stars and bars stripes...

source: nypl digital library

ooh wee, ed and i are headin' to the lake house of one of our favorite married couples. sparklers snapping and glittering. fireworks exploding in the sky above a fleet of speed boats, pontoons, and chris-crafts. burgers. stripey shirts and straws. red lipsticked mouths. blue ridge mountains. starry skies. i can't wait. how will y'all be spending the fourth???

p.s this holiday always makes me think of my mom. she has always been proud to be an american, loves to sing "you're a grand ole flag", and we always had plenty of sparklers. and she loves her a good flag.

*it was brought to my attention that "stars and bars" is not slang for the american flag, but the confederate flag. which (personally) is not a flag i would ever celebrate. i apologize for any misunderstandings and am thankful this error was pointed out to me.

on the road again...

i keep telling myself this is the summer where i learn how to drive. and i'm terrified. i love being in cars. i love road trips. i love old cars and stretches of fields. and driving through winding roads and hillsides dotted with old barns and cows. i love driving with the windows down blasting doo wop. and hip hop. and honky tonk. but i'm so scared of being behind the wheel. think good thoughts for me, i think this week i may attempt to be 16 again. give me dirt roads and parking lots. and a lot of courage.

a little preview...

just a few bitty snippets of projects i've been collaborating on. flowers by amy osaba.

summer solstice...

this summer 2010 i am grateful for...

1. sitting outside on quilts. preferably in a sweet, cotton day dress.

2. streamers in trees, and when the wind rushes through them.

3. old, southern, delapidated barns caving in on themselves.

4. playing with flowers. in a car. on a ladder. in an arbor. in a field. in the rain. on the side of the road. in a box with a fox. here and there and everywhere

5. drinking delicious wine from north georgia vineyards after a hard days work.

6. long weekends at the lake with my husband and his family.

7. ridiculously campy, road trip pit-stops(preferably in a penske truck).

this summer is starting off to be one of my favorites yet. even though it is unbearably, criminally, sweat-stinging into-your-eyes, sweltering, no relief-kind of hot this summer. which really is a better excuse to reach for that second glass of (semi)sweet tea.

anne of green gables...

have you ever loved a movie so much when you were younger, and then seen it as an (ugh)adult, and found it a lot more, umm, comical than you had remembered? i adored this tv series and had both anne of green gables and anne of avonlea on vhs. i had completely forgotten how hilariously dramatic anne is!

despite her sensationalism, l.m. montgomery's anne shirley is an endearing, beloved storybook heroine. fiery, fearless, a hapless troublemaker, terrifically smart and impossibly daydreamy. i admire anne for her big heart and wild imagination, and her ability to keep a boy in check. and so many mishaps! raspberry cordial mix-ups, tragic mice drownings in pudding sauce, falling off ridgepoles, and sinking rowboats...eeps!

lovely diana barry. such a purely good victorian girl. a loyal, faithful friend and kindred spirit. her prim and properness reminds me of the samantha american girl doll (who i just found out has been RETIRED-what?! she's the best one!)

anne and diana. a wonderfully dear, sweet friendship. i really have a soft spot in my heart for true blue, thick-and-thin friendship. their story is a good one.

gilbert blythe. poor boy is always neck-and-neck, academically, with the object of his affection. he survives countless snide comments and snubs from anne, and even recovers from a slate being shattered over his head. clearly, he likes the chase. and, he is mighty easy on the eyes, but something about his character seems a little more feminine than i had remembered...

gratuitous fashion shots. i'm like a broken record when it comes to the fashions from 1830-1930. those 100 years were the jam. the details, the colors, the construction. yum.

schoolhouse. a rather key player in this story. where we meet miss stacy, anne's inspiring teacher and mentor. where said slate incident occurs. where anne and gilbert develop a highly competitive rapport. where diana and anne gossip and friendships flourish.

marilla and matthew cuthbert, anne's caretakers. the perfect balance of gentle and stern. matthew is the kind, timid, grandfatherly man who i instantly want to hug. marilla is the curmudgeonly sister whose warmth is revealed, albeit slowly, as the story progresses.

avonlea. prince edward island was one of the top 5 places ed and i had considered honeymooning to. i want to go so badly! the haunted wood, the lake of shining waters, and white way of delight(which reminds me of cherry blossom row). let me flop down in the tall grass with a book and be paddled across the water in a row boat, please!

