elephantine

linea + TGIF

(Linea paper garland strands – layered and lovely.)

Happy weekend!

Martha knows best + Scenes from a trip, Part I

(Some Thanksgiving table setting inspiration from Martha... isn't that last one hilarious?)

On one of our afternoons spent at Waikiki Beach, I was knee-high in the cool, calm ocean when a guy waded over and said to me, "Big waves out here today."

"What?" I asked.

"The huge waves! They're the biggest I've ever seen them out here."

"Uh huh," I said. The waves, if you could call them that, were about as wild as bathwater. Either the guy was crazy, or he was just really bad at pickup lines. Either way, I didn't want to find out.

I pretended like I had something important to do and walked back to the beach. "How was it?" Stefan asked when I returned to our little setup of sunscreen and cheap straw beach mats and sand-speckled water bottles.

"Good," I said. "Just watch out for the huge waves."

lotta helleberg

(Prettiness from lotta helleberg.)

Hawaii.

(See this larger on my Flickr.)

I'm back!

Thanks for all your warm wishes while I was gone.

Trip highlights: slept & read & and drank a complimentary Mai Tai (!) on the airplane, drove past fields upon fields of pineapples, cooed over the parrots in the hotel lobby, found my favorite rice-and-seaweed triangles at the omnipresent ABC Stores, pet a ginormous black dog that resembled the dragon from The NeverEnding Story, fell asleep poolside, tried not to step on any crabs in the ocean, spent all of Saturday in celebration of our friends' wedding, woke up one morning to a rainbow, watched teenagers surf along the north shore, stopped by a hula, devoured dried papaya and Lava Flows, finally got used to the timezone change by the end of the trip, came back to home sweet home.

Calypso St. Barth + The things people say

(These looks from Calypso St. Barth...swoon!)

(Yes, this is still a vacation post.)

Some tidbits overheard last week...

1. "So, I have to ask...(tentative pause)...do you still like nachos?" "Yeah... not as much when I'm traveling, though. I guess that's what people know me for, huh? That one guy used to call me 'Nach'."

2. "You don't know me like I know me! You don't know me like I know me!" (No, I was not on the set of Jerry Springer.)

3. "No, no, no. Don't lick them. These stamps are stickers, see? The backs peel off. We don't lick stamps anymore in America."

Sue London + Marais + Achoo!

(Can't get these flats by Sue London & Marais out of my head.)

(Yes, this is still a vacation post.)

Earlier this year, when we were first thinking about getting a dog (seriously thinking, I should say; I'd wanted a dog since I was a kid), one of our main concerns was barking. I cringed at the thought of adopting a seemingly quiet dog that would start barking its adorable little mouth off the minute we got home. Angry calls from neighbors, a scared kitty... nobody wants that.

But we were lucky with Bodhi. He only barks if he senses someone outside, and usually it's a soft warning bark first. He can even "speak", aka bark, on command. When instructed to, his barks are cute and quiet, since he knows we are inside and therefore he must use his Quiet Inside Bark.

The other day, Stefan was trying to get Bodhi to do his cute Quiet Inside Bark. Bodhi wasn't in the mood. He whined. He squirmed around. "I don't want to bark, like, don't you get it?" his expression said. And then finally his mouth opened. He was about to comply – it looked like he was about to – and instead he sneezed all over Stefan. An 85-pound-dog sneeze.

Those are big ones, if you haven't guessed.

Brown crush + Alice Hoffman

(Loving these: sadie olive briefcase, nemres oxfords, dores necklace, white owl necklace.)

(Yes, this is still a vacation post.)

I needed a new book recently, and after about an hour of scanning the bookstore shelves, I cracked open Local Girls by Alice Hoffman and instantly knew it was exactly what I wanted. I love this passage:

I went out to the beach late, later than I'd be allowed to if anyone knew I was alive. That's where I met Jonathan Rabbit, who is now in love with me. He is known as Jack Rabbit, which makes me laugh out loud. Doesn't it figure that the boy who fell for me would be a rodent? He lives in Atlanta and is in the ninth grade, and frankly he's terribly boring. I let him kiss me once, but believe me, I did not hear bells. I only heard the jellyfish sloshing around in the water and the noisy beat of Jack Rabbit's heart.

When a writer succeeds at being both snarky and poignant in the same paragraph, you've hit the jackpot.

mixtape number ten

(Yes, this is still a vacation post.)

Mix number ten is a little potpourri of some well-loved songs and some newly-loved songs. DM Stith and Beach House are my latest musical crushes... I had a really hard time choose just one song from each. Happy listening!

