read the printed word

i have to admit, there is nothing like the smell of library. of new book. of old book. of books all sitting in a row (the best repeated object, of course!). so yeah, i'm a super promoter of words printed on paper and of books which fit snug in purses & pockets (instead of just phones). as a writer, afterall, my living depends on people actually buying the future books i produce, not just stealing them off the internets. so: save the pages! save the writers! and add this to your blog if you, too, love printed pages as opposed to just scrolling screens of letters. for the record, if there were no more library books, i would truly miss wondering who had taken the book out before me and occasionally wishing i could meet them!

(p.s. Z & i fully intend to have our dining room be in the library of our future grown-up house).

{image via calem.}

flea market wonder-cabinet

you can find nearly anything in the paris flea market--its vendors an archaeology of wild & beautiful items, a cabinet of the city's curiosities. sadly, i forgot that it's mainly a saturday event and as such we'll be missing it this trip. in any case, i have been re-collecting the market's incredibles & excavating images for poems. one of the things that i dig most is that despite the oddity of items, there are often duplicates! for some reason i love the look of multiples (the repeated object makes me a bit giddy). i also admit that i have a little obsession with diving bells--their shining heaviness, their bubble-gum-machine proportions. i'm gearing up for our travels, though i still feel shy of getting totally excited just yet--the whole eurostar freeze-ins have me waiting a few more days for full-on thrill.

taste of spring (ii)

difficult deadline = met. momentary relaxation ensues. meaning, less thinking about serious things, and more indulging in warm weather thinking. above, cute new looks from the spring dace collection. that second pair of pants are the exact thing i have been looking for. and the shoes? perfection. what do you all suggest to cheer up a busy & cold londoner?

scotch tape lightning

random (poetic) fact: not only does scotch tape emit light when peeled (i fully intend to check this out), but the emission produces electrons energetic enough to create short bursts of x-rays. in 2008, scientists discovered they could harness this microscopic tape-lightning and use it to take x-rays bright enough to capture finger bones. we live in a phenomenal world. read more here. (yes, this is the type of random research involved in writing sometimes).

taste of spring (i)

today the freeze & darks of london are making me feel static & over-contained (even the swans on the canal next to our flat are floating like slushed grocery bags on the filmy iced-over water). i miss the smell of dirt and grass and the air just before something (winter for me smells like a just-lit-match, like the air just after something). with a deadline looming tomorrow, i'm procrastinating by eve-dreaming of spring. this tiled dress & these bright 50s shoes are just the thing a gal needs for a proper warm weather reverie.

{images via anthropologie & deargoldenvintage}

cuttings

this afternoon i'm off for my first london haircut. wish me luck!

daydreaming: one dangerous night

i'm not a fur person at all, but the detail on this dress is the perfect amount of unexpected & dangerous. in a daydreamy mad men-esque version of our paris trip--i would wear this to a restaurant and let my husband (who everyone thinks is a stranger) pick me up with some sort of sweetly masculine line & then whisk me off for a boat ride. smoking.
{image via 13bees}

stitching in sweetness

next week Z & i are off to paris for another adventure. last time we picnicked on ile de la cite, cracked creme brulee at the cafe from amelie, kissed small cars, shot polaroids, took a boat ride in the moonlight, braved vintage stores without dressing rooms, and celebrated the beginning of our marriage. next week is a work trip, but it's also our six-month anniversary--so we are stitching some exploration & sweetness into the itinerary. our current brainstorms: head to the museums we missed last trip (we have gifted tickets from the wedding), visit a famous set of curiosity cabinets (which were closed), eat-sleep-breathe macarons, drink wine in cafes while people-watching, find a real-film photobooth, write new poems, see more of the ginormous flea markets, eat flaming crepes, photograph the city with our diana camera, and work our asses off. also, for some weird reason, i'm intent on finding a set of vintage glass pulls--i love the idea of having something small from paris that we will keep until the time is right to use them, a future gift to ourselves. if anyone has suggestions of things to do/see/eat please share!

