Revolution of Snow

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,

its white flag waving over everything,

the landscape vanished,

not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,

and beyond these windows...Snow Day, Billy Collins

Update - Saturday, 5 Feb 2011. Twitter re: Egypt. Feeling way under-the-weather. Even quite ill. Oof.

If you don't have access to Al Jazeera English (very rare in the States - though I can access it just fine), watch here.

Get Off of My Cloud

Thursday, 27 Jan 2011 Update - Due to massive snowstorm, Julie & I decamped to an undisclosed location. Will post winter break news after we dig out. xo/S.

Tuesday, 1 Feb 2011 Update - We're still not home. More ice on the way. Go watch Egypt (& Tunisia) news...more important than us:)

What to do about: spammers, hacking attempts, people in the followers list who are suspicious, maybe enable the follower gadget, it's just a mess. So creeps, in my best Mick Jagger sneer - Hey you, get off of my cloud.

On a more pleasant note...for sheer delight, check out Jeff Bridges's great website. Any admirer knows that he draws, loves his Widelux camera, & plays music. He's much more than that, though. He's a spokesperson (& co-founder in 1983) of the End Hunger Network. Read all the way down that link about his thoughts on how charities alone cannot end hunger. The series American Masters recently broadcast The Dude Abides about guess who & it was super.

I'm new to Indecision Forever, a site run by the entertaining wackos at The Daily Show. If you will be watching the State of the Union Speech tonight (SOTU to us wonks), you might want to check in over there. I'm weary of the post-mortems. Wait, you say. It hasn't been delivered yet! I know, dear. You must not know that speeches are dissected before they're given nowadays.

Out I creep into the freezing apt. to heat up some soup & run back into the bedroom. Julie is asleep after playing with my braid & taking off my sleep mask about 5,000 times last night. OK, about 100 times. I'll be back to post a suitable photograph (s) for the break.

Tulip Mood

In a tulip mood & this photograph via Tokketok Letterpress blog appealed to me ages ago. It just didn't go with the bright pink & white on today's Giulia Geranium post. BTW, Tokketok has some nice card sets. Icy cold rain here. Trying to get a photograph of Julie doing something other than sleeping--she is a lively girl. But as I said, "icy rain." Still in robe & worrying that I will turn into a female Dude. (See design*sponge's Living In today.)

Update - Sunday evening, 23 Jan. I'll be back shortly. Freezing cold, crazy spammers, etc. On positive note, my Pittsburgh Steelers just won a big game. I know, I wouldn't think me a football person either. My grandfather's team will always be my team. xo. Susan

Calling All Designers

You do not have to be a traditional design professional (that's the point). It's Garmz.com.

One of the advantages to feeling unwell is a stack of unread magazines. (Although--if W doesn't get better & this new editor doesn't stop putting naked Kardashians in an "art" issue, euwww, it is so over. God, what dreck.)

Vote on designs uploaded by others & winners see their garment manufactured & for sale online. I do not know how well they are constructed, etc. The site is in beta. There are some good-to-excellent illustrations. There are also some that look like I dipped into my Crayola box. If you were fairly early to Etsy, you know there was (is) some "real junk on there." (That was a friend before I gave her some things from Etsy a couple of years ago. In other words, sift sift sift.) It's the same with Garmz. There are some Etsy folk on there, too. Here's an interview with one winner, Lauren Reeser aka American Duchess. Here's Lauren's pretty Etsy shop, & wonderful historical costuming blog.

Go forth & improve Garmz. (designs/illustrations by Scarlet Movement & Anika)

Beauty Secrets

I laughed when I saw this amusing Nickolas Muray photograph from the George Eastman House collection. My newly-in-touch friends from Strasbourg asked several things the past two months but often the first (& most asked): do you still roll your hair in socks? Answer: sometimes. So I guess it wasn't so secret...apparently I paraded around with argyles & stripy socks in my ridiculously long hair. (It really works.)

I'll be back sometime this week. Feeling not-so-well. I received some wonderful toys (video-cam, digital binoculars-wow) yesterday; but right now I'm going to draw a full bath & dip into a L'Occitane goody box--almond oil. Yum.

Happy New Year

I'm over-thinking this one. Meaning: no need to go searching for just the right photo, just the right quote, etc. Criminy, it's Saturday. Herewith Sharon Montrose's cute baby bunny on Giulia's site. (It is the Year of the Rabbit.)

I'm (sort of) making up resolutions on my baby deer pad from Sharon Montrose's Etsy shop. And cooking/talking on the phone/looking at blogs of eye-popping insincerity (no one you know). Waiting for the delayed Winter Classic hockey game in which my Pittsburgh Penguins will whoop the Washington Caps. Update - grrrr. (I'm lying low--I live in enemy territory.) Cheers, happy new year. And may I remind everyone that Christmas (traditionally) is not over until 6 Jan. I like it...I hate the idea that people run around like maniacs to "get it over with." Relax. (Baby Bunny No. 1 by Sharon Montrose, The Animal Print Shop)

Year's End

Happy new year. (photograph by Martina Karlsson)

New Year's Eve Day

The "don't rush me" edition. Ciao & back here later tonight (EST).

Merry Christmas

Have a happy holiday. Wish I looked as calm & collected as this Viennese lady by Mela Koehler (Austrian, 1885–1960). She was part of the Wiener Werkstätte artists’ collective founded in Vienna at the turn of the century. This card was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's catalogue this year (it's on sale now). If you are or will be in NYC before 17 January, you can stop in to the Neue Galerie & see an exhibit of postcards from the collective. The online site is very pretty (as is the gorgeous catalogue). Cheers!

