top fives of 2006

taking a cue from my cousin's best of 2006 many lists (for days she's been posting lists), here are some of mine.

music i listened to most this year:

*martha wainwright
*pinback
*the weepies
*the decemberists
*interpol

favorite movies watched

*little miss sunshine
*no direction home (video)
*the science of sleep
*dirty pretty things (video)
*everything is illuminated
*bobby (ok, that makes 6. and i feel like i'm missing an important one.)

books i loved

*the known world by edward p. jones (FANTASTIC)
*the chosen by chaim potok
*everything is illuminated by jonathan safran foer
*extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer
*crooked little heart or blue shoe by anne lamott

favorite eats (some discovered in 06 and some just newly appreciated in 06)

*mexican chocolate icebox cookies
*russian cabbage soup
*scharffen berger’s milk chocolate bar (and i’m normally into dark chocolate)
*i do not generally frequent chain food places, but on the way back from oregon, my friend liz and i stopped at the a&w root beer place and i ate fried cheese balls for the first time. maybe i was just really hungry, but those things were SOOO tasty. so salty. so fried. so cheesy. i’m afraid i may need to go back to A&W in 2007 and revisit the fried cheese balls. you know just to see if i was dillusional from all the driving or what.
*carrots (or baked yams, potatoes, beets) dipped in trader joe’s yogurt and chive dip (i plan to try to make this dip myself because it seems really simple)

monday will be a list for 2007...

reminiscing

back at my parents over xmas, i did my annual pouring over all their old photo albums. this time i brought some photos back to SF to scan and send back with my mom.

although i want the photos to be preserved, i do like the way some of the photos are fading. some photos seem to fade to blue, some to red, some to yellow.

i have decided i must get a holga, because i just like square photos best.

here are my mom and i on our old deck, with waldo the pointer. waldo seems to be enjoying the bubbles most. that rock in the background is a (naturally occurring or rather, occurred a long long time ago and now erroding) sandstone in our yard. i really like the tones in these photos.

circular knitting needle trade?

i bought too long needles. they are size 17 (12.5 mm) and 26 inches around. they are bamboo needles from crystal palace. they were 20 bucks and are nonexchangeable.

i am looking for size 16-18 (i guess that's about 11.5-13.5 mm) circular needles but only 16 in. around.

leave me a comment if you want to trade!

i'll be back to blogging shortly. hope you all have had nice breaks.

happy holidays

i leave you with my favorite ornaments, the tiniest of tomten and the most surprised of little santas.

and of course my mom's collection of tomten, which i love and will be seeing soon.

i'm soon off to my parents' house and will probably not post until around the 28th.

have wonderful holidays of all sorts and see you soon.

purple and grey

yesterday i collected some of these yellow leaves for a project.
candle flame leaves.

it's true the seasons are not as dramatic here in california, but it just means we have to pay more attention. and contrary to some popular belief, we do even wear winter coats. in fact, i'm wearing mine now. indoors!

thanks to those of you who made it through that last post and expressed appreciation. sometimes after i hit publish, i get a slight queasy feeling. did i say too much? (i'm sure many of you are familiar with this.) but then you all come with your understanding comments and i feel ok. ideally i shouldn't care so much about the response, but i'm not quite there yet.

late at night

alien-esque self portrait

ever since i decided (now many months ago) to quit my stable job with the pretty good income and the health benefits, i have spent many nights awake much farther into the night than i would like. my mind races with thoughts of the various life paths that i could choose. there are so many possibilites. i realize i am lucky to have these possibilities (and/or to believe i have them), but they also overwhelm me. i lie awake alternately excited, impatient for a new day, and anxiety ridden/fearful about having to make big and little decisions/choices.

this is how my mind goes:

i want to do something physical, where i am exhausted at the end of the day. i don't want to be in front of the computer all the time. maybe i should pursue baking. baking is beautiful, i love treats and i like to produce something useful.

but maybe i need more intellectual stimulation. maybe i should apply to grad school and study literature.

or perhaps i stick with my graphic design program and see where that takes me. i am enjoying it. (but am i really passionate about graphic design, or am i just enjoying learning and being in school again?)

(at each new idea, i can diverge into all the positive and negative aspects of these paths of course.)

in january i'm going to start, along with others, an environmentally responsible consumer type blog. i want to learn more about ecology, the environment, sustainability, organic products/food, etc. (at this point i start brainstorming about names for the blog, about how to design it, about emailing all the contributors and about what that email will contain.)

maybe i should go to sweden for a while, try to attend a school there.

i want to redo my website really badly. but i should wait until i get a mac. (should i really get a mac? they're so expensive. and i'd have to get all the programs....)

i wish i'd learned carpentry from my dad growing up. it would be cool to be skilled in a trade.

i want to contribute more to society. maybe i should pursue teaching. (that's what the tutoring job you're starting in january will help you decide, kerstin. you don't need to worry about that now.) what about working with the elderly?

i also want to make art.

and pursue some communal/spiritual activities. dance, sing...

and there's always the store fantasy brewing behind all this.

and on and on it goes.

this is all in addition to the nightly time it takes me to review the day, chastise myself for all the silly things i did/said, worry about money and my current lack of health benefits, sometimes think about/remember my grandparents, remember what i plan to do the next day, think about my friends and family and any interactions i had with them, think about any projects i have going on and about the book i'm reading, sometimes think about what's going on in the world (although a lot of these self-centered thoughts i have partially to avoid thinking about what's going on in the world i bet), try to focus on a breathing exercise, patiently lie in the uncomfortable position my cat is forcing me into, until it becomes painful and i just have to move....

it's a wonder i can sleep at all.

i wrote the above a few days ago. then today i decided to reread some audre lorde essays. they are so full, those essays. i reread Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power. the whole essay is amazing, but below are some excerpts. made me think differently about my above list which, in a way, is my attempt to understand what path is most erotic. though i realize that understanding will come from some kind of emotional/experiential resonance, rather than some analytical process, so no amount of late-night worrying is going to lead me to the answer.

The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves.

It is never easy to demand the most from ourselves, from our lives, from our work. To encourage excellence is to go beyond the encouraged mediocrity of our society...But giving in to the fear of feeling and working to capacity is a luxury only the unintentional can afford, and the unintentional are those who do not wish to guide their own destinies.

...

The very word erotic comes from the Greek word eros, the personification of love in all its aspects - born of Chaos, and personifying creative power and harmony. When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the lifeforce of women

...

We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings. But once recognized, those which do not enhance our future, lose their power and can be altered. The fear of our desires keeps them suspect and indiscriminately powerful, for to supress any truth is to give it strength beyond endurance. The fear that we cannot grow beyond whatever distortions we may find within ourselves keeps us docile and loyal and obedient, externally defined, and leads us to accept many facets of our oppression as women.

...

But when we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense. For as we begin to recognize our deepest feelings, we begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like their only alternative in our soicety. Our acts against oppression become integral with self, motivated and empowered from within.

again, these are poet and badass Audre Lorde's words.

friday flickrs

i found moonmuffin's art through jenny's flickr faves. (i always find good stuff in her favorites.)

my favorites this week are all from moonmuffin betsy.

dear diary
winter indoors
book_page
kitty buffet (heehee)
goldengirl

dec 13th: happy sankta lucia!

for show and tell in elementary school, my friend heather and i performed sankta lucia for the class. that is heather on the left, holding her battery operated candle tightly, and i am on the right, holding my left hand tightly. 1980. must have been second grade then. i don't remember the classroom having all those crazy shelves. we must have been in the art room for some reason.

camilla posted a good link to a lucia description.

so did my cousin karin.

bits from sunday

seems i'm taking pictures of a lot of circles and reflections lately.


first, fika/lunch at samovar with a friend.
tea, curry egg salad sandwich (not pictured) and a coconut rice pudding. mmmm.


