Idle hands

So it gets dark real early and I feel a little guilty that my solution to long winter nights is "more 30 Rock". Ack, Season 2 is so weird/bad!

Back in the 1980s my ancestors didn't allow so much television. We would wind up the Victrola and put on crazy antique records (that we knew all the words to), or read from old limerick books from the library, or pop popcorn in a skillet over the fire. People with those electric popping machines were like astronauts to me.



Or the four of us girls would antagonize each other and end up in a heap of long flannel nightgowns. And lest you think I'm confusing my childhood with Little Women, we did not travel by wagon although my ma did pick us up from school on horseback occasionally. Smack in the middle of San Diego. My mom's desire to hold back the sands of time with her bony, Puritanical hands knew no bounds....




Later, of course, I snuck French novels and (more contraband than drugs) Seventeen magazines out of the library and spent many an eve learning the ins and outs of being a French courtisan and keeping my skin soft with homemade yogurt masks. Also, French kissing, hairspray, and penny loafers. Thank you Seventeen. I would have been so country without you. First-kiss bliss indeed (I probably committed that one to memory...)



But I digress. A lot. I know.

The point is, we did stuff at night. And my mom always had a sewing or needlework project going. And with a fire in the fireplace and everyone together in the same room, it truly was a lovely way to pass the time. I'm not saying I want to give up the television to darn my kids' old Hanes socks or anything. But I've kinda been antsy for a little crafty project to do. While I rot my brain with the demon-box.

Purl Soho has the best projects. And they're not even a little country. Here are some I'm considering. Aren't you proud Ma?

PERFECT

Don't you think?

Etsy sellers blow me away sometimes...

From CocoandChia

Clare Vivier and the Fertile Years

Life seems particularly abundant and productive these days. The stasis, the expected, has been tossed aside. Like Seamus Heaney's famous poem, the fertile loam of life is being overturned everywhere I look, exposing the fresh underbelly of possibility.
Things I never thought possible have been put into motion, and everywhere I look I see change.

Part of the fertility is literal; among my friends and family there are eight babies born or soon-to-be. Other friends are moving, even leaving the country. One child turned a landmark age, the magical fabulousness that is NO LONGER TWELVE. Another is leaving behind the protection of elementary school. A momentous anniversary will be celebrated soon, and a villa in Baja's wine country will be visited. Kauai gleams like a wet plumeria leaf in the October distance.

I'm feeling a little more visual than verbal today, so consider this a pictorial diary of the past productive week.

Reason to blog: observant husband knows exactly what you want for your anniversary


I know, it's shameless. But she's hot and she knows it...



and she just kept posing



The rewards of growing things



Gambling with four-year olds and comparing muscles-a good way to pass the time waiting for a sister to be born/my first niece. Mia. FINALLY.



Modernhaus=Bounce Haus



Double anniversary party



How many cousins can fit on one chair? I don't know! Get up! You're crushing my &*#%@!!!



Sweet nerd



Hip-hop nerd



And you? What's shakin on your end?

Meet the hipsters

Please give a warm welcome to our newly engaged hipster friends, Pete and Erika! Pete and Erika have swept us backwoods SoCal dorks off our flip-flop clad feet with their East Coast cool.

How do we know they're cool? First, they look like a husband-and-wife Scandinavian folk-rock duo. Second, Pete knows that a suit should not, at present, hit his wrists or his ankles (a la the Sartorialist) and he sports it with confidence (even though most people around here just think he hasn't bought a new suit since he hit puberty). Third, Pete just moved from Brooklyn to be with Erika, so we can still actually SMELL the cool on him. They blog, they knit, they shop at the farmer's market, and Pete's a free-lance graphic artist if you need more convincing. And I believe Erika has some goat cheese-making in her future.

Seriously, though, they are two ridiculously creative, kind, and in-love kids and we couldn't be happier for them. As hipsters are wont to do, they are having a very non-traditional wedding at Freemans in NYC (taxidermy in your wedding photos is a current hipster MUST HAVE). But don't be intimidated by the idea of gifting the Petes and Erikas in your life. It's really quite simple. Stay tuned for the first of many editions of the new MODERNHAUS series, "Gifted". Hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal when she's done at Independent Lens, but until then, hosted by me.