artifacts under glass

one of the first pieces of real, what i call grown-up, furniture that Z & i purchased as a couple was a tsotchke cabinet to hold our little oddities. we made this decision because my old apartment had started to look like an antique shop with its small vintages on every surface. & with Z being a collector of curiousness as well, the combination was sure to be a mess. the cabinet, which is part of a set including a dining room table & four chairs, was very much a happy lifetime purchase (& we got a killer deal because we were antique mall regulars). but i admit--sometimes i'm sad that it makes for less of an out-in-the-open display. i think these bell jars would be a rocktastic solution. i love the idea of artifacts under glass, of curating mini-collections from our cabinet & rotating new stuff in & out every once in a while. and the confined space would keep anything from straggling too far! perfect for displaying on a desktop or a mantle, or even as centerpieces.

{image via here}

wedding succulents!

just before our wedding i changed my mind about not carrying a bouquet (though not about throwing said bouquet at anyone). my sister & her husband (known as N2) suggested a new flower shop might be willing to make one from succulents. meaning...the bouquet would be recyclable! after the wedding, they helped me carefully unwire all the chicks & hens so we could plant them--& they are currently multiplying like bunnies in N2's yard! when we move back to the states, we'll transplant them to our new place and for years to come there will be small reminders from our wedding growing greenly around us.

(pssst, some great how-to succulent advice over here)

whispered subtitles

this cracks me up. i can't help but imagine a person whispering into someone's ear for a whole movie. how ticklish!

{via lelove}

london sundays, stillness

this morning the clouds are stitched over the city-sky in a sheet. it already looks like evening and the day has just started! Z is off at columbia road flower market (if in london on a sunday, go!) while i work on an important deadline (feel free to cross your fingers). i'm a bit jealous--we've made a ritual of going every week to grab some flowers to spring-ify the flat & i know i'm missing out on: color-pops, criss-cross yells of two for a fiver! any two flowers for a fiver!, delicious pain au chocolat, the round smell of dirt, the rush of a small crowd, the lure of spools & fabrics & french buttons. on the other hand--the flat is fizzing, like radio static, in a type of morning stillness which i also love. and finishing life-important deadlines? pretty sweet.

{shots from last weekend's market}

stripes & the seaside

i've only been to the ocean a handful of times in my life. so before we leave england, i plan to be beside the seaside as many times as we can (not yet, it's a little cold!). in honor of this, i'd thought i'd post a few seaside-inspired items (stripes, for me, are synonymous with sailoring):

a simple, nautical dress.

a little brass & copper so you can bring the sea with you.

sweet sheets to curl up in.

a sexy mermaid to sing open your beer.

a spotted suit to catch some sunwaves in.

perfect for a mini get away. or to pack up your memories.

vintage inspired anchorkerchiefs for pocketing.

under water stitchery.

people & water, dangerous/beautiful.

salty piano keys (& other aquatic ambush) prints

roadside projects giveaway!

knit-your-own crustaceans

sharks on a plane ?!

{snapshots from the toy museum in sintra}

wondrous outcasts!

jeunet's new film looks phenomenal & old-school. Z & i plan to get advance tickets to the local cinema (which has couches & wine) to see it opening night! micmacs à tire-larigot, like city of lost children & delicatessen, promises a mix of political allegory & indelibly wacky characters with an extreme depth of love & compassion. the story is set against another bleakscape/city which turns out to be beautiful-haunting. the details in this trailer alone are dream-worthy--jeunet has a knack for wondrous outcasts, inventions, & arcs.
micmacs is sure to be another classic.

(i don't dig the english over-dub for the international trailer as much as the original french, but i couldn't find a version in french with subtitles. but do go check out the international trailer here so you can get the story-line. and let's hope the UK release is subtitled instead of dubbed!)

keep your (be)longings with you

i love that this poster is meant to be a kickback to "the golden age of railway travel"--now that's my kind of nostalgia.

