the view from where i sit is rather grey

In drear-nighted December,

Too happy, happy tree,

Thy branches ne'er remember

Their green felicity:

The north cannot undo them

With a sleety whistle through them;

Nor frozen thawings glue them

From budding at the prime.

In drear-nighted December,

Too happy, happy brook,

Thy bubblings ne'er remember

Apollo's summer look;

But with a sweet forgetting,

They stay their crystal fretting,

Never, never petting

About the frozen time.

Ah! would 'twere so with many

A gentle girl and boy!

But were there ever any

Writhed not at passed joy?

The feel of not to feel it,

When there is none to heal it

Nor numbed sense to steel it,

Was never said in rhyme.

Seattle winters could crush you with their interminable grey-ness. Poem: In drear-nighted December, John Keats. Photos: vi.sualize, Pringle of Scotland Pre-Fall, Rag and Bone.

paper cuts

I've really been loving the local art scene lately, and now that it's summer, I've been using a lot of my extra time to check out some new exhibits and learn about new artists! My two favorite discoveries so far are Whiting Tennis (more on him later) and the amazing Nikki McClure. Nikki does incredible paper cutouts that I fell in love with from the very first time I saw them - and she's based in Olympia! They're exquisitely detailed, and convey more depth, emotion, and feeling then one would think is possible to gain from a piece of paper. I love how she uses the dramatic contrast of black paper on a light background to add import to an otherwise simple scene, like an egg resting in a nest or a woman working in the garden. I'm definitely going to get a poster or two for my walls, and maybe one of her beautiful calendars too!
Some of my favorite images:




So.beautiful.
Urban Outfitters is also carrying this Nikki McClure notebook - this might just be my journal for summer 2010!

P.S. Thank you Nikki for permission to use your images in this post!

i fake it so real.

During our school spirit week, most of the students (with only a few notable exceptions) tend to interpret Decade Day either one of two ways: neon, high ponytails and legwarmers, or halfhearted tie-dye Haneses and American Apparel headbands pushed a few inches farther down the forehead then normal. I took this as a sign: our community needed something more interesting then pale imitations of bygone eras. It needed something different. Something apart from the shiny, pink-cheeked cuteness of wearing purple leggings instead of black and labeling it "eighties". It needed grunge.

Okay, hear me out:

Flannel? Check. Tiny hair bow? Check. Ripped tights and red lipstick? Check. Infantile bangs, weird sunglasses, and strangely inappropriate snap-up dress that threatens to come undone at any second? Check. Surly-but-sensitive musician boyfriend? Living in Seattle? Check and check.

The only thing left to do when I got home was to put on my favorite Hole record and pretend it was 1993...

gazing on the new soft-fallen mask/of snow upon the mountains and the moors

This year, winter in Washington has left me throughly underwhelmed. Usually, the Seattle area gets at least a sprinkling of snow, but this year it seems we've been bypassed completely. The weather has alternated between being so bitterly cold that any sort of precipitation is an impossibility, and the old standby: Pewter skies, temperatures in the mid-forties, and the constant need for an umbrella. I love Seattle, truly, I do - but for me, no winter is complete without snow. It's my favorite thing; I love the way it makes the world seem clean and new and soft. I love its smell and its texture. I'm leaving for Montana this week to go skiing, and I honestly could not be more excited. Finally, I get to leave this pitiful excuse for a season behind and break out my twin-tips!

You may scoff, but I am intensely jealous of the inhabitants of the Northeast right now. I would take a 3-day blizzard over this constant see-through drizzle any day. Until we leave for the mountains on Monday, I'll only be dreaming of one thing...

(Isn't this magical? It reminds me of Swan Lake.)

your childhood dreams are manifesting themselves in your present-day fixations

Today, I went downtown, and was swept up in the holiday madness...I love Christmastime!

I should have ridden this while I still had the chance...