Cherry Blossoms

It has been about 70F for the past 2 weeks, and even up to 90F yesterday, so all the trees have bloomed quickly and begun to sprout little leaves. All the warm weather has brought the city back to life, and even though I find myself trapped in a library writing a