hat & feathers

glittering cities

2011-06-12T18:00:00.007-04:00

go enter this wonder-lovely contest: bridge across the ocean. eat st. marcelin & macarons & drink brouilly on the isle de la cite. swoon. then repeat. (i also recommend writing love-letter-paper-boats & sailing them off into the seine).

blue, heart-shaped rain

2011-06-05T21:40:00.008-04:00

it has been pouring in upstate new york for weeks.* if i had a fabulous umbrella (other than the beautiful one from our wedding that i'm afraid to break!) i'd be even more thrilled with all these puddle-jumping & rubber-booted days. in any case, i have to admit: the smell of all the wet grass & newly tarred roadways--amazing. welcome to summer.

*along with pretty much everywhere else i've been!

making headlines.

2011-02-19T10:54:00.005-05:00

Z & i were in our local newspaper this morning for braving a wind-advisory to be out on an iced-over beach in upstate. it was 50-degrees (though much colder by the water) & wildly difficult to walk around. such beautiful/violent weather. the best part of the photographer finding us out there (alone) was that she was able to snap a polaroid of us together, which pretty much never happens.

sorry i've been all silence-radio on here lately. there's so much teaching, grading, writing, it's hard to find as much time to write elsewhere. i'm between continuing here & starting a poetry blog elsewhere. but it's been quite nice to have a secret-ish identity on this blog. so we'll see. until then, cheers to the new year. to possibilities of a spring. to the hot chocolate we consume in the meantime.

sappy holidays.

2010-11-30T11:46:00.003-05:00

i'm not usually a sappy music person. but this cover, used in the current john lewis christmas ads, is really stark in its beauty (& fits my criteria for stunning cover songs). the video makes me miss england, deeply. hope everyone is hanging in--stringing their lives with lights & enjoying the beginning of december's snowglobing.

exchanging traditions

2010-11-13T16:38:00.002-05:00

since Z & i come from different religious backgrounds, our holidays have been an amazing exchanging of traditions.* at the moment, amidst one of the most stressful semesters yet, Z has been feeling particularly separated from his family & culture. so, we're trying to plan a rendezvous, a trip to this exhibit sometime before march, & we've been on the lookout for a menorah. it's important to Z to find one that is fitting to us--not something that feels like a going-through-the-motions. for the past few weeks i've been on the hunt for a kind of Z&C heirloom. this morning i found the perfect match--vintage-modern & tied to our love of peacock feathers. what wonder! jonathan adler designed this for the jewish museum & it's perfection. though we know we'll use it for a lifetime, at the moment it's a bit out of our budget. time to start saving pennies.

*i grew up catholic (though my family is not particularly religious) and Z is jewish.

how do you like them apples

2010-11-04T15:10:00.005-04:00

scanner connected. polaroids uploaded. apples suspended.

stamps & fishes & words, oh my!

2010-10-27T14:43:00.011-04:00

a surprise package containing: the most gorgeous chinese stamps, the perfect-sized pages for recording lines of poetry, a polaroid of the sun & ocean (a polaroid folks!)*, a tiny spoon which will soon be covered in honey, the sparkler of a new book (which looks fantastically fragmented), & the feathered lines of a calligraphy notebook!

oh how the glittering contents were well worth the wait.** it truly amazes me how we come to be connected with strangers (who then become unstrangered), through this virtual space of blogging. and isn't it equally amazing how we can physically connect with people through something so simple as the post? this shimmering package swooped me up into full sunlight in the middle of a dreary and stressful fall. thanks jenna! you are, yourself, quite the light-filled wonder!

*no one has ever gifted me a polaroid. & this one made me a little teary. i love the idea of the bleached sun & salty air that someone else has experienced.

**i get that it is masochistic to receive something in the mail and force yourself not to open it, but a gal needs a carrot sometimes to get through her grading.

valentined mail

2010-10-21T11:08:00.006-04:00

while i was away in mythaca this weekend (where i attended a poetry reading, caught up & drank bourbon with this amazing lady) a little package arrived for me. a package sent from my valentine! & though i promised myself no opening until after grading (3 papers left, one 2-hour class to go) i can hardly contain myself. soon soon soon. & then i will post some peaks!

(image via here}

swamp things.

2010-10-13T21:07:00.013-04:00

anyone who tells you that your first semester teaching a new class is going to be "fine" should probably be kicked in the shins. numerous times. i'm closing down on week 6 of the quarter. & i'm a complete swamp--sticky with essays & an apartment exposed to the tornado (& subsequent debris) of no-time-to-deal. Z has been a rockstar with cooking & cleaning & i have been...a swamp thing. (albeit a functional teacher swamp!). because we're commuting this semester (Z lives in ithaca three days a week, where he's a student) everything seems so much harder to focus on. when you don't see your man all that often, what is a clean bathroom anyway?! the truth is, next quarter will be better. easier. less numbingly fast! & i will be a better writer. will find less snags to my must-write-more-than-one-night-a-week plans. will remember that there is nothing like the feeling of finishing a piece. not even the feeling of that piece getting accepted. (though they are close! & i have had a sweet streak of acceptances in the past month). our scanner should be up and running soon(ly). then there will be wild apple polaroids & apartment snapshots. i swear. for now, a sneak-peak.

p.s. this shot is not photoshopped.

no alarms no surprises

2010-09-27T19:22:00.005-04:00

with a new landslide of papers to grade, manuscript contests to send off to, & fellowship deadlines, i've been looking for music which is little more calming. this cover, one of my favorite songs in its original form, crushes me in the best way. for me, a killer cover must be executed well enough to sound like it could have been written by the covering artist. regina does this one spare. cooled down. beautiful. it's a perfect september weather song--all drizzle & chill. not so much a glooming feeling as it is a slowing down of the whole body. a heartsleep.

i promise an actual post soon, complete with wild apple polaroids. and sun. shine.

p.s. all the proceeds from purchasing this song on itunes go to doctors without borders emergency relief fund.

nova scotia dreaming

2010-09-23T14:47:00.003-04:00

Z & i often listen to this song when we're missing nova scotia. or thinking about a slower, quieter life. plus the video is fantastic--i'm a total sucker for whimsy. this week i've been rediscovering older music in my collection & having small fits of something akin to nostalgia. for instance, this morning i drove to give my 8am lecture blasting sleater-kinney. it was better than cake for breakfast. seriously.

eating books

2010-09-21T22:33:00.009-04:00

i don't know what has come over me these past few weeks. while it is not unusual at all for me to be reading voraciously, eating books, obessing through & through. it is unusual for me to spend all my time (and i mean every free moment) inside of pages. maybe it's something about the chill of september. about being a commuter couple. about needing to read other, more important things than those i use to prep or teach. maybe it's about remembering what language is, does, can do. i admit, i post single books in the "what i'm reading" sidebar. but the reality is, by the time i remember to change them, i've often read two or three other books. or was always reading them all at once. (for the secret record, i am too scared to post titles of super young contemporary poets i am reading, for fear they will google themselves and find the blog. i write this anonymously, as i don't always want my shoes choices up for grabs amidst my writer peers. the writing blog will come. slow. slow as an author page). today i finished this. what a whirlwinding. a life change. a sea change. a sea. i already loved her language. her world view. her microscope lens. but now, now, now. i find myself listening to the futures. to how things have been, will be, become.

language. my god, what language can do.

