Genevieve As Ever

mark rothko

2012-01-14T06:11:00.000-08:00

Mark Rothko cookies, courtesy of the creative genius Mimi O Chun. And because Rothko once said this, he would surely support the devouring of all cookies in an interactive-exhibit sort of style. No objection here, although they are so pretty to look at.

[via design crush]

holly golightly

2011-12-30T14:56:00.000-08:00

Dear B,

I'd ask Santa, but Christmas is over.

All my love,
G

alice walker

2011-12-07T14:18:00.001-08:00

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.

[image via here]

j.k. rowling

2011-12-04T07:22:00.001-08:00

'Fat' is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her.

I mean, is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me; but then, you might retort, what do I know about the pressure to be skinny? I’m not in the business of being judged on my looks, what with being a writer and earning my living by using my brain.

I went to the British Book Awards that evening. After the award ceremony I bumped into a woman I hadn’t seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!’

‘Well,’ I said, slightly nonplussed, ‘the last time you saw me I’d just had a baby.’

What I felt like saying was, ‘I’ve produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren’t either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?’ But no – my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!

I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons.

[image via here]

the honey trees

2011-10-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

A lover of all things Breakfast at Tiffany's (the movie and the book, but especially the book), this cover of 'Moon River' performed by The Honey Trees - a duo band from San Luis Obispo, CA - is very sweet. Becky Filip sings with perfect dreamy wistfulness. Also, fall in love with their cover of 'Edelweiss'.

six-word memoirs

2011-10-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Blog here. Book for purchase (used for $.28) here. So many favorites, but the title of the compilation may take the cake.

meghan whitmarsh

2011-10-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

I miss school supplies. But these, created by the talented Meghan Whitmarsh, would do well to erase the longing.

manta

2011-10-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to share my good fortune - Manta Savignon Blanc: my beautiful Chilean obsession that costs, on average, a whopping seis dólares. Good luck introducing an alternative that tastes better than this one, never mind the attractive price point. Salud.

albertus swanepoel

2011-10-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

The collaboration of Target and New York milliner Albertus Swanepoel will mean an affordable, fashionable collection of hats come October 30th. I am anxiously awaiting that day when one or five of these beauties will make their way from my head, into the cart.

in the make

2011-10-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

In The Make is a fascinating blog that showcases artists and designers in their studios. The blog explores creative environments and reveals how space can influence art.

shaun ferguson

2011-10-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

See No, Speak No acrylic on board by Shaun Ferguson; additional works here. I would be content with having zero furniture and a wall patterned with art that pokes/prods/stirs up the norm.

paul newman & joanne woodward

2011-09-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat.

Joanne Woodward on her husband, Paul Newman

[these images and more via snippet & ink]

william henry channing

2011-08-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

B and I love this quote, and so a few weekends ago, we typed it up and framed it. It has become our symphony.

pistol annies

2011-08-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

So good. August 23rd can't come soon enough!

dwight schrute

2011-07-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

What is my perfect crime? I break into Tiffany’s at midnight. Do I go for the vault? No. I go for the chandelier; it’s priceless. As I’m taking it down, a woman catches me. She tells me to stop. It’s her father’s business. She’s Tiffany. I say no. We make love all night. In the morning the cops come and I escape in one of their uniforms. I tell her to meet me in Mexico but I go to Canada. I don’t trust her. Besides, I love the cold. Thirty years later I get a postcard. I have a son. And he’s the Chief of Police. This is where the story gets interesting: I tell Tiffany to meet me in Paris by the Trocadero. She’s been waiting for me all these years. She’s never taken another lover. I don’t care. I don’t show up. I go to Berlin. That’s where I stashed the chandelier.

gertrude stein, 1973

2011-07-03T05:25:00.000-07:00

Miss Stein's letterhead. The ring of text at the very top reads 'Rose is a rose is a rose' from her poem Sacred Emily.

battle-picking

2011-06-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

B is golfing, and I am home alone reading this and cracking up.

a scrub

2011-06-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

Nichole is very generous with her functional, creative beauty product knowledge.

