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

This year I am going to:

- learn copperplate calligraphy

- read a lot of library books, taking notes to retain some of the fruits of knowledge

- finish this quilt I started over Christmas, which will help purge a large cache of hoarded, beloved print textiles

- perfect pieces of the wardrobe via tailoring, either DIY or taking out to professionals

- buy an XBOX/KINECT and dance for fitness - sounds cheesy but it's damn FUN exercise

- take care of my skin - Clarisonic, sleep gently and sufficiently, froots veg and water

- maybe try to look more put together for work, to feel really best-face-and-foot-forward-to-the-world

- keep in touch with friends more - letters to Miles, blog project with Sarah, and reach out to more people

- hopefully, MOVE BACK TO CALIFORNIA !!!

Happy New Years to everyone, anyone out there! <3

this day will get better

2010-11-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

Architect series, cocoa silver

7:29AM through 3:30 PM today - needing to make sure I put down the letter opener when answering phone calls or I will be liable to get stabby and hurt someone on purpose or myself by accident.

3:30 PM - heading to Macy's with gift cards to get a Kitchenaid mixer.

4:00 PM - seeing if I can find a carbon steel frying pan at Cost Plus, because our last teflon-y one died and I want to do some sweet, sweet seasoning of cold blue steel.

4:30 PM - must pick up Nutella, orange juice, English Breakfast tea, washing powder, quarters for laundry. And non-nonfat milk (ugh, must not let C get that stuff again, it's awful.)

5:00 PM - make homemade oreos with new mixer.

6:00PM through bedtime - pig out on Oreos and milk in peace.

Totally obsessed

2010-11-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

Proenza Schouler PS1, price you don't want to know

I've never had an 'adult' bag before, and now that I really think it's time for one (today, I hoisted my binders, book, lunch to work in a raggedy Holland America cruise-ship-hand-out-on-dock canvas tote with papers peeping out of the top) nothing else is appealing 100% but this. Although I ponder if I really want to commit to yellow for life, but then in many ways, that is EXACTLY what I want to commit to - YELLOW for LIFE! Yellow for sunshine and brightness and joy and hooray!

Because my adult bag is going to be for life... I mean, hello, how else to offset the expenditure but to use it many many many many MANY times.

So that's now one of my Mint.com savings goals, linked directly to a separate solo ING savings account... hopefully by my birthday next year. It's kind of nice to log in there and see the little yellow PS1 blob reminding me to save save save and don't buy crap.

WPZ Household Glossary of Terms: Food and Drink edition

2010-11-19T11:01:00.001-08:00

Sandy-time: a unit of time that runs on a different scale from most people's sense of time. Used to clarify the ETA of dinner: "It's supposed to take 20 minutes" in Sandy-time means it will be ready in an hour (at least). A recipe that takes an hour by the book can take anywhere between 2-3 hours in Sandy-time.

panic: 1. (pa-NEEK?) when the existence of a plan for dinner is not universally known among all members of the household. 2. (pa-NEEK!) when neither member of the household has plans for dinner. Note: Panic ceases when one party announces the presence of defrosting proteins or a grocery shopping trip on the afternoon roster.

Brenner: from Scrubs, breakfast plus dinner. The fall-back plan when no proteins have been defrosted and one is too lazy to go pick something up after work. Usually some form of gegs.

proteins: Meat. Or barring that, gegs. Never tofu.

gegs: The solution to the crossword query of 'Eggs, scrambled.'

weengs: Sandy's favourite protein, especially baked and doused in the manner of Buffalo, in a mixture of butter and Frank's Hot.

forage: eating miscellaneous things, usually for a weekend lunch. Usage: "I will forage."

foragings: miscellaneous foods eaten when foraging. Usage: "How were your foragings?"

baneenerneeners: a monkey's favourite food.

maize-based-snacks: an sometimes inaccurate but still generally useful handle applied by one half of the household to describe the category of foodstuff favoured by the other half of the household.

muesli: 1. According to C, a delicious breakfast food. 2. According to S, ick.

SS: 1. Social Safeway, the one newly renovated in Georgetown. 2. The Friday evening ritual of going to aforementioned supermarket.

Coffee Fairy: benevolent being that one hears padding in to the kitchen just before or just after the first morning alarm to flick the espresso machine's rocker switch, starting the water boiler.

boozeh: tipsy, drunk.

frizzante, or fizz-fizz: sparkling water.

Oh yeah, I got married

2010-11-17T09:21:00.001-08:00

That was just over a month ago.

I was going to post on the day I broke out our new Dijon Le Creuset dutch oven that we really really didn't think anyone would actually purchase off our registry-that-we-told-very-few-people-about, but then I couldn't find the camera thingie to share the glee of, erm, whatever it was I cooked that day. Oh yeah, labbity rabbity stew, with a D'artagnan rabbit that I was so psyched to find mismarked super super cheap at our Safeway.

And people keep asking, how is married life? Well, not really that much different, yet... so we hear, the side effects come slowly.

Our photographer submitted our wedding to Style Me Pretty, so if you head here you can find some of the pictures, the video, and my long winded contribution to the post...

I'm going to try to post at alice universe some more in the future. Among other things, I must try some sort of behavioral modification to counteract my procrastination tendencies. I've been reading more, actual books and keeping my laptop mostly closed at home, so that's good.

This year has flown by, what with the wedding planning, and it's as I was looking forward to it: after the wedding, it's like, real commitment to getting on with the project of my life. Savings and investment, home-buying-plottage, and continue 'making new things and thinking about them.'

la la la wedding

2010-08-09T07:33:00.001-07:00

inspirationboard, originally uploaded by woodley park-zoo.

C proposed on our three year anniversary, which was in April... and we set the date for October 15th in San Francisco, so we're somewhere in the middle of our engagement right now. The planning has been going quite smoothly except for a few moments of irrational apoplexy over miscommunications with my parents. Now, just a ton of DIY to execute and complete, and meetings/first sightings of our venues when we go to California at the end of this month.

email with C

2010-04-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

Me to C:
You don't have one of these yet.
C to Me:
Even the model doesn't look impressed.

black dog, black taco

2010-02-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Last night joked with C that my car was a convenient extension of our apartment, serving as a 'shed' in which I could store junk, especially considering that it's been parked right in front of the building since the first day of Snowmaggedon and now is immobile because it needs a jump. Damn damn tiny Prius starter battery. And yes, I need to get the damn brake pedal fixed too, and the driver side window buttons are hit or miss as well. Today, walk home from work to find rear passenger window of my car smashed, w-t-h. Can barely call this a plus side, but they didn't take anything. The reason they thought to break in were the oh-so-appealing IKEA and trash bags of clothes destined for Goodwill. Shitty shit shit and now the repair will probably be less than my deductible. I think this is one of those times you can say 'FML'.

And I owe federal taxes too. "Making Work Pay" my arse.

So lesson learned in DC -- don't leave anything in your car, even if you think it's pretty obvious it's JUNK.

(Strange right, that the perp didn't want some skinny cropped Rock & Republic jeans... maybe I need to keep those anyway if I'm on my fatter-pants end of the spectrum)

Positive things: C's birthday was yesterday and his first day back from a conference so I took the day off. Over the last two weeks I've been preparing duck confit and last night we had duck confit raviolis with a cherry marsala sauce and then a mini Red Velvet birthday cake. Also at breakfast, I finally managed to make poached eggs in the swirl method via Smitten Kitchen's tips -- out with the plastic wrap, egg poaching ladle, and ramekin experiments.

C's supposed to bring me some of these recently-heard-of 'late night taco*' flavoured Doritos as a cheer-me-up treat. Emotional eating my arse, yes, and I can wear those R&Rs while I'm at it.

*Late Night Tacos at Midnight Doritos. I mean, helloooooooooo. I may have missed out on the Black Taco but by golly...

duck in duck fat

this blog died...

2009-05-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

and I'm a bit sorry for that. Now it's going to be one of those lame, oh look, this is what I've been doing once in a blue moon, or not that at all.

I've been reading, writing, thinking about music and poetry and art and life and people and the universe. It's good stuff, maybe some bad stuff too, but it's been really good to try to be more present in my life, and less meta-internetty 'oh, someday maybe I could do something with inspiration...'

colour me to life again

2009-04-17T07:10:00.001-07:00

Coloured Reliefs Karnak Temple Luxor 2, originally uploaded by chewbud.

