Captain's Log: Notes While Speeding Through the Galaxy

My friend Ami sent this poem around on Friday and I wanted to share:

Postcard: October 18/01, NYC

On the subway an old

Polish man takes me in charge,

rides two stops past his own

to make certain I find

the right place to get off. When I try

to thank him, he shakes his head

no, forget it. No one, he says,

should be lost when someone else

knows the way.

-Samuel Green

Thanks so much Ami!

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And, since it is the weekend, I thought I would share this post from Purl and A Bee featuring the book Weekend Sewing.

I love everything about the post and the featured photos. Must check out this book!

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Our sump pump gave up on us and thank heaven for good plumbers. I've discovered lots of long lost things {as you do when there is a flood} but mostly they are things that I can let go of to make room for new ideas in my life. I'm realizing the only things I really want to keep are quilts, photographs, books and letters. I can replace the vacuum cleaner, but not the letters between my husband and me or photographs of people I can't call anymore.

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I've had more inquiries than normal for my little photography shop that could which is exciting. I'm relieved to know that even in hard times, people still want to take in and preserve moments from their present lives.

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Our girl fell asleep in her big girl bed all by herself last night. Normally I lay down with her until she falls asleep. {I know, I know.} It was something we've talked about for months. I told her she would know when she was ready and, much like a year ago when she decided to give up her pacifiers, last night she decided she was ready. We tucked her in and she was all giggly with "the friends" comprised of Bear, a baby doll, Curious George, and a small lamb. I'm sure the promise of the Ariel Bath toy she spotted the other day was a great motivator. As we listened for her in our room, I thought about what it sounded like as I fell asleep as a child. I remember blue light from the television down that hall. I remember hearing The Tonight Show theme song and the occasional laugh from one of my parents. I wonder what she will remember: soft yellow reading light, typing keys or turning pages or none of that at all.

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I'm teaching myself how to use Photoshop. Wow. So much to learn. I've put it off for so long thinking that I would rather focus on making each photograph better on its own to limit editing time, but I want to stay in the curve with the industry and see what is out there. I'm loving being able to write on photos. Very cool.




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We are getting excited about a trip to see my parents by the sea. I can almost smell the salty air, a welcomed change from this:


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My husband gets credit for telling me about Andrew Bird years ago. The embedded version below of his song Lull has been in my head for about two weeks now. It just keeps coming back. The video is odd, but interesting. He performed a different version of this song here in Lexington at Woodsongs and you can see that performance here. It's amazing to see how he puts it all together and how it must sound inside his head. I wrote this post listening to it.



Lull- by Andrew Byrd

Being alone, it can be quite romantic
Like Jacques Cousteau underneath the Atlantic
A fantastic voyage to parts unknown
Going to depths where the sun's never shone
And I fascinate myself when I'm alone

So I go a little overboard, but hang on to the hull
While I'm airbrushing fantasy art on a life
That's really kind of dull
Oh, I'm in a lull

I'm all for moderation, but sometimes it seems
Moderation itself can be a kind of extreme
So I joined the congregation
I joined the softball team
I went in for my confirmation
Where incense looks like steam
I start conjugating proverbs
Where once there were nouns
This whole damn rhyme scheme's
Starting to get me down

Oh, I'm in a lull
I'm in a lull

Being alone, it can be quite romantic
Like Jacques Cousteau underneath the Atlantic
A fantastic voyage to parts unknown
Going to depths where the sun's never shone
And I fascinate myself, sure I do
When I'm alone

I'm rambling on rather self-consciously
While I'm stirring these condiments into my tea
And I think I'm so lame, I bet I think this song’s about me
Don't I, don't I, don't I?

I'm in a lull...

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Sorry for the scattered post. I am so behind. Hope everyone is having a restful weekend.

Spring for A Sitter

It is an amazing, haunting film.
The soundtrack is available on itunes for $10 and it is perfect.
I admit that I have had a lifetime crush on so many Indian writers, movies and music, but all crushes aside, this film is special.
We had a rare date night and followed the movie up with a yummy dinner at delicious Masala. The owner told me to tell my friends about it so here you go: Masala. I had samosas and mango juice, tandoori chicken and peshwari naan.
Best I've ever had.