[image via little brown pen]

popsicles

2011-06-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

Especially when they are of the watermelon mojito variety.

margaret atwood

2011-06-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

I myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality.

glitter

2011-04-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

"B, should I spend my birthday money on these?"

"Sleep on it. And if you still love 'em tomorrow, then get 'em."

Pretty generous advice from a guy who conscientiously works to dissuade my shoe-buying habit.

it's my party

2011-04-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

I didn't hesitate for a second in my giddy request for a third coat. It's my birthday week and I can cry/paint my nails any way I want.

emerson

2011-04-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.

[Thank you Mama, your perspective is lovingly wise.]

mohammed

2011-04-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.

[image via here]

antoine de saint-exupéry

2011-04-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

You alone will have the stars as no one else has them. In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night. You - only you - will have stars that can laugh.

[image via tete perdue]

kendal

2011-04-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

My beautiful friend Kendal read this book to her first grade class. She was so great to capture this darling face and make my ~~day~~ week.

no small dreams

2011-03-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

I love Allie's honesty. Take that hair down, girl!

kiki & polly

2011-03-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

I love her spirit. And I can't get enough artist Lisa Golightly.

Etsy store and website; enjoy.

sylvia plath

2011-03-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again.

[image via fffound]

teapot

2011-03-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is lively. I'll take it.

a saturday afternoon

2011-03-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

Warm homemade bread and salted French butter make everything right in this world. She would agree with me.

dear blank

2011-03-11T14:11:00.000-08:00

Aren't these brilliant? They are the combined genius of Jared Wunsch and Sapling Press.

maya angelou

2011-03-09T18:02:00.001-08:00

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

[image via here]

natasha tsakos

2011-03-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

My cousin put the following TED.com talk on my radar yesterday, and it moved me in a big way. Tsakos says a lot, but this excerpt resonated powerfully:

There is a revolution. It's a human and technological revolution. It's motion and emotion. It's information. It's visual. It's musical. It's sensorial. It's conceptual. It's universal. It's beyond words and numbers. It's happening.

a letter to a cereal box

2011-03-08T07:20:00.000-08:00

Dear Cocoa Puffs,

You are downright dangerous. Consider it luck, the way you surreptitiously plopped into our cart, but I guarantee it won't - it can't - happen again. I attribute our recent love affair to my very organic upbringing, but too much of a good thing is just sickening. Literally.

As ever,
Genevieve

cheap date ideas

2011-03-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

I love all 26 of these fun - and of equal importance - cheap date ideas. Especially the book club for two feature. I don't think B would object, but it might mean waiting for the next Vince Flynn novel to come out (starring covert counter-terrorism agent Mitch Rapp). Compromise is my second middle name.

shopping as an editing process

2011-03-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

Parisian woman in the Place de la Concorde by Jean Beraud, 1890

An excerpt from Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide To Finding Her Inner French Girl by Debra Ollivier:

If she can’t afford it, she won’t buy it. If it doesn’t fit (or make her feel good, or flaunt what she’s got), she won’t wear it. If she can’t find it, she won’t compromise. If she loves it, she won’t toss it. She reuses it, rethinks it, lets it age.

When a French girl shops, it isn’t a solitary act of buying something new. It’s part of a lifelong process of editing her environment, making small but meaningful additions to her home, her closet, her life.

When you shop like a French girl, you buy only one of anything – and make sure it’s the best quality you can afford.

norma kamali

2011-03-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

Oh me oh my. I am speechless. How is it I am just now learning about the phenomenal Norma Kamali?

jj heller

2011-03-04T06:43:00.000-08:00

listen

2011-03-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Admittedly, I could use a reminder every now and again.

tony walker & co.

2011-03-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, I was gifted with an exclusive behind the scenes look into Tony Walker & Company, a brilliant shopping epicenter in Williamsville, NY. The tour came about after winning a contest via TW&Co.'s Facebook page - a fun surprise to reward a silly poem I wrote describing a posted picture of the company's Art Director.