*funny side-note. the word "bosom" is a word that i have hated since i was a little girl. makes me cringe and squirm. just hate it, so everytime diana and anne refer to themselves as "bosom friends" my skin crawls. blech.

what's in your toolbox?

i just started a new column today on design*sponge, "what's in your toolbox?". miss deanne cheuk, a new york-based artist, kicks off my series of interviews with a variety of creatives from all different industries. here you will be given a glimpse into the spaces where they create, the tools of their trade, and what inspires them. hope y'all like it! thank you grace and amy merrick!
*be sure to check out hayliebird waring and halligan norris' d.i.y columns as well!

happy happy joy joy...

so, i've got some fun news to share! this summer i have been assisting stylist/ creative director of once wed, miss joy thigpen! i have been learning so many new and exciting things through working with her, and have been so lucky to meet so many crazy talented and kind people in the atlanta creative scene. she's been patiently and graciously showing me the ropes in the love business, and duh, i totally love it!

i've been on the fast-track learning flower-arranging, renegade flower-gathering in fields/forests/side of the road, plant and bug identification(ha!), prop-styling, fashion styling, budgeting, environmental 3D-installations, time-management(slowly and surely), photography and lighting tips and tricks, and all sorts of other interesting things- the girl does it all!

today she's sending me off on her behalf for my first solo styling gig and i've got the "first day of school" butterflies. we're shooting in a vineyard-holla! wish me luck, please???!!

p.s the best part of working in the love business, is witnessing creative couples get married. this last wedding we worked, i completely blubbered through their beautifully unique ceremony. and i didn't even know them. unconditional love is the jam.

campfire girls...

on a recent trip to one of my favorite haunts, i found this bound book of goodness buried under layers of dust bunnies. the yummy weathered paper was like a tractor beam, sucking me in.

little did i know, that it was going to be a camp fire girls scrapbook. holy awesome deliciousness!

truth be told, i had never even heard of camp fire girls until a few years ago, and i grew up a mediocre girl scout at best.

but flipping through this book conjures up all sorts of wonderful summertime ideas-campfires, bird-watching, story-telling, flower-identification, hiking, handicrafts. you name it.

the symbols and colors are really beautiful too. i could easily design a whole collection of fabric patterns inspired by this book.

health is something not to be taken lightly!

i love the ideals upheld by the camp fire law. words to live by, and certainly lots of areas where i have room to improve. thank goodness the summer is long.

lolita...

so to kick off my summer reading list, i decided to re-read lolita. i can't believe that he wrote this in english first(russian being his first language). nabakov is the real deal. every sentence is so purely, poetically crafted. okey dokey, so the movie. while the stanley kubrick adaptation is the ultimate classic, i really have always loved adrian lyne's provocative, updated interpretation.

behold, the visual delight that is rocking my summer reading...

a glimpse of humbert humbert's first love, annabel. she is so stunning.

oh to be a young girl.

i kind of love melanie griffith. she is a way saucier mother haze than shelly winters.

lo. lolita. dolly. dolores. i love the scene where she eats the raspberries by the glow of the fridge.

dominique swain is totally giving me claire danes in the first picture, right?

all the food lolita eats is so dang tempting. milkshakes, raspberries, popsicles, bubblegum, bananas. straight up fashion food editorial goodness.

i want heidi braids and red lipstick. if only middriff tops looked appropriate on girls over the age of 8.

well, i had to include some shots of the, umm... romance. it's kind of a major part of the story. however creepy and inappropriate it may be.

****oh, and as a side note, i just found out nabokov was a lepidopterist. the man collected butterflies. awesome.

****and the only thing missing from this film is the 1960s red heart-shaped glasses.