The Button Bracelet Dilemma

I found an old button bracelet pattern belonging to my mother. It's been started but has been in the same unfinished position for who-knows-how-many-years. I don't know exactly how I feel about button bracelets. They have the potential to be extraordinarily cool if made with rich colors and vintage buttons. I think, however, there's a very fine line between awesome and too arts-and-craftsy and I'm kind of on the fence. These, however, are kind of awesome:


I think I might prefer the charm-bracelet look of others, like this one, for example, from Etsy. Although I don't love it, it is still pretty cute.


Does anyone know of a lovely pattern? I'm interested.

Want, Need, Fair-trade, Pine

The lovely weekend with Hannah and the boos ended with a trip to Ten Thousand Villages and

I may have found my new favorite crack den. They sell the most random wonderful things like

this ceramic vase for 12 dolla, which I absolutely don't need but I love blue and white ceramics and I love the shape of it and it will pretty much go in any room in any house or apartment or commune I ever live in. Also I think I a big pink peony would look lovely in it.

And this paisley make-up bag, which I do kind of need and feel better about buying one as a fair trade item rather than going to Kate Spade and paying way too much for one there.

But I think what I really love the most are the textiles, mainly the table cloths, after which seeing I suddenly cannot wait to own a dining room or kitchen table.

Ceramic, Texture, Sculpture

At the risk of sounding like an Etsy broken record, I have to mention the work of Element Clay Studio simply because it is simply. freaking. awesome. Heather Knight, the artist, works with a stunning textural element not typical in ceramic pieces.

Her use of texture is exemplified in these three tiles. I love their structural resemblance to coral. I saw them this morning and I'm still staring.

You would love a bowl like this. Don't even lie.

Lucky BlueBird

I was browsing through Etsy today looking for photographs and prints (the Etsy art section fills me with such joy) and found this lovely print from LuckyBlueBirdArt (how sweet is that?) I am a sucker generally for anything that resembles a bird print and I just love love love the juxtaposition of the loose, simple shape of the bird against the rigid houndstooth pattern. I want it in an unhealthy way.

All of LuckyBlueBird's prints are simple, charming and lovely. They are absolutely worth scrolling through.

Fixate

I am, apparently, a girl who knows what she likes. LOOK. It's so beautiful. And it comes in white. And for a summer house/place I am squatting while I look for a real job, big girl apartment etc it's pretty lovely. It's not that different from the Ikea one that I've been thinking about but enough different to merit consideration.

Gardens of the Botanical Variety

I like to have special mugs that other people aren't allowed to use. I'm one of five children, sometimes I say eff sharing. This weekend I bought my own Portmeirion Botanical Garden mug. To tide me over until I have have the whole effing set. Something very boring and Edinburgh in my soul wants breakfast every morning and dinner every day on Portmeirion Botanical Gardens.

35 Books, Five Dolla'

I cannot be sent to book sales. Thirty-Five books in a bag for five dollars. I got Grey's Anatomy and the Chez Panisse Cookbook and gardening books, and novels and children's books with pretty pictures and Gulliver's Travels and a book from 1926 called Milk. There is another in two weeks. A bag of books for four dollars. More shelves must be bought. I need an Ex Libris Stamp. My hands cannot be expected to scrawl the name in each book.

In the unlikely event

I am not getting married. For probably another fifteen years. Maybe never. I will get married when I am about sixty and in the city hall wearing navy. Which will be nice. But in the unlikely event that I do get married (marriage on the brain because The-Oldest-and-Best and her fiance are adorable and wedding plan-y and cute) when I am young and pretty I want to wear this. Because Lela-Rose is exceptionally awesome.

Want, Need, PINE

For these are just the most loveliest things I've ever seen.

Pyramid-Of-Fire Chandeliers, $38 at Anthropologie.

Weddings, What to Wear

Best-Friend-From-Highschool (not to be confused with The-Oldest-and-Best best friend or The-Best-Friend-From-College and co-blogger M-Dawg) is going to a wedding. A former coworker is getting married and lots of people she used to work with will be there and she wants to look smashing. As one does. These are my outfit suggestions for the weddings. I can't really make any suggestions or dream any little dreams about clutches. I despise them. I can never find ones I like in the under $3,000 range. Which is preposterous. There ought to be more options. This doesn't really count as an option. If she likes though I will lend this friend my Lie Down I Think I Love You clutch. Because she's just that good a friend. For some reason all the picture on Option Two weren't as nice as the option one pictures. I think I like two better though. Just to be contrary.

