12.31.2008
smart shoes
These Lanvin heels are for dancing the new year in with style, and for me to love with an unrequited passion.
party attire required
What I wish I was going to be wearing this evening - a dress by Duskin. Via Royal Quiet Deluxe.
needed: libations
Apparently, you can't beat this. Please, feel free to bring some to my house.
(Here's why it's so special.)
it's almost here ...
This Electrabel ad is one of the most ravishing pieces of stop-motion animation I have ever seen. It was made using 300,000 candles. Here's how they did it.
Via Drawn.
12.30.2008
all i need
Originally seen on Shape + Colour (one of my favorite sites) a while ago. It has stayed with me.
A resolution of mine for 2009 is a re-think of my wants and needs, and to be more alert to how the things I bring into my home are made. My present state of somewhat anxious semi-ignorance feels increasingly amoral and untenable.
reduction
If This World Where Mine by Stefan Bruggeman, 2004. Digital print on canvas, acrylic enamel paint with permanent marker.
(Fitting my current mood of radical simplification - after a day of going through my closets and drawers, I'm ready for a purge.)
Via Ffffound.
12.29.2008
good to know
Work by Marijn van Kreij (via Share Some Candy).
His pictures make me happy, too - this is 'When You Read, You'll Judge':
for creative naps
I can just see this pillow in my house. Available at Bonjour Mon Coussin (discovered through Modern Craft).
singing glasses
MTV Europe + We Love Our Work: CDEFGABC (No Limit).
Insane in the best way. Via Shape + Colour.
12.28.2008
12.27.2008
christmas aftermath
Christmas Comes But Once A Year, from 1936. Orphans wake up on Christmas morning and go to play with their Christmas presents, which are cheaply made and break immediately. A resourceful Grampy makes them new and better toys out of things lying around the orphanage, and hijinks ensue.
12.26.2008
12.25.2008
12.24.2008
light the yule log and kick back
Last year I had to work on Christmas Eve. My office was as still as tombs, and there wasn't much to do except be physically present. It was a long one.
If you happen to be stuck at work today, here are some things to help pass the time:
- something funny (I read this every year)
- something thought-provoking
- something melancholy (another annual seasonal read)
- my favorite discussion of Useful and Useless presents (also Uncles)
- Venn diagrams
- tetris
- the year in photographs
- a little bit of joyful holiday craziness (in case you need some more in your life): Rufus Wainwright and his mother cooking on Martha Stewart
(Posts will be few and far between the rest of this week ... Happy Christmas.)
12.23.2008
christmases of cleveland yore (part 2)
A native Clevelander with a blog I greatly admire sent me these images from the Life archives last night - more shots of the city in years gone by decked out for the holidays. That Santa is serious.
When I was a little kid, you still could go downtown and see the holiday window displays at Higbee's. Pure magic. But the people weren't nearly as turned out as these shoppers:
(Thank you, Michael.)
christmases of cleveland yore (part 1)
Higbee's Santa, 1955. Photographer: Bob Tomsic.
Higbee's 50 foot Christmas tree in the lobby of the Terminal Tower, 1968. Photographer: Herman Seid.
Exterior shot of the Cleveland Trust Company, 1970. Photographer: Larry Nightswander.
And the best one last - a child admiring the toys in Higbee's window display in downtown Cleveland, 1934, taken by Margaret Bourke-White. I love it. Check out his galoshes.
I've been spending a little time going through the collections at Cleveland Memory. It's a peek back at a vanished place.
jumping jacks
This is an inspired idea : handmade jumping paper dolls. I'm planning on making these of me and Sean for next year.
Learn how at ribouldingue's brilliant how-to (via Ribambelles & Ribambins).
12.22.2008
imaginary outfit: a friend's christmas party
Tonight, we are going over to a friend's house for Christmas cocktails. I am feeling particularly uninspired by the contents of my closet, and I am wishing for some swank. You'll notice I have included full cold weather regalia - that's because while I do have the fortitude to risk my neck tottering along the icy path from the car to the house in ridiculous shoes, I don't have the courage to face even a smidge of cold without a fuzzy hat, a cozy scarf, and some kind of glove.