year of the paper

2010-09-14T11:44:00.001-04:00

Z & i were just-moved-back-from-london poor when our one-year rolled around. so, taking into consideration that the first anniversary material is paper, we made a few explicit rules: neither of us was allowed to spend more than 5 dollars on our gifts & it had, in some way, to be homemade (i admit i broke the cost rule--Z forgave me because the expensive part was technically a preservation technique). over the course of our year in london, i saved every ticket we used to travel--into the city & out, to other countries & back, even the receipts for things like riding the thames clipper to greenwich. since every ticket is paper, and every city/travel method had a distinct color & quality, it seemed perfect for my present. with some rocktastic help from my sister & her husband, i took all the tickets & designed a sort of mosaic/quilting of our travels, pasted all of them individually onto black foam board & then put the board into a 25'' by 37'' frame (it really is a boatload of tickets!). this collecting, this papered timeline, was my way of celebrating & preserving our first year of marriage. (i particularly love the date/time stamps, saying where we were when). amidst a lot of difficult far-awayness that we felt last year, we survived! so here's to first years!

p.s. if you click on the second photo you can see details. & please excuse the terrible glare/bad photos--i swear the frame is level on the wall, i was just standing on something to take the shot!

first weeks

2010-09-13T10:55:00.007-04:00

my first week as an adjunct professor: survived. second week: started. we spent this weekend at a wedding in ohio, so i already feel a little behind. the northeast weather is fully falling, cooler. the air smells like chilled grass, the wet peels of potatoes. a wind is constantly tangling my hair. it's a perfect kind of dreary. all this rain & a sudden urge for tights. beds. boots & hikes through slow-turning leaves, their colors flickering on like florescent bulbs. it's hard to imagine that a little over a week ago it was 98, blazing. i am dreaming of apples, cinnamon, mugs of hot drinks for warming one's hands.

{picture from our rooftop. can you believe the trees? the moody light? yes, we live in the city.}

stop. hammer time.

2010-09-07T09:02:00.001-04:00

first morning of teaching. in fact, by the time this goes up i'll already be half way through class one (oh yes, it's sunshine classes at 8am). let's hope my day goes a little like this: unexpected hammer dance in shiny-gold hammer pants? hell. yes.

the last day of summer

2010-09-06T10:19:00.017-04:00

dear summer,

you were much too short for me--between moving & job hunting & then scrambling to prepare a syllabus. i forgive you, of course. because there will be another one of you next year. & at that, hopefully one where Z & i are elatedly celebrating heading off to yet a new place, but this time for a more permanent time. meaning, there will be extra room for camping & bike riding & lazing about on rooftops. for letter-writing & poetry. in the end, i admit that you were a bit hot for my taste. this was a year where i was forced into shorts & a bathing suit. a little unwillingly. (though i really adore swimming, so thanks). i'll admit i'm super glad it's sleeve weather again. i love sleeves. & layerings. & not having to sweat to death every time i open a window. also, the grey skies make me feel cozy. i'm an eastcoaster, summer. & i actually like snow. don't worry though, i'm sure i'll miss you come march. but, by then, you'll already be on your way back.

love,

{image via slate}

horses of course

2010-09-02T15:33:00.023-04:00

me & these pony prix tights need each other. unfortunately, i just don't know if i can pull these off as teaching attire. & teaching attire is all that's in the tiny budget these days. yesterday, while searching for my classrooms after a department meeting, someone asked me if i was a freshman. yikes! i've been trying to figure out how to feel professionally dressed while still looking like myself (not like some weirdo in business clothes). apparently, even all gussied up i look like a student when i'm lost (which is sad, again, for the pony tights & their youthfulness).* it was easier to feel like i could get away with dressy dark jeans at cornell since i was hired to teach after being a grad student there. not so much with the new job. so people--any suggestions?!

* i once jumped off a very high bridge to avoid being called a "skirt"--obviously there's nothing worse to a tomboy than being called a lady! if my fifteen-year-old self could have seen me coveting tights & with a closet-full of 50s party dresses, she would surely have fainted.

renewing our vow(el)s

2010-08-31T16:34:00.001-04:00

after five months of careful setting aside, we finally replaced my lost wedding band. on sunday night we sat down to look through the wedding photos & imagine the day over. & when we were filled up by, brimming over with, on the edges of all that light all over again, we went to the rooftop of our new place & performed a small ritual for the ring renewal. we exchanged vows & made new promises to each other; we blessed our first year & the years to come. while it kills me a little that at the end of our lives Z's ring will have the wear of a full marriage & i will be minus a year--really, it's the kick ass marriage that matters.

the vows we exchanged & exchanged again:

I am committed to this joining together of two as two—to the complex connection of tissue and light, which comes with a marriage. I am committed to maintaining the intense, vast, & sometimes-secret universes that we found in each other when we met. I am committed to protecting your solitude in order for our passions to be fulfilled & particularly to protecting the ambition that sparked us into ignition. I am committed to you in moments of disrepair & sorrow, stress & sickness, but especially to making sure there is even more laughter and light in these moments. I am committed to the delicacy & lacing of your heart and its many-leveled chambers. I am committed to loving you through these bright cells of our beginning & into the brighter cells of our growing old together. I am committed to you as memory, as now, & as an unfolding lifetime. I am committed to your more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.

bullfighter jacket

2010-08-30T10:56:00.004-04:00

can't get enough of this poppy tune. seriously. how can you not dig these lines: "you've got your bullfighter's jacket on, with nothing beneath. i had to take my mask off to kiss you in the street"? for me, there's nothing like bizarre love songs.

(every semester i assign my students the task of writing a bizzare/odd love poem. it's a great way to get them using more interesting metaphors. as in, no you cannot describe someone's eyes as being like the sky. unless it's another planet's sky? then maybe.)

teen angst

2010-08-25T15:36:00.014-04:00

occasionally i feel a bit sad that i didn't meet Z sooner (my parents met at 19 & 21 and my sister & her husband met at 19& 20). i wonder if we would have hit it off as more immature versions of ourselves? here were are, both around 17 or 18. keep in mind, i actually have sort of strawberry dirty blonde curly hair (oh 90s straightening fads). whereas Z's hair is naturally that jet black. (lucky guy--he never had a bad-goth-dye moment). the photo of me was taken just before prom. my friend gloria made the dress & i'm wearing elbow-length white gloves. over my shoulder you can see my high school boyfriend's little brother. the photo of Z was taken while he was recovering from a wild mugging where he was punched while holding a sheet pizza (long story). he ducked under the first swing and was hit by the second. the doctors had to put two metal plates in his face. (his girlfriend at the time didn't visit him in the hospital. which crushes me. obviously, my louis brooks self would have brought him silent films & cookies). on the positive side--while recovering those long hours in bed, Z taught himself sleight of hand magic tricks. like how to pull an egg from his future wife's ear.

not quite back into my computer yet. thought it's becoming long sleeve weather. as soon as i'm done syllabusting, i may have time for normal people things--like phone calls & blogging.

patio games

2010-08-12T14:51:00.007-04:00

backyard scrabble = genius. also, did you know tonight there is this? get to your rooftops. watch.

