yesterday's comfort of simple layers, driving to the 90s & late night chocovine...

I wallowed in the splendor of new and quiet landscapes
the comfort found in familiar songs
the perfection in desperate, maudlin voices

the adventures of passion told in doleful eyes

i love full, lush foliage...

The dreary weather broke just long enough to enjoy a nice afternoon in Portland's Japanese Garden. I must have taken more than a hundred photos there! It's hard to get used to seeing such bright green, full, beautiful trees after all the desert landscapes that used to fill my life. But I am starting to really love all the forests and the way the world looks much more mysterious under some fog...

click 'em for a larger view. there are always more photos on my photostream @ bottom of page...

my Sunday reads...why can't i stop reading Neil Gaiman? oh, because You called me gullible

“I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. 

I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.

I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.

I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.

I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.

I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.

I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.

I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.

I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.

I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”

-Neil Gaiman, American Gods

le diable dans le details...

what's been making me smile lately? the details...

the cute lines on my new I (heart) RONSON dress from JCPenney.

the top of my favorite books bookshelf which houses my bird drawings & my special buttons

 softness & warmth of my pink satin bow cowl neck collar... from mojospastyle on Etsy.

Finding MYST in some unpacked boxes...if you don't know MYST, be glad! If you get into it, it will engulf your life!

making a new hairband for October...

then C-3PO stealing it!

finally getting my NYLON subscription forwarded to my new address...then opening it to see Clementine! 

Oh, it's been about 3 weeks...maybe it's time to watch Eternal Sunshine again?

it's monday night...i can't work late...2 Broke Girls is on...

I like '2 Broke Girls'. I was hoping that I would because I'm always inspired by Kat Dennings in so many different ways. She's comfortable in her body, she's smart, silly, tough, witty, has great taste in style and music...she's just super neat. Anyway, '2 Broke Girls' is a sitcom and usually I can't seem to get into sitcoms. Weird laugh tracks after every "funny" remark gets too difficult to ignore sometimes. Even a live audience gets annoying, but I'm sure it would be just as bad to hear nothing after a funny line. Whatever, I'll get over it. I really hope this show doesn't get canceled! I have to see these 2 broke girls open their bakery!

gold, silver, prints, textures...yeah, I mix 'em!

My corner of the sofa...a.k.a 'my favorite spot.' Even though I have my own room for crafting, painting, dressing, sewing, etc; I still end up taking whatever project I am working on to my corner of the sofa.

So here I am...almost midnight and I just got home from work. I wore my new favorite skirt from Sears!

 Skirt: Beverly Drive at Sears $7.99!

Polka dot tights: Target $5

Deer ring: Claire's 

I could listen/watch this all day...

hello...

it's still raining, i'm still working, I got the new remake of Jane Eyre from Netflix and I haven't had time to see it (sad), I started watching Sons of Anarchy (i don't know of i like it yet), i'm REALLY looking forward to next Thursday's show at the Crystal Ballroom (Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks!! -they just make me miss Pavement) and i'm wearing my cape like it's nobody's business (like ALL the time, over everything!)...

stephenmalkmus-giraffe

What I wore on (another) rainy day in Portland...

Although it was raining, it wasn't really a cold day. Which meant it was just beautiful! Since I finally decided to trust the GPS on my phone, I haven't been as scared to drive across the river and walk around Portland a little bit more. With a day off work, I grabbed my umbrella and headed into Portland for some public transportation and shopping. I eventually did have to add some stockings to this outfit along with my cape, but it started out like this...

 

dress: made by me

cardigan: Target 

lizard ring: Claire's

feather & purple stone ring: gift from Dad

necklaces: Forever 21

Yes... I bought more than I had anticipated at Ikea (surprise, surprise). I went specifically for the laptop table, which I did get, but finding out that they also made the table in red put me in such a happy/excited mood! I didn't really think twice about all the other little things I picked up for our home. Now I get to spend the weekend building Ikea furniture! I can't think of anything else I'd rather do...

 So far I have only put the laptop table together...

 It fits so perfectly against the arm of the sofa...I'm loving it. Now I don't have to juggle my laptop on my knees or on the side of the sofa! Why would I wait so long to buy one? 

 

I also found this cute little alarm clock at Ikea.

I needed a clock and for only a few dollars...this fits in perfectly!

 

Oh no...how can my French country heart resist...

currently... unplugging my computer and hoping the battery dies before I could make up my mind on an item.

(click "Cloth Patina"... go ahead, click it) 

Cloth and Patina 

Skeleton key business card holder... re-purposed apothecary jar... French Autumn paper mache pumpkin... re-purposed vintage bottle...