Elizabeth Lives...

Cycling Back.

2012-01-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

I could wax poetic about thrifting, but all I'm going to say is that I found a thrift store here that reminds me of thrifting when I was a kid. None of the clothes are over two or three dollars save for late seventies/early eighties beaded evening gowns which can be had for six.

I found this fantastically cozy sweater for just over $1.50 - and it was 20% off of that also.

We've had a string of warm days here so I welcomed the chance to wear this sweater without a coat on it.

Sweater: Thrifted

Jeans: j. crew

Shoes: Sperry Top-Siders

Bracelet: French Connection

In that dream I'm as old as the mountains...

2012-01-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

In that dream I'm as old as the mountains

Still as starlight reflected in fountains

Children grown on the edge of the ocean

Kept like jewelry, kept with devotion

In that dream moving slow through the morning

Lyrics from Fleet Foxes - Grown Ocean

Photos of my friend L and I hiking in the mountains and climbing trees like monkeys!

I Could Wish You Nothing Finer

2012-01-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this dress?

As promised, I reshot it. I have only worn it once before.

I wore it to my sophmore homecoming dance, so I speculate I was about 14 the last time I wore it.

The dress is twelve years older than it was the last time I wore it. I think it's a little more fragile, or maybe I'm just more aware of being careful with my beautiful old clothes.

The dress is pretty shredded, in awful condition. I ruined it as a 14 year old. I danced like a banshee at every dance I went to and it shows it!

But it still retains its form. I had no idea how beautiful it really was until today. I mean I always knew it was a nice dress, well made, a bit of a confection really.

But today, dancing on the eastern plaines, it shone.

PS: Listening and Listening

and

Reading this beautiful letter from Ansel Adams

At the Confluence

2012-01-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

Denver sits on a confluence. It is the place where gold was first discovered, and subsequently the city of Denver built up around it.

Two rivers, the South Platte and Cherry Creek converge into one. They meet gracefully, the join seamless and calm except in early spring when the water rages all the way down the mountains and continues to roar it's way, white and foaming, into the city.

It's then you see the kayakers doing short runs in Confluence Park's little kayak run on warm days after they get out of work.

Right now, in the dead of winter, even the kayak run seems calm. The sun is out but it's still a little chilly and the water is low, fast, icy and calm.

Jacket: Pearl Izumi

Skirt: H&M

Tights: Those are actually my compression tights that I'm trying to pass off as leggings - I wear them after long rides and sometimes I just work them into my wardrobe as leggings instead of wearing them under pants.

Striped Socks: Castelli

Boots: Steve Madden

(One of the dangers of having a significant other that works at a bike shop is that you wander around the store and go "I want one of those...and one of those...and one of those" and suddenly you're blogging your compression tights and cycling socks and jackets because you own a lot of those pieces!)

What's in your dance bag?

2012-01-13T21:43:00.004-07:00

I've always loved peeking into other people's purses and handbags - what do they carry that makes them awesome? Do they constantly lug around a journal or tiny pad of paper? Do they lose lipsticks in the bottom of their purse? What type of cell phone do they use and do they have a fun case?

Unfortunately, you are out of luck when it comes to any purse of mine since I reload and unload my purse every morning and evening. Most of the time I just carry a wallet but as I was contemplating this tonight I realized that I do have one bag that's packed and steady - my dance bag.

I would, by now, consider myself a lifelong student of ballet since I have taken ballet classes on and off since my late teens. I fell in love with it as a child but never had the opportunity to do it intensively as a child so when I got to college I poured myself into it. At one point I was dancing 18 hours a week on top of a full course load! Guess what? I got straight A's that semester. Dance, like cycling does for my husband, helps me find equilibrium.

Now, as a not so serious adult I take classes here and there, mostly in the cycling off season as time and money permit. No matter what though, I have my dance bag packed up and ready to head to a class if I need it.

(p.s. Don't worry! I'm not actively using the pointe shoes these days...I need about six months of 3x a week dance classes to get there in the shape I'm in. Also, this isn't everything but I thought it would be less boring if I didn't show all ten pairs of spare/ruined tights to throw out and the extra sweaters and street clothes that have been hiding out in my dance bag for far too long! I actually found my favorite pair of sunglasses lurking in the depths of it not too long ago)

We Might Feel Like This For the Rest of Our Lives

2012-01-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

I'm listening to a lot of Seabear. I get a kick out of their song "I sing I swim" because those are my two favorite things to do on weekends when I don't have anything to do. Also, for as sad as the words are I really love how happy it sometimes sounds.

Another favorite thing to do? Early morning outfit pictures in parks.

The faux fur stole comes my my grandma - it was hers when she was my age. My grandma was beautifully dressed for most of her life and it's always fun when she gives me something that she used to wear back in the day. Some of the pieces I can't work into my every day wear but many of them I can and this one does just fine!

My friend gave me the 1970's Edwardian revival blouse and I really thought it was interesting how close this was to my original edwardian blouses. The drawstring detail is found the same way on both eras' pieces and the inset lace is done almost the exact same way. The major differences are the fabric, lace construction, and of course the serged seams on the modern blouse

Blouse: Friend
Fur Stole: Grandma

Tank Top: Thrifted

Sunglasses: Pilgrim

Jeans: j. crew

Shoes: Anthro

The Official Illustrator of Reykjavik

2012-01-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

I'm impressed this position exists for someone to be in, and also I love her haircut (though I couldn't pull it off...)

A day in the life of the official drawing-person of Reykjavík from Iceland on Vimeo.

So this is the new year

2012-01-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

So we're coming to the close of our fifth day of this year. How fast time flies!

I've been busy. School started back up on the 2nd and getting into the swing of early mornings and afternoon bike rides home and keeping up with the house and getting back into my routine has left little time for blogging. Besides, the life that I have been living these first five days is hardly blog post worthy. Long dinners with great conversations, mending, tidying the house, curling up with a good book (one of my students lent me Lord of the Rings so I'm working on that) and bike riding, bike riding, bike riding is great living, believe me. But it's living done not in front of the computer so I've been a bit quiet.

I have always been a great maker of resolutions for the new year. Two years ago my resolution was to be quiet and not make any decisions and it was a life changing year. Last year I resolved to do 50 crafts (which I didn't do - I got to 34 or so and it just fell off the radar when I started teaching.) but also to create more in general (which I did do.)

This year I've really struggled to pin down a resolution. There is so much in my life I want to work on, so much I want to accomplish and become. So many things I'd like to be if I could just figure out how to make it happen. I'd like to be more gracious towards others. I'd like to listen more. I'd like to be known for my compassion and not for the orderly, businesslike manner I mostly conduct my life in. Most of all I am acutely aware of the passing of my days and it has been both a gift and trouble and I am coming to see that I have accomplished much but there is a pressing need to do more.

Last year I had a saying by Emily Dickinson up on my chalkboard above my desk - "I dwell in possibility." That seemed to be what last year was - there was so much potential wrapped up in 2011. I spent every spare minute frantically trying to create, create, create. I designed a clothing line. I created a house that was featured on Apartment Therapy. I wrote stories and emails that gave people hope and made them think. I put together a classroom and curriculum where students learn every day. I got dressed with happiness and abandon (mostly) every morning.

And because I dwelled in the possibility that good things would happen if I simply tried (and they did happen! More wonderful things than I could have ever imagined!) I learned that it is not enough to simply dwell in the possibility of something. You must do it. You have to follow through and see it through. All the way to the end.

This year I would like to keep the contemplative spirit that I gained in 2010 and couple it with the possibility I held onto in 2011. I would like to add refinement to that this year. I would like to gain confidence in who I am as a person, and fearlessness. I have learned to create and now I'd like to give that to others and that takes courage of a sort I haven't developed yet.

I'd like to be the sort of person that simply meets others where they are, seeing who they are and finding the potential in them. That takes courage too. I'd like to invest more in people, create relationships with people, reach out to them, extend across the I don't know you and I'm not sure and you are a nameless face to see who is waiting on the other side. That takes immense courage because the possibility to fail is nowhere more stark and more evident than in human relationships. Maybe nowhere more painful either. I don't know if I have that courage yet but I learned two years ago that if you are quiet then the answers will come. I learned last year that if you try it will likely happen.

I can't do it yet, but I'm working on it. I know how to do it, how to put it into practice.

This is how:

Go say hello, and then listen.

(Photos from the first five days of the year.)

Living is History

2011-12-28T01:01:00.001-07:00

The school I teach at asked for some pictures of me when I was a kid to feature in the school's yearbook.

The timing for this was perfect, so while I was home in Wisconsin I looked through hundreds of pictures from my childhood and up through early college - this is back before the days of digital so I have tons and tons of printed photographs in a giant bin. They are largely unsorted and I was often the photographer so many of the pictures were of other people and places I was visiting, but I did find a few here and there that I actually happened to be in.

As I was looking through those pictures I though about putting together a little retrospective for you, maybe explain how I came to be who I am using the pictures I found. Surprisingly, my parent's scanner works (easily!) and I was able to get these pictures into digital format.

My family lived in the Philippines when I was a tiny kid. We alternated back and forth spending a year there and a year here. Most of my parent's pictures are in slide format because they spent so much time giving presentations so you actually need a projector for them. I did find a few, particularly these two that sum up the two parts of me as a kid.

I was, what my sister calls, a "rat child." My socks never matched, my hair was a mess, my clothes were stained with kool aid and my glasses were awkward. I changed clothes a lot, I remember annoying my mom with that that, and I loved to play dress up but in my day to day existence I was too busy running around, climbing trees, and living to really keep myself clean and put together. I was also uncoordinated and kind of socially aloof but I was with it enough to convince my parents to purchase me those white high tops with the light up flowers on them. I was super proud of those shoes that I'm wearing in the picture of me in the tree.

In middle school I did become a bit more conscious of what I wore but I was just a little behind all the times. Middle school was miserable since I hated my school, the kids picked on me a lot, and honestly I just couldn't get with the program enough to be on top of things. Like many other people, I just felt really numb to anything and everything in middle school. We had a super strict dress code in my tiny little Christian School and I wasn't awake enough to get creative with it.