ceiling of the nook in samovar

off to see for your consideration

then a walk through hayes valley. i never walk around in hayes valley because it's so expensive and somehow out of the way, but it's fun to look in the stores. there seem to be several scandinavian-inspired stores. there's one called scandinavian decor (or something like that), one called smak (which means taste in swedish, either taste as in taste this food or taste as in she has good taste) and is a clothing store, and some others that just seem to carry swedish goods. (there's also a swedish clothing store in the fillmore called flicka {girl} and owned/run by a swedish woman and a swedish american woman. they get to go to sweden twice a year on business. i need to have a store like that!)


on the way to my friends' house i passed this wreath,


this green globe,


and this house covered in ivy.

friday flickrs

friday flickr favorites:
sannah is a badass
undies
i want to eat these chairs. the whole photo.
cutest puppy
i like these colors and the feeling of morning, getting ready...
that blue pitcher in the background
mmmm, mav's avocado and photo. (or is that a pear!)

winter colors

the sun is shining and it's not so cold, but the trees are turning wintery. muted colors - greys, sages, maroons. but fall is still lingering with yellow and gold leaves in other places. and even green as well. so much color. right now i'm enjoying the quieter colors though.



i have a cold and am trying to take naps. it's hard not to go outside into the sun and admire the trees though.

(the poloroid with flash is quite forgiving. i wish my skin looked like this. ha!)

inspired by mav's beautiful poloroid self portraits.

thank you

well, the sale/party was a success! i completely forgot to take pictures. hosting parties is not really my thing, so i was pretty anxious/distracted throughout, but happy that the party overall went well. so many nice people came over. thanks all of you who stopped by and thanks to all the sellers.

above is a hat i received at the sale in a trade with blanche, who got one of my sheep.

my camera is not uploading photos anymore, so i may take a bit of a blogging break here until i get a card reader. also, i tend to feel like hiding out for a bit after parties. but maybe i'll try not to do that. maybe i will scan and post old photos instead this week.

thanks also for all your sweet comments about my last post about mormor. you all got me teary all over again (in a good way).

old photo

an old photo of my mormor and her sister. mormor is on the left. i can remember her doing this with her leg when she laughed, the top leg sticking skyward (often even higher than it is here), foot flexed with glee.

i like to recall how she moved through the world physically (as well as spiritually).

i can see her in her later years, in her apartment on john erikssonsgatan in stockholm, moving from the small kitchen table to the sink directly behind her. i sat across from her on the kitchen bench. the way she stood, perhaps somewhat unsteady (though not seeming to notice this herself), and swiftly cleared a plate from the table, barely moving her body, but quickly moving her arm in a fell swoop sort of way. it might make a stranger a bit nervous, like she might easily drop a plate, but it did not make me nervous. i was used to the way she moved.

i know all of my aunts, my mom and my cousins had special relationships with my mormor. she recognized and appreciated each of our unique personalities, talents and interests and forgave us our faults. and she was the person we all got along with. and i think those of us in the family who felt like outsiders at some point or another for our various reasons, all felt like at least she understood us, knew us and shared a closeness with us. what a gift.

the two years i lived in sweden, my mormor’s apartment was my landing spot. i stayed with her when i arrived, when i had vacations, and before i left. i feel lucky to have spent these times with her alone. walking to the store, post office and bank in kungsholmen, eating at her kitchen table, riding the bus and train together to various places. just occupying the same space and time. i was often quiet and she would tell me stories about her childhood and of morfar and their meeting. i like to think (and do think) it was obvious to her how deeply i loved her and morfar and that she knew i loved to hear about them, and that this was why she told me the stories.

it is almost a year now since she died. i think i will be thinking of her a lot this month. a friend told me she feels her grandmother’s presence more and more as time goes on. i hope i feel this way too. i do miss her physical presence though, her laughing foot pointing skyward. her short upper body (which got shorter with age as i imagine mine will someday too) and tall in comparison hips/legs, one hip jutting out more and more as she grew older and shorter, causing a bit of a lilt in her steps.

it's so strange and wonderful how people have such particular to them ways of moving and tones to their voices. even holding someone's hand, people seem to have particular densities or something. particular energy or consistency. spirit perhaps?