The tracklist:
1. Percussion Gun (White Rabbits)
2. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (Fleet Foxes)
3. You Came to Me (Beach House)
4. Nostrand (Ratatat)
5. Tymps / The Sick in the Head Song (Fiona Apple)
6. Little Brother (Grizzly Bear)
7. Thanksgiving Moon (DM Stith)
8. Give Me a Reason to Love You (Portishead)
9. Green Fields (The Good, The Bad and The Queen)
10. The Guns of Brixton (The Clash)
11. Your Hand in Mine (Explosions in Sky)

Tortoise Loves Donkey + Chihuly

(I really need some of these Tortoise Loves Donkey goodies for my desk.)

(Yes, this is a vacation post.)

The day before Halloween, I was on the bus when someone started yelling, "Chihuly! It's Chihuly, the glass artist!" Sure enough, Dale Chihuly was slowly making his way down the sidewalk.

"Huh?" asked another bus passenger. "You mean that pirate–er, I mean, the big guy with the eyepatch?"

Dale Chihuly is a man of intricate glass sculptures, a man of large stature, and, yes, a man with an eyepatch.

I couldn't believe that the day I spotted the only eyepatch-wearing artist I know of was the day before Halloween. As well as the fact that a few blocks further down the street was a little boy actually dressed up as a pirate. He was all decked out in costume, except for one little detail: he didn't have an eyepatch.

Bon voyage!

Stefan and I are off to Hawaii in the morning! Our friends are getting married on Saturday, and then we're sticking around for a few days after that to relax & enjoy the island life. I can't wait to be lying in the sun with a good book, a tropical drink, and nothing on my To Do list.

And since I'd hate for my blog to just sit here idling, I've prepared some posts in advance for you guys. For those of you who like the mixtapes, there's one of those thrown into the bunch, too.

So bon voyage, later gator, hasta la vista! Have a wonderful week.

Sarah McNeil + Romance at its best

(Isn't Sarah McNeil's shop just darling?)

We were in the store last night looking for a wedding card for our friends when I spotted a rather depressing one.

It said, "To my husband: Our relationship may not be the happily-ever-after story we imagined, but it doesn't mean our story doesn't count. I've valued every moment of our time together – the ups and downs – and I want to tell you that no matter what, I will always love you. Happy Anniversary."

Maybe I missed something, but it's not exactly the most romantic thing to simply reassure your significant other that your relationship isn't so bad. It's kind of like the card is saying, "Hey, we both know this is a shaky marriage. But at least you got this card out of it!"

I can't even imagine being on the receiving end of that card.

(Unless it was given as a joke. And then I would hang it on the fridge, and forever cherish it.)

Adam Pearson + My feet feel fine

(Monica recently posted some photos by food stylist Adam Pearson. Um, yummers.)

On occasion, I'll be assigned a project at work that yields extra benefits. I just started working on a Japanese sock website, and so, to my delight, I received several pairs of Japanese socks. Comfy? Yes. Helpful for understanding the brand? Yep. Humorous? Most definitely, because of the inevitable Engrish on the label. This socks will keep your foot fine, the package tells me. And I can confirm that, yes, my foot is now indeed quite fine.

Need Supply Co. + Failed at Halloween

(Need Supply Co. is calling my name again...)

I was all pumped up for trick-or-treaters yesterday. We had an ample supply of candy. Bodhi was dressed up in a mini Mariners jersey. I'd cut a ghost out of paper and strung it from the front porch, and it was swaying spookily in the breeze. I even swept the steps to our house, so no kiddies would slip on a slick clump of leaves.

But nobody came. Silence, silence, silence... so I finally shrugged it off. Forgot about it. Got absorbed in other things.

Just after eight o'clock, a knock. I jumped up and raced over to the door, thinking, "Who will it be?! A hot dog? A Michael Jackson? Maybe a turtle!"

It was a teenager. He was not dressed up. He clutched a pillowcase bulging with candy. And as he reached for some of ours, he didn't even smile, but just oogled at the video game paused on our TV.

happy halloween, lovelies!

If you are wondering if that is me as a bumblebee back in the 80's, the answer is yes.

(Bumblebees wear maryjanes, in case you didn't know.)

Hope yours is a good one.

Eredel Illustration + My, what big teeth you have!

(Krissy shared these illustrations recently...aren't they fantastic?)

We had Halloween festivities today at work, and some people also brought their kids in for trick-or-treating. The kids are cute to begin with, but the cutest costume by far was the little girl outfitted as Little Red Riding Hood... and their family dog on a leash behind her dressed up as the big bad wolf.

And how, you might ask, was the dog dressed up, exactly? He was wearing a froufrou white nightcap and nightgown, of course. And he looked absolutely incredibly hilarious.