(recognize the red suitcase from somewhere?)

When I hit high school, though, I got to go to a public school. I was thrilled - I could wear what I wanted and so I did. I went through a ton of different things, experimenting with anything and everything.

I started out with the beautiful blond popular girls - I had studied them in middle school so I knew how to work that but I quickly found out by the end of my first semester that hanging out with the "weird" kids was so much more fun. They took you for who you were.

Jeans, a studded belt, and a music related T-shirt was my uniform in high school once I figured out what I was doing. Music was my life for most of high school, and looking the part was very, very important to me. The watch with the two faces was given to me by my AP European History teacher, Mrs. Berry. She was one of the kindest and most amazing teachers I had. My parents were traveling a lot during that time so I had one time set to the time zone they were in and one set to my time zone. Also, Atomic records was the place to go buy records in Milwaukee at the time. Like many record stores, it's not open any more but I still keep that shirt!

Of course I had to have a little hippie phase in high school:

I started reading a lot of books and 'zines that really, really shaped the foundations of the political views that I hold even today. I had already been a vegetarian for three or four years by then but I got further into animal rights ideology and read some pretty out there political theory books. For a while I even refused to wear shoes to school because I had read about a guy who was a "barefooter". This was in the days before those silly barefoot running shoes that I detest now!

The school didn't care much and said it was fine except for in Anatomy and Physiology where I was around lab equipment and sharp objects so I kept a pair of shoes in my locker for that class only.

Luckily that phase didn't last too long and I was back into my band T-shirts and studded belts but I kept reading about politics.

Despite my totally contrived indifference to them, formals were always fun for me. I spent a lot of time pretending I didn't care...when in fact there was nothing I loved more than putting on a ridiculous dress and dancing the night away. In fact, that is still a favorite hobby of mine - some things never change.

You can see my love of vintage clothes reflected in some of the choices I made - I actually just found that 1950's prom dress in my parents basement and I'm taking it to Colorado with me so expect a re-shoot of that dress! The red dress is the first real thing I ever sewed that turned out - I copied it with the help of a friend's mom from the Paper Bag Video by Fiona Apple

Finally, no high school experience is complete without something made out of duct tape. For me I chose one of my homecoming dresses.

Towards the end of high school I started dating my friend D. He's been around in my life long enough that you can actually see pictures towards the very tail end of our relationship in the early parts of this blog. I don't post photos of him any more but we do keep in touch.

D had a great wardrobe - leather jackets, long hair, skinny jeans, more band t-shirts than I did and I knew I had finally met someone who dressed exactly how he felt inside. That was liberating for me. I borrowed the leather jacket and the funny vintage fedora he had studded, I wore all his sweatshirts and T shirts. I found the perfect black corduroy jacket and I wore it everywhere, even to the studio he was running out of a warehouse floor.

As I transitioned out of high school and into college what I wore became a lot more eclectic. I bought clothes and found clothes everywhere. I was traveling a lot, to NY and back or to Chicago to go see music and I stopped to shop at thrift stores just about anywhere. One afternoon I was rocking my grandma's pink dress from the 1960's and the next day I was done up in a Denim Mini and victorian style boots to go to brunch in NYC.

I'm really proud of the little girl I was. Life was good even though it wasn't easy and I managed to find my way, kicking and screaming, out of the wreckage of a childhood spent in devastating places. I am especially proud of the kick ass teenage girl I was that was wiling to stand up for the things I believed in, who ventured fearlessly from one place or idea to the next, who was really willing to try things out and to listen and observe.

I'm older now, more measured and calm, less flighty. I realize that I did a lot of stupid things and fought a lot of stupid battles. Regardless of that I recognize the influence my perceived immortality and the curiosity of someone really experiencing life had on my decision making as a teenager and one of the litmus tests I use when I'm making a decision and can't figure out what way to go is "what would my sixteen year old self chose?"

And generally, as a rule, my sixteen year old self is right.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

Christmas is done and over with. I got the last of my presents today from my family and I have to say that I am so privileged and blessed to have a giant family that loves me so well.

I hope that your Christmas was amazing, or if you celebrate something else that was wonderful, too.

This is what I wore on Christmas eve - my in-laws have an incredible backyard so I took advantage of it by shooting a few pictures there.

Shirt: H&M

Pants: Anthropologie

Shoes: Anthropologie

Necklace: Forever 21
Purse: Vintage

I thought that my kids at school would get a huge kick out of my robot necklace - the boys, after all, spend all their spare time drawing robot wars.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

2011-12-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

My husband has an affinity with the cathedral of Saint John The Divine and that's where he chose to go in New York City.

The interior of the cathedral was very dark and kind of tough for me to get pictures but I tried my best. Seeing the cathedral all done up for Christmas, along with the whole of the city was such a treat.

Laduree

2011-12-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week my in-laws offered to take me anywhere on the eastern seaboard. I chose NYC and we put our heads together and thought of the places there we wanted to go. Along with a few other places, I knew that I wanted to check out the new Laduree on Madison.

We waited in a bit of a line but the end results were sweet and well worth it!

East Coast Home

2011-12-21T09:20:00.002-07:00

My in-laws live just outside Philadelphia, PA.

Sometime over the summer I realized that they live mere miles away from the home of one of my favorite authors, Grace Livingston Hill. My father in law and husband were kind enough to drive me over there.

The house isn't marked by a plaque or anything and she's fallen out of favor with most readers, but we found the house and snapped a few pictures in front of it (stalker much?).

Seeing her house, which she specifically designed for herself, helped open up a lot of ideas about the way she talks about homes. She details the stone home, the porticos, the doors that open to gardens, and there, on the left you might be able to see a turret.

That's where Grace wrote all her books.

(I should mention that Grace passed away over a half a century ago - the house has changed hands several times since then.)

Flowers

2011-12-19T17:54:00.003-07:00

My husband sent me these beautiful flowers to celebrate making it to Christmas break despite what seemed (at times) insurmountable challenges.

Shakespeare & Co.

2011-12-18T10:39:00.002-07:00

Several years ago my sister and I had the fortune or misfortune to get tangled up with the Tumbleweeds who were living at Shakespeare and Co.

Even though we didn't stay there being caught up in the life of the place was enough.

George Whitman passed away a few days ago at the age of 98. He was a kind, brilliant person with an incredible smile. He made pancakes in the morning and loved books for they were his soul.

Ice Skating

2011-12-13T09:08:00.005-07:00

On Sunday afternoon JR and I went ice skating just for fun. I haven't been in years - not since I left my ice skates in the shed at our house in South Lyon, MI. There's an ice rink in downtown Denver that's free to skate on and skate rental is also super affordable!

My mom and I found this beautiful coat at Anthro's Black Friday sale. I absolutely love the details on this coat from the brass interior buttons to the lacing up the back.

Coat: Anthropologie

Jeans: j. crew

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Sunglasses: Pilgrim

Scarf: unknown

There were no lockers so you just had to kick off your shoes and leave them tucked under a bench. I thought this picture of JR's and my shoes sitting together was sweet. I also included a bonus picture of me landing my tripple axel!

Just kidding - if you look closely you can see the snow on my jeans and skates from where I bit it and hit the ice a few times trying to translate figure skating moves to unsharpened hockey skates!

I absolutely love this accidentally perfect picture of the two of us together. JR rarely sits still for pictures but I'm glad that every so often I can get one of us together even if it's obvious I'm holding the camera.

Social Openers

2011-12-11T20:37:00.003-07:00

It's no secret that I love a good event. I like dinner parties, dance parties, live music, the ballet, art openings, and just about anything else that gives me the chance to don a great dress, see my lovely friends, and have a great time.

I attend so many amazing things put on by my friends that I try to pay it back a few times a year by hosting something of my own.

This past weekend we hosted a 1960's themed cocktail party to celebrate the Christmas season. I looked up some vintage drinks, invited everyone to come in costume, and tried my best to put out food that still looked edible but fit the theme.

...and believe me - the food was a tall order. Most of the recipes I stumbled upon involved suspending strange vegetables in jello.

Sunday Morning I Sit and Wait

2011-12-08T17:30:00.005-07:00

I have a deep love for Sunday mornings. Saturday is the day to run errands, throw parties, dance the night away but Sundays are for resting. I rarely commit myself to anything on Sundays except church.

I think I'm the most creative on Sundays - I can sit down with my guitar, set up my little home recording studio and work on music. I can head out to the wine bar around the corner and type away at a story. I can journal or cook an enormous meal or read books in the bathtub all day.

Shirt: Vintage

Jeans: j. crew

Booties: Anthro

Purse: Vintage

Nail Polish: OPI And a Cherry on Top and Flurry Up!

As a little treat, here is a song written and recorded in about an hour on a Sunday for you. It's nothing special but I had fun putting it together.

Dress the Third

2011-12-05T22:36:00.001-07:00

The last of the snowy vintage party dress photos.

All the curls had fallen by this point...though they had started pretty nicely!

Dress, the Second

2011-12-04T23:05:00.003-07:00

Second of three from the winter storm evening gown photo shoot. After the first photo shoot I decided I wasn't going to do the barefoot thing! For those who asked: yes, my feet were very cold! I had my boots just off camera so I was running in and out of them, posing for ten pictures, and then going back to the boots. I only took thirty frames of the white dress so I have to say it's one of the fastest photo shoots I've ever gotten!

It was snowing the hardest during this one so you can really see the snow flakes coming down! They were harsh and fast, not fluffy at all! Luckily the coat I'm wearing is my warmest coat, I nixed the barefoot thing and I was just a few steps outside my warm house. That blue dress is stunning - the cut is perfect, the fabric is luxurious and the color is incredible. Also, I find this one isn't too over the top and very wearable.

Lucky for you the dress is up in the shop here.

Fox in the Snow

2011-12-03T11:52:00.003-07:00

It snowed like crazy today.

I was going to go swimming but I didn't feel like digging my car out from under ten inches of snow.

Instead I decided to run outside in my bare feet and snap a few pictures of the snow and this dress.

Dress: Vintage

Coat: Vintage

PS: Listening

For Keeps

2011-12-02T21:04:00.003-07:00

The pictures on this post are not the most beautiful. The lighting is off. They are not staged. I took them bleary eyed from 16 hours of driving.