(via designcrush}

bench marks

2010-08-10T17:27:00.008-04:00

i have a real thing for brightly painted old wood. & vintage buoys. i mean, who doesn't love a word which simultaneously means a warning or navigational mark & to keep things afloat, a mood lifted. i don't know why, but outside of niece/sister/husband/general people-related goodness, the last couple of days sucked. seriously. stress + heat + unpacking books + having no place to unpack books has meant a lot of crankiness. so we bit the bullet & purchased a blue vintage bench we spotted a few weeks ago. it's not only rocktastic but 100 inches of book-holding (on & under) goodness. i'd buy a buoy to buoy, but that is just not in the budget. (maybe as future book ends?!).

soon there will be pictures of the new apartment & our wedding & some more regular postings. but for now--it's summer. & summer is not for computers on your off time when yourwork time is also for the computers. computers are not for the birds.

oh august

2010-08-03T09:34:00.003-04:00

the perfect hot august-afternoon tune. (& can you believe it's august? yow.)

miles of papers to go before i sleep

2010-07-28T05:55:00.002-04:00

i am psyched to say that i was hired to teach in the english department at a kicking university! job search = over. finally. while the class times are not great, i'm still thrilled!* teaching is something that affords me time to write on the side & keeps me thinking about language. classes start the first week of september--which is just enough time to pull together a course & read all the materials. yow! no more job search means i'll have mornings for writing, afternoons for prep, and evenings to blog & finally return the dozens of phone calls to people i love that i have missed due to the festival of wild job-hunting/moving/visitations that has been this summer. what a relief!

*update: i took the tues/thurs time slots. because really, i like to stay up late too much to be in bed at 10pm four nights a week. two nights i can handle. here we go!

art imitates life imitates

2010-07-26T10:07:00.002-04:00

yes, madmen returns: danish modern. perfect suit lines. fifties confectionary dresses. & poetry.

from Frank O'Hara's "Mayakovsky"

Now I am quietly waiting for

the catastrophe of my personality

to seem beautiful again,

and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and

brown and white in trees,

snows and skies of laughter

always diminishing, less funny

not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of

the year, what does he think of

that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,

perhaps I am myself again.

back in black

2010-07-23T10:55:00.018-04:00

i'm trying to get a bunch of work done this morning despite the fact that there are nighttime-feeling skies & it's 11am. Z's family is up for the week & in the afternoons we are adventuring around with them on a bit of a staycation. it's wonderful to have guests to kick you out into your own city & see new things (for us, in some ways, for the first time). i might have wished for drier skies--but this city gets more rain than london or seattle. i've learned to have an almost affection for an-evening-kind-of-light at the wrong hours.

(two snapshots from our romantically neon trip to niagara falls)

reloping

2010-07-17T07:05:00.004-04:00

tomorrow marks one year of marriage. & what a wild-ride-of-a-year it was. i would be lying if i said it was easy--to get hitched, move out, fly across an ocean, flat hunt & find, settle in, work like crazy, & move out again in under twelve months. in fact, Z & i struggled quite a bit this first year--being off away from our family & friends, in a new country, in a matchbox flat. in the end, the lonelinesses were helped by the adventurings. the fights by the figuring things out. & we met some incredible poets & bloggers (in person) . but we both feel ready for a year with less boxes & airplanes & adjustments. since we're a little traveled out, we decided to keep our anniversary easy. tomorrow we're amtraking up to the canadian side of niagara falls (it's under two hours from here). we plan to head to one of those amazing 24-hour chapels to relope, & then off to bad wax museums, ripleys & ferris wheels before we return tuesday. what better way to ring in a new, more grounded year with my canadian husband than the cheesiest place in canada?! (i may have even got myself a sweet little key dress for the occasion).

p.s. did i mention that Z's been off teaching at a princeton summer program. & we haven't seen in each other in three & a half weeks?! hell yes to anniversary reunions.

music for cooling off

2010-07-08T11:09:00.002-04:00

i have been listening to this song on repeat all week.* it's the musical equivalent of pressing your face against the refrigerator door in the middle of the night. or lying on bathroom tiles to cool off. the kind of song that makes you feel a little less 100-degrees-in-july-without-airconditioning. (& speaking of airconditioning, i may have just traded some niece-babysitting for an airconditioned car in which to travel to my job interview today. desperate measures. desperate measures).

*this isn't the actual video, it's just the least scary fan video.

so hot i could

2010-07-05T22:06:00.012-04:00

it's not that i don't miss blogging. i really do. it's just that it's too darn hot. for anything. except maybe beachballs & bathingsuits & stripes. and even then. really?!

(there's nothing quite like northeastern heat denial & our almost complete lack of air conditioning. wandering around grocery stores can only happen so many times a day).

{image via prettyprettypaper via here}

routines

2010-06-15T05:43:00.001-04:00

Z & i are finally into our new place.* the boxes still fully packed, stacked in corners & along the foot of our bare bed, our furniture scattered like statues. but we are here! having grown up in a small town outside of this city, i am excited to be spending a year right in the jam of things. upstate new york (& i mean actual upstate) never ceases to knock the wind out of me with its arms full of forests & farms & the kind of hills which unspool themselves so slowly it doesn't kill you to own a standard car (ithaca might seriously have eaten a clutch or two). from our rooftop it's miles of houses tucked into trees, sprawling brick buildings, & a few skyscrapers standing shyly out of the forest. hard not to dig a cityscape which is equally industrial & green. my favorite part: we are living just a few houses away from where my mother lived in 1972! the next few days are all about finding out what's inside our mountain of boxes--the thrill of uncovering old stuff along with all the fun wedding gifts we received & had to pack up immediately. whoopie! wish us luck unfolding our lives back into some sort of order.

*i am finding that blogging was much easier when i had a routine of when i wrote & where. i'm sure life will get back to normal soon enough.

summering feet

2010-06-06T13:22:00.031-04:00

this past week has been a blur of apartment hunting, job applications, & niece watching. all things which feel like amazing headway toward settling in for our next year. but, considering i arrived in the states wearing a mac, a scarf, leggings, & boots, i was wholly unprepared for the 90-degree summering of new york. ouch. first things first: find sandals fast (i can't do flip flops since i drive a standard). i have to admit, despite my serious skepticism of gladiators, this pair turned out to be affordable perfection. i'm converted. they're so comfortable & sexy (& killer when rocked with this shade), that i'm thinking i might just need them in black.

furniture futures

2010-05-31T14:10:00.003-04:00

i promise to be back in blogging action soon--but i needed a little family & sun, backyards & grill food, visits to friends who i haven't seen in a year. in the meantime, Z is still in london finishing things up in his program & packing up the rest of our lives there. so, if you want furniture, mirrors, fun things with which to furnish a flat, leave a comment here or email. everything has to go before wednesday!

crash years

2010-05-24T15:55:00.001-04:00

the new pornographers put me in mind of ithaca--: of the greenery & gorges of a central new york spring (closely followed by the heatwaving lushness of summer). of bars in may & meeting Z for the first time. of rocking out in my car along cayuga lake. of making garland after coffee filter garland for our wedding. so last week, in celebration of our third anniversary, i gifted Z the crash years. & we've been listening on repeat (across continents) to its guitarshine sweetness. i have to say: what a kicking goodbye soundtrack. what a welcoming hello hello.

