Some Summer Things...

I toyed with the idea of calling this post "Some Summer Essentials", but "essentials" somehow felt a bit too dramatic to me, as really the only thing that comes close to qualifying as a true essential for getting through summer in Texas is a place to swim (thankfully we have that covered this year) and access to a rockin' AC...

But (while not technically essentials), there are a few things that are making me a lot happier this summer, so I thought it would be fun to share them with you guys. Here goes.

• Loads of Reading Material -- For me, summer is the season of reading. Usually I skew toward light stuff during the hot months (a groaning stack of decor magazines, Bossypants), but in an attempt to stay honest to my "get smart" resolution from back in January, I just subscribed to Newsweek (I love that Tina Brown) and Vanity Fair (it boasts lots of smart, detailed articles in between the all the froth). I also just started Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad and can't put it down.


• Trish McEvoy Lipgloss in (I'm cringing as I write this) "sexy" -- A really excellent shimmery nude lipgloss... + it stays on forever and isn't sticky (not an easy feat).


• Iced Green Tea -- I have no particular brand allegiance, but I just picked up the green & white tea from Stash at Whole Foods, and I'm quickly becoming hooked. It's just more mellow than standard green tea. I make a big pitcher to keep in the fridge every few days.


• Limes -- In everything...sparkling water, plain water, beer, gin and tonics (ideally with extra lime). I buy an embarrassing amount of limes at the store each week. I'm pretty certain that the check-out guy thinks I'm crazy.


• A Summer Bag -- I like to carry a bag in the summer that can withstand our increased mayhem... I've been going back-and-forth between my L.L. Bean hunter's tote bag and my newly acquired Proud Mary diamante tote.


• One Love Organics Multi-Balm -- I'm a little bit addicted to this magical stuff. I use it on my legs, under my eyes, on the girlie's cheeks, on wispy flyaways, on our feet. It's amazing...truly.
  


• Jo Malone Sweet Lime and Cedar Body Oil -- (Again with the lime.) This is my summer go-to in lieu of perfume, as covers fragrance and moisturizer in one step. It also gives a little sheen (but not shimmer), which is nice.
  


• Solar Recover -- Being in the pool/sun as much as we are has resulted in some crazy dry skin, so we are literally blowing through this stuff. I keep it in the fridge and just spray the whole family down after our baths. Plus it's got this groovy kind of hippie vibe going on, which I'm pretty partial to.


• Elizabeth Dehn Face Spray -- Michelle sent this my way a while back, and I'm using it all the time. It's just really lovely and refreshing and makes my face look all happy and glowy (as opposed to sweaty and sad, which is how it usually looks in the summer).

So...Is there anything making you particularly happy of late?

Conran's Wisdom...

I tend to be pretty preoccupied with the general idea of "creating a home." (Those of you that regularly visit this space are probably {maybe painfully} aware of this fact, as I talk about it an awful lot.)

I'm guessing (I have a strong propensity toward self-diagnosis) that it probably has something to do with having moved so many times as a child. The constant sense of motion during my formidable years might have instilled in me a sort of amped-up nesting instinct, a driving desire to create a space that at once feels safe and welcoming and warm and cozy and decorated and so on...



image from The House Book via Pink Shirts and Carwrecks

Every once in a while I reprimand myself a bit for this obsession. It is just a house, I reason, maybe I shouldn't think so freakin' much about it... But then I stumbled upon this quote by Terence Conran over on Apartment Therapy:


Having a warm home that looks good and works well, and that you and your family and friends enjoy must be one of the most worthwhile things in life – the foundation of a good life…

Terence Conran’s “The House Book” (1977)


And after reading it, I got all "fist pumpy" (and maybe a little bit righteous) about my house obsession (or at minimum I felt less guilty about the whole enterprise)...

I especially appreciated just how uncomplicated Conran makes this act of creating a home feel -- "having a warm home that looks good and works well". So basic and yet monumental in its potential. And honestly, getting to that state is probably as much (if not more) about home-keeping as it is about wallpaper and vases and couches and art. There is something essential about respecting your home enough to tend to it every day*, so that, in a sense, acts like wiping down the counters, smoothing the sheets, cleaning a window, setting out a vase of flowers feel like little displays of affection toward the very space that's creating "the foundation for my good life."

