Coeur de Pirate

Can't get enough French Pop these days. Cœur de Pirate is the stage name for Béatrice Martin (born September 22, 1989), a Canadian pop singer-songwriter from Quebec. Lovely.

Wedding Flowers

A dear work friend is getting married in October and once in a while she tosses me some wedding idea so cute, I can't help but get excited all over again. These wedding bouquets made of vintage brooches are incredible. She divulged this week that she is going to attempt to make one. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

 {Photo: Alice Hu} {Blogged: Here.} {Created by: Fantasy Floral Designs}

{Blogged: Here}

Ouch

Making doctor appointment today.

Wrapping The Week

Tonight, Lindsey and I are going to the movies (Winter's Bone) and then to a friend's for a poetry reading/yard party in old north city where all kinds of interesting things are taking place. The rest of the weekend is anyone's guess.

I've found some great things this week. Highlights include: 

• USB Typewriter. Brilliant!
• Dark Passages (via TeenAngster). Photography that is beyond gorgeous.
• A slice a day the whole month of May. Yum!
• I can't believe I just now stumbled upon the Madonna Inn. Reservations please.
• A blog dedicated to letterhead (via Design For Mankind

If you get bored this weekend, I recommend the Shake and Vac. Have fun. 

Laundry List

Too busy today to write much. Audrey and I are having a super hero super fun sort of day together...more awesome than usual. Today is a total mom day.

• Groceries (Audrey had her own cart for the first time, which she loved.)
• Playing in the sprinkler and weeding garden
• Lunch
• 2 hour naps (Audrey's arm draped over mine. Sweet luxury!)
• Painting (This time on canvas. Extreme fun!)
• Play-Doh
• Stickers
• Toenail painting (Is there anything cuter than rainbow toes on a toddler?)
• Folding laundry
• Making dinner

Rita Pavone

I can't quit watching these Rita Pavone videos. The fact that she sings a potato song and she had an album titled "Small Wonder" makes me love her all the more.

The Care and Feeding of a Mermaid

We are going swimming today, so I thought I should brush up on my mermaid tending skills...just in case. 

Pin-It-Foward: What Home Means To Me

I am participating in SF Girl By Bay web event Pin It Forward, where bloggers link to each other and share what home means to them. So Unruly Art Class forwarded to me last Friday and I’m passing the forward on to Urban Comfort.The tool we are using to capture What Home Means is Pintrest and I'm a little addicted to it. You can follow all my Pinterest boards or visit my Pin-It-Forward board to get more images that convey my ideas of home. Below are a few photos and my list. Bottom line...I feel most at home when in the country, and am eager for the time when we can make this dream a reality.

WHAT HOME MEANS TO ME

GOOD FOOD SHARED WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS
love to cook, especially pies and potatoes. family night with my brother and nephews is the highlight of our week.
STORIES AND LAUGHTER
long stories and belly laughs, especially with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins.
ARTWORK
lucky to have many artists friends and a daughter who is eager to paint.
BOOKS AND PHOTOS
can’t get enough and really make a house a home.
VINTAGE AND NATURE INSPIRED COLLECTIONS
things that have been hanging around my life for a long time like aprons, dishes, alarm clocks, nests, rocks sort of round out the look of our home.
ZINNIAS, HERBS AND TOMATOES
these things make my heart sing and teaching the wee one to garden is a good thing.
CUDDLING WITH MY HONEY AND BABY
no explanation needed.
ICING ON THE CAKE
the smell of grass, the sound of whipoorwills, the twinkling of fireflies, and sitting on a porch swing at dusk.

