Fleur Wood

It's been so cold here, and though I'm enjoying getting thorough use out of my sweater collection, I can't help but think about how nice it would be to bask in the warm sun. Or even just to have the sun stay out past 4:30.

Yesterday I discovered Fleur Wood's website, and I think her beautiful designs are what propelled me even further into my pining for sun and sand.

Then, completely coincidentally, I was looking at Anthropologie's site today and saw for sale a book she's written about party planning and decor. (I swear I didn't see the advertisement on her homepage for the book – at that moment all I was interested in were the pretty dresses!) It's titled Food Fashion Friends: Recipes and Styling for Unforgettable Parties, and I want it. I don't care that it's $50 or that I have no place to throw a party. I'll throw unforgettable parties one day, peut-être. I hope. J'espère.

So I guess it's no surprise that this has been floating around my head for the past three days...

I had never seen the video for this song until now, and hot damn, it's not what I expected. Though it's very cool (and I can't imagine what the set looked like while filming / the crazy editing process), it's not what I would have done with the song.

I think the girl who posted the highest rated comment said it best: "this is so not what I imagined when listening to this song, I always thought of like beach vollyball and stuff." 

Priceless.

Wishful Thinking

I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Useful French Phrases for the Foreign and Confused: Installment No. 4

 

I hope I get at least one letter!

and:

This series will continue into the new year and throughout my four months in Paris.
Have a warm, happy holiday, everyone!

FOR THE RECORD:
I googled "confused french person", just to see what would happen, and this happened:

A coincidence considering I watched that E! special on Gwyneth Paltrow last night (and immediately signed up for Goop)? Probably not. Big Brother is watching.

But hey, happy holiday!

Where I was last night

Not my video, I was too busy rocking out to take a video. But I'm glad a few people did because this is a great memory. Look at that crowd! Such good vibes.

Ed. note:

 I found this picture a few weeks late, but how true it is! Source here.

Christmas!

I'm just so excited.

Useful French Phrases for the Foreign and Confused: Installment No. 3

 Three uses of the word "blow", and none of what you're thinking!

1.

 

(just change "musician" to "artist")

2.

 

3.

Yellow is my favorite color

Daydream List, print by The Wheatfield on Etsy


(Listen to the full length and infinitely better Daytrotter session here.)

"We treat the night like failed daylight"

I can't remember where I found this article.
It's so beautiful and interesting that I just have to share it.

Why I Adore The Night by Janet Winterson

Mmmmm holiday time....

Useful French Phrases for the Foreign and Confused: Installment No. 2

CHLOE

beautiful sunglasses on Swirl today by CHLOE. Burgundy is such a nice fall tone.

Paris is a moveable feast and all that jazz

He would go to Europe. That's what he would do. Spend some time in Fort Dodge then take off for a tour of Europe. He would learn French. Learn French, then take off for Paris, and when he got there he would drink red wine in Cacciato's honor. Visit all the museums and the monuments, learn the history, sit in the cafés along the river and smile at the pretty girls. Take a flat in Montmartre. Rise early and walk to the open market for breakfast. He would eat very slowly, crossing his legs and maybe reading a paper, letting things pass by, then maybe he'd walk about the city and learn the names of places, not as a tourist but as a man who comes to learn and understand. He would study the details. He would look for the things Cacciato would have looked for. It could be done. That was the crazy thing about it – for all the difficulties, for all the hard times and stupidity, for all that, it could truly be done.

– Tim O'Brien

Going After Cacciato

Winter Sale - Everything's Got To Go!

By the by...

The listings in my Etsy shop are about to expire, and soon I'll be relocating to Paris for a little while (no big deal). When I return I'd like to start from scratch with all new items in the shop, so I'm holding a super duper cheap clearance sale! There are three scarves left, two of which involve organic cotton and one of which is my favorite autumnal russet color. Did I mention I'll ship anywhere for free?

If you're interested in learning to knit, the needles in my shop are nice and easy for beginners. If you'd like recommendations, or to purchase just one pair out of the set, let me know!

And feel free to buy a photograph of the beach. I don't know where you are, but it's 30 degrees fahrenheit over here!

This project wouldn't have been possible without the help of my two friends, siblings Kristina (the model) and Richard (the photographer). His flickr is a lot of fun! 

What do you collect?

I collect works of art on postcards. And posters. Here's my newest one – discovered at the NY Art Book Fair at the BOMB Magazine table. (I know what you're thinking, and yes, it was indeed strange receiving a package that says BOMB in big black letters across the front.)

It's called "Parting Shots" by David Kramer. Get your own here!

More words from a master

It is claimed that there is such a moment of stooping, 

of summoning our strength, holding our breath, 

a moment of outward silence above the greatest internal
tension that exists between two human beings. 

There is no way of saying what takes place in that moment. 

It is, so to speak, the shadow that passion casts ahead of itself. 

An organic shadow; a relaxation of all earlier tensions 

and at the same time a new and sudden state of bondage
which contains the whole of the future; 

an incubation concentrated on the point of a needle . . . 

And on the other hand it is a nothing, 

a dull, vague feeling, a weakness, an anxiety . . .

Robert Musil

The Confusions of Young Törless

Oh, and did I mention I love NPR?

Photographer Jeff Sheng's current project, titled Don't Ask, Don't Tell, involves taking portraits of people in the U.S. military who identify themselves as LGBTQ. He does it in such a way, though, that the subjects do not give away their identities. The pictures end up communicating their frustration very clearly. It really makes you think (if you're not already thinking it), why the heck does this law exist? These are proud, free, American people. Let them live openly, damnit.
Successful political artistic ventures never cease to impress me.
NPR wrote it up.