(for my cousins and mom. karin and mom, i think you're the only ones who read this...) kan ni inte hora hur hon svarar i telefonen sa varmt, "HEJ pa dig, du {eller ditt namn har}." jag tanker pa detta ibland for att jag kan hora det sa val o det kanns sa valkommande o karleksful. med morfar hor jag hur han svarade pa nagot man sa, "sager du det?" och "jaha, pa det sattet." det ar en till sadan dar daglig fras han anvande som jag brukar komma ihag, men just nu gor jag inte det.

i chose this photo because i haven't taken any new ones this week. i had only planned to write the first paragraph above, as a caption to the photo, but it became a long post instead.

see you tomorrow?

don't tell pinky leon

that i take pictures of other orange cats! i think this may be pinky's cousin saul.

click on photo to see the cute black freckles on this kitty's nose.

open house holiday party + sale

you're invited!

this saturday from 3:00-7:00 pm
6 artists/designers + glögg + cookies
get your handmade holiday gifts

(above are some of the goods i'll be selling. there will be much more by others too {including lisa s.}. check out the flyer for more information.)

curious

i had plans of taking many photos on my beautiful walk across town on thanksgiving to my friends' house. but i only took this one. (i think i was too busy concentrating on not thinking about the grocery bag chafing my hand and pulling on my shoulder.)

this photo is of part of a scene found in a window near duboce park. the scene has a fall/halloween theme, and this here, is a miniature windmill made of maps (hard to see for the reflection). ever since i've lived in sf, the artist who lives in this house and has a storefront-type window, has put such amazing, imaginative, crazy, beautiful, creepy, stunning pieces in his window. (i'm just going to assume it's a man since the house is in the castro and since i don't want to write his/her, s/he for the remainder of this post. but if any of you know different, do correct.) he changes the window pretty frequently (i'd say monthly or seasonally). i wonder if he has documented all his displays and if he presents his art elsewhere as well, or just here for the neighbors, passersby. i'm very curious. now that there is the cute duboce park cafe on the corner, perhaps i should spy on the house and see who this character is....

have any of you fellow san franciscans seen this window?

wow, i just noticed each spoke (or whatever it's called) has a different state map on it.

happy thanksgiving

thank you for all the nice comments about pinky and the cards.

wanted to share some links:

ray fenwick's lettering. check out the poster section of his portfolio. (my favorite is #7 i think)
i also like his photos of letters around his neighborhood (along with funny, sarcastic comments).

mister rob ryan found on behind the curtain (a lovely new to me blog)

off to finish making some mexican icebox cookies that i will soon take (along with a cole slaw) to the feasting i will be doing with friends.

it's ridiculously beautiful out today. maybe i will take some photos on my walk over to the western addition...

have a wonderful day!

06 holiday cards

i ended up taping over the letters on the screen because most of the time only a few of them would print. this (above) was the most letters i could get to show.

it's similar to this drawing of PL in my crosslegged lap.

i discovered gracia & louise this weekend. HOW did i miss them?! lovelies. gracia's blog, louise's blog.

late friday flickrs

screenprinting screens and apron strings

i'm exhausted from screenprinting my holiday cards today. i think the exhaustion is from doing something that i don't really know how to do, and from standing in an awkward (and somewhat tensed) position for three hours while squeegee-ing. the cards came out ok. could be worse, could be better. but i'm actually pretty happy with them. will show the results monday. i didn't make it any easier on myself the way i set the drawings up on my transparency. it's hard to reevaluate and think straight at kinkos (where i made the transparency) because it's so frenzied in there. everyone in there is pissed. the customers are pissed because no employees help you anymore at kinkos. it's all self service now (as i'm sure some of you have experienced). so all of us who are used to the old, more customer service-oriented kinkos get frustrated. (well, i am used to the new kinkos now and rarely try to get help, but even getting an employee to pay attention to you when you're waiting to pay, is difficult.) and the employees are pissed because they (i assume) are expected to be completing all their orders, while having to deal with a bunch of pissed off customers.

