the letter C

I love the way Kristine styles her photos, always as cool and refined as her wirework. The letter C, $15 from kristinemays

take pity on me

I can't knit (crochet? I don't even know) to save my life. Please make these for me. I'll send you jelly beans. and kittens. Kittens stuffed with jelly beans. Jelly beans stuffed with kittens. Red Coral and Gentleman Prawn patterns, $3.50 from wunderkammer

love, Etsy

"Deer in the Forests of White Birch" is an original, one-of-a-kind paper sculpture by mollyjey. $160

Mass MoCA

"Tree Logic," the iconic upside-down maple tree installation at the front of Mass MoCA

Given that it's only 40 minutes away, it's criminal that I haven't visited the galleries of Mass MoCA before today. I'd been to the building a number of times, but never dedicated the hours to touring the whole place. My friends Brooke (a Western Mass native, like me) and her husband Adrian are over from London and we thought some "crazy-ass modern art" (Brooke's words, and she's a Ph.D. in modern art!) would hit the spot.

Adi entering the head terrarium

Steinkamp

A converted set of mill buildings in North Adams, Mass, MMoCA is all about installations. It's got the space to do them right, and the building itself has so much character it often begs the question: where does the structure end and the art begin? It's not the Guggenheim, and that's the point—these were buildings that were built for industry, not art. And yet they manage to nearly steal the show...nearly.

Projections, Jenny Holzer

The highlight for me (and Brooke and Adrian too) was Jenny Holzer's "Projections." It's only there thru November 16, so if you've been thinking of seeing it, now's the time.

A few of my favorite things

In honor of this auspicious day—8/8/08—I thought I'd list a few of my favorite things today.

My boys

The garden after a late summer storm


My new shoes (swoon!). Steve Madden (is that guy out of jail yet?), from TJ Maxx


My new jeans, gray Levi's (also TJ Maxx, the Best. Store. Ever.)


Happy Late Summer Luck Day :)

106 books of pretention

Oh my gosh, how I love these little games where you get to go thru a big list of books and prove what a Smarty von Smartenhauser you are (though if you were an actual smarty, you'd call it a meme--congrats to you if the wiki entry actually helps you figure that one out.)

I found this list via What Would Jane Austen Do? "Below are '106 books of pretention,' compiled from the books most frequently marked unread by Library Thing users." I believe this means the LT users have copped to owning but never reading these books.

So, herewith, all the pretentious books I've read (in bold); books I’ve started but haven’t finished (or skipped huge portions of) in italics; and books I own but haven’t read are marked with a dagger (†).

* Read: 37
* Never finished: 13
* Own, but haven’t read†: 3


1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2. Anna Karenina
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Catch-22
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude
6. Wuthering Heights
7. The Silmarillion
8. Life of Pi : a novel
9. The Name of the Rose
10. Don Quixote
11. Moby Dick--10th grade, I think. The teacher actually told us to skip all the chapters about the fishing industry. I skipped a heck of a lot more than that, let me tell you.
12. Ulysses--James Joyce hates me. The feeling is mutual.
13. Madame Bovary--In 10th grade, this was my favorite book, like, ever.
14. The Odyssey
15. Pride and Prejudice
16. Jane Eyre--this is how much of a freak I am for the English romances: freshman year in college, a guy on my hall was assigned this for frosh English. He hated it and threatened to tear it up. I said No! I'll take it, I've never read it. He mocked me, I read it--and loved it.
17. The Tale of Two Cities
18. The Brothers Karamazov
19. Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
20. War and Peace
21. Vanity Fair
22. The Time Traveler’s Wife
23. The Iliad
24. Emma
25. The Blind Assassin†--I'm sure I've got this one around here somewhere
26. The Kite Runner
27. Mrs. Dalloway
28. Great Expectations
29. American Gods
30. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
31. Atlas Shrugged
32. Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books†
33. Memoirs of a Geisha
34. Middlesex--One of the best books of the last 50 years, easily.
35. Quicksilver
36. Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
37. The Canterbury tales
38. The Historian : a novel
39. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
40. Love in the Time of Cholera
41. Brave New world
42. The Fountainhead
43. Foucault’s Pendulum
44. Middlemarch
45. Frankenstein
46. The Count of Monte Cristo
47. Dracula
48. A Clockwork Orange
49. Anansi Boys
50. The Once and Future King
51. The Grapes of Wrath
52. The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
53. 1984
54. Angels & Demons
55. The Inferno
56. The Satanic Verses
57. Sense and Sensibility
58. The Picture of Dorian Gray
59. Mansfield Park
60. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
61. To the Lighthouse
62. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
63. Oliver Twist
64. Gulliver’s Travels
65. Les Misérables
66. The Corrections
67. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
68. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
69. Dune
70. The Prince
71. The Sound and the Fury
72. Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
73. The God of Small Things
74. A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
75. Cryptonomicon
76. Neverwhere
77. A Confederacy of Dunces
78. A Short History of Nearly Everything
79. Dubliners
80. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
81. Beloved
82. Slaughterhouse-five
83. The Scarlet Letter
84. Eats, Shoots & Leaves
85. The Mists of Avalon--I should make an annotation that would mean "obsessed over for about two years in high school"
86. Oryx and Crake : a novel
87. Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
88. Cloud Atlas
89. The Confusion
90. Lolita
91. Persuasion
92. Northanger Abbey
93. The Catcher in the Rye
94. On the Road
95. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
96. Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything--this is on my Amazon wish list. Someday I'll get around to it.
97. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
98. The Aeneid--Oh, no, I mean, I totally read that all the way thru. Yup, that and Moby Dick. There was a quiz, you know.
99. Watership Down
100. Gravity’s Rainbow
101. The Hobbit
102. In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
103. White Teeth†
104. Treasure Island
105. David Copperfield
106. The Three Musketeers


There you have it, folks. Now it's your turn!

