dreamnest

just some spaces I'm in love with right now...

loft in Amsterdam that used to be a sugar warehouse, from here

artist's loft in Brooklyn, from here

lofted bed from here

I think I've pinned down my style as 'cozy-nature-child-minimalist.'  The minimalist part may seem strange given my propensity toward making things, prolifically and constantly, but for me the joy is in the creation.  I'd much rather make things than actually have things.

 

That said, I just scored a reeeeally cute new pair of shoes.  My aunt just gave me a lot of shoes, but these were my favorites by far.  I took out the cord laces and replaced them with silk ribbon.

Also, a gratuitous picture of one of our goats.

♥Happy New Year! ♥

 

Little Red Lingerie Project

One of our assignments for my knitwear design class this past semester was to design a lingerie collection.  I absolutely loved this project!  I chose Little Red Riding Hood as my inspiration, and made three little mini-groups-- one inspired by Little Red, one inspired by the huntsman, and one inspired by the wolf.  My collection is a holiday one.  I didn't get a chance to scan in my fabric page or color page before I came home for break, but when I go back to school, I'll add those in, too.

[slideshow]

Happy Almost-New Year, everyone!

home for christmas

I admit it:  I am a complete Harry Potter geek.  But my all-time favorite thing in Harry Potter is.......Lavender Brown's wardrobe!  Jessie Cave, who plays Lavender in the movies, is totally adorable and I want every single one of her costumes.







I don't think the last photo is actually Harry Potter-related, which means that Jessie Cave actually dresses like this in real life.  Which makes her even more adorable.

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My very cool brother, Zach, has just started a blog!  He writes about music, vintage music magazines, books, and culture.  Check it out at http://fromchaosablog.wordpress.com.  Here's a song he had me listen to a few days ago because he thought I'd like it (and because the title is my name in Russian).  I like it a lot.

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Also, I got my hair cut today!  I've had long hair for years and years, ever since I got it cut in sixth grade and realized what a very round face I have.  But I was ready for a change, and I'm totally thrilled with how it came out!  Yay!

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I hope everyone had a great holiday!  ♥ ♥ ♥

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

--Mary Oliver

photo by mudder_bbc on flickr

weekend lovelies

As per usual, school has taken over my life and my poor little blog has been neglected.  But I have very much enjoyed being a busy bee... I'll do an entry of schoolwork at some point, to show what I've been up to, but here's just some stuff I like.

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I've loved blown glass ever since my brother gave me a green blown glass bird for my birthday five or six years ago.  Thanks Zach. :)

 

 

I want to do something like this... the chairs, the light, the ornaments-- mmmm!  So cute.

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Today was the first machine-knitting class that I felt was truly successful... We were designing our own jacquard knit designs, and I charted and made a punch-card for a bow design.

I still have a few adjustments to do now that I've seen it knit up, but OMG BOWS!  Yay. :)

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Why is Missy Higgins so darn cute?  She always is a main player in my music rotation this time of year.  Currently listening obsessively to....

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Happy Thanksgiving in advance to those of you who celebrate it!  Those who don't, happy Thursday!

xo! ♥

 

They liked me, they really liked me!

The lovely pair of etsy sellers that make up QBranchLtd have featured me on their blog, The Art of Craft.  In addition to featuring etsy sellers, they discuss the handmade cultural movement and its implications for society on the whole.

Check out my interview here!

Wonderland is a crowded place

I was poking around Netflix the other day, and one of the movies that was recommended for me was Phoebe in Wonderland.  I was a bit wary, because I absolutely love Alice in Wonderland, but in a very purist kind of way-- I haven't even seen the latest remake of it.  But the synopsis sounded interesting, so figured I'd start watching it, and I really enjoyed it.



Phoebe in Wonderland is the story of an imaginative and curious girl who is trying to work through some behavioral issues, while the adults around her try to help her.  Phoebe's interactions with other kids improve after she becomes involved with a school play of Alice in Wonderland.  And those adults?  They make a mess of things, except for Phoebe's drama teacher.



I usually absolutely hate any depiction of precocious children, as Marissa can attest after seeing me mock Michelle from Full House every time she said some scripted thing that was supposed to be "wise."  It always seems so contrived and a cheap 'aww' moment.  But Phoebe in Wonderland wasn't like that at all-- Phoebe was portrayed as a sweet but believably flawed girl, intelligent but not weirdly 'knowing.'    This was a really great movie to watch just for the visuals, too-- between the plot and the color story, it reminded me a lot of Amelie. The lighting was pretty and dreamy, the color story for each character fit perfectly, just a very nice film to look at.  I definitely recommend watching this movie, it's touching and relevant and well-done.