If only this would magically appear in my closet ...
five things that make me happy every day
Paper (particularly any kind having to do with mail - I love mail) ...
Scarves (I require one at all times) ...
Kusmi tea (particularly this kind) ...
Super rad cover songs (little known fact: this was my favorite song when I was eight, so this particular cover just about knocks me out) ...
and ... last but not least ... finding unexpected and beautiful things on the internet. (Big surprise, right?)
Thanks to Laura and Roberta Jane for asking me to play. What simple things make you happy?
everything's amazing, nobody's happy
A little perspective to start the week. It made me laugh.
Via Jaunted.
12.21.2008
to cast a steady glow
Danforth pewter oil lamps at Canoe.
Thinking of lamps and lights, since today is solstice and the first night of Hanukkah.
12.20.2008
12.19.2008
this weekend
Avoid the mall.
Instead:
- get into the holiday spirit with an otter
- stock up on last minute hostess gifts
- take a spin around the rink or a run down the chute
- see me and buy nice things
Photo: Frenzied women grab at dresses during a Christmas bargain sale, December 1955. Taken by Ralph Morse.
for reading in the afternoon
This is at the top of my to-read list. I save a bunch of books I'm particularly relishing the prospect of reading for the week between Christmas and New Year. There isn't much else going on, so I get the luxury of long stretches of uninterrupted reading time.
Any recommendations?
to wear around the cabin
Manimals fringed boot at Beklina.
My moccasin love will never die. On an semi-unrelated note, I think this is pretty great.
weekend retreat
I dream of a weekend retreat like this for skiing and fondue eating and long book reading and houseguests.
I would emulate the strategic use of felt - the living room has a felt floor covering (look at the coffee table's leg indentations) and the chairs have felt mat seats.
From Martha Stewart, February 2006. Photos by Matthew Hranek.
12.18.2008
christmas comes early
Jane, who has excellent taste in everything (literature for example) gave me a blog award.
Thank you, Jane!
I am supposed to pass it on to seven other bloggers, but I'm terrible at picking. So here's the last seven blogs I added to my Google reader. Maybe you'll like them, too:
bevel + boss
exit lines
fuck you, penguin
katy elliott
kuidaore
rara avis are we
share some candy
if you are feeling curious
... and want to know more about my holiday traditions, lovely Courtney from Under a Paper Moon has interviewed me. There's a few pictures of crafts of Christmases past as well.
Thanks, Courtney!
in case you need something to do saturday
I'll be selling stuff here - macaroni snowflakes, elf villages (I made a few more sets), and maybe some other things ...
It'd be lovely to see you.
al
My creation will reflect rain, wind, and other weather phenomena, as well as the movement of the sun, color of the sky, and other quiet changes in the environment. By reflecting the surfaces and shapes of the landscape, the artwork amplifies and transforms nature and makes it visual. It is an artificial structure with a complex and ambiguous geometry ...
Kimihiko Okada, Aluminum Landscape 2008
Via MocoLoco.
12.17.2008
retreat
This is what happens when you live in a city with crumbling infrastructure.
No water at my house for the foreseeable future. Blergh. I'm headed to my parents with the Nora-dog.
a mossy couch
This Truck couch has been on my mind ever since I saw it over at Mrs. French's.
I'm pretty sure my house needs it.
small worlds
Last weekend at Bizarre Bazaar, I found the most amazing tiny things - wee villages and terrariums by The Oak Leaves. I was so charmed by her little cities and tiny moss terrariums in apple juice bottles that I had to bring one of each home. I can't get over the details on the little houses - open doors, dormer windows, and thatched roofs - and I just love the shape of the apple juice bottle. I wish I had bought more of her terrariums - they are lovely.
Now, every time I look at my window sill, I feel a surge of happy.
