thank goodness

Good things equal happiness. Mango lassi, white roses salvaged from the weekly trimmings pile and shoved into a vintage drinking bottle, cheerful sunflowers left over from a Kindergarten art class, and more feathers - a little worse for wear but none the less cherished. I'm nearly finished with my work, it's kind of insane, I'm trying to figure out what I need for New York, and still happy about conversations I had with a cute boy coworker today. I need to take my vitamins and take a shower but there's so much more to do!

friday morning walk

Dear Y,

Today's walk was a fun one, which is why I am sharing it with you. We started off a little later than usual - 7:30, and by this time the sun was kind of peeking out from behind the clouds but it was still comfortably cool. We checked Mr. I's garden, and it looks great! See the flagstone path he's started to put in? Nice new landscaping and he's transitioning into fall veggies. From afar I spotted two other Westies walking so I ran over with BB and their owner chuckled with delight - BB and Max got to meet the Westies Brody and Bentley and it was so cute and fun! Last but not least I spotted these mushrooms and snapped them for you. It was a great mushroom day! But as you can see it was a long walk and the sun was blasting by the time we were done. I can't wait for the next time we get to walk the poopies together!

love,

your sister H

burning at both ends

This morning at work half of my coworkers asked me why I look so tired, and of course there was the obligatory/expected joke of "You're not in school anymore so why aren't you getting enough sleep!" I'm just trying to get my life together and it's hard work you guys! I was too tired even to joke around, so for most of my shift I was half-smiling and trying not to let my mind wander off too much. I did perk up at the giant stalks of brussels sprouts that came in, so I got one and sautéed a couple of the florets as an accompaniment to my pasta for lunch today, once I got home. The sticks are a bunch I salvaged from our olive tree that got a major trimming at the peak of summer. I'm letting them cure and once I'm a little less busy I have something in mind for them. I moved my maidenhair fern outside and it was totally loving it until it got shocked by the cold spell and then fried by the mini-heat wave in the valley and now I am at a loss as to how to save it. Good news is there is a healthy amount of new growth, but a lot of the older growth has pretty much turned into potato chip versions of its old self. Today, so tired was I after work that I whipped off my work shirt and threw on this old army shirt that's a tad too small and awkward for me, solely because it was hanging up in the laundry room. Designated construction wear, methinks. Off to sleep because I have so much left to do and am in need of energy to do it.

smithy's delight

Tiny lock from Etsy; three vintage keys; Mjölnir - Thor's hammer; a teeny penknife; bronze claw.

While waiting for things to render on my computer today I lazily took a photo of my necklace, which prompted me to grab five of my favorite pendants to chronicle here. I'm not at the point where I get excited by diamonds or precious gemstones, I've never cared much for cheesy nameplate jewelry, and I really really despise cheap metal... I think the horror of seeing my skin stained green from crappy bracelets or rings made me realize there's nothing good about cheap jewelry. Costume jewelry is fun to collect but I rarely ever wear it. I guess I like simpler statement pieces that aren't too flashy. A couple of these are found objects - the lock, penknife and keys were all flea market/Etsy finds. I think I wore the penknife for like all of last year, and annoyingly had to be careful with wearing it when traveling, but since I've amassed a small collection of non-TSA-threatening jewelry since then I'm in the clear. Thor's hammer I found at a flea market and was super excited about - it's pewter and heavy and has its own awesome chain! The claw was a gift from my sister a few years ago and I wore that constantly before the penknife. Lately it's the mini lock and keys. I like the weight and the jingling. This was a random post yes, but for me it was a nice break from the grindstone!

from the archives: rooftop dawn

These are from October 2008. I think Dan and I wandered all night shooting with tungsten film and in the morning we ended up on one of the parking structure rooftops off Figueroa and Exposition. I got some great shots that night which explains why these digital ones aren't anything special, other than a slight reminder of the adventures that were had.

from the archives: moustache kitties

These were taken September 14, 2008 in the arts district during an afternoon spent frolicking around with my sister and Dan. I don't remember why we were there. All I recall is that we were having fun just checking out the abundance of graffiti all over the buildings and streets and then we heard a mewling... and we looked up and saw kitties! In one out of focus shot I omitted, a tiny tabby appears next to the big moustache kitty, but my focusing skills were sub-par and I ruined the shot.

One more that I shot on my Nikon FE using daylight slide film. Even though the kitties don't show up so well I like the overall mood much more than the digital shots.

old habits

My nights of late consist of reading with a cup of tea or a drop of whiskey bedside, then pulling out my little 'desk' which is just a flat wooden box that used to hold six bottles of wine and scribbling away letters to friends until my eyelids are heavy and my head begins to droop. I have many dreams that have yet to be realized, but I have to pull myself away from dreaming to let those dreams materialize.

autumn is calling

Today was rather cool, though not quite crisp for Southern California... autumn is on its way!

1. The leaves of Pyrus calleryana (Callery pear, cultivar Bradford) always excite me when I see them scattered on sidewalks. I still remember back in high school one day when my biology teacher brought in a box of them to show us and he even let us take some home. They're so pretty, they're like the jewels of any/all of the deciduous leaves I've ever seen on the west coast.
2. Temporary little workspace... a wine box covered in a pillowcase atop another wooden box perched upon a metal toolbox. Great for letter-writing/doodling/pondering and holding mugs of tea!
3. Chrysanthemums! The tiny neon green ones are my favorite because they are so crazy yet modest. Mums are cheap and last forever too. One stem each in its own teeny glass bottle and when I roll over to face the window in the morning they're there to greet me.
4. Some thrifting finds from last week. I should be saving my money for my New York trip, but after realizing that it'll be colder there I've been searching for better layering options. I got these after watching Pierrot Le Fou one night, which features a lot of primary color-blocking so in a weird way I thought I could have been subliminally influenced by the film's color palette. But I think it was really just a fun coincidence!