{via poppytalk}

camden passage & small stiches

this afternoon, while meeting up with Z to deal with getting a vintage dress (from ithaca) finally tailored, we snuck into camden passage in islington. the stores in this narrow set of alleyways are wondrous--well-stocked with items we had to scour around for everywhere as we put together our wedding. and wednesdays, oh, on wednesdays it's a dreamboat--the streets outside the shops are lined with small stalls brimming with strange goods & antiques: everything from valentine ephemera to letterpress letters to teapots. today we were looking for pocket squares & vintage handkerchiefs. you see, Z just might have seen my post about embroidery & brought home a sneaky present. (for the record, jenny hart makes me take back everything i said--her instructions are phenomenal & i highly recommend, even for something as important as a wedding gift!). i came home from camden with a few beauties--some with stitches to study, some blank for stitching myself, and some to test out edging designs. and all of it, for a song. clearly i am turning into a hipster old lady.

earl grey with a twist

this afternoon i am drooling over these early grey sandwich cookies over at whimsy & spice. they are like british-style oreos!

absolute vintage in the city

just before paris, i finally bit the weather-bullet & realized i had to find a pair of boots to wear with skinny jeans (i had taken to just wearing dresses once it was too cold for sneakers or my brogues). on the way to bricklane to scout out a few stores (such as rockit, where i got my fabulous high-wasited men's pants for the 30s party) we happened to walk by absolute vintage. shizam. it's a must go if you are in london: floor to ceiling vintage--incredible bags & shoes & beautiful dresses galore. it's listed as one of the top 100 must-visit stores in the world. and, apparently, some pretty fancy celebrities shop there (we didn't see any, but we did catch some ridiculous paparazzi shots around the corner). the sheer selection makes the close-quarters & mirror-hogging ladies worth it. i left with the perfect pair of inexpensive heeled black leather boots. i admit, it's oh so dangerous for me to live in a city where you can just happen upon vintage stores.

one line a day, or on remembering

last year at this time i was: newly engaged, teaching & grading & trekking up & down the ridiculous cold hills of ithaca, becoming an aunt, & feeling rather settled in. since then i got hitched, moved completely out of the states, traveled to some staggering places, & have come closer to a major moment in my career. the only sad part? it feels like light-speed: in a few blinks we'll be wrinkled & retired. because i spend a lot of time writing for work, i often forget to take a few minutes to record even a brief flash of what i am seeing on a day-to-day basis. this little notebook would be the perfect (unstressful) way to dash down a few words, to catch the light as it slips through the window. i love that it is setup so that as you are writing your one line, you are able to re-read the previous year's above it. genius!

{via chroniclebooks, customer service said the book will be back in stock soon!}

100layer cake!

today, our wedding is being featured over here. check it out!

in tents

though london finally brought in a tiny net of sunning along with its temperature drop, this morning has been groggy & slow-going. all i want to do is crawl inside a tent filled with light, cloak myself in blankets, eat parsnip & cheddar soup, read a good book, kiss Z, and generally avoid all the laundry & various other domesticities that have piled up around us after a week of sickness. in a half an hour or so there will be parsnip deliciousness (thanks Z!) but otherwise it looks like a sadly tent-free day to me.

on a cheering note: january is over for another year! & good riddance.

{via auburnandivory)

and we lived beneath the waves

just for some friday fun, a perfect nod to two supremely british things!

weekending plans : scout out two new markets, pick up some ingredients for this, hang with a certain rugged buddy of ours who is now living just outside london. hopefully, this all will translate to: delicious grub, french yoghurt jars filled with flowers, & many many pints. see you sunday with some london reviews. (pssst. our wedding photos are currently flying across the ocean to us. and...our little smalltown shindig will be popping up in the bloglands next week, so stay tuned!).

{image via ffffound}

stitch yourself silly!

i realized yesterday that i'd actually love a book of embroidery instructions--because really, stitching something for someone (say, perhaps, a missive) really is pretty awesome. after doing some poking around, the reviews are pointing me to embroidered effects by jenny hart (whose own work is truly a spectacular spectacle). the book even includes transfers you can cut out and use direct. rock on.

