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i do love summer.
i wish i could have been to the summer social at abby's this weekend. looks like such an enchanting gathering with backyard music, gorgeous pies and beautiful arts/crafts. wow!speaking of summer, i saw 500 days of summer this weekend. it is entertaining and zooey is lovely of course, but overall it was not as good as i expected it to be.
look at this beautiful summer salad!
summer dog tongues
summer window (the secret garden)
(anyone know why my photos have deeper colors and more contrast in photoshop than they have when i post them here or on flickr? the color settings are set to rgb and web...)
i rode the train to grass valley this weekend, and annoyingly, forgot to bring my camera, so no photos to share. the train is the best way to travel. but i won't go on about it, as i have done so here probably more than once before. ;-)
i posted a book review of farm city over on sew green.
looking up
looking down
for my birthday, i bought myself some shoes, but they didn't fit right, so i returned them. instead i bought thread at 40% off at the fabric store on mission street. such a deal. i may go get more tomorrow, as i hadn't checked beforehand to see what colors i need.
heather made a honey, orange water, pistachio mousse!! which i CAN NOT WAIT to eat. and this friday i'm making a key lime (with regular limes) pie with macademia nut crust. decadence!tuesday flickrsmore spoolsotto is excellent.i wouldn't mind a kitchen like this for my birthday.
grammy rolling out pasta dough
even though i'm writing all this stuff about clothes, and i do love patterns, i am actually not a big shopper at all (especially not for new clothes), nor am i fashion conscious. i often wish (i've mentioned this before here) that i had a smart uniform so i didn't have to think at all about what to wear.
in sweden, they have this weird thing. at the universities, all the people in the science fields have jumpsuits that i guess they wear when they're in lab? like all the people in physics will wear one color of jumpsuit. all the people in chemistry, another. am i making this up? it seems wacky when i write it, but i swear i think this is how it is, like team science! (swedes, can you verify?) it's those coverall jumpsuits with the elastic waist. i always wanted one. they look so comfy.
my dad has a uniform of sorts, as i've also mentioned before.
a closet of perfectly tailored clothing would be nice. they'd feel so easy on and would last a long time since they were so well made. you wouldn't need a lot of clothing, because everything would look just right, and you'd feel great wearing the same outfits regularly. the top above is another too small piece, never worn, thrifted in sweden. i just can't part with buttons that look like miniature landscape paintings! i should add floral motifs to my sucker list (from day 1).
the stockholm syndrome on the daily show.
buying clothes can be a little like bringing a photo of a haircut to your hairdresser. you expect to look as beautiful as the model once you have the haircut. same thing with clothing. you see a certain dress, and you imagine the kind of person who'd wear it. and you think maybe you'll feel like that kind of person when you wear the dress. and even if you don't look like a model after the haircut, or you don't suddenly become someone else when you step into the dress, sometimes the haircut or the dress does put an extra swing in your step. i probably had some ideas about how i'd feel in this thrifted number—a bit swaggering/sassy cowgirl at a square dance, with those lacey lines at the top. and of course it falls under two of the categories i mentioned yesterday: dots and transparent parts. sadly it also has always been too small. i think i can actually part with this one now.nidhi at unworn has been doing this for a while. she has beautiful photos in general and of her unworns.on a more serious note, my csa farmer, pablito, wrote some interesting stuff this week (scroll down) in his weekly newsletter. pablito was inspired by a lecture by economist jeff rubin. here's a short version of jeff rubin's talk, and here's a long version. he talks about oil, the failing economy and the potential revolution in how we consume/produce things/food and in how we live.
(jeff rubin looks a bit like sex in the city's mr. big, huh?) my mom left for a visit to sweden today. wish i could have gone with her.
a couple weeks ago when i was finding dots and diamonds in my closet and noticing how i've owned most of my clothes for years, i noticed another thing. i have some clothes that have been in my closet for years that i have never worn. not once! most of them i have never worn because they are too small. they were too small when i bought them, and they are still too small. (funny how that works.) but i can't get rid of them. here are some things i am a sucker for:
very large buttons
fabric covered buttons
transparent parts of clothing
unusual patterns/fabric
vintage patternsdots, diamonds, stripes
about ten years ago i was a sucker for:
clothing that looked like it might be made with upholstery fabric (skirts that looked like chairs)
clothing with texturethe above dress i believe i bought at a thrift store in sweden. it falls under the unusual fabric category. isn't it weird? i wonder if someone made this fabric themselves. i have sometimes fit into this dress, and i suppose i keep it thinking it might be good for some kind of costume party. what kind, i don't know.
(we'll see how many days i can fill with never worn clothing. do you have never worns too? join in!)
speaking of fabric, check out these awesome kids clothes by kristin. i LOVE her fabric choices. some remind me of marimekko.
new to me blogs:
lea bolvig
madchen blogt
otl aicher's beautiful tickets.
(unrelated to the above) one of my favorite things about wes anderson movies (in addition to the colors, the sets, the dialogue, the fact that i feel like i'm home watching them, the hilarity, the poignancy, the themes, the music...) is the planning. the main characters all have big plans.
max fischer, ultimate planner
royal tenenbaum, schemer
francis l. whitman, itinerary master
steve zissou, crazy expedition coordinator
of course their adventures never go according to plan, but there's so much life in the planning! the disruptions to the course usually precipitate a result similar to (or preferable to) the result these kooks set out to achieve. sometimes the main characters have a hard time letting go of their original plans (max and royal are especially stubborn), but eventually they accept what madness and beauty comes their way.
yesterday mati and i took an ice cream walk and we ended up back at her house brainstorming, making lists and setting plans down. plans are hope, and what is life without hope! i tell you. lately i have been very plan deficient. been feeling lost and wanting/needing a big goal, a next step, but i've felt overwhelmed and worried. uncertain and confused. it's been bringing me down. planning can put one's thoughts on a different track, especially if you plan with someone else.
it is like a wes anderson movie or like john lennon sings, life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. still the planning is half the fun.
spinning over on sew green
perfect walking weather today.
i am caught up in this book, a trip to the stars.
flickrs
torkel (i love this photo, and it reminds me of that great, angry rage against the machine song {because of the flickr pool it is in})
g (a damn fine letter)
attacked by a monster (aside from being a great photo, reminds me of one of my favorite books as a child, the secret toy machine, which is about a dog named stilt who looks just like astor.)
