Summer Cycle

Thanks to Craigslist and some help with the tune-up, I am ready for summer cycling on my old/new three speed roadster. To me it's a beaut; and so trusty looking. Every time that I ride it I feel as if I could deliver medical supplies to hard-to-reach areas in WWII Italy. And then meet my lover for a picnic. It's just that sort of bike.

And it's cliché but true: the pure pleasure of cruising along, creating your own breeze on very hot summer days. Already it has taken me exploring new parts of town and running errands just for the fun of it. To encourage bike commuting and errand running, the city of Boston even helps you map your route based on various degrees of safety or directness.

Speaking of safety, I was initially a bit nervous about city riding and self-conscious about gear and what to wear to be comfortable riding and look cute upon arrival at my destination (without flashing a line of cab drivers en route!).  Lucky for me, some friends have set up a resource especially for the lady cyclist or, more specifically, for Really Awesome Women Riding bikes (RAWR!).

Don't have a bike (or the room to keep such a bulky thing in a small city apartment)? Both Boston and New York have introduced oh-so-Euro city bike programs. While the New York program launched this summer seems to be getting a bit of negative press, Boston's Hubway has been so popular that it continues to expand with stations all over Boston & Cambridge.

I think that you're ready. Now go on and get out there to enjoy a few summer cycling adventures!

after party

Did you watch the Oscars last night? 

If you did, are you in it for the red carpet? The teary acceptance speeches? The old-fashioned tinsletown celebration or the cynical how-long-can-this-go-on spectacle of it?

I, myself, am partial to the gowns and the glamor. I get drawn in to the sweeping musical numbers and get a little weepy with all of the emotional thank-yous. And it's worth the hours of settling in for all of that when you catch a quick glimpse of (my favorite) Doris Kearns Goodwin walking the post-show red carpet arm in arm with a victorious Daniel Day-Lewis and Rebecca Miller, off to celebrate, the chumiest of chums. 

Ah, Hollywood.

Faye Dunaway's breakfast with Oscar at the Beverly Hills Hotel, 1977.

Highway Romance

I'm certain that it's not just me... don't we all have a bit of romantic attachment to our first car? It's just such a significant teenage time of life anyway and then you add to the mix all that freedom of being able to get yourself from here to there and... the heart soars, the mind reels. The possibilities are endless even if, as in my case, you were just driving around in circles on an smallish Big Island! The proof is in the little bit of lightness and footloose freedom that I feel just seeing pictures of the roadway romances of my past...

Something like my mom's 1968 Ghia... she drove it all over California and Washington and cared for it so lovingly that I was driving it around the Big Island in the early 90s. So low and so sporty... and so loud with the top down and the radio up!

Nearly just like my 'first car'... and a perfect Hawaii vehicle. I drove it across lava fields and into taro valleys with black sand beaches for overnight camping trips. Well used when purchased, but tricked out with pipe bumpers, a fancy stereo system and a huge custom sub-woofer in the back!

Boxy but good: my college-in-New England transportation was bought off a small used car lot near Providence. It came with the extra way-back seat, which meant that I could pack 6 friends and myself into the thing for trips to amusement parks and ski mountains. I covered the back bumpers and windows with typical college-y bumper stickers ('mean people suck', 'visualize whirled peas' and, for a reason that escapes me now, the UC San Diego logo). A very happy Happy Valley vehicle.

To keep the car romance fires burning, Chance has a few covet-able cars in their blog archives ... my heart is all a-flutter over that Mercedes 190SL from their October post!

Brimfield

Well, I made it out to the final Brimfield weekend of the year and it couldn't have been a more beautiful day for it! After a rainy week, the sky was clear as a bell and the sun was shining... perfect. And I didn't buy a single thing, which was fine by me. It's just so much fun (and then, eventually, sort of exhausting) to stroll through the stalls just looking. And getting inspired for all of the projects that you could do if you would do them... someday. But when you do, you know that you can find the right bits & pieces at Brimfield! And it was such a nice way to spend a day with friends, the youngest of which, at only 2 months old, is already a natural at this sort of thing.

Tomorrow is the very last day for the season and the forecast is sunny & cool. Take a little drive out there for a lot of inspiration.

Brimfield

The Brimfield flea market wrapped up for the season this weekend and I (along with a few friends and Murray the dog) headed west for the final day. Not necessarily a novice, I went for the first time last year, and yet still the sheer amount of objects and things and never-before-seen-collections (hundreds of ornate walking canes!) can be a bit overwhelming. This typically results in my not wanting to actually buy anything, but to just look. And to think of an empty house or beach cottage to fill with eclectic finds.

I did purchase a few small things: like last year, I found the bead dealers and bought several strands to use in new jewelry creations. At a booth filled with all sorts of amazing laboratory glass, I bought two small pyrex bottles with glass stoppers. These are just the thing I've been looking for to contain a mix of perfume oils that I bought in Abu Dhabi last year.

The booths of architectural salvage materials and pieces were my favorite... full of fantastic steel tables, repurposed industrial lamps, and large wooden cabinets, like the one pictured below with multi-colored numbered drawers. Next year I'll bring a truck!

Museum of Glass

My family and an very dear family friend spent the afternoon at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma to see a show of Preston Singletary's work. It was my first visit to the museum... a great stop in downtown Tacoma. If you have a chance to visit, don't miss the 'hot shop', where artists work in a glass-studio-as-theater setting.

Seattle + Scandinavia

After strolling through Pike Place Market in Seattle, I wandered into Tuuli on First Avenue. Owned and operated by Ulla Freeman, a native of Finland and a proponent of Scandinavian design, the store is charmingly packed with Marimekko designs, colorful wooden necklaces, and darling toys for children of all ages.

TUULI Finland

1407 First Avenue

Seattle Washington 98101

tuuliseattle@gmail.com

nervous energy

Beautiful jewelry (and more) from former
Harvard Graduate School of Design
student, Jessica Rosenkrantz at Nervous System

Brimfield

Beads found at Brimfield + a milk glass tray to keep them organized

Achates

Red agate beads wrapped & strung on a pale blue silk cord.

'Agate enhances creativity and strengthens the intellect, making it
a beneficial stone for both students and artists'

amorphous organic substance

I have always loved the feel of amber... it's waxiness makes it seem as if it is still somewhat liquid. My great grandfather was originally from the island of Fano in Denmark, an area that is considered part of the 'amber belt' of northern Europe.



Traditional dress of Fano, late 1800s

JANE

Grandma Jane, circa 1955
Green Lake, Wisconsin


I restrung my Grandma Jane's square crystal beads
recently and wore them to a holiday party.
So nice to have these mementos to restore
and bring out into the world again!