noel

just a few snaps from the holiday weekend...

these adorable knee-socks were a Christmas present from my mom-- aren't they sweet?  the blue dots remind me of little robin's eggs.

and now I'm snuggled under a blanket and watching Sex and the City and making things.  I am a happy girl.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas weekend!

♥

christmas kitty ♥

It's so close to Christmas!

I've had so much fun playing with this adorable game from Everyday Cute.  It's dress-up Pusheen the Cat!

Here's one of the ways that I decorated Pusheen and her cute little world.

make your own dressed-up Pusheen here.  You can decorate her Christmas tree, too!

♥

procrastination station

Y'know what I should be doing right now?

Packing to go home tomorrow.

Y'know what I'm actually doing?

Pretty much everything else.  Seriously.  I just darned my socks. 

Alright, so random life updates until I get back in the groove of blogging and can come up with actual paragraphs!

(No, really.  I think this is the result of being on twitter way too much, I'm thinking in 140 characters or less.)

♥ Remember my end-of-semester Anthropologie bonanza?  And how I said I was going to feel silly when the Braided Toggle Sweatercoat went on sale after I paid the semi-ridiculous full price for it?  I wasn't predicting it would go on sale within five days, as did the Mushroom Picking Chemise. So I got an amazing price adjustment even though I was on RA duty and couldn't come into the store because their customer service is awesome.  And now it's sold out!  So instead of feeling dumb, I feel preeeeeetty smart. Yesssss.


♥ I've become slightly obsessed with the blog Eighteenth Century Sluts.  It's so bizarre and hilarious.  Just to give you a taste of what it's like, here are three of my favorite recent posts.

Haaaa.  I've got the giggles even posting these.

♥ I have been making stuff in lieu of packing!  Now in the etsy shop:  two cards and two notebooks.  I have a zillion more cards that will get put up in the next few days, but I'm excited about them.  I'm so pleased with how everything is looking!

I'm especially in love with this notebook...

♥

Alriiiiiight, I guess I should go shove stuff in suitcases.  I'm planning on having one suitcase and one garment bag for clothing, and one suitcase of craft supplies.  That's normal, right?

♥

random end-of-semester awesomeness.

Today was my first official day of having finished seventh semester.  YAY!  Now I have to figure out how to get back into my usual routine of blogging every day.  I'm excited to get back, I've missed you guys (assuming this is being read by anyone.).  But I have so, so many projects to share now.  So what sounds good-- one every day?  One every few days?  Let me know in the comments!

The end of the semester had some fun surprises.  You know how I'd mentioned that I had some art history left to do?  I finished my essay and discussion posts, and then I logged on to take the test (I took the class online) and found this charming little message:

(click on the  photo to make it bigger, if you can't read it)

How cool is that?  I love it when professors give nice little surprises like that.

Let's see, what else... Anthropologie had a pretty amazing sale, and I found one of my all-time favorite pieces at a ridiculous discount:

 ...the Mushroom Picking Chemise!  Oh, I love it so much.  It's so cute and floaty and comfortable.  I also picked up the Braided Toggle Sweatercoat, which is seriously the coziest sweater I've ever put on.

As an hourglass-shaped girl, I have a hard time finding thick sweaters that don't make me look...square, so this A-line cardigan is just right.  It'll probably go on sale, and then I'll feel foolish, but I've already worn it enough to make it worth the (kind of ridiculous) cost.  I'm considering it my end-of-semester treat to myself.  Oh!  And I had the chance to meet the lovely Sian from The British Anthropologi(e)st.  She's so sweet, and it was fun to discuss Anthropologie with someone equally obsessed.  So that was really fun.

Other awesome end of semester stuff:

• Two of my residents made me an adorable jar of green and silver origami wish stars for Christmas, topped with a massive candy cane.


• Another of my residents gave me lovely and delicious chocolate truffle bars.  I'm such a spoiled RA!


• I have time to get back to yoga!  And my room is finally clean now, so I have a space for it, too.  Hurrah!

