Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

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The pies are baked and cooling. The apples and the cranberries have been cooked to perfection. A chocolatey, gingery treat has just been pulled from the oven.

My work is done.

All that's left to do is find four days worth of clothing with comfortable waistbands

and get ready to get my eat on.

And, of course, wish you all a

Very Happy Thanksgiving.

See you next week.

xo

Harvest

Our farmer's market ended for the season this past weekend.

A late autumn last hurrah, dashing from stand to stall, filling baskets and canvas bags with the supplies needed for this week's big feast. A refrigerator stocked, one last time, with a fresh, local harvest.

At least until the spring.

Which brings us to a more permanent bounty. A cornucopia of lacy knit goodness from Japanese designer Jung Jung.

Feast your eyes, Dear Readers.

{all images Jung Jung}

xo

Happy Weekend

Happy Weekend, Dear Readers!

What do you have planned? Anything fun?

It was a busy week that had me leaving the house while the sun was still new,

and returning only after the moon had once again replaced it.

A week in which a pirate ship was made and sailed across the rug, and apples were sliced and left in the oven until they were nice and sweet and crisp.

It was a good week, and the weekend is looking no different.

Hope you all enjoy yours.

xo

Gold Dust Woman

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be Stevie Nicks (actually, I still do).

Birthdays would come around, and Christmas, and always, the answer to "What do you want this year?" was a tambourine. Just like Stevie's.

A few years ago, after nearly two decades of requesting, I finally got my wish.

My mom and I had been out flea marketing together, and I spotted a wooden tambourine laying on a table, inconspicuous amongst old purses and creepy clown figurines. I looked at my mom, and I looked at the tambourine. Longingly.

On Christmas morning, I opened a jingling box, and pulled out the tambourine. My mom had tied long lengths of ribbon to the edge. Just like Stevie's.

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A few days ago, while being dazzled by shiny internet distractions, I spied this little rhythm keeper.

A ticket stub, a backstage pass, and a lyric from "Sara" in Stevie's own hand.

Can you imagine???

I wouldn't trade my be-ribboned treasure for anything in the world.

But I wouldn't mind adding another, either.

xo

Good Grief

{image by boywonder}

A high-five to you.

xo

My White Trash Family

Kim Alsbrooks makes art out of trash. Quite literally.

While living in the American South, Alsbrooks came up against the deeply rooted ideology of class systems. Frustrated, she took a cue from museum portraits, once painted on ivory, and began creating her own series of cameos, but this time on crushed beer cans, cigarette packs, and french fry containers.
 And thus was born My White Trash Family.

A portrait of the classes for the modern age. The times, they are a changin'.

xo

Happy Weekend

A very Happy Weekend to you, Dear Readers.

In the words of Nephew 1, this is the weekend we go "pour water on Nephew 2's head."

It's a weekend in which my non-church going family gets all gussied up, goes to church, and tries to behave like the, um, mature adults we all are.

It's a weekend that I become, once again, a godmother (kiss the ring.).

From what I understand, as their godmother, my job is to guide my sweet nephews along a spiritual path. Seeing as how I'm not a particularly spiritual person, I originally scoffed at this idea. But then I thought about all of the really cool beliefs and traditions in all of the world's many, many religions, and thought, I've got this.

I also thought about what it means to me, being their godmother. I wrote notes to the boys, telling them how I saw myself in this role to them, and how much it means to me. I told them about all of the things I will teach them, like how to curse in French and where to spot Alfred Hitchcock's cameos in each of his movies. I gifted them with savings bonds, and told them to use the money to see the world. I gave them books, and I gave them the world. Quite literally: a big blow up globe to roll and bounce.

In return, every day, they give me the world right back.

xo

Meow Mix

The brilliantly hillarious The Kitten Covers is all about "legendary albums from a world dominated by kittens..."

We are talking seriously cool cats here.

Meow.

xo

Sweet Notions

Cooler weather. A return to the kitchen, a return to working with yarn. Picking up projects dropped when the heat came, and hoping to remember where I left off. Mixing flour and butter and eggs, putting batters and doughs into the oven that is warming the kitchen. Beloved pastimes that have no place in the heat are warmly welcomed when cooler airs prevail.

Sugar and Meringue has managed to combine these two delights in the sweetest way (Ha! A pun.). Yarn cupcakes and granny square cookies, button cookies affixed to little cards. They look almost too perfect to eat.
 Almost.

{Sugar and Meringue's Yarn Ball Cupcakes}

{Sugar and Meringues's Granny Square Cookies}

{Sugar and Meringue's Button Cookies}

Wishing you a day that is sweet and filled with warmth, Dear Readers.
xo

Mix Tape Monday, Volume 7

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November, to me, is when it really starts to feel  like fall. The night comes earlier, and is darker, quieter. The air outside is scented with fallen leaves and wood fires, inside with soups and baked bread.

If spring is a time of new beginnings and rebirth, than fall is surely its opposite. It feels as old and comfortable as the sweaters that have just been pulled from their summer slumber. The colors, the shades of gray and gold, are warm and gentle.

These songs envelop all of these feelings for me. They feel wrapped in antiquity, comfortable, familiar, and slightly haunting. They are at once as warm as blankets pulled from cedar-lined chests, and as chilly as the air sneaking in under old window panes. They are the sounds, at least for me, of fall.

I hope you enjoy them.

xo

 

Cut and Fold

British artist Abigail Reynolds folds paper. And she does so like nobody's business.

As one who struggles just to get a standard sized sheet of paper folded and fitted into an envelope in a neat-ish manner, I can't even begin to tell you how impressive I find this.

And she does it all by using old bookplates and found images, folding and cutting and creasing, fitting them seamlessly together to sculpt an image entirely new.

{all images Abigail Reynolds}

Pretty cool, huh?

xo

Fall On Me

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Happy November, Dearies!

xo