snippets

just bits and pieces of my life lately...

I love the colors of the bark on this tree!

zucchini bread and milk-- breakfast of champions

I love that my local post office still has this slot.

strawberry hearts while making jam (more on that soon!)

Bucky bashfully ducking the paparazzi (i.e. me)

Have a beautiful day!

♥

much love, monday

Hello sweetpeas!

I hope your week is off to a great start.

Here's what I'm loving this week!

this snowy cutie

Qin Leng's illustrations of the characters from Moonrise Kingdom

these sparkly Miu Miu mary-janes

these pretty speckled eggs

Ron Swanson.  Always.

this illustration by Aurélia Fronty

this flower-y bridge in Venice

Have a wonderful rest-of-your-day!  

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday

Friday again already-- where does the time go?

I hope you're all enjoying the beginning of the weekend!

Let's fill in some blanks.

1. Something I am very proud of is that I went back to school in late August after losing my dad in July of last year.  I know it's what my dad wanted and I'm so glad I did it.

2. My favorite thing about myself is my sense of responsibility.  I mean, I don't run around saying, "I'm so responsible, hrmm hrmm, good for me," but if I say I'm going to do something, I do it, and I do it to the best of my ability.

3. My favorite colors for fall are oatmeal, blush, and grey.  I love layers of neutrals and pastels for autumn, they're soft and cozy and universally flattering.

4. Something I've been learning lately is how to knit from a chart!  I've always used written-out patterns, but I've been working on a charted shawl and it's much more intuitive than I thought it would be.  Of course, I picked out a super-complicated one, so I've already had to rip it out and start over once, but every time I try it, I get better at it.

5. A book I'm reading now or have read recently is Dark Angels by Karleen Koen.  It's very good, but goodness gracious, the drama!  Everybody's wooing everybody, nobody's who they appear to be-- I can only read it when I'm alone because I'm constantly going, "Oh!" or "Yikes!"

6. My favorite Pandora station is my combined She&Him and A Fine Frenzy station.  I have to admit, since Spotify came along, I haven't been listening to Pandora very much.  I like being able to specify which songs play, and in what order.

7. This weekend I will do some housework, do a final fitting for a lovely plaid skirt for one of my very favorite people, and go to spinning group to see my spinning buddies!

Have a great weekend!

♥

endless mountains fiber festival

Hi friends!

On September 9th, I went to my very first fiber festival!  It was such a fun experience.  My mom and I packed ourselves a picnic lunch and made a day-trip to the Harford Fair Grounds to check out the Endless Mountains Fiber Festival.

This llama was enjoying showing off for the camera.  

The sweetest baby alpaca-- I love his little teddy-bear face!  

These 4-H rules were posted on the side of one of the barns.  I think those first four are appropriate in any situation!  And no cruelty to other humans, either.  No cruelty in general.

And of course, I came home with some beautiful spinning fiber.  On the top left is fawn alpaca (or part of it, anyway-- the whole roving takes up half of my kitchen table by itself!), the green is soft, springy merino wool, and the two orange and purple batts in the middle are angora, merino wool, and some firestar sparkle.  Orange isn't usually my color, but this batt is even more beautiful in person and I couldn't resist!  The pink and white roving on the bottom is a blend of merino wool, silk, and bamboo fiber.  I'm working on spinning it right now!  It's a pleasure to spin.  The bamboo content gives the yarn a gorgeous sheen.

I also purchased a sparkly mini-batt of all different colors and fibers, which I spun up right away.  

I'm calling this yarn "Fraggle Rock" because the colors are so reminiscent of my favorite '90s kid television show.  The orange matches Red Fraggle's fluffy pigtails perfectly!

Red is my favorite Fraggle.  She cracks me up.

I left this yarn as 192 yards of a single-ply to show off the texture of all the different fibers.  It's very different from what I usually spin, but I love it!

I hope you have a fantastic day!
♥

pines

Guess what happens 21 days from today.

A new album from A Fine Frenzy, Pines, comes out!  Yay!

Alison Sudol has released a trailer for it, and it's so, so pretty.

And here's a sneak peek at one of the songs on the album, "Avalanches."