but anyway. i still like kinkos because you can just go in there off the street and use their papercutter (which i plan on doing tomorrow). they just don't care. (they also have a scissors, tape and stapler for people to use. in case you're ever like walking around and you suddenly need to make a paper snowflake or {i'm trying to think of something where you'd need scissors, tape and stapler, but i'm too tired.} something.)

so here are the flickr faves for this week.

good things come in twos this week apparently.

empty apartment
o
&hearts
.
ok this one isn't in twos, but i love it.

a rave and a rant

the rave:

i love the sf historic streetcars! i love their color, their shape, their proportions. i love that when you sit inside in the cutely-proportioned seats, you sit by these little windows that make you feel like the windows are for you. similar to train windows.

and look at those cute rounded windows above (in below pic).

i really think things were better designed/proportioned back in the day. (ok i know that's a little vague.) i want them all over town please.

here is some history and info about the cutiepies.

and now the rant...
i read in my graphic communications the printed image book, that in the 1980's scientists discovered that dioxin (which is created when chlorine is used to bleach paper) is a carcinogen that passes up the food chain easily. even low levels create adverse health effects. so as a result of this discovery, europe started making paper that was totally chlorine free (TCF). Currently 40% of European mills are operating TCF. The markets there are spurred by greater consumer awareness of chlorine issues and tighter regulations of chlorinated chemicals. In the US, TCF use is (when this book was printed i guess) expected to reach 10% by the year 2000. this infuriates me. i realize it's a pain in the ass to change up the factories and create a new color matching system for inks (which probably also should be changed to be environmentally friendlier. soy-based inks??), but isn't it worth it to make the changes?

and there are of course thousands of other ways manufacturing could be made more environmentally friendly i'm sure. the shortsightedness and lack of care for the earth and its plants and animals is confounding.

anyway, this is just the tip of the iceberg (or pile of paperwaste) on this topic. and i know it is overwhelming as a consumer to get educated on all the products and foods one consumes. kind of makes me want to start a blog just about consumption, researching one item per month perhaps, and writing about how we can produce/consume that item most responsibly. and get industry and government to regulate more responsibly....

tiogruppen

another one of these old post it doodles (i need to get out and take some photos!)

i imagine karin or camilla may have already posted about tiogruppen, but in case not, and in case you haven't heard of them, here's a bit about tiogruppen (directly translated = the ten group). from their site:

Ten Swedish Designers was founded in 1970, when a group of ten young textile artists and designers joined together. They had a previous collective experience of having their designs rejected by the Swedish textile industry, with motivations asserting that their designed patterns were “unsaleable, too advanced and non-commercial.”

here is one of the first posters they produced together.

tiogruppen became very successful in sweden (and beyond). their work has been in numerous museum exhibits and they have worked on collections for IKEA and ahlens (big department store in sweden). today there are three of the group still working together, selling their new products in their store in stockholm (picture of store here).

some of tiogruppen's designs aren't exactly my style, but i appreciate how bold their designs were/are and how they worked together, inspired and supported each other, and created their own thriving business. you can click on the red links on this page to see various designs throughout the years. i like thread (1999) and meeting (2000).

as i've mentioned before, i've always been drawn to the idea of collectives (housing, art, craft, business), perhaps because i'm an only child and i romanticize group efforts. but this is one of my dream jobs, to design and make art and exhibit/promote/sell it collectively with other designers/artists.

thanks kind readers/friends for your words of encouragement on the job front.

on pasta, typewriter ribbons and jobs (again)

the back room of lucca, the italian shop in my hood that sells fresh pasta. i guess this is the pasta-making room. i've never seen it before. it's covered in flour! so soft. looks like snow. i kinda want to go in there and play in the flour.

this evening i changed the typewriter ribbon on ol' remy. not as easy as it sounds. had to thread the ribbon onto the spools manually. my fingertips are now a bluish black. but it is quite satisfying to now be able to easily read what i type on the thing. and i don't have to bang the keys with such great might (just a little might). i found a fun typewriter website for those of you into that sort of thing. (and i KNOW a lot of you are.)

