aquamarine

I guess I'm a sucker for underwater shots. This makes my resolve for the weekend official:
Haircut.
Clean apartment.
Swim outdoors.
Photos by Jessica Peterson.

because I'll forget if I don't write it down

I think I am long overdue for a positivity post to appreciate those little things in life that have been keeping me buoyed. I'll admit, I've had a rough time accepting and accommodating myself to the frantic pace of my new responsibilities and their demands on my time and energy. My absence here has been just one of the many symptoms of that strain.

It's becoming increasingly important for me to recognize the bits that are oh so very good, and to just let go of the bits that are causing me stress.

The good:
The cool, autumn-like weather we had last weekend. Time spent in the park with my nieces and nephews, on swingsets, among Ferris wheels and carousels, feeding the ducks in the pond. Eating potato salad and potato chips.
Cameron coming home after just a little bit of time away.
Traveling to small towns across the state. Quaint, historic Main Streets. Little book stores and bike shops and pizza parlors. Long drives through national forests and red rock and canyon country. Long stretches of farmland and desert.
Accomplishing small victories I feared were impossible. Almost daily.
The last weekend of "summer," spent here and here. Camping and hiking and taking along the digital, Diana, and Polaroid cameras.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on the little iPod video screen, and TAL on the long car ride home, always.
Cameron starting school this week, and the sinking heartbreak this time of year gives me that reassures me at least I know where I belong.

And because this list needs a little visual "pop," some recent Flickr favorites.

by clumsybird

by somethingshidinginhere

by dominicube

I'm very sad this year to see the summer slipping away.

transitions

The last weekend in July, I carved some space for myself to soak in the summer, gathering a bunch of my favorite little bits of the season and using them to prepare for my new venture. I am a big fan of conscious transitions, the kinds of metaphorical deep breaths that get you ready for a big change. I am also a big fan of meaningful celebrations, tailor-made to suit your feelings surrounding that particular moment. This moment, for me, was bittersweet; I felt accomplished and excited, and calm in my approach to mentally prepare, but sad to leave behind many elements of these past few months. The day I had in mind for this occasion was light and carefree and spontaneously pulled together from a few of my favorite things: blueberry pancakes, fresh wildflowers and produce, a picnic lunch, sunscreen, inflatable rafts, my Diana camera, and a mountain lake.

We started off at the Farmers Market, our first and only visit this season, where I indulged myself with a bouquet of flowers from a little local farm in Ogden. Aren't they lovely? Part of this bundle, dried, will be on my new desk at work.


Then, we loaded up the Diana for the first time with a fresh pack of film and headed to East Canyon State Park to float and splash in the water and make a picnic out of our market food. We bought a Coleman one-person raft for ten dollars on sale...and successfully used it as a floater for two.

beauty & the natural world

Every summer, Cameron goes on a long backpacking trip with his dad, brother-in-laws, and anyone else who wants to join them. I would have liked to have gone with them this year - I like to kid myself into thinking I could handle it - but couldn't take the time off work. So, after he left early this morning, I tracked down a CD of his of images from a trip from years past (2006)...just to remind myself of how much beauty he's likely to have been surrounded by today and what I have to look forward to hearing about when he returns home Tuesday. I can say that I tried on his almost-fully-packed backpack last night (about 40 pounds) and am officially impressed by the feat. Isn't he lucky to be able to experience this?








I'm a little jealous, and will be a little lonesome, but am grateful for the time to catch up on some major to-dos. And Cameron and I are still committed to completing a mini-backpacking trip together this year before the weather turns too cold - my first little attempt at the sport.
(To clarify, these images are from Wind Rivers, Wyoming, but they go somewhere different every year. This summer, they're headed to Red Castle in the Uinta Mountains.)

Craft Lake City

Yesterday was the first annual Craft Lake City. I'd been looking forward to it for weeks, and Cameron even postponed a backpacking trip to come with me. We were not disappointed.

Photo by Triplesee, the talent behind Cavalcade crafts.

SLUG Mag organized the whole thing, and put out this adorable cover last week designed by Gentry Blackburn.

I'd been waiting for the chance to find local Utah printmakers, silkscreeners, jewelrymakers, knitters, and assorted craftsters all in one place. I snatched up business cards and scribbled notes as I went along - and now, thanks to the internet, I have a handy guide to all my favorites for future gifts and purchases. The following are some of my faves.


