make a new plan stan

otl aicher's beautiful tickets.

(unrelated to the above) one of my favorite things about wes anderson movies (in addition to the colors, the sets, the dialogue, the fact that i feel like i'm home watching them, the hilarity, the poignancy, the themes, the music...) is the planning. the main characters all have big plans.

max fischer, ultimate planner
royal tenenbaum, schemer
francis l. whitman, itinerary master
steve zissou, crazy expedition coordinator

of course their adventures never go according to plan, but there's so much life in the planning! the disruptions to the course usually precipitate a result similar to (or preferable to) the result these kooks set out to achieve. sometimes the main characters have a hard time letting go of their original plans (max and royal are especially stubborn), but eventually they accept what madness and beauty comes their way.

yesterday mati and i took an ice cream walk and we ended up back at her house brainstorming, making lists and setting plans down. plans are hope, and what is life without hope! i tell you. lately i have been very plan deficient. been feeling lost and wanting/needing a big goal, a next step, but i've felt overwhelmed and worried. uncertain and confused. it's been bringing me down. planning can put one's thoughts on a different track, especially if you plan with someone else.

it is like a wes anderson movie or like john lennon sings, life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. still the planning is half the fun.

spinning over on sew green

profusion

perfect walking weather today.

i am caught up in this book, a trip to the stars.

flickrs
torkel (i love this photo, and it reminds me of that great, angry rage against the machine song {because of the flickr pool it is in})
g (a damn fine letter)
attacked by a monster (aside from being a great photo, reminds me of one of my favorite books as a child, the secret toy machine, which is about a dog named stilt who looks just like astor.)

leaving leaf

an sf leaf necklace for blanche who is leaving sf.

fishies
butterflies
dogs

CENTAUR-fold

here's part (the box) of a graphic design book project i did last semester. it started with an exquisite corpse drawing this evening. erica, karin and peter did the drawing, and then i wrote a little story to go along with it and designed an unfolding book (resembling how an exquisite corpse unfolds). i finally got around to mailing one off to my cousin and peter in sweden a week or so ago, so am posting this now.

(the box should close with a velcro snap, but the paper isn't sturdy enough for that.)

bigger here

looks like summer in sweden

hiya

i'm excited that we are starting sew green posting again on a more regular (weekly!) basis. i think there is going to be a post later today...

thursday flickrs
so sweet
way to home
grand central

just starting to read eat drink one woman, but am digging this new york gal's writing about living in sweden for six months. she's funny!

var ligger trosa? (swedes are almost as bad at geography as americans!)

it did not fall off

one of my favorite things about the bay area is the food—the diversity of restaurants/eateries, the farms, the freshness. i also am fascinated and inspired by the food networks here—the way local farmers and chefs and entrepreneurs support one another. there are now THREE organic ice creameries within a twenty minute walk from my house, all using organic cream from straus farm in marin. straus was the first all organic dairy farm west of the mississippi. (they have also been and are innovative in waste management.)

so today i tried the newest and closest to me of the three creameries in the mission, xanath. i had a cone with huckleberry + chocolate. the huckleberry was delicious! chocolate was good too. i like that i can satisfy my sweet tooth while supporting sustainable farming, truly happy cows and local businesses!

happy midsummer

in little otsu's window, a big teapot of lilli carre's. here is her book.

i wish i was in sweden dancing around the midsummer pole. eating a jordgubbstarta. maybe drinking snaps.

ps. mcewan's the comfort of strangers turned out to have a disturbing ending. but i do recommend saturday.

errr

is how i've felt this week so far. but tomorrow will be better.

seeing sandra's book did make me happy.
as did these guys, found on emma's blog.

i am all about ian mcewan's books lately. so good.

like cockatoos by the cure
the lighthouse by interpol

did you use the word er in the 80's/90's?
how about roust? roust actually turned out to be a word specific to where i grew up. my high school friends and i realized this when we left home and used the word roust regularly in conversation, much to everyone else's confusion. roust can be a verb (to make fun of) or a noun (an act of ridicule). what a roust! it is kind of fun to have a word that only people around your age and from where you grew up use. an identifier.

hey kiddo

when i went to pick up my mom at the san francisco airport a couple days ago, i waited for her at the luggage claim. i sat beneath this great imagine bus exhibit. i didn't write down the name of the artist unfortunately (all elementary school kids), but the one above is called bumblebee house, i remember that. bad photo—sorry.



