Sparklette #14
The best cinnamon toast in the world is in Tokyo. And I don't just mean there is one particular restaurant that has exceptionally good cinnamon toast, I mean that no matter what hotel we stay in, I order cinnamon toast for breakfast, and every bite makes me swoon with bliss.
No joke – I've paid $8 for one piece.
It's that good.
Five Things
1. I love Chocolate & Steel's stacking rings over at ShanaLogic.
2. Writer's Voice with Francesca Rheannon
3. Rachel Gardner: On Life as a Literary Agent
4. Emma Alvarez Gibson: Whip-Smart Wordsmith. Media Maven.
5. Scrapbooks: An American History looks fascinating. Check out The Daily Scrapbook blog too.
Sparklette #13
I don't remember how the term "yoga pants" came into a recent conversation with my husband, but as soon as I said it he stopped me and said, "Honey, don't say yoga pants," as if I had just tried to talk dirty to him using anatomically correct terminology.
I don't know how – because I wear yoga pants (ha! I said it!) multiple times a week – but my husband has this image of "yoga pants" as thick, baggy, unflattering items of apparel that no self-respecting woman would dare wear (let alone talk about).
All I have to say is that after walking around for most of my life with a butt so flat you could grill pancakes on it, I now have a little booty, and nothing screams "Look at my bum!" more than YOGA PANTS. I would think he would like having his wife prance around in stretchy attire that accentuates the curves in all the right places. Or am I just stone cold crazy?
YOGA PANTS.
YOGA PANTS.
YOGA PANTS.
YOGA PANTS.
What's he going to do? It's my blog, after all.
Kindness Embodied
As many of you know, registration for Squam Art Workshops begins this Monday, February 1st. As always, there is a lovely array of classes spread out amongst five different sessions. I am excited to be on the roster for the June and September sessions, teaching Book in a Day again with Marisa Haedike.
Gus Harper is also part of the Fall Session teaching team with a class called Diving In, and I’d like to go ahead and say that after you’ve taken his class and/or met him this September, please let me know how much you appreciate the fact that I pestered Elizabeth enough to talk to Gus about teaching and bringing him on board. Here’s how the conversation went:
Swirly: “I think you might want to talk to Gus Harper about teaching in the fall.”
Elizabeth: “I think I am all set with teachers, but thank you.”
Swirly: “Um, no really, I think you need to talk to Gus. Trust me – he belongs at SAW.”
Elizabeth: “No really, I think I’m all set.”
Swirly: “Seriously, why don’t you talk to Gus. Have I mentioned I think he would fit right in at SAW?”
Elizabeth: “All right, shut up already, tell him to call me.”
OK, that isn’t really how it went. Elizabeth is far too kind and gentle of a soul to ever utter words like shut up, but I have a feeling I was on the verge of pushing her to that edge. And who could have blamed her – she is the Director of SAW, is she not? And here I was sending email after email, trying to pester her without being too pester-ish, trying to convince her she needed to follow my intuition about what was best for her event.
Yeesh – some people.
But I am happy to report that Elizabeth and Gus had a lovely chat, and because of that I am here to tell you that Gus’s class is going to be a great class, as he is an extraordinary force of creativity. I was in his studio the other day, and just standing amongst his latest work made me want to run home and paint all day.
Not only is Gus an amazingly talented artist, he is one of the kindest human beings I know. For any of you who have dreamed of picking up a paint brush, but don’t know where to start, and are eager for a safe, nurturing guide to walk you through those first steps, Gus Harper is your man. If this class looked intriguing to you, all I have to say is this: SIGN UP. You won’t regret it.
P.S. He’s single.
Sparklette #12
This is the name my husband and I like to attach to peculiar retail establishments we pass by here and there. You know the ones – "Groceries & Bait", "Laundry * Sandwiches * Farm Equipment", "Yogurt + Dim Sum" – places that describe a selection of offerings that one might not necessarily think would work well together. But apparently the thought of picking up a carton of wriggly worms at the same time you stock up on Cheerios and butter is no big deal to a decent-sized segment of our population. Who knew?
At this exact moment, however, "Stuff & Things" applies to a pattern in my life that I can't seem to escape – a pattern of piles. I create a pile, dismantle it, and within seconds of feeling proud of having accomplished a Very Important Task – tada! – a new pile. It happens within seconds, I tell you. Once I clear off whatever random stack of bills, notes to myself, cards to mail, papers to sign, notebooks, magazines and art supplies that have been teetering on the verge of collapse I immediately set to work on creating a new pile.
So today, as I stare at my latest pile, I am asking myself, "What is all this stuff and why are all these things on my desk?"