The tour was exceptional, informative, and drool-worthy (in-store brands include Alice + Olivia, Elizabeth + James, DVF, La Perla, Lululemon, and Vince to name a few favorites). While there, I set up my virtual closet, registered for my 50% off birthday coupon, and was handed a darling TW&Co. goody bag.

I decided to give up shopping for Lent, meaning I have six days to get my fix before I put a lid on it. Meaning I may return for my second tour, tomorrow.

jeanine payer

2011-03-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

I love these Jeanine Payer quotation earings - anything with meaningful text and I'm done for.

coco chanel

2011-03-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.

song of the day

2011-02-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

A new song every day, thanks to NPR. Can't think of a better way to broaden my music horizon/grow my iTunes Purchased playlist.

[image of The High Highs - "Open Season"]

really raw honey

2011-02-28T07:25:00.000-08:00

I am the biggest believer in raw honey - it is nature's most powerful healer. The facts are impossible to ignore, as are the testimonials. I went through a jar when I had my tonsils out, and it has been one (or two) spoonfuls every morning, since.

oscar night

2011-02-28T06:58:00.000-08:00

After hosting family and friends for the last two weekends, it felt so good to sit and watch the Academy Awards with B. We shared Prosecco with a squeeze of a Meyer lemon, makeshift appetizers adapted from Saturday night's feast, and savored the completion of the new wall unit, a project three months coming.

We burned through our winter cord of wood earlier this weekend, and it took a few moments to understand why the table saw was screeching just moments before the red carpet began. But, when B walked in with huge armfuls of former 2x4's, it made my night. He knows that where there is fire, there is cuddling. Smart boy.

p.s. LIFE's Best Oscar Photos

dennis lehane

2011-02-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

Your first family is your blood family and you always be true to that. That means something. But there’s another family and that’s the kind you go out and find. Maybe even by accident sometimes. And they’re as much blood as your first family. Maybe more so, because they don’t have to look out for you and they don’t have to love you. They choose to.

chloé

2011-02-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

Chloé's simple and sophisticated Summer 2011 Ready-to-Wear collection is now available in boutiques. Both B and my bank account are thankful there are zero Chloe boutiques in Western NY.

tub caddy

2011-02-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

A necessary companion for the clawfoot bath tub. Or any bath tub, really.

chelsea james

2011-02-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

Chelsea James was recently showcased at Santa Clara University's de Saisset Museum. This is awesome for several reasons. The de Saisset resides contently on the campus of my alma mater, James' color pallete simulates every single hue I claim to be my most favorite, and all of a sudden, the basement's laundry room sink is industrial, inspiring, and no longer in need of replacement.

[Thank you to ali loves curtis for the virtual introduction.]

trust

2011-02-23T10:45:00.000-08:00

[image via here]

a band aide

2011-02-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

It was a rough/tumble yesterday for a myriad of reasons. B saved the day with the ultimate remedy - a vanilla soft serve cone from McDonald's. He even restrained himself from taking a lick or two as it melted down his hand while en route.

naturally

2011-02-16T05:32:00.000-08:00

[image via here]

gwyneth paltrow

2011-02-15T14:19:00.000-08:00

No chance I'll forget these shoes any time soon, or the pink feather earrings.

grilled cheese social

2011-02-15T12:32:00.000-08:00

Just stumbled upon an ingenious blog all about GRILLED CHEESE. God shows me love in all sorts of eclectic ways.

silly

2011-02-14T06:49:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning and knew that I loved you more than ever. Happy Valentine's Day, BK.

sketch 42

2011-02-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

Nicole's grandmother was an advocate of, "If you love something, it is never out of style." See her amazing space in Rue Magazine, beginning on page 100.

sophie dahl

2011-02-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Miss Dahl's Volumptuous Delights is my absolute favorite cookbook - so delicious and entertaining, the entire thing reads like a novel. And her anecdotes preluding each seasonal recipe section are so funny. An excerpt for you, on Sophie's ideal kitchen, page 15:

This kitchen is a gentle relaxed one, where a punishing, guilt-inducing attitude towards food will not be tolerated. In this kitchen we appreciate the restorative powers of chocolate. The kitchen would have a fireplace, and possibly a few dogs from Battersea Dog's Home curled up next to it. There might be a small upright piano y the window, with an orchid that doesn't wither as soon as I look at it. On long summer days, the doors to this kitchen are thrown open, while a few lazy, nonstinging bees mosey by. Children stir. When it rains, there is room in this kitchen for reading and a spoon finding its way into the cake mix. Serious cups of tea are drunk here; idle gossip occurs, balance and humor prevail. It's the kitchen of my grandparents, but with some Bowie thrown in. It is lingering breakfasts, it is friends with babies on their knees, it is good-bye on a Sunday with the promise of more. This kitchen is where life occurs; jumbled, messy and delicious. It is lovely.

And one more from Sophie's acknowledgements section:

Thank you to my erstwhile stable of girlfriends, for providing laughter, sense and sweetness while eating chocolate cake on the sofa long into the night.

Now doesn't that just sound like fun? Especially if said cake is the flourless chocolate kind on page 256.

a mood

2011-02-10T08:50:00.000-08:00

I think I should start taking vitamin D supplements.

madeleine peyroux

2011-02-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

Madeleine Peyroux has a voice that soothes all moods, especially those of the homesick kind. She is also my favorite Pandora radio station (think: Ella Fitzgerald, Melody Gardot, Anita O'Day, and Nina Simone).

oscar wilde

2011-02-07T16:44:00.000-08:00

It is an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world.

(It will be hard to return to New York tomorrow, post four stunning, family-filled days in the city by the bay.)

henry

2011-02-03T12:02:00.000-08:00

Lisa, my sweet friend/mentor and fellow Australian Shepherd lover, sent me a surprise in the mail - the children's book Henry the Dog with No Tail by Kate Feiffer. The book is clever and wise and all about Henry, an Australian Shepherd who learns to love himself in spite of the fact that he, unlike his friends, does not have a tail.

Aussies are extraordinary dogs, and while the wagging of a tail often insinuates giddy happiness in a pup, this breed finds other ways to display their amicability. For instance, they shake their entire bottom.

Thank you Lisa! You teach me how to be a thoughtful person.

mason pearson

2011-02-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

I have been enamored with Mason Pearson brushes for longer than I can remember. It seems I am not the only one.

the sartorialist

2011-02-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

I love breaking conventional fashion rules, like the one that nixes bare legs during cold winter months. The lack of stockings and layers up top show contrast - love the sass.

[photo via here]

oscar wilde

2011-02-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man’s last romance.

blanch dubois

2011-01-31T13:44:00.000-08:00

I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.

[image here]

steve alan

2011-01-31T11:49:00.000-08:00

My closet idealized in lookbook form. Oh my goodness I love everything about Steve Alan's 2011 spring collection. I have you to thank!

birkin

2011-01-31T07:30:00.000-08:00

Who can say no to a $35 Birkin bag? I may need to pick up all three, you know, for groceries and things like that.

special tea

2011-01-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

I just recently enacted an afternoon tea-time ritual I look forward to daily. I make it special and include Jammie Dodgers, a mismatched saucer for my mug, and an excellent John Derian tray to steady it all en route from the kitchen to the computer.

I especially love the thought of hosting an elegantly informal tea party. This weather brings out the sweatpants in me, hence informal. Better make a list:

a new tea set like this one,

a menu inspired by this one,

a hat from here paired with comfy from here and here,

and invitations by this woman.

Eloise would surely approve.

the art of racing in the rain

2011-01-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

Sara Gruen, author of one of my favorite books, wrote the following about Garth Steins' best-seller:

The Art of Racing in the Rain has everything: love, tragedy, redemption, danger, and best of all, the canine narrator Enzo. This old soul of a dog has much to teach to us about being human. I loved this book.

One Thursday morning, my boyfriend B picked me up from the airport following an unpleasant evening's worth of travel. I was jet-lagged and grumpy. He took me home, put me to bed, and mandated the remainder of my day would be spent catching up on sleep, and only after, reading The Art of Racing in the Rain. He had placed the book on my pillow, along with a sweet card and a surprise subscription to one of my favorite magazines. He takes great care of me.

I read several chapters that day but turned through the bulk of it on a beach in the Dominican Republic. B warned I would cry. He was wrong though, I didn't just cry. I sobbed for the last fifty pages, my sunscreened face streaked with salted love for Enzo and for our own yellow lab, Myles.

Post-novel, I have grown increasingly aware of the ways B and I can show Mylie love even when we're not home. Id est, leaving her in the melodic care of George Winston and Frank Sinatra, or turning on the Racing Channel, Enzo-style.

billy collins

2011-01-28T05:53:00.000-08:00

If there is only enough time in the final

minutes of the twentieth century for one last dance

I would like to be dancing it slowly with you,

say, in the ballroom of a seaside hotel.

My palm would press into the small of your back

as the past hundred years collapsed into a pile

of mirrors or buttons or frivolous shoes,

just as the floor of the nineteenth century gave way

and disappeared in a red cloud of brick dust.

There will be no time to order another drink

or worry about what was never said,

not with the orchestra sliding into the sea

and all our attention devoted to humming

whatever it was they were playing.

[Billy Collins, Dancing Toward Bethlehem]

tdama

2011-01-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

This morning, I woke up feeling anxious - but in a positive way. Like how I imagine I would feel when teetering with intentional precariousness on the edges of Positive and Life-Changing. Whatever that means. The point is, it felt appropriate to slip on black Tango pants from TDAMA, turn up Frank Sinatra, and paint.

kyle richards

2011-01-27T07:37:00.000-08:00

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has become the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. I rarely attach myself to TV shows and so I am not about to apologize, but I love how unbelievable they all are. And I love Kyle Richard's style, especially her emerald earrings and sequined mini.

oscar wilde

2011-01-26T05:28:00.000-08:00

Never love anybody who treats you like you’re ordinary.

[image here]

henny youngman

2011-01-25T12:28:00.000-08:00

We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.

audrey hepburn

2011-01-18T07:38:00.001-08:00

I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick.

[image via here]

van goethe

2011-01-17T06:50:00.000-08:00

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.

[image via THREAD]

michelle delio

2011-01-04T11:32:00.000-08:00

They decorate the body but they also enhance the soul.

[tattoo by artist amanda wachob]

men's socks

2010-12-19T19:43:00.001-08:00

It's an addiction, really.

jack chalker

2010-12-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

Decadence is wonderful.

[image via here]

man in montmartre cafe

2010-12-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

I feel kindred spirits with the man in the photograph above, taken by Nichole from Little Brown Pen. Nichole writes:

I don't know why but peering into the window of a warmly lit cafe on a cold winter night is just about the best sight ever.

I see myself there, too - but writing with gusto avec my own glass of wine.

[nichole's flicker here]

le french dresser

2010-11-30T06:25:00.000-08:00

exquisite surfaces

2010-11-26T10:07:00.001-08:00

Heart palpitations commence at the thought of this tile, multiplied - my dream kitchen's indulgent backsplash. I salivate.

peter pan

2010-11-18T15:14:00.001-08:00

She also said she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she meant, and he held out his hand expectantly.

“Surely you know what a kiss is?” she asked, aghast.

“I shall know when you give it to me,” he replied stiffly, and not to hurt his feeling she gave him a thimble.

delaine le bas

2010-11-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

Stirring, this critique by Damien James on artist / mother Delaine Le Bas:

Le Bas recasts the sensationalist presentation of the ‘Juju house’ with reference to her Gypsy identity, taking objects invested by her people with emotive power and positioning them in circumstances that echo historical trauma. String lengths hanging like snakes-cum-cobwebs create a delicate claustrophobia, simultaneously enticing and warning of those who spin them, hidden out of sight. The stark and jerry-built shack of the shanty town tells fairy tales about real people: prisoners; adventurers; victims; aggressors; travellers; children.

Still more - very much worth the read - here.

[image entitled The House of Juju Queen 2007 / 2008 courtesy of Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch]

maurice sendak

2010-11-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters - sometimes very hastily - but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.

[original maurice sendak art via here]

versus

2010-11-16T14:46:00.001-08:00

I love New York City but j'aime Paris even more - this tally of two cities is the perfect parallel.

p.s. Cheers, Kitty Kat.

eat pray love

2010-08-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

Better Days by Eddie Vedder

My love is safe for the universe

See me now I'm bursting

outside in

2010-08-02T04:58:00.000-07:00

One day. More here.

[image via here]

skittles

2010-08-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

Artisitc tendencies have been bubbling ever since B gave me the okay to paint "doors, walls, whatever I want". But I have been busy, and so my pedicure received the best of my suppressed creativity.

It was an eventful visit to the nail salon - the confusion surrounding my color selection was astounding. But I persisted, tipped generously, and then got the hell out of there. Definitely can't show my face in Pro Nails on Transit Road for a while, but I love the end result.

The photo above wasn't meant to be blurry - I'm keeping it. Reminds me of skittles.

e.e. cummings

2010-07-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

you are what a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

okay

2010-07-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Mama, this pillow was made for you.

an office

2010-07-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Weekends with B are meaningful - they mean cuddling, coffee, conversation, etc. Weekends also mean several trips to Lowe's (usually three) and tackling one home project after another. Without fail, the end result is stunning. His handiness astounds me.

A few lessons learned:

Yoga breathing helps with things like stripping screws and 1/16th of an inch and counterintuitive wiring.

Shop Vacs can get rid of a lot of bugs in a short amount of time.

Dogs that shed named Mylie are poor substitutes for paint rollers.

Fireflies are intriguing and neon green.

It feels exceptionally gratifying to work hard with someone you love.

Projects on the horizon include replacing four doors upstairs, landscaping the front yard, one kitchen, two bathrooms, and building a chandelier (think: driftwood, thick rope, pulleys, and an antique steel candelabra). As one would guess, more to come.

emily giffin

2010-07-15T05:45:00.001-07:00

I love him for his intelligence, his sensitivity, his courage. I love him wholly and unconditionally without reservation. I love him enough to take risks. I love him enough to accept my own happiness and use it, in turn, to make him happy back.

[image via here]

ergo: a project

2010-07-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I picked up 12 apple crates from an antique store/farmer's market with big, bookcase-unit plans in mind. All goes well and a photo of the restorative-yet-functional finished product may make an appearance. Let's hope.

beginning

2010-07-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

It has been a while. With the need to provide a mass update, I return to my space here. In the last month, I have traded, moved, resigned, and fallen, and I could not be happier -

I traded my BlackBerry for an iPhone 4; my swift typing ability went from superhuman to sausage fingers.

I moved from Hoboken to Western New York; the festivals up here are endless.

I resigned from my corporate career in automotive; I work as an assistant director for a yoga studio.

I fell in love with a sweet boy with an unwavering aversion to tomatoes; cooking dinner has become a challenge.

The resigning and falling parts were mutually exclusive yet impeccably timed. And the genuine support offered up from all sides gave me courage and faith. (Ayn Rand helped -

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.)

More to come, as all of a sudden, I have time again.

As ever -

Genevieve

rainer maria rilke

2010-03-30T19:24:00.001-07:00

A work of art is good if it has grown out of necessity. In this manner of its origin lies its true estimate: there is no other. Therefore, I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths whence your life wells forth; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it as it sounds.

[image via here]

work hard

2010-03-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

The first part I have down all too well; the second part could use work. It's possible my struggle is in direct correlation with the population’s sudden abandonment of truth and integrity. Well maybe not the entire population, but I'll tell you - that 10% speaks so loudly I can hardly hear much else.

[print by Anthony Burrill]

nutella

2010-03-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

There are moments in your life when you have to dance like everyone's watching.

I Wrote This For You

bodega wall art

2010-02-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

Overwhelmed Genevieve, meet inspiration; the timing is reliably inopportune. Heavy-lidded eyes glance dubiously from the laptop screen to the tube of rich bronze paint on the dresser. Go, choose the words that move you most, awake the midnight blue walls of your temporary home.