my mom and i went to the san francisco center for the book exhibit, once upon a book. the exhibit features six children's book illustrators and focuses on their process(es) of creating illustrations. i liked them all, but i especially enjoyed maira kalman's work. so funny--both the text and the paintings. (i finally made the connection that tibor kalman was her husband. i have appreciated them both for a while now.) here's a fun, short youtube of maira talking about her books about pete (who is her dog in real life).

diamonds on the soles of her shoes

dots/diamonds day 6: knitted diamonds

i guess it turned out to be mostly dots/diamonds from my closet this week. i realized i have a lot of old clothes! the above icelandic sweater i bought at a thrift store in sweden in 1991. i still wear it. it smells very wooly. almost makes me feel like bleating. ;-)

there are a lot of good song titles and songs with diamonds in them, huh?!

paul simon and ladysmith black mambazo

sawdust and diamonds
time is the diamond
black diamond bay
diamonds and rust

lucy in the sky with diamonds

dots/diamonds day 5: finally, some dots from outdoors

above is from sf's own seurat (corner of guerrero and 19th).

when i was little, i thought the beatles were singing about peanuts--lucy in the sky with linus.

i think these are dots
definitely dots
diamond legs

germinate

field of diamonds

dots/diamonds week continues indoors

above is my mormor's bag i mentioned here.
and calendar by chris duncan.

johnny

my kind of diamond earrings (not blood diamonds) from susan at sulu

dots when they sleep from hanne
rain in camden dots

headlights look like diamonds

it's another day of dots/diamonds from my closet. honestly i could probably fill two weeks with dots and diamonds from in there. but i do intend to find some outside too. they are everywhere, but none of my outdoor diamond photos from today were remotely interesting.

arcade fire

some diamonds from betsy walton
here and here and here and all over really

shine on you crazy diamond

well, i found these diamonds in my closet. i didn't have time to photo outside today. more polkas and diamonds to come this week!

leavesanddotsdip
mint
dots

let's polka

maybe a polka dots and diamonds week is coming on, if i can manage to take photos during the workdays...

i need to change things up in my rooms. hang some (camilla, sandra and maditi) art i bought/received for xmas. been holding off on buying frames, but maybe they'll just hang from clips for now. it's been so long since i've rearranged. my rooms need a jolt. also feeling cluttered, literally and otherwise.

alan clarke graphics (thanks dp for link)

swedish textiles in the uk: new house textiles

happy weekends!

i really like the new LOVE stamps.

i don't know these people or what the hell they're doing, but they make me grin.

good morning

sky and ocean and trees combined / all the things i am not saying / swirling out into above / out into below / into feathers flying / i watch them like birds from a window / startled and then drifting / and beautiful clouds ache a little, without edges or end

more photoshop doodles

listening to an orbital song that i don't know the name of. wish i did. it's 9 minutes and 29 seconds, if anyone knows...

from josh whitelaw exactly!
pony
saint vincents
from brown cardigan

soon i'm going to get some holgas developed. excited for the ever surprise.

i feel rich

i feel rich when i look at the contents of our weekly produce box. compared to a lot of people in the world i am rich, but compared to people in SF, i don't have a lot of money. aside from rent, i spend my money mostly on food. but to me, that feels right. food is important and delicious! look at all those red jewels—cherries (so sweet), strawberries (so ripe i was forced to make yet another crisp) and peaches! i have always been more interested in veggies than in fruit, but when it comes straight from the tree and is twinkling its shiny sides at me, i do fall for fruit. in fact it's hard to resist eating it all at once! (i just got the culture club i tumble for ya song stuck in my head.)

ps. even though i am rich in food, our csa box is so reasonably priced. i get all the organic fruits and veggies i need for about $13.00 a week.

flickrs

just peeking out with some flickr favorites.
all about color this time (plus of course cute animals, letters and shapes).

small blessing #15
from na'mon
bed just slept in
and now, action
fritz joins bench monday
quirquincho
Welcome

opening

i usually get very nervous about going to bigger social events, but the ccsf aiga opening reception on friday night was so fun, i barely felt nervous at all!

between mounting and cutting labels and running around in general on friday, i went to some stores to look for something fun to wear to the opening. i didn't find anything, so resorted to the seldom-worn, back-of-the-closet items. recovered this skirt that my friend amelie's mom sewed for me in 1992! and since i didn't have a black (or otherwise matching) purse, i ended up carrying a polka-dotted bag that was my mormor's. she often used it when she went on errands. it's a bag she must have received when she attended a women's conference in seoul, korea in 1990. (it says the conference name and date on the bag.) (that would have made her 76 years old on that trip. my mormor traveled all over the world as leader of the women's baptist union. she was not the kind of christian who gives christianity a bad name. she was peace-, justice- and human rights-promoting, forgiving, kind, generous and open-minded.) i think i felt armed with love in my somewhat cobbled together outfit. some photos from the show here.