In my parents house there is a red circle suitcase from the 1960s. This suitcase is fabulous - it's in impecable condition, the lock works, the little grid inside to keep the clothes folded and the shoes in place is perfect. I don't travel with it, though. Instead I have every single journal and a few other things like photographs or articles, papers or stories, that I wrote crammed into it. It barely shuts.

I can't take it home with me. Every time I go out there I intend to, but I sit there, locked in a freezing room by myself. I take out the journals and I lay them out in order, from 1997 to 2009, and I go through them carefully. It is ritual. And just like a ritual, I do this over and over, any time I am home. I collect my life story, read it, try to make sense of it.

As I read I remember, remember. I remember the confusion I had as a kid, the world making no sense to me. I see the shifts in my political and theological thinking. I watch myself grow up from a tired and exhausted 12 year old, a child that needed so much more than what the world I was in could give me to a teenager who felt absolutely stifled. I get to read the words I wrote in college, when I flew away from anything and everything I ever knew and I can recollect the desperate bid I made to try to heal up.

And then, mostly, I stopped writing. Because I didn't need it, because I was not dripping heartache any more. I was not shackled like I had been. I mostly stopped crying. I grew up, made friends, defined myself and learned to quell the bitterness, even forgive as best I could.

And when I'm done walking through my past I shove the journals back into the suitcase. I push the lock into place and snap it shut. I put it away somewhere safe because those pages seem real to me, they breath my many names, even the ones that I have mostly forgotten.

And I remember, again, and again, that I will do anything to never hurt that badly again. Anything.

Glory

2011-11-30T21:09:00.002-07:00

Pictures from a hike I did up the Boulder Flatirons. Some of my favorite trails (can you find the trail? Look closely!) go through talus. Since this is a heavily used trail someone took the initiative to create a trail through the fields so you had a relatively clear, stable path to walk on but a lot of times the trails through talus are simply marked by carns - rocks stacked unusually. It's like a scavenger hunt!

Thanksgiving Get Together

2011-11-27T18:15:00.004-07:00

JR, my friend Jay, and I all drove up to Milwaukee together. We did the drive in a record breaking (for us) 15 hours and 45 minutes.

It's terrible, at times, to be so far from my family since we are scattered so far from each other but I suppose it's the least we can expect - it is how we were raised and we've held true to that.

Milwaukee, as always, welcomed me like the old friend it is. For lunch after Thanksgiving we went out to Comet and the forty five minutes spent outside with the family was some of the most fun I've had in a while!

Jacket: Japan (I think the brand is Zazie but I'm not certain)

Sunglasses: Pilgrim

Jeans: j. crew

Shoes: Anthro's Lucky Penny Tori

White Winter Hymnal

2011-11-16T20:39:00.002-07:00

Have you ever sat and listened to every single cover of a single song? That constitutes a good evening in my book.

Tonight's song? White Winter Hymnal by the Fleet Foxes as done by...

Oh Land....

and...

Birdy...

and of course...

Fleet Foxes themselves...

(among other covers sitting around on the internet not linked here...)

Moab, Utah

2011-11-12T23:53:00.002-07:00

One day (and I am not making this up!) JR and I piled in the car with our snowshoes, snow gear, and boots to go snowshoeing in Winter Park. When we got to winter part we were a bit disappointed by the lack of snow!

Since we were on I-70 already and in the mountains we just decided to keep going west. Eventually, JR and I ended up in Moab, Utah a few hours later and we decided to go hiking in the gorgeous Arches National Park.

We did a few of the trails there, including the Double O to the Primitive Trail. The most stunning part of the hike was walking across a fin while hiking the Double O trail. Basically, you walk across this fin and on either side of you you can look down thousands of feet into this canyon. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced before. While we were up there we saw tiny people hiking in the canyon below and surmised that the Primitive Trail would probably take us down there.

We certainly were not wrong. The primitive trail took us down and around the canyon with a little scrambling, following cairns, and one or two side trips off the trail on accident we made it back to the car two and a half hours later. It was one amazing hike and I am so thankful that I was able to experience a tiny part of Moab and I'm looking forward to my next trip back.

I just hope it's a little warmer next time because it was one of the coldest nights in the desert I have ever had the pleasure of sleeping in! When we woke up our tent was frozen stiff with a hard frost!

PS: I've been enjoying a lot of Frank O'Hara poems lately. You can read a few here.

How to Run Your House like it's 1899.

2011-11-07T18:09:00.006-07:00

Someone sent me an email asking me how I keep and run my house. I'm not sure if it was inspired by them stumbling upon the Apartment Therapy post, or if they just looked through the archives of this and came to some conclusion that I'm domestically inclined but I'm finally able to sit down and write you a post about how I keep house.

I've said it once and I'll say it again - I'm an old fashioned housekeeper. My domestic heroines are the characters in Grace Livingston Hill novels who manage to transform a hovel into a place of domestic tranquility, peace, and quiet in days.

I can't give her all the credit, though. I've taken a lot of cues from vintage household management books that I've found that date from the early 19th c. to the 1950's. I've sort of read them in a half serious manner - some of the things, like keeping eggs in some sort of hazardous chemical to preserve them for three years, are so ridiculous and frankly unsafe that I have to laugh. Other things, though, have stood the test of time and the test of my house, life, and busy schedule.

The single most important thing that most household management books and I agree on is that you need a routine. Some people need a detailed routine written down on paper. Some people need a morning and an evening routine, a weekly routine or whatever. Whatever type you need, be it written or unwritten, on a post it or in a binder or on your fridge, routines make the home go smoothly. A good old fashioned housekeeper has a routine to make her work go smoothly.

I have a morning and afternoon routine written down and taped to my desk at work for the first five things I do when I get there and the first five things after the kiddos leave but I no longer have a written routine for my home because after doing the (in general) same routine for eight years it's just memorized. I know when I wake up I get dressed, make the bed, and so on. I know that on Fridays I clean out my car and we look over the finances. I know that on Sundays we grocery shop and meal plan. I know that from 5:45 - 6:00 everything stops and I spend fifteen minutes picking up the house. I know that at 6:30 I start cooking. I know that I spring clean in March or April and I put my fall decorations up in October. These things, practiced year in, year out are in my brain and help my home run like clockwork.

The second thing an old fashioned housekeeper has is a sense of the seasons. Knowing the seasons helps us to work with the natural rhythms of wherever we are living from meal planning to cleaning schedules.

One of the things we have the luxury of forgetting these days is the fact that at one time fresh salad greens didn't happen in December. We ate preserves all winter long and ate fresh fruit all summer long. For my grandfather, a child in rural Wisconsin the 1920's, an orange in the winter was worthy of a Christmas present. When we meal plan an old fashioned housekeeper keeps an eye on what's in season at the store and makes meals that fit what is needed in her household's own seasons. Is it flu season? Fresh vegetables, things high in vitamin C, and soups to clear the sinuses might be on the menu plan. Is it a busy season? Quicker meals, things that clean up easily, and food that works for on the go might be on the plate. Is it a time when you need comfort food or special foods for holidays that are coming up? An old fashion home keeper knows the seasons and currents of her household and lives with them.

Another important thing that is mentioned over and over again is that an old fashioned housekeeper lives and works within her means. Household finances are infinitely complicated and always have been. Some people have joint accounts. Some people are single and get to manage their own finances. Some people share households but have their own bank accounts. The best advice I can give you is to make a budget that gives every dollar you have control over a place to go before you even get it. Then, the day you get paid move the money where it needs to go instead of just letting it sit around waiting to be spent on something else.

In conjunction with this it's important to budget for what you're actually going to use not just what you wish you spent. JR and I use a spreadsheet that we fill out sometime before pay day together that auto calculates how much we have left to spend. Then, when we get paid we move money wherever it needs to go - bills, savings, fun things, groceries. Finally, it's important to save just a little for a rainy day. Maybe your emergency fund is in a tin in your kitchen among your spices. Maybe, like us, you keep it safe in a savings account. The important thing is that you have one...to be used for emergencies only.

The last thing on the topic of finances is that the adage "Mend, Make Do, or Do Without" still stands all this time later. Get everything you can out of the things you own. Keep your kitchen appliances in good repair and clean and they'll serve you for a long time. A sewing machine overhaul once a month can get those useful things to last into the double decades. Sew that button on your clothes when it falls off and get those pants to last another season. Use scrap yarn and tule to make your own dish sponges. Finally, if you can't afford it right now...be patient and save for it.

(all of the pictures are from the Commons on Flickr...)

Siamese Dream

2011-11-06T19:54:00.002-07:00

We got a little itty bitty crumb of a kitten this past week...

...so we named her Miette.

Last Day

2011-11-05T08:50:00.002-06:00

On the very last day I knew I was going to go straight from breakfast to the pool...

So I just put my swimsuit on under the Diane Von Furstenberg shorts I'd been wearing throughout the whole trip and slipped the Marc Jacobs sheer shirt on over my swimsuit as a coverup. As soon as I finished my breakfast we headed down to the pool, sat around reading, and then slipped into it for one last luxurious day of paddling around.

Beach Day!

2011-11-03T18:50:00.004-06:00

Did I mention to you that on one of those lovely, sunny warm days at the beach I managed to get stung by a stingray? YOUCH! I touch my foot down to a gravely part of the ocean and the next second there was a pinch in my foot. A few seconds later there was searing pain up my leg and the whole foot was turning red.

We headed to the Mexican ER (which I neglected to take any pictures of!) and had it checked out. Everything looked fine and they gave me antibiotics.

I took one course of antibiotics for it and it held whatever it was at bay but 24 hours after I finished the course my foot started heating up, turning red, and swelling. I went to the doctor today and I'm now on my second course of antibiotics. Hopefully that does the trick!

Never say beach vacations are not adventures!

Dressing for Dinner

2011-11-02T12:53:00.003-06:00

When you spend all day in a swimsuit and the restaurants around there have a dress code you dress for dinner. Dressing for dinner is kind of a fun throwback to a different era and the ritual is a fun part of the day. I also have fond memories of my parents coming home as a tiny child and my nanny changing me out of my play clothes into something nice for them, who we hadn't seen for awhile.