(p.s. we finally got our wedding photos. & oh my!)

between

2010-05-20T05:09:00.007-04:00

today i am flying back, after almost a year of london-ness. it's been too wild a week--mostly postless (sorry!) & without much room for seeing the city before leave-taking (damn you food-poisoning!). so this morning i am hoping to pull out the polaroid & wander around in the neighborhood for a few last snapshots. to take a little bit of time to say my goodbyes at least to the small radius of where we have been living. Z will be here for a little longer, finishing up his work & packaging the rest of our year into luggage & boxes & brain spaces. i'm caught between a feeling of exhilaration at seeing my family after so long & terrible sadness at finding myself at the end of this city year. there's still a lot of posts ahead & london things to unpack & process. so as long as you all will keep reading, this blog isn't going anywhere.

birthdays, bicycles, oysters

2010-05-18T12:37:00.020-04:00

i'm still in recovery mode (& hopefully giving a reading tomorrow, then flying off into the sunset thursday). so i thought i'd give you a tiny photo recap of the birthday seaside amazingness. Z swept me off on an almost-surprise trip to whitsable (in kent) for the turning of 29 (the need to buy tickets home bit made it easier if he shared in advance). it was everything one could want out of realizing they are closer to 30: the sea (!), adventure, oysters, wild boar statue kissing, bicycles, delicious seafood, shell collecting, & a little pint-induced silliness. there might have also been some ice-cream, and some hotel-ness, & some general we love england swooning. Z knows i hate birthdays, & his pre-planned whisking off was just the thing to cheer a slightly melancholy me. considering last year at this time i still hadn't left north america, it was quite the way to kick off a new year!

food poisoning

2010-05-17T14:02:00.006-04:00

a little under the weather over here. hoping to be back to normal soon. (i had forgotten how hard fevers actually are--& oh, the delirious conversations!)

{image via marshallart's}

england vs. america

2010-05-13T06:16:00.010-04:00

today i am off to teach/take part in a panel discussion on the differences between american vs. british contemporary poetry. considering the rest of the panel is composed of much more established writers, i'm a bit nervous. in any case, i'm sure it will be quite the experience. wish me luck! (p.s. tomorrow i will be getting just a little older, a handful of days closer to thirty, & 366 earth revolutions away from twenty-eight).

{image via cambria}

london: well curated

2010-05-12T05:58:00.002-04:00

there is nothing sexier than finding yourself in a store with incredible design & a well-curated selection. & while most people don't think about books as things that need to be well sorted or selected, there is a lot to be said for a good eye & a little specialization. i love the feeling of finding myself in a place where i want to read everything on the shelves. i was lured to lutyens & rubinstein by my friend j* while she was visiting (a famous author friend of hers had suggested it). & it was staggering! half bookstore, half literary agency, specializing in fiction & children's books.** i practically fainted. their organization was drool-worthy--how many places separate short story collections from novels?! they also sold a perfect selection of cb i hate perfumes (library & poetry scented perfume in a bookstore? genius.). there were book-page fans on the ceiling & a giant scroll of calligraphied/screen printed quotes swept across the front window. marvelous to marvel at the whole place! i can't wait to take Z there before we head off. the shop, just off portobello road, is a must.

*for the record of records, i have two friends whose names begin with J that i talk about on here. i realize that many of you probably think i am always talking of the same one.

**now if they would just add some good poetry!

furniture

2010-05-11T07:45:00.009-04:00

any of you london readers in need of some furniture? sadly, Z & i are having to wind down our year here a few weeks early (unexpectedly) so we'll be needing to get rid of our furniture lickety-split! despite our best efforts to keep our place pretty spare we still have quite a bit. there's a beautiful georgian dining table (with foldable wings) & two chairs, three metal book shelves, a small modern love-seat that pulls out into a bed, a vintage style clothing rack, two danish modern chairs (Z is eating a donut on one above), a long mirror, and the thing i am saddest to let go of--a vintage school desk with two opening sides (perfect for storage or to turn into a vanity with a mirror inside). if you are interested i'll send pics via email.

wet sandwiches

2010-05-10T16:12:00.012-04:00

today was not a good day. tomorrow does not look promising either. in the midst of my decidedly un-violet melancholy, i need to prep for teaching. meet deadlines. remember how to sleep. i'm trying to keep a stiff upper lip, drink lots of tea, distract myself in a mizzle of words. but nothing is really helping. any suggestions? in the meantime, i've been listening to a lot of this. why do sad songs always make me feel happier?!

on a sillier note: i'm in love with a slang term i learned for someone whose a bit overly sad all the time--a wet sandwich. isn't it so fitting?! today i am a total wet sandwich.

do not be scared of being eaten

2010-05-07T11:00:00.008-04:00

there's something so ridiculous & charming about these little shadow-boxes of animals. so much so that despite a rather dreary morning their cheeky slogans have cheered me right up. can you tell i'm supposed to be working on a deadline?!

the real thing

2010-05-06T06:13:00.001-04:00

did i mention that while J was here we went to see the phenomenal tom stoppard play the real thing? we sat in the second row, practically in the room with these lovers as their lives whirlwinded & lusted & crumbled. seeing this piece as my first non-college/high school theater was a spectacular fizz. not in the least for its meta-ness concerning writers & their lives as people, as writers, as lovers. i can't wait to sit down and read the script--to roll back over some of the intensity in detail. there is a lot to be said for the live, electric word. i'm trying to catch as much of the glittery ephemeral aspects of london before we leave, so this afternoon i have tickets to this (i can't decide if i'm more excited for the actual pieces or the idea of feeling like i am in a secret section of the V&A).

buildings of brighton

2010-05-04T09:10:00.001-04:00

i have a thing for buying art that marks a specific time in my life. when we visited brighton a few months back, i was really taken by the ghosted seaside town--its intriguing history & vintage postcard looks. since then i've been keeping an eye out for related prints. these ones by robin101 hit the spot with their clean lines & bright color contrast. i'd love to put two or three of these up in our next space.

pop couplets

2010-05-03T12:21:00.006-04:00

here's a sugar-poppy tune for you this sunny bank holiday (in england)--i've been listening to it quite a bit since reading this article. who knew lily allen & poetry would end up in the same space?!

disappearing into

2010-04-30T05:16:00.002-04:00

day trips out of london during the week are spectacular: empty trains. countryside. tourist-less sites. grey-bright afternoons filled with stillness & tended stones, fields, cows, & the surrealscape of sheep in low grass (in some places it felt like we were traversing across a strange mini-golf course). the english countryside lends itself well to breathing, to the wonders of lost-ness, to disappearing for days.

piercing quotations

2010-04-29T08:36:00.005-04:00

quotation mark earrings? yes, please!

{via postgradhaircut}

tying one on

2010-04-27T11:11:00.009-04:00

i may have tied one on last night after my reading (it went well & it was incredibly fizz-filled to have J here to support me). so today i'm feeling a little, well, like i wish i was being wheeled around & that i had a paper bag on hand at all times. tomorrow we are off to stonehenge. nothing like trains & prehistoria to counteract a wild night.

{image via retrofuture}

sexy covers

2010-04-26T08:13:00.001-04:00

a sexy (& sinister) clash cover for you this brilliant monday.

recycling wind

2010-04-23T08:51:00.015-04:00

the idea of a tote made from a recycled sail makes me so happy. like something stitched with wind. and really, today would be the perfect sort of day for sailing. but since that's not really possible, Z & i are thinking to head off to some gardens instead, to a sea of flowers & greening & the first bees of a season. tonight we'll be getting our flat ready for our house guest (yay!) and sipping on the spring-ness of hendricks & cucumbers. this weekend will be filled with old friends (not one, but two of my mfa cohort will be here!), fresh market food, & london london london. (i'll also be anxiously preparing for a small reading monday. wish me luck!). happy friday everyone!

beautiful machines

2010-04-22T05:15:00.016-04:00

because i was a sport-playing teenager, i learned to loathe exercising indoors or without a ball-chasing purpose. as a twenty-something, this has meant that most of my cardio has come from walking/hiking/bicycling. but last week i sucked it up & joined the gym across the street. i've been feeling a little bit dark at the edges (my brain curling like burnt paper) & thought exercise might be a way to feel less stressed/ more motivated. so far. so good. this morning i had the mandatory meeting with the personal trainer. & though i was not excited (can't a gal just get her cardio on without someone watching?!) it wasn't so bad. i'm actually not unhealthy! plus, the trainer agreed with my cardio to clear my cluttered writer's head plan.

