same old sweet song, different tune...

today i am grateful for...

unabashedly, wildly, madly loving being a girly girl. even though i have married a manly man, i can't give it up. i can just mildly contain it to my studio.

savannah, georgia circa 2007. photo taken by emily searle.

east village, new york circa 2008.

this room makes me smile when i get dressed in the morning. i see bits and pieces of all the people i love. so many treasures in here were gathered in georgia or given to me by dear pals/ family. and it makes my heart feel so very full. and hi, i love love.

sleepy hollow...

today i am grateful for...

philipsburg manor

sneaking out of the city with friends. chelsea cook, john gardner, and i hopped the train to sleepy hollow, new york for a sunday adventure. chelsea led us to philipsburg manor, a historic house on a sprawling 52, 000 acre plot of land.

walking through the cow barn, we were greeted by hanging gourds, corn, herbs, and horsetails.

and i met my first barn kitty, mischief.

and i found where they keep their sheep.

all cameras had to be put away once we entered the house for our tour. it's a shame because their were lots of charming bits of history i would have loved to share. particularly the sugar cones, fabric swatch books, and kitchen table.

a little fall still-life. my thermos and heart sunglasses.

my sweet chelsea cook.

chelsea's favorite view as we made our return.

the golden hour. i collected leaves like a mad woman. i even naughtily broke some low branches off. i'm terrible.

even the duckies came by to say farewell.

it was a beautiful day with beautiful friends. public transportation is so good to me, a girl who doesn't know how to drive. little day trips to escape the city is very good for the soul. we also hit up the sweetest antique shop (photos for later). and read scary stories aloud on the train ride back. it was a perfect fall day.

ballet shoes...

today i am grateful for...

indulging in a obscenely girly movie after a looooong day of cleaning.

please netflix ballet shoes. the film tells the tale of three little orphan girls, the fossil sisters, who enroll in a dance academy to raise money during hard financial times. this is a movie to watch alone or with your best gal pals. definitely encourage the boys to turn their attention elsewhere.

meet the fossil girls...

pauline.

petrova.

posy.

the film is set in 1930s england and the costumes and the props are just so utterly charming. every kitchen and backstage, dressing room scene gets my wheels turning. mercury glass mirrors. enamel bowls and mugs. floral lights over a bed. a giant, old wooden swing. airy floral day dresses. pink, rouged cheeks. hairbows, turbans, curls, and fingerwaves. i feel like i'm flipping through an anthropologie or toast catalogue. oh, and the camp scene with fabric tents and garlands in the trees? it reminds me of a haylie bird waring birthday party of sorts.

and there is an alice in wonderland scene. big bonus points.

and miss posy has given my some good hair-inspiration for when my hair finally gets to that awkward in-between short and long stage.

and there is a wedding scene in the end. with amazing heart confetti and a lovely 1930s veil.

i would put this movie in the same category as miss pettigrew lives for a day, or a little princess. not exactly think-pieces but absolutely adorable and easy on the eyes. i'm all for indulging in guilty pleasure movies.

ghost's night out....

one last halloweenie post...

souvenirs has an amazing selection of spooky halloween imagery. who doesn't like to get a little scared?

garden of magic...

today i am grateful for...

celebrating a gloomy halloween morning at green-wood cemetery with chelsea rose cook and haylie bird waring. i can't think of any better way to jump start the day. haylie actually introduced this cemetery to me in the summer, and i had been waiting to go back ever since. i kept wishing we would see the ghost of a little girl. in savannah i always wanted a young child to haunt our creaky three-story house. alas, i never got my wish.

the light was eerie. thick grey clouds loomed above, threatening to open up on us. and the whole graveyard was awash in a hazy film. but every once in a while, the sun would pierce through the trees.

the girls came prepared with broken in lace-up leather boots, beat up leather backbacks, and crawly spider brooches.i did not get the memo and came in my lynn yaeger costume...

...but really i just looked like a triplet of belleville or winifred sanderson. oh well.

pretty girls make graves.

we saw plenty of bewitching headstones and tombs.

and a dead birdie. rest in peace mildred. you were a very good bird.

and i learned how to use the timer on my camera.

and we released my squash in the lily pond, and i made a halloween wish.

and as i left the woods, i realized i was being followed...

my wish came true. i've always wanted to be haunted by a little girl ghost. i guess it's true what they say...
be careful what you wish for...

there must be rain to have a rainbow...

today i am grateful for...

the citizens band. tonight chelsea cook, mandy, and i schlepped in the rain to the henry street settlement to see this traveling troupe of vaudevillian, bawdy, naughty, flappery, gypsy, victorian, glittery, magical, ethereal jewels. i'm not just using my favorite adjectives liberally and sensationally... they really are all those wonderful things. us girls kept bouncing in our seats and nudging eachother throughout the entire show. i had goosebumps. i giggled. i teared up. i swooned a thousand times over. the show, "debt rattle" was set in a 1930s post-depression dance contest reminiscent of the film "they shoot the horses, don't they?"( and alexander mcqueen's spring 2004 runway collection) with a touch of the "red shoes". the costumes alone set my world on fire... glittery headpieces, 30s frizzy bobs, dark eyes and sparkly eyeliner, and lots and lots of sequins, silk and chiffon, and loads of frilly lingerie.

and the pipes on the actors... holy smokes. karen elson and zoe kravitz made me cry. sirens. every. last. one. karen's song was this somber, bewitching ballad and zoe sang this bittersweet, gentle lullaby. i wasn't even expecting it. their voices blew me away.

and miss sarah sophie flicker... sigh. she is my muse. i think she and karen elson always manifest in some way or another in my girlie drawings.

and not to be too fangirly, but the audience happened to be an all-star cast as well. kate lanphear. erin fetherston. heather marks. agyness deyn. pretty much all my girl crushes minus claire danes and lara stone. if i wasn't so dang old, too old to be still this excited, i would have pulled a vintage ginnybranch stelling move and been really awkward and chatted them up, blushing the whole time. thankfully, at 25, i have some self-restraint. some.

so, if anyone has the chance to see the citizens band perform, go. i might just have to quit my day job and be a citizens band-aid... just kidding. maybe.