I'm someone who likes to get dressed in the morning - wearing, matching, and picking out clothes is something that is pleasurable to me. Even when it's a snow day like today and I'm in jeans, a black fitted T shirt and a fair isle sweater I didn't just put clothes on - I got dressed and I enjoyed the (quick) thought process that went into dressing for a cozy day at home with JR.

Dressing for dinner is just an extension of that - it breaks up the day, allows you to come to dinner ready for dinner. In Mexico, it was mandatory. At home it's optional but sometimes I do it just because. I put away the work clothes I've been in, run a brush through my hair, and wear something nice to dinner. I don't require it from JR but he often plays along, changes his shirt and washes up too and it really sets the tone for good conversation and lingering, which isn't done nearly enough in these days of 20 minute meals and eating on the run.

2011-10-30T17:20:00.004-06:00

I was feeling the 1950's beauty queen vibe that day...and since there was no sand involved that day it seemed perfectly natural to pair this vintage floral swimsuit with a pair of yellow peep toe heals.

There's something magical about this swimsuit. It has the most structure and least amount of give as it's made out of heavy cotton, fully lined and boned. To allow for some movement there are two smocked panels that sit right below my shoulder blades. It does a fantastic job of keeping everything where it needs to be and showing off my best assets and hiding my worst ones so it's become my favorite swimsuit for social swimming.

I don't do any serious swimming in this suit but I sure do some serious posing and floating around the pool!

Breakfast

2011-10-30T14:00:00.003-06:00

Room service came to our room one day and set up a fantastic breakfast.

Cut fruit, yogurt, an omlette with small, spicy peppers and cheese, and tamales. Yum!

Fine weather for the beach...

2011-10-29T20:47:00.004-06:00

For a minute there my friends and I were able to put our fall and winter jackets away...

Early this year my friend masterminded a girls trip to Mexico and this was the week we were set to go. We flew south and landed in a magical wonderland full of blooming bougainvillea bushes, pristine swimming pools, warm ocean waves, and every need or want attended to...

The resort itself was gorgeous. We stayed at Casa Velas in Puerto Vallarta. It was an adults only all inclusive which was amazing. It was a smaller and the service was impeccable. Despite the time spent lounging on the beach and near the pool (or at the swim up bar...) I still managed to have an Elizabeth style adventure (or misadventure, depending on how you look at it!) that I might tell you about later this week.

Weather and luxury makes dressing very simple - a few pairs of perfectly cut shorts, white and sheer shirts worn over swimsuits or tank tops, and some simple dresses for dinner are all I needed for the day. I won't mention how many swimsuits I took though...

Shirt: Vintage

Tank Top: J Crew

Shorts: Diane von Furstenberg

Bracelets: Vintage

Sunglasses: Pilgrim (which had been missing for a long time! I finally found them in my dance bag!)

Afternoon Sun

2011-10-22T18:42:00.002-06:00

This dress was an odd little find from Nordstroms. At first glance it had awkwardly placed irregularly shaped polka dots but when I looked closer it had princesses, castles, apples, trees, carriages and all sorts of other things from fairy tales on it.

Right then my mom (who I was shopping with) and I decided I had to buy it...so I did. And the blue jacket, a staple part of my wardrobe, was something I bought for my birthday awhile ago and am completely in love with!

Cyclocross Weekend.

2011-10-15T22:18:00.003-06:00

I generally find it very difficult to post pictures of myself racing bikes because I look like I'm suffering...which I am. I am well aware that pictures of me hurting while racing have no place on the internet.

I raced again yesterday - it was my second cyclocross race. It was no less graceful than my first and I ended up rolling to almost a dead stop while trying to mount and dismount my bike during the barriers. I didn't crash this time, though, even though I did come in 4th to last again.

Magically, my husband was able to come up with two pictures of me where I look like I'm only suffering a little so now I can show you what I look like when I'm racing.

I can also show you that my bike is the bike du jour at cross races...

After the race JR and I grabbed ice cream and then drove up Boulder Canyon to look at the aspens and the fall colors.

We stopped at Boulder Falls and then continued up the canyon.

It took my breath away to see the aspens glowing and quivering in the evening sun.

Autumn is indeed a last lovely kiss before the cold stillness of winter

For Sale: Voodoo D-Jab

2011-10-15T09:38:00.002-06:00

We have this up a few different places but I know some of my blog readers are also cyclists. At the very least this is a gorgeous bike that holds many happy memories and the pictures merit a place in the archives of my life. This has many happy firsts - first mountain bike race, first endurance race, my very first win in a race, even my very first endo. I'm selling it because there is a Yeti with my name on it at the start of next year and this has to go to make that happen.

Frame: 16" Voodoo D-Jab Titanium

Fork: Fox F100

Headset: Chris King, Rasta

Stem: FSA OS 190 Alloy

Seatpost: Thompson Elite

Bars: Easton Monkey Lite XC Carbon (uncut! So cut them down if you want!)

Shifters: Shimano LX Rapidfire

Brakes: Shimano LX Hydrolic

Crankset: Shimano XT

Deraileurs: Shimano XT (rear) Shimano LX (front)

Wheels: Mavic Cross Ride

Saddle: WTB Rocket V

Tires: Hutchinson Python (front) IRC Mythos XC (rear)

Regular grips are included since I want to keep my Aergons. We are asking $1,000 USD and we can ship if you need it.

The Second Go Round

2011-10-11T20:02:00.003-06:00

This past weekend I spent some time setting my hair in sponge curlers. My hair's almost six inches shorter than it was a few weeks ago and that means that it's going to hold a curl better (I think...I hope!)

The first set didn't turn out - it was a wet set and it took a few hours to dry and promptly fell out but by the second day the set worked and I got those beautiful mid 1940's curls I love so much.

In other news, I fed a girafe a cookie. I am not making that up. It's just one of the perks of being an elementary school teacher. Prehensile tongues are pretty incredible!

Here are some things around the internet that are holding my interest and maybe will do the same for you:

- Here's a little thing on waiting for you to think about next time you're waiting

- I'm making this recipe for dinner tonight. I'm getting into food blogs right now, as cooking seems to be a good way for me to de-stress after work. Some of my favorites are here, here, and here.

- I'm hosting a little apron sew a-long for my book club here. You're welcome to join if you would like to! We are on week 1 right now and I'll be doing the second part this weekend some time.

Backstage at the show...

2011-10-02T18:13:00.002-06:00

I didn't realize how exhausting friday would be until I hit the proverbial brick wall today. At about 2:30 pm I just couldn't function and had to sleep. I slept until five and I'm the girl who never naps.

I think the best words to sum up the backstage experience (totally different from the front of house experience!) was a long calm then chaos! Somehow some of the model stacking for different designers got a little confused so we were waiting on models to dress that were on stage and we found ourselves ripping off different outfits and dressing different models and really just working hard to make sure that everyone got out in a timely manner.

Getting interviewed and my mom and I - Thanks Mom!!

There was, to say the least, quite a bit of adrenaline flowing and it took almost to midnight before I was able to calm down and really process what had just happened.

Backstage and peeking out at the empty runway

I still really, really enjoyed it - somehow I think that the chaos can be a little fun. It's not easy when it's like that but you sort of get into the thrill of the moment. It reminds me of GOTV day or election night from when I was working in politics.

Models in makeshift hair and makeup

I also liked that everyone was helping everyone out. My timeline was so tight that I was able to hand out all of my dresses and outfits to other designers and their assistants and I had six people dressing for me. All I had to do was get the models in order and do the final tucks and pulls on the outfits. I want to thank the backstage community for that, who were so willing to jump in and help even though it wasn't their own clothes.

Fall/Winter 2011

2011-10-01T15:50:00.002-06:00

Last night I showed my very first Fall/Winter collection for this year with ten other designers. Here's the clothes as seen from the runway!

And after the runway was over I took a little bow...

and we all took our final walk...myself included.

Thanks to Fallene Wells, the other designers, and my mom and husband who helped out immensely to make this happen.

Tomorrow I'll post some backstage pictures and tell you what it was like to actually do something like this! Also, stay tuned for a brand new website and store coming soon!

Dressing Grace Livingston Hill

2011-09-27T18:51:00.004-06:00

"There was nothing about the plain brown rajah silk dress to which Hilda could object as being showy or too grand for one in her position, for it was simple and dark, and rather plain in its make, but it had an air of distinction, as though made by an artist in clothes, and designed purposely for her. The cut of the long, lovely lines on her slender figure, the exquisite pressing of the perfect pleats, the curve of the transparent sleeves, the finish of the girdle and neck, all proclaimed it's high origin."

The Red Signal - Grace Livingston Hill - 1919

"So Elizabeth went to the picnic in a cool white dimity, plainly made, with tiny frills of itself, edged with narrow lace that didn't shout to the unknowing multitude, "I'm real," but was content to be so."

The Girl From Montana - Grace Livingston Hill - 1908

A lovely co-worker of mine somehow found out I was a huge fan of antique clothes and just gave me these old things of hers. She had purchased them at an auction as part of a lot with some old table linens and had no idea what to do with them.

As soon as I opened the bag I gasped with delight - truly well done, immaculately sewn, and carefully crafted clothes from the late Victorian period and early Edwardian era! They reminded me of the clothes that Grace Livingston Hill's characters are described wearing - simple but elegant things in fine silks, laces, and careful handwork.

These three shirts and single skirt have all those qualities about them, from french seams to seams that are whipstitched down. They are certainly treasures and are worthy adds to my collection of antique clothing.

Fall 2011

2011-09-24T10:35:00.002-06:00

Early this summer I was invited to participate in this local Denver Fashion show.

The very first picture of my nearly finished collection!

I wanted to finally announce it to world today and give you a tiny sneak peak of the dresses I've been working on. I still have one more to do today and I have a fitting with my models tomorrow which should be interesting because I've never used real live actual models before for anything I've sewn.

Since I've been working on this collection, I've been reflecting a lot on my ability to sew, my ability to grade and design, my time management skills, and all of the rest of the things that come with being a clothing designer and this experience has taught me a lot about myself.

