Buttons

Oh, my goodness. These are the cutest buttons in the world. It makes me want to sew new (and fabulous) buttons on all my non-snazzy cardigans.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/33151070/2-inch-russian-doll-large-sewing-button

okay, maybe I wont make cake

MISERABLE SELF PITYING LOSER PIE – “Lumpy oatmeal with fruitcake mashed in. Flambéed of course …” It appears to be one of those days.

pretty shoes

So pretty. Leather. Strappy. Assymmetrical. Gorgeous.

totally love this too

Etsy, equally blessed and evil shopping partner. This necklass is so simple and pretty and at a decent price too! http://www.etsy.com/listing/46594513/golden-tree-and-pearl-necklace

Oh, so lovely!

My mother recently returned from a trip to Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico and brought back beautiful pieces of turquoise jewelry. She brought me back a really beautiful turquoise studded, sterling silver hair stick (now I need to grow enough hair to use it...) to add to my hodge podge collection of hair jewelry. Hair jewelry is often hard to find but I absolutely love wearing it. I also have curly hair so it holds and shows off hair pins, buckles, and combs well. These combs are made by New Orleans artist Monique Leon and are simply gorgeous. http://www.etsy.com/listing/46447638/pearl-leaf-branch-hair-comb-bridal?ref=v1_other_2

reminds me of orangina

I found this a long time ago and it reminds me of Orangina.

Today I am thankful for watering the garden in the morning fog. I am thankful for the rhythms of the fog--cool, lavender mornings, turning into a startling blue midday, the fog whistling back in at four, then closing with rosy ash colored evenings. I am thankful for picking strawberries with my son. I am thankful for toddler flip flops and fat kid feet. I am thankful for fresh coffee with cream and sugar and reading the newspaper. I am not thankful for some things today but I'm choosing to dwell on skipping stones and cracking creme brulee.

iron beds

I just watched "500 days of summer" again and I am declaring my undying love for her apartment. Including (Steph will probably gasp at this) the wall paper. And especially the wrought iron bed. I love old iron beds. I think there is something quirky and charming and romantic about them. My aunt has one that is hung with jewelry and trout shaped Christmas lights. I think I could have one refinished with bright lacquer finish and it would make an awesome statement piece.

Gah!

It seems to me that I am a pretty slow decision maker. I will spend months weighing the pros and cons infinitely and repetitively, circling around and around without ending at any one solution. It has been months now that I have stared down my future career, locked in a tug of war between what is practical and what is such a deeply centered desire. Being a teacher, a high school teacher, is a wonderful, giving career. It allows me to keep hold of my passion, literature, and perhaps even bring out a new understanding of it to others and they would bring a new understanding of it to me. I’m sure people get hooked on that shining moment when the beauty and the splendor of someone’s world opening and unfolding happens—though I am sure it is rare, I’m sure that it happens.

After all, it happened to me.

And that’s the whole problem. Spenser lingers like a ghost on my shoulders, whispering secrets and riddles and clues. Is it odd that the thing that I turn to when my life gets the most dark and twisted and cruel is a book? I had these moments when I felt like I was in a pit of my own making and the relief I took was mentally wandering back into the pages and puzzling at the beauty of it all. Before I spoke to actual people, I had to dwell in the possibility of something I loved. I’ve tried to abandon it, tried to talk it down as an incompatible passion that I can dabble in but not be consumed by, but it keeps coming back. I haven’t rewritten my thesis, something I have to do in order to get a decent letter of recommendation. Part of that, I am sure is shame that its original wasn’t all it could be. I start and I stop. I circle back to teaching high school—and I am not so cruel as to force kids to read Spenser. I think that going further with literature would cost time and energy that should be devoted to my son—and my son is always my first priority. I’m afraid that if I travel for school, it will mean that he will live with his father. I wish that I could write Spenser off and that be enough. This decision should have been made and yet I am still pondering it. My mind tells me one thing and my heart tells me another and I trust neither because I have proved to be a piss poor decision maker in the past.

I think it is ironic that I started this blog for wedding ideas and now the very sight of a wedding magazine turns my stomach over.

haa haa haa haa

Sorry this just made my day!

Vote for Lali's earrings

http://rikrakstudio.blogspot.com/2010/02/vote-event-3.html

Yippee!