so it looks like i'm going to be tutoring kids in the public schools part time. i'm pretty excited about it. i think it will be challenging in a good way. but i still need to find about 10 hours more of work a week. any bay area peeps have any need for a part-time worker at your place of employment?

it's funny because abby has written some about her change of jobs. i wrote to her a little while back saying something like, "my ideal job doesn't exist. because right now my ideal job would be hanging out with old people one day a week, tutoring kids one day a week, baking one day a week and making stuff a few days a week." when i got the tutoring gig, i thought maybe i could actually create a version of my mishmash ideal job, at least while i'm in school...some days i think positive thoughts like this, and other days i think very narrowly about my job situation and feel frightened. it helps to keep thinking about dream jobs though, and to hear/read about all of your job struggles, compromises and successes.

my next post will be about another kind of dream job of mine, and about some inspiring people who made (a version of) that dream job happen.

friday flickrs + book rec

(no new photos this week, so it's a 1976 {i think} one of me, some family and some strangers dancing {or about to dance...} around the midsummer pole in sweden. it has no relevance to today's post or the season! but look at those florals and the knee stockings on the girls in the background! and i want a green velour jumpsuit!)

flickr faves this week:

gwen's homey polaroids
another by svane
i like traveling photos.
a breakup story.
a love story. (check out the other pics in this series too.)

the first book i read by anne lamott, i didn't like so much. (the strange thing is, i can't figure out which book it was now. i've read the descriptions of all her books and none of them fit...) but i decided to give her another chance since she is a bay area writer. the next book of hers i read was tom jones. i liked it ok, and i especially liked some of her descriptions. so poetic, inventive and right on. next i read blue shoe, and just yesterday i finished crooked little heart, both of which i quite liked. i like how vulnerable the people in her stories are. i like that all her families are non-traditional, made up of friends and single parents, etc. there are sick people, old people, kids. people struggle and love (and are sometimes cruel). her parent-child relationships are particularly real to me. i feel such tenderness for some of her characters. and i like that i recognize the places in her books.
have you read any of her books? did you like them?

have a good weekend!

pinky leon excerpt

pinky leon keeps cleaning his shaved paw. i guess the bald leg against his regular (and thickening for winter) coat feels wrong to him. it is like a strange rock, bare in a a field of grass. hard not to obsess about really. so so smooth, and then abruptly so hairy. i put my finger in the way of his cleaning to distract him and he licks my finger twice, then looks at me annoyed. i don't know how a cat can form such a perturbed expression, like a teenager. i think it's something in the angle of his lashes. he starts to vigorously flap his tail. i move my hand away because i know what comes next.

now he is done cleaning and sleeps in my lap. my little round companion with big round eyes.

i'm off to VOTE

are you?

crafty

this weekend i started to gear up for an open house+glogg+cookie+holiday party+sale that will be at my house on dec. 2. lisa s. will be selling stuff, as will erica, and 3 others who don't have blogs as far as i know, but who will sell jewelry, clothing and hats among other things.

worked on a bunch of these cards that are the result of my first screenprinting experience. lisa c. and i screenprinted at the mission cultural center. i love screenprinting! it's one of those things i've been meaning to try for so long. and of course once i finally did it i thought, WHY didn't i try this sooner?! (i am thinking of screenprinting my annual pinky leon holiday cards too.)


also finished one sheep today. she's currently hanging out with my own sheep. i stupidly threw out my sheep template (pinky had vomited on it-ew) a while back, without redrawing it first. dumbdumbdumb.

speaking of craft sales, i wish i'd made it to studio craft in portland. what a wonderful bunch of talented women!

grattis pa fodelsedagen mamma!

kopte hem godbitarna fran tartine. onskar jag kunde fira med dig idag!

har far du en blomma ochsa. ;-)

late friday flickr faves

flickr faves this week:
svane's photos all together
here is one, and
look how long this squirrel's ears are!

sorry it's been so quiet here. having some computering pain. gotta start swimming again.
have a good weekend!

why i love san francisco

and queer youth.