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Then I watched another Wonderland themed movie... Malice in Wonderland, from 2009, had a good basic premise and.... that was about it.  It was meandering and while I can see where those who are into the trippier aspects of the original Alice might enjoy it, it just didn't do much for me.

Honestly, I think my main issue with this movie was the portrayal of Alice as this sort of Lolita character.  I really can't stand when she's portrayed that way.  For instance, in this version, Alice gets amnesia and is left to blink innocently at a bunch of increasingly sketchy men.  In bars.  And their cars.  And asks them for a ride home.  And she follows them all over London (Wonderland, sorry) because she just trusts them so much.  Puh-lease.  I guess part of why I was so disappointed with this movie was because the idea is actually pretty good, to hint at the classic Alice while putting a modern, edgy spin on it, but the execution was mediocre.

There was one saving grace to this movie, though... The actor who plays the equivalent of the White Rabbit, Danny Dyer, is pretty cute.

Happy Autumn everyone!

♥

New Nest

Here are some pictures of my room and what I've been doing in it... But first, click play on this video, it's the perfect soundtrack for my room.  Yay!



Ok, so, my room!  It's pretty similar to my room last year, except that the wall decals are more elaborate and I now have a big cozy blue chair in one corner.  It's the nicest thing, it's really big and I can completely curl up in it.



There's something about going grocery shopping and then coming home and putting them away that makes me so happy.

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I have a slight obsession with black ballet flats.  I just love them.  I was lucky enough to be given a big box of different vintage bows and beaded shapes recently, and I knew they'd look so perfect on black ballet flats, but I didn't want to have to buy ten pairs of shoes to put them on (well, okay, yes I did want to, but it would be totally impractical) sooo...



velcro-on ballet flat embellishments!  I put the fuzzy sides of stick-on velcro dots on the shoes, and then put the hook side of velcro dots on the back of the bows and beaded shapes, and now they can be changed whenever!  Wheeeeee!

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After some trial-and-error, I've finally pretty much gotten the hang of using the knitting machine for my machine knitting class.  Here's one of the swatches I knitted!  It's sooo fast, this took maybe 4 or 5 minutes to do.

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Happy Saturday! ♥

Pretty Pattypans

The first week of school is going really well-- I only have one more class, tomorrow morning.  They all seem interesting so far, and I hadn't realized how much I missed actually creating garments last semester.  I'm especially excited about my knitwear design class and my knitwear pattern-making class. Having three days with only one class is great, too, because I don't have to save all my errands for either after a class that ends at 9:20 p.m. or the weekend.  Although we keep being told that fifth semester is really rigorous, it doesn't actually seem like an unmanageable amount of work thus far.  Of course, having one liberal arts class instead of three is helping that situation, too.

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Over the summer, my dad grew pattypan squash in our garden.  They're the cutest vegetables ever!  They look like big spinning tops, or maybe baskets with flower-shaped lids. These aren't the ones my dad grew, I didn't get around to taking a picture of them before leaving for school, but they're still soooo cute!

Mid-week Music ♥

Here are a few songs I'm listening to lately...

Painting by Chagall by The Weepies



Electric Twist by A Fine Frenzy (sorry for the commercial at the beginning, it was the highest-quality video I could find.)



Running With Scissors by Ben Lee



They're all really good songs to have on while walking, too.  ♥

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I updated my etsy shop with more button bobby pins!  Thank you so much to the lovely and talented Lindsay for her review of my button bobbies!  Her blog is so cute and thought-provoking.

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Hope everyone's having a great first week of school, if it was your first week.  Otherwise, I hope you have a great week in general! ♥

Last Day of Summer

School starts tomorrow.  I'm actually pretty excited about it-- I have a smaller course load (8 classes instead of 9), and only one night class, as opposed to the three I had last semester.  I'm going to try reeeeally hard not to get overly stressed this semester, since my perfectionism tends to be my downfall.  So basically, I'm going to take on the semester feeling like this:

Judith Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant

Met Museum ♥

Yesterday I went to one of my favorite places in the world-- The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It's so inspiring.  And it seems that every time I go, there's something I haven't seen before.  Well, yesterday I was on an Impressionism kick, particularly the paintings by Monet.  I love his water lilies and gardens, of course, but there were a few others that I was especially taken with.

Île aux Orties near Vernon  1897

Morning on the Seine near Giverny      1897

Ice Floes  1893

Ohhhhh, I just absolutely love them.  I'm determined to make time to go to the Met at least a few times a month this semester.  It is the most creatively refreshing experience in the world.