Wrapping The Week: Photography Special

A lot of photography issues this week. I mentioned on Monday problems with my camera. On my Wednesday lunch break, I strolled to the local camera shop to get a new memory card for my camera. The first thing I see when I enter the store was a rainbow assortment of the Pentax K-X I've been coveting, discounted $100 through Saturday. Oh. So. Tempting. But the new memory card did the trick with the old bugger, so I may hold out a little longer. Or if my Friday at work is just the right amount of frustrating, I'll go buy the candy camera in a huff. So...more photos for your delight:

• Victorian photos, some creepy gems included. (Found via TeenAngster)
• Russian Accordion Factory photos (via House of Milk). My mom played accordion and still has the giant golden beauty.
• Retro Kid Pool on flickr (via my friend Stefene) 
• My friend Rebecca, takes the most amazing photos on her iphone. Clouds and grounds.
• Hernan Paganini-Puloverchito is an Argentian graphic designer/artist. I can't remember how I found him on Flickr and I can't read the captions to any of his photos, but I sure do love looking. 

And I have always loved Paul Simon's Kodachrome, although this YouTube video is dopey. Summer, I love you.

Martha Rich

Dear Martha Rich, 

Why do you continue to haunt me with your fabulously fun artwork? And all so reasonably priced. Really, what is a girl supposed to do?

Truly,

Andrea

The Glass Castle

I'm just now getting around to reading absorbing memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. A friend lent me her copy and I haven't been able to put it down. Walls is a writer and journalist who tells the story of growing up with an alcoholic father and mentally ill mother. Some of the accounts are harrowing and almost difficult to read, especially as the mom to a young daughter. But Walls is an excellent writer and it moves along quickly. I'm about one third of the way through it.

Just for fun, here are some real glass castles (ok, glass houses) with links to more photos.

Philip Johnson's famous Glass House in Connecticut

Designed by Utz-Sanby Architects, this glass house is actually a luxury tree house.

 

North Carolina Glass House by Tonic Design

And you MUST go look at the gorgeous photos of the Jodlowa House near Krakow Poland designed by  PCKO Architects in co-operation with MOFO Architects. Stunning.

Summer Poem

Little Summer Poem Touching The Subject Of Faith

Every summer
I listen and look
under the sun's brass and even
into the moonlight, but I can't hear

anything, I can't see anything --
not the pale roots digging down, nor the green
stalks muscling up,
nor the leaves
deepening their damp pleats,

nor the tassels making,
nor the shucks, nor the cobs.
And still,
every day,

the leafy fields
grow taller and thicker --
green gowns lofting up in the night,
showered with silk.

And so, every summer,
I fail as a witness, seeing nothing --
I am deaf too
to the tick of the leaves,

the tapping of downwardness from the banyan feet --
all of it
happening
beyond any seeable proof, or hearable hum.

And, therefore, let the immeasurable come.
Let the unknowable touch the buckle of my spine.
Let the wind turn in the trees,
and the mystery hidden in the dirt

swing through the air.
How could I look at anything in this world
and tremble, and grip my hands over my heart?
What should I fear?

One morning
in the leafy green ocean
the honeycomb of the corn's beautiful body
is sure to be there.

--Mary Oliver

Pentax K-X

My current camera, a Fuji FinePix S1500, was an impulse buy. I usually do A LOT of research, but on this camera, I didn't. I was more concerned with price and I wanted something quickly. I haven't been thrilled with it. The color too often seems dull and there isn't enough depth in scenic shots. And now, not even a year later, it is shooting craps. It may just be the memory card, but the middle of summer isn't a good time. I was unable to download my photos from our weekend trip to the zoo and I was about as cagey as a tiger over it.

I've been seriously jonesing to upgrade to a SLR camera. Specifically, I've been eye-balling the Pentax K-X. It gets great reviews for the money ($650) and who can resist all the colors? Really. Can I justify the upgrade? Sigh.

Wrapping The Week

{U.S. National Archives photo stream on Flickr}

Not much to share this week. My life feels a little like it is on auto-pilot. I'm feeling a bit bunched up about things, so much so that a dear old friend asked if I might actually be depressed (like need medication depressed). I've been avoiding that possibility. I don't want to go there. (But maybe I'm already there.) Sigh. I'll think about it.

Lindsey and I do have a date night planned for Saturday, when we hope to finally visit Citygarden. That is happy making. Here are a couple of finds from the week.

