bellwether days: January 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009

girls and owls...

...Kareena Zerefos

1st discovered through Fairspot.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

John Updike (1932-2009)

Reading at Twilight

One of my favorite writers....no one could make the ordinary so beautiful...

He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, the place he based his Rabbit books on.

I would get homesick when I lived in season-less Hawaii, and whenever I did, I would re-read some Updike. He made the midwestern Rust Belt where I've spent most of my life so vivid.

An excerpt from Rabbit Run:

Outdoors it is growing dark and cool. The Norway maples exhale the smell of their sticky new buds and the broad living-room windows along Wilbur Street show beyond the silver patch of a television set the warm bulbs burning in kitchens, like fires at the backs of caves. He walks downhill. The day is gathering itself in. He now and then touches with his hand the rough bark of a tree or the dry twigs of a hedge, to give himself the small answer of a texture. At the corner, where Wilbur Street meets Potter Avenue, a mailbox stands leaning in twilight on its concrete post. Tall two-petaled street sign, the cleat-gouged trunk of the telephone pole holding its insulators against the sky, fire hydrant like a golden bush: a grove. He used to love to climb the poles. To shinny up from a friend's shoulders until the ladder of spikes came to your hands, to get up to where you could hear the wires sing. Their song was a terrifying motionless whisper. It always tempted you to fall, to let the hard spikes in your palms go and feel the space on your back, feel it take your feet and ride up your spine as you fell. He remembers how hot your hands felt at the top, rubbed full of splinters from getting up to where the spikes began. Listening to the wires as if you could hear what people were saying, what all that secret adult world was about.

call of the wild

inspired by Erica Svensson...

and the drawings of Silver Horn...

and these...

French Connection wrap

freebird necklaces

Hopi fringe boot

beads shirt

hair feather clip

Monday, January 26, 2009

my "desk"

I was tagged by the most excellent Lea to show my desk. As I have a laptop, I've designated the coffee table to be my internet headquarters.

Current view from my couch...

Unfortunately this is not the view from my window, but rather one of the opening scenes of The Savages. It's probably not a good idea to work on the computer while having the television on, but I can't seem to help myself.

A shot of the desk I abandoned after I got my Macbook. My poor Labbit seems lonely...

The little object in the picture above is this:

Winter fox notepad from Cicada Studio...

My wallpaper is from Kate Spade...

Heath mug containing some most necessary coffee, and my prized wood coasters that my mom gifted me years ago...

Tray containing stones from a Lake Superior beach, a vintage French rosary, a Virgin Mary pin that an old boyfriend found in his used 70s era car, (I'm not Catholic, for some reason I am just occasionally drawn to Catholic items. Must be my Catholic ancestors speaking through me) a clay Hawaiian dice that I found when living in Oahu, and a cute little needle case from the Small Object...

And finally, some shots of my inspiration board...

...the supercool tree button magnets are from woodworking.

So there you have it! I am tagging Mette, Kendalee, Kindra, and, um, some others that I will edit in later. (I don't like going to tag someone and their last post has like 50 comments and my tag request gets lost in the shuffle...) So I will wait a bit, and in the meantime, if anyone would like to be tagged, let me know and I will pounce!

my spring palette

It helps to get through the grayness of these early months by imagining the colors and feel of each year's spring. This year I'm inspired by green, fawn, warm brass and copper.

Loving chainchainchained's mixed chain necklace dripping with beads and a pearl...

and norajane's paint by number forest pillow....

and pretty much everything by sohomode...

Ahh. I feel better already!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

may the force be with you...

I discovered the Growing Up Star Wars flickr group through

Kate's cool blog For Me, For You. As a twerpy little Star Wars fanatic, (of the originals, not the more recent ones, ugh) this pool really resonates. Some faves: