The Highlights and the Lovelies.

Delice is engaged!

(Eliza and I out in the cold trying to keep hundreds of tealights lit while Jonas asks her)

It took ten thousand tries.

I always miss this.

Taxidermy in the grocery store.


Trying to fit my unfinished portrait of Erin and Collin into my suitcase.

The art of subtraction.

Christmas morning victory and pijamas.

Scoop, Poxie and the Christmas tree.

"Sophie"
(from the boys taking us ion a tour of their work)

Heiss Schocolade

In Colmar, watching a Russian quartet perform in a protestant cathedral, and being super mature.

Where the magic happens, and organic lollipops.

"Many an idle dream is looking for a home of sleep, like yours, to happen in." -W. Benton

Documenting Our Undertakings I ( or, A Little Audubon Goes a Long Way)

These are from a series, affectionately given from me to Collin for Christmas last year. no explanation needed or given.

We've spent the last couple of days in France- Colmar for good chirstmasmarket cheer and a hearty Alsacian dinner and Emaus because its my absolute favorite. As always the old people get really excited that someone young is excited about old french finds, or is there at all. I had an old man sing a song to me about hats, an old lady insist i try on a monster of a skirt, and another old man trap me in a very long (french) conversation while i was trying to look at linens. Some of my favorite aquisitions: old lace collars, feathered hats, old glass stuffed animal eyes, and catholic medalions.

Lost in backroads Georgia.

Before flying outto home and in an attempt to get to dear Charity's wedding an hour above Atlanta, Reba and I drove through the map quested, brown leaved and sun streaked hills of mid-Georgia. Stops for directions became stops for adventures and acquisitions. which included, but are not limited to- the deer antlers we affectionately named Thompson, one and a half sets of sixties salt and pepper shackers, a good luck stone/heat/knot that was a gift from a woman with an Idgy-esque southern drawl selling old things on the side of the road (fingers crossed its not haunted). A stop was also made at the best trading post that side of the Atlantic. a white haired toothless man with thirty something free roaming rabbits and an outhouse, bottles and glass, old boots and years of history pilled up in a half dilapidated barn. A more unfotunate stop was made at a pizza place, with sticky red chairs, as the sun dropped and so did our spirits breifly, with our plastic fourthgrade plate buffet and people who tempted us to write "get of of this town before your no longer young!" on the dollar bills we left.
We made it to an empty church five hours late, dead flower petals at the altar, and a silent couple vaccuming the reception hall. we also crashed an old folks-redsweater fest- christmas party and were offered a purse by a sympathetic looking grandpa. We researched the significance of loved ones birthdays from a large volume on the matter (i am not very accurate, Taylor and Nick not so much either, Lane's was a bit, Reba's since she gets to be some sort of priestess goddess, Roy's eerily so, and cant we see Emily eating a lot of cupcakes?)

Improvised, the night ended up as wonderful as the day had been. With impromptu stops to Athens and Atlanta. impromptu lovely people, conversations, coffee, the tree that owned itself
and the Demosthenian debate society building Casey was kind enough to show us 'round. It was hard not trying to fit an old portrait into my pocket, but stories are free and there were a good deal of good ones to save away.

goodbye old house

We've been moving things out. Goodbye old kitchen window with your menagerie of broken things and dried flowers. Goodbye to watching the mean neighbor lady with your monochramit pink outfits and your dog. Goodbye garden that we dug from a rubble pile. Goodbye to the weeds and mud we walk through behind the fence everyday that leaves us covered in wildflower burrs. Goodbye Dratyon street. Goodbye old house.

she is the most beautiful.

(and I get to be her sister)

Day 22 (no-shoe-Nick's senior film)

peters shoes

noshoenicks' senior film. oh yeah.

'this is almost peacefull, almost'

roughly edged and most likely going to stay close to this state. im starting a body of work that will hopefully sit well with eachother. Peace and redemption and understanding of self.

The little things to make. I am happy to not only enjoy making with paint. The assortment above the fireplace that will be packed up between bedsheets and lesser worn clothes to move to our new house of Park street. The little quiches i invariably make to give away and then eat in one evening with Nick and Taylor. and the attempt at a vegetarian curry pattie.
Every crack in this old southern house is letting in a draft, and blankets are piled on our beds.

lavender and oyster shells

I made lavendar shortbread cookies this evening, despite weathering a nausea onset by a super of (from my favorite saturday morning bike-riding outing to the farmers market) green tomatoes, which ive been experimenting at frying. . yes i love the south.

listlessness and discouragement with the paints and scraps met its match in my garden today. The dirts near empty now, but looks better than it ever has. I started trimming the tomato plants. and pulling out the stones and glass. this led to a full fledged- me in the earth, dirt in my shorts, up to my elbows. in every nail, digging up, sifting through the earth to find treasure. Things like old marbles, and thicker glass with remnants of words embossed across them, oyster shells and rodent bones. i still haven't found a civil war grave, or the complete- easily-reassembled set of china i think im hoping to find. but its a lovely way to take a break.