a jimi hendrix experience

tonight we're off to a poetry reading held in the basement of a pub known for hosting some rather famous rockers (jimi hendrix, joni mitchell, bob dylan, elvis costello). i'm thinking it will be pretty kick-ass.

vintage balm

andrea garland combines two of my favorite things: vintage tins & lip balm. all of her products are 100% natural and all her packaging is recycled. how rocktastic is that?! available online here, at bricklane's sunday upmarket, & at liberty. yum.

the last iceberg

these photos are part of an incredible series by camille seaman, the last iceberg, which came out a few years ago. while at a bookstore this week, i stumbled upon an elizabeth bishop poem that reminded me of their starkness, their strange ache. so, in the shiver and snow of the city tonight, it feels like the perfect moment to share a bit of both artists' renditions of this frozen drifting.

first stanza from bishop's The Imaginary Iceberg:

We'd rather have the iceberg than the ship,
although it meant the end of travel.
Although it stood stock-still like cloudy rock
and all the sea were moving marble.
We'd rather have the iceberg than the ship;
we'd rather own this breathing plain of snow
though the ship's sails were laid upon the sea
as the snow lies undissolved upon the water.
O solemn, floating field,
are you aware an iceberg takes repose
with you, and when it wakes may pasture on your snows?

(read the rest of the poem by clicking on the title)

happy weekend everyone! i hope you are all knitted-in and keeping warm.

1930s fete

the birthday shindig of a fabulous london lady is tonight. and it's themed! though most of my stateside buddies hate themed parties, i'm all for them--not in the least because i love fashion history. tonight's details: 30s attire, bathtub gin in teacups. while i love the era's glam--my wedding dress was modern early 30s & the wedding took place in one of the first silent film studios in the US--for this occassion i've decided on something a bit more comfortable. the plan: channel one of the above looks (katharine hepburn is at the top!). so far, i haven't been able to find any pants quite as high or wasp-wasited, but if all else fails i have a pair that might do (a recovering gal should keep her goals in check, i guess. even if it is a dress-up party). so for now, let's just hope i feel well enough to go!

tea time!

what a great poster (& shirt)!! i heart esther aart's old-school style--it reminds me of vintage children's books. as is probably expected, i'm growing rather fond of tea these days.

{via grainedit}

colllections.

i can't help myself. grouped things make me swoon. see the series unfold here.

{via thesilverlining via swissmiss}

while i've been sleeping: hot potatoes

while i've been sleeping-sick, the country has been snowglobing. everything slowing down, sliding into a glacial slumber. and unlike the feeling i had of calm while watching the snow in the states, here the weather is disconcerting. there are gas shortages forewarned. the gritters* are on full duty. de-icing trains are running on every tube track. this is the coldest winter in thirty years. and if it continues this way into march, they predict the coldest winter in a hundred. Z & i are not quite prepared. we moved from a treacherously snow-cold city in the states thinking we'd have a mellow winter over here (we cheerily left our down puffer coats & boots behind); instead we are iceboxed in our flat. so i'm thinking tonight, maybe we'll make like these baboons in knowsley park and try some jacket potatoes** to warm us up!

*gritters: salt trucks
**jacket potatoes: baked potatoes

{image via theguardian}

stuffed chair-backs

i have a chair problem. a serious one. i have been known to stop & save chairs from the side of the road or to even ask friends to back up their cars to grab them with me (my favorite set of gentleman's cafe chairs were found this way). so these chair-top pillows immediately caught my eye. genius!

