You know sometimes you run across a blog that you feel like you were separated at birth? Nelly's blog, where I found paprika and RAPHAËL GARNIER. Thank you!
I always want to take up knitting when I walk passed a display of colorful yarn. The collection is tantalizing. I feel the same looking at Dulux Colour Atlas.
I had a busy weekend, mostly at the computer and a busier week ahead so I am calling it a day. To go chow down on Mom's Pork Roast Escabeche with baked yams and wild asparagus. Plus we have a new True Blood and Miss Marple mystery! I almost designed my friend a logo for his newly acquired shop and worked on a website design. Took a few photos. Visited with friends. Played with the dogs. I am tired. Now it is time for wine and favorite shows. Good night and have a great week ahead.
But before I go, must pass on what I found in my multi-tasking 30 minutes toilet/reading. The Bower Bird (my favorite) made a big splash in this months National Geographic, Build It {and they will come}. Don't you get mad when you can't find your own post about such an important subject as "Bower Birds"? Arrgghh. Anyway, do yourself a favor and go look at the lavish lure for the female. This world is be pretty amazing!
Personalized BBQ branding iron available at Delight.com. Love it. (Now sold out but a great present idea). I bought D a D and J and M little brands many moons ago.
Flexibility - renewable clothing by Fernando Brízio. By placing colored felt-tip pens in the pockets of the dress its appearance changes over time. Within an hour - to one and a half hours the colored ink bleeds into the fabric and creates a one-off design for each occasion. the owner can then clean the dress and color it in a different way for each time they wear it. Via the delightful blog, Diving Meet.
The headline could read, Curse of being a poor country. CURSE OF THE BLACK GOLD: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta is simply unforgivable. In the wake of our own oil spill disaster, at least I have hope that we will clean that mess up faster than say, the Niger Delta has luck doing. But as I saw on some news story about Alaska shores and how if you just lift a couple of rocks you can still see a sheen, meaning, there is still oil there. I don't think these sort of tragedies are ever completely "cleaned up". These are the images breaking my heart. I am saying my prayers for all the folks trying to deal with the reality of this disaster on our back door.
Looks like my delightful friend and fellow blogger, Curt went off the have fun at BioBlitz. Why don't I ever do fun stuff like that? I miss having insects and moths and crickets. I don't see too many of them in my area of WA state. We have the occasional dragonfly, cabbage moth, common house flies, mosquitoes, pill bugs, lots and lots of spiders and bees and wasps.
I remember the first time we took Matt to Kansas, opened the car door to a symphony of crickets, cidadas, frogs, almost deafening. Matt's eyes got wide, looked at me and said "what is that noise?" David and I laughed a little but realized that he was missing something pretty spectacular in his childhood living in the PNW. He is afraid of spiders and I jokingly tell him, don't embarrass me and say that in public. Me, who grew up finding scorpions in my bed and would chase down tarantulas from their holes in the dirt, really am not afraid of any insects.
I forget how loud the night can get with all that activity. How June bugs hang around back porch lights and get stuck in your hair, or land upside down on the ground and spin 'round and 'round trying to fly away. I really like June bugs. I really miss seeing fire flies (or lightning bugs) and can't wait until I can see some again. Of course, I don't miss fire ants, cockroaches and carpenter ants.
Sticking with the "cold weather" theme in the midst of summer ... Race to the End of the Earth Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History looks really interesting.
Snowbound for FotoFest on MediaStorm. "For five long winters, Lisa M. Robinson photographed in snow from New York to Colorado. The resulting color photographs become almost monochromatic in the snow and ice, distilled to their essential parts not unlike the deepest states of meditation." I am thinking people in really hot parts of the U.S. could use this right now. (My sister says, it is really hot in Texas and wants me to come visit -- let's say when it cools down).
My S-I-L sent me this from Hyperbole and a Half, This is Why I'll Never be an Adult and it was so funny because that morning I had just created a little pie chart trying to establish why I feel like a robotic and uncreative. Pathetic little pie chart, huh? ;) Notice, lately Virble has taken over my blogging time. I will stop wasting my time over that little word game!
My very good and talented friend (and former Art Director), Elana Winsberg, has been painting up a storm at Gage Academy of Art. This is a self-portrait for the Best of Gage, which won second in show. She is amazing!
I ironed for two days! Got all of my summer clothes ready and hung up. Gave away even more clothes that I think I can't wear anymore.
I think I have lost my photo mojo when it comes to shooting my flowers. Maybe I am not focusing on them ... just trying to capture a moment. The slugs love these little irises I planted and have almost eaten them to the ground. Slugs have destroyed my Forget-Me-Nots. I need to do more slug-hunting-midnight walks in the yard, where I go out with my flashlight and pruners ... if I see them, they get snipped in half.
Johanna Basford beautiful work, creating The Edinburgh Festival Fringe cover with the help of twitter suggestions, her blog. I love this from her profile - "Inspired by my upbringing on a small fish farm in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland, much of my work has roots in the flora and fauna that I grew up with. My wandering imagination and passion for drawing took me to Art School in Dundee, where I graduated with a first class honours degree in Printed Textiles in 2005."
Our last Big Band Dance at EWHS a couple of weeks ago where Matt sand "You Make Me Feel So Young". (Notice he is looking a little pale). Matt was really lucky to be a part of such a great music program headed up by Mr. Jake Bergevin.
It is the special time of year when the air is filled with that wonderful "cut grass" smell. So I thought I should change out my banner to reflect my mood. ;)
Well, it's not the last song. I think M has a couple of performances during the summer. But as for Jazz performances with EWHS, last night was it. Funny to think of 10+ years of jazz, practicing, arguing about practicing, getting up at 5:30a for 0-hour class, private lessons and performances and now it is all over. Another milestone for D and I to get our heads around.
Extraordinary work of Sylvia Ptak. "The art of Sylvia Ptak is born from an elaborate and indeed almost obsessive desire to produce page after page of writing you cannot read, and to generate clouds of meaning you cannot readily fathom."
Hardball: Matthews proposes volunteerism: "Let me finish: Chris Matthews proposes that Obama create a Civilian Conservation Corps and deploy it in the Gulf, inviting Americans to help clean up the beaches and wetlands affected by the oil spill."
Spring passed me by. Not that I didn't notice the tulips, daffies and crocus. I just didn't manage to get personal with them, document their existence in the world this spring. And now a few little blooms hanging on the Kimberley Lilac bush. Snowballs are littering the grass in a carpet of white petals and I forgot to make myself a big bouquet. There has been so much rain that most flowers are literally melting on the plant. Today, however, is sunny! Peonies are not doing well. The move? The rain and lack of sun? Or I was wondering if my crappy "downer" mood is effecting my flowers? Well, it could happen?
Our family here from Kansas and New Mexico. Kids have prom tonight. M has a final show at the Triple Door on Monday night. Graduation coming up. It all seems to be happening at once ;0
Bri made breakfast and it is time to get on with our busy day.
I saw this little flower and thought about how it opens itself up with a purpose. I want to be like that.
I look for the beauty in nature, patterns, the ordinary. This is my place where I save wonderful discoveries since 2004. Please contact me at kimberlycarney AT hotmail DOTCOM.