Whoa.

I'm pretty hungover, so not good for much commentary, but did you ever imagine Karnak being coloured like this?

My Morning, or maybe it's Claudia Kishi when she grows up?

2009-04-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

Woke up with a tummyache from too much homemade chipotle beef chili for dinner, which had been spicy in the mouth, deceptively peaceful in the interim, but a fire in the belly by morning. Listening to Erlend Øye's DJ-Kicks while getting ready had me shower-crooning "It's a fine day, people open windows, they leave their houses, just for a short while...", as well as experimenting with some C-scales in various vowel sounds as I'd been instructed the night previous by an online How To Sing tutorial. The French electronic "Rubicon" track number five had me imagining an 80s club lit by neon tubes staccato pulsing up the hallway as a crew of three in bright ripstop military jumpsuits struts their way to center front, the crowd clearing a circle to cheer on their superior moves, with a break in by a B-girl spinning windmills on the floor. As I headed towards the wardrobe, I spotted the lightning bolt Eley Kishimoto dress I wore yesterday and knew that 'something a bit 80s dance party' was on the menu for the day. Reaching in, my hand made contact with the buttery soft pima cotton of my lightweight knit black boat neck tunic, which didn't fulfill my initial conception of 80s style, but I realized just what was needed. In combination with the exceptional comfort factor that the tunic would afford me, the party could be had in my pants: shiny dark turquoise capri leggings picked up buy-it-now on Ebay. Additional component came in the answer to my modesty needs, as while I never wear a bra (HATE, DIE, KILL, BURN) I almost always wear at least some sort of underlayer, today's being a slinky silver lurex flecked turquoise tank thrifted a month back, which peeks out from the boatneck in a pleasing nod to 80s off-the-shoulderness. Initially the outfit was to be completed by a thrifted pair of white and turquoise spectator pumps (and a silk scarf with white, turquoise, red, browns around the neck to echo the use of white below) but when I headed down the hill I heard that unmistakeable scrape of exposed metal on sidewalk from a worn down heel tip and had to head right back to the house to sub out for my zippered pointy Zara pumps.

Hoofing it up the stairs of the parking garage and jayrunning across the street left me breathless as I intersected with a correspondent who held the lobby door open for me. We barely missed the aperture of a closing elevator which revealed a few other office plebes, so we rode the opposite car alone, straight to the top floor. I smothered the headphone bud dangling from my right ear to prevent the chant of 'TOO DRUNK TO FUCK' from reaching the ears of my colleague. After a bit of pregnant silence and poorly aimed gentle smiles, I asked if he had his door pass while I rummaged through my tote for mine. He slyly asked "I might... what's it worth to you?" but my hand emerged triumphant, thick white card in hand.

New camera for my boifday!

2009-03-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

Picture-rama-riffic future!

Haven't been on the net so much as there has been so much going on in real life -- nights out with friends, my tamale-day party last Saturday, lots of new music and a copy of Rilke's Duino Elegies to pore over.

C's present to me arrived tonight, a Canon XSI digital SLR camera... I am planning on going outside SO MUCH this year to take in this grand city and train myself to SEE in new ways. And then maybe I'll also have pictures that aren't all of this so-yellow-home-light.

me-monkey

2009-03-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

Don't mean to attention whore but I lubs dis!
C sent me this via email

I put a spell on you

2009-03-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

original by Screamin Jay Hawkins

the inimitable Nina Simone

drunkenly Nick Cave

sweet Zooey Deschanel in She & Him

guilty pleasure Marilyn Manson

(left-cleek ze leenks for download of mp3s)

From Wikipedia:
Hawkins had originally intended to record "I Put a Spell on You" as a refined love song, a blues ballad. He reported, however, that the producer "brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, and we came out with this weird version. I don't even remember making the record. Before, I was just a normal blues singer. I was just Jay Hawkins. It all sort of just fell in place. I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death."

I want ribs, chicken an' booze at any recording session I'm going to participate in...

narwhal narwhal!

2009-03-12T05:44:00.001-07:00

Will the trapped narwhals make it?

Even more sea creatures... yeah, technically it's a mammal, not a feesh. But LOOKIE THEY HAVE TUSKS!

co-op-er-a-tion

2009-03-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

C made the omelet
gegs - bacon - mushrooms - onions - garlic - parmesan - parsley
I made the chard
swiss chard - pine nuts - dried cranberries - garlic

An excellent pairing. Also suggested: chocolate cake & ginger tea. NOM!

clown fish & anemone bonds

2009-03-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

More fish cuteness for P (and me!) FEESH FEESH FEESH

PUFFY LOVE

2009-03-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hallooooo little feeshy
Hallooooo little feeshy that someday I may have one like you
poof poof
poof poof
Hallooooo!

couscous is a good thing.

2009-03-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

image from here
The first time I had couscous was only in early 2007, when my friend invited me to accompany him to a special event at Bloom, a cafe near his house. At the time, they were only a brunch and lunch cafe, but for a few weeks they were letting people know to come that one night for dinner. We had some drinks before we set off (as I generally had a habit of getting to his house on any random day and declaring it happy hour as soon as we ticked past four o'clock) and set off for a mysterious meal in which we were to eat what they gave us. Turned out to be an amazing stew of root vegetables over couscous (they had a vegetarian or omnivorous option, and if you know me, you know which one I picked.) I didn't even realize it might be 'Moroccan', all I knew was that it was 'heaven.'

It was one of those revelatory food experiences, cited as being among my favourite meals out ever (and the company of course helped -- my good buddy who aided and abetted in my staking a claim on C.) I'd wistfully remember the flavours and think I'd never have anything like it again, since I had no real idea what it was in the first place.

Part of my preparations for the cross country move with C was to cull my Gourmet magazines, which I'd read only abstractly as I didn't really have a place to cook at the time. I tore out recipes and put them into a binder, anticipating meals over three, four months in advance. Along the way, now that I was actually hunkering down and visualizing the future cooking, I realized that I would be able to re-create the couscous experience.

ickle chicken!

Now I've used this recipe a few times -- mostly as a guideline. As I tend to forget to buy particular vegetables, I just wing it on the day of creation. I made it again last night, and amazingly, I was able to stop myself from devouring it at the halfway point, so I look forward to some for my economical lunch-from-home. It's great fun to see C gleefully dismember and consume 'his own, WHOLE ickle roast chicken'.

yes

For once, I actually bought the right squash. Proper butternut squash (looks like a creamy coloured, smooth skinned 'gourd') cooks down a LOT different from kabocha squash (nubbly dark green stripey pumpkin). I'd previously written off my ability to prepare butternut squash when I ended up with a nasty 'Thai' squashy, mushy, bland yellow paste of a 'stew' embedded with chicken strips and strands of rice vermicelli. Now I'm going to add butternutty recipes back into the to-cook list because it is DELICIOUS STUFF.

no

knight of

2009-03-09T07:45:00.001-07:00

knight of, originally uploaded by woodley park-zoo.

a gift for a friend

ikea glass jar
steel wool
silver marbles
rainbow sprinkles/jimmies/hundreds & thousands
glass beads
risk game pieces
sewing pins, t-pins, map pins
black safety pins
clothespins
cookie fortune: "All men should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why."
ball chain
silver heart

Where is Timbuktu??

2009-03-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

zoroastrian wedding shawl
Riding my lately-found momentum and motivation to take advantage of DC, I made sure to catch the end of the Timbuktu to Tibet exhibit at the Textile Museum, which showcased rugs from the Hajji Babas collections (from what I gather, a society of rich old men who know how to appreciate antique textiles... thank you sirs!) It was ammmaaaaaayyyyyyzzzzziiiiing. Here is the museum of my dreams.

There were rugs from the 16th century to now, from Persia, from Africa, all over Asia, Ottoman silks and Zoroastrian wedding shawls (like pictured above, but on a rich foresty green background -- one of my favourite pieces as I imagined the ducks and peacocks dancing around the center mandala). It was one of those days I ambitiously set out with my notebook to have an inspiring day and for once I actually took notes and have much to ponder.

