If you’re not into papercrafts and/or you know someone who loves Mystery Science Theater 3000 (ahem), then these are for you:
(Found via this Tumblr.)
If you’re not into papercrafts and/or you know someone who loves Mystery Science Theater 3000 (ahem), then these are for you:
(Found via this Tumblr.)
It’s the third anniversary of moving into my house today. This was the scene three years ago on moving day–I’m not sure what’s going on with my hair, but I’m pretty sure I was thinking, “Holy shit what have I done WHEE!”
I roped my family into helping me move. I think my dad is thinking exactly what I am here–minus the “WHEE!”–and my brother might be looking for an escape hatch in the oven:
But we got me moved in, I decorated, and then started doing even more permanent things:
Dad built me a pergola and the family helped me add all sorts of back landscaping (and even Christmas lights).
I panted a vine out front and a lavender hedge and have potted plants year-round.
And Toby and I have a place that is all ours.
The tag I use for posts about my house is “the precious,” as explained in this post. At least once a week I still look around and think, “Hey, this is mine. I earned it myself. I can do what I want to it. I can stay here as long as I want.” It’s a good feeling.
The only shopping I did on this trip was for fabric (my friend is a sewist, too) and items at the Japanese dollar store. That’s my kind of vacation!
I flew into Oakland, so we started first thing with Stone Mountain & Daughter in Berkeley, which…well done, hippies of Berkeley. Fantastic prices and selection! We spent three hours shopping and I was too excited to even take pictures. I kind of want to move to the Bay Area to be able to visit this store more often. Here’s the spoils from Stone Mountain:
From left to right, there’s a cotton print, linen digital print, striped heavy knit, cotton “ikat”, and some stretch cotton shirting. (Not pictured: some fabric for pajamas for the nephew and some fabric for another friend.)
The next day, it was on to Britex:
I’d never been to a “serious” city fabric store before, so I was gawking. Every floor–and there were 4–was floor-to-ceiling fabric, ranging from expensive to “please ask for assistance with the couture laces.”
Again, I was so overwhelmed I didn’t take a lot of pictures. But I did visit the button wall (!) on the third floor and come come with some Italian brass domes for my cape (yes, I’m still making it):
Oh, San Francisco. I left my heart in your fabric stores.
The trip I talked about Monday happened last week and it was glorious. I got my damp redwoods and cold sand and tour of the best fabric stores ever (more on that tomorrow), plus magnolias in February, delicious meals, ocean views, and some catharsis.
There were even koi. How fitting.
Oh, San Francisco. As I head into work today, I have this song in my head…
1. As I said earlier this week, Toby is my Valentine every day. But I’m lucky enough to have two great loves:
2. That image is from a Tumblr account I started last summer: karenheartstoby.tumblr.com. It’s all just images I’ve collected from browsing other Tumblrs, but sometimes it’s nice to have a repository of pretty things. Without words.
My old roommate (mentioned last week) was really good with houseplants: At one point he had a bougainvillea vine indoors, plus he was able to get his orchids to re-bloom year after year. I’m glad I paid attention to his tricks because I can keep orchids pretty happy now, too. (The main trick: They need a drop in temperature to about 50 degrees to start a flower spike. My own hippie trick: I talk to them as I water them each week.)
Both of these guys have been with me since I moved in to the house. They got their temperature drop in the fall and lots of encouragement, and now look:
To quote my houseplant mentor: “Tropical plants blooming in the middle of winter. Now that’s quality of life.”
“Best preacher that ever was”–my thoughts exactly on sunshine. (Not so much the waking early for me, though.)
Why I Wake Early
by Mary Oliver
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety—
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light—
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
As Nigel Slater says, “St. Valentine’s is rather like Christmas, in that if you ignore it, you always end up regretting it, feeling mean and cynical. Yes, it is more than a bit cheesy, but I think we have to go with it.”
Despite yesterday’s post, I am more and more ok with Valentine’s Day as the years go by. Toby is my Valentine every day, and the holiday is an excuse to make papercrafts and trawl Pinterest for more crafty ideas. Since I’m going with it, the papercrafting has already begun over here:
The trawling of Pinterest has been going strong, too, and I’ve found some good stuff: Crayon hearts I’m pretty sure I’m making for my nephew:
Pencil “arrow” Valentines I’m really tempted to do for coworkers, because that I’m the writer there and because: papercrafts.
I could even add some washi tape to the pencil arrows. Washi tape forever!
(Images from the blogs linked to above, all found searching [for way too long] on Pinterest.)
Back in August of 2012, I went to Northern California with the man I’d been dating all that year. I never talked about him much here (except to announce that I saved his koi), but he was an Air Force officer who was originally from Monterey; the trip was to see his hometown and the greater Central Coast. I knew that he’d be moving for the Air Force when we started dating, and at vacation time the relationship was going well, there was a chance he’d be re-stationed in California, we stayed with his parents in Monterey, and the whole thing felt a lot like an audition for The Future.
Well, the audition was…not a success. Which is why I’m still here with my family and my mountains and he ended up in Virginia without leaving a forwarding address. (No wonder I only wrote about 50 words in my post about that vacation.)
I’ve always hated that some incredible scenery and cities got tainted with what turned out to be the beginning of a very prolonged end to that relationship, so I’m doing the trip over again soon, with a good friend. We’re spending two days in San Francisco and then making our way down to Big Sur, both things I wanted to see more of in 2012. We’ll be going to fabric stores and fancy stores and restaurants on a cliff and staying in what I’m pretty sure is California Hobbiton. I can’t wait–especially when I remember there is no snow there.
So that was the story. And this is the playlist I made for the trip. I’ll listen to it while I look at misty redwoods and sit on cold sand and let it “All Wash Out,” as track 8 suggests. Finally.
(You’ll need a [free] Spotify account to hear this, if you don’t have one.)