Month: October 2015

Friday Unrelated Information

Karen

1. Have a happy Halloween/Samhain over the weekend. Remember, the gore and the death and the partying come right from the Celts and the old agrarian way of life, when the weather was cold enough to freeze the meat of any animals slaughtered, the world was dying for the winter, and the harvest was in and it was time to celebrate.

2. The beginning of November also marks the halfway point between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. Just six more weeks of darkness–get your hippie on and mark the occasion.

3. I am going to rock the weekend like this panda:

11354280_1032976056714889_1755037421_n

 

Farm Poem

Karen

This got me thinking of my mom’s family back on the prairies. Bonus mention of the composer Dvorak and his summer visits to Iowa.

 

Harvesting All Night

by Jane Hoogestraat

Twenty years ago, my father stops
in the small farm town where he was a boy
to watch his nephews, already men, play softball.
The long arc of a ball hit toward the far corner

leaves the light behind for a long sigh.
He told us later he wanted to stay that night.
When the harvest is late, the ground too muddy,
the players will wait until the earth freezes, then harvest

all night, the sodium lights of expensive combines
eerie as UFOs on the horizon, ringed by frost stars.
A family cemetery dated 1949 holds now the second
generation after the immigrants, and a few small graves

from the third. It will all last another generation or two,
be tended, that cemetery, the games in the park.
Dvorak visiting in Iowa caught it once,
as it retreated from him, a country that could

not be his, although he called it a new world, and brave.
His largo captures all he would know
of native melody, the indigenous music of the plains
that will outlive everything we’re losing, everything we are.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Alterations By Karen

Karen1 Comment

I haven’t had a lot of sewing mojo lately but I did cut eighteen inches off a dress I made last year. Instant new top!

IMG_7799

 

We’ve had a warm fall and I’ve been on a budget for a new car, so my wardrobe has felt extra-challenged. My feet have decided to only be happy in flats, too, so there’s a perfect storm of “I have nothing to wear!” So far I’m resisting J. Crew and trying to see what I can do with what I have. So far…

Monday Music

Karen

My internet is being fussy this morning and not uploading weekend pictures in a timely manner, so here’s what we listened to instead: Backstage video of Stevie Nicks from 1981 demoing a song, “Wild Heart.” Even if you don’t like Stevie, it’s worth a watch just to see an artist at the height of her powers and confidence.

(The really good stuff starts about a minute in.)

Why I Love Martha

Karen1 Comment

I’ve been a fan of Martha Stewart since she had her TV show in the mid-90s, which I’d watch every morning on summer vacation from school. I’ve subscribed to (and kept–the back issues  survived Kon Mari) her magazine since 2003. Because of Martha I own a punch bowl, know how to wash cashmere, and can fold a fitted sheet.

When I mention I’m a fan, most people respond with, “She went to jail,” like it might be news to me or make me recycle those magazine back issues. However, I’m at the level of “irrational brand loyalty” where that doesn’t even matter. I usually respond to those people with something along the lines of, “She’s a self made woman and built an empire based on good taste, and I really respect that,” but I wasn’t able to articulate what I really loved about her until I saw something in her latest book.

That book, Martha’s Entertaining, is pretty ridiculous (and awesome). I imagine that she told her team, “F**k it, I’m tired of trying to be relatable. Let’s do a book that shows how rich I really am.” It’s beautifully shot, of course, and shows how she entertains in her many homes. For the Christmas spread, the chapter started with this photo:

IMG_7716

 

The caption starting with “Opposite” (click to enlarge) is the key, though:
IMG_7715

She made the nativity set in the first photo while in jail. And she made it to match her collection of china and she now displays it in her home.  At first, it seems like just another ridiculous thing for Martha to do–but it made me realize what I love about her brand:

No matter how or where you live, no matter how much money you have, you can be creative and find something to do to make your home look nicer and make your life more gracious.

And that’s why I love Martha Stewart.

Happy Birthday, Ursula Le Guin

Karen

She is 86 today and has some tough-love advice for us about writing:

“If you have to find devices to coax yourself to stay focused on writing, perhaps you should not be writing what you’re writing. And if this lack of motivation is a constant problem, perhaps writing is not your forte. I mean, what is the problem? If writing bores you, that is pretty fatal. If that is not the case, but you find that it is hard going and it just doesn’t flow, well, what did you expect? It is work; art is work.”

She also has some wonderful thoughts about getting old and being beautiful.

What’s Important

Karen

‘How many of you know what’s important?’

Up went all the hands.

‘Very good,’ said Stuart, cocking one leg across the other and shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket. ‘Henry Rackmeyer, you tell us what is important.’

‘A shaft of sunlight at the end of a dark afternoon, a note in music, and the way the back of a baby’s neck smells if its mother keeps it tidy,’ answered Henry.

‘Correct,’ said Stuart. ‘Those are the important things. You forgot one thing, though. Mary Bendix, what did Henry Rackmeyer forget?’

‘He forgot ice cream with chocolate sauce on it,’ said Mary quickly.

‘Exactly,’ said Stuart. ‘Ice cream is important.’

E.B. White, Stuart Little.
(via)

Sunday Night Conversation: Italics Edition

Karen

There is no one like my best friend for Saligner-esque italics, except maybe Salinger. Case in point: him describing how the cleaners are getting his shirt collars pressed with folds and creases:

“It’s obviously done with careless abandon in some stupid machine.”