Do I need to make you a mix tape or something?

Ha! Awesome. $15 from PopBangles

Cheap Thrills

The week started with me looking at the sticker on the windshield and realizing that it said 6—and the month was now definitely 7. Crap. I tried three inspection stations with no luck (1: machine on the fritz, 2: on vacation, 3: full up) before realizing I probably wouldn't pass anyway--there was that pesky "position bulb failure" message I'd been ignoring for, oh, about 5 months. 2 full days and $860 later (new brakes? bye, bye, stimulus check!), I'm finally legal again.

It's amazing how one little thing—that stupid sticker—can lead to a crescendo of crapola.


.....and then I remembered today's tag sales. Thank god for cheap thrills. I came away with tons of vintage costume chains, some antique skeleton keys, and a lovely antique milk jug.


Now I just have to decide if I'm going to use it all for parts or keep some for me.

I <3 your blog

Every day, I find a new blog I love, a blog I have to add to my Google reader, a blog I'll add to a growing list that I browse every a.m with my (giant) cup of coffee.

Two of my favorite blogs are Creature Comforts and Poppytalk. So I'm thrilled to be a part of events at both blogs this month.


At Poppytalk Handmade, the theme is summer. PHM is quickly becoming a highly regarded, go-to authority on the best of the handmade movement. I'm so psyched that Clementine is a part of the Here Comes the Sun lineup! There are some amazing artists in this market, you're sure to find a new favorite.



And at Creature Comforts, Ez is celebrating one year of blogging with an INCREDIBLE giveaway. You can win a gift package including products from artists like Ink + Wit, Cursive Design, Matte Stephens, Holly Becker (of Decor8), Oh My Cavalier, Skinny La Minx, Heather Smith Jones (from whom I just purchased two gorgeous originals yay!) . . . and Clementine Jewelry. It's an incredible package from a great, continually cool blog. Sign up to win now!

Viva Terra

If you're like me, you get a ton of catalogs—ones you never signed up for and you never look at. The other day, I got the new VivaTerra catalog. I think I've gotten it in the past and thrown it away. Oops! There's some gorgeous stuff in there—and it's all eco-friendly. And the photo styling is to die for! I'm totally loving it.

I wanted to share some of my favorites:

Vine Mirror

Recycled Balloon Glass Vases

Railroad Tie Bookshelves

Quartz Tealight Holders

Lotus Flower Chandelier

Things We Make

HallmarkMagazine.com has added a great new blog called Things We Make, full of features of artists, crafters and makers and their creations. I'm so thrilled to have my Radiant Hibiscus Earrings highlighted today, with a nice editorial. Check it out!

Studio Envy

I've been suffering some serious studio envy recently. Poppytalk has a great "Studio Spaces" feature full of inspiring photos and wonderful tidbits of the work habits of fellow artists and designers.

My workspace suffered a loss when I had to take down my big inspiration board. It was just toooo big and kept slipping down the wall. So now I have a tiny version that I made from a frame, some batting, and fabric—but it's just not the same.

If I could, I'd have a desk the length of one wall, like in this photo from BluePoppyJewelry.

studio9, originally uploaded by poppytalkblog.

There, I'd have my beads and tools right next to my drilling and torching area--imagine, making findings and then having all my beads right there next to me! Currently, my torching, pickling, sawing, and piercing desk is down in the basement, while all my beads, pliers, and chain are upstairs.

A fantastic inspiration board is a must. Just look at Sushipot's.

sushipotinspirationboard, originally uploaded by poppytalkblog.

The inspiration clothesline is fantastic, a brilliant idea that I can't wait to adopt. Here it is via Dolan Geiman.

Inspiration Clothesline, originally uploaded by poppytalkblog.

Mostly, I want space to spread out, where I can pour out a bunch of different beads into big and small bowls and get to work. I love this little vignette from BluePoppyJewelry. This seems like the perfect way to spark creativity.

Studio5, originally uploaded by poppytalkblog.

What a difference one week makes

Left: April 7, 2008. Right: April 15, 2008.

Hallelujah, I think it might actually be spring!




My favorite part of the melting snow is what it reveals. You'd never know this concrete basin was there for four months of the year. And notice Zeke's toys gathered around him in the photo below--every spring he gets to rediscover what he thought he lost in December.

Spring Bead Cleaning

Because I love shopping for beads just about as much as I love making jewelry, I have quite a stash of gems. And since I don't want to die under a falling shelving unit overloaded with all my beads, I've decided to put my energy into my LuluBeads "destash" shop this week. So it's officially Spring Bead Cleaning time!


I've got lots of great stuff selling at really reasonable prices right now. And if you decide to check it out and maybe make some purchases, just mention this blog post in the "notes to seller" box at checkout and I'll give you free shipping! Because I know there are lots of you who love buying beads as much as I do. And who am I to deprive you? :)

It can stop snowing now.

Seriously.

When the dog is able to look down on me from the deck, it's time for spring.


That blue thing under where Zeke's lying? It's the top of an adirondack chair.