*Caveat: the movie is challenging to watch at times, particularly as a parent. But, it is challenging {I suppose} because it should be.

Leaving the film, we had a conversation about child exploitation. I struggle with how I'm not using my law degree to do anything about it and so many issues I thought I would be working on. I mean look at Ricky Martin - who really does a lot of work in this regard. Maybe that's it: sing your song, do your thing, use your talent in whatever it is that you do and use your resources from your talents to kick some philanthropic ass. I'm working on it.

Swirling In My Heart Today

I watched this TED speech from Elizabeth Gilbert and different things about it keep tumbling around in my mind like fluffy clothes in the dryer.

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My guy bought the new Andrew Bird album Nobel Beast -we are fans- but this album is really something. I love the interview that aired about it this week on NPR's All Things Considered. He speaks about his creative process in such an interesting way. He can experience synesthesia -seeing color in sounds etc.,-I am convinced he's a genius.

The super haunting/inspiring part about it to me was in the interview, when talks about the inspiration behind his first song on the album, Oh No. He said it was inspired by an upset child sitting behind him on an airplane.

"He just kept saying quietly, 'ohhh nooo. ohhhh nooo.'
He was going home and his mom kept saying, 'we're just going home, honey. It's fine.'
And it wasn't this nails on a chalkboard sound, it was actually a really beautiful kind of mourning sound and I was actually kind of envious of this kid.
I guess everyone's feeling that on the airplane, but it would be total anarchy if we all were as expressive as the average 4-year-old."

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We sat at a table this morning at Doodles {my new favorite brunch spot} next to a young guy eating alone, reading the paper. Each time our girl would try to tilt her chair back, he would almost jump up to catch her. We were right there, talked to her about being careful, repositioned her chair and so on, but I felt bad for this guy who was just trying to have breakfast and not worry, but you could tell he couldn't help it. {It reminded me of how I felt going to the beach on my day off when I was lifeguarding at a waterpark. I was constantly scanning and seeing hazards.} He finally told us that he's a pediatric nurse at the children's hospital and it was just habit. He said, "I don't mind even screaming kids. Screaming kids means they are breathing and that they are okay."
It was hard not to hug him.

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We iced them together. Yellow cake + chocolate icing = happiness.

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I picked up this bamboo salad bowl at a local shop, Lucia's, but they sell them online here.

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That's me, I'm told.

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Only 2 more days until M. Ward's album Hold Time is released. If you follow the link, you can preview some of the songs. I've been trying to get my hands on the album's first song called For Beginners for months.

Valentines

My husband brought home several bound volumes of magazines from 1959 {there are perks to dating a guy who knows his way around all of the special collection libraries}. There is nothing hotter than a phone call like this, "hey, I'm in the fine arts library. Can I bring you something?"

SUPER HOT. I embrace my nerdiness.

Anyway, each volume contains an entire year of the publication. I have had the most fun flipping though the pages. My initial goal was to just look at the ads for furniture and decor ideas from 1959 to help refine my searches for stuff for my house, born the same year. But there's a ton of inspiration fodder in each volume.


Tomorrow, these will be due and I'm trading them in for Vogue and the second volume of Mademoiselle for 1959 and maybe Harpers and....you get the idea.


I love this coat. It would be perfect over a suit for work or a dress for dinner. I mean, damn. It's classic, looks like Halston and, according to the ad, could be mine with the assistance of Marty McFly for like 20 bucks or something. I Googled the designer and did an eBay search for it. Nothing. One coat on Etsy, but it's not the same one.


I love this ad from the NYTimes that promises to put readers, "on top of events wherever they are hatching." It reminds me of Eric Carle books. And the newsprint is so clever. It inspires me to make stationary with paper cut outs.


Love the chair behind her and just being immersed in the blue. The ad was for the bedspread for 10 bucks.