Also: I really want everyone to buy this dress and wear it with this but no one will. Sigh. You. Go buy that. Look awesome in it. Think of me. Also, looking at the above I apparently want everyone in the world to wear nude pumps with everything. I should get me some-a those.

Option: Dress, $148 at J Crew; Bracelet, $38 at Anthro; Shoes, $198 at J Crew.

Option 2: Dress, $130 at Banana Republic; Earrings, $34 at Anthro; Shoes, $137.50 at Shopbop.com

Walls, Blue

This is the colour I am painting my bedroom. It is going to take a bloody long time since I'm a bit lazy about moving furniture. A bit greener in real life then the sample or the paint looks in the pot but still. Quite nice.

P.S. That is not my room. That is the picture from the website of the paint company. Just in case you were worried.

White and Blue

Clearly I'm digging blue and white hues today. While stumbling around on Polyvore (thank God for Polyvore during those long days full of "work") I found these little bits of magic.

Like this majestic Judith Leiber Clutch. It is insane, like put-down-the-crack-pipe-insane. And YET I am strangely drawn to it. I feel like I could never really use this in real life but I could take it out of my drawer from time to time and pet it and watch it shine. There's also a part of me, however, that feels like it is so nuts that it deserves to be used in the nuttiest way possible. That being said, I would wear it with a caftan at the grocery store.

This 1950s French Raffia Clutch with white beading is also lovely, however unappealing to my insane side, but it is quite charming nonetheless. It's funny how I think that buying a clutch would be a good idea, considering the weight of my current bag. Oh Mary, perhaps YOU should be the one putting down the crack-pipe, dear.

Monkshood

I'm a sucker for floral pattern so when I stumbled upon these watercolors by Susan Van Campen at Hirchl & Adler Modern Gallery I kind of fell in love. I love everything about it: the colors, the style, the arrangement, and the vase itself is so mesmerizing. Her portfolio so sweet and charming it makes me long to get out of the city and into the country.

When there are blackberries in the wood...

Send your wee sister out with a bucket and when she brings back two cups make a crumble. Add some peaches. And tea.

2 cups washed blackberries picked by sister in a briar
1 peach, cut up
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice, or juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Preparation:

Put blackberries in a 1-quart baking dish with half of the sugar. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Cream butter, remaining sugar, flour, and salt together; sprinkle over berries. Bake blackberry crumble at 350° for 40 minutes. Serves 4.

Pippi Långstrump

I am working hard today at the office, and by "working hard," I mean, "watching Pippi Longstocking on Youtube;" not the New Adventures series either, but the traditional badly-dubbed-in-English 1969 original version starring Inger Nilsson, which was one of my very favorite movies growing up. And so I'm sitting here at my desk, longing for my childhood, and remembering that robbers should never enter Villa Villa Coola, that a gold coin can buy exactly 84 pounds of bon-bons, and that spunks have many many hiding places.

Portugal

Housesitting for goats and chickens and ponies and chihuahuas and vegetable gardens etc is nice. Living out all my Petit Trianon fantasies. I'll pretend I live in Portugal. Eu vivo em Portugal. And have these.
Pear Jacquard Tablecloth, $160

Portuguese Medium Bowl, $34

Flower Pitcher, $122

Pennsylvania Weekend

I left the city and went to see Hannah in Pennsylvania to go to a lovely market fair. There were loads of happy wonderful things. There were also, quite surprisingly, baby goats. White, newborn soft balls of fluff that are the cutest, cuddliest little things you could possibly imagine.

For Babies, Or Me

I want one of these in my size. I'd wear the the whole outfit. Add crazy bathrobe. The dogs and I are going to stay in bed the rest of the week. I ought to apply for jobs. But really. Having a hard time getting excited about a career as a waitress.

