Happy Holidays!

We are down to the final couple of days here in the NW before flying back to Iowa! The last week went by quickly...I meant to post some updates but kept myself busy with other tasks. Recap: Nathan finished his classes December 5, so we celebrated by going to the burger drive-in and then to see the Dark Knight (again) at my favorite discount theatre. He had another assignment and TA work to do last week but finished everything Thursday--wahoo!  I've been in the Holiday spirit, making decorations and crafty things. I had a nice evening out on my own to the SAM for the Edward Hopper exhibit, enjoyed the twinkling lights in downtown Seattle. (They make a tree of lights on top of the Space Needle!) My friends Dianna and Kim are moving back to Chicago, so we had our sad goodbyes last Tuesday (at a karaoke bar in a Chinese restaurant, so actually it was fun). Nathan and I had a day of cleaning and laundry to prepare ourselves to get out of the apartment easily tomorrow night. 

I intended to post a Gift Guide of sorts, but honestly I haven't gotten around to organizing it. While many of us are cutting back (like way back) this holiday season, it can still be fun to think of what we would give everyone on our list if we only could. Maybe some of you have gifting to do and are a bit stumped, or perhaps you are simply enjoying 'window-shopping' like I am? Since a lot of my picks are also on some of my favorite blogs, I figured I would instead direct you to these great lists and perhaps just share a few of my true favorite giftables.

Inhabitat: they have several eco-minded gift guides, but I especially like this one that is about charitable giving

Hollister Hovey: "Lumps of Coal" for your naughty friends, plus check out her other themed guides...a very original and stylish gal

Cup of Jo: blogger Joanna Goddard has top-notch suggestions, including awesome gloves that you don't have to take off to use your iPod! (unless you have those convertible mittens, this is a big winter problem)

Design*Sponge: Grace always knows what is out there in the way of home design and decor

For Me, For You: this graphic designer has a great style and it shows in this very cohesive gift guide full of cheeky design pieces (dodecahedron necklace? awesome)--scroll down on this page to find the guide

And of course, most magazines have decent gift guides on their websites. As a design junkie I go for the guides on Dwell and Domino, but try looking up your preferred publication.

Anytime you can support artisans, especially those local, I definitely recommend it. A piece of art or handmade work is personal and special. Better yet, make it yourself! With the environmental state and lousy economy, any hard earned money you spend may as well reach beyond the recipient, right?

 With that exception, here are just a few of what I consider this year's winners:

a little encouragement for the discouraged writer or journaler

One Year of White Pages, $35

one of my friend Jovencio's small leather sketchbooks would be a delightful stocking discovery

*Etsy shop currently closed for craft shows, but check back later

Diana lomographic camera, starting kit $50

good looking camera, good looking photos (also available at Paper Source)

for the book lover, the youth, and young at heart,

assemble a 4-book collection of J.D. Salinger in the signature white+stripes cover, of course

If I was a skinny high school/college girl, I'd want these for Xmas

Urban Outfitters skinny ankle-zipper pant, $58

Golden Ratio tees, $19

If I could I would get one of these for each of my art/design friends

one of my favorite expressions, good for a sweetheart...

Forget Me Not ring, $50

plates handmade in Mexico, $42

(Nest is a great organization that benefits women in developing nations)

for the little ones...

classic, perfectly crafted, totally adorable Holtziger wooden animal figures

available online and at many toy stores, $4-13

eco-friendly Klean Kanteen, $16.45

Say goodbye to bottled water in 2009

Lacquer Cupcake Box, so sweet at $16

a perfect stocking stuffer--Preserve razors made of recycled/recyclable plastic.

4 for $7.25

Oh yes, one more thing: What do you get for the dude that has everything, or the grandaddy that's impossible to buy for? How about a membership to the Beer of the Month Club! ...Know any Opas and Grandpops that might like that? ;)

I am simply looking forward to being home. Making cookies, visiting family and friends, cozying close to the fire...sigh. :) Because I will be spending time with most of my readership in the next couple weeks, I probably won't post during the vacation. If I get the chance to add some holiday photos, then perhaps. Otherwise, have a very Happy Holiday everyone! This blog will see you in the New Year!

Quarter Century Day

Happy Quarter-Century Birthday, Shelene!

