sunday sunday

I don't know about you but I love quiet Sunday mornings. I especially love Sunday mornings when I'm up early and J and Stells are still asleep. I'm able to drink a cup of tea in one sitting. Read the paper. Listen to Bill Evans. And look forward to the day with my loves. Sundays usually mean a trip to the Temescal Farmer's Market (if we haven't made it to the Grand Lake market on Saturday) for mango lassi (Stella's favorite), bread sticks (J's favorite), fresh produce (my favorite), and music. We usually run into someone we know so that's a bonus. Today we also have a birthday party on the agenda and an early dinner at our place with friends. We're getting some pizzas from Boot & Shoe and I'm going to make Suzanne Goin's Fresh Goat Cheese and Radicchio Salad with Figs and pumpkin cookies and our friends are bringing beer and sorbet.

Happy Sunday!

stella's current fave books

Mem Fox's A Giraffe in the Bath

Stephen Krensky's Now I Am Big

Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Little Pea

Chris Van Allsberg's The Polar Express

skinny laminx wishlist

Cushion cover : Orla in fog

Smock dress : Cloudbirds in blackboard

Tea towel : Mushroom in peat

Cushion cover : Colts in teal

The Alexander Sack : Herds in grey

Shop all Skinny laMinx.

loving this look

Kate Brien over on Refinery.

Happy Friday!

[photo by Emily Knecht]

when our firstborn slept in

My breasts hardening with milk--little seeps
leaking into the folded husband
hankies set into the front curves
of the nursing harness--I would wander around
the quiet apartment when her nap would last a little
longer than usual. When she was awake, I was
purpose, I was a soft domestic
prowling of goodness--only when she slept
was I free to think the thoughts of one
in bondage. I had wanted to be someone--not just
someone's mom, but someone, some one.
Yet I know that this work that I did with her
lay at the heart of what mattered to me--was
that heart. And still there was a part of me
left out by it, as if exposed on a mountain
by mothering. And when she slept in,
I smelled the husks of olive rind
on that slope, I heard the blue knock
of the eucalyptus locket nut, I
tasted the breath of the wolf seeking
the flesh to enrich her milk, I saw the
bending of the cedar under the sea
of the wind--while she slept, it was as if
my pierced ankles loosed themselves
and I walked like a hunter in the horror-joy
of the unattached. Girl of a mother,
mother of a girl, I paced, listening,
almost part-fearing, sometimes, that she might have stopped
breathing, knowing nothing was anything, for me,
next to the small motions as she woke,
light and wind on the face of the water.
And then that faint cry, like a
pelagic bird, who sleeps in flight, and I would
turn, pivot on a spice-crushed heel,
and approach her door.

From One Secret Thing by Sharon Olds.

Thanks to my mom for sending me this last week. I read it while Stella napped, relishing the quiet and the solitude to savor the words.

gold booties

Yes, Emerson Fry. Yes.

michael chabon & brokeland records

Diesel transformed

Dave Eggers introducing Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon reading from Telegraph Avenue

My dear friend Melissa was in town this week for work which was awesome for me as I really don't get to see her enough because she lives in Portland. In addition to some great meals out (Bar Jules, Axis Cafe, Pizzaiolo) we went to the release party/reading for Michael Chabon's new book Telegraph Avenue. It seemed only natural that we would attend the event given that we met as booksellers at Diesel years ago. As I mentioned in a previous post, Diesel was transformed into Brokeland Records as an homage to the fictional record shop in the book. For the event on Wednesday night the store was PACKED and there was a line of people out the door waiting to be let in to enjoy Chabon's reading from the book, cake and beer, and a raffle for 826 Valencia (soon to set up shop in Oakland!). We went, we listened, we chatted to old friends and regulars of Diesel, and then we went for Pizzaiolo pizza... a darn-near perfect evening.

tauba auerbach

Components in Order, 2005. By Tauba Auerbach.

[via Ian Claridge]

hallelujah grizzly bear

The new Grizzly Bear album "Shields" is streaming over on NPR right now. Hallelujah.

romance

"Romance" by Jarek Puczel.

[via Ana]

fall tea collection

I'm loving these Nordic-inspired fall Tea Collection dresses right now. So cute!

stripes

I've been wearing the sh*t out of this preppy striped sweatshirt. I don't know how my wardrobe existed without it...

walloon lake

We're back from 11 relaxing days in Michigan. We spent some quality times with Jordan's Mom, and Mary and Ben came for a quick visit over the weekend. We sat on the dock, we got coffee in Petoskey, we browsed the shelves at McLean & Eakin, bought sandwiches and other sundries at Symons General Store, we brunched with Jordan's Mom at Stafford's Bay View Inn (a Sunday tradition), we stocked up on wine and beer and Jeni's ice cream (my favorite flavor was in fact the lemon blueberry frozen yogurt) at Boyne Country Provisions, we went for ice cream runs to Kilwin's, we grilled (Ben brought up some amazing meats from his local butcher), we hunted for produce at the Boyne City farmer's market, Stella dug in the sand and floated in her floatie, Jordan swam, we went for walks, and we took a few boat rides. One of my favorite things about visiting Walloon is going for boat rides in the evening when the sky and the air and the water are just magical.

We made sure to stop by McLean & Eakin our second day in Michigan to stock up on books. I went on a book bender and finished 5 books on the trip: Steve Martin's An Object of Beauty, Jo Nesbo's Nemesis, Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang, Charles Cumming's A Foreign Country, and Stephen Dau's The Book of Jonas (which I actually brought in my suitcase).

A lovely, lovely trip...