And I believe we have come to the end of this rather disorganized blog post.  Let me know in the comments what you think as far as how often you'd like to see projects! Oh, and there will be big doings in the etsy shop over the next few days.  Think...paper goods.

I hope everyone's had a lovely and relaxing Monday!

♥

 

i like bows.

1.2.3.4.5.6

I just love bows.

I guess that's evidenced by the fact every one of my portfolio collections prominently features them.

They're just my favorite.

♥

it's the last night to get 15% off at my etsy shop!  just enter the coupon code 'CyberMonday' for 15% off any order.

also, the lovely Chelsea is having a giveaway for a pair of Ugglebo clogs! yay!

♥

sunflower

♥

Sunflower Sutra

I walked on the banks of the tincan banana dock and

sat down under the huge shade of a Southern

Pacific locomotive to look at the sunset over the

box house hills and cry.

Jack Kerouac sat beside me on a busted rusty iron

pole, companion, we thought the same thoughts

of the soul, bleak and blue and sad-eyed,

surrounded by the gnarled steel roots of trees of

machinery.

The oily water on the river mirrored the red sky, sun

sank on top of final Frisco peaks, no fish in that

stream, no hermit in those mounts, just ourselves

rheumy-eyed and hungover like old bums

on the riverbank, tired and wily.

Look at the Sunflower, he said, there was a dead gray

shadow against the sky, big as a man, sitting

dry on top of a pile of ancient sawdust--

--I rushed up enchanted--it was my first sunflower,

memories of Blake--my visions--Harlem

and Hells of the Eastern rivers, bridges clanking Joes

Greasy Sandwiches, dead baby carriages, black

treadless tires forgotten and unretreaded, the

poem of the riverbank, condoms & pots, steel

knives, nothing stainless, only the dank muck

and the razor-sharp artifacts passing into the

past--

and the gray Sunflower poised against the sunset,

crackly bleak and dusty with the smut and smog

and smoke of olden locomotives in its eye--

corolla of bleary spikes pushed down and broken like

a battered crown, seeds fallen out of its face,

soon-to-be-toothless mouth of sunny air, sunrays

obliterated on its hairy head like a dried

wire spiderweb,

leaves stuck out like arms out of the stem, gestures

from the sawdust root, broke pieces of plaster

fallen out of the black twigs, a dead fly in its ear,

Unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower O

my soul, I loved you then!

The grime was no man's grime but death and human

locomotives,

all that dress of dust, that veil of darkened railroad

skin, that smog of cheek, that eyelid of black

mis'ry, that sooty hand or phallus or protuberance

of artificial worse-than-dirt--industrial--

modern--all that civilization spotting your

crazy golden crown--

and those blear thoughts of death and dusty loveless

eyes and ends and withered roots below, in the

home-pile of sand and sawdust, rubber dollar

bills, skin of machinery, the guts and innards

of the weeping coughing car, the empty lonely

tincans with their rusty tongues alack, what

more could I name, the smoked ashes of some

cock cigar, the cunts of wheelbarrows and the

milky breasts of cars, wornout asses out of chairs

& sphincters of dynamos--all these

entangled in your mummied roots--and you there

standing before me in the sunset, all your glory

in your form!

A perfect beauty of a sunflower! a perfect excellent

lovely sunflower existence! a sweet natural eye

to the new hip moon, woke up alive and excited

grasping in the sunset shadow sunrise golden

monthly breeze!

How many flies buzzed round you innocent of your

grime, while you cursed the heavens of the

railroad and your flower soul?

Poor dead flower? when did you forget you were a

flower? when did you look at your skin and

decide you were an impotent dirty old locomotive?

the ghost of a locomotive? the specter and

shade of a once powerful mad American locomotive?

You were never no locomotive, Sunflower, you were a

sunflower!

And you Locomotive, you are a locomotive, forget me

not!