I will remember this next time I'm facing a mountain of bath towels that need to be folded. I will.


* as a side note, I spotted Karen Maezen Miller's 10 Tips for a Mindful Home over on One Love Organics yesterday and had another little fist pump moment...So simple and basic but so totally right on.

Loving...

This sweet trio at Page Appel's wedding -- pretty much the dreamiest little flower girls ever...



This perfect little scene -- the sort of tribal compote + pears, the black marble table, the french press coffee (not to mention the couch and pillows)... (Image Charles Mellersh via Remodelista.)



Curtains as art... (Via Litenjoern)



My friend Christine's fantastic cards (created for an even more fantastic cause...the power of blogging and friendship at it's very, very best.)



Bradley L. Bower's crazy cool "PaperWhite" vase -- it feels a bit like the cousin of those curtains above, yes? (Image from Design Milk via Color Collective.)



Sisters. This photo makes me feel simultaneously anticipatory and melancholy...I can't wait to (hopefully, oh God I hope) see the girlies like this one day. But I want the time between now and then to feel vast. I love them little...but I can't wait to see them big. Is that strange? (Image via The Sartorialist spotted amidst Michelle's crushes.)



Stunning work from Vince Contarino... (via What She Has Found)



This immensely lovely 17-year old subject of Jeana's latest Closet Visit. I love how sort of perfectly appropriate she looks.

Some Scenes From The Weekend...

sweet pencils, necklace and long "tutu" skirt from Minikin...she is obsessed with that skirt.

Lots of outdoor fun this weekend...snowcones and splashing in fountains, loads of swimming, some yard work (or Bryan planting things while we floated around watching him...sweet husband) + two poolside dinners with family and friends.

But the best part of the weekend was a discovery we made on Sunday morning over breakfast... It started with a decision to make a proper family breakfast (blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and fresh fruit). We set the table outside, under our big shady tree, with cloth napkins and ate our meal, leisurely, to the stylings of Milt Jackson. Mid-way through breakfast, Audrey looked up and said, "It feels like we're having friends over, only it's just us." In other words, it felt special.

We entertain a lot. One of my favorite things is having friends over for a meal...turning on music, figuring out what to cook (or order), lighting candles, setting out fresh flowers and a little bowl of mixed nuts and some drinks. I love it. I love to host. But I've found the more we have friends over, the more I tend to "phone it in" with our own family -- it's easy to skimp on effort when it's just me, Bryan and the girlies.

Audrey's comment reminded me of how important is it to make the times when it's just the four of us feel as relevant and valid and special as the times when we invite friends into our home. It might mean we entertain less so we can create more family "moments", but I think it's worth it, yes?

Blogger's Favorites -- Jaime of Found While Walking

I am immensely inspired by Jaime Rugh...

I'm inspired by her thoughtful, soulful, beautifully quiet blog, Found While Walking; I'm inspired by how she's committed to observing her surroundings...to exploring and then cataloging them, and I'm inspired by her art -- weavings, paintings and collage as a sort of homage to what she stumbles across in the natural world. (I am a lucky owner of one of her small weavings and I can say they are truly magical.)

I've also loved getting to know Jaime a bit through a budding e-mail friendship...she's funny and kind and committed to her family (hugely admirable qualities). So I'm thrilled that she agreed to give us a peek into her world. Her list makes me want to go on an early morning nature walk this weekend in an attempt to uncover our own surprises.

So without further ado, herewith Jaime's favorites. Enjoy and have a fantastic weekend!





Surprises -- As an artist who uses walking to inspire/inform my work, I'm always looking for the unexpected. Sometimes there is a side of me that gets a thrill out of being sneaky and leaving surprises about for my children to discover. Small things. Unexpected things. Seashells hidden in our soil sorts of things. I love when they run screaming to me like they have just found a rainbow.





Warmth- Sunshine, Blankets, Flowers. -- I'm all about warmth and sunshine! When there's no sunshine, I want blankets, and when blankets aren't needed, I hunt for flowers. I'm finding that small vases all over the place, (even if with only a single blossom) make a home feel nice. I also like big piles of stacked textiles in assorted sizes. Blankets for cool days, blankets for sick days, scarves to wrap baby dolls in. Some of my favorite textiles are from: Les Indiennes, and I love Sophie Digard's crocheted scarves or seeing what Jen Jones has found.