(i can't decide if i'm thrilled or disappointed that none of the machines i used today were as intricate as the 1920s exercise apparatus above. and my workout clothes? way less classy.)

{via exerciseproper}

stun-glasses

2010-04-21T09:30:00.001-04:00

these sunglasses from oliver peoples are fabulous. too bad they are mad expensive. i own one decent pair of sunglasses & i'm always scared i'll forget the case or smash them. (& by decent i mean like $30 & they currently need an eyeglass screw). i can't even imagine the wreck i'd be with a pair that cost as much as my wedding dress. still, those curves are sweet! (i think i'll just head down to the camden markets for a £5 pair that i can toss in my bag and not worry about).

wednesdays have gone to the words

2010-04-21T07:52:00.003-04:00

it's been a while since i followed through on my wednesdays. but now seems as good a time as any to pick it back up. here's a water-lyric by annie finch:

Gulls at Todd's Point

Shivering, knowing how lines of the tide

use seaweed, and sea-drift, and sea-touch (and bone)

to etch with, I wait to be marked on the sand

(a dragged sag of rockweed, a bulbed grace undone),

moved each way like feathers, slipped slow like a hand,

or whitened past breath. I’ve been moved till I’m gone

and nothing is ready to hold me inside—

following gull-shadows back over the land,

hiding myself. But there’s no place to hide,

whitening my hair in the wind or at dawn;

seagulls are whitening too, and they mourn,

turning and turning.

vespa love

2010-04-20T04:22:00.001-04:00

who says you can't have crazy-love shots at any time? our friends j & r have been married almost four years now. & damn--hotpants! the extra sweet part? the vespa is no prop--june rides that hot red thang to work everyday (she's a professor!).

{via growingtreephotography}

volcanic ash over london

2010-04-19T06:20:00.003-04:00

grounded planes. abandoned runways. ash alchemized to glass. ice the size of small houses. flash floods. paralyzed skies. smoke plumes. it is a rather strange time to be in europe. it's quieter. sharper. anxious. volcanoes are usually such shy & slumbering disasters. then with a literal bang, we seem to have found ourselves in a serious flight crisis. of course, my best friend J is scheduled to arrive on satuday. i haven't seen her since the wedding. & there's so much of a city to unfold! so please cross your fingers (especially for all these stranded & stressed-out people--the stories of people out of money, sleeping in airports on issued crackers makes my stomach ache). dream of clear skies, of this pesky volcano settling itself back into blackout.

i spy with my ampersand eyes

2010-04-16T12:34:00.001-04:00

Z surprised me yesterday with an early birthday cheer up gift (still no ring & each day it feels less & less likely). as i've said before, i have quite a thing for ampersands. their curve is sweet & sexy. their function of conjoining so necessary! naturally, this snellen-style ampersand chart makes me feel giddy with nerdiness. that's right, punctuation swoon. (they are, in fact, sold out. but if you are fast you can get a cheaper proof--which is how Z sneakily got one for me.) i hope your weekend is kicking off with some sort of fireworks!

libraries of inspiration

2010-04-16T04:39:00.003-04:00

this morning i am off to see: the jaw-dropping size of the british library, some famously halved caryatids, & the literary sector of london. i need a bit of a catalyst & these places feel like they will fire solid starting pistols. i'll also take a classic can of inspiration, please.

{via automatism}

postcards from italy

2010-04-15T10:03:00.001-04:00

italy through the peephole of our camera.

(sigh. i spent a long time choosing the exact number of pictures so as to finish at the end of the song. i see now when previewed online that sometimes the photos take time to load. oh well).

small perfections, or a kind of self indulgence

2010-04-14T06:25:00.004-04:00

my first impulse after any kind of sadness or loss is to find unexpected sparks, tiny things which fill me up with fizz. an example--having lived here for 8 months now, i have perfected the ability, without measuring, to pour the exact right amount of milk into the pan for morning hot chocolate. and by exact, i mean milk that when poured hot hits right at the lip of any of our (three) mugs. there's something to be said for elegance on a small scale. not too mention that i actually look forward to the sound of the gas igniting--a tiny parachute bursting open in the kitchen.

p.s. the above heart chocolate was consumed at the flower market on valentines day. heart petals in the milk bubbles of my beverage are not quite my style. also, i am slide-showing it up for the italy pictures. soon to be posted!

blackout, lemons

2010-04-13T07:44:00.001-04:00

things that have gone wrong since our arrival back: one dead mouse, one lost wedding ring, one black out, one sh#$%y internet connection (hence the lack of italy pictures). right now it feels a little like london is handing us some serious lemons. the tiny upsides: the pesky mouse is finally caught (of course he decides to go in the trap while we are away so that we couldn't release him); we spent most of last night in the romantic glow of the streetlamps because we were candle-less (of course!) & had only small book lights to navigate by. but the wedding ring? well, i'm more than devastated & just trying to hang in. we've searched high & low (interrupted by lack of light) & still haven't found it. i dreamt all last night of Z finding it & slipping it on my sleeping hands. the grief of its possible-real loss woke me up this morning. the ring (above, though in gold) was made by andrea corson & is a slim beautiful thing. during the wedding ceremony, as per jewish tradition, the nearly thousand-year-old custom is to place the ring on the right index finger instead of the ring finger. this tradition stems from the ancient belief that the index finger was directly connected by a special artery to the heart—so joining the bride & groom’s hearts & the blood of the two families. i know that losing the ring isn't symbolic of something larger, but it's hard not to feel like we've broken something.

{image via laurenlemon}

home-made soup

2010-04-12T08:25:00.001-04:00

Z & i are back in london after a staggering week of city-ing & eating, family & unfathomable architecture. post sleeping off plane-rides & airport food, we spent the whole of yesterday rearranging our flat so we could feel a sense of newness, of this incredible edging into spring. truthfully, it felt like moving into our flat all over again--what a thrill to wake up facing a new direction, on the other side of the room, like finding yourself mid-night in a strange hotel! but this morning i also woke up feeling a little under energized. so Z is making me some delicious soup as we catch up on the domesticities of trip returns. i highly recommend trying this roasted amazingness, not in the least because it is very little work (just chop & shove into the oven, blend & then heat). i fell in love with parsnips on my first trip to nova scotia--Z's mom made traditional matzah-ball soup that featured these ghosted vegetables & i've been hooked ever since.

p.s. i promise there are actual pictures of italy to come this afternoon. despite some sadness, it's actually fantastic to be back in our dark city--we're home!

firenze

2010-04-06T07:35:00.000-04:00

Z & i arrived in firenze after a bit of the usual ridiculousness of traveling (though the training was wonder-lovely, complete with the delicious crumblings of italian cookies) . & seriously, what a spectacular city! in a minute we're off for a day of research & wandering & tasting. i'm sure we'll be beat when we return, but i can't wait to sit on our hotel balcony & unwind. after three years of planning for this trip, i'm actually exhilarated & anxious in equal measures. so wish me luck!

roma!