So... happy fall! I helped put in a giant beam for a wall today, it was 700 pounds but we used a crank to hoist it up, and then for fun I got hoisted up on it too but was too scared to swing from the beam. My sister is home for the weekend but she got a wisdom tooth yanked today so she's a little incapacitated/groggy and eating only mushy things. I was very tired today and lost steam halfway throughout the day, which is strange because I was getting OVER my cold. To bed early now I suppose.

entomology

Some shots of BUGS that I got all summer (some are blurry, some are repeats). I thought I had more, but I think I'm confusing those bug sightings with the times I did not carry a camera. I had fun drawing some of these bugs from my pictures because they move too quickly in real life, er, except for the dead ones. The green one is a funny one because every time I see one around a Hispanic friend, they'll exclaim and say that as kids they used to tie strings around these buggers and fly them around outside. And every time I ask them what they're called they'll shrug and go "Dunno!" The name of that green beetle has eluded me for years...! The crimson dragonfly is a summertime favorite, I always used to see them zipping around our backyard when we still had a papyrus plant growing. Also my Westies are either smart for eating bugs as an additional source of protein or just silly and don't know any better - Maxie snaps at bees and has eaten a couple without stinging himself, and he snaps at flies too. BB is a bit more subtle but I know she has downed a bug or two after hunting them down..

I want to live in outer space

Spotted these Replogle globes at the GCC swap meet last week! I got both for $5, and for their beat-up conditions I couldn't really complain. I've been on the hunt for a moon globe forever... I passed on one several months ago that was going for $40; when I asked the vendor if she could go a little lower she snapped at me, so I thought it'd be wisest to move on. Both moon and celestial globe are dented and missing their stands but I'm content to peruse them anyway and let them roll around in my room. I'm enjoying finding my favorite constellations on the celestial globe and seeing what other constellations are in relation to one another, and I had no idea there was a place on the Moon named Julius Caesar. Oh the things we can know!

ginger tea

I caught a cold at work and have been thoroughly miserable for the past two days even though it's just a wimpy little cold. It started off as a tickle in the throat, to a general boy-I-feel-shitty-I-wonder-why, and when it took me a little longer to stock the wall of salads and vegetables I knew I had caught something. I went home and feeling crappy just took some more Zicam and went to sleep, glad to have the day off the next day. On my day off I felt a little better but by early afternoon was slammed with a pounding headache and maybe a slight fever? I got some ginger root, sliced it up and put it in a pot of water to simmer on the stove. After 20 minutes or so I turned off the heat, poured some into a mug, squeezed some honey into it and chugged it into the evening. Tasty! I still didn't feel that great so I called in sick for the next day (today) but I am already feeling tons better, probably from the ginger tea, Zicam, and a bit of apple cider vinegar mixed into water. Being weird and trying not to take... conventional medicine. I'll save the hardcore stuff for flu season.

estate sale finds

Two Saturdays ago I went out at 7 am to walk the dogs with my mom. Innocently enough towards the end of the walk, we rounded a corner and saw a sign that read: "Estate Sale --- house #, street, Saturday 8AM." We could already see people lined up in the driveway of said house, so when we got back home I grabbed my wallet, hopped into the car and went back to the house. My mom had to stay behind to supervise the trimming (read: maiming) of our kumquat/orange tree as some friends were coming over at 8 with a chainsaw to get the job done, but she sent me a text saying "Buy something because you want it, not because it is cheap... and be aggressive!" I arrived at the house and got in line and then, stifling a yawn looked up and saw a coworker, the sign artist at my store as she smiled at me and said 'Hey!' Funniest thing ever because only two days before we had been talking about estate sales and thrifting and she had told me all about selling vintage wares at her Etsy shop and her favorite 'secret' secondhand stores. Running into her therefore wasn't really a surprise, but it was still an 'oh!' moment and that's what made the whole experience fun right off the bat. The former owner of the house had been a teacher, so there were tons of amazing old things to go through...

1 & 2 - Gift wrapping paper! I got the whole lot for a dollar. I am particularly attached to the astronauts in outer space graphics, but when I look at all of them they pretty much all take my breath away.
3 - Card stock coins I think for learning how to count money. Fun! Not quite vintage but they came in an old box that I was happy to tuck away.
4 - Super sturdy steel box that now houses important documents.
5 - Hand-cut letters with felt backing - a spelling implement I guess. All of which came in handy for setting up my new blog header!
6 - Woven leather slip-on flats. $5. A new favorite that I think I'll wear out in no time.
7 - Southwestern bandanna. I gave this to my sister but forgot to actually give it to her, so it has been hanging up in my window until I do get it to her. I like how the light streams in through it.
8 - A bunch of children's books - Frog and Toad, Rumpelstiltskin illustrated by Edward Gorey, a book about a Scottie, a first edition of Where the Wild Things Are.

I also got a boxed ream of typewriter paper, a sweet little dragon stuffie, and six Pyrex containers for my mom. I will show the dragon another time! It was a very exciting Saturday, and the best part is that it was all spontaneous. I love when that happens...!