Over the years I've done many things with my sewing abilities - I've designed and created historic dresses, I spent this past summer restoring historical textiles professionally, I've had the chance to dig through the suitcases of my friends who have traveled far and wide and copy their clothes for my own use but I have never, in my life, done something quite like this. Creating an entire cohesive line, even if it was just six pieces, with graded patterns, that I was happy with has been tough!

I hope my work will speak to my aesthetic and abilities and that I will be able to use this experience - dipping my toe into the water of fashion design - to launch bigger things in the future.

Well, I walk upon the river like it's easier than land...

2011-09-20T19:58:00.006-06:00

Every Friday night I play bluegrass with a few other teachers.

Bluegrass and folk are two genres of music that I've never really listened to on a serious level until I started playing it on a weekly basis. I'm finding it to be very gentle and very calming and comforting, sort of like this coat.

This coat has been incredible and indestructible, always ready to wrap me up when the seasons change. It's the first coat I pull out in fall and the last one I put away in spring.

I bought it when I was in high school at a store called Yellow Jacket that no longer (to my knowledge) exists in Milwaukee. I remember how much it cost - it was twenty dollars even. It has six beautiful art deco buttons which I slowly lost one by one and eventually had to replace. It's a little big but I won't take it in because I wear sweaters and layers under it.

There's something timeless about a good princess cut coat and something that makes me smile when I think about being seventeen and picking out something I still wear almost ten years later.

We all change in our own pretty ways...

2011-09-18T17:47:00.004-06:00

a million sunday afternoon pictures for you -

Spent the day sewing and fitting and sewing and fitting...

My Pfaff and I are well acquainted.

Painted my nails early in the morning.

Finished a dress...

PS: Listening

Somewhere In Between

2011-09-17T19:58:00.003-06:00

Summer isn't done and fall hasn't fully come.

We're in this strange in between place here in Colorado where you can see your breath in the morning and by noon you need shorts and sandals...

...which makes it strangely satisfying to end the day in shorts and a cashmere sweater.

Sweater: BCBG Max Azria

Shorts: Diane von Furstenburg

Shoes: Born

Apricot

2011-09-10T09:18:00.002-06:00

I found this subtle, beautiful short film this morning and watched it at breakfast.

The soundtrack itself, scored by Basil Hogios, is worth a listen unto itself.

Up up up...down down down

2011-09-06T20:15:00.003-06:00

Cycling in Colorado gives you one of two options: Up or Down.

If you're lucky you get to ride a pretty sweet mountain bike while going up and down...

By the time you get to this point though...after going up, up, up...

...you sorta look like this.

If you look at the second picture you can see the trail cutting down, down, down across the mountains. Right after that last picture was taken I got my reward - riding down.

PS: JR thinks this is just about the cutest picture ever taken of us!

Sunday Mornings

2011-09-04T10:27:00.002-06:00

I've been trying to pay more attention to what I wear to lounge around the house.

I had a moment the other day when I looked down and realized that I was wearing bleached stained mountain dew jammer pants, an old painting shirt of my husbands. I looked exactly like I dodn't ever want to look.

I got very embarrassed because I have a closet full of soft cotton house dresses, comfy jeans that pair with fitted T-shirts, mules from Morocco, and vintage negliges and I wasn't wearing any of them.

I pulled this pink 1950's quilted house coat out of the back of my closet and I've been wearing it around the house since the weather's cooled down a bit here. I bought it in college and used to wear it to class when I was under the weather and needed to wear my version of pajamas out and about, but it's just sat in my closet since then.

It's warm, classic, durable, and comfortable so there's no reason to not upgrade my loungewear!

...

2011-09-03T11:38:00.002-06:00

Of the three or four journals I keep on any given day this is my favorite journal. I picked it up at the SF MOMA one day when my heart was feeling achey and I was walking around for hours every day staring at a beautiful city and wondering why I felt like my life was tumbling to pieces.

I wrote a few simple words in it - I sorted out my heart and my brain and suddenly I found my feet back on the ground. Writing seems to do that to me.

I don't date the pages in this journal. It's not a record of my days, it is more of a compass for my heart. When my heart needs to tell me something I write it down in this book and today on this most wretched Saturday I was reminded of this:

The Goings On

2011-08-31T22:35:00.003-06:00

August is done! I can't believe it! It's my amazing older brother's birthday today and I am thankful that he's made me a more patient, more understanding, and more caring person.

Outside of that, here's what I've been up to:

I've done some climbing with good friends.

I think I'm pretty much done being afraid of heights...because I was able to position myself at the edge of the cliff, lay on my stomach, and look over and snap these shots of my friends Steve and Morgan climbing.

Early this week I purchased Mums for my home. Can you believe that Mums are already in season? Fall is coming!

I've been riding my bike back from work as often as I can manage - it's about 13 miles and I just set a new PR today - 43 minutes! I didn't even have a fast roadie to follow home today! I know that's nothing for some people but for slow little me hitting an average of 17 miles without a tailwind is pretty impressive.

And in other cycling news, I got a chance to meet Tom Danielson and show him how high fives were done. Look at those guns on me! Climbing will do that to you!

PS: I just looked at that picture and realized how badly I need a hair cut! Yikes!

humble dwelling

2011-08-22T20:44:00.003-06:00

This is my family's summer cottage. It is in the far northern reaches of this country on a tiny lake.

No one lives close by to it so it's mostly shut up and mouldering to pieces in a swamp until we come around every few years to go swimming at the lake.

My dad and my grandpa built this cottage out of an old garage one nail at a time when my dad was a teenager and then it was filled with all the furniture that my grandparents' didn't have a use for in the 60's and 70's.

It hasn't changed much since then, right down to the 1776 themed tablecloth, the bicycle in the storage room with two flat dryrotted tires, and the refrigerator that my grandparents bought when they were married in 1949.

And yes, it still runs.

life as we see it

2011-08-21T10:42:00.003-06:00

Somewhere in Kansas there is a very strange state park. After driving for miles and miles on some of the flattest ground on God's green earth you see a little canyon. If you drive down into that canyon you get this:

and this:

Strange, right? Doesn't look like western Kansas at all!

Life has been very busy on my end! I started teaching, JR broke his collarbone while dirt jumping, I've been sewing like mad, and I'm upping my riding volume so I can dip my toes back into bike racing for cyclocross season this year.

Right now though, I just need a nap so I'm going to take one.

How is life on your end?

Short time off...

2011-08-06T17:49:00.002-06:00

It seems like I need a little week long blogging break - it's my first week of real-live-no one else in the classroom teaching! I'm so excited to start and I've worked really hard to be here but I need a little down time from all things internet to focus on getting my (completely empty!) classroom in order, create my long term school plans, put together my sub binder, and the other million things that I need to do.

See you next weekend for an update!

Iowa at Dawn

2011-07-27T15:39:00.002-06:00

The Lake Shore

2011-07-19T20:22:00.003-06:00

Here's Milwaukee's Lake Front - my family went down there for coffee so I could see my old stomping grounds.

I have always founds sailboats to be graceful and sublime. When I lived in Milwaukee I had a friend who's family owned a sailboat that was kept at this very marina.

When we went sailing I would always, at least when I was not needed, sit on the pulpit (the very front of the boat) with my legs hanging over and my toes dipped in the water that we skimmed across.

Everything was always so bright and sparkling, the water vast and endless, and everything seemed like a dream to me.

Shirt: upson downes by William Anzevino - UO

Pants: Daughters of the Liberation - Anthro

Shoes: Borrowed from my mom! I think they are Clarks

Week 30 - 50 Crafts/52 Weeks

2011-07-18T23:47:00.003-06:00

I recently found this striped fabric in my stash that I was re-organizing. I had originally bought it in spring to make a summer shift and had completely forgotten about it. The fabric is the lightest, sheerest cotton with a faded red stripe.

Summer is here and I finally made that shift! This one almost doesn't feel like it should count because it took all of an hour and was completed right on time for us to head out the door for a little summer road trip.

As a bonus, I'm leaving you with some pictures of the swimsuit under the shift! It's a 1960's swimsuit that I got at a thrift store when I was in high school. And paired to match it is the mighty Mississippi - we drove over it and then along it, something I'd recommend as the scenic highway along the river is unmatched!

I'll post more pictures from the road trip as I upload them!

PS: I just noticed this is my 25th craft! I'm halfway done with the projects for this! Holy smokes!

Week 28 - 50 Crafts/52 Weeks

2011-07-12T20:46:00.000-06:00

Look! Slippers!

It's been too hot to even think about photographing these wool slippers that I finished just in time for summer. Because the weather has been so warm they've sat finished in the knitting basket while I worked on cooler projects and completely forgot to photograph them...but here they are!

These were a super easy project, very quick, and was made (STILL!) out of that stash yarn I have sitting around. I need a new batch of yarn badly!

Sweet Pea

2011-07-09T10:56:00.003-06:00

Sweet Pea remind me of watercolor paintings. They start out this intense purple violet fuschia and as they die the color washes out and they become even lovelier.

I keep a small vase by my bed with them just to watch them change through the days.

***

Is anyone else besides me having the loveliest summer in long remembrance? My brain aches from all I have learned and my heart swells with all that has been given to me.

Week 27 - 50 Crafts/52 Weeks

2011-07-06T22:35:00.002-06:00

Whatever happened to my 50/52? Well...I'm still working on it. I'm actually backlogged quite a few crafts, and those posts with be forthcoming in the next few days...and the majority of my crafting can't even be posted until sometime this fall!

Having a job where I sew 40 hours a week does put a little damper on my at home crafting, as well. I'm busy doing crafts for the Governor's mansion, the Denver Art Museum, and various private collectors all day long so when I get home I'm less apt to craft.

This week's craft is a bookshelf that we made here - Jon definitely helped on this project!

We used these two salvaged windows and of course regular cheap pine wood. It looks great in our bedroom and holds twice as many books as the ikea shelf we had did! I am surprised at how it suddenly doesn't look like we are drowning in books any more since they all fit on a shelf. Before we had books not only in boxes but lined up along the floor as well.

