Happy Halloween!

Speaking of kids fashion and cuties dressing up like other people... for the launch of their re-tooled website, The Coveteur made this little video of a bunch of cuties dolled up like all the Big Names in the Fasho-Blogosphere: susie bubble, the man-repeller, tommy ton... you know, everyone! Its sort of stupid and silly but I still think its cute--and totes in the Halloween spirit!  You can watch it if you want to!

adorbz!

omg you guys

Cant believe I found out about this after we left england (though I guess topshop is here now too, a fact I have a hard time remembering for some reason). Im talking about Topshop Mini. Thats right: topshop for babies. Its about time, amirite? Its only a little baby collection--no pun intended?--but hopefully it means more and more things to come. I just hope felix doesnt grow out of it too quickly... it ranges from newborn to 18 months only!

image via here

time truly does fly!

look at how tiny felix was at halloween time last year!

Hes just big enough this year that I think we will try taking him trick-or-treating (unfortuntely hes too little to eat the candy... I wonder who will...) but, because of all of our traveling/disaster escaping, he still doesnt have a costume! What oh what will he be?!

prep on the beach

Preppy isnt a vibe Im usually feeling in the fall--though, really, I think I tend towards it inadvertently all the year round. Anyway, Im digging the decidedly preppy vibe showcased in this lookbook from Svilu, a new, sustainable, locally-produced clothing line based in NYC (thats where we are right now, you guys!) The collection features silhouettes 'borrowed from the boys but designed by women' with an emphasis on 'subtle specialness.' I love the washed-out beachy background, the tortoise-shell sunglasses, the cozy, colorful jumpers, her beachy mermaid hair... and while some of the asymmetrical tops are a little fussy for my taste, overall the collection is breezy and casual and reminds me of my favorite designer, in a good way. Plus, that bathing suit! I want it!

images by Nir Arieli via here

I want!

This shirt! 

I love how stripes make the peplum shape seem more classic than trendy. Although, obviously, it is trendy, if youre in to that sort of thing. Plus, I bet its so flattering! I cant figure why it should be $58 and Im sort of bummed about it... but maybe one day it will go on sale?

image via j.crew

clever ceramics!

As we move ever closer towards the goal of settling in our very own, filled-with-just-the-three-of-us home, I find myself paying more and more attention to the kind of decorative knick-knackery that I never had cause to acknowledge whilst we lead our pseudo-nomadic lifestyle. Like ceramics, for example. Though these jars would look more appropriate in the home I hope to have decorated some day, Im still taken with the quirkiness of these two projects:

The first, reversed volumes, is a set of bowls by Austrian design studio mischer'traxler in which ceramic powder was used to create impressions of various fruits and veg. Because ceramic powder doesnt require firing, the organic matter remained in tact throughout the molding process, their impressions authentic.

Sweeter still is dress-up: literally, a family of vases by the japanese design firm Nendo. From the back they look like ordinary vases, but turn them around and they each have their own little collars, casting them in their roles of 'heavy-set father, slim mother, and smaller child.' Just like chase, felix and me... except for the heavy-set/slim thing, of course...  

images via here & here

cool collages!

I showed you some other work by Anthony Gerace recently, that I though was pretty cool but could, potentially, be considered boring, as it was mainly a collection of chair portraits. Anyway, while I related strongly to the theme of that particular project, in general I prefer his collages. Theyre so good and moody and monochromatic. Take a look!

Le Air Mail

I dont want to get all preachy and pretentious about how much I love proper mail and how people dont send enough of it these days... but I think we can all agree that receiving an actual letter or card in the mail is always so sweet and special and that, really, people should do it more. For my part, Im pretty good about sending postcards while abroad, and I always try to remember birthdays in time to send people their cards... but Ill admit Im not always so good about sending an everyday letter. I think its because, by the time its written, posted and received, its contents run the risk of having gone out-of-date. Love letters are, of course, an exception to this. In any case, I love stationary and anything that makes writing an ordinary letter easier. Like this writing pad by Papier Tigre, whose sheets fold into their own sweet little envelopes. So cute! They remind me of the oragami-folded notes Id write in junior high, and of the old baby-blue-with-red-white-and-blue-stripey-edges air-mail paper my grandad used to write me letters on when I was a girl. If only this set looked exactly like that, it would be truly perfect. 

bananarama

I feel like, this spring collection from Banana Repbulic is what a nineteen-seventies Jackie O would have worn if she was living in the now... do you know what I mean? But really, these clothes wouldnt have been at all out of place back then, either. In a good way. Im way in to the seventies right now, you guys... although, as a look, society-girl-on-holiday-on-a-boat-in-france is pretty timeless. Cant wait to bug chase about how much I want a pair of those leather sandals come springtime!

images via style.com

one day...

have you ever owned a set of proper luggage? No? Me either! Ive only ever had two mismatched black samsonite roller suitcases like everyone else has at the airport. So. boring. If I had something like this, packing would be so much more enjoyable (though secretly, I like it a lot already).