Claire Taylor's adorable booth, filled with little animal prints. (I can't find a website for her, but here's the little write-up on her in SLUG). Cameron and I loved her work, especially after we started talking to her and learned of the little fantasy world of animals she draws inspiration from.

Needless to say, Cameron was thrilled to buy a button symbolizing Claire's imaginary holiday, where you hop like a rabbit at minute 11 of every hour on the 11th of every month.

My new chrysanthemum ring from MD Sparks. (I also found a pair of earrings that I loved but limited myself.)

My new succulent teacup planter from Cavalcade. I got compliments on this all day as I carried it around - and I lovelovelove it. Their etsy shop doesn't have anything in it at the moment, but their booth was filled with little pieces of goodness like these planters, vintage cake stands, screenprinted tees, and flowers for your hair.

Now onto the shops I wasn't able to buy anything at, but bookmarked for later.

I really wanted this embroidered tshirt by Noelle Sharp. Her booth had amazing knitted and embroidered goods, and I enjoyed what I found of her online artist's portfolio. Her etsy shop, Aporta, here.


Sycamore Street Press was a standout in the letterpress genre. It's hard to pick favorites from their stuff, so I picked five. The print above would be particularly perfect for all the whiskers in our little family, and I loved their gift tags. I thought the alphabet and numbers prints would be lovely in a baby's bedroom. And finally...

I almost bought this card for my friend Heather - "Great job on that thing you did. Really super." (Heath, consider this your e-card.) It just kept cracking me up, and would be so appropriate to her major accomplishment I just learned about! Anyway, Sycamore Street Press makes all this stuff on a vintage letterpress in the little town of Heber, they are a married couple who makes art together, and all that cute stuff. They've also got an etsy.

My awards for best booths go to:

Tommy Dolph, for overall creativity and use of materials. Those are cardboard wizard cutouts he sells from a handmade lemonade stand (an actual business venture which he says didn't work out). Article on his Wizard Music Festival here (I can't find any other web presence.)

Teresa Flowers' Sleepictures booth for best united aesthetic and branding. (Though I may have been biased because her color scheme happened to match my outfit exactly - see below.)


All the above were artists and shops that were new to me, but it was also nice to see the immaculate booths of what I consider to be SLC craft standbys:

Leia Bell - I particularly liked her new peacock print.
Potter Press - Always impressive, and I seriously considered buying a Dead Presidents drawing. Someday.
Frosty Darling - Adorable as ever, with some hilarious state fair freak show figurines thrown in for good measure, and a few lovely Great Salt Lake felt pillows.

All in all the perfect day! I'm so happy with the little gifts I came home with. We got to enjoy vegetarian bbq sandwiches and peanut butter brownies from Sage's Cafe.

We got to watch Cub Country perform for free.

Cameron bought some cute finger puppets for his nieces. The Gallivan Center was about 10,000,000 times less crowded than it is during Twilight concerts or Library Square is during the arts festival, and we had cool autumn-like weather (note my cardigan in August!) without getting rained on. And just count the number of times I use the words "cute," "little," and "adorable" in this post and you will know I had a good time!

The Cove

Cameron and I saw The Cove yesterday at the Broadway, a documentary from the Oceanic Preservation Society. It had caught my eye when it was at Sundance but I didn't have a chance to see it; now, I want to encourage everyone to go see it if it comes to your city.

Some facts I learned:
23,000 dolphins a year are killed in Japan.
2,300 of these killings occur between September and March in one small town - Taiji - the largest dolphin slaughter in the world.
Although very few people willingly eat dolphin meat (as it contains toxic levels of mercury), the meat is disguised and sold in grocery stores or given out for lunches to Japanese schoolchildren.
The fisherman of Taiji make the bulk of their money not in dolphin slaughter but in the capture and trade of show dolphins.

The footage of the crew attempting to gain access to "the cove" and see for themselves what the fishermen are doing is incredible - as is the video they were able to obtain through their covert mission to install hidden cameras in fake rocks on the shore. It's pretty rare that a film is able to uncover, in no uncertain terms, an act that people have gone to monumental lengths to keep from the public view through lying, denying, and hiding. This footage is the first time anyone but the fisherman have been able to see the manner in which dolphins are being killed in Japan - something even the majority of the Japanese have no clue about.

Click for more info and ways to get involved!
www.savejapandolphins.org
www.takepart.com/thecove

Here are some tangentially related illustrations by Ivan Chermayeff for the Times Magazine's feature article, Watching Whales Watching Us.