4th of July

2011-07-05T08:10:00.002-06:00

We had a great Fourth of July here - fireworks with friends, I participated in a multi-era living history thing at a historic park near my house (yes, I am a nerd), and of course grilling out and blueberry pie.

All in all, it was a very satisfying holiday and I have the sunburn to prove it!

Pingree Pass in Black and White

2011-07-02T13:22:00.003-06:00

These sure took long enough to develop...

Bird in the Thyme

2011-06-25T18:11:00.002-06:00

When I turned twenty-six I chose two goals to work on. I'm proud to say I finished the first - we paid off all our credit card debt! It didn't take me that long since we really, really worked at it! We threw almost every single dollar that didn't go to living at it and were able to pay them off in just under two months! It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.

As I had promised when I completed this rather intense and not so pleasant chore I was able to pay cash for a small indoor herb garden. Our neighborhood has a really nice garden shop with a very knowledgeable staff that was able to help me pick out three easy plants to grow and they even repotted them into this lovely pot for me. I put them in the west window in the bedroom and it really, along with the dried lavender next to my bed, makes it smell fresh, clean, and well...provincial. It smells like summer in the south of France in my home now!

I look forward to using the little leaves to cook with over the summer and hopefully over the winter. If I can manage to keep these plants alive I'll be thinking about adding a terrarium and maybe some succulents to the plant collection as well.

PS: I'm listening to this mix right now. It's good for quiet and hot summer days.

A Little Quiet Space

2011-06-23T17:14:00.003-06:00

Hello folks! I have some pretty exciting news for you all that I will announce next week as soon as I have a chance!

Trellised roses in the courtyard.

It's been very, very busy here with house guests for almost two straight weeks! I've also been keeping up on my mandolin playing, learning french, and sewing a lot. I've also been reading quite a bit. I finally finished The Happiness Project (not as good as I had hoped), Three Men and a Boat (Better than I had hoped) and A Tail of Two Cities (Tearjerker!).

Tonight I'm off for my first ever French conversation group meeting, which I am a bit nervous for because I don't have a good grasp of the language, though I have been reading Le Monde articles to try to get some current event vocabulary so I don't go there knowing only how to say "Je suis Elizabeth!"

Father's Day

2011-06-19T15:09:00.003-06:00

Dad and me when I was three months old.

Happy Father's Day to my amazing dad. I would be nowhere without you and mom!

I love you!

Rain and Roses

2011-06-17T21:52:00.003-06:00

The eighty year old roses outside our apartment are going crazy, blooming desperately.

They are trellised or lolligagging around in enormous bushes, and we even have some peonies tucked in between.

They come in many colors in our back yard - reds, deep pinks, fuchsias, yellows, even a salmon color.

I walk by every morning, when the air is still sweet and new, and breath the gentle scent of the roses in.

The Family Trunk

2011-06-11T16:34:00.003-06:00

When I graduated from college I asked my parents for one thing - this trunk:

I didn't just ask them for some random antique sitting around the house, I asked them for the single trunk one of my ancestors brought over from Poland with her when she immigrated to the United States. I come from a family of poor farmers - we've been dairy farming in Northern and Western Wisconsin for a long time, so we do not have a lot of things sitting around that belonged to them - we never had that luxury. Everything was used until it was gone.

I think this particular thing survived because it was so useful, and couldn't be turned into a rag, plowed to death, and probably proved useful storage. It certainly shows wear on the outside and the inside as well.

Right before my parents gave it to me my dad fitted the inside with cedar and turned it into a cedar chest for me.

I use it to store memories, lots and lots of letters, little trinkets and pieces of family history.

I wanted to clean it out today, so I took everything out. I pulled out a few photo albums to put on shelves but everything else went straight back in.

It was good to look at these things - old diaries, love letters, journals, pieces of family history, and photographs. My life has been a happy one, and my family amazing. These things remind me, again, that I am blessed.

The Little Black Dress

2011-06-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

This particular dress was my little black dress throughout most of college and the last year or so of high school. It lives in my closet towards the back where the black dresses run up next to the floor length evening gowns that must stay hanging. Even though I haven't worn it for a long time I couldn't bear to get rid of it.

I finally had another reason to wear it tonight, and I paired it with my interview pumps from Urban Outfitters, a thrifted vintage patent leather handbag, and a funny little invented braid.

Because I've had this dress for years it holds so many happy memories. I wore it to my first real grown up cocktail party, to the Milwaukee Art Museum parties I used to go to on their request. I spent a happy new year's eve in New York City in it. I went on several first dates in it too. I even wore it for a cycling themed photo shoot.

I got the dress from my sister's closet, like most of my favorite pieces. She actually acquired it from her high school's theater department's stash of dresses. I think she wore it to a formal and then it sat around for awhile until I decided it was just about perfect. I borrowed it and well, eight years later, I don't think she's getting it back any time soon. (And this blog post had better not encourage that either, Miss C! :)

Collection of Lovely Things

2011-06-07T22:26:00.003-06:00

Isabelle invited me to take pictures of a gorgeous party she catered in exchange for dinner - certainly a deal I couldn't pass up!

Here are a few pictures from the party - a little sneak preview.

Maybe I should be a food photographer for a fifth career, right?

A collection of links for you:

- A free printable for planning projects - I plan on using this as I work on my top secret project and life in general!

- Vivian Maier was the original satorialist. She was a street photographer during the 1950's to the 1990's. This blog features her life and photos which are beautiful in a rough and tumbled, black and white, real life Chicago sort of way.

- I just finished my last knitting project and I'm getting ready to knit some of these little dish scrubbies from Berlin's Whimsy.

The Dinner Table

2011-06-03T20:11:00.003-06:00

"Fork goes on the left because they both have four letters in them," my mother used to say to me, "put the blade of the knife facing the plate, the spoon to the right."

"Napkins go on top of the plate, usually." and I would do as instructed, placing a paper napkin on top of each of of the five plates at home, putting out five sets of mismatched missionary barrel acquired flatware that my parents used until we three were gone to college.

It was this way I learned to set the most basic of dinner tables - the one for every day use by your family...

...and these are the things I recall whenever I set my own small table.

In which Schwinnifred makes another appearance...

2011-05-30T16:03:00.002-06:00

Schwinnifred and I went jaunting again...

...and stumbled upon perfect sunlight in City Park.

Luckily, JR was with me and he was able to catch some shots before the sun came down.

I recently, in the last week or two, got over my fear of posting the same dress twice on my blog (absurd, I know...) so this one is also a repeat of earlier posts. I picked this one up in San Francisco and it's one of my favorites. It's a little big so I have to wear the right things under it, but it's a great color and perfect for summer weather!

Dress, shoes, bag and bike all vintage. Sunglasses from Pilgrim.

When in doubt...

2011-05-27T22:04:00.002-06:00

One of life's small rules:

When in doubt...wear red lipstick.

Many Things...

2011-05-25T22:17:00.004-06:00

The other day I found myself being asked about why I seem so content - the first thing that came out of my mouth was "I have everything I need and many things I want" which is true and rings like a line to the song that is my life. I am so blessed. It is my job to take what I have been given and make the best of it. I still have my health and the rest, as Lionel Barrymore says in You Can't Take It With You, I leave up to Him.

I have been very busy around here:

I made a huge pot of home made veggie broth using this recipe...

And I have spring cleaned my kitchen and dining room...

This is the first year since I've moved out on my own I've really not had a solid block of three days to work on the house so It's being spread out and I'd like to be able to do a room or so a day. My expectations are a bit lower on the speed of it this year, but I still want it done, particularly because I was so sick when we moved that I was unable to clean much but the things that were absolutely necessary. The house was pretty filthy when we moved into it - sooty walls, dust everywhere, and fingerprints all over everything and I'm slowly working my way away from that.

I am an old fashioned housekeeper and I am a firm believer that the house needs a good scrubbing once a year so that's what I give it along with our general tidying and cleaning as needed. Spring cleaning is more thorough than our usual cleaning - we move the furniture and rugs to wash the floors, I get as much of the windows as I can, and I do a major declutter and reorganization for functionality as I work through each room. I take down the window treatments and wash and iron them, and so on. Also, spring cleaning is the time when I put away our heavy winter coats and bring out the swimsuits, shorts and other summer clothes that I hide under the bed all winter long!

Spring cleaning is very, very worth it since it sets the house up for a summer of adventures and creativity and takes me just a little time each year.

If you are interested in doing your own old fashioned spring (or fall for my readers in the Southern Hemisphere) cleaning, there are resources at apartment therapy here. Also, you are also welcome to ask me any questions you'd like and I'll try to answer them.

Week 20 - 50 crafts/52 Weeks

2011-05-21T22:50:00.002-06:00

We have a lovely, overgrown courtyard with all of the plants that would have been in vogue in gardens during the 1920's, at least according the home and garden magazines that I've read from that era - cascading Bridal Veils, Peonies, various creeping vines and strange little flowers...and best of all big, robust 80 year old rosebushes all over the place.

I spend a considerable amount of time out in our courtyard, on a blanket reading when the weather is good, digging around in the dirt, and yes, hanging laundry in the sunshine when I can. (When the weather is bad we hang laundry in the basement - I LOVE that the building has had so little done to it that laundry lines still exist both inside and out!)

My 22nd craft was this pinafore inspired by the movie that I linked to a few weeks ago - Oto-na-ri. One of the main characters wears this style of pinafore when she is at work as a florist. It seemed very simple, lovely, and practical and like something I would wear.

The pattern was not to difficult to figure out and the only main difference between the one in the movie and mine is that I added darts in the front and lining to fit me better.

And yes, as I declared I would, I do wear it out, more as an overdress than an apron. I'd like to make this in a light blue linen and tweak it just a little bit more next time, using a different lining technique.

Apartment Therapy

2011-05-17T17:05:00.002-06:00

It seems appropriate to finish up the home series with this:

Our house was featured today on Apartment Therapy (thanks Jamie for letting me know!).

You can check out the post here.

2011-05-16T18:48:00.002-06:00

This weekend went by so fast! There was a lot to do. I'm currently looking for creative partners for an endeavor of mine so there is a lot of coffee getting and talking with various people.

