december views {№1}

my man.  mister anthropologie.

curious girl crush

corita rose, you are killing me with the tattoo birds...



the milagros corazon...

and the brilliant hues. seriously, I'm done for.

etsy blue

this weekend I really kicked into holiday mode: the tree is up and alight with color and I even decorated the blog. some of my shopping is done but I like to save some for the month of december. the balance of gift-giving is to be exclusively from local, handmade or vintage sources. etsy continues to be my shades-of-blue shopping paradise:

• perfect teal bag
• coasters are a great hostess gift
• peace on earth is not just a wish
• love a mini poncho
• snowflurry baubles
• my new collection obsession: midcentury homegoods
• some days this is how I feel
• rainbow whale!
• hello luvah!
• funk by my beautiful friend kelly
• more vintage beauties for the home
• and more baubles {there's no such thing as too many}
• sweet blue chickadees
• serious swooning over this turquoise bike
• for all the baubles
• blue cuff

santa, if you're reading, any of these will do just fine.

happy monday sweet friends!

mosaic monday

feeling all wishy over here...here's my linky bday/holiday list for 2009.

1. peace slippers
2. double gorgeousness
3. love this baby {like a more sophisticated love's baby soft}
4. modern classics; the entire penguin collection of cloth-covered stories designed by coralie bickford-smith
5. fuji instant photos
6. a yoga mat with one of my photos printed on it! {I'm thinking tiny b...}
7. this beauty belongs with me
8. on the bigger list this year: a yoga class with seane corn
9. and this is so me

here's to wishes coming true, loves. happy monday!

mosaic monday

hello lovelies! I hope your weekends were splendid and your autumns are treating you kindly.

the mister and his students are doing the rocky horror show for their fall production. I got to do the poster! instead of halloween-y creepy, I wanted a more burlesque look, so I opted for charcoal, cream, purples and reds. can I tell you how much I am loving this color scheme? I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot of it in the months to come. here it is beautifully manifested:

• a wee bit witchy from sock dreams.
• oh odd molly, you never cease to amaze me.
• reminiscent of twilight, no? {the good parts}
• my heart is swooning again anthro.
• the poster.
• berry boots, just like shannon's teal ones.
• I'm obsessed with crocheted neck stuff this fall.
• purple patent and big; I'm loving everything in coach's poppy line.
• the colors of the fig, captured so perfectly.

happy monday little figgies.

five senses friday

{see}

I'm heading to richmond today for a free friday. above is my anthro shopping list (well, probably not the bag...jeez can I like a bag under $300?!). I'm also hoping to see lots and lots of things to spark my interest in taking a photo since I've been feeling way uninspired in this area lately.

{taste}

one word: kuba-kuba. or is that two?

{touch}

I am especially loving the feel of gripping a steering wheel and writing on paper with a pencil right now. but not at the same time.

{smell}

craving the beach and all those lovely memories evoked by the scent of salt, sea, sand and suntan oil.

{hear}

voices in my head (the good kind!) laying out the choices of paths ahead. I'm listening closely.

have sweet, sweet weekends my friends!

indulgence + discipline

it really does cost more to live la vida local. but after three+ weeks of focusing the bulk of my spending locally, I believe it is so worth it. I feel like I'm actually preparing and eating real food. this may sound silly, but it I am amazed at how I had become accustomed to tasteless crap and fake plastic food. I feel fantastic. and not only about my body, but that I've contributed to my community and supported people who are producing high quality healthy food. my shopping basket above is filled with free-range organic chicken, goat cheese, gouda, nicoise olives, lavender honey (not shown) and the best freakin' antipasti in all the world from my newest favorite local haunt, the bedford avenue butcher shop.

on the flip side, the great closet transformation of 2009 has really opened my eyes to how much money I spend on clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry, etc. etc. etc. so get this: I am hereby vowing to forgo purchasing these things for two months*. (baby steps, I know.) I have plenty. more than plenty. and I'm becoming aware that the process has become more about acquiring and having than a desire to dress stylishly. for the past five years, I have behaved like a greedy little magpie and I need to check it. I am prepared for symptoms of withdrawal and have asked ken to pull the anthro and j.crew catalogs from the mailbox to help me resist temptation. my friends, I am on fashion hiatus. now, off to sort more clothes...