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Also, I'm looking for a new camera, because the one I have has a plethora of issues.  The F-stop speed is incredibly slow, especially in low lighting, which makes taking pictures a problem where flash is not allowed.  The white balance is also really weird, whether on auto or manual.  I'd love some recommendations, if anyone just looooves their camera.

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Good luck to everyone who is starting or has already started school!  ♥

Alone Time/ Not Alone Time

I'm one of those people who really needs their alone time.  I need time to decompress and go through the silly little routines I like to go through, like reading all of my new magazines while drinking tea, or crocheting and watching Star Trek.  I even like going out to eat alone or going to museums alone.  But sometimes that gets misconstrued as being antisocial or unhappy... It's neither.  I love to be with friends, but I know that I'll get irritable if I don't have time to myself, too.  I ran across this video the other day, and I think it explains alone time in a very lovely way.



This kind of segues into something else I was pondering today... I heard the song 'Everybody' by Ingrid Michaelson today after not hearing it for a while, and it made me think.  If you haven't heard it the chorus is very simple:

"Everybody, everybody wants to love/ Everybody, everybody wants to be loved."

I went through a pretty rough break-up about two months ago, and I've been avoiding love songs like the plague, as one usually does in such circumstances.  But this song seemed more like a forgiveness song than a love song today... We're all just sort of bumbling around, wanting to find beings to love and be loved by-- parents, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, pets, whomever.  Being reminded of that makes it very hard to be angry with anyone.  We're all looking for the same thing, love that makes us feel interdependent (not to be confused with codependent-- very important) and appreciated and want to become the best selves we can be.  If I already know that about every person I meet and that I've already known, how can I be overly upset with any of them?

Huh.  Maybe I won't be a bitter old lady at the age of 20 after all.

Bonjour! ...Nice Backpack.

My best friend (for 10 years this year!  Jeez louise.) and I got back from Disney World today!  We were there for 6 days, and we had so much fun.  I went straight from Disney World to the New Jersey shore, so I don't have my camera cord with me (oops), and I can't post any pictures that I took until I get home.  But in the meantime, here are a few of my favorite things in Disney.

Main Street in Magic Kingdom!  All those pastel buildings...






France in Epcot's Around the World Showcase





The Italy section of Epcot





These photos weren't taken by me, I'll add some that Marissa and I took once I get home.

And-- oh!  I guess I should explain the title of this post.  When Marissa and I were in Hollywood Studios, we were behind a man carrying what looked to be his daughter's backpack, a blue-and-green flowered one.  And one of the Disney cast members, in a beret and sporting an obnoxious little mustache, puttered over in his miniature car and said to the backpack guy, "Bonjour!  ...Nnnnice mmmbackpack!"  Marissa and I were apparently the only two people that heard this, and we enjoyed it immensely.  Thus, we complimented each other, and everyone else in Disney, on our and their respective backpacks, regardless of whether any actual backpacks were around.

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I didn't have time to blog it before leaving for our lovely Disney trip, but I did a pretty big Etsy shop update!  This one includes 14 pairs of button-bobbies.  Here are a few of my favorites-- the photos are links to where the bobby pins can be purchased on Etsy.

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It's almost time for school-supply shopping!!! Notebooks and pens and pencils, oh my.  Every year, I get very excited for those clean new notebooks and stacks of perfect index cards.  Oh, I just love school supplies.  When I get my new ones for the year, I'll be sure to share pictures.  ✏♥

Plums

This is one of my favorite poems, about one of my favorite summer fruits.

This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

photo by borealnz on flickr

Inception, and stuff.

I just got back from seeing the movie Inception. It was good, I liked it.  The special effects were pretty neat.  I'm kind of a nerd, I like special effects.

The most important question that I had about the movie was answered about five minutes in:

Yes, Leonardo DiCaprio is still a total babe.







He even has the prerequisite ridiculous eyebrows which are apparently necessary in order for me to be attracted to a guy.  Why is it that I only like guys with eyebrows that are out of control?

As lovely as Leo is in this movie, there was another character  who I thought was fantastic.  I couldn't find a picture of Tom Hardy as his character, Eames, but I did find one of him out of character.



About halfway through the movie, I realized why I found his character so charming.  Between his appearance and the playful-yet-dangerous attitude, he reminded me of one of my all-time favorite movie characters-- Michel, from the 1960 film Breathless, played so, so well by Jean-Paul Belmondo.





Such a good movie.

I went to the late showing of Inception, and thus I'm too sleepy now, at 2:09 a.m. , too come up with any insightful comments about the actual plot of the movie.  Off to bed with me.