(cleek for info)
Another favourite of mine -- if anything is ever described as 'distinguished for the playfulness of its design' I'm pretty much sold. I'm sweeping my floors for its delivery now.

(cleek)
I either missed this or it wasn't as bright in person, but love how it's making my eyes vibrate right now...

(cleek)
This makes me want to sit for hours and hours with some canvas (or better, linen) and threads a plenty. Think if all those hours I logged on my unfinished baby brother's birth announcement or ugly butterfly and dragonfly cross stitches I did just because I wanted to a project to stitch.

(cleek)
This was the piece I was really looking forward to seeing, saved for nearly the last in my visit. Unfortunately, I'm a bit ambivalent about it because I've uncovered some sketchy things about Tibetan Buddhism lately and this imagery (the face style) screams Tibet to me, but hey, everyone loves tigers, right?? If the caucasian rug is already claimed, I wouldn't say no...

Also, a teeny note of belated celebration: the blog is one year old as of yesterday. Last year I started the blog to document myself settling into my Woodley Park home, attempting to do the Apartment Therapy cure but quitting early (as I had just barely MOVED IN anyway). The house is never 'done' but it's certainly lovely and lively and now I'm trekking out to expand the boundaries of my life in DC. Good people online and off -- I'm glad for the support you give me as I 'figure my shit out.'

Dry goods swoonage

2009-03-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

(cleek for full size, cleek for original post)

Check out this dry goods storage case being used in the living room of a new-to-me blogger, M of Pure and Simple. Ahhhhhhhh, cotton bolls, blood oranges and star anise, oh my!

I'm a strange one

2009-03-06T08:51:00.000-08:00

But this excites me:

Stainless Tamale Pot 50 quart capacity
(cleeky, some pots down)

Gigantic stainless steel Steamer Pot
16 inches tall with lid on 16 inch diameter

add water from bottom of pan to keep from boiling dry!

How cool is that?! Although thinking harder on it, I guess it's not that practical to have a 16x16 inch pot that can only be used for tamales or unknown other foods that require continual water-replenishment. Better I go for some steamer pot I can actually use for stock as well... but then I already have a huge 16 quart red enamel stock pot (that I have to stand on a step stool to stir and you can see in the marmalade video). I think what's really going to happen for this tamale day (a party I'm having in two weeks) is just macgyvering a rack out of aluminum foil and a round metal rack I thrifted that I've been using as a cookie cooling rack (it was also the steam riser when C made his Christmas pudding.)

And then there is this one, which I definitely don't need, but HELLO 200 QUARTS?!

(cleek)
$599.99
200 quart Stainless Steel 18/10 Super extra large Stock pot (sides are 18/10)
actual size is 176.5 quarts
23 1/4 inside diameter 24 1/4 outside diameter
23 1/4 inches tall

Excellent for beer or sauces!

Thick! 18/0 Stainless encapsulated bottom

I bet I could sit in that pot!

Ok one last bit of kitchen tool porn:

This paddle for stirring a stock pot is FORTY FIVE INCHES long
I am 59 inches tall...

Today can be great, and so it was

2009-03-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

I didn't read blogs for about 4-5 days and all the lately discovered ones that I had shifted into my 'definitely reads' just the week before have made my feeder explode. It's funny how I ebb back and forth in trying to cull or expand. I think it's probably better if I stick to a few favourites (you know who you are) and then I can get on with the business of real life and applying the inspiration I get!

Basically this weekend was a goodie, three concerts, art to see, great meals and talks with friends, little sleep, lots of emotions to massage and ponder and purge. C was away at a conference so I took the time to break my homebody habit. By Monday morning, getting into work on only 3 hours of sleep led to practically a nervous breakdown, but it's a real turning point for me. I've been feeling a panicked cycle of frustration and anxiety about my life, but I think I'm touching on the roots of my problems and figuring out how to grow. It's exciting (but also, need to keep myself from being manic about it.)

In order to give this post some 'content', I'll share some of the things I experienced this weekend...

K'naan, Somalian rapper by way of Toronto, played a free show Friday night at the Kennedy Center. It was pretty popular and crowded, so it was a little bit uncomfortable to be in, but I could see how much people loved his music. I need to give it more of a listen from the comfort of my home. The best part of being there was seeing a family with an adorable bright eyed little boy and sister with long pigtails wrapped in various coloured cloth bands, clinging to the side railing to rise above the crowd and watch the show rapt.

obvs I added this pic after I wrote the following or I coulda told you I bought a ROOSTER plate, uh huh...

Saturday morning I took two friends thrifting, first time in a LONG time that I've gone. Came back with a fabulous nubby cream elastic belt with leather & chrome-y interlocking tribal elements as the fastener, an insanely colourful floral maxi skirt by Jaeger with black buttons down the front (not sure if I should shorten it or not, maybe wear it long at least once first), a black silky halter dress (just Old Navy, but it's a cute simple shape), turquoise and white spectator heels which are size 9 (I'm a modern 7.5) but because they're so vintage they actually fit me... what else I can't quite recall right now, but it was a good run and a good time.

Saturday night I drove myself and one of the thrifting buddies up to Baltimore (about 45 minute drive from DC) for a show I spontaneously sought out that morning on the internet. I've never been to Baltimore except to pass through to New York City. We headed out early in anticipation of waiting crowds but it turned out to be such a small (but ardent) crowd of locals that already knew not to show up until exactly door opening time at the small used bookstore. To kill the waiting time we headed into a tiny dive bar with a free jukebox full of soulful tunes and a lively crowd of interesting characters. For the actual show, the performers were two separate groups doing what I can only say vaguely is 'experimental' music. Basically, if you've ever heard of Matmos, a musical duo and couple that collaborated with Bjork and many others... well they've moved to Baltimore and were separately in each of these groups. My friend who has been having a hard time with things lately was grinning and so psyched to be there, having discovered a new venue, a new event, a wonderful bookstore where he bought a few books and a few great albums (including my recommendation which I was relieved when he declared it a great musical palette cleanser and thus a winning choice on our ride home).

Finally, Sunday was occupied by visiting the Freer Gallery, my first time down to the Mall since I've moved here, in order to see a musical performance which crossed a saxophone quartet with traditional Chinese instruments. They played several world premieres of new compositions, which ultimately left the three members of our party all agreeing, unfortunately, that perhaps the meshing hadn't quite worked as well as their creators had hoped, but certainly reinforced our love for the Chinese instrumental sounds. We then went on to the Hirshhorn (my god, why have I waited this long to take advantage of all of DC's FREE cultural resources?) to see the Louise Bourgeois exhibit. Between the emotions triggered by complex mental baggage unloading mid-concert and then contemplating LB's digestion of childhood and parental issues, it was a fruitful but leaky day for my soul. And it didn't end there, not at all, as we continued to hang out into the wee hours with various friends coming in and out of the picture until finally a walk home in the heaviest snow of the year, to get my bare winks before the launch of the week.

And so... we go forward. The weekend my life changed, somehow.

Shigeki Fujishiro

2009-02-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

Frames, by Shigeki Fujishiro
exhibition at Tortoise, store on Abbot Kinney, Santa Monica, CA

I wish I'd seen these in person!

feathered friend

2009-02-25T12:07:00.001-08:00

I'm not going to buy this dress unless it happens to be around in months and months and is deeply discounted, and besides it almost seems like the kind of print that could look cheap in person, but at least in these images I like how it almost looks like the feathers are actually ruffley.

Almost wish it was ruched in the front, because I like how the print looks on the back with more black, white and grey compressed into the bodice.

hermeez tigerz and monkeyz

2009-02-25T08:28:00.001-08:00

Good thing this is WAY WAY out of my reach or I'd be all the frick over it.

Hermes tie - BUY-IT-NOW for $1000!

Third Drawer Down

2009-02-23T11:09:00.000-08:00

If $95 wasn't a thing to me...

And this also expresses another side of my haphazard mood today...

HELP ME, I'm hemmoraging money but this is by an artist I would love to own something by...

Diamond Hills Pillowcases by Jeana Sohn

Ah, just figured out it's in Australian dollars, plus they remove the GST so it comes out a bit lower... debating on the latter two items, eeps!