This ad was for a raceway. So clever. But it would make a great Valentine if cropped and printed on pale pink card-stock, served in a silver envelope. Yes.




Another Times ad that ran in The New Yorker.

I love the simplicity of this ad and as Bob Ross would say, "the happy little trees."

I photograph weddings from time to time.
This shot is so great and inspires me to do some kicky engagement shots. I've been wanting to shoot a threshold shot for a while and this photo is so great...innocent with an edge.
The text was, "You get the license...I'll get the Lenox," which is a bit ridiculous and you can tell that the license nor the Lenox was on either of their minds.
I like a good cup and saucer myself, but, come on.


I have been searching for this font -or something like it- for a few months. Can' t you just see Teaworthy written in that font? I love it. I wear Philosophy's Falling In Love and the box has a similar font and I obsess about how to get that font inside my Mac so that my voice can sound all fabulous in it.



This ad promises wool to be the best for knitting. I changed the focal point and cut off her head when I photographed it a.) becauseI think it makes it a better ad and b.) because I dig it.
That could be me there knitting.
It could be you.
We could be knitting that for you.
The possibilities are endless.


Where oh where have all of the LaVerne and Shirley "L"s gone?
I love these "L"s.
L is my favorite letter.
Hands down.


Again, cropped the photo.
Such inspiration for a wedding shot.
I WILL shoot something like this this summer.
Very exciting.


From a Chanel ad of course. Thanks Coco.

Here's to magazines, and chocolate, and passion and insight.

And thanks to my guy who has always been able to see and understand the shape of my heart.

Sharing Love

Chocolate covered valentines to all of you -100 per day now- for stopping in and reading. Flowers to those of you who have been brave enough to comment now and then and big shiny diamonds to those of you who include me on your blog roll.

In no particular order, I wanted to share links for those who have been kind enough to include or feature Teaworthy on their site. You can count on these links for inspiration, thoughtful details and most of all, really good people creating the content. Some are friends I have had for years and others are friends I have met here.
Enjoy!

soeurs du jour
cusmyle
off the grid and on the map
Becoming Oneder Woman
The Well Wrought Urn
Grimsaburger
peanut butter and family
Faye Christian Phillips Fine Art
Transactionista
Mountsville, U.S.A.

If Teaworthy is on your blogroll or has been mentioned on your site and I didn't list you here, tell me! Leave your web address in the comments!

Mad Woman

We are finally beginning to thaw out.



After living in this house for six years, it finally hit me {most likely as a result of cabin fever}: my house was built in 1959. My stuff was not.
A-HA!
No wonder I am re-arranging furniture every 6 months to try to get it to fit.

Everything was smaller in 1959.
My over-sized B&N inspired reading chair has no place in this house.

So, I started looking for 1950's modern furnishings that weren't too doctor's officey. Online, they are really expensive. We try to shop locally when we can, and this store here in town is a fabulous place to look at 50's furnishings. The owner is such a delight and genuinely loves her customers and believes in design.
But I can't afford her stuff, either.
It's reasonable, but I like a good bargain. Like 6-pieces-of-furniture-for-less-than-300-bucks-kind-of-bargain.

So, imagine my inner freak-out when I found these pieces at a local vintage shop. They were dusty and scattered all around a warehouse, but I felt like I was like digging up sand dollars. Each piece is small, sturdy and so functional. It is already changing the way we live in the house.

First, I found this 3 x 3 white Herman Miller Eames table for our very tiny kitchen at a true bargain price. We've eaten every meal here and it cost me less than a put-it-together-yourself-Target-special.


I found the chairs too and they look just like these Eames chairs. They are surprisingly comfortable and more importantly, they fit in my house!





I got this table for nothing.




And the coolest 1950s swivel chair that I got for $35 because there is a cigarette burn in the seat. {Of course there's a cigarette burn!} I have never found a comfortable office chair before.
I'm in heaven. I would write more about it, but I realize that I'm starting to sound like Frank Navasky in You've Got Mail going on about his typewriter.

And it's like recycling! My house is so much happier.