happy Memorial Day weekend

(image by Laure Joliet via aubrey road tumblr)

pop-color sun hats

beautiful sun hats for Laundry by Shelli Segal

(available here.)

the shell has to be cracked

You always knew how to enjoy a lover, 

whether crayfish or lobster, the shell has 

to be cracked, you said, it's impossible 

to love & stay 

whole.

- Mary di Michele, 'Crown of Roses'

(image via Le Love)

clouds dripping.

via Tittenhurst Park

old family photos

my (amazing) parents

On his old sailboat, Brie

On Brie

rainy green days.

 

White Gate Vineyards

White Gate Vineyards is a small vineyard my father cultivated on Block Island, Rhode Island. With no professional training or help, he did everything from clearing the land to planting, maintaining, & harvesting.  After 10 years of tedious & dedicated work, he made his first bottle of wine in 2008 (our garage serves as the facility for this.)  How he found time to do this while maintaining his corporate job is beyond comprehension! In any event, the White Gate world he has created (named for his former side hobby of gate-making...see photos below) is absolutely gorgeous & charming. The cases of homegrown & produced wine are an added bonus to this beauty. More about his appellation, Falaises (which means 'cliffs' in French,) to come.

 

 

things that are beautiful

Much of my inspiration to start this blog came from a folder on my computer called "things that are beautiful" which I created a couple of years ago before I had any intention of blogging.  This folder is filled with images from around the web that I've collected for various reasons--it's my digital inspiration board.  Here are some selections from the folder that involve people as subjects--enjoy!

Unknown

Unknown (but I do recall this is a young, Norwegian photographer.)

Unknown

We <3 It

The Selby

A Cup of Jo via Lost via Rolling Stone

Water for Elephants

from May 2011 Vogue Magazine

  (image)

ocean craving

a salty life is a good life

(image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4)

Columbia Farmers' Market

Today, with the sun finally out, I picked up some plants to put on my tiny balcony.

Cat Nip, Arugula, Impatiens

a note about cats

Nico

I am a cat lover, not to be confused with a crazy-cat-lady as most cat skeptics label anyone who loves felines.  My cat Nico, now 3, was rescued from a shelter in Brooklyn by my sister Tracy who is also a lover of these amazing animals.  Nico has kept me sane during this extremely rainy week in NYC (2.5 inches measured in Central Park yesterday!) He is a true lovebug.

Savage Beauty

"I’m a romantic schizophrenic.” -Alexander McQueen

  

I went to see this exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. Walking through the exhibit felt like walking through an alternate world. McQueen's thought-provoking work is combined with video and haunting music to complete the experience.  It was dark, melodic and provocative to say the least.

The dress above, named "Oyster" dress, comes from McQueen's collection Irere from 2003 which tells the story of a shipwreck.  Such an interesting concept for fashion! I now imagine Miranda from Shakespeare's The Tempest wearing this on her deserted island. Learn more about Irere here and see more from Savage Beauty below.

(All images from the Metropolitan Museum blog.  Click on images for sources)

Stellar Person: Erin Ostreicher, Floral Designer

Erin Ostreicher graduated Skidmore College in 2007 with a degree in English and studio art.  After spending a year working at a small publishing house in Burlington,Vermont, Erin left publishing to pursue a combination of her greatest passions: flowers and art.  She spent a season working on an organic flower farm in Vermont before returning to her hometown of Westport, Connecticut to attend an intensive floral design program at the New York Botanical Gardens.  Since receiving her certificate in floral design, she has worked at various florists while making a name for herself in the business as an independent floral designer.  Her latest venture is the construction of an intensive organic garden in her yard that will yield several varieties of flowers for her to use in her arrangements and sell as bouquets at the Westport Farmers Market which begins on May 26th.  Although she is still waiting for her seeds to flower, I took a trip to Westport to see the birth of her garden and discuss how she has admirably made her passions her life.

What is your floral philosophy? 

I’m still figuring it out but I think what excites me the most is to create pieces that look both like they’re natural and sort of growing in the container and sort of free and wild but then also have some element to it that makes it look like it’s also its own form of art.  So, combining the two and trying to stay away from conventional, boring designs.   

beauty of maps

geographical wallpaper

 

(photo credits unknown)

barnacle blues

Barnacles belong to the class 'Cirripedia' which means 'curl-footed' in Latin. If you forget about the corrosive damage they cause to man-made objects such as this sailboat, the name is almost cute.  I love their contrast with the blue -- such fascinating creatures!

barnacles inhabiting the side of Solstice, a 1970's O'Day sailboat

for all the cartwheels you're doing for me.

An intriguing newspaper blackout by artist Austin Kleon

thoughts on summer...

 (photo by Sandrine le Gal)

fearing their power

According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.

- Plato’s the Symposium via teachingliteracy

I am as far as memory.

I am as far as cicadas and locusts and you are as far as the cleanest arrow that has sewn the wind to the light on the birch trees. I am as far as the sleep of rivers that stains the deepest sky between clouds, you are as far as invention, and I am as far as memory.

 - Susan Stewart, Yellow Stars and Ice 

the way he knows the rooms she keeps inside her.

 He knows the places in the river where eels will collect under the ice the way he knows the rooms she keeps inside her.  He has walked through damp entryways and unlit corridors, opened doors, crossed thresholds.  He has stretched himself out on her floor.  He sleeps there until its hardness gives way underneath him.

- Dawn Clifton Tripp, Moon Tide