Man, these guys are cool

I heart Buck Owens:


I also heart Roger Miller (on the Muppet Show, check it!):

OK, I already cracked...

OK. I cracked. Three days into my shopping freeze & I already made my first non-essential purchase. But! But! It's very special & I've been looking for a copy available for sale in the US for literally years. Not only did I find what I was looking for, but it's an original vintage copy. So, hmmm, vintage is used, is it not? Looks like I just squeezed it through one of my loopholes. Three cheers for loopholes!

Pluk van de Petteflet by Annie M.G. Schmidt & illustrated by Fiep Westendorp

I neither read nor speak Dutch, but I can sorta understand the international language of gorgeousness. Isn't Fiep Westendorp the most exquisite illustrator?

Der Struwwelpeter

Baby M is obsessed with this book and it's kinda making me worry. I know it's a classic, but dang. I don't know if it's a good idea for her to be looking at this. Every story ends with some naughty kid getting punished in some bizarre moralistic way. Death by fire anyone? Or drowning? Or how about that tailor who snips off the fingers of the bad children who won't let their parents trim their fingernails? I'm sure they had it coming.

Spending fast, not quickly

Joslyn of Simple Lovely issued a challenge: no new purchases for three months. I'm in.

Here are my ground rules:
- groceries, toiletries & house stuff (home improvement, gardening, etc.) are okay
- purchasing used things is okay
- gifts for others & items for my quickly growing daughter are okay, if done mindfully
- things purchased on trips are okay, if done mindfully (I am going to NYC in February (yay!) and it would be cruel, cruel, cruel to not allow myself to pick up a lovely thing or two from Muji or Purl Soho)

(Pretty forgiving, eh? Well, I'm hoping this will be part of a lifestyle shift, not just a crash diet.)

My reasons are five-fold. It is not, as my husband joked, to drive the knife deeper into our faltering economy, but to be more aware of the difference between want & need, to go on a consumption diet after the holiday gluttony, to make more & buy less, to keep a little more money in our pockets for a rainy day, and to bring less stuff into our teensy house.

The last reason is a clincher. We have a very small house & yet appreciate openness, light & airiness in a home, so the less we have, the better. We also must approach furnishing & decorating our home as an editor or curator must. Ideally, our house should have very few things visible and all of them must be things we love. The idea of my husband & I as curators is very appealing to me right now, especially after reading this article, which describes how some struggling museums have revitalized themselves in the weakening economy by looking into their vaults & reorganizing what they already have. It's such a basic concept & one that I hope to keep in mind as the years go by.

A scarf from my closet to change up a winter outfit. A dear old packed-away polka dot table cloth pulled out to freshen up the dining room. Things like these will be my secret weapon in staving off want.

Who else is in?

Life of Pianos

via lark-about

Ring Around the Rosy

This morning, Baby M kept looking at me & saying Asheh Asheh. It took me a minute to realise that she was asking to play Ring Around the Rosy, a game we had only played twice before and several weeks ago, at that. So, I took her hands, sang the song & walked in a circle with her & she sat down at the Asheh Asheh part. Of course, we had to do this over & over again.

It is so amazing to me how much she remembers & takes in. It gets me every time.

Illustration from Kate Greenaway's Mother Goose

A walk in the park

This morning, M & I went to Central Market on 35th Street to pick up what turned out to be many, many bags of groceries. Before I buckled her into the cart, though, we took a turn through the little park behind the store. M walked up & down the steep embankments to the wet pond, we greeted a few dogs & little old ladies, then stood on an arched bridge & fed the ducks (so many different kinds here this winter!)

It's a tiny urban park, but you'd never guess it from these photos.

Grackles & ducks:

Baby locks no more

Yesterday, I took M to get her first haircut. It was a bit sad to see those sweet, soft locks fall to the ground, but really, that mullet had to go. She has the cutest little bob now, very classic baby girl style. Here she is waiting to get her hair cut:
The shop has little cars for the kids to sit in while they get their hair done.

They have little video screens too. M watched her first ever Elmo show & got very, VERY excited... and then very, VERY agitated when Snuffleupagus appeared. Can you blame her? Creepy!

More fun with pins

White paper doilies with orange thumbtacks: brilliant.

From citipix via Fieldguided

Newness Ends

(image of Austin's First Night Parade by the talented Gretchen O'Neil)

New Year's Resolutions:
1. Get a designated sewing area set up & my Pins & Needles business started.
2. Make more, buy less
3. Bring more of 'me' back into my life.
4. More rock, less talk.