{via thepurlbee}

charlotte, meet beck

this is a truly fantastic collaboration. sultry french + creepster folk = perfection. the video, produced by keith schofield, was composed by recreating snapshots from 50 different music videos. so strange & cool. i know it's been making the rounds, but it's worth posting again.

libertine

lou lou & oscar's shrunken bunting + embroidery = awesome. i dig the stark colors & the striped ribbon. if you're the crafter type, this would be a rocking way to spruce up a flat without banging holes into the walls, or as chair-markers for the marrying couple at a wedding. but for the record--embroidery is NOT for the fainthearted! as my wedding gift/surprise to Z, i attempted to hand-embroider a few lines of a matthea harvey poem about strange marriages onto a round pocket-square. and damn. the hand part lasted about eight grueling hours before i realized that i was too wobbly a stitcher for something involving more than one line. i did end up getting it done (!) due to my friend J's staggering skills & her super modern sewing-machine. shizam. if you haven't already, go check out some of the other kicking goods at baker's dozen.

my funny valentine

i have to admit that i'm more of a celebrate your love on a whim or in surprising ways, rather than on a specific holiday in february. but this olivetti poster by ettore sottsass would make a great cheeky valentine's present (Z & i bought one for our last apartment, & gifted one to my sister and her husband this christmas). it's a fantastic size & adds the perfect sort of graphic touch to a white wall. get one here. unless you are in london, then go to the design museum and pick one up. it's worth the trip! (and someday, i swear, i'll own a real olivetti valentine typewriter. sigh.)

**correction: i do, however, love hand-made valentines swapped across cities, countries, continents & oceanscapes. but that's mostly because i love hand-made things exchanging hands, with love.

p.s. is it true?!

can one really no longer cross the ocean via anything other than airplane, cruise or cargo ship? i want an old school traversing of waters. to purchase a ticket for a big steam boat and travel for days on waves--eating & writing, stuck out in all the unfolding blue! i really thought there would still be a way besides deck hand or decadence? does anyone know anything about this?

{image via rakuyn}

crossing the waters

today i wish i could bridge myself across the ocean (fast) to help out a friend who is having some stresses. i love england, & travel, but sometimes it's so hard to not just be able to hop in a car and head off to offer my two very real hands for helping out, instead of just virtual ones.

{via maplesyruponly}

brilliant disguises!

a hardback leather case for my macbook, which disguises it as an antique book? i literally just swooned to a fainting! the bookbook, made my twelvesouth, is so kickass it hurts. as a writer, even though deep down i know the exact instrument doesn't matter, my computer is like a small whirring pet (ironically so close to poet?) which i feel rather protective over. so when we travel, i'm usually too chicken to bring it along. on the other hand, i also tend to resort to some ridiculous hiding techniques before we leave (it's hard to find sneaky places in such a small flat!).

that said: the implication that by disguising your computer as an antique book it becomes less desirable, did strike me as pretty hilarious. sad state for the world? or happy state for your computer? (for the record, i would be very likely to pick up a vintage book sitting on a table.) all in all it's a good thing that a) i've imposed a strict budget of buy nothing and b) they aren't shipping at the moment. (my birthday is far away--but hey, maybe they'll still be in stock! hint hint).

{via designcrush}

dear polaroid,

i miss you.

Z & i are obsessed with the happiness of taking polaroids of people jumping. so before we moved out of our last apartment, when we had a lot of people dropping by to say goodbyes and/or helping us pack up our myriads of stuff to put in storage for the year, we took a shot of each our friends/family jumping in the hallway outside (our neighbors probably thought we were nuts!). in the end, it kept us from getting too teary-eyed about all the goodbye-ing. above, a few examples (click to enlarge). digital cameras just don't do jumping in the same way. so new polaroid, please hurry yourself up!

literary looming

while doing some city-walking research this weekend, i stumbled upon a pretty wild fact: london's senate house--a building built in the 1930s for the university of london & used as the ministry of information during WWII--was the inspiration for george orwell's ministry of truth in his novel 1984! when the art deco style building was originally finished in 1937 it was the second-tallest in london--and let me just say, it definitely has an impressive sort of height & loom. it also turns out that Z had been taking a seminar there this whole past semester, and had no idea! we dropped by the building (located in the ever-literary bloomsbury) for a sneak peak. and wow. i love how the lamps glitter out the thin windows: a morse-code of lights. on the whole it's beautifully dour & imposing.

this morning i am off for the haircutting that was canceled before our trip. wish me luck!