{via designsponge}

first merried christmas

a little over a year ago, on the 19th of december, the fancy campus to campus bus Z & i were slated to take from NYC back to ithaca was delayed. so we took our sweaty and gross selves (we had been wandering around all day with our luggage) into the nearby algonquin hotel for some cocktails & cheesecake. we were seated, to my delight, right in front of the famous round table. i was thrilled to finally be in the algonquin--sitting so near to where the literati of the 1920s once drank and coined famous phrases.


amidst our murderously expensive cocktails (i had the dorothy parker), Z & i started joking about engagements. then there was a sudden & small black box being opened. there was a ring & stillness. there were electric shock-waves which made me miss everything Z said. and, just when i thought the moment couldn't be more ridiculous & us, Z reached forward and pulled an egg from my ear. yes, ladies & gentleman, an egg. (important note: pulling an egg from an ear is a famous magic trick--one which i had previously & strangely exploited in a description of the qualities of my future perfect mate. as in, i said, i will marry the first man that can pull an egg from my ear. i wanted to find someone who was both smart & whimsical. the whimsy, of course, would be proven by his skills as a magician. all this would have been forgotten, had my friend J not reminded me of it at our MFA final reading, just two days before i met Z for the first time).

so Z asked me to marry him. and he proved his seriousness with an egg (it was wooden, a real egg would have been hard to come by). and because he is actually a skilled magician, he only had to practice this trick, not learn it (i mean seriously, how did i find this man?!). & i said yes, of course! the ring he gifted me was designed by iosselliani (found at honey in the rough) and is an orange garnet, flipped upside down and protected by an intricate gold dome casing. it is totally punk rock. and there isn't a girl in the world with this same ring.



so there we were, engaged in new york! our bus was delayed another whole day (meant to be?!) and the city coated itself in quiet-whites. we called our parents. we stole a fork to mark the moment (my mom stole a soup spoon on her first date with my dad). we booked a room in a sweet hotel. and then we spent the night on air (& eating the best hamburgers of our lives).

amidst the rushing around and traveling this december, we didn't get to spend much time anniversary-ing. it's hard to believe this was already our first married christmas/hanukkah together. so i just wanted to take a minute to say, what a year! here's to a whole new year and new surprises! may all of us have more whimsy in our lives! (for the record, Z surprised me again at the wedding by pulling an egg from my ear after we had our first kiss. it was perfect. and we were a bit less grimy & winterized in those photos!).

flying by the seat of your

yes natalie, your tights are sensational. i'd like one of each bird pair, please.

{via stylebubble}

christmas crack up

this year Z's parents gifted my family a set of christmas crackers, a traditional british holiday game which consists of brightly wrapped cardboard tubes that you pull at each end--and with a bb-gun pop and snap out comes a crown & a prize. this particular version was a concerto--each cracker had a little whistle and a number and when conducted appropriately (by Z, of course) a holiday tune was created. that was the idea anyhow. not knowing some of the included british songs, we were sort of a hot mess of whistles and doubled-over laughing. regardless, it was a blast. and i think the beginning of a new holiday tradition!

geometry of pretty things

inspired by how happy this party dress post made me, i am thinking of pretty things this afternoon. pretty things one gets to wear out and about at night, in the glittering cold of london. this dress is a piece of art: all brightness & sequins (& at that price, might as well be behind glass!). something about the style reminds me of these drawings (& another artist's work that after much searching i can't seem find). in any case, here's to kicking this cold, to dresses, and to an eventual night on the town!

skeletons at sea

the good part about being sick is that it reminds me how physical our lives really are--and that i am otherwise healthy. so, while i'm not really enjoying all this bed-time as much as one might think--i'm also not annoyed that every time i cough i feel like my ribs are rattling around inside my body. at least i'm here. i'm here. i'm here.

up the creek without a

we got a tiny preview of the professional photos. & soon we should have the whole set (at which point there will be a bit of happy recapping, but for now it's too hard to capture still shots off the slideshow). this was taken pre-ceremony, and i was actually a bit worried that Z was going to tip us into the water. in the end i figured what the heck, the story would be totally worth it.

on a sad note, i am super under the weather--it seems 8 cities in under a month is a bit much on the body. so i'm going to hang out in bed and sleep off this sickness. see you tomorrow!

in with the new

happy new year everyone! i am finally back in the land of the londoners and this week the blog recommences. i hope everyone had a kick-ass holiday. many posts coming your way!