Sunday, January 31, 2010

what's wrong with Bilbao

If you need to procrastinate: "Inhabiting a Piece of Art: It's Not Always So Pretty," Nicolai Ouroussoff in The NYTimes.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A complete flop in confidence:
I need to submit a writing sample for an application. Looking through my old art history files, recalling issues and objects in which I immersed myself at some point or another, there are very few examples of my written work that make me undoubtedly proud. Even with the A-papers, the Reread always pronounces flaws and leaves me disappointed with myself.
What am I doing here if I'm not building a body of work for which I have respect?

This just demonstrates... constant editing is necessary. So is a bit of chocolate, right now.

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Never mind. I bought chocolate and slept from 7:30pm to 6am. Totally dandy now.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

From my roommate

The Two-Legged Sleeping Bag:


Laugh as you will - I think it's brilliant! The range of motion from a normal sleeping bag is too limiting - I'm a kicker. This maintains the cocoon affect within the head/torso. LOVE IT

Via Gizmodo

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Second day of classes. Never wearing raw silk again. Still combating jetlag: side of thermos bedecked with the strings and tags of five tea bags. Wish I had a two-legged sleeping bag for the library :)

Monday, January 25, 2010

And the winner is...

Melissa of Modge Posh! You'd better be excited about the apothecary packaging!

Thanks to Perricone MD and those who participated in this first giveaway!

And thank goodness for random.org because I don't remember how to assign and randomize on a graphing calculator :)

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Back at school. Spent the day cleaning, crafting and redecorating, mostly to avoid my last study abroad application.

Could find neither broom nor functioning vacuum, so I wiped our dusty hardwood floor on hands and knees using old wifebeaters (how appropriate) and thought about this:

"With my eyes closed, I could hear hundreds of elves sweeping out my head with their tiny brooms. They kept sweeping and sweeping. It never occurred to any of them to use a dustpan."
- A Wild Sheep Chase, Haruki Murakami

Because no dustpan either.

Best plane ride ever because of that book.

Speaking of sheep, don't you want this mold.

Sheep soap, by LostRiverRags, Etsy, 4

First day of classes tomorrow - excited, but soon it'll be ewe :)

Friday, January 22, 2010

After a month in China...

I'm having trouble telling stories in English.

I can't stop converting everything into renminbi. Balls - even Forever21 feels too expensive. The only thing that's cheaper is coffee and I'm so glad for it.

The corner has been revived by two redecorated cafes/restaurants.

The 5 Fulton still smells the same.

Someone has graffitied the ugliest gash of black, white and orange on the entablature of the Hibernia Bank.

There's a new mural on Market and 6th.

The ornaments I wanted to make into necklaces have gone on sale for $2, so I bought two and tried to memorize the ones that I can make.

I really am starting to like pink. Proof by this recent purchase.

Giveaway!

I actually remembered to take my (Costco) vitamins today. Was reminded that the giveaway for Perricone MD's Skin and Total Body ends Sunday, January 24th at 11:59pm!!
Comment on the original post by then to enter.


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Speaking of skin, we went to a bathhouse in Shanghai and got exfoliated to death - uhng, have never felt so fresh and so clean!

For Joe

An ode to everyone's favorite ginger, dat freak.

I'm With Coco
Mike Mitchell

Monday, January 18, 2010

Yet another unrefuted blog crush... on Trish of Trouvais. How does she find all these gorgeous images and how many is too many to have stolen??:


By François Lalanne in the Paris apartment living room of Jacques Grange, c 1982. French Style. Suzanne Slesin & Stafford Cliff. Jacques Dirand photography

Ridiculous and a half!

It'd be really nice if somebody made donkey-themed furniture so that I could call it redonkulous.

Reminds me of the Bird Feet Candlesticks I blogged about so long ago.


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I forgot to bring any English books with me. I picked up One Hundred Years of Solitude after my brother finished it. I finished it in a fury during our internet-less trip to Guilin. So many characters of the same names: Arcadios and Jose Arcadios and Aurelianos and Aureliano Joses...Amarantas and Remedios. I'd never enjoyed confusion more than while reading this. Dying of love, ghosts, levitating to heaven while hanging up the laundry, bastard children, gypses, SIESTAS...almost the same sort of magical realism as That Other Guy whom I know my peeps love.

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Back to sweet sweet SF for a day and a half (and then school for ever)!!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Plans

When sweet Superbed's days are over, I'm going to stuff my bed at the window-end of a single, hang a shower rod, and drape off the area with heavy curtains.


Really like the triptych hung on ribbons:



Where can I even find a bed corona?


Ahh...makes we wish I bought the single panel of emerald green curtain at Jeremy's this summer.

Photos: Stephen Stubel for House Beautiful, 1998; Henri del Olmo for Maison Cote Sud December 2003; Bella Notte Linens

starting to like pink


Photos: House and Garden archives, 2004
; Jeff McNamara for Southern Accents July/August 2009

On January 5th, two things happened

I almost got run over by a motorbike when I had green.
Actually, this happens several times a day.

Second: Buying stationary and fine-tipped pens are among my favorite things to do, but that day it sank my spirit and made me regret where I was.
I was crowded in a corner flipping through notebooks. Standing up straight, I backed lightly into some cardboard structure, which somehow sent some woman's cup of water flying, onto her pants, and into her spare boots. Ugly boots. Got yelled at. I was tempted to yell back, but when every one is so aggressive, all I feel is silent and apologetic agitation. (I've lost the combative urge?)
Lady was a b. Would not stop hollering to her coworkers about me until they told her to shutup because she was so embarrassing. Bad for business! Accordingly, I bought 4 fewer "Wonderful Hapy Daiy" notebooks than I had originally planned :)


I need to learn Shanghainese. Really resent feeling foreign, easy to beguile, and dependent. Ohg dammit - I just remembered that I know a lot of curse words in Shanghainese.

Additionally, the single children here have got to be the most egotistical little bastards. Darting eyeballs and swollen cheeks. My little brother is so great - although the chubby cheeks certainly apply :)


But most importantly, I'd forgotten how delicious the yogurt is here! And I love the market stalls so much - too fresh and abundant to believe.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Giveaway!: Perricone MD Skin & Total Body

Aw gurl you gon like dis!

Perricone MD has kindly offered to sponsor a giveaway of their Skin & Total Body dietary supplements, valued at $140.


Cocktail for a healthier body and glowing skin: Skin & Total Body nutritional supplements are designed to support a healthy immune system, fight free radical damage, support bone and joint function, stimulate the healthy growth hair and nails, and improve cognitive skills!!, while enhancing the look of the skin by diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Yeah yeah, nice nice!

For more info on Skin and Total Body, visit Perricone MD's blog or watch this video narrated by a sleek and British-accented (and therefore authoritative - duh) woman.


This contest is only open to commentators within the U.S. To enter, leave a comment on this post explaining why a unique product like this will work for your skin by 11:59pm of Sunday, January 24th. Come the 25th, the winner will be randomly selected from the valid entries and notified via email and on this front page.

Mmm! Maybe just do it for the cute apothecary packaging?

DO IT!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Notice something?

Fats Waller

Etta James

Edith Piaf

Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen as Vladimir and Estragon

Notice something about all these artists?

It seems that I'm a sucker for people with craaazy eyebrows!