Things of Happiness: Hanging out in Fields.

I find that when I am at a loss for inspiration, or a way to improve my general mood, it helps to spend little chunks of time madly adding favorites to flickr--then later on it's quite nice to go through them. Lately I've been particularly interested, or liking, pictures of people standing up, lying down, and sitting in fields. Somehow they're always so dream-like. It's been ages since I've been in a honest-to-goodness field--and when I'm there I can never not think of practical and frightening things like ticks--but I remember them from when I was little. They always lend themselves to pretty outfits, and there is something so appealing and mildly morose or melancholy about the back-to-the-camera ones.


1. Corinne Griffith, silent film actress, 2. grass cycle, 3. la petite fille aux coquelicots, 4. Heaven, 5. A Very Long Engagement. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2004), 6. Language, 7. автопортрет 256й день, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled, 10. grass-land, 11. my skirt flew up and I flashed cars driving by., 12. "The world forgetting, by the world forgot"

Sometimes Spring.

Let us ignore the fact that I forgot to blog for a bit there, and instead I will attempt to visually summarize all manner of things at the moment!


I won a necklace! This gorgeous thing was made by Saorise at spider, spin me a story. I cannot wait to wear it with white summer dresses! Hopefully she will open an etsy soon, because between this little confection and the accompanying drawing, she will be such a smash!


I repeated an outfit, although now with shorter hair and a bow! I am, at the moment, quite fond of tying tiny bows into odd places of my hair. It works best with curls, which are sadly falling out because of humidity, but for a few weeks at least, my follicled life is almost perfect.

Extraordinary efforts are being made
To hide things from us, my friend.
Some stay up into the wee hours
To search their souls.
Others undress each other in darkened rooms.

The creaky old elevator
Took us down to the icy cellar first
To show us a mop and a bucket
Before it deigned to ascend again
With a sigh of exasperation.

Under the vast, early-dawn sky
The city lay silent before us.
Everything on hold:
Rooftops and water towers,
Clouds and wisps of white smoke.

We must be patient, we told ourselves,
See if the pigeons will coo now
For the one who comes to her window
To feed them angel cake,
All but invisible, but for her slender arm.

-Pigeons at Dawn, Charles Simic

Dyeing Dresses and Sand.

I return! Even though it's May and the water isn't anywhere near being warm enough to even walk in, I escaped to run in the sand as much as possible this weekend--even this morning, when it had rained and the sand was all damp--and to get as many smoothed shell pieces as possible. I was going to wait till tomorrow to make a post, but then it would just be too huge!

Pictured is the dress I wrote about the other day. I grabbed it at a local store, without even trying it on, just because it was so sweet. Sadly, it was quite badly stained all along the top to the waist! Since there was no time to get dry cleaned before we had to leave, and I doubted the stains would come out anyway, I tossed it in some tea and crossed my fingers that it would all match up and work! Eventually I'll get better pictures of it, but for now these will do.

This is the second time I've used tea to dye clothing (I used to toss paper in it all the time when I was a kid to make it look cool), and I take a terribly simple approach: Soak the garment in cold water for a few minutes--I get impatient so it usually only gets about five max--or soak it while you get the tea ready. I use the huge ice-tea bags you can get in the store, and I usually use about 3 of those for a large pot. Again, I'm impatient so once the tea is cooled down so I can touch it, the garment goes in! I left the dress for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, because I forgot about it, but it worked out fine. Stir it every now and then to make sure it's all even and such. Then I pulled it out, squeezed as much out as I could, and tossed it in the washer, with some chunky salt, on rinse. So far nothing has washed out, and it's the perfect faded tea color!

It turned out wonderfully, and I love it even more now. I wore it most of the day without the cardigan, but I think it's too perfect to show it not pictured at the beach. It's tiny, if I sneeze in it the world will come to an end, but as long as I mind my breath (it's not really that bad, I exaggerate) and don't eat too much it's all fine! I'll have to reinforce the zipper soon, but in the meantime I just love it.

Oh, how I miss the beach! It was so foggy you could barely see the ocean--the waves just came out of nowhere when the broke--so the pictures of just the beach up there are from this morning when it was dreary and rainy and there was no sun. My hair was all deliciously curled and perfect, but I defied all logic and went to the beach, and it all blew out in seconds! It was sort of amazing, how fast they all went away considering my hair holds a curl well normally. It is always worth it though, for minutes there!




(Stay off the dunes! I hate when people run and jump on them. Awful!)

The Always Afterthought.

I keep thinking about more always and nevers! It's a funny way to categorize things, also kind of pointless, but it's weird to think of things that way. When there are only two options the littlest things—although it seems it would be the easiest of answer—become huge objects to contemplate. That makes these next things seem much more meaningful than they are, but if there is anything I am working to believe in, it's meaning in the frivolous. I think this explains why I had such a terrible time with my paper on Thoreau.

One of my other always items is a beauty item. Maybe it's a beauty secret—I'm not sure. My mother and I use A&D ointment for everything. I am convinced that it heals any skin ailment ever. I might not put it on a zit, but it's good for those last few days of a breakout when it's just red and irritated and wounded instead of all sad and infected and grotesque. For skin that is red, dry, irritated in any manner, this fixes it. Hands down, it is the best stuff ever. Bacitracin comes in at a close second for most necessary skin-care (I use that on break-outs as well. It sounds weird, but I swear by it). Mostly though, I use A&D for makeup removal. I think it's better than vaseline, for some reason, and I use it every night to get my mascara and liner off. It is especially handy since I've started using MAC's liquid last liner, and that is some in-tents stuff!