12.16.2008
tied up with string
Six books wrapped: volumes 1 - 6 of Lines & Shapes available here.
I'd like to find this under my tree.
tucked in a bag
This one, specifically. Spotted on mav's lovely something soft gift guide.
I also love her picks for paper/print and book/magazine gifts.
popped in a box
I love the Bee House Salt Box. I'd like three or four to live on my desk and hold useful things.
12.15.2008
flakes
fragments
Tiny dust crystals from a comet that formed four billion years ago.
Strangely beautiful to me.
shards
He went about dragging some sharp flat pieces of ice, which he placed in all sorts of patterns, trying to make something out of them ...
In his eyes, they were excellent and of the greatest importance: this was because of the grain of glass still in his eye. He made many patterns forming words, but he could never find the right way to place them for one particular word, a word he was most anxious to make. It was 'eternity.' The Snow Queen had said to him that if he could find this word he should be his own master, and she would give him the whole world and a new pair of skates.
Hans Christian Anderson, 'The Snow Queen'
Image: Robert Smithson's Map of Broken Glass (Atlantis), 1969. Installation view at Dia: Beacon. Photo: Florian Holzherr.
12.14.2008
sunday tune: mariah carey - all i want for christmas is you
Thank you, Phil Spector, for the wall of sound.
This song makes me silly happy.
sunday tune: darlene love - baby, please come home
This is the best version of this song. The end.
(Phil Spector's Christmas album is still the business.)
12.13.2008
12.12.2008
this weekend
So many things to do ... mainly piles of projects to finish, but I'm going to try and make time to:
- get shopping
- buy art and tunes
- drink Gluehwein
- see the dance of the Sugarplum Fairy
- make felt candy canes. Well, maybe I'll just buy some.
imaginary outfit: baking cookies with sean
Sean has a half-day at work today, and we are going to spend the afternoon baking gingerbread cookie houses to take to my mom's tree-trimming and caroling party. It should be fun and funny. Our wee little kitchen has about a foot and a half of counter, and when we hosted Thanksgiving last year, my sister said we looked like a four-armed monster because we were both jammed so tight in such a little space. Rolling out cookies will be an adventure.
Hm. Maybe I should have done an imaginary kitchen instead of an imaginary outfit ...
working on: macaroni snowflakes
I love doing little kid crafts, and this is one of my favorites. I made my first macaroni snowflake when I was seven - it was silver and had red glitter. It twinkled merrily from my parents' tree for the next twenty Christmases until an unfortunate encounter with a wagging tail sent it flying to the floor. It was smashed, and my mother was disconsolate. To cheer her up, I offered to make her a new, better macaroni snowflake ornament ... and I did. I actually made 80. I gave most of them away as hostess gifts, tied to bottle of wine, etc. This year, I decided it was time for another batch.
It's pretty fun. I came up with nine different shapes using just three types of macaroni - fiori, small shells, and wagon wheels. The best part is that you can have the unused materials for lunch.
After four or five coats of spray paint and a healthy dose of glitter, people hardly believe they were once humble ronies. They are lovely as ornaments, but I'm thinking they would be nice in a garland, or even a mobile ...
time is flying
December has gone by so fast I'm bewildered.
(These carved wood ducks in flight by Roost amuse me.)
12.11.2008
and eat peppermint patties
I might have to make some of these. They could be Sean's all-time favorite.
re-sorted
'I like to think that Rugg is changing the world, if only in her imagination, alchemically blasting the news out of existence by snipping it up into a million little pieces.'
Emma Gray
Among other interesting projects, Kim Rugg cuts apart the front pages of newspapers and reassembles them in alphabetical order. These manifestations of obsessive focus fascinate me.
From Things To Look At via NotCot.
match/mismatch
Typography work from George Lewin:
'match / mismatch. two typefaces based on communication and miscommunication.
in match (pictured), each letterform comprises of two shapes that fit inside
each other, whilst in mismatch the shapes deliberately do not.'