2010-04-05T06:52:00.010-04:00

such silences! there's been no internet-ing for us for the past week & it's been both a relief (seriously!) & a bit of a challenge. this is a city of history & light & ruins and less of the high-tech connections (i'm writing this from a mcdonald's where we found wireless finally!). for me, part of traveling has been the experience of writing the details out on here, unraveling the experiences as a language of happening. that said, traveling is also so much about folding oneself into a city--the feeling & movement of it. in rome, this has been about letting go of our usual way of being--of stressing & rushing & bouncing between deadlines; of internet & telephones & technology as a time saving. instead of the bustle & dust of london we've been enjoying a type of lengthening, of the light--of wandering & eating (my god, the food!) & listening to the song of another language spoken on trams & sidewalks & in hotel lobbies. we've been doing a lot of reading & soaking in the history it takes to create a ruin.we've also been forgetting to sleep! (who wouldn't, what a place to be!) i promise to post more regularly this week, but i am thinking of taking a bit of this less computerered mentality home with me. happy monday from rome!

packing makes the heart grow...

2010-03-30T12:13:00.003-04:00

frantic! Z & i have so much to do before we leave tomorrow it's a wonder we're not losing our heads. nothing like traveling the day before a serious set of deadlines. i'm sure we'll be up quite late packing & cleaning & doing the sort of travel-dance one does when they have left a boatload of things to the last minute. but it will all be worth it. tomorrow we'll be flying into italy, where i hear there are ruins made of light & spring spring spring. (in the meantime it's all printing, post-offices, & packaging up manuscripts for me).

{via atypicalart}

not clocking the bartender

2010-03-29T17:46:00.012-04:00

in my opinion, there is nothing better than a glass of scotch to celebrate the end of a monday. the week has successfully begun & it was a productive day. the day after tomorrow we're heading off to italy for research & to visit Z's sister. shizam. anyone have suggestions of things to see/do/eat in rome or florence?!

(for the record, at the fanciest wedding i ever attended i ordered a scotch on the rocks & the bartender replied: are you sure? that's a tall order for such a little lady. i had to literally restrain from myself from clocking him. i mean i get it, i was kicking it in a black fifties cocktail dress, but in my mind that fit the situation even better).

{via djdasmeg}

rough & tumble

2010-03-29T09:59:00.002-04:00

i don't know about you, but i'm really hard on handbags. i want to have lovely ones that stay glossed & sweet & make me feel like a slick lady of the forties. but in reality, i mostly use canvas totes or well-studded leather purses which are meant to be kicked around a bit. so i'm usually on the look-out for a bag which will hold up to my rough & tumble tendencies (& fit my mac in safely). this one from heritage is the perfect artist/carpenter/crafter/forget being shy, i'm a tough-lady bag. the kind of bag that would never ask to be kept clean & neat. that refuses to be properly slung over the arm of a suit. yeah. this is a hard working bad-ass of a bag. & i'd be proud to tote it around.

{via something'shidinginhere}

big echo

2010-03-29T07:15:00.005-04:00

what with this weekend's newly sprung-forward light*, i thought i'd kick the week off on a slow & sweet note. something about the dreamy quality of the morning benders' new album tells me it will be a summer driving staple. i love the sound of this track's laid-back guitar lines/vocals mixed with the movie-love-scene orchestral swells--it makes me think equally of beaches & waltzing. a little bit beatles, a little bit buddy holly, a little nostalgia-inducing--all in good measures.

*daylight savings just happened here. oh england.

london sundays: borough market

2010-03-28T13:11:00.001-04:00

friday afternoon Z & headed out to the borough market for some delicious grubbing, people-watching, & general anti-stressing. located near london bridge in a train-station-like building made of metal & light, the market is full-up with food & wonders! in the threaded-through stalls there were fishes & curries & stews, kangaroo burgers (which Z tried) & lamburgers & ostrich steaks. pasteis de nata & fresh crepes & turkish delight by the basket. freshmade cider, crazy imported beer & lavender lemonade in fancy stopped bottles. the whole market, with its old-school vibes & signage, felt a bit like being in movie. it was also quite the scent-sensory experience! we ate our selves silly on burgers & small sweets, toasted with champagne cider, and then spent some time just wandering around, thinking of places different smells reminded us of, & of people we would love to be meeting at the market. it was a delectable way to celebrate a long week & to see a new corner of london. next trip we are decidedly going to try on a weekday to avoid some of the rush & elbows, but even wall-to-wall with people it was pretty much a dreamboat.

finito!

2010-03-26T14:45:00.001-04:00

the good news is that in the last few days i started & finished a ridiculously challenging piece. and for me, this is cause for a serious celebration.* the bad news is that tending to language & poemetics is often exhausting & exhilarating in equal measures & so i've barely been writing on here this week. again. but i swear, it's not you, it's me. & i also swear that i will be back with the ever-promised london sundays posts. i know this because Z is making me go market-ing & city-seeing & various other ing-ings which involve the outdoor world of non-computers. which is good for me. because even though spring seems to have evaded london (other than one nice day last week) there is no better salve than to be wandering around in the bustle & dust of this rather sexy city. besides, the more i'm outside, the more the computer seems less jello-brain inducing when i return. i hope you are all having a killer friday/beginning of the weekend!

* i am, in fact, celebrating as i type this--with a delicious bitter chocolate beer we picked up from the borough market this afternoon. where we may also have indulged in/toasted with some cider champagne. finishing this piece = really big deal.

{image via heidislimane}

wedding graduate post, part two

2010-03-26T05:30:00.002-04:00

my long-winded half of the graduate posting is now up! eight months in & the crazy feeling of being married still hasn't worn off.

sweet & mimi

2010-03-25T12:13:00.001-04:00

this afternoon i stumbled across mimi's super cool wallets/coin purses with a lucky bird gold foil design on them. i've seen lots of lucky bird's sweet cards & planters around the city (they are stocked everywhere from liberty to a stall in the broadway market) so i was pretty psyched to see this collaboration! both of these are the perfect size for stashing coins/cash/& a card. (i also super heart the key pencil case). there's just so many neat designers to discover in this city.

{via mimi}

graduate post, part one

2010-03-25T09:03:00.001-04:00

the groom half of our wedding graduate post is currently up over here. go check it out! because seriously, not enough grooms are sharing their experiences. & well, Z has a pretty funny take on the whole wedding industrial complex.

{images via andrea casey}

oceanlining your windows

2010-03-24T12:49:00.003-04:00

dear anthro, your curiosity-cabinetesque deep sea curtains are loveliness. but your prices are so far from feasible.

book screens

2010-03-24T06:47:00.003-04:00

old hardcover books turned into bright folding screens? genius. i love how the designer used pages from the original books as the backing (& those extra, extra pages can be used in a hundred different projects). not that i'm advocating trashing literature, but some used book sales sell by the bag on the last day & this would be a great project. since many of these sales throw out the books that don't get bought, i'd much rather re-purpose. these screens would make for a fantastic photobooth backdrop with practical post-wedding use* and/or a killer headboard. i'd especially love to see one constructed from just one color palette of covers--subtle differences arranged in a progression, like paint-chip cards.

*i have to admit, anything that was used on our wedding day we decided either had to be re-usable afterward, & by re-usable i mean purposeful, or it had to be already owned. luckily we're pretty whimsical people, so things like $5 delineascopes counted as useful.

{via studiosam}

un-swell swellings.