Anyway, what Im trying to say is: our packing is done, and were on our way! First to my grandads, and then on to Gatwick, Iceland, and New York for a week, before landing in Ohio for the Holiday season. And then, who knows?! (actually, we do). Soon well just be one of those boring american families like the rest of them. Ah, le sigh. But also, Im so excited! Especially to be eating some delicious Goumas Confections, which I made myself forget about for the last six months but now am preparing to indulge in, big time. Omgicantwait!

image by chris turnham via here

its better to have had cream tea and lost, than never to have had cream tea at all

Oh, cream tea. Its one of the things I always miss the most whenever Im not in England (which, honestly, is most of the time). If youve never had cream tea, its easy: hot, milky tea; fresh scone; typically strawberry jam; and most importantly, clotted cream. The reason you cant really have cream tea in america is that you can hardly ever find clotted cream there, which is a real shame because its delicious. I sometimes dream of having my own dairy farm, purely so that I could make (clot?) my own. Of course, I have found it in supermarkets in the states now and again... but its always very expensive, and in a jar, and not fresh, and basically, not. the. same. 

Its a real problem!

p.s. can you even believe that we fly away back to america on thursday? technically wednesday is our last day here, but since were heading down to visit my grandad (and get closer to the airport) that day, really its like this is our last day here. And Im getting nervous, since I havent even really packed yet!

omg!

photos by me of my last cream tea at greenstead green farm shop--delicious!

that thing of where...

...you know you have a million things to do (like laundry and packing boxes and suitcases for your trip to newyork/america this very thursday) and theyre all very important and you know it... only, its so unbelievably misty and grey outside, the way it should be only in the morning, even though its past lunchtime, and all you want to do is cozy up in bed with someone friendly and finish your stupid book that youre still not done with but you have to finish before your trip, because its stupid to take a book with you when you have fewer than one hundred pages left. You know what I mean??

Its a real problem!

image via here

lovely lovely lula

The editorials in the fifteenth and latest issue of Lula magazine are so so dreamy and are making me think of fairytales and fall-time. And all the time, because they look so magical and sweet!

images via here (wish I knew the photographers!)

final decline & total collapse

In this series, which consists entirely of still-lifes of lamps and chairs, underscored by thematic quotes from various writers and artists, Anthony Gerace aims, through creating a sense of nostalgic melancholy, to draw our attention to fact that the era in which we live is passing. This pefectly morbid sentiment is just the thing for the mood im in this rainy gloom; the effects of last nights fun have left me feeling more than a little sluggish and all of the packing weve been doing today (including sorting through baby baby pictures of a newborn felix), has made me nostalgic and indeed, slightly melancholy. Aesthetically speaking, Im a fan of still-life styled as portrait, and Im particularly fond of anything displayed as a specimen against a stark white (or at least, neutral) background. The speckles are a nice touch, and the soft inkiness of felt-tip is the perfect medium in which to capture musty, ornate upholstery. I think hes chosen the perfect colors, too. It reminds me a little of Frances Stark...

 

images via here

color therapy

Back when I was nursing Felix as a littlest tiny baby, I found I had a lot of spare, sofa-bound time during which only one of my hands was free... needless to say, a lot of it was spent on the internet. Sometimes Id read or try to be productive--in fact, I started this blog as a way of killing some of that endless, stationary free-time. But other times, like at five in the morning after a night of broken sleep, I just wanted to look at something pretty. I dont know about you, but theres something about seeing rainbow colors that both invigorates and soothes me. For that, Cubicle Refugee is the perfect thing: a tumblr in which its author Jen does a mini collage in a different color each day. 

Or, if youre in the mood for something a little more dramatic, Shiro to Kuro (an abbreviation of Shiroi to Kuroi, the Japanese for “black and white”) is a gallery of typography, photography, product design, and illustration, all in--you guessed it--black and white. 

Both sites are also good for discovering artists and designers you may never have heard of before, which I find quite useful. Though for true calm on the web, I simply could have visited this site, had it been a thing...

mod girls

Vogue China is totally nailing the back-to-school vibe these days. This time around, photographer Camilla Akrans captures Xiao Wen Ju, Ming Xi and So Young Kang looking all studious and sepia-toned. And if I didnt know better, these girls would all make me want to trim the fringe that Im trying, currently and desperately, to grow out. And also, find my missing knee socks. amirite?!

images via here