This is an exciting one, right?

(I've been told the latter half of the twenties is better than the first)

Have a great day with your boys--

we'll be there to celebrate with you in just a few days!

xoxo

Unwinding

Dear Family, I keep this blog for you, though today I need it for me. I'm feeling a bit like water pressing against its dams so I'm going to write it all down. Sorry for the excursion though maybe you will like it if you read it. Maybe stuff we can talk about when I come home, and I'm dying to come home.

I'm feeling a strong anxiety today. I didn't wake up that way, but gradually as the day goes on I am feeling more shaky...I should probably give up coffee, but I like it so much...maybe I can find a healthier "vice." I should also likely start jogging again, but I get so bored. It appears clean and bright outside so a long walk will do me some good.

On these days I make all sorts of lists to inventory my life. I clean my desk but mostly sit still. Here is some of that clutter which feels most pressing:

I want incredibly to learn French. I'm afraid I can't learn the words I am looking for as I was not born to them. I'm afraid my interpretation is always limited to the extent of who I am, who I am is not French.

I cannot begin to concentrate on a book on these sorts of days, but I take account of everything I need and want to read. All I want is to read about space all day long....though actually I just want that feeling of opening and awareness and vulnerability that I have when I read about space. Many of these I wanted to read while in school and should have. I was worried I wouldn't understand them or would become sidetracked, confused, and when I did read them, I did become sidetracked and angry also that no one would read them with me. These books among many I want to read:

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs

The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch

The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre

Space and Place: The Perspective of Space, Yi-Fu Tuan

The Practice of Everyday Life, vol II, Michel de Certeau

Illuminations, Walter Benjamin

I want to read these again:

The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard

Species of Spaces, George Perec

On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness, Jacques Derrida

Austerlitz, WG Sebald

Other readings:

History of Love, Nicole Krauss

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera

Kafka by the Shore, Haruki Murakami
Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton
Lolita, Vladimir Nobakov
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace

American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville, Bernard-Henri Levy

Violence: Big Ideas/Small Books, In Defense of Lost Causes, Slavoj Zizek

Also, Dostoevsky, whom I've never read, and specifically women writers whose language and philosophies I like, such as Lauren Slater, Joan Didion.

Last night I remembered that I took two different ASL classes as a youth. One was paid for by my school so that I could communicate with a deaf student in my class. I now wish I would have really stuck with it and studied, for my sake and for Shawn's. I don't know why I didn't care enough then...a selfishness of naivete perhaps.

The next craft I am willing to take on is Cut Paper illustration and sculpture. I read that symmetrical cut paper design was a popular Polish folk art called Wycinanki. This makes sense to me. I love using an x-acto blade.

I've been daydreaming of Vienna, or what I imagine could be Vienna, which is a majestic city with the remnant haze of war like soot in its gilded corners. In The World According to Garp he [Garp] moves to Vienna and writes a story about a circus bear on a unicycle, and his is the Austria I love. Last night I dreamt that my little Iowa family moved into a small oddly shaped flat in a huge hotel-like complex. It felt at once like it would be in Austria but also Sweden....the beds were enormous planks of wood with down blankets, tucked under the eaves. The window looked out over the maze of rooftops and windows of the same building and nothing else. I looked through boxes of feathers and buttons left behind by the last tenant. I am always dreaming of expansive, broken down hotels, something between Maria Theresa and Socialist housing, something with lots of doors.

All I listen to these days is Roy Orbison and John Denver. Is my heart getting soft? Annie's Song is one of the most beautiful songs I know. My heart swells when Denver sings "....looks so Lovely," for the last time in Sunshine on my Shoulders.

In my dream wedding, Jens Lekman would be there singing John Denver songs to us.

The Twelfth Month

Oh, December, the Twelfth month has arrived.  This doesn't look like my snowy Midwestern winter, but I am still cozying down, sipping tea, playing Christmas tunes....We had a pleasant, simple thanksgiving, joining my friend Vinnie in Portland. We ventured out to meet my Uncle Mark for lunch (quick but fun) and see a bit of the city on Friday. It was mostly quiet though we faced an onslaught of Black Friday shoppers on the street where Vinnie works. Yessiree, the holidays are here. December, can I go home yet? 

photos via flickr: here, here