I love it.  She's incredible with words.  She manages to turn every three minute song into a fairytale.

I am so excited.  She's one of my very favorite artists, and it's been three years since her last album came out.  I can't wait to spend hours listening to Pines on repeat!

♥

much love, monday

Hi everyone!

I hope your week is off to a great start.

Here's what I love this week.

this beautiful autumn photo

this incredibly detailed cut paper art

this delicate, ethereal moth

these wise words

this perfect, perfect home office-- it's so bright and airy!

this sweet sheep

and this gif from one of my favorite movies, Pan's Labyrinth.

Have a lovely rest-of-your-day!

♥

fill-in-the-blank sunday

Happy Sunday, everyone!

The past few days have been a whirlwind-- but now I'm back on track, and what better way to start this lovely day than by filling in some blanks from Friday?  Here we go!

1. Right now the weather where I live is chilly but sunny-- it's really starting to feel like fall!  As a devoted wearer of dresses, it's that time of year to stock up on black tights.

2. The best piece of advice I've been given is, "Just take it one step at a time."  When I was in school, sometimes I'd get stressed out from thinking about how much I had to accomplish in a short time, and I would call my dad, and he'd say just to take one task at a time.  It's something I still think of if I'm feeling overwhelmed.

3. If I were to have a mission statement for my life, it would be "Be excellent to each other."  And yes, I did just snatch that right out of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but it's true.  Treating people with kindness and respect is so much more rewarding than being mean or rude could ever be.  I've made my fair share of mistakes, of course, but I really do strive to be good to other people, and I find that I'm happiest when I'm achieving that.

4. My most favorite item in my closet is either my long, comfy-cozy A-line oatmeal-colored sweater or my red raincoat with butterflies on the lining.  Ooh, or one of my many, many pairs of warm wool socks.

5. The best cure for a bad day is a hot chocolate, a snuggly cat or two, some knitting or crochet, and science fiction.  

6. Today is another beautiful day, filled with potential.

♥

autumn

Autumn is starting to creep up on my little hometown.

It's always been my favorite season-- school supplies, sweaters, hot chocolate, and apple pie are some of my very favorite things, and autumn is the perfect season for them.

The leaves here are starting to change-- it's almost time for cardigans and tights and woolly socks!

But as much as I love fall, I'm not looking forward to the shorter days and chilly nights.

I'll just have to make sure I have lots of cozy quilts to curl up in.

And in the meantime, I'll squeeze in as many walks to the park and sundresses as I can.

♥

snippets

dewy spiderweb-- this ivy is gone now, it was cut a few days after I took this picture.  I hope the little guy or girl who made this beautiful structure has found a new home and is enjoying redecorating!

snuggly cats.  Aww.

Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers-- I love the soft cream and pink of this one!

Zucchini bread made from our garden zucchini.

The park fountain.

♥

much love, monday

Happy Monday! 

Here's what I'm loving this week.

these Chinese lantern flowers

this illustration of my favorite scene from The Wind in the Willows,  when Ratty and Mole have a picnic on the river

these acorns-- so many gorgeous shades of brown!

these preview photos from The Hobbit-- Bag End is one of my favorite places in all of Lord of the Rings, and I am so excited to see more of it when The Hobbit comes out!  I love the story of how the Bag End set was originally designed for the Lord of the Rings films-- John Howe, one of the best-known Tolkien artists, had previously done a beautiful illustration of the front hall of Bag End.  He was brought on as a conceptual artist for the films, and Peter Jackson had a copy of the illustration and asked John Howe to draw the rest of Bag End, too.  How incredible that must have been, to see an illustration done years before turned into a full-sized environment!

(this moment of Lord of the Rings fangirling was brought to you by the extended edition DVDs of all three films.)

the light in this forest photograph

this vintage illustration of Little Red Riding Hood, or as this book called her, Little Red Cap

this squirrel candle-holder (with a tutorial for making them!  To do: have woodland tea party)

these glittery pumpkins-- I'm not usually a glitter person, but these are so ethereal and pretty!  I'd feel like Titania having an autumn fairy ball with these.  (again, with tutorial!  yay!)

I hope your week is off to a wonderful start!

♥