*if, by chance, I run across the perfect green 3/4 sleeve bateau neck sweater and/or brown pointy-toed alligator pumps, I will purchase...these items are on my "always on the lookout" list and I know better than to pass them up if I find them.

oh, and teal mary-janes!

soul food

so yesterday, I escaped from my office at lunch. I try to get out most days, but usually it's with a coworker and we are just focused on food and talk. yesterday I ventured solo to meet our newest downtown friend, bittersweet.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here {wink}, but I love clothes. and handbags. and boots. and I love spending my time looking and touching and imagining them on my body. bittersweet has a mix of casual and funky that suits me perfectly.

I'm dreaming of bringing home these boots. I have a paisley dress that would make them so happy.

happy friday friends. go discover a local beauty.

but dude, it's wednesday

I know, but I love rosie music's art so much, I couldn't wait until monday to post a mosaic. my favorite is the little band on wood. and there are t-shirts too!

*****

yesterday I was on the phone with an e.r. doctor about a child abuse case. we recognized instantly from our voices that both of us came from other places and had somehow landed in this sleepy little southern town. I was thinking he was from somewhere in the vicinity of the west coast and then he said it: "dude, let me check." california. no doubt.

here's the funny thing: I was absolutely delighted! for the rest of the day! I have become so used to being called ma'am, sugar, honey, buttercup, or any other of the thousands of sticky sweet southern endearments. it was so refreshing to hear the mother tongue. I haven't been called dude (except by my daughter) in almost ten years.

happy wednesday friends.

la vida local

when we first moved to this little southern city nearly eight years ago, we fell in love with the green hills and blue skies. there were cute little cafes and other local restaurants so we swore off the olive gardens of the world for local cuisine. sadly, the shopping scene was not so abundant. in the past eight years though, new shops have opened that beg me to spend some of my money locally. I still do most of my clothes/shoes/handbags and interiors shopping out of town or online. but since I don't want things to go back to the dismal state they were in eight years ago here, I've been trying to spend more money locally.

neighborhood shops like folk (like a baby anthropologie), culina and the farm basket make it easy for me. there are also great garden shops and even a little local hardware store a few blocks away (we still have to go to lowe's for the big stuff). but I'm still pulled to target and old navy for cheap stuff and to nordstrom and anthropologie (both out of town) for the really, really good loot. still, I'm doing a good bit to support my homies. go here and find out just what this could mean for your own town. that's what I'm shooting for in june: 3/50.

mergirl

I haven't been much of a beach girl as an adult. because that's pretty much all I did all summer in my youth, my tastes for how to spend leisure time changed. but lately, I can't get the beach out of my head and I am longing for some serious sand time. accoutrement:

• when I saw this green paisley bikini at old navy, plans were set in motion for a trip to the coast, any coast.
• toes will be painted mermaid blue.
• I have very salient scent memories of the beach, a huge part of that is bain de soleil orange gelee (I'll have to slather on real sunscreen underneath. spf 4? how do I not have skin cancer?).
• I can't wait to sink into the sand on this mosaic towel.
• and slip on these sunglasses.
• the sandals. okay, let me tell you about the sandals because I'm feeling a bit guilty. normally, I would not spend this kind of money on a pair of sandals. but you see, I've been looking for green jewelled flat sandals for...um, going on five years now. I saw them in a magazine yesterday, immediately went online and made them mine. I continue to justify the purchase as a reward for working two jobs from january to may. (and I plan on taking my lunch to work for the rest of the month.)
• the sand pail is necessary for making of castles and collecting of shells.
• music is also required. but I am leaving my iphone behind. a vintage transistor radio is all I need. another sweet sensory beach memory is hearing the mish-mash of music coming from each towel, intermingled with laughter and waves. one of my favorite sounds ever.
• please come and join me! I'll be under the rainbow umbrella.
  

soleil et ombre

{vintage shades make me smile.}

happy friday!

mosaic monday

feeling a bit flowery today.