Skinny legs

2009-02-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

I love these lamps, but sadly C doesn't really 'get' the beauty of spindley, preferably cast iron, skinny legs.

two midcentury tripod lamps on Ebay

Other skinny legs I love...

Bertoia bench

Saarinen womb chair

Paul McCobb iron side chairs

Anonymous iron legged bar stools that I so wish I'd gotten off Ebay way back when

Paul McCobb globe I might just killllllllll for.... sigh.

Marmaladalamathon

2009-02-22T15:09:00.001-08:00

I told C that I was bringing him a surprise.

I drove precariously on my gimpy spare across town to Keany Produce, wholesale fruit seller, a stop on my way to Costco to finally replace the tire that popped back in January. I had to go to there first because they closed at 1PM, but as I hoisted my full case of Seville oranges across the parking lot in my platform heels, all the stress of making it there was worth it.

C removes the peels.

The de-juiced pulp goes into a muslin bag.

Some of the peels are sliced to become the 'stringy bits'.

Water added to bring juice up to the necessary volume.

Pulp + loose peels + juice + (not pictured, as not yet included) bag of the rest of the peels

After a while boiling, bags are mashed to extract as much pectin as possible to be added back into the pot.

Now we're waiting for it to set... then to be put in jars and shared with friends!

don't shoot this monkey

2009-02-20T12:44:00.000-08:00

I am trying to decide if I 'need' this monkey or not... I mean... of course I don't. BUT HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO he's a PIN and he could go ev-eh-ree-where with me!

monkey wants a hug!

olio olio

2009-02-20T08:44:00.001-08:00

I'm wearing my Dries shirt today, omgomgomg so in love with it. Pics tonight...

I don't really like Tom's shoes (I mean, the idea, sure, but the shape? eeps!) but these are adorable. If you're a size 10.5, I hope you will enjoy!

Also loving these 'plywerks' from the same Olio shop... re-images of original paintings mounted onto plywood panels.

Rainbow Quilt Mountain by Betsy Walton

Tears of Joy by Joanna Bean

Cloudburst by Yellena James

I think I may have to stick to the postcard set which includes the Joanna Bean image, only $5!

18 Feb 09

2009-02-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

Journeying into the vanity zone as I document my outfits to post to flickr's wardrobe_remix.

I might have to copy this one...

2009-02-18T12:35:00.000-08:00

I loves me a vest, a peplum, and some leather suspender strappage...

Opening Ceremony Voluminous Vest

GEGS (and other food tidbits)

2009-02-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

My new favourite food blog, omgomgomg... smitten kitchen (found via P's tweet). C: "yeah, why don't *I* have hot fudge sauce??" (sundaes tonight: vanilla ice cream, itsy bitsy cookies and HAWT FUDGE SAUSS)

--

We couldn't find our IKEA egg cups Monday morning for some good ol' soft boiled and toast soldiers (I think we may have accidentally thrown them out the last time we used them, there is no other logical explanation for them disappearing from our kitchen) so then I went on the hunt for what C considers the ideal egg cup (a double stemmed contraption so you have two eggs ready mounted to eat, preferably in the blue striped Cornishware pattern seen in previous post.)

New word for me: Pocillovy. The activity of collecting egg cups. Discovered in the course of the many-hours-long perusal of Ebay, Etsy and Google for egg cups (just... one... more... search page... 200... items... per...)

I did win an auction for some Sowe (Swedish) teak carved egg cups that I'd seen go for buko bucks a while ago. Also includes a pretty spiffy carafe as well, and a less aesthetically pleasing S&P cruet set. So we'll at least have that, but I'm pondering becoming a (mild) Pocillovist.

--

Update on the Omnivore's Hundred since I posted it: have now had steak tartare, a hot dog from a street cart (mmm half-smokes!), cognac and a fat cigar. I was almost going to buy polenta recently, definitely can do that soon.

#59 from the list: Poutine.

"a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients." -wikipedia

WHOA, Canadians are crazy. I want to go there.

--

Crossword puzzle clue: scrambled eggs. Answer is in the title of this post. C and I refer to them by said anagram, no matter how they're cooked.

For the baker that has EVERYTHING

2009-02-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

vintage T.G. Green / Cornishware sugar pots via Ebay

What the heck IS 'loaf sugar'??

Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-02-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

Time consuming but oh so worth it!

cry cry cry

2009-02-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

BLAH, I don't want to buy more shoes
I DO want to buy THESE shoes
but no! I don't want to buy ANY MORE SHOES
I do I don't I do I don't

What I really might buy soon is a PGM Pro dressmaker's dummy... way cheaper than a WOLF which in my mind would be the best (from fashion school nostalgia and all). At about half the price, totally do-able. I've been sewing and altering this weekend, so if I keep up this level of activity I will reward myself with the dummy and hopefully stay on track...

Life-like bum action?

i loves dictionary illustrations

2009-02-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

Coming soon to the walls near me, "Over 100 Framable Plates Car, Ships Instruments Orchids"

1927 Webster's New International Dictionary

this would be me

2009-02-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

Thierry Bouët via A Cup of Jo

poly lubbins - what to pack for my imaginary vacation

2009-02-12T12:11:00.001-08:00

woodley minty spring - by WP-Z on Polyvore.com
(clockwise from left) Missoni Brina mini dress - Linda Farrow By Eley Kishimoto clear green sunglasses - Chloë Sevigney for Opening Ceremony floral bustier - Banana Republic safari jacket - Alloy Watercolor mini - Miu Miu cross-over platform sandals - OPI Azure for Sure polish - Ann Demeulemeester SS '09 pants - Cluster earrings by Winifred Grace

Been playing with Polyvore today... keep having to click to another tab as people walk by. I mean, I web-browse and web-shop ALL DAY but somehow this seems even MORE indulgent and frown-worthy.

SOMETHING for the sun

2009-02-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

Ah, I love it.

In the debate of whether to ultimately move back to Northern California or Southern California, the north wins for more friends to invite to parties but the south wins for better radio (Indie 103! KROQ!) and more opportunities to don a bikini. I used to buy, or want to buy, a new bathing suit every year. Maybe I'll actually hit Virginia Beach this year.

licky licky

2009-02-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

My friend's hammie friend (one of many many)

Vivienne Westwood on Hardtalk

2009-02-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

watch it here

Stephen Sackur narration: My guest is one of the best known and original designers in the international fashion business. VW made her name by defining the look of punk rebellion in the 1970s. Ever since, her work has been provocative, political, and paradoxical. She tells us all to consume less even as her own fashion label goes from strength to strength. What really motivates Vivienne Westwood?

