RIP

I'm not a big jewelry person. I like it, but I've found I seldom wear it. This is one exception.

I

It's a Victorian memory locket, the real deal from the 1880s. I'd wanted one for years and years and finally bought this for myself for an extra-special Chirstmas gift since it was fucking pricey.

As you can kind of see, there's (blonde) hair stuck into the inside on the left panel. It was hidden when I got it by a little piece of cardboard which had been cut to fit. It hadn't been included in the description on the website, so I emailed the dealer from whom I bought it, and even she hadn't spotted it. That kind of made me feel like a supercool detective.
I am sure some people find this kind of thing creepy and revolting, but I think of it as historical and beautiful in the same way that I think mummies are beautiful and intriguing. The cord from which it's hung is not original, but you can't win them all.

Coincidental word: Malkintrash- One in dismal garb. Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose. I came across this word a few years ago in said Dictionary and mentally bookmarked it as a potential name for my future super-amazing dream shop.

villa villekula

 
    About five months ago, I moved into a yellow cabin way out in the forest in Tennessee. To get to the house, you turn off a normal street and drive back down a gravel road through trees and fields for about a mile. My closest neighbors are thus about a mile away.  Every time I come home, it's kind of magical to me: a little yellow cabin in the forest with a green roof and a red front door, surrounded by trees. It's in the middle of 365 acres of land, some of which has been parceled out by the woman who owns it (from whom I am renting the yellow house) to farmers who grow hay, and some of which is being rented as pasture to a retiree who keeps horses. His pasture abuts my backyard, and I routinely begin my mornings by doing a double take out the back window at the giant animals walking around casually about fifty feet away. I still haven't gotten used to the horse thing.

   One crazy magical thing about living out here is that I am always finding amazing things literally just lying around. For example, yesterday I was out in the yard taking pictures, and I happened to notice a metal object stuck into a tree trunk, above eye level. When I came across it, it looked like this:

I took it inside.

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Incidentally, every bedroom I've ever had looks like a variation on the same theme, but my bedroom in this house is, without a doubt, my favorite of them all.

I am moving back to Chicago in October, and I know I am going to miss my Pippi Longstocking house like balls.

Mitte, we belong together

I miss you, but no worries; we'll be reunited this August. Alterschonhaus Strasse? I'll be the one hugging the buildings.

Also: I had a dream last night which prominently featured Email Diamant toothpaste.

BRIGHT CARPET

                                       

Two new terms:

1) chatoyant: iridescent, shot (varying in color when seen in different lights or from different angles) "changeable taffeta"; "chatoyant (or shot) silk"; "a dragonfly hovered, vibrating and iridescent." From the French chat, due to the reflective quality of cats' eyes.
2) tapetum lucidum: This is also called "eyeshine." When you see an animal's eyes caught in a flashlight or the headlights of your car and you see the bright reflection - this is because of the tapetum lucidum, a structure on the back of the eye. In Latin, this means "bright carpet."

Cropped shirt by MM6 from, where else, creatures of comfort.

smoking pine needles

 Girls from lame fashion-y style websites; net bag from kioskkiosk.com; Creativity for Everyone (a collective which features and supports the art of the mentally ill or disabled, out of California) piggies t-shirt; t-shirt and skirt in the works from Salvor Projects, and Hunter boot.

I'm in Chicago, feeling inspired and getting excited for Spring. I'm feeling hot pink, yellow, and hunter green together. Lately I've been having bad dreams at night. I'm hoping the warm weather will bring better ones.

BIG MISTAKE

A couple of years ago, I interned at a business in Auroville (a bizarrely wonderful utopian commune in India),which used natural dyes and organic fibers to create denim for brands like Nudie, Sharkah Chakra, etc. The people were sweet and the work was endlessly fascinating. Dirty bare feet, daily moped accidents, indigo vats that smelled like piss... oh India, how I miss you. All pictures by yours truly.

stuffe und dinge

Second picture is a slime mold; third picture is of a psychedelic mushroom flakeout ceremony in Germany somewhere; fourth image from the Cobrasnake; fifth is a bag called a "komebukuro" from the Edo period, made of pieces of very old kimono (found on intelligentclashing and for sale somewhere in NYC); the provenance of the other three I've forgotten.