i found some more unposted outfits while going through my photos. i got really close to finishing and then i stopped. need to re-gather steam and finish up on that… anywhose!
j. crew cardigan, boots lands end blouse gifted skirt forever21 belt old navy scarf
i’m not certain this outfit ever made it out into the world…
j. crew chambray shirt target skinny jeans converse green high top chuck taylors thrifted purse and tie clip
these were more about my thrifty finds than my double denim outfit. a friend asked me to keep an eye out for a tie clip a while ago, and i finally found one! i actually really liked it on the purse. a tiny detail, for interest! but now my friend has the tie clip, and the purse broke. so…. yeah.
and i’ve been getting the itch…
so…
i think it’s time for:
starting next monday (august 6).
i’ve got some work to do this week, making selections, etc!
anybody care to join me?
i took these pictures right behind a pizza place. one of our favorites, actually. but i don’t recommend this for a few reasons: pizza delivery cars kept zipping in and out, with pizza delivery dudes giving me skeptical looks as i was taking pictures, which totally threw me off my game, and WAY MORE IMPORTANTLY, i took pictures before dinner, and it smelled GREAT. hungry, hungry, hungry. so forgive me if i look a little taciturn.
j. crew blouse, belt ann taylor thrifted blazer target skinny jeans thrifted boots gifted my great-grandma’s necklace
the blog has kind of been getting away from all things fiber-y, but believe me when i say it isn’t intentional. to prove it, here’s a post about only fiber-y things!
this is my current wip (work in progress). it’s a test knit of the ZIG and ZAG cowl for foggyknits! i’m almost done… just a few chevrons away from the length i want it to be!
i stopped by the thrift store the other day, on a quest for a duplicate of the perfect belt for a friend (i found a pretty good one!), and in a little basket right next to the register were these cones of single ply fingering weight yarn, 100% new wool, 1000 yds, for $2. how was i supposed to say no? above is the cornflower blue. below is the bronze-y/split pea soup/chartreuse colored one…
no idea what to do with them. any ideas?
and in other fiber-y news, i’m working on getting the pattern for this hat finalized so i can finally publish it! jill and i met for coffee yesterday, and she was kind enough to use her photographic skillz on me and my hat:
an evening where i see no one but jake.
impromptu dinner dates with friends.
walking around the mall and chatting with my ladies.
fancy cupcakes for a friends birthday.
driving home with the windows down and the music LOUD, preferably with one hand out the window.
finishing a good book and knowing there’s another one waiting.
slow mornings with many cups of coffee.
planned dinner dates with friends!
that song that just feels like summer.
making a recipe you’ve been drooling over for a while, just to find out that it’s just as delicious as you hoped!
i have a stripe problem. i am not alone in this, stripes are in. it feels very enabling to have so many stripey options when i’m just innocently trying to grab some small necessities at target. or when that turns into bathing suit shopping, which most women will agree is a very demoralizing thing to do, and i buy a striped shirt that *does* look cute on me, instead of any of the dozen suits i just tried on that make me feel approximately like a beached whale. and then i remember why i only try to go swim suit shopping once every five years or so… because that’s how long it takes me to forget.
target striped tee, black cardigan j. crew navy toothpick cords lands end strappy sandals
It’s been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.
Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot’s estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth–an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.
But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret–one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she’s lost him forever.
description from goodreads
this book had me at ‘sci-fi adaptation of jane austen’s persuasion’. in fact, that description might have… gotten me a little over-excited. there were several things i liked, and some that fell flat.
while i definitely enjoyed this book from a jane-austen-adaptation standpoint, it raised a lot of interesting and valid questions about the balance of progress and responsibility and never truly answered them.
elliott is a good main character, but kai felt slightly under-developed (“kai is your romantic lead so you must find him dreamy”). at 50 pages to the end i honestly didn’t know how the book was going to wrap up, but when it did, it felt over-simplified and tidy.
while it might sound like i didn’t enjoy this book, that is untrue. i really liked this book, these were just a few points where i felt it didn’t live up to the potential it created for itself.
before i move on, a quick note regarding the cover: in the book, elliott is described as black haired, dark-eyed, and given to tanning very easily. WHO IS ON THE COVER? cuz it ain’t the main character. excuse me while i go grumble to myself about this, but i hate it when they do that…
It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .
Set during World War II in Germany, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.
description from goodreads
it’s fundamentally unfair that the more one enjoys a book, the more difficult it is to write a review. i’ve been meaning to read this for several years, but similar to the fault in our stars, i needed a some ramp up time before reading a book set in nazi germany. what i desire in a book, more than almost anything else, is characters. complex, interesting, well developed, sympathetic characters. and this book provides them by the dozens. the character of death, who acts as narrator, is great in both his familiar approach to things, and at the same time, his very alien perspective, and throughout, his wry voice. i love his role as narrator, as it provides both an interesting frame to the book, and also a little emotional distance at times when that is just what you need to pull yourself together.
i could go on forever about each of the characters, but i’m having a difficult time trying to summarize my feelings on the book. it’s good, guys. it’s very very good. here’s a quote: “I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”
i had a request for a daydream knitting featuring the sweater that gwen stacy was wearing in the same scene that she was wearing her lovely cables, bobbles and eyelets hat:
from state of graceee tumblr (clicky-click picture for the post), which credits just jared as the original source, but i looked & looked for the original to give credit where credit was due but i couldna find tha picture…
image from quatniss tumblr (clicky-click picture for the post).
snowbird by PiPiBird (who both designed it and knit it: ravelry project page, design page)
snowbird would be the pattern i would use as a base for re-creating this cardigan. it would be easy enough to use stockinette, as opposed to the reverse stockinette featured in the body of the knit. the stockinette edging could also easily be swapped out for garter, instead. the only real question is, does gwen stacy’s sweater feature a hood? i can’t be certain, but the pictures do kind of make it look like it does… a quick google search makes it seem like a little math and effort could make it happen, or you could steal some numbers and shaping from any one of these free hooded seamless raglan patterns…
since this is a hypothetical project, upon which i can spend pretend money instead of real money, i might as well say that it would look very close to the original, and quite quite lovely, in brooklyn tweed shelter in the nest colorway, for a nice lofty, tweedy yarn.
i’ve been helping a friend prep for a trip. she will be gone for a month, have many different outfit needs, and is hoping to bring as little as possible. it got me thinking about my basics, my most versatile pieces. and if i needed to limit myself to just one belt, it would without question be the one that i have semi-permanently borrowed from jake:
dear belt: i like you a lot. your deep cognac and brass color combo is surprisingly versatile, your woven band means you can sit comfortably at the natural waist and equally comfortably at the hips. the extra length means i can loop you in fun ways that make me feel fancy. all in all, you are absolutely a WINNER.
tell me, do you feel this way about anything in your closet? are there any fabulously versatile items that i am completely in the dark about?
went out to dinner with the fam the other day and i decided to get a little fancy-dancy. unfortunately pictures didn’t happen til after dark. after dark does not equal primo picture taking.
do you like my outfit?
ok, ok: jk!
anthropologie navy wrap rosette tank thrifted black velvet jacket forever 21 black cami j. crew necklace thrifted delia’s black jeans old navy sandals
i tried some heidi braids, put on some fancy lipstick! i think my heidi braids could use some more practice.
i was very excited when i found this black velvet jacket in the thrift store. i have coveted a velvet jacket for a very long time, and i have a weakness specifically for black velvet… but then it took me a long time to wear it once i owned it. does that ever happen to you? sometimes it just takes a little bit for an item to integrate itself into my wardrobe…
anything you’ve been long term coveting recently sashay into your life?
ifandany 