(Photographic evidence of the process.)

Essentially, this is a pointless post in which I abuse comas like it's my job. But, you know. I just felt like sharing :)

I'll be out-of-town for the weekend: family reunion! We've never had one before, so it should be interesting. I got a new dress for the event, but it has some staining on it I didn't notice so I don't know if I'll use it. I'm going to wake up early and try and dye the entire thing with some tea—which has worked before so cross your eyeballs that it works this time as well! In the meantime, have some pictures of my attempts to capture the strange light thing that happens in my room at night.

Always & Never

Yesterday the lovely Anabela of fieldguided tagged me! I'm never sure what to do with the never half of the list, because I can always think of more always-es, and you know. Never say never, but I came up with a few!

Always

1.)Black tights. I used to be all about the colored tights, which are still lovely, but this past winter and fall I just lived in black tights—opaque and sheer—even though they're kind of expected. I love how they sort of ground an outfit, if that's the right word for it, and they're a kind of force that manages to pull it all together and make what doesn't work, work. That, plus they're a nice kind of shroud for days when I just can't deal.

2.)Curly hair. As is the curse for all hair-types, I want what I don't have. My hair is just about pin-straight, which I don't really mind, but I constantly find myself curling it instead! Even when I was a kid, I used to go to bed with foam rollers to end up with insane mounds of curls. These days, I tend to stick to curling irons and pin-curls, but somehow I always feel best if my hair is curly. Even with the worst outfit, curly hair makes it all better!

curtains by seventytwOdpi

3.)Mascara. Is, besides blush, my favorite piece of makeup. Every day, no matter what, mascara is a must! At the moment, I'm favoring divide and multiply mascara from The Body Shop and over it, Rimmel waterproof mascara.

4.)Light, airy blouses. These have become my stand-by thing. I've been wearing jeans a lot, and somehow they don't feel right unless have a cute little blouse to wear with it. I particularly like ones that are sheer and floaty.

seethroughyoudip by danske

5.)My teapot necklace. I'm not sure if we're supposed to get so specific, but I am anyhow. I got it at a garage sale a few years ago, and have worn it every day since (almost!) even though the chain has changed a few times. Somehow, it's just perfect. It's simple, unique, and I really identify with it a lot. It used to be black-ish, then it got pink as the top layers got rubbed off, and now its turning gold as it gets down to the brass. It's probably my one go-to piece for every minute!

Never

1.)Any item of clothing with words on the butt. I feel this is self-explanatory. I do not see the purpose in wearing anything with phrases that are allegedly sexy on the butt, especially in public. I still maintain that jeans are just as easy to put on and wear as sweatpants, or PJs, and so there is no reason to wear the latter in public at any point in time.

2.)Ripped jeans. I'll probably eat my words at some time, but for now and a while this is just not something I can get behind. It's not really in my style realm I guess, because other people pull it off wonderfully.

3.)Dresses over jeans. It is unnatural to me.

4.)Tiny, tiny purses. I hate them so much. You know, the ones that aren't a clutch, but they tiny little bags with tiny little handles so that they look like armpit burritos? I hate them. It looks like a third boob, only not really. Oddly enough, I have no problem with bags so enormous they could double as a living space, or something to keep the whole universe in.

5.)Buffalo plaid. It is lovely on lots of other people, but when I wear it it makes me feel angry. I think my main problem with it is, in this particular area in which I live, it's donned by lots of hipster types. Boys who wear girl's Hollister jeans with hurricane hair (you know, where they put the styling putty in it and then go outside in a hurricane so that it all blows to one side. Pretty sweet) and girls with dirty looking makeup and plastic hair accessories. I know that's really bratty of me, but sometimes it just comes out like that.

Tagged

Afeitar
Darling Darling
Elyse Holladay

And now, I will go back to writing papers due tonight by 9pm. I bought a new dress today, but that is all I will say about it now, because otherwise I will be too distracted to do what I must get done!

Thoughts on Flowers.

Hello! I did not perish! Thank you for all your wonderful well-wishes! Sadly, I will continue to be scarce for another week or so as I finish up the semester, but I could not resist a post today. I am not at Tulip Fest, it's not something I've ever been to, even though I grew up just around the corner from it! Somehow, it just doesn't appeal to me--it's a kind of strange snobbery I guess--probably because I don't like tulips very much.

The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me.
Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe
Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.
Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.
They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,
Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their colour,
A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.
-Tulips, Sylvia Plath

(I know, it's not about tulips. But still, my inexplicable and irrational dislike of them is described here on a surface level.)


I much prefer lilacs, even if their smell makes me feel fuzzy and ill. As long as they stay on bushes and not indoors I am happy as a clam.

The Edges.

"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We're afraid."
"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We will fall!"
"Come to the edge."
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.

Come to the Edge- Christopher Logue (about Guillaume Apollinaire, 1880-1918)


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Pesquerias Winter09


(O hai!)