Winner’s Kiss– Fell in love with this series, Marie Rutkoski’s writing, Kestrel and Arin! I started reading it in February, thinking that the third one was coming out March 1st. I finished the second one completely exhilarated and desperately wanting the third one, congratulating myself on timing that out so well… Only to find out that the release date is actually at the end of March, not the beginning. *sigh* I’m a sucker for this kind of thing: you can play Bite & Sting online! It’s a game played in the books that seems kind of… mah jong meets poker to me? Expansive world building is the best!
The work of Natalie Stopka: Natalie is a bookbinder, natural dyer, and marbler (or suminagashi, if you feel like getting fancy about it). I LOVE her work. She makes beautiful books, and ribbons and marbled silk scarves. She has a heavy emphasis on natural dyes, some of which she grows herself. Her bound books are amazingly beautiful. The one pictured above was a copy of The Plant-Lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare by Henry Ellacombe (doesn’t he sound like a Jane Austen character?) whose binding was falling apart. So she took it apart, resewed the binding, and created a new cover: “I laid out the cover in formal symmetry as a nod to the embroidered books gaining popularity during Shakespeare’s time, as well as Elizabethan era garden design with its symmetric ‘thick-pleached alleys.’ Each quadrant depicts a plant prominent in Shakespeare’s writing (and thus Ellacombe’s) of particular symbolic meaning: honeysuckle, calendula, burdock, and rose, as well as a pansy on the spine. The linen book cloth as well as embroidery threads and headbanding silk were each naturally dyed with plants foraged in upstate New York. These include oak and birch leaves, apple and cherry barks, and willow fronds.”
Have you ever heard of anything so lovely as that? Her work makes me swoony.
I was wandering around Madewell the other day wishing I was a millionaire so I could just buy one of everything (okay just half, but still). They have this lovely drapey blouse in several different fabrics that I loved. It looks so breezy and comfortable and summery. It strikes me that I can probably raid my grandpa’s closet for really nicely worn in button downs, chop off the sleeves at about 6″, and roll them up for a similar look!
I’ve been contemplating and working up to this purchase for a good six months, and I had some leftover money on a Sephora gift card, so I finally took the plunge and bought myself a Naked 2 palette by Urban Decay! The result is that I’ve been excited enough to actually put on makeup before leaving the house recently. I doubt that trend will last very long, but I’m really chuffed to have it. It’s such a great line up of neutrals, I don’t think I’ll need to buy eyeshadow again for years.
I can’t pinpoint exactly when it happened, but somewhere around the same time that I started dreaming about making changes to the bedroom, I also became mildly obsessed with plants as a part of decorating. You can definitely see the impact in my home oriented pinboard. I’m slowly buying plants and working to make them thrive. My donkey tail succulent and jade plants are doing just fine, and I finally found a string of pearls, but it isn’t quite as happy… I’m hoping it’s just adjusting? Cross your fingers for me!
Unrelated, and deserving of its own blogpost, I’m doing a remix! If you want to follow along in real time, check out my instagram.
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