I was able to get down to Boulder to meet up with my beautiful friend Morgan to celebrate our birthdays. We are almost birthday twins - I think they are only three days apart. While waiting for her I discovered this lovely little poetry bookstore and coffee shop.

That very same day, JR was racing in Boulder.

The race didn't go so great for him but I am proud of him for starting and trying. It was a hard one with almost no time to recover and the weather was a lot colder than we had expected...so...over his regular kit he was wearing an old Marion jersey from college. There's something to be said for hanging on to your lycra, right?

On Making Home - Part Three

2011-05-11T17:28:00.000-06:00

I am sitting in the middle of my messy living room. The roar of traffic hums outside my window - it's rush hour and the busy street we live on is wet with rain, the cars picking their way through the puddles. I have a knit hat on because our house is chilly - we have radiant heat so we don't pick when it goes on or off and right now it's off.

These things are the familiar: The need for slippers on our splintery wooden floors, the hiss of the water pressure, the quiet buzz of the refrigerator, the smokey walls in our kitchen that need so desperately to be painted, the way the finish is worn off on the hallway floors. These things tell me I'm home but the familiar does not always make home.

What makes home, to me, is what spills into the space between the four walls. It is the people who occupy it, the objects that fill it, and the stories that are created here. A building, when you think about it, is nothing more than a place to be, and without the couch I hate and the husband I love, this would not be home.

I make my home like I cultivate joy - it is not forced, but it is deliberate. Making home is more than just simply amassing objects and then dwelling here, it is a cultivation of a personality, a guarding of an atmosphere.

Here are some things I do to make my home:

1. I'm an old fashioned housekeeper.

My home is rarely spotless but we do keep on top of the mess. Dishes are generally done, the living room is generally picked up, the bed is made almost every morning. We have a routine for keeping our house clean and I try to do at least fifteen minutes of cleaning a day. A clean home is a welcoming home, not just for guests but for myself.

2. Objects in, objects out.

I feel like we are currently at equilibrium with the things we have here at home, so when I bring something new into my home we take something out. We rotate our art every few months, storing the pieces that are not being used behind a dresser. I look at my house with a critical eye and try hard to give away or toss things that are not used or loved deeply.

Before I let something in the home it has to cultivate my joy, and over the years I've learned to listen to what actually brings me joy and what is just neat to have.

So, we have old windows with broken panes propped up against the wall, a rotating display of vintage clothes (I am a firm believer in clothes as art!) on the manequine, drawer pulls from Anthropologie in unexpected places, a bulletin board of old photographs above the work deskbecause these things nourish my soul. How often do I find myself doing something loathsome like paying bills only to be comforted and made happy by the picture pinned up of my grandma as a stunning young woman in a fabulous coatt? Well...every time.

3. Keep Calm

I touched upon this in the last home posts, but I try to keep my home a calming place. Soothing colors, a sense of order, and a lack of intrusive media help keep home a place I can escape from the aches and evils of the world. When I'm here, I can rest.

3. The final and most important is Love the people in the home.

I want my home to be welcoming to everyone, both my self and my husband and our guests. Want to crash on our floor? Always yes! Want to come over to dinner? Always yes! Do you need refuge? Come on over and I'll make you some tea! Want to celebrate? We'll host your birthday party! A home is just a showroom without people in it.

I want my friends and family to always, always feel welcome here. Hospitality is very important to me and having a welcome, opening home is something I've tried to teach myself. We didn't have a lot of company growing up, but my husband's parents had a very amazing social life and subsequently it was a lot more natural for JR to have people over. He has taught me, over the years, that people really don't care if your food is perfect, or your home is immaculate, but that people just want to be with you. Sure, I'm a sucker for the details and you'll find me serving a planned dinner with cloth napkins, but if you find me unexpectedly, I'll still welcome you in and give you Almond milk in a plastic cup with a paper towel just as happily because I love you and I have time and space for you no matter what. No exceptions.

***

If you are interested, you can read part one and part two of the home series.

Week 19 - 50 Crafts/52 Weeks

2011-05-10T18:01:00.002-06:00

Priscilla got a new undergarment! She's wearing a tiny little bustle made out of scraps from my own 18th c. stays. I haven't ever made a set of these before, even for myself or another person, so it was a bit of a challenge to figure out how to construct these things and get the right shape just from photographs. I used the jupon tournure from this page to model Pricilla's set after. Priscilla just needs a petticoat and a dress and she's done...for now. I'd like to continue to make her little things because they go so quickly and are very rewarding.

Craft 21 was a big one - I finished illustrating and self published my fairy tale! I had 25 copies made so that I could give one to each of my students as a parting gift. This turned out to be a big undertaking, but I am so glad that I did it! I learned a lot from the experience and would definitely do it again!

I'm not sure if anyone is interested in reading it - but if you are let me know and I'll try to find a way for you to get your hands on it - please email me if you are and I'll try to figure it out! I'm guessing the cost for the book will be around three to five dollars. I don't need to make anything on it so it'll be cost + shipping, or as close to that as I can get.

All the seasons go the same...

2011-05-09T17:13:00.003-06:00

It's summer here in Denver, or at least these last few days have felt like it. I've been camera-less for some reason, but I have been having lots of lovely adventures.

First of all I turned twenty-six in the best way imaginable. JR and I took the entire day and did lovely things - I slept in, there was breakfast in bed, we rode our bikes around the city and stopped at the capitol building to climb up to the top of the dome to look out over Denver, we went to the art museum to see the Renaissance exhibit, and then we went to Beatrice and Woodsley here in town for dinner.

The very next day I started a new job as, in a sense, an art restoration person. I'm not sure what my official title is, though I do know I'm in the restoration department. I spend a lot of time hand sewing textiles in various capacities. It is a very quiet meditative job for me, as sewing tends to be. I enjoy it and I know for certain that I will get very strong hands doing this! I have to use pliers to sew some of the things I work on!

This weekend I had a very lazy Saturday. I slept in. Sunday was not so lazy, I went to church, had brunch with lovely Isabelle and a few of her friends, and then afterwards I climbed Green Mountain.

Tonight I am going to take a ballet class, an adult very beginner class. While I'm sure I'm not, at least in my brain, a very beginner, I could always use a refresh, and of course I have to build up the muscles I lost over the course of the fall and summer - my last class was last August! In honor of this I added a few pictures from last summer in my pointe shoes...I was really working hard to figure out light with the SLR and I used an oil lamp all over the dark living room to play with the camera. I'm not sure if they're lovely or just silly but I like them.

On Being Home - Part Two

2011-05-03T10:03:00.002-06:00

Home, for me, is my refuge. It is a space that contains my beloved, the things I create, and the things I use to create. I find my home, my carefully gathered objects, to be a place of rest. I go out into the world, and while I find it exhilarating, I return needing home.

Home is also my space to create, where my best thinking is done. It is a place where projects are dreamed up and carried out. Where, within the space I love, anything is possible. I seek inspiration from the world around me, yes, but it is sifted and measured out, evaluated in the bounds of my four walls. All projects I do, all things I create are measured against myself and the sense of peace I get when I am home, not against other people, other bloggers, and the world outside. Recognizing my boundaries and my limits has made the rooms of my home infinite space to dream.

When I am home I am able to come to terms with things. We shut the world out, in a way. We have no TV, our computer time is limited, we do not get much mail. We are able to isolate ourselves, and see things in our own way without the influence of scads of screaming stations yelling about the world ending. We are not hiding from it, but we are able to see things once, and process them, instead of being overexposed to the information leaving no room to adjust to the new way of the world. We read books, slowly. We discuss the events of the world over dinner, and yes, if there is something we really want to watch, we stream it online.

Home is where I know who I am the most. If I ever lose myself in the ideas of want and must have, I simply look around and am reminded of enough. Home reigns me in, home reflects my personality and projects it on the walls, the floors, the bookshelves and paint colors. Home shows me where I've been and tells me where I need to go. Home encourages me, teaches me how to share, and gives me a place to learn and to grow.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being home most of the day, so I took this little video of some of my daily work at home. It's not professionally done, but I hope you enjoy it.

This is part two of my thoughts on Home. You can find part one here.

Oh, Life!

2011-05-02T13:07:00.006-06:00

I found this image of Yves Saint Laurent standing alone at Christian Dior's funeral in Paris, 1957 while reading a book I had impulsively pulled from the library. In amongst the heavy draped clothes of the late 40's and early 1950's, plum satins, embroidery, and endless skirts was this lonely photograph of the young man standing alone, contemplating.

Saint Laurent is young in this photograph, around 21, and he had just been given the reigns to House of Dior and had become Dior's successor. I like this picture because it shows the before, before, before. Before rises and failures, before conscriptions, hospitalizations, before the drugs and the failed romances and the selling of his art collection. It just shows a young man, beautifully dressed, contemplative in the eerily calm minutes before the storms.

On Having Home - Part One

2011-05-01T11:44:00.004-06:00

(The sitting area in my living room)

I have moved 26 times. Many of them have been international, two have been cross country, and the rest of them were from one place to another within state or even city lines, like for college. When you move as much as I do you learn not to worry about how everything is going to fit into your boxes, you just magically make it happen. You throw away a lot of stuff. And, best of all, you get to start over, and over, and over, and over. Clean slates, empty rooms, new ways to move things around and new neighbors to get to know (or try hard to ignore *cough* Fort Collins *cough*).

(The working desk and stereo, along with the 1960's wedding dress I thrifted.)

Because we move so much, I like to take pictures of the places we live in. Sometimes it can seem like I'm just passing through the walls of the building, I never really get to know the place well. I barely remember living in South Lyon, MI - we were only there for a few months. I remember Detroit well because it was so terrifying to move far away from my family for the first time ever, all by myself, with just my carload of stuff into a house with a bunch of sketchy people. I especially remember the locks on the bedroom door, all three of them. I remember the sense of peace and the bright blue carpet of my second place in Detroit, and the weird stuff in the basement and attic, how huge our bedrooms were and the way the grand bathtub's water ran rusty all the time because the hot water tank was so old.

