David Leibovitz’s “moelleux of summer fruits,” more underwear (still trying to find that perfect pattern; these are not it but they used up some lace scraps), Smitten Kitchen’s summer squash pizza. It cooled down enough to use the oven!
August 2020
Friday Links
1. If you, like me, thought Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree was bullshit, this is for you: The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries
2. Ausitn Kleon pointed us to a Spotify playlist if you’re lucky enough to be by a (private) pool this weekend: Poolside ’86
3. I am Too Old to really get/get into vloggers but this young man listening to Nina Simone for the first time is all of us (music starts about a minute in).
This Is Just To Say
I went to
the gym
and got a new PR
for deadlift this morning
I pulled 185 with mixed grip
despite taking 6 weeks off
and dropping a weight
on my foot
Forgive me
William Carlos Williams
but I am so proud
and will be so sore
A Nice Poem
I know there are poets who think a poem should be anything but nice–challenging, beautiful, monumental–but I like nice ones. And by nice I mean “kind” and “reassuring,” but not simple: This one could be pretty dark but it makes you feel better in the end.
For the Sake of Strangers
Dorianne Laux
No matter what the grief, its weight,
we are obliged to carry it.
We rise and gather momentum, the dull strength
that pushes us through crowds.
And then the young boy gives me directions
so avidly. A woman holds the glass door open,
waiting patiently for my empty body to pass through.
All day it continues, each kindness
reaching toward another—a stranger
singing to no one as I pass on the path, trees
offering their blossoms, a child
who lifts his almond eyes and smiles.
Somehow they always find me, seem even
to be waiting, determined to keep me
from myself, from the thing that calls to me
as it must have once called to them—
this temptation to step off the edge
and fall weightless, away from the world.
New Favorite Face Mask
I’ve had to go into the office a couple times for client meetings, all masked up and spread out, but, you know, meetings mean talking. The Craft Passion pattern I was using before tended to slide down my nose when you moved your jaw (a requirement of talking) and that wasn’t going to work.
So when I saw pattern designer Marilla Walker talking about a “boat mask” on Instagram and how comfortable it was, I thought I’d try it out. Her post I linked has a pattern you can draft but I found one ready to go at Aplat and tried that–it fit perfectly and was indeed amazingly comfortable.
The flaps at the top and bottom give it a 3D effect, which keeps it tight at the edges but leaves a lot of room in front of your mouth. I wore one Sunday for family visits and it stayed in place perfectly, even with lots of talking.
Since mask wearing looks like it’s going to stay around for the foreseeable future, I made these versions more FASHUN than neutral. The ties are bias binding for some color (I’m a big fan of a mask that ties around your head vs. ear elastic). No reason we can’t be stylish while we stay safe, right?
My Face When I Realize It’s Monday Again
Friday Links
1. If you haven’t read Patricia Lockwood’s essay about surviving the rona, do it. It’s equal parts hilarious and terrifying (she was never hospitalized but had delusions): Insane After Coronavirus.
My mind had moved a few inches to the left of its usual place, and I developed what I realised later were actual paranoid delusions. ‘Jason’s cough is fake,’ I secretly texted a friend from the bathtub, where I couldn’t be monitored. ‘I … don’t think his cough is fake,’ she responded, with the gentle tact of the healthy. ‘Oh it is very, very fake,’ I countered, and then further asserted the claim that he had something called Man Corona.
2. This is accurate:
3. This is helpful:
Thursday Essay
I hadn’t read any Helen Macdonald before I came across this essay in the Times Magazine about swifts. The writing is astonishingly good–a mix of science, research, memoir, and meditation. It all hangs together so well it was hard to pull out a quote, kind of like just humming the tune of a Bach fugue and leaving out all the rest of it, but this is from near the end:
…surely some of us are required, by dint of flourishing life and the well-being of us all, to look clearly at the things that are so easily obscured by the everyday. To take time to see the things we need to set our courses toward or against; the things we need to think about to know what we should do next. To trust in careful observation and expertise, in its sharing for the common good. When I read the news and grieve, my mind has more than once turned to vesper flights, to the strength and purpose that can arise from the collaboration of numberless frail and multitudinous souls.
It’s not that long, so give it a read: The Mysterious Life of Birds Who Never Come Down (I think the Times editor got their hands on the title for the web; I believe this is actually the first essay in her next book Vesper Flights and is titled as such in the book.)
Better Business
I’m not in a position to make hiring decisions but I wanted to amplify this for anyone out there who is. Even if you’re not, it makes great points about how non-diverse workplaces (or any space, really) just happen unless you work really, really consciously against it:
It’s so easy to like people who affirm either our own existence (we hire people who look like us) or affirm the decisions we’ve made in the past (we hire people who look like the people who already work for us)
The hiring advice itself is specific and actionable, so if this is for you, check it out: You Can Hire Better by Boss Barista.
Tuesday Project Roundup: Jumpsuit Life
Is this pretty much a romper I would have worn when I was 8, down to the pink and purple? Yes. Do I love it? Yes.
This is another Project Work From Home jumpsuit, out of leftover Spoonflower poly jersey I had bought back when I was launching an undie business. (Yes, the fabric says CLEVER GIRL and HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS.)
One-piece dressing has proven to be so much easier in this WFH life, and knits are always comfier, so I went looking for a good knit jumpsuit pattern. I had seen this vintage Kwik Sew pattern but didn’t want to pay $18 for it:
I saw this similar pattern for $7 and decided to just trace off the Greenstyle Brassie Joggers on the bottom half (matching the waist and crotch curves to the original) to get the pants I wanted.
I liked the pattern for the vintage 80s style and for the back detail, which has PERFECTLY placed straps to cover bra straps. Overall I’m really impressed with the drafting on these vintage Kwik Sew patterns–the hype is real (and I guess they’re worth $18).
I actually made another version of this pattern with the ankle cuffs first out of different fabric, but the dino print jumped the line for the blog (understandably). Regardless, I’m set for the end of summer at the home office.