July Roundup

Jobs Applied For: 6
Job Offers: 1 (!!!)
Movies Watched: 8
Books Completed: 2
Barbecues: 2
Lakes Swum In: 1 (@ East Canyon State Park)
Twilight Concerts Attended: 2 (Jenny Lewis/Bon Iver, Human Highway/The Black Keys)

I can't wait to see how this list evolves now that I'm no longer consumed by job hunting.

favorites, week of 7/27/09

Dear Internet,
I've been without access to you for 40 hours this week, and spent a larger amount of time than that trying to catch up on sleep. This hasn't left much time for you. I miss you.

I've had such fun curling up with you on my lap this weekend. You've introduced me to the following wonderful things, my favorites for this week:

1. The world's largest mass ascent of hot air balloons, in Chambley France, via Flickr Blog.

Photo by gbatistini.

2. The Madsen Bucket Bike, via Nie Nie Dialogues (worth reading that really sweet post).

Last summer, when I agonized over whether or not to buy a car, the one obstacle to me scrapping my reliance on a vehicle and relying on two wheels and two feet was the hassle of grocery shopping. Not so easy to do on a bike or a scooter, I thought, and too much of a burden to call a taxi every time I needed a gallon of milk. It's a shame I didn't know then about this beauty of a bicycle. Sure, it would still be tough to survive a Utah winter using only this as transportation, and road trips and day trips would still present a problem, but what a great design! And surely a nice way to supplement the utility of the Yaris in the future. As a huge bonus, Madsen is a local Salt Lake company (my pride swells), and they're currently working on a prototype for a cargo bike like this to be used in developing countries (read here). I'm impressed, and hope all their ideas spread like wildfire.

3. The Free Wedding, via Once Wed. This couple was so incredibly lucky to win this contest and have such a beautiful, fun, unique wedding thrown for them, for free, with all the details planned by geniuses. Just check out the links and be amazed: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, finale. The whole thing isn't exactly my style, but that's the point - I'm sure it fit this couple and their taste perfectly, and I love how it screams individuality. Some of my favorite images, by Our Labor of Love:





4. The radio documentary Ghetto Life 101, which Cameron and I heard for the first time on Saturday night's The Changing World (the original doc aired in 1993).

5. The New York Times article, The New Antiquarians - Cultivating a Late 19th-Century Style At Home, and accompanying slideshow, via Unruly Things.


Photos by Michael Weschler for the NY Times.

This humors me on so many levels, but at the same time, I'm impressed. The academic in me adores such devotion to a specific time period and aesthetic, and it makes me feel inadequate not only for my lack of such specificity but also for my really lazy decorating. It can also be read, of course, as such perfect parody. I offer the following eloquently worded quotes:

On the Hovey sisters' home: "...a habitat that embraces, among other cultural touchstones, W. Somerset Maugham’s last days of colonialism, Victorian memento mori and the Edwardian men’s club. There are also apothecary cabinets, fencing masks and pith helmets, stacks of antique luggage and a taxidermy collection that would make Teddy Roosevelt proud."

On the aesthetics of Ryan Matthews: "Mr. Matthew, 29, is a silversmith with a knack for articulating, to use the expert’s parlance for rigging and displaying skeletons; for creating the tiny domed vignettes the Victorians were so fond of (artful arrangements of taxidermied squirrels, for example, in twiggy settings); and for making delicate pencil drawings that look like old photographs. His apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is accessorized with mummified hunting dogs, wax figures and Black Forest taxidermy. There is also a bone saw from the Civil War and a cabinet full of antique medical specimens." (!!!)

And some direct commentary on commodification and those things we're all thinking when we read things like this:

Valerie Steele, director of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, on the "new vintage" trend: "It’s way more than anti-modernism, this sort of deep spelunking into the past. It’s not aspirational and it’s not nostalgic. It’s a fantasy world that is almost entirely a visual collage. It’s a stitched-together, bricolage world, an alternative world...Authenticity is such a fed-up idea. But collecting these old things, it’s like there is an aura attached to them. It’s not some prepackaged product being foisted on you by a big corporation. Too bad it’s going to be commodified. Everything in the fashion world gets hoovered up."

It's too bad so many things can be fascinating and admirable but inauthentic in their quest to be authentic. I'll never tire of watching this cycle...but then again, I have always been a fan of the visual collage and the intellectual collage, high and low, ironic and authentic. Just throw all the good bits together and obsess over them for a lifetime, I say. To quote another New Antiquarian, Sean Crowley, "There’s so much to learn. I am curious - ravenous, really - about everything." Indeed.