• This1934 photo of nine girls from a Shirley Temple look-alike contest in Australia is way too much. 
• I love this Black Garden post from the imrevolting blog. Lovely photos. 
• Extreme Poodles. Do I really need to say more? 

Onward, ho. Or something like that.

Butterfly Gap Retreat

So our honeymoon was over three years ago, but I still daydream about this pull out bed on the screened-in porch of our cabin at the Butterfly Gap Retreat, a family owned, modern bed & breakfast near Maryville, Tennesee. There was even a little babbling brook outside that helped me drift to sleep. This gem was on our way east and it was delightful in every way. Ignore my scruffy headed self in this photo, imagine yourself there, and check out their website. So lovely. 

Drowning

I try not to blog about my job. But right now, not so good. I am drowning.

Garlic Scapes

Today completely got away from me. Cleaning, grocery shopping, lying next to Audrey during her entire nap because she "afraid mommy" of the huge thunderstorm, then off to pick up our weekly CSA goodies. This week: spring mix (lettuces), red and white radishes, scallions, dill, and garlic scapes. Basically, I made a fancy salad with warm goat cheese medallions, along with grilled burgers and sautéed grape tomatoes, corn, and garlic scapes. I had no idea what to do with the scapes, but the medley turned out tasty. I enjoy the challenge of coming up with recipes on the fly. We are enjoying the CSA, although the one we belong to, located in Alton, Illinois, is having a difficult time because of so much rain. I've heard that many southern Illinois farmers are going to have to replant because crops have just been sitting under water.

Tonight You Belong To Me

Just a little Monday morning sweetness (the song anyway). I always LOVED when Bernadette Peters was on the Carol Burnett show.

Wrapping The Week

This flash mob is the SWEETEST and made me so happy. On this Copenhagen bus-driver's birthday, a large group of people had planned to celebrate him, which he didn't know. And the celebration just gets bigger and more delightful. I found it via Patty Digh's 37 Days blog. Be mindful of others. Delight someone. In any language. I like those sentiments. 

More things on the happy front:

• Davin Risk's photography blog Low Resolution is dreamy good.But the photos from a 2007 trip to Cuba are even dreamier. I love flickr finds so much. 
• Squirrels on Teenagster, a blog that I just discovered this week and is so full of fabulous finds.
• New research shows we get happier as we age. "On the global measure, people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves, and then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age." I'm not waiting seven years.  
• Low Rawl's version of You've Made Me So Very Happy, makes me way more than happy. Sort of euphoric.I won tickets to see him at the Fox years ago and he was awesome. Yes. Lou. Rawls. 
• Audrey has called me pretty, silly, and monkey at various times throughout this week. All good. That girl is happy making indeed.

Happy weekend dahlings. 

Milton and the Sea

There really aren't words to describe my level of disgust and despair over the BP oil spill. It seems so hopeless. Milton Avery said, "Why talk, when you can paint?" With that in mind, I share some seascapes from one of my favorite painters, as an homage to our ocean that will never be the same.

Offshore Island

Black Sea

Green Sea

Sea Grasses and Blue

Bakelite Love

I have collected a lot of vintage jewelry over the years, but never any serious Bakelite. I'm not sure why (price?) because I am loving these bracelets, mostly found on Etsy.

Weeee!

Really?

I wanted to take Audrey swimming today, but she threw up this morning. So, a quiet day of lounging, laundry, kid's books and DVDs is on our schedule. A roller coaster of a different sort, I suppose. The weekend was a whirlwind of moving. We are all exhausted physically and emotionally. But it felt so fantastic to sit on the front porch with my mom and watch Jacob on his Razor, Sam and Jeff playing catch, Audrey throwing rocks, my dad on the tractor--all of us together and knowing that we are going to be able to hang out like this more often. After all the health scares with my parents over the last 6-8 months, I feel like I can breathe a giant sigh of relief now that they are closer. And the million stars and whipoorwhills on Saturday night were a major bonus. I love my family soooo much.