happy mothers day! ♥

and more roses still

the top photo, and even painting the rose, was inspired by this by heather smith jones.

i used to paint a lot more and have been getting back into it lately. i need to buy some real watercolor paper.

this friday, come here!

these talented svenska tjejer are at it again. so fun and lovely. so many stories.

pretty blogs
one day. i may have linked here before.
plainmade. here too.

hello

a poster i made for a fictional event. it's simple (and a little bit too rave-y), but i like the colors.

there is a venue near where i live called make-out room, and i think it's a fun name for a venue. i called the fictional event kyss mig, which means kiss me in swedish and is pronounced something like shiss may. although i could probably use an advertisement for kissing, i will not be at the make-out room at 9:00 this friday. ;-)

some flickr faves of late
yes please
from o l y
from amalia
131
from todd fisher (ha!)
romy and charlie

man, i heart the sfpl

a bigger one.

today (as usual) there was a crowd of people waiting for the little mission sfpl branch to open. i went up to the new arrivals section, which is where i go when i don't have any particular book i'm looking to check out. a thin, very old lady with frothy white hair perused alongside me. i found several books to take home, including the learners by graphic designer chip kidd. i didn't know he wrote fiction! and judging from the first 30 pages, he writes very engaging and funny fiction. at first i was like, oh god, the type is so small—typical graphic designer! but it's true what they say, that readability depends on line length and leading as well as type size, because i'm not having a problem reading it, even with the 9.5 (or so :-)) point type.

this civil eats post led me here: the migrant project

dear rose,

i'm glad you're blooming in the backyard. shining in the night. the hot nights and the cold ones. i hope your first spring bloom lasts longer than it did last year.


first rose photo this year is a no flash nighttime one! i like how you almost can't see it. and how gold it looks.

jeff sent me this link. it put me in a trance.
as did listening to the pultizer prize winner for poetry, william stanley merwin, reading his poems on fresh air.

friday flickrs (early)

friday flickrs

art
molly's sketchbook: a wedding quilt (beautiful quilt in a beautiful room)
the fox
from heather

people
vika and egor
(laughing not crying)
from o l y
h and his little brother (so white!)

last five on my itunes
west by lucinda williams
let it die by feist
look what you've done for me by al green
no1 in threesome by interpol
balladen om herr fredrik åkare... by ann-kristin hedmark

happy weekends! i can't wait.

easter in sf

i spent about three hours walking back and forth across town today. it was a good day for walking. and for finding these. there were sisters of perpetual indulgence all over the place, dressed to the nines of course in easter egg colored (and every color really) petticoats and gigantic (i'm talking biggest you've ever seen) lacy parasols. plus people dressed in all sorts of sparkly, shiny, skimpy wear. on part of my way home i was walking behind this compact guy in tight black jeans, boots and a mesmerizing shimmery, chainmail-ish, gold blazer-wrap thing. no shirt. very glam. his was maybe the subtlest costume, but still compelling. (maybe it was the strut.) apparently there was a hunky jesus contest too in dolores park. i didn't see any of the hunky jesuses however.

mad world

at home sick today. eating oranges and listening to the royal tenenbaums soundtrack (checked out from the library).

also reviewing adam lambert's beautiful mad world. and the tears for fears version of mad world. (please see the sweet dancing starting at 2:27 seconds.)

eggs + antony + flickrs

the above photo is a follow-up to this post. (i forgot to take a photo before eating lidia's eggs. hers are pointier than the other eggs.) so far henrieta's are winning the taste test, but i have yet to try gracie's.

oh my. i just listened (per jen's recommendation) to the fresh air interview with antony from antony and the johnsons. i love him. gentle, articulate and beautiful! his songs and his words are so moving. i cried through almost the entire interview. here it is.

late friday flickrs:
bits of nature
sea fan
from ana ventura
stormy day

animal cuteness
from molly
five stones and a dog
goat family

tenenbaum tuesday

thank god the tenenbaums are ready for me at the library. i really need to see them. it's time for my circa tri-annual the royal tenenbaums viewing. i should just buy the movie. it's the only movie i see regularly (although sex, lies, videotape and amelie and the science of sleep are very repeatable too).

did you participate in bench monday? it was kind of strange to see all the benches/legs in my flickr contacts' photos. strange, but fun. i had to join in. now i'm finding myself making mental notes of potential bench photo shoot locations out about town. there are a lot of cute benches in this city.

petals for you

just one friday flickr from siri

good weekends!