Stephen Sackur: Dame Vivienne Westwood, welcome to Hardtalk.
Vivienne Westwood: How do you do? It's nice to be here.
SS: It's great to have you on the program. I was very interested in something you said not so long ago. What people wear tells a lot about who they are, do you think that's true?
VW: I think it's really, really great to dress up. I think you get a life, it makes your life more exciting. I myself am very, very concerned about all kinds of environmental, especially the environment, it's incredible the threat we're under, and politics and culture and all kinds of things. And I do think that for me, to see myself as engaged in the world, even to the extent of which I wish to make it a better place, I think dressing up is really, really great. It's nice to be visual, to sort of step out and cut a figure. And there are some people who would take the opposite view, you know, "well I'm really concerned with the world, I'm going to consume less and keep this low profile and not be flashy in any way." My idea is to buy less clothes, choose incredibly well, and care what you wear. And I think there's real status in these hard times in wearing clothes that fall off your back, wearing the same clothes, if you choose well and you just love them, then you're always going to look great, you know, and people get used to you, and think "There's that guy again, he looks really, really good." You know what I mean? It's, it's good not to change and to just have all these clothes that just go in the washing machine. If I can just say, I've got a little fitting model, a little french girl who comes over, she's little, because you have to be thin, and she's the most charming wonderful person. She wants to be an actress. Everytime I see her, "you like my jacket? 10 pounds. You like my thing?" Whatever, it's always never more than 10 euros, or 10 pounds. She never looks any different. She always looks the same! I said, "Stop buying these cheap clothes! Just stop buying them!"
SS: But if she doesn't have much money? Then she does't have a choice?
VW: She's constantly got something on! I don't, I don't know why, I don't know why she keeps them all!
SS: I'd like to ask you about what you're wearing because I just think what you've said is so interesting. How do you balance out the desire to, campaign in a sense, which is what you're saying. You want to give a message with your clothing but also have a lot of fun, I mean, you don't want to preach, do you?
VW: No, I don't want to be a misanthropic recluse and think the world is terrible, I wish to go out and step into the world.
SS: And you've sort of achieved that with the look, I mean, you've got some wonderful accessories.
VW: Yeah I mean, this outfit's at least 5 years old, I think I've had this fantastic cardigan, with holes programmed into the knitwear...
SS: So those are designer holes, they're not moths, they're real designer holes.
VW: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because of the sort of status in having some sort of patina, you know, that you're... it's a sort of way of looking a bit cultivated hopefully, that you're not just, I don't know, doing the normal thing, as I've described. I must say that for me, with my company, with this avant garde fashion that i do my message is quite self serving honestly, because i'm saying "buy something really great, and then wear it a lot, but do buy less." SO it's good if, I mean, I'm not exactly saying buy something Vivienne Westwood, I mean, if the great thing happens to be an old Dior jacket from your mom, or you know, or something wonderful that you find in an Oxfam shop, I mean, that's what I'm saying. Buy something good but I don't want people buying lots of my clothes. In fact I think they look silly if they wear head to toe Vivienne Westwood, they look like a fashion victim. You have to put your stuff together yourself.
SS: Well i wanted to talk a lot about the evolution of the Vivienne Westwood sort of look but before we get there I would love to hear a bit about how you got into clothes because looking at your background, you were born in a village I think, in the Pennines, and you mum and dad weren't obviously in the fashion, or sort of glamour business. How in earth did you get from there to here?
VW: I did always like clothes, really, and I didn't want to do fashion. I could always make things. I loved clothes. But I had a boyfriend, Malcolm McLaren and he had this idea and I helped him. His idea was that you could sell rock and roll records to trendy people. You never heard rock and roll, in fact when we opened our shops later...
SS: This was in the '60s?
VW: 1970 exactly, at the end of 1970 we opened it and we attracted quite early on to our shop these Teddy Boys, it was the 2nd wave of Teddy Boys, but I just wanted to say that they used to go as a petition to the BBC to demand that they play rock and roll. They didn't play it. You never heard it on the radio and I would say that 1970 was the beginning of the age of nostalgia, my generation looking back over my own lifetime and a bit further as well and bringing it all back into the fashion story.
SS: So you were getting a mix of sort of youth culture, music and then trying to come up with a look that would go with it
VW: Yeah that's... I came in to help Malcolm. He had lots and lots of ideas but I carried them out for him.
SS: Well then if we can just move ahead a few years we get into the sort of mid '70s, '76 I suppose, and you and Malcolm McLaren find yourselves at the center of the Punk movement and we've just brought up a picture here, this is The Sex Pistols. Now Malcolm McLaren sort of created the band, managed the band, and you gave them the look, tell me...
VW: Can I say that, that Malcolm and I, between us did create punk. People don't like that idea, they like to think that we stole it from the streets but it was invented in that shop and of course it was on the back of the Sex Pistols at the time when I opened that shop with that look.
SS: Well let's talk, the look, I mean it doesn't exactly look like sort of fancy tailoring does it? What was in your head when you sort of said to the guys, Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, all of them, this is what I want you to wear.
VW: Well, in those days, I was really interested in the idea of Ann Oakley. I'm not now, because I think you have to have government of some kind but I'm very much about people power, but nevertheless, I was into Ann Oakley and I made this shirt that looked like a kind of urban guerilla, with a Marx, um, sorry, it was a kind of woven portrait of Marx that you could buy from Chinatown, and I had that on kind of back to front. Malcolm it was who decided to put the swastika on, and we put it on upside down to start with, and it just said "Only anarchists are pretty", and it was made to look like a worn out thing, something like what Che Guevara might have made, and, actually Malcolm had just come back from managing the New York Dolls in America and I'd done this shirt which I'd hid from him in the airing cupboard, because he always accused me of doing these sort of artisan things, and I thought "oh he'll tell me off for doing this shirt, and, and (SS: but there seems to be a lot of...) when he saw it, he said "This is it, we've got to translate that into form, as well as just this, graphics on this shirt (SS: But I sense..) and then we created this punk...
SS: But I sense in all of it, and we can bring up another picture. I think of one of your designs, not for the Sex Pistols but just for a sort of young woman and a similar sort of look but what I get from that is that it was sort of anti-fashion, I mean you were rebelling, I guess there was a lot of anger there, but it was sort of a bit like the Sex Pistols music, which was sort of music for people who couldn't play instruments, this was sort of fashion for people who couldn't maybe, do much tailoring, is that fair?
VW: Yeah, I mean that was sort of the sales pitch of Malcolm, the idea that The Sex Pistols, whatever, but in fact Steve Jones became an incredible good guitarist and whatever, and it's, it's, whatever... I mean Johnny, no he couldn't sing but he certainly compensated for it, in being able to act it all out, and he meant it somehow. But nevertheless it was also having a good time and being quite generous in a way, for example, putting the safety pin in the Queen's lip. It was against the Queen but it was also a bit, you know, "Anybody can be a punk" kind of idea as well. But that was created especially for the Queen's Jubilee, that was a look, red, white and blue.
SS: Yes, you used the Queen's image, yeah that's right. And then if we think about where you went after that, you seem to be desiring to shock a lot, you know, there was the bondage trousers, and a lot of sort of sexually explicit messages on t-shirts, and then you know you developed a style that was unique and caused a sensation with everything from sort of, almost a foot high platform shoes, other styles which didn't seem really very practical but which caused an enormous stir. Were you setting out to shock?
VW: Um, let's just stick with the time of the Sex Pistols first, punk, I was definitely "wake up, let's try and do something, let's confront the status quo, because it's very corrupt and awful."
SS: And shock, as well, was there that desire to shock?
VW: So, if that's what... but yeah, but the way, I'm not trying to wriggle out of shock, but I've actually never really tried to shock far as I know, I've tried to say something.
SS: But you did go, you went to Buckingham Palace and you collected your O.B.E., your award with no knickers on, I mean...
VW: I know, but then I don't wear knickers, and I was just, um, showing them my skirt, that is, I mean, you can say what you like, I mean, luckily people liked me for that. I was so pleased, you know, they could have, they could have, you know, they could have turned the other way.
SS: I wasn't for a minute wanting to suggest they shouldn't like you for of it, but I just, I'm just trying to...
VW: Especially women's lib people thought I was trying to make a statement, it was, I was actually demonstrating this beautiful skirt, I didn't realize why the photographers were on their knees but anyway... *laughing together* but looking back on it, it's quite chic actually, I don't mind at all.
SS: And then, just again, I'm trying to work out whether there is any sense in which you'd left the idea of making practical clothes behind at some point because again, this may not be right, but I read somewhere that you'd created this amazing man's suit with a matching turban but inside the turban was a stuffed bird that made it about 3 or 4 foot high, which is fascinating but you're not going to wear that down the high street are you?
VW: Um it was to do with a kilt. Let's just talk about that for a second. Menswear, it's not possible to do very much, you can't put a man in a skirt unless it's something traditional like a sarong and it's just on the veranda in, somewhere... or a kilt, you can use that. That was just an outfit for a fashion show whereby he had a swath of tartan on his head with a grouse or something on it, or a pheasant, yeah.