What A Road We Travel
[Photo by Karl Olinger]
What a road we travel
To figure out the
Simplest things and
Return to where we
Knew we belonged
All along
To build friendships
With those whose arms
Are true, all-accepting
And strong
To raise our arms to Heaven,
Dig our toes in sand, and
Throw back our heads to
The wind
What a road, what a road
We travel to figure out
The simplest things and
Return to where we
Knew we belonged
All along.
100 Books Project :: Iceland
[Book #38 :: Left in Reykjavik, Iceland by Book Fairy Leonie Wise, December 2009]
I will now hand the floor over to the divine Leonie Wise…this is one of my favorite stories yet.
"Well, I am happy to say that the third book you sent me has been dispatched in Iceland.
now, I know I promised you that I would leave it at the Blue Lagoon, so I hope you won't be too cross with me when I tell you that I took it there with me, but didn't leave it anywhere there.
It seemed ridiculous to take a book all the way to Iceland only to have it end up in the arms of a tourist, so I didn't have the heart to leave it there as intended.
Iceland is breathtaking place, beautiful in so many ways and the people are so friendly and welcoming. there's a visitors guide that I picked up and one of the pages says this:
What is often excluded in this equation is that Icelanders are in many ways forged by the country they live in. They may appear a bit rough and cold sometimes – even indifferent, but also determined and relentless. given time, they will reveal themselves as sensetive, kind, poetic, warm, loyal and emotional.'
It was reading through this, and also because of our own personal experience, that I decided to leave the book with one of the ladies from the Northern Light Inn where we stayed. She re-confirmed bookings for us, helped us choose a restaurant in Reykjavik for dinner, booked us a hire car….nothing was too much trouble. So yesterday, before we left, I gave her the book, told her the story of the project and said it was a gift for her. She was delighted and said she would also share it with the rest of the amazing women who all made our stay there such a magical experience. Her name is Karitas (Kaja – pronounced Kaya – is her nickname). I do hope you hear from her, she really was a delight.
-Leonie"
Sparklette #11
I just bought a super-industrial paper cutter (30 sheets at a time!) and the level of excitement I feel at the prospect of being able to cut a stack of paper (30 sheets!) with perfect precision tells me only one thing: I am now officially an Art Geek.
But seriously – 30 sheets! I can hardly stand it.
Home
[Taken near Mendocino, California in 2004]
I took this photo in 2004 in a forest of giant redwoods in northern California. This was during a road trip my husband and I took to Mendocino – a small town on a cliff overlooking the Pacific – just before we began the huge transition from quiet life in Santa Ynez to, shall we say, a less-than-entirely-quiet-life in Santa Monica. That trip was like so many of the holidays my husband and I take, where we throw our bags in our car and drive to a place where we can be in nature, hike for hours, read our books and enjoy delicious meals. On my own, I tend towards the more unusual journeys and locales – Cuba, New Zealand, and, in just a few weeks, Jordan – but with my husband I meander towards quieter fare. After contemplating for weeks about where we should go on our next vacation together – a discussion that included Italy, Sweden and walking across the U.K. along Hadrian's Wall – we finally decided to drive north again where our time will be split between Yosemite and Big Sur.
This will be my first time exploring Yosemite, but Big Sur is a place I have visited many times. It is where I have headed in times of confusion to find some semblance of peace, and also where I go to sink deeper into my contentment, my joy, and my love of this awkward, beautiful, sometimes bumbling life of mine. Even though a walk across the lush English countryside has now captured my imagination and my husband has not likely heard the last of my longing to experience that, I am happy that we chose to keep things easy this year. No airport security lines, no 3 oz. bottles of liquids in ziploc baggies, no jet lag, no currency exchanges. Just us, our hiking boots, a stack of books, our cameras, and a road map of California.
All this talk and we're not even going until May.
I imagine the tree pictured above is still exactly where it was when I took that photo. We won't be walking through that forest on our trip this spring, but we will be walking amongst this tree's kin, along paths with ferns as far as the eye can see and trees so tall I almost fall over backwards looking up at them. Did you know California has the tallest, biggest, and oldest living things on earth? I am eager to be near them again, looking forward to that unique feeling of safety, hidden-ness, and solitude that only a forest provides. This sense of security in the company of trees – under their canopy and surrounded by all the vegetation their shade encourages – goes all the way back to my childhood, when I played for hours on end in the woods near our homes, walking, digging, pretending, and exploring. Wherever I am on earth, if I am in a forest, I am home.
“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” ~Robert Louis Stevenson
Five Things
[Photo by Madelyn Mulvaney]
1. Courage My Love :: Persisting Stars :: Madelyn Mulvaney
3. Check out the latest from Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
4. Survival of the Hippest: Custom necklaces, so fun! (Brought to my attention by the Daily Muse - a daily email newsletter I love!)
5. Orglamix Pure Mineral Makeup.