Learning New Tricks -- Maybe it's the endless possibilities floating around online, but I'm feeling that it's still possible to learn, master even, new tricks of the trade. Learning to garden, thinking about propagating plants, finally sorting out how to crochet, mastering bread baking . . . it's kind of amazing to me all the things I still want to discover.



Letter Writing -- I love handwritten letters and writing on Gwen Frostic's papers always feel right. (image via here)



This Agnes Martin video





Roy McMakin -- We thought a good amount about Roy McMakin's art, furniture and architecture prior to moving into our home over three years ago. It seemed like a good marriage of the old and the new, well suited for my old tastes and Jeff's newer ones. We loved the oversimplified forms, his use of color and slight pull from the traditional. Upon moving in, living and fixing up the unexpedected's, I thought we forgot about his influence. But in looking at some pictures taken around our home recently, like the one above, I realize, we must have subliminally never lost the inspiration. (image via here)



The Magic Gardens, Philadelphia, PA -- One of my favorite places in Philadelphia is Isaiah Zagar's Magic Gardens on South Street. This man has been mosaic tiling the neighborhood, floor to ceiling, every inch, since the late 1960's. It's Folk Art heaven.



Dries van Noten Shoes -- It was sort of gutsy of me to buy these shoes back in 2004. Sure, they were on sale, but really, where did I think I was going? I'm not much a high heels girl, but still I couldn't say no. They're embroidered after all! Unbeknownst to me, I was pregnant with my first child the day I bought them. And like they say, my feet grew and changed and by the time nine months passed, there was no way these shoes would actually ever fit. I still wear them though. It's torture, but I love them too much.



Gemstone Jewelry -- I don't have any of her pieces but I love Margaret Solow's simple jewelry like these necklaces above.



I do collect Gemstone chip bead strands from local bead shops and restring them into necklaces. I like that they're just randomly selected and strung- tigers eye, red goldstone, serpentine, amethyst and so on; such pretty natural assortments. And the best part is they're so inexpensive that when children pull or I get caught on something while gardening, I don't worry too much if the necklace pops and has to be restrung.



Women & Flowers -- For years I've been collecting images of women working, specifically engaged in craft: sewing, printmaking, basketry and such. As a former florist, I've more recently been grouping images of women who work with or are among flowers and I keep a small series on my site called Women & Flowers.



Things our Mothers Made -- I'm always peaking around my friends homes for handmade art. Snooping, I admit. My friend Victoria has some gorgeous prints and doodles made by her artist mother. I recently found some nice drawings my mother made when she was a teenager, underneath my old bed. I took this one above to get framed and it looks so nice in our dining room.



Children in Nature -- Nothing more beautiful to me than kids in nature.

Two Outfits (Deconstructed)...

I'm a bit of a creature of habit when it comes to outfit construction. My childhood dream was to go to a private all-girls school, not for the promise of a top-notch education but because I could wear a uniform. Bliss.

I do try; but not wearing the same thing every day takes a concerted effort, and when I just can't pull it off I tend to rely on "mixing-up" my accessories to create the illusion of change (even if I've actually been wearing the same black shirt or dress, or pants for three days running...thus my love of a good necklace).

But lately I've sort of flipped my strategy a bit and instead of mixing up the accessories, I've been mixing up the clothes (!) and keeping the extras consistent. (First the red lipstick, now this...I'm livin' la vida loca here friends). This week's outfits (a twofer!) are an example of my daring new approach...or they're just evidence of my immense fondness for the turquoise necklace and slouchy hobo bag. You decide. ;-)

p.s. -- I'm giving you a glimpse of the "double denim".








The Details...

Outfit One:
Dress -- C&C California
Wedges -- Marc Jacobs
Snakeskin Hobo -- Bought from a friend
Turquoise Necklace -- Simply Livly

Outfit Two:
Chambray Shirt -- J. Crew
Jeans -- Gap
Shoes -- Givenchy
Snakeskin Hobo -- Bought from a friend
Turquoise Necklace -- Simply Livly