Christmas Eve Day

...and I'm running in place. So off to do so for real. Herewith a few not-so-great photographs but we do what we can. Are you sure you want a cat? It does give one the opportunity to practice patience, I suppose. Cheers to pals in Australia where it is past midnight & therefore Christmas Day. I maintain the Twelve Days of Christmas policy--it really does take the pressure off, as I see it. Back later. Cheers. PS: There's still time to donate to Toys for Tots, if you're going to be at IKEA, the Soft Toy campaign goes until they close today.

Dior-chid

"Poetic Illusions" Illustrations by Mats Gustafson. I saw an orchid at my neighborhood market that looked like this (if you squint). Yes, I'm goofing off more than usual. (Vogue China, December 2010) Via the Fashion Spot, on Vintage Rose Garden)

Byrne on Burton

I cannot explain how I ended up on the Irish Times website reading Gabriel Byrne's remembrance of Richard Burton/review of Furious Love. A visit to a few Irish newspaper sites & there is Byrne at every turn; he was appointed Ireland's cultural ambassador (to the States) earlier this year.

Studiously ignoring the baking of cookies, the cleaning of the apt. More fun to read things like "a flame of love never quenched...". I'm just teasing...it's a quick & interesting read--especially the anecdote about a dinner in Vienna with Olivier, Burton, Gielgud, & Richardson.

(The photograph is from The Burtons tumblr. I saw it earlier this year but it seemed more of a winter thing. There's an amusing entry about the meeting of a bellhop & Burton, here.)

Shoot Your Sandwich

From the Saveur website: Everyone has a favorite sandwich, whether it’s a homemade Dagwood pulled together from leftovers, or a cult hoagie that waits at the end of an hour-long line. SAVEUR wants to know what you think is the best thing in sliced bread — find your best photo of your favorite sandwich, and upload it to our photo contest. One winner and six runners-up will be picked by the SAVEUR editors to be featured in the pages of our all-sandwiches April issue. (photographs from the contest. I kind of overdid it, but I'm hungry.)

The rules.

The prize - glory, bragging rights, & your sandwich.

Clair de Lune

There's a total eclipse of the solstice moon overnight. The last time this happened, it was 1638. Wow. I could make much of this but I'll spare one & all. This very pretty Isabel Marant boutique window in Paris by Fan & Gab. (To be fair, I saw it on this Dreaming in White Pinterest board. But just like FB, it is having some sort of mini-breakdown today.)

Christkindelsmärik

These are from the so-much-fun Strasbourg Christmas Market, here. (Christkindelsmärik is Alsatian.) Julie continues to wrestle with her ambivalence towards fairy lights, here. You can listen to Mon Beau Sapin, here. Here is Kristin of French Word-A-Day on donner (a mignon Provençal tabby caught my eye). More anon.

Christmas Lights

Same as on Giulia Geranium tonight. No pudding recipe yet. Freezing cold here. Cannot decide how much I like the song...maybe it's the balloons & fireworks over London in the video. Actually, I put this up on both sites to say hi to a friend who is seriously downhearted. Cheers! (photograph via Vintage Rose Garden via Pinterest) Thursday Update - here's a link to video playable in Europe.

Pumpkin Ginger Vanilla Pudding

The cat-pudding has repaired to the room with The Dragon (a heater), freeing up my Aran pullover upon which she snoozes quite often (see grainy photograph). One more holiday do-gooder event in which I have admin duties.

I did make a pumpkin ginger vanilla pudding & it went over well. More of a custard but the word 'pudding' is much more fun to say. It's a combination of three recipes, so a codified version is forthcoming. If the power stays on. (Hiss)

A few notes: Angie has a Romanian childhood holiday memory & chocolate recipe, here. Also, Vanessa's very helpful & delicious index of recipes. Carina in Copenhagen's "I want to" series is fun.

Week's End - The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony

Unless you've been under a rock (man, I hope not), you know that the ceremony was today but that the award could not be given. Liu Xiabao was not allowed to be there as he's in prison for 11 outrageous years. Those who have been in contact with his wife Liu Xia have not heard from her in at least 3 days. It's believed that she is under house arrest.

The last time a Nobel Peace Prize was not handed out was 1936. Guess who nixed that one? You can watch the video on the Nobel Organization page, here. By the by, today is International Human Rights Day & Amnesty International's Write for Rights campaign runs through the 13th. Wherever you are, you can do something without joining anything. A letter with a stamp. That's it.

Sadly, I can't have comments on these posts due to spamming.

(The lovely holiday candle photograph is by Aimee White)

Back Where You Belong by Tina Tarnoff

This elegant & romantic piece was a summer surprise from San Francisco-based artist Tina Tarnoff. I wore it frequently with two linen tunics, too low-cut for comfort. Worked like the charm that it is, no sewing & lots of compliments. The last photograph shows two winter possibilities. I highly recommend that you hop over to Tina's justly-popular Etsy shop & her inspiring Thought Patterns blog. (Her husband, novelist Terry Tarnoff has a terrific website, too.) Tina's 18 sets of cards (update - 17 sets, sorry) are based on her intricate original papercuts. If you're like me & can't afford much this year, these are a great deal. I've given several sets to a variety of people & they are always loved. Thank you so much to super-generous Tina.

John

John Lennon website