2010-03-23T07:22:00.002-04:00

i've been having some serious allergy issues. & by issues i mean reactions that make my lips swell to 2 x angelina jolie's (i already have not so small lips). a week ago, this led me to the hospital walk-in & yesterday it was back to the doctor. i've spent a good many hours swimming in & out of antihistamine/steroid consciousness trying to make sense of what time/day it is. we're not sure if it's a food allergy or what, but the doc says that with each successive time it gets easier to trigger & is making me react to random things i'm not actually allergic to (making it hard to pinpoint). luckily the doctor prescribed me some non-drowsy superstrength antihistamines to start today, so keep your fingers crossed ( i love public healthcare). more posts to come now that i can make some sense! but first, i'm off to see a bit of this london spring-ing that i missed while cooped in a dreamstate for the last few days.

bright & kitschy

2010-03-22T07:48:00.001-04:00

this morning london is bustling & unusually sunny. in honor of this, i thought i'd start the week off with something a little sugary & british--a retro-cute new song/video by kate nash. i love the idea of listening to this while driving into work with the windows down. happy monday!

it's over!

2010-03-19T14:31:00.013-04:00

it's finally becoming spring here & i swear the whole of this rain-soaked city is dying to burst into blossom. to celebrate the end of an intense few days, yesterday we headed for a long coatless (!) walk along the thames & then out & about for an afternoon of city-seeing. after more sun than the whole last month combined, we found our way to gordon's wine bar. what a divine way to wind down after a long week. the wine list is drool-worthy but the ambiance is key--the bar is underground & you drink in the dark, candle-lit tunnels! while i was a bit sad to head inside while there was still sun outside (down there it's like instant-evening) we were thrilled to be relaxing amidst tables of people laughing & having a good chat (no loud music or wild pub-goers here). we tried two fantastic cheeses, four kinds of olives, hummus, & three delicious wines. & we left more than a bit tipsy on everything. if that isn't enough to convince you, it turns out that gordon's was originally the home of samuel pepys in the the 1680s! you have to love a city where you can drink amidst history.

sorry for being barely-here this week. i promise more posts & london sundays coming up!

{images via gordons}

coy embroidering

2010-03-18T05:01:00.001-04:00

i've been a bit quiet this week because i've been preparing to give a lecture today. to three times the number of students i am used to speaking in front of. who will all be very british. & will likely think my upstate accent is whack. the lecture is about writing for a living. about poetry & literary journals in the states & the differences between american & british poetics. yikes! so, while i'm off being terribly nervous & a bit brain-tied, i thought i'd share one of the embroidery projects i finished last month. this coy little lady comes from a jenny hart pattern & was surprisingly simple. not too shabby for a second project (you can even click to enlarge her & check my stitches). i've since made a few designs of my own which weren't quite as successful, but hey, i'm learning. hopefully i'll be back this afternoon relieved & ready to dig back into my own writing. wish me luck!

last macaron standing

2010-03-17T06:54:00.002-04:00

when we arrived back in london from paris, the box of macarons we bought was almost full (yeah, i ate the row of broken ones on the train). within a day it was totally empty. a month later we bought some more at harrods. by the end of the night? gone. then two weeks ago in brighton we found a french patisserie within the first five minutes of our trip, and we ate most of the macarons right then & there (we did take a few with us on the rollercoasters & they stayed mostly in tact!) sigh. some things are just too light-filled for their own good. so last week, recognizing we couldn't actually afford a macaron habit, i finally found a used copy of i love macarons & gifted it to Z! soon we'll baking away at our very own sugar-sparks! i'll let you know how it goes, particularly in light of our weird half-oven that Z accidentally cleaned the temperature numbers off of in an odd fit of vigor & vim. in other words, wish us luck!

p.s. my friend couldn't remember the name of these little confections at a party recently, and kept calling them pastel hamburgers. how awesome is that?

sweet supplies

2010-03-16T05:26:00.001-04:00

i have a real thing for office supplies. which might be because i love the feeling of sitting down to work at a well-organized desk (it makes writing feel a little more glamorous). but it might also be because creating the perfect office set-up is a fantastical way to procrastinate (bad habit). i've been eye-ing many an item from london's present&correct since well before our move here. but even after relocating to a more-manageable shipping zone, i've yet to indulge in anything (like their super-kicking organizational sets or vintage children's books!). if i were to break though, this stapler would be just the thing. simple, functional, & bright--gets me every time.

beware the ide(a)s of march

2010-03-15T07:26:00.001-04:00

oh middle of the month, how did you get here so fast?!! i thought i'd start off the week with a little monday morning jam. Z & i are pretty obsessed with thao & the get down stay down (the fake-out slow part of our first wedding dance was to their cover of you've really got a hold on me). it's some of the best cheer-up music on the block & makes me think of spring spring spring.

wordless somnambulist

2010-03-12T10:19:00.002-05:00

sorry folks. i seem to be having a sort of slow, dream-state kind of day. Z & i are both zonked after a long week. we have some fun plans for the weekend, which may just include a victorian-style fair. but for now, i'm too scattered for words.

{image via tenderletters}

they'll name a city after us

2010-03-11T11:37:00.001-05:00

does anyone know any old/new nicknames for london besides the smoke or the old smoke? i'm not looking for something as famous or kitschy as the big apple, here. something a little more slang (though not slapstick) & from any time period. it has to be a nickname that solely belongs to london/would be able to place a non-englander in london (meaning generic things like the city won't work). any thoughts amazing-ones?!

musical tables, wish-gifts

2010-03-11T06:43:00.001-05:00

moving to a new country with as little as possible & living in a tiny studio flat (about three of my arm-lengths wide), Z & i weren't able to bring/have much in the way of extras. for Z, this has meant forgoing playing piano/keyboard for most of the year (the hours, understandably, to get into the practice rooms at the university are ridiculous!). i know all this not-playing breaks his heart a little. so, if i had mucho dollars i would buy him this electric piano table. not only would he be able to rock out, but we'd actually have spaces other than my writing desk for watching movies. & places other than the kitchen table for books & magazine & other day-to-day things that are so hard to put back on the shelves (meaning, we wouldn't eat on the floor because we are using our one table surface for so many stacks of books there's rarely room for plates). since it's electric, drinks would probably have to be off limits. & well, maybe it's a little romantic that we have books everywhere. right?!

{via unplggd}

unexpected wedding dresses: blue dahlias

2010-03-10T10:37:00.001-05:00

can someone please scoop up this number? another beautiful non-white option, with more than enough whimsy--the flowers, the detail, the crisp green ribbon!

{dress via timelessvixenvintage}

feathered pins

2010-03-10T06:35:00.002-05:00

as i've said before, i have a serious bobbypin problem. & with my new kicking haircut's mix of short/long bardot-ian layers, some sleek pins would be a huge help when i don't want the dramatic poof. these gold feathers from nestprettythings' shop are perfection. for some reason though, i always talk myself out of buying pretty much all small accessories--even my favorite pieces of jewelry were gifts from my friends J & J & my sister. maybe it's just because i tend to lose said small things too easily?!

{via nestprettythings & poppytalk}

animal hand-tattoos

2010-03-09T07:53:00.019-05:00

continuing with my theme of whacky awesome non-necessary items wanted from england at home...when i saw these animal hand-tattoos i immediately thought of my dad, who would dig their silly genius.* the concept is so fantastically simple! i love the rad designs & radiant colors (two key factors for a killer temporary tattoo). these would be perfect for a boring car ride or to cheer up your too-far-away daughter. if you aren't near brighton, you can find them online in many many places. because clearly, these are totally for grown-ups.

