Saturday, July 21, 2007

we pause now for system identification

brief history of the past week or so.

july 12. trying to print form for school. failure to print. computer crashes. manual shutdown. hard drive crashing. computer refuses to reboot. computer rushed to help desk at school. two hours spent attempting to recover lost data. tearful breakdown over phone with husband in shanghai in front of nice undergraduate help-desk people. panic attack. photos from previous year of research possibly lost. self-loathing for being computer illiterate. new thinkpad x60s ordered with student discount.

july 13. stumbling toward houston. panic.

july 14. bastille day. watching 'harry potter and the order of the phoenix'. not bad.

july 15. hot humid thunderstorms. houston galleria wanderings.

july 16. hot humid bored. driving around. photos.

july 17. houston metropolitan center at the public library.

july 18. more library research. mom's 60th birthday.

july 19. library. attempt to attend houston midtown redevelopment authority urban planning meeting. tangle of freeway interchanges make me hopelessly lost. arrival 15 minutes late only to be told there is no such meeting scheduled.

july 20. new laptop arrives. attempts to get online. abject failure. email to rightful tenant for help. watching 'ratatouille'. pixar's rendering capablities strike me dumb.

july 21. midnight. borders bookstore. waiting 1.5 hours for copy of 'harry potter and the deathly hallows'. reading until 7am. falling asleep for 3.5 hours. research at the library and furtive use of free internet. realization that new laptop lacks word processing program. downloading open office.

books read so far:

middlesex, jeffrey eugenides
little women, louisa may alcott
the ivory tower, unfinished novel by henry james
redwall, brian jacques
the wind up bird chronicle, haruki murakami
harry potter and the deathly hallows, j.k. rowling
atonement, ian mc ewan

reading:
the blind assassin, margaret atwood

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Louis Boston summer sale

i am weeping as i type this post....louis boston's 50% off everything sale starts tomorrow morning. i'm not allowed to go within 200 ft of that building. did i mention i bought my beloved tom scott sweater at stel's? (pre-sale love)

i can only imagine what lovely dries van noten tops will be waiting for me. mayle. annelore. dare i say it? marni. and shoes. repetto, loeffler randall, marni, and more marni.

i'm leaving for houston on friday at 6am. i don't pray very often (bad catholic), but i did pray that the louis sale wouldn't begin until after i left. god clearly hates me. now i'm going to prove him and everyone wrong by not going to the sale tomorrow morning (and by go, i mean staking out the joint at 9am, sabotaging other shoppers, fueled by many shots of espresso, waving my lone credit card in the air).

instead, tomorrow i will bake this swedish visiting cake from Je Mange la Ville's website. my adviser and his partner invited me up to Rowley for steamed lobster tomorrow night, and i want to bring something nice for them. hopefully it won't come out a disaster! i'm not very domestic. i'm much better at shopping.


(www.jemangelaville.com)

shopping online and being lazy


the new website for stel's is finally up! i'm a huge fan of dropping by their shop on newbury st., but i'm also a compulsive late-night and early-morning shopper/browser. having shopped at too many different places in boston, i have to say that stel's is the only shop i feel committed to. i really appreciate their intelligence and willingness to work with you. in contrast, there's a particular shop on newbury that carries interesting designers, but i can't stand being there for longer than a minute. i swear they've trained the salespeople to suggest at least one item to every customer, regardless of their interest. that's called pushing a product and moving inventory. i've worked retail, i understand what they're doing. but a huge part of selling is listening and reacting to your customer's expressed needs.

anyway, stel's carries many reliable labels (a.p.c., acne, united bamboo) that are otherwise difficult to find in this city. but what i like most about this store is that they carry things i would never have considered trying on. most of the time i fall back on my favorite labels, but once in awhile i surprise myself (e.g. the paperbag waist acne skirt). so, i'm really excited that they offer online shopping now. the brick and mortar experience is always preferable, but if you don't live in the area.... i also hear that Impulse (my west coast favorite) is launching online shopping next year. their blog is fantastic and addictive, so i can only imagine what their new site will be like.