So I grabbed up the skeleton thick sunflower and stuck

it at my side like a scepter,

and deliver my sermon to my soul, and Jack's soul

too, and anyone who'll listen,

--We're not our skin of grime, we're not our dread

bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we're all

beautiful golden sunflowers inside, we're blessed

by our own seed & golden hairy naked

accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black

formal sunflowers in the sunset, spied on by our

eyes under the shadow of the mad locomotive

riverbank sunset Frisco hilly tincan evening

sitdown vision.

--Allen Ginsberg

♥

the cyber monday sale has started at Julie Rose Sews on Etsy!  Enter the coupon code 'CyberMonday' at check-out for 15% off your order.

hugo ♥

This has not been a great year for me.

It started out with two heart-shattering break-ups-- the really, really bad kind, where all you can do for a week or two afterward is cry and get sick.  One was with someone who I genuinely thought was the love of my life. The other was with my exact opposite. I was his anima, he was my animus.

The summer culminated with the sudden and devastating loss of my dad.

I'm emotionally exhausted.

Life doesn't feel magical anymore.

Tonight I saw Hugo with my mom.

It's such a beautiful movie, visually and thematically.  It felt so poetic.

It was reminiscent of Amélie, especially in the color story and the mix of reality and fantasy.

It made me feel more alive than I have in months.  I plan on seeing it at least two or three more times.

Have you seen Hugo?  What did you think of it?

♥

also, the Cyber Monday sale has started at Julie Rose Sews on Etsy!  enter the coupon code 'CyberMonday' for 15% off any order.

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

via the little things we do

1.   Waking up at the break of dawn to go shopping is my idea of fun, but not something I've ever actually done.  And it would only be fun if the store wasn't too crowded, because I have a feeling sales bring out the worst side of humanity.  Oh, and I'd only want to go to Anthropologie.  ...Actually, maybe the whole break-of-dawn shopping thing isn't for me after all.

2.   If I were to go shopping today I would be on the hunt for  pretty dresses and cozy cardigans, as per usual.

3.  The best thing I ate yesterday was  a thanksgiving sandwich and hot chocolate with my brother at 1:30 in the morning.

4. Something I've been learning lately is that people are much more forgiving and understanding than I usually give them credit for.

5.  I cannot start my day without  tea and Google Reader.  My poor Google Reader is so neglected right now from doing so much schoolwork, I'm up to something like 900 unread posts.

6.  My nighttime attire consists of ....hm.  That varies according to temperature and location.  This time of year it's usually a hoodie, pj shorts, and woolly socks, because I hate being cold but I also hate not being able to sprawl out due to bulky pj pants.

7.  I am looking forward to  being done with my portfolio!  That thing is like my child, I'm so ridiculously protective of it.  And I love it very much, but I am ready for it to be done.

♥

Don't forget to check out the Black Friday sale at my Etsy shop!  Enter the coupon code 'BlackFriday15' to get 15% off any order.

♥

happy thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope it's full of food, fun, and family.

♥

pssssst.... the Black Friday sale has already started at my etsy shop.  details here.

♥

♥acorns♥

one of my classes this semester focuses on creating prints, plaids, and knits.

my favorite part so far has been designing this acorn print!

working on the print...

...playing with color...

...and using the acorn print in a garment!

hope you're having a great weekend!

♥

kicking the covers off

I cannot get enough of these two covers recently.

how can such an explicit song sound so... cute?

(ok, so that one isn't exactly a cover, it uses a sample from Imogen Heap's 'Hide and Seek,' but still.  Not the point.  What do you think about that, by the way, musically inclined readers?  I know the terms of Imogen Heap's licensing of the sample don't require Jason Derulo to acknowledge it besides a songwriter credit in the liner notes, so legally it's a-ok, but from an etiquette standpoint, do you think he should have mentioned her at some point?  Just curious.)

back to an exciting evening of pattern-making!

(weirdly, I am not being sarcastic- I am having a lovely time with tea and pattern paper on a saturday night.)

