September 2010

[wistful for home]

Inspiration

Actual key rings. As in, rings made of keys. Love it! and let's be real, it totally makes me want to go and steal some of my dad's old Porche keys! (from Kiel Mead)

Oh my. So cute. As if my ovaries weren't already on high alert. Have I mentioned that my 15 year old brother thinks I should join eHarmony? I mean, he's already named my first two children, so I suppose he wants me to get started... (Gunther Link and Zelda Aurora, if you're wondering).

My friend Johanna was featured in Etsy's "Storm's a comin'" roundup of lovliness:


the sculpture is here. Here's what Johanna had to say about her sculpture:

"This sculpture represents the suspension used in a dry dock to lift a ship out of the water. The ironic element lies in the fact that the wood surrounding this metal "eye" is the only remaining piece of the ship. It was discovered off the coast of Portsmouth, NH and has incredibly rich color variations from green to deep gold and red. The metal hardware was sourced from antique markets. "


The Illustrated Guide to a PhD ---which eloquently describes graduate school as a pimple on the world's knowledge, but to great and purposeful effect.

Russia in Color, a century ago -- photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) took a series of photographs with a specialized camera to captures three black and white images in quick succession using blue, red, and green filters. They can then be recombined using filtered light to show almost true-colored photos. From 1909. They're just mind-blowing, frankly.

Beautiful reproduction of Manet's "Bar at the Folies Bergeres" made of Pantone color swatches...incredible! (via Dude Craft)

Things to look forward to:

--The start of 19th grade, or as it's also known around here, one year closer to graduating. I love MIT, but I'm getting---itchy. I know that grad school isn't the right fit, and I sometimes just get frustrated about the fact that it's not.


--I bought a Living Social Deal last month for the New England Dessert Showcase in Boston---redeemable for a gift bag worth $250, plus admission to pretty much all-you-can-eat dessert. All this for $17? I'm in. No matter how bad it is for my waistline (hint: pretty bad).


--The Annual McCormick Barbecue, complete with blue raspberry cotton candy. Yum.


--The Annual Fluff Festival in Somerville. Yup. Marshmallow Fluff. It's gonna be a good day.


--Cooler weather. I love summer. I love fall. I love winter. I love spring. I guess I love seasons in general. But it is too darn hot in McCormick, and I'm so ready to start getting a full night's sleep again, as well as have my air conditioning/high heat-induced dry eye to go away. (yeah, I challenge you to accomplish all of your to-do lists both at work and at home if you feel like ripping your eyes out. It's not the most fun).


--Fall raspberries. Yum.


--Hopefully buying a bike. I know this has taken me far longer than it should have, but that's what happens, I guess. I can't wait to have quicker transportation to the grocery store and other places around town (routes carefully planned via google maps and the familiarity of Boston of other bikers, as Boston drivers are, well, kind of jerks. Yes, there are the hipster bikers riding fixies without a helmet and completely disregarding stop lights to give bikers a bad name, but I'd say there are quite a few more drivers texting than cyclists not paying attention).


--new girls! I've already had a couple of meetings with freshmen, and I can't wait to start baking muffins and having study breaks. I also borrowed my mom's spritz cookie gun (yesssss!) so there will be an awesome spritz cookie-making party in December. I'm excited for that one already.