the site i'll be visiting while in houston for the next three weeks:
www.stelsinc.com

Monday, July 09, 2007

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

some art things in the living room





blanket update


i have a bad feeling that it's going to be extremely heavy and very warm. i'll have to buy more yarn on friday. i think those are my colors for now.

nili lotan hoodie dress


matthew ordered this dress from Barneys. i wasn't sure which color i wanted because their website only had one pattern sample posted. silly Barneys. so he ordered what he thought was the right one.



well, as much as i like the blue-grey plaid, i really wanted the black and white/tan one after all. so i returned it to the Barneys in Copley Square. i'm so pleased with this dress. it has pockets and a nice big hood. i'm going to love wearing it with a long sleeved shirt, tights, and boots in the fall.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

puffer fish



a specimen from Manfredo Settala's Wunderkammer (what would it be in italiano?)
http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2006/03/settalas-wunderkammer.html

change of scenery



i've moved into the small room for the summer. a subletter (and former student of mine) is living in my big room and taking care of the cats while i'm traveling. so now my mirror is homeless. i haven't found a good place for taking full-length shots of my outfits, so for now i'll sit a little awkwardly on my couch.

theory striped cashmere sweater--$80
j crew bermuda shorts--$50 really need to find something else to wear, but these are perfect for cycling
mayle sandals--$150? they were on sale last summer. i can't recall how much i paid. the horror!
cat toys--$5

Monday, July 02, 2007

if it's not clothing, it doesn't count?

Lena Corwin pillow--$55 from http://www.lenacorwin.com/


Saltwater Sandals in white--$29.99 (http://www.gotleather.com/)

Camilla Engman, "The Close Season", acrylic/board--$1200 from Junc Gallery (no, i didn't actually buy this, but i really wish i could)

Port2Port Press collaboration with Camilla Engman--$16 from http://www.port2portpress.com

Ann Wood bird--Liberty



i saw the Joseph Cornell retrospective at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem last month with matthew. it reminded me of how crafts-oriented i used to be in high school and college. my rooms were always filled with odds and ends ready for collages or decoupage. when i decided to finally put my Ann Wood bird in a safe display space, i realized i lacked the materials for decorating its box. i managed to find some glue and an old issue of Nature magazine from the 20s that i bought at a flea market last month. thank goodness for ikea's cheap shadow boxes.

i'm not sure if the liberty fabric looks quite 'right' with the background, but it'll do for now. oh, and Liberty is standing on 'grass' that i collaged from small snippets that i found in various martha stewart wedding issues. it's amazing how hard it is to find large swath of grass depicted in magazines. people are always standing on it.

progress


it's not perfect, but i'm learning. i'm a terrible stitch counter. for a month or two, my counting went like this: "one, two, three, four, five, six, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen, fifteen. . ."

the most exciting thing about crocheting is that i'm really spending the time to understand how these stitches are constructed, rather than following a routine.

at the rate i'm going, this blanket is going to cost me $300 in yarn. serves me right for only buying wool/alpaca blends. i'm trying to justify it as an (imperfect, one-time only) heirloom piece. i hope i finish it.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

everybody knows this is nowhere


J Crew striped cardigan--$35, marked down from $60
Built By Wendy babydoll camisole--$70, marked down from $140
J Crew bermuda shorts--$50
Worishofer wedge sandals--$60

listening to: Neil Young with Crazy Horse "down by the river--i shot my baby--dead. . ."

white sandals




yesterday morning i learned that a.p.c. was having its summer sale. their white flat sandals had been marked down to $167. for reasons that still make me unhappy, i didn't buy them at that moment. a few hours later they were sold out in my size.

the Devotte sandals look promising, but they might be uncomfortable for someone who rarely wears heels of any sort. also, they're $288.

the saltwater sandals are the least fancy of the bunch, but they only cost $30. thanks to Lena Corwin's blog for posting on these shoes. i had never heard of them before, but they look comfortable.

i don't know why i suddenly decided i needed white sandals, but now it's become my new idee fixe.