SS: Do you think ah men, ah, maybe I'm thinking about myself, men are just way too conservative?
VW: Sorry, and that was to make him look heroic. Now then I think the thread of my clothes is, you think they're unwear-, you mention unwearable, shock, (SS: well, it has been said about you, yeah) all these kind of things, let me just say that I always think they look absolutely great, and if you wear them, you feel great in them, and to me, they're just beautiful and I can't, you know, or... heroic is the word I use. You feel you are cutting a figure, but also in the sense of, you are cutting as, most people are conservative, "I do not wish to conform in such an age of conformity," you know and "I want to step out and get a life."
SS: Let's now look at what you're doing much more recently. Last year, this is one of your collections. And let's, if we play the video, do you still have that determination to avoid conformity and to produce heroic clothes?
VW: Um, I think that's wonderful, I've got that dress, it's just, and everyone wants it, and it was, it arrived in the show too late to be sold, and I've had to make a lot of, I mean, Kate wants one, everybody wants one of those dresses.
SS: But if I may say so, much more elegant, much more tailored, and maybe much more conventional then you were in the '70s and '80s? Is that fair?
VW: Well, I don't know, I mean I think a punk rocker would have loved to have had something like that, my god, they would, you know, the thing is, if you set any of these things to music, you could have you could have a little, you could have a movement of a look plus music.
SS: But would you say Vivienne...
VW: But I just want to say that at the time I did punk, myself and Malcolm sorry, we both did punk, at that time. Now, nearly every stone has been turned over, it would be impossible to do something that had that kind of impact again.
SS: But of course, not only that, I take that point but...
VW: You know, rubberwear for the office, I mean, and that sort of attitude, you know?
SS: But also times have changed but you've changed, and obviously you're older, you're in 60s now. Would you say you've mellowed?
VW: I would say not, I would just like to say that the link I think, with my clothes, is this heroic, I feel, that the clothes make you look important and you feel grand in them, honestly. So that's one thing, whether they're terrible curvy, and corsets, it's, and you know, you're all coming out of them, whatever it is, your clothes are there to help and that is my wish for clothes, is that they make you look like you want to challenge the world, and it's true, it's true.
SS: Yeah but well I'm interested, you talk about, you know, the curves and coming out, I mean some people would say that you've, maybe in some of your clothes, done a disservice to women, they've been too sexy...
VW: Well that's up for them to decide.
SS: Maybe they've objectified women's curves to a certain extent.
VW: Well, that's all, that's all part of this PC rubbish, I'm sorry you know, but it's great if you have curves and if you haven't, you know, I... corsets are the kindest things to women. Dior was brilliant because all he did was give you a waspie if you were plump, and if you weren't, he gave you padding, you know. I mean it's brilliant. Curvy women, they're beautiful...
SS: Yeah but...
VW: Skinny women are beautiful, I mean, the human race is beautiful.
SS: Well I'm interested, you say that too, because if you looked at the catwalk, you do, like pretty much all designers, you do in the end use beautiful, young, slim, women.
VW: Yeah.
SS: And again, you know coming back to this idea about whether your clothes are really wearable for the ordinary human being like me, or perhaps my missus, my wife, um, you know we, most of us don't match the catwalk ideal, do we?
VW: You have to wear clothes that suit you, and I have done probably a million designs, I don't know, thousands and thousands of things, and in each collection, there are so many ideas, and there is so much to choose from, everybody can find something that makes them look better. Clothes are there to help.
SS: Let's talk a little bit about the business side of this. You've said it's best to buy a few clothes and buy really good clothes. But how much, say one of the dresses we saw on the catwalk there, how much would you sell one of those for?
VW: I don't know exactly how much they cost to be honest.
SS: But 100s and 100s of pounds
VW: yeah they would be I'm sorry I'm not really... I should know and I sometimes think that clothes are incredible expensive but that's because I don't have to go in every shop, I'm not sure really how much they cost. But yes you could easily pay 200 pounds for a shirt or a sweater even 250, even 500 probably.
SS: And in a recession when people really are struggling, not just in this country but across the world, do you think it makes sense to be retailing that sort of clothing?
VW: Um, I don't know if it makes sense, it's just if, I don't know...
SS: I suppose I don't mean whether you can make money out of it, because clearly your business is doing very well, I just mean, is there anything morally, uh, sort of questionable about... You know, I saw recently that a pair of off-the-peg jeans, there's a company making them for 1000 pounds now, and some of your items, I mean, a t-shirt for 100 pounds, it just seems...
VW: But it'd have to be a very special t-shirt to be 100 pounds. You get one for 35 pound normally, you can in World's Ends Shop. It's really affordable there but yeah...
SS: And you do stress the environmental commitment...
VW: i would love them to be as cheap as possible, I would love them to be...
SS: But here's what Susie Menkes, who writes a lot on fashion, this is what she wrote not so long ago about you, "how dare she," that is you, "send out a show laced with anarchist messages, announce the spirit of the show is 'the more you consume the less you think' and then take the opportunity to launch her collection of punk safety pins in diamonds?"
VW: Well she's absolutely right, and don't buy the diamonds and just make yourself a necklace out of safety pins, that's the answer to that.
SS: I know you take your environmental message very seriously, in fact you've written a lot about the sort of emergency facing the planet and how little time we've got left to do something about global warming. I just wonder whether fashion, which in essence is an indulgence, and which is obvious very transient by its nature, because this year's fashion is completely gone by next year, whether that sits very easily with your message about caring for the planet?
VW: Well it doesn't, and therefore I say buy less, I mean this, this... I don't think I've bought anything the last collection. I'm lucky, I'm in a privileged position, and I just borrow the clothes every now and again.
SS: You've admitted that actually there is a bit of a contradiction between the fashion business in all its forms and environmentalism. I mean you've acknowledged that, I just wonder whether...
VW: Well alright, let's get back to fashion then, because what I say to you is that, yes, designer clothes, yes, you're right, but in the end they're incredibly labour intensive, I'm not making my stuff in sweatshops. People get proper wage, incredible amounts of money, I subsidize my clothes I tell you, because the amount of people you need to make these original things that are just newly designed, they're not copied. They don't go into landfill. You know, I mean, and they're actually quite sustainable. They're sustainable even, designer clothes, more than stamped out rubbish!
SS: Before we end, we're nearly out of time. I just wanted to ask you one last question, seems to me, and I've spoken to plenty of people...
VW: But nobody has to buy them.
SS: No, I take the point. I've spoken to a lot of people in the business about you and they all say, "the brilliant thing about Dame Vivienne is that she's always of the moment, you know, she's always in it for ____, she always reflects her time." I just wonder if that's still the case because I read your writing, you've even published a little manifesto which I've read, and the message from that is you don't like modern day culture. You think it's propaganda, that you think it's terrible and you think people are losing the capacity to think. Are you out of tune now, with the times you live in?
VW: I would say that, the question of modern day culture, the first thing to say is that popular culture is a contradiction in terms. Culture was never popular, it's always avant garde, always original, and people follow it and catch up slowly over generations and what we call culture now is just so part of the consumerism of the world. I don't believe there are any practising artists at the moment. I shouldn't say that, because maybe somewhere some little old lady my age is doing something somewhere but we haven't heard of her if she is you know.
SS: You sound very disillusioned with the times we live in.
VW: No, no, I'm not, because the great thing about living in London, it's different for people who live in a forest somewhere, they'll have to start looking at trees or whatever they have, or find the names of trees and animals, whatever they must do, but in London we have all these incredible museums. What I want to say, there is no progress in art, so to go and look at the Rokeby venus is a sensational experience. You don't have to go chasing the latest thing. If there were more art lovers, we'd have more judgers of art and we'd probably hopefully get better artists.
SS: Well so in a word you've become conservative in your old age. You're looking to the past, not the future.
VW: Ah yeah, but don't confuse conservatism with the idea of tradition, because tradition is about technique. If you don't have any technique you can't possibly express yourself. It's like asking me to just suddenly do a belly dance, I can't. You know, you have to have something. You can't just "oh i want to be an artist." "Ok go and be one." No, you can't, and just throw some mud at a wall and say that's, you know. But that's the way it is, you just have to have a good agent, good skills of presentation, and um, and "believe in yourself." Yeah, you know, I mean...
SS: And you still, you still do.
VW: No, but I don't consider myself an artist, I consider myself a fashion designer, and I try to use my position as a fashion designer to say some things and what I want to say is that the prediction for this planet, that within 100 years there will only be 1/5th of the world population left. Which means that 4/5ths will have died in the most horrible way, less land, the land that there is, much more hot, desert. You've got, we've got to start thinking about our children, and our grandchildren. And I've just been trying to say this through various fashion shows about propaganda, and about the fact that there's a tipping point, and nobody's saying this and this is the most important thing that i want to say.
SS: Dame Vivienne Westwood, thank you very much for saying it on Hardtalk. Thank you very much indeed.