i was waiting for the BART train after class tonight, Halloween night. there were some cows, some ninjas, the usual suspects. along came four queer youth of color somewhere between 16-19 i'd say. three boys and a girl. two of the boys were dressed in drag, one sorta hoochie style, and the other a bit more refined. the latter had obviously played this part before. he looked beautiful, as only a woman, or a boy in drag can. the third boy was wearing frilly pink panties, sneakers and a boxing robe, open of course, to show off the pink panties. thin boy, big eyes. the girl was their safari guide, in tight khaki short shorts, khaki top, safari hat, brown knee-high socks and tan shoes.

the four were vamping it up and realized it was time for pictures. so the girl looks around at the crowd for potential picture takers and decides, for some reason, to ask this old white man sitting next to his wife, quietly reading his mystery novel. glasses, trenchcoat, old man cap. he agrees, and the four kids take up posing. but first the digital camera must be explained to the man. posing. then they pass him another camera. more posing. safari girl looking down boy in hoochie drag's top, hands up, looking shocked at what she sees. the other two boys on either side posing marilyn monroe-vegas showgirl-demure-batting eyelash-stripper style. then they pass the man a third camera, a disposable. by the end of this photoshoot, the man is a photographer. when they're done, the kids thank the man sincerely, and the man sits back down and takes up where he left off in his mystery. doesn't even give his wife a knowing look or roll of the eye.

during this whole scene, the rest of the crowd occasionally looks over, some a bit more interested than others. i stand there and stare, grinning from ear to ear.


unrelated to the above, my favorite flickr costume

jonathan safran foer + friday flickr faves

just finished everything is illuminated by jonathan safran foer. this kid (and i say kid because he is younger than me, born in 77 {and he's already written two fantastic novels!}) is a terrific and imaginative and funny writer. wise way beyond his years. or maybe possessed. he's one of those writers whose characters are so alive that you think maybe the author was channeling spirits or something. anyhow, this book left me with a lot of questions, and yet still it had a satisfying (if terribly sad) ending. so much to think about and feel about. questions about love, friendship, memory, sadness/happiness, storytelling/truth.

i think it is an important book to read for a number of reasons, but especially now for americans, living in a country that is at war. a country that seems to me to be creating more war.

one passage i like:
She had been to Kiev, he learned, and Odessa, and even Warsaw. She had lived among the Wisps of Ardisht for a year when her mother became deathly ill. She told him of ship voyages she had taken to places he had never heard of, and stories he knew were all untrue, were bad not-truths, even, but he nodded and tried to convince himself to be convinced, tried to believe her, because he knew that the origin of a story is always an absence, and he wanted her to live among presences.

it is also a book that one can read over and over again and make new discoveries, connections. most highly recommended!!!!

flickr favorites:
speaking of books, i've read all these
jumptwothree
romantic

have a good weekend!

thank you kim carney!

recently i sent kim a couple tea cozies since she has so many teapots. and because i find her blog so inspiring.

i wasn't expecting anything in return, but yesterday i received this package in the mail. it was xmas at my house! as soon as i opened the package, the dried hydrangea scent (or was it the candles?)filled the house. each piece was wrapped with so much care. i am a pretty poor, impatient wrapper, so i'm always impressed with people who wrap so thoughtfully. and the gifts! yummy soap, fun journal, lovely vase and beautiful kim ring and kim cards of her fantastic flower photos!

documentation of a russian red cabbage soup

1. gathering ingredients.


2. chopping, chopping, chopping.


3. sauteing 2 small onions (pink from being chopped LAST {so as not to cry throughout chopping}, after beets).


4. 1 red cabbage and 3 kinds of beets thrown in with 4-5 cups stock, a can of whole tomatos and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.


5. simmering beets make a pretty color.


6. wait {though preferably NOT on the table like mr. pinky leon is doing here} while soup simmers for 30 minutes. (you only get away with sitting on the table when you look like this.)


7. add one large potato, a turnip (i think the turnip may be unneccesary) and a carrot, simmer 15 more minutes. add salt and pepper to taste.


8. done! with sour cream on top.


9. sour cream mixed in. YUM.

this soup is very flavorful! i recommend it. it makes a lot, so you may want to cut down on the amouts a bit.