Month: January 2008

Check out this sentence from yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune article, astonishing in both its construction and in what it reveals:

“Hinckley, after all, has been called the first ‘rock star’ Mormon prophet for having appeared before tens of thousands of Mormon youths–from Brazil to Nigeria to Radio City Music Hall–in entertainment-oriented stadium events on the eve of temple dedications in those locations.”

Wow! Who knew there was a Mormon temple in Radio City Music Hall? They’re certainly branching out.

Posting about wearing a dress in the middle of winter yesterday made me think about this section of a Robert Hass poem, “Santa Barbara Road,” from Human Wishes:

Everything rises from the dead in June.
There is some treasure hidden in the heart of summer
everyone remembers now, and they can’t be sure
the lives they live in will discover it.
They remember the smells of childhood vacations.
The men buy maps, raffish hats. Some women
pray to it by wearing blouses
with small buttons you have to button patiently,
as if to say, this is not winter, not
the cold shudder of dressing in the dark.

Yeah, I’m getting pretty tired of that cold shudder in the mornings.

I am so very tired of winter. So I decided to ignore the last brutal weeks of cold and snow and make a dress. Of course, it is a dress that can be worn now, with boots, because as you may have guessed I lack the patience to sew a dress and not wear it until the weather permits, and I hate being cold too much to wear it weather un-permitting. Anyway, the dress:
“I can’t stop staring at these boots! I love them so much it makes me blurry!”

Here is a detail of the yoke and its little inset thing, un-blurred by boot love: I think my pattern taste is moving up through the decades, because these smock-y hippie dresses are a far cry from the 50’s housedresses from last summer. This particular dress was from a modern pattern, but look at what I have planned next–1970’s GOLD! Check out view B there. I think I have the same hair–I know I have the same boots.

I am so very tired of winter. So I decided to ignore these last brutal seven weeks of cold and snow and make a dress. Of course, it is a dress that can be worn now, with boots, because as you may have guessed I lack the patience to sew a dress and not wear it until the weather permits, and I hate being cold too much to wear it weather un-permitting. Anyway, the dress:
“I can’t stop staring at these boots! I love them so much it makes me blurry!”

Here is a detail of the yoke and its little inset thing, un-blurred by boot love:

I think my pattern taste is moving up through the decades, because these smock-y hippie dresses are a far cry from the 50’s housedresses from last summer. This particular dress was from a modern pattern, but look at what I have planned next–1970’s GOLD!
Check out view B there. I think I have the same hair–I know I have the same boots.

Now that the couch is ordered, I have boots, and I escaped the layoffs, I’m feeling the end-of-January slump. It’s hard to be excited at either job, so I’ll just have to remind myself:
Of course, I don’t know what that target is, but at least it involves a cat picture.

1. OMGPONIES!!!!!111!!NO,WAIT, BOOTS!!!!!!11!!!! My boots arrived yesterday. I haven’t bought good shoes in over a year…oh, I loved this feeling. (Don’t worry; I didn’t charge them.) Here they are, with a modeled shot coming next week:
2. The blogs I read had some good quotes this week. The winners: “The finished work is called a manuscript, if you are the editor and publisher, and ‘My Precious’, if you are the author.” (YarnHarlot) and “He looks like a cross between the mayor of Whoville and an angry Viking.” (Agency Tart)

3. Have you been wondering what’s going on with the alpacas? There’s a lot of snow! They’re furry! Here is Ziggy Marley, saying hello!

Some Roethke to go with the pictures, from “O Thou Opening, Thou,” published in The Waking, 1953:

“The dark has its own light.
A son has many fathers.
Stand by a slow stream:
Hear the sigh of what is.
Be a pleased rock
On a plain day.
Waking’s
Kissing.
Yes.”

The “pleased rocks”–
The “slow stream”–

And, um, something else. But it also has bighorn sheep in the background! (I couldn’t find a poem that worked for this one.)

I didn’t mention that the agency had a round of layoffs (!) and a re-organization last week. The good news is I still have a job with some new accounts. The bad news is those new accounts have a daily status meeting at 9:30, so so much for those long morning posts.

I was going to put up some more pictures from our trip, but Blogger is giving me trouble and it’s time to get dressed like I’m a creative at an ad agency (smocks!), so check back tomorrow.

Mr. Isbell and I got out of town and down to Zion (or “Ziens,” as they say here) for the weekend. We had just a few days so there wasn’t much planned–just a few hikes and probably finding some appropriate quotes from Ed Abbey to blog about. And I was very excited about the prospect of car knitting (while a passenger, of course) on the drive there and back. I did get some in on the drive down, but then our plans had to change:Oh noes!

So I got to take us on scenic drives around the park, through the tunnel, and back home:

Fortunately, Mr. Isbell will recover, AND the hotel had a great view form the balcony:
It was a good trip.

1. I’ll be taking a few days away from the computer and will report how that went on Tuesday. There will be craftiness. There will be adventure. There may even be pictures.

2. Last night I dreamed I was at a party at Martha Stewart’s house with my mother and my sewing friend from work. Martha was serving champagne and when I told her it was delicious, she said, “Thanks, that bottle was ten thousand dollars.” What can it mean?!
3. Today = The Day of Ordering The Couch. Hurray for a tangible benefit to two months of a second job! (Speaking of, I figured out that if I kept working two extra weeks in February, I could buy boots…must..get…shoes….)