OBSESSED I TELLS YA

2009-02-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

I will never buy another shirt in my life. Ok, no, that's a lie, but seriously -- you will see me in this in a week, a month, a year, a decade, in the sun, in the shade, in the mountains and in my grave (oh wait, but I'm wearing Eley...)

As I said to my friend, it's the most I've ever spent for clothing not made of leather, but it is SO WORTH IT.

sparkleeee

2009-02-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Shared to me by an old friend...
Did they use candles? It looks like tealights in the still shot.

Rugs of my Dreams

2009-02-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

Paul Smith Swirl by The Rug Company

Angela Adams State of Mind Collection - Bodine Rug

Vintage Beni Ourain Moroccan Carpet (detail shot from mymarrakesh)

Dreaming of Spring

2009-02-09T11:44:00.001-08:00

download Tom Waits - You Can Never Hold Back Spring

You can never hold back spring
You can be sure I will never
Stop believing

The blushing rose that will climb
Spring ahead or fall behind
Winter dreams the same dream
Every time

Baby you can never hold back spring

And even though you've lost your way
The world is dreaming
Dreaming of spring

So close your eyes
Open you heart
To one who's dreaming of you

And you can never hold back spring
Remember everything that spring
Can bring
Baby you can never hold back spring

Baby you can never hold back spring

Todd Hunter at Scott Livesey Galleries

The Probe

2009-02-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

I asked Raina to give me five questions in a sort-of-meme? Here they go...

1. If you were paid your same salary (or more), what other job/career would you like to have?
I am paid peanuts, so I HOPE I'm paid more someday to do just about anything else besides what I'm doing now. I would like to be a tailor and/or textile artist, or to own a shop selling vintage and indie designs.

2. Name your five favorite TV shows.
Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Carnivale, and here I'll admit two guilty pleasures: The Biggest Loser and The Bachelor when I catch them randomly, to gawk at humanity and the ridiculousness of reality programming. I like Mad Men of course, but I'm watching Season 1 very slowly so it's too soon to call it a favourite yet.

Lusty ladies and a gimpy but sweet carnie man

3. Who is your favorite clothing designer? Shoe designer? Interior designer? Product designer?
Clothing designer: My old answer would have been Eley Kishimoto and Alexander McQueen, EK would be my daytime casuals in beautiful prints, and AM for insanely sculpted tailored shapes. I've been away from following fashion obsessively for a while, but coming around again, I think I'm falling in love with Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester. I'll take Dries prints and embellishments and AD shapes please.

If I had a sugar daddy I'd get this Dries Fall 2008 dress.

Shoe designer: if I had all the money in the world, I might just wear YSL Tributes all the time. Back in the Tom Ford era I was obsessed with a certain strappy shiny YSL black wedge as well.

YSL Tribute sandal

Interior designer: here I plead ignorance to names... out of what I know, maybe I'll say I like Wary Meyers, but sometimes it's just a bit too much. Now I'm on a mission to really pore over interior designers (and photographers) by NAME (instead of random prettiness) to get a handle on who my favs are!
Product designer: Jens Quistgaard? I don't stalk product designers much...

Quistgaard cast iron slip taper candle holders

4. Where do you hope to be with your life in five years?
I'll be 34, so by then I hope I'll have at least my first child. I hope to be giving a lot of my attention to it/them, while also hopefully managing to put some focus on something I can master over my lifetime.

5. Milk chocolate or dark chocolate?
Creamy milky chocolatey goodness, although dark doesn't bother me like it used to, I can appreciate a bit here and there. I will admit something that true chocolate aficionados will probably sneer at, but I really love white chocolate. A Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar or two, I would not refuse.

Thank youuuuuu Raina! If anyone wants a few Qs, let me know!
And I just noticed... this is my 100th post! Whoasa, who knew...

New favourite photographer

2009-02-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

I wasn't too sad about Domino's demise because I've only been reading it for about a year. But this week, in image-poaching from their galleries before the website disappears, I realized what a nice and massive resource it was. I'm saving as many pretty pictures as I can, but more importantly I'm googling the photographer and stylist names so I can bookmark their portfolios (I guess Desire to Inspire is another good place to find interiors photogs, although I had to remove them from my RSS feeder because I got overwhelmed with their daily output of eye candy).

Roland Bello is my favourite discovery this week... he has done quite a few of my uncredited-in-my-files favourites, so it's nice to know the name and to know who to stalk.

The first row of images here is connected to this story which I found lovely -- can't wait to travel the world and collect beautiful things along the way.

hello cashmere

2009-02-06T15:19:00.001-08:00

Been talking to my friends lately how shopping seems to happen in spurts, it's like either you're holding on tight to all your money and not buying anything, or once you start spending it's just too easy to keep going. Feck.

marc by marc jacobs mustard green melange cashmere sweater from Gilt Groupe

I rationalize this additional spoilage of C by the fact that it's his birthday at the end of the month. But maybe it's more like I've run out of things that I want/need for myself so I can now make headway on the wishlist I've plotted for him all along. Also, I can totally BORROW this sweater, so surely we'll get its money's worth in our lifetime.

ATOMICS

2009-02-06T11:21:00.000-08:00

ATOMICS by the yard
ATOMICS as a kit for hanging

This bit of ~~Marimekko~~ Ljundbergs was designed by the 1927 Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry. It's a bit pricey at $145/yd (but not as expensive as the beautiful $750 Pythagoras hanging below). Actually, would love to have both for their textile / nerd qualities!

Correction: Whoops! It's not Marimekko, but a Swedish textile company, Ljundbergs. I've learned something new today.

Also, thinking on it -- the rugs of my dreams cost $7k++, making $750 not seem like such a horrrrrrriiible price.

presents for C!

2009-02-03T08:47:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feel guilty that I keep shopping and shopping for myself and the house while C gets no new toys (although the Eames chair was for his office and is occupied by his bum!). So I got him two much needed things.

The first I'll give him right away so we don't have to hold hands akwardly tucked up into his coat sleeves anymore, and so he doesn't get frostbite at a Boston conference at the end of the month.

LL Bean lambskin & cashmere & goretex gloves

The second I'm getting delivered at my work, and then I'll wrap it for his birthday present. It's for him to make coffee in his office at the lab -- he's a scientist and I love how this looks like a beaker. SCIIIIIIennnnnnce.

Chemex CM-1C coffee maker

Coffee GEEKAGE:

Can music save your mortal soul?

2009-02-03T05:46:00.000-08:00

A long, long time ago... / I can still remember / How that music used to make me smile. / And I knew if I had my chance / That I could make those people dance /
And, maybe, they'd be happy for a while.

But february made me shiver / With every paper I/d deliver. / Bad news on the doorstep; / I couldn't take one more step.

I can't remember if I cried / When I read about his widowed bride, / But something touched me deep inside / The day the music died.

vintage via ebay

2009-02-02T19:13:00.001-08:00

I managed to stop... for a few days...
but then...

Ahhhhhh, but the STITCHING!

getting away from it all

2009-02-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

all Marimekko fabrics:
ruutukaava
pelimanni
frekvenssi
matkalla maale
joiku
lepo

aran & boots

2009-02-01T06:07:00.000-08:00

My eyes are not often piqued by random man candy but imagining a guy who would wear this sweater and these boots ... do they MAKE them like this here??

Actually, between the lips, and the vague cross legged androgynous quality, he reminds me of my Greek high school boyfriend.

From Garance Dore

worthy goals

2009-01-30T11:27:00.000-08:00

something beyond a mere adolescent soul searching
disciplined thinking
an original relation to the universe

It's been a hard week, or maybe it's just mostly in my head, but I hope that a creative, relaxing weekend might help me reset my perspective.

Fall in love with my friend too...

2009-01-30T06:17:00.001-08:00

the 16 things thing..., originally uploaded by Super*Junk.

Cleeky ze pic to read theengs about her... then check out her flickr for her magical world of toys and colour.

CUUUUUTEKEETEEEE

2009-01-29T16:00:00.001-08:00

CUUUUUTEKEETEEEE, originally uploaded by woodley park-zoo.

Every once in a while, I see these blog memes and I think, awwwws, if only I was KOOL, I'd get tagged and get to play too! Well, today I got tagged by someone I think is obviously super swell (aka I've blogstalked her all week and left comments on posts from years past even...), so I'm feelin' fiiiiine...