1. springlike wintry scarf.
2. a giant bloom for the sofa.
3. hula's flea market flowers.
4. the bag, it is mine. can be yours too.
5. pricey, but really the best candle ever.
6. whimsy to offset all those heavy winter stews.
7. claus porto soaps. mmm.
8. a wrist corsage!
9. a ring a month six-month subscription. so much better than cheese.

the trouble with flowers

today was a bad day: I took the day off to get all my documents together and wait in line at the post office to get my passport. once I finally made it up to the window, newly fluffed and glossed for my passport photo, I was told that my birth certificate will not do for the state department.

let me tell you how proud I am of my birth certificate: it's the original; worn, faded, hand-typed and signed and stamped by the registrar of the county of kern in the sixties. I have kept it safe and close by for over 4o years, through college, break-ups, marriages and cross-country moves. I am so freakin' proud of that thing. well, it is useless. I am required to obtain a new copy with the watermark from the place of my birth before I can apply for my passport. here's the thing: I live in virginia and have to get my birth certificate from california. processing time: 14 weeks. then I can apply for my passport. processing time: 10 weeks. that puts me over our departure date of may 1.

it's funny that I can use my current birth certificate to acquire the new birth certificate that is required to process the passport. does that make any sense, national security-wise?

so anyway, nothing to be done about it but go ahead and give it a go and see if the travel gods are smiling on me and some miracle occurs and bureaucracy actually turns something out faster than they say. I know. I'm resigned that there will be no james mcavoy play for me.

I left the post office defluffed and deglossed and quite pissy. I bought a little bouquet of roses to cheer myself up. I thought this the wiser choice than a chick-fil-a strawberry milkshake and was pretty proud of myself for making this healthier choice. the sweet little things worked for about 20 minutes, then I became sore again. I needed more flowers. you can never get enough flowers when you are feeling blue. so I bought this:


still blue. and now poor. but isn't it fabulous?

curious girl ♥ curious pillows

head over heels for these quirky little bags of fluff from bonjour mon coussin.

over the last few days, I have been emptying random pillows around the house of their fluff, to provide to our woodland friends. I realized that I have quite a collection of pillows.

the funny thing is that the pillows I have stored away represent different stages of living for me. homemade velvet patchwork represents the little bohemian girl with no money from the 90s. I went through an exotic phase and collected several pillows made of bright and shiny saris. there are stars, stripes, solids, paisleys. I'm perplexed by the white eyelet; perhaps from a time buried so deep in my psyche that its memory is not accessible. I think I want to make a quilt of these pieces of my history.

mosaic monday

this one is pure self-indulgence, with a huge measure of magical thinking.
my birthday/christmas wish list:

1. collecting a rainbow of le creuset; need the perfect blue
2. intrigued by the juxtaposition of modern cube and romantic pearls
3. curious girl ♥s lulu
4. for my little bohemian living room: this mirror
5. and this pair of funky chairs
6. very robin hood and his merry men
7. chocolate truffle, please
8. charley harper memory cards
9. perfect paisley
10. I like looking at other peoples' homes
11. this tiny treasure
12. for the art studio
13. too many electronics in my bag; must consolidate
14. oh my. pure rainbow stripey goodness
15. L, please
16. that’s right, all four of them

mosaic monday

speaking of cold weather and holiday decorating...

saturday I paid a visit to one of my favorite little local shops, portobello road. going there is like going to visit a friend. a friend with a flair for beauty and decor. after a short drive out of the city, past cow pastures and stunning views of the blue ridge mountains, I arrive at the tiny vintage house. the shop's proprietor, jackie, has a natural talent for selection and display (I know this when I enter a store and want to buy, buy, buy every single thing).

portobello road is currently decorated and selling beauty for the holidays. the shop houses a fantastic mix of new decor, gifts, jewelry and vintage clothing and furniture. my favorite room is in the back: sunlit with white, silver and pastel trinkets and a wall of vintage lingerie.

hello luv-ah

I can't breathe...

for weeks, I've been lusting after these a-freakin-mazing boots from hollywould. priced at over $640, they were clearly out of my league.

today, they are on sale for $128.

they are so mine.

sweetness

I'm in love. it could only be more perfect if it was green. or multicolored. yes, a rainbow harlequin coat to match my garden shed.

mosaic monday

dc is not really known for being colorful and funky. but if you step away from the black and white monument starkness for a moment, you can find some offbeat beauty in the district. this weekend, I got to spend a few hours with krista, shop the eastern market and georgetown, and spend a lovely sunday afternoon in dupont circle.

and check out those $4 vintage earrings I scored.

to see photo slideshow, click here.