♥

stealth cat

Hi!

Remember this charming cat, whom I usually encounter on Friday mornings on my way to 'Snice?

Turns out he's actually a girl named Hazel-- she's wearing a collar with her name now.

And the other day, she was being verrrrrry sneaky while stalking pigeons.

♥

i ♥ netflix 3

It's that special time of the semester-- that time when I'm at my desk more than I'm in my bed, my hair is permanently in a bun, and my hands are consistently covered in markers and pinpricks.  And that means a whoooole lot of Netflix is being watched in a certain room on the sixth floor.  My latest episode-marathon?  Gossip Girl.  Oh jeez.

I'm on the fourth season of the ridiculous-yet-strangely-addictive series.  The plots are kind of...y'know... completely absurd, but the fashion is usually really, really cute.  I think overall Blair's clothes are my favorite... especially this outfit, her hair here is my holy grail of coiffures and I'm on an A-line dress kick (which I am always on, come to think of it).



I like Jenny's style from the first season, too... her green Valentino coat is so, so cute.

look at the flowers!  a peter pan collar covered in flowers.  what's not to love?

This blue coat is adorable too... the quilted yoke is a nice detail.  But I will never understand why it was necessary to turn Jenny into a moping super-goth.  I mean, I know that Taylor Momsen is all about the black eyeliner and the leather leggings, but...I dunno.  I always think it's a mistake to change a character to mimic the style and personality of the actress, because in that case, where is the acting?  Or maybe I'm just bitter over the loss of the possibility of several hundred more pastel ensembles.

And then we have the dialogue... some of my favorite oft-repeated lines?

• "It's like I don't even know you anymore!"


• "I'm not a little girl anymore!"


• "This means war!"


• "I will destroy you!"

Ha.  What a riot.  While often ridiculous, the show is apparently compelling because.... I have it on right now, as I'm typing this.  It's my escapist, not-so-secret shame.

What's your television guilty pleasure?  Because I only have 14 episodes left.

♥

treats and snoozin', snoozin' and treats.

It's been a rough week.

And it's only Tuesday.

But there's a silver lining!

A new 'Marcel: The Shell with Shoes On' video!

if you missed the first Marcel video, watch it here!

found out this exciting news from Amelia-- she's an amazing photographer, check her out here.

♥

resistance is futile.

Washi tape has taken over my life, and I am powerless to resist it.

At this point, I've probably accumulated more than I'm ever going to use.  But it's just so cute!  I wanted to be able to look at it in a more convenient way than having it on my desk all the time, so...

on Pinterest, as usual

Please, if we're out somewhere and I attempt to buy more washi tape, stop me.  I'm good.  I don't need anymore...

...mostly.

♥

'tis the season...

♥

...for peppermint hot chocolate!  I'm usually more of an independently-owned-café kind of girl, but the peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks is by far my favorite holiday-themed treat.

pumpkin treats were fun, but now it's time for my favorite flavoring.  yesssss!

what's your favorite holiday-themed treat?

♥

happy wednesday

Today was very good.

Reason 1:  My tiny gold bee necklace arrived yesterday!

it's so delicate and pretty, I love it!
it's only the bottom necklace, the other one is my little J-embossed heart necklace.

Reason 2: I won a gift certificate to Lillie's-- I never win things like that.
...But today I did!

yaaaaaaay!

♥

♥ happy halloween! ♥

happy halloween lovelies!

I'm celebrating by sharing some of my favorite vintage halloween illustrations.

♥

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I'm also celebrating by having apple-cinnamon tea and a pumpkin-iced cupcake from two of my residents.  aren't they the sweetest?

what are you doing for halloween?  if you're dressing up, what are you going to be?

♥

happy autumn ♥

It's been autumn for quite some time now, but it's finally starting to feel like it here in Manhattan.

22nd St. on an autumn evening

♥

pastoral symphony

very inspired by Fred Moore's design sketches for the centaurettes in Disney's Fantasia.

♥