This is the picture meme where you post the fourth picture in the fourth folder from where you store your pictures. My fourth folder = CUTE ANIMALS! and fourth picture's file name is the title of this post, which I think explains the picture pretty well (much better than the *Cq3d78n*34pq*.jpg names explain the majority of my images.)

Oh, me stoopids... me almost forgot to tag:
Raina of If The Lampshade Fits
the artist formerly known as NerF
Erin of Design Crisis
OhMyHeart

(aka the people who might have a snowballs chance of reading this tag. thanks for actually reading my blog, at least sometimes! wheeee!)

Happy 150th Annniversary for Theory of Evolution

2009-01-29T12:09:00.000-08:00

But what if I should never go in a Balloon? Oh, never mind --

This is the Question, Marry, Not Marry

Cool cover for this new edition to come.

A Darwin opera by The Knife?

(credit for all this good stuff to Boldtype)

technicolour dream scarves

2009-01-28T06:21:00.000-08:00

Feast your eyes on the fruits of my obsessive, risen-by-alarm-in-the-dead-of-night sniper session (it is a rare case when I will bid by proxy, basically only if I'm going to be on the road or in an airplane, and I'll take the item for the next dollar increment but otherwise not at all). I tell myself I will wear this EVERY DAY... well, it will at least join my regularly rotating repetoire of scarves...

Paul Smith swirl scarf-of-my-dreams, place-holder for the Paul Smith swirl rug-of-my-dreams.

neon yellow

kelly green

ultraviolet blue

a strange fleshy peach, but I tell you, in the context it works

a turquoise/teal

mustard

fucshia

neon orange

This crazy thrifted Japanese striped-in-above-sequence, acrylic-rayon, massively bobble fringed blanket of a scarf. Maybe it seems hideous by this chart, but I swear I get tons of positive comments and random smiles in the streets for it.

R.I.P. to a beautiful lofty wool flannel charcoal grey based scarf that had jewel toned triangles and diamonds on it in an abstract southwestern pattern. That's what you get when you drink way too much, get lost walking home, and wake up on the sofa to find your boots caked in mud you don't remember traipsing through, just relieved to be alive.

You zee, zee mirror neuron eez firing in zee monkee.

2009-01-27T13:52:00.000-08:00

Ebay roundup

2009-01-26T09:45:00.000-08:00

As always, things I'm admiring/watching/loving but shouldn't buy. Although you may find my name as the winning buy-it-now bidder after I publish this post because I don't want it to get away!
(all pictures link to auction)

Doughnut Day 2009

2009-01-25T18:41:00.000-08:00

Whenever the topic of sweets comes up, C pantomimes an empty hand, blinking in expectation that he should, by rights, have some for himself. He saw this post open on my screen last weekend, said 'why don't I have any doughnuts?' This weekend we had our own epic doughnut making session.

The risen dough.

The full load, waiting to set.

C's Everything Doughnut: maple glazed, chocolate glazed, powdered and sprinkled.

purdy new theengs in ze stores

2009-01-22T06:01:00.000-08:00

$29 wood slice from West Elm

$59 mongolian pillow cover from West Elm

$39.95 chisel vase from CB2

$3.99 ENVIS cake slicer and knife from IKEA
(only thing I'm likely to actually buy from this list -- I meant to get a cake slicer before Thanksgiving but couldn't locate one at IKEA when I was picking up my last run of dinner party supplies)

How to wear stripey stockings

2009-01-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

and not look like a granola hippie art freak or a Hot Topic goth

via The Sartorialist

Sniper adrenaline

2009-01-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

Heart racing...
I am doing horribly with my savings resolution...

But HELLO EAMES ALUMINUM GROUP MANAGEMENT CHAIR

via Ebay
coming home to MEEEEEE... for C's home office it shall be!

Saturday eveningnoon.

2009-01-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

No progress on to-do list yet. First weekend home after vacation + little sunlight coming in the windows -> quiet lazy time in the low lamplight.

etsy revelations

2009-01-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

Too rich for my blood:

$289 from lightyearsvintage

$199 from persephonevintage

Worth saving for:

$389 from lightyearsvintage

$72 from Laurel Hill

all you need is

2009-01-08T07:10:00.000-08:00

PLYprints of Alexander Girard graphics
$89 at Design Public and other design stores

These are definitely cool, but what I really want are some of these wooden dolls...

$160 at DWR

xxxxxxxxx

2009-01-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

This new Andy Gilmore print (well, new to me as I haven't checked Etsy in a while) is giving me a thrill up my leg... the colours are truly xxxxxxxxx to me.

Ayala Serfaty Satala Hammock

2009-01-05T09:19:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Design-Crisis for this sneaky Bonluxat link... so much to drool over!

reading in the dark

2009-01-05T06:53:00.001-08:00

I was totally going to buy this Script floor lamp to put next to the sofa for magazine reading. It popped out at me instantly when I started web-window-shopping for things for the apartment a year ago, but it kept falling low on the priority list since I was getting by with the desk lamp sitting on the radiator. At $79.99 (or was it $89?) it was pretty affordable... but sadly, now that I'd like to go for it, I find it's discontinued on the CB2 site.

Why is it that when my low priced love disappears, the only thing I can think of wanting is some insane designer piece?

$510ish Tolomeo Floor Lamp

I need some other cute, nicely proportioned task-floor-lamp options! And I don't want IKEA. While I do IKEA for various other bits, I just feel like I won't hold on to an IKEA lamp forever...

Quadrantid Meteor Shower

2009-01-02T18:42:00.000-08:00

Around 4:50AM on the West Coast, dawnish on the East Coast, look to the skies for a grand meteor shower! We'll be in an aeroplane heading home red-eye style, so really hoping we'll have a good view of it.

Goals this year

2009-01-01T14:20:00.001-08:00

Seek an apprenticeship under a tailor.

Work on my first quilt -- leaning towards simple triangular pieces in mostly black/white, perhaps with a smattering of colour here and there.

Save money, especially for trip to London/Italy in August.

Expand ingredients range in cooking -- trying new vegetables and grains. Actually try some recipes from my cookbook collection instead of just using the web. Oh yeah, and eat more fruit in general.

Become a finisher -- projects, alterations, books.

How could I leave out: Happy New Year to all!

Happy days

2008-12-30T15:32:00.001-08:00

Redondo Beach, originally uploaded by woodley park-zoo.

Been up and down the coast of California for the last two weeks.

- lots of down time in the parents' home, napping, eating, sorting through my massloads of stored junk trying to pare it down
- walking and driving around old spots both Norcal and South, telling C the memories of my youth. Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Francisco, Hawthorne, Culver City, Redondo Beach, tours of San Diego spots courtesy of friends, and we still have things planned like NYE in Long Beach, drinking and eating with friends in West LA and Burbank. I am so in love with California all over again, and so glad the long term plan is to move back. It's my soul.
- bought long awaited and needed pair of grey Converse as well as my OPI Jacques polish, need to find some NARS Funny Face
- no real Christmas presents, because we're not a big wrapping it up family unfortunately, but I still got some shopping in via my mom so I got some Citizens of Humanity and Joe's Jeans I would find hard to splash out on otherwise.
- found my Canon DSLR battery charger plus small tripod at my parents house, so maybe a bit of a New Years resolution to take more pictures next year. More photos, and also hopefully more drawing as well.

Hope all is well in the world for anyone who happens through here! Happy New Year!

Christmas at the Zoo

2008-12-16T19:02:00.001-08:00

Christmas at the Zoo, originally uploaded by woodley park-zoo.

Winter Wonderland - Scott Allen (Thunderbirds are Now)
White Christmas - Melt Banana
Christmas Reindeer - The Knife
The Christmas Song - The Raveonettes
Sugar Fairy - Balduin
Snow Lion - Feist/Readymade FC
Fairy Tale of New York - The Pogues
Father Christmas - The Kinks
Christmas at the Zoo - The Flaming Lips
Sister Winter - Sufjan Stevens
Calendar - Bishop Allen
White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
...some silence... for 'hidden' track...
Silent Night - nullsleep

(Seriously, if you want a copy, just email me! For all the repeat listenings and ponderings I did, I would love to share this!)