Act, Disappearing

Because I am milking goats, snugging in a hammock with a chihuahua and a westie, canoeing on the pond, horseback riding in the woods and making ginger cookies. The- Oldest-and-Best-Friend and I are making goatsmilk soap with her future mother in law at some point in the near future and Mary is coming down this weekend for Old Market Day and walking the lap dogs around historic districts. I would like to be able to pour the goats milk from the shiny metal milk pail into one of these gorgeous pitchers but then things might just be too perfect so instead I will continue with the blue ball jars.

Perfectly New York

In all, it was a lovely weekend which included an unexpected summer night in Central Park with Twelfth Night which was fantastic and Anne Hathaway, despite everything the haters would say, who was really quite good. I might even like her now. Afterward there was a torrential downpour and singing in the rain and there was a bar with overflowing cheap beer and Michael Jackson and a long staggering walk back to Times Square. There also may have been bras on the wall. I'm a classy broad, I know.

I'm in no place to comment due to the fact that I spent the night with Bud Light in a bar with bras on the wall, but I really must say that Central Park is magic at night.

Image via Flickr

Obsession

I love scathing feminist reviews and overly critical articles (par example Why Grown Women Dress Like Toddlers, Vampires and the Sluts and Virgins Who Love Them, and my FAVE Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy) and Double X is pretty mean and fairly judgy. I love it.

Shiny Stuffs

All my jewelry is in the top drawer of my bureau. When I lived in Massachusetts and in Mississippi I kept it up on hooks on the wall for easy sortage and finding. But in PA I have a corner bedroom and a wall of shelves so there really isn't much room for a wall of jewelry as well, and rooting around in the top drawer and opening wee boxes and envelopes and tiny baggies with earrings (which are, let's be hones, all very cheap) and beaded shenangigans is all very overwelming. This would make my dolla earrings and five dolla bangles MUUUUUUUUCH more appealing. I know it's technically for lingerie but really, I could get those little stacking velvet lined organizer thinger-majigers.

Horchow Mirrored Lingerie Chest, $789.90

Luminate

These oil lamp shadow projections from Adam Frank are so ethereal and cool. Especially his trees. You must look at his trees (I couldn't post pictures but they can be found on his website right here).

Found via likecool.com

I am reading

Lucky Girls because you have to read it three times. I've decided.


Scribbling the Cat because her last was so breath taking.


Because I always meant to


And The Dictionary of Saints because I enjoy the distant dates and details; "died in 1072" and "her mother Otillia" and "burned at the stake" and "on the rack" etcetera

Touring

I hate touring colleges with my brother. Loath. Can't really do it. I just get upset. Not enough distance from my own college trip. He gets to go and I don't. Booooo.

Late Night Comforts

Getting-home-late comfort food: Oatmeal Pancakes

1 1/4 c. Instant oatmeal

1 c. plain yogurt

1 c. low fat milk

1 tsp. honey or sugar

1/2 whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

In a large bowl, combine oats, plain yogurt, low fat milk and honey. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Add beaten eggs and mix well. Add chopped walnuts. Batter will be thick.

Heat a large non-stick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Spoon about 1/4 c. batter onto hot griddle for each pancake. Cook until bottoms are browned and bubbles on top start to pop, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook until other sides are browned, about 2 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter. Add additional milk if batter becomes too thick.

Serve hot with maple syrup or fresh fruit.

Yield: appro. 12 pancakes.

Note

I apologize for the light postings on my end over the last few days. A family member has been in the hospital and all day visits are not very conducive to proper blogging. Hannah is the very best because she picks up my slack and has not complained once about what a terrible little blogger I have been. Hopefully I will be back to a regular schedule tomorrow or Wednesday.

Martha Again

Feathers make me pine for fall. Oh Martha.

Bookstores

I was already reading two. I bought three more yesterday. And this. It was on sale. I am a sucker for big note books. I scrumped the pages so I wouldn't mind writing in it. I always have to scrumple pages.

PS

Only in Corfu, not Barcelona. I would stay here.

If I had a bazillion dollars...

...and could buy new clothes every day I would buy these today. I watched Vicky Christina Barcelona again and I want to be slouchy and touristy and learn a new language and speak it badly.

Shop here. Apparently La Garçonne is the greatest store ever.