Liberty for all... almost.

Oh, how I wish I was in London this weekend. A Liberty sample sale; up to 90--that's NINETY--percent off? Lucky limeys (no offense). Sigh! I guess I'll just have to dream about it and satisfy my cravings with frequent visits to their blog instead.

Made in Japan.

Ever since I can remember I have had a fascination with anything related to Japanese culture. When I was a teen waaay back in the 80s my family went to Orlando. I could have spent the whole trip in the Mitsukoshi department store in the Japan Pavilion at Epcot. Then one of my friends spent a year working in Tokyo after college. She introduced me to the Kinokuniya bookstore in NYC when she returned; I have been in love with the store ever since and visit as often as I can. So I was thrilled recently to discover uguisu, a wonderful web shop with a great selection of treats from Japan (or "Japanese Goodies" as Hiki, the owner, calls them):

paper goods



washi paper masking tapes



beautifully printed linen towels



hanko stamps



magazines & books including one of my favorites, ku:nel



Hiki lives in Tokyo but has very reasonable international shipping rates. I now have a very long wish list of "goodies" I want to order from this great site. Be sure to also visit Jollygoo, Hiki's fascinating blog. Oyasuminasai!

Houses in Motion.*

I am in love with these tiny houses... so colorful and fun!



Images courtesy Sarah via The Small Object Stenopad

*Ten points if you get the title reference. Anyone? C'mon, give it a guess.

Stormy skies.

Friday afternoon clouds began rolling in until the sky got so dark, it looked like the end of days. I was at my current part time job (underemployment is only slightly better than unemployment) and had to step outside to get some photos. There was something beautiful about the many layers of clouds that seemed to be flying quickly across the sky. We kept waiting for the inevitable downpour, but it never came. Summer storms on the East Coast are highly localized, so though we stayed dry my friend about 15 minutes away had not only heavy rain but jumbo hail. A lucky miss for us, don't you think?

Forever young.

This has been around for a while, but I had to post about it because I think it's so damn hilarious and adorable (not to mention that they used a great song--the perfect song for this, in my opinion). If you want, you can visit the special site Evian's got about the commerical. They've got an interesting video about how the commercial was produced... it's amazing the amount of time and money it took to pull it off.

Latest creation.

I was dabbling a bit last week, and here's the result. Sterling silver with freshwater pearl, serpentine, labradorite, turquoise, and chrysoprase beads. The holder opens so I can change out the charms as the mood strikes me.

Anthro windows redux

In January I snapped some photos of the window displays at Anthropologie in Rockefeller Center, which were really ingenious and creative (as are most of their displays). They all had a bird theme, but the ones that most appealed to me were those that centered on a pile of discarded plastic carrier bags. They made it appear as though some of the bags were picked up by a gust of wind and then formed themselves into birds soaring through the sky.





As I said, ingenious and creative. Also beautiful.