* for instance, while skype-ing recently, my pops & i were one-upping each other with various silly faced thumbpeople complete with paper hats.

badass brushing

2010-03-09T07:44:00.001-05:00

secret fact: one of my biggest gross-out factors is the gunk at the bottom of a toothbrush container. & though i clean ours out regularly, it still manages to make me squeemy. so i'm a huge fan of these individual toothbrush holders because there's nowhere for anything to collect! we saw these in person at one of the two england at home stores in brighton (one is more design & one is more furnishing, both are definitely worthwhile places to pop in). too bad we're not in the market for non-necessary items. if you are stateside, you can find cheap seconds of them here.

ringing in spring, dream jobs

2010-03-08T08:31:00.001-05:00

some of the best parts about spring: the return of ballet flats, light-weight jackets, & less layers (there's nothing better than throwing on a dress & being all set to go). the ever-rocktastic 13 bees is at it again, with some killer new spring-ing pieces just-added to her shop (& the extra delight of now offering international shipping). this criss-crossed dress makes me want to hop on a ferry to france & have mid-afternoon cocktails on the beach. sigh. someday i'd love to combine my obsession with books & vintage dresses, and open a well-curated shop with in-store tailoring. what could be better than writing poems surrounded by language & beautiful pieces of history--leather spines, metal zippers, & buttons oh my! just imagining racks of dresses next to color-blocked books makes me swoon.

fields of flowers

2010-03-08T06:41:00.001-05:00

this morning i wish i was out in a field, under sky-stretches & clouds, reading a good book.

{image via here}

it's here!

2010-03-05T14:21:00.002-05:00

it's the end of another week--& the start of what promises to be a warmish (!) weekend in london. there will be the return of the husband from work trips, walks & markets & cheese & belgian beer galore. if we are lucky it will be the end of these almost-spring ant invasions. & if we are super lucky the little micey who keeps night visiting will find his way to better fooderies than our little flat. what is it with the beginning of both coldsnaps & better weathers that brings out the critters?! hope your weekend is filled with strings of sunlight & darling things which don't want to eat your food unless you invite them.

{via designismine via here}

skeleton piers, ocean-salve

2010-03-05T06:56:00.001-05:00

brighton is a must-see city. especially off season, with its feeling of almost-abandonment & calm. i find comfort in the eeriness of super-populated places when they are empty, in cold weather ghost towns. the long working pier is sensational, with historical postcards (at one time brighton was the number one postcard picture in england), coin-operated binoculars with commentary, & divine fish n' chips. at the tip of the pier is a small amusement park where we laughed & hollered more than we have in weeks. due to inclement weather the rides required a certain number of people (we assume for balance), making it hard not to imagine the wind whipping us right off those metal tracks & out into icy waters. mostly this was a fun-scary sensation. one of the most intriguing parts for me was the collapsing west pier, off about a half a mile from the current one, which was the original attraction in the early 1900s. restoration efforts were abandoned a few years ago when, post-fire, the concert hall washed out into the ocean. what is left behind in the skeletoned arches is the idea of the place--one of the most rib-stitching-beautiful things i've seen in my life (definitely a topic for an upcoming piece). we ended our day at a killer vegetarian pub called the george & trained home with pocketfulls of shells & chalk-rocks shaped like strange bones. all in all, a rather romantic & rejuvenating day.

rock-ing chair!

2010-03-04T06:06:00.007-05:00

the dutch company oooms has created a way to turn almost any ordinary chair into a rocking chair. which is pretty much my idea of a dreamboat. holy moly! imagine the possibilities. i especially heart the top one--vintage schoolchairs makes me giddy.
pictures from our little trip to brighton coming up!

{via duo}

twist & stripe

2010-03-04T05:36:00.001-05:00

a rocking & simple twist on the ever-popular black/blue/white striped shirts which are cropping up everywhere. i've always felt i could never pull off red--but recently, for some reason, i am finding myself more & more attracted to the brightness. (my computer seems to make these stripes look orange, but it's listed as red & cream. so i'll go with the description).

Z left for a two day work trip & already i'm eating leftover pistachio macarons for breakfast. yikes!

penguined postcards

2010-03-03T08:01:00.002-05:00

these penguin postcards, with their one hundred covers of total vintage glory all in one kicking box, had been tempting me like crazy for the past few weeks. saturday, stuffed full of sugar at the london-fields market, i finally broke. as someone who goes through miles of postcards for applications, having a set on hand will totally save me from anymore late night mad-dashes out to the corner store for the inevitably terrible london tourist ones. and for the price, these babies are actually a steal--only fifteen pence a postcard. that's way better than pretty much anywhere around islington. though i have to admit, it is a little hard to let any of them go. they really are that cool. (never fear statesiders, they are available in boatloads of places).

{via designmuseum}

on piers & seagulls

2010-03-03T04:01:00.005-05:00

this morning i am off to brighton for a little british oceanside excursion--a make-myself-better by breathing salt-air & eating fried foods by the pier-side (& finding the gulls dressed like frenchfisherman so i can wish them a how-do-you-do). it's a much-needed break from deadlinings & elbow-rubbings & the many-layered mess that is trying to deal with the secretarial half of being a writer. oh, and the doldrums of computer screens. it's about time for a seeing & sounding & tasting--for a reminding that i am islanded in by such beautiful darkwaters.
(i think wayne pate's style is just the right mix of british-whimsical with a little side of vintage storybook).

{via goodshapedesign}

spring jackets

2010-03-02T15:28:00.004-05:00

dear built by wendy, in your spring preview you have a woman wearing the most fantastic green coat. with a zillion pockets. pockets which call for usual things like chapstick & glasses & tiny books; but also for more interesting (& sometimes heavier) things like smooth skipping stones & folded-up poems & boxes of matches & maybe even a small goldfish being taken home as a prize. this spring-fevering coat promises to hold many small cherishable things tucked neatly inside its dark, snapped pockets. it makes me want to walk nowhere for hours. hike around a forest with a map of the city. see the bronte sister's moors. climb up & down the greenery & gorges of ithaca. ride a bicycle through my childhood. but alas, i don't see it anywhere for the actual oggling/buying. & though i realize it is without-a-doubt way outside of my non-existent price range--a girl still likes to daydream & also to know for certain. what's the deal?! thanks, c.

rad tattoo

2010-03-02T06:11:00.002-05:00

this tattoo is pretty sweet. not in the least because this gal is clearly a true upstate-newyorker.

{via designcrush via whitneyarlene}

leaves of grass

2010-03-01T07:47:00.005-05:00

speaking of the end of winterings--these green page-markers are genius! considering how many books on our shelves have those terrible neon plastic strips sticking out the side, this would be a huge improvement. now, if only they were being sold nearby.

{via automatism via elle}

swinging into your week

2010-03-01T05:27:00.001-05:00

happy first day of march! the sun is warming up london & february has finally been shed for another year. what a relief. here's a tune to get your week started on a swinging note. kitty, daisy & lewis (siblings) are a band from north london whose music rolls on the rockabilly sounds of 1950s pop. it makes me want to grab Z & lindyhop away.

under ground beauty

2010-02-26T11:57:00.001-05:00

as most londoners do, i spend an inordinate amount of time waiting around in tube tunnels brimming with people & pushing & impatience. but today i happened into a station which was quiet, filled with something close to a stillness--like a scene from a western with newspaper-tumbleweeds. this bought me a few more minutes to actually see something. usually the walls of the tube are plastered with advertisements or videos. but this station's signs were in-between states of the previous and the to-be: exquisite, ripped down. a little haunting. a little beautiful.

tonight we are off to see this at the screen on the green. Z may have reserved us a couch. and a bottle of wine.