I love the illegible quote in mismatch:
It reads: 'If a lion could talk, we could not understand him.' (Ludwig Wittgenstein.)
Via Ffffound.
12.10.2008
edible glitter, part 2
Getting ready for my annual cookie baking extravaganza. I get a little carried away with the decorating supplies.
edible glitter, part 1
These gold-dusted muffins look perfect for Christmas morning, or even Wednesday afternoons.
linked
'Chains of gold are stronger than chains of iron.' - Thomas Fuller
9k Yellow gold thick chain ring by Jen Tozer. To bind your love to you.
glitz
Marmo raw marble + gilt 'Rock Star' tiles. From Salvini Tile via Apartment Therapy.
For those in need of extreme swank.
flecked
Curve bud vase by Cursive Design. $16. A nice hostess gift for smart parties.
I might need to add one of these to the order, too.
gold speaks
Mensaje, Decoracion Mural, by Mathias Goeritz. Gold paint on stainless steel, mounted on wood, 110 by 178 inches, 1970.
12.09.2008
imaginary outfit: working on secret clevey projects
So, there will not be much posting action here today because I am headed out into the Cleve to work on a secret project. It is making me feel delightfully sneaky and stealthy and full of low-level excitement and making me contemplate dressing like a slick sidekick in the Bourne franchise instead of my usual hobo self.
See you tomorrow.
12.08.2008
only those of the purest karma can wear them
Each pair of Woolenstocks Wogoo boots is hand made of wool felt and fake fur and takes 40 hours to construct.
That's what I call a house slipper. Available here, among other places.
weekenders
12.07.2008
sunday tune: sally shapiro - anorak christmas
I have an addiction to novelty Christmas music. This will probably be the next addition to the collection (the proceeds benefit Amnesty International).
PS: Hey Cleveland readers ... do any of you have a copy of Christmastime In Painesville by Slackjaw? It's one of my favorite novelty Christmas songs of all time, and my cassette was eaten by an evil machine. If I could get a copy, it would be a Christmas miracle ...
sunday tune: the raveonettes - the christmas song
I dig this (and there isn't a video yet for the Raveonettes soon-to-be holiday classic, Christmas in Cleveland).
12.06.2008
12.05.2008
this weekend
There is so much to do this weekend I don't know where to start. Well, actually, I'll be staring here. Afterwards:
- there will be a tree to find and trim
- dinner with friends
- a reason to drink White Russians and think fondly of Nicholas Cage
- ice skating (outdoors)
- lanterns blazing in the dark Cleveland night
- a crystal liturgy
- and the grandest holiday tradition of all time (if you are into legs)
littleloveblue Woolen Tree No. 1, spotted at Bliss.
imaginary outfit: going to get a christmas tree
I love the Christmas holiday season. I know it's commercialized, sentimentalized, idealized and demonized, and the source of endless terrible ABC Family movies, but it doesn't matter. December is a month of happy festivals to me, and it kicks off with getting a tree to decorate.
Each year, we head out to Starr Farm, home of the most beautiful, whimsical trees I have ever seen - some spindly, some tall, some with tiny pinecones at the tip of every branch, some like trees from Whoville, and some even Martha would approve. No two are exactly alike, and they are all beautiful. I fill a big thermos full of hot chocolate to drink during the long drive, and we sing along to Christmas carols as the fields fly past. Just when we start to think we've driven too far, we see the sign and turn in. Then it's time for Sean and me to cock our heads and deliberate relative merits until we find the right tree to hang our beloved, mismatched ornaments on.
I'm excited.
tiny + shiny
Bake It Pretty's holiday goodies make me so happy. I'm thinking about ordering this as a little present to myself ... it would be perfect for making a holiday diorama.
feathered
Feather trees charm me, but I still need a real live tree in my house every year. This is a nice one from The Feather Tree Co.
i never thought it was such a bad little tree
I saw one of these in person. Adorable.
(The farmer I get my Christmas tree from takes fallen branches and puts them in wooden stands, so you can have your own Charlie Brown tree. I love them.)
chop chop
We are going to go get a Christmas tree this weekend. I can't wait.
Image from here. (I wish I could get it for my wall.)
12.04.2008
to live in
This time of year, more than any other, I dream of having a house. I love my apartment but the idea of having a space truly our own, that we can boss and shape and root down in, makes me a little wistful. We're saving up to build our own place someday, and I spend a lot of time comparing houses. This prefab one by Muji is alluring to me. I like the stark geometry.
Found at Now Voyager (a really great blog).
gasp
This is the best holiday craft project/product I have seen. Wow.
Studio Violet Clothespeg Church at Bloesem.
12.03.2008
a room somewhere
i'd accept this
wildcatters' 'No Tears' Medal. Perfect for the stoic in your life.
This may be my motto for 2009.
Via NotCot.
ice is nice
Kate Zabone Rough Diamond Stacking Ring. That's what I call a stocking stuffer.
Spotted on For Me, for You.
doing my best to
I always work a little harder at it in December - I like a strong end to the year.
Delightful cookies spied at Bloesem.
12.02.2008
imaginary outfit: going skating
One of my favorite things to do is ice skate. I'm not particularly good at it but I love it just the same. Sean and I usually manage to go three or four times every month during the winter, and whenever we travel to wintery places, we make a point of trying to find a rink.
The most wonderful rink we ever skated at was the Wiener Eislauf-Verein - it's a massive, very old, open-air rink in Vienna. When we were there, the rink was full of older couples in their fifties and sixties, sumptuously turned out - women in ankle-skimming fur coats, and men in heavy wool suits and hats, looking like they had just dropped in for a skate after running errands around the city. They were impeccable skaters. They whizzed by us, gliding together in time to the waltzes that played over the loudspeakers.
If I ever get to go back there, I'll know to dress for the occasion. In a smart skating dress with a nipped-in waist and a high collar, I'd channel Kitty Scherbatsky and the glamour of ice rinks of olden times, and hopefully my beautiful clothes would make people cast a blind eye to my underdeveloped ice skills.
in case you fall
This would make a charming first aid kit. You could have a trained mountain rescue dog carry it for you. It's made from recycled Swiss blankets.
i'd like a new pair of skates
1941 Leather ice skates. If only new ones were half as beautiful. Found here.
delineated movements
Figure skater Carol Lynne, photographed in 1945 by Gjon Mili. Flashlights were embedded in each skate to illuminate the moves.
Found on the new Life archive.
skaters
On that day of the week and at that hour people belonging to the same set and all acquainted with one another used to meet on the ice. There were crack skaters, parading their skill, and beginners clinging to chairs and making timid, awkward movements, boys, and elderly people skating for their health; and they all seemed to Levin to be fortune's favorites because they were there near her.
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenin.
Photo: Vienna's Eislauf-Verein, 1908.
12.01.2008
winter white
I am making hasty revisions to my Christmas list to include these lovely things, all hand made by Tannis Hegan, and all newly available at Lark.
Photos via Lark.
how i plan to get around
From 1932 (although I saw Rick Steves' family riding around on these in Austria, so they must still be out there).
Via Modern Mechanix.
snow
I adore this movie. My sister and I watch it every year - we once tried out for a musical using this number.
the mysteries of the upper air
Quick, the first flakes are coming; the couriers of the coming snow storm. Open the skylight, and directly under it place the carefully prepared blackboard, on whose ebony surface the most minute form of frozen beauty may be welcome from cloud-land. The mysteries of the upper air are about to reveal themselves, if our hands are deft and our eyes quick enough.
Wilson A. Bentley, "The Story of the Snow Crystals” Harper's Monthly Magazine, 104 (1901:Dec.-1902:May).
Images from Bentley's snow crystal studies. In 1885, he became the first person to successfully photograph snowflakes.