(Vintage umbrellas, books and bicycles)

I vaguely remember houses that blur together from my childhood - the hovel apartments in the United States and the grand marble floors and gated walls in the Philippines, the chickens running around and children underfoot and wash-ladies doing laundry in tin buckets and washboards in the backyard under the hum of electric lines that never worked and the cooing of birds.

My parents have put the house I spent high school in on the market - It has been the place I've lived in the longest. I hope I can make it there to take pictures before they sell it, because I will eventually forget the huge floral couch I slept on. I will forget the feeling of spinning triple pirouettes in the foyer on the wood floor, the subtle sage stripes in the entrance that always welcomed me home. I will miss the Chronicles of Narnia poster in my closet, the sagging cage crinolines on hangers in my half finished closet, the pantry, the Hens and Chicks I planted when I took Horticulture in school that have overrun part of the garden, the part where my dad drilled into the wrong side of the cupboards to put the handles on and left two marks.

So, because I cannot ever remember all the places I have lived in, I have learned to take pictures. No matter how much I love the place I live in, the walls cannot hold me forever - I have had to learn to let go and remain all at once.

Oto-na-ri

2011-04-30T23:38:00.003-06:00

I stumbled upon this lovely blog today. In addition to being San Francisco's biographer, Odessa posts amazing pictures, lovely movie reviews, and thought provoking quotes pulled out of poetry and books.

I spent a good while looking over the pictures of some of my favorite places around San Francisco like Point Reyes (you can see my take on it here - I still count that day among the happiest of my life) and reveling in the fact that there was another adult out there learning how to dance classical ballet!

While looking through her blog I noticed she posted screenshots of Oto-na-ri, a Japanese movie. Since I was up and it was on the internet, I thought I'd give it a shot and watch it. Oh my stars, the use of light in that movie is phenomenal! It's really well done and well captured, funny and beautiful all at the same time.

If you want to check it out, it's here. And for those of you who care, I'm totally making a smock like the ones they use in the flower shops...and wearing out out and about.

Tiny Clothes for Priscilla

2011-04-29T00:41:00.002-06:00

Remember that doll I thrifted almost a year ago? Recently I had a friend come to visit and she noticed that poor Priscilla had no clothes on. She's been wrapped in a scarf since she came home, and has sat on various shelves and windowsills of the homes I've lived in since I've gotten her.

"Elizabeth," My friend said "someone who sews as well as you shouldn't have a naked doll!"

Well, my friend was right - today I set about making Priscilla some lovely itty bitty things to wear. She's been fun (and quick!) to sew for. Every stitch is done by hand and everything has come out of my scrap bin or stash of trims and buttons.

So far she's gotten a pair of split drawers, a chemise, and a funny little corset (with no bones in it! I couldn't find any tiny zip ties!) made out of leftovers from my 18th c. stays and some bias binding in my trim box.

I plan on making Priscilla live in the late 1870's or early 1880's - around the time when Denver was first settled. That means bustle skirts, fitted jackets, and tiny hats.

What I Wore to the Movies

2011-04-28T12:36:00.000-06:00

The place to wear impractical shoes...is to the movies. I wore this to go see the new remake of Jane Eyre (Go see it! It's beautiful!)

These shoes are surprisingly comfortable - I once went to an all day job interview in them, but they're still not the shoes I'm going to run around and teach in week after week.

I paired them with a pair of pants from Anthro and a white shirt from Ann Taylor. Sometimes I just want to wear simple clothes and this fits the bill...

Week 17 - 50 Crafts/52 Weeks

2011-04-26T09:41:00.002-06:00

I messed up my week counting, believe it or not. I looked at a calendar this morning and realized that it's only been 17 sundays since the year began. I think...please correct me if I'm wrong!

This is my 16th project so it means I'm only one behind (and one big one is set to arrive in the mail any time now!).

I found this fabric at Denver Fabrics and really wanted to make a tunic style shirt out of it. It's a really, really light cotton Voile. It wrinkles a bit but it's too pretty not to wear.

I will do a collective post sometime this week when I have more time!

The Rest of Easter

2011-04-25T10:22:00.001-06:00

In the afternoon when the weather got nice we made a tent out of blankets and our clothesline in the backyard and played twister and the guitar on the lawn.

Easter Baking...

2011-04-24T13:06:00.002-06:00

My neighbors and I threw an easter party together...

We ate...strawberries and nutella

Gluten Free spice cake with honey cinnamon frosting...

Danishes (which apparently in Denmark are called Viennas) and pitchers of Sangria

and of course...jellybeans!

The Neighborhood at Night

2011-04-23T21:35:00.000-06:00

I love the walk-ability and bike-ability of the apartment we live in...

Dead Air

2011-04-21T21:56:00.003-06:00

Here's a random picture of Denver for you.

It's been very busy here - but I have some time to rest.

Expect some creativity and a post tomorrow!

Tea...

2011-04-12T20:10:00.002-06:00

Isabelle invited me over for tea.

How could I say no when she offered up gluten free coffee cake and the loveliest patio in Boulder...

Week 16 -50 Crafts/52 Weeks

2011-04-10T15:48:00.002-06:00

Celebrate! I finally finished that cowl oh...a good five months after I started it. I'm a slow knitter but that's okay. I had to rip this project out after I got about 30 rows in because I realized that no pattern was emerging. I put some stitch markers in and after that I was good to go.

This is craft 16...

***

What are my other crafty cohort members doing?

Raggedy Angel finished some felted pebbles.

Fifty First Crafts finished a beaded bracelet. It's stunning and has robots on it. You should go look at it here.

Studio Marlowe finished this super-duper cute baby sweater. That I'd totally wear if it was my size. I think I would wear anything she makes, frankly.

Morgan finished a hat out of some Lopi she thrifted when I went up to Fort Collins to visit her. I am slightly jealous she is such a fast knitter! And the Lopi looks beautiful! Also she needs to tell me a bit about her hat display stand thing...

If I am missing you, please let me know and I will add you!

The Sun and the Heat

2011-04-09T23:21:00.002-06:00

Walking westward on 13th...

It feels, to my Wisconsin self, like summer here most days.

Between here and the state line...

2011-04-07T21:06:00.004-06:00

What do I do when I get a new suit?

Wear it to a job interview and then ruin my shoes by running around on the dirt roads by the oil fields along the front range, of course...

I found this abandoned school along the roads running through the oilfields. I imagine that there once were farms in the area and their children went there but now it's been taken over by the oil derricks and tanker trucks that zoomed by as I took these pictures. I love how the chains of the swing set still hang there and the merry go round is buried in the brush that has grown up around it, waiting for those children to come back and play.

This is not the earth...

2011-04-05T22:47:00.002-06:00

How can a place be so vast and otherworldly?

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Week 15 -50 Crafts/52 Weeks

2011-04-02T10:56:00.004-06:00

You can check out project 13, a little recording project, at it's very own little blog here. I think I need to stop making new blogs every time I have a project...I think I'm up to four now?

And finally, you can hear something I've played and recorded (albeit very poorly!).

Also, I just finished a knitting needle case for craft 14. This is a project I haven't had much need for, only owning about two sets of needles, but I recently found a needle stash at the thrift store so now I have a reason to make one!

This project took no time at all, especially because I used the selvedge edge for the top of the needle holding piece. I used all stash thread, fabric, and bias binding (use double wide for this!).

***

Lots of busy people crafting and creating these days, too! These are the most recent (sorry if I've missed linking some in between guys! It's been busy around here!)

Maggie is up to 17 and created a beautiful sweater! As someone who is a mending aficionado I really appreciated the up close look at her sweater mends, too!

Morgan started to plant things for her garden!

Studio Marlowe finished another amazing (totally something I'd wear) sweater! Love it!

Okac has continued her baking roll and also made an Easter wreath!

Fifty First Crafts always does some amazing work. She made some Pysanky (wax relief) eggs...and they are beautiful!

Bunni Garu made the most darling cake - I want a piece!

We have a newcomer to the 50/52 challenge - it's never too late to start, right? Check out Raggedy Angel's crafts over on her blog!

Somewhere in the desert, we are...

2011-04-01T11:48:00.003-06:00

driving endlessly. I see this gathering of rusting things and sunworn paint on metal.

"Pull over! Pull over!" I wave my hands wildly motioning for my husband to hit the brakes and stop.

"I sure do love you, honey, but you like anything that's falling apart!" My husband smiles knowing I've found treasures, and pulls a U-turn on the narrow road.

What to wear on a date with the Southwest...

2011-03-30T20:44:00.004-06:00

JR and I recently got to go on a little road trip to the American Southwest. I'm trying to pack minimally these days, and I've succeeded in packing everything (Yes! Everything!) into the little suitcase I usually use as a camera bag.

And that dress? I thrifted that in Denver and basically lived in it the entire trip. It's a square dancing dress from the 1950's.

More pictures to come as I sort them out.

Spring is here!

2011-03-27T16:27:00.004-06:00

The trees still look bare but if you look closely you'll see that there are Violets on the ground and the very first flowers are peeking up their shy blooms.

I updated my FAQ to answer a few questions I had emailed to me as well. You can check that out here.

My Daily Work

2011-03-25T15:34:00.003-06:00

In three pictures, the things I am working on today:

(book layout for the fairy tale)

(knitting the cowl)

(illustrations for the fairy tale)

Week 11 - 50 Crafts/52 Weeks

2011-03-21T20:52:00.002-06:00

I've been to busy crafting to blog about crafting, which isn't a bad thing, right?

For craft eleven I finished these feather earrings:

Craft twelve is part one of a three part craft - I finished writing a children's fairy tale that I told my 4th grade class. I am halfway through part two, also known as craft thirteen - illustrating it. I'll probably post the illustrations as a picture but I'm not interested in posting the story since it's just for those kids at school. The third part will be putting it together in a book format to publish to give to my kids. I hope to have this huge project finished by the end of next week.

I've also been working on learning Logic and gathering a small home recording studio, which is more of a project and less of a craft but when I have a song written and recorded I'll post it here as a craft as well. Perhaps I should have called this challenge 50 creations since I'm counting things like songwriting and story making. The idea was to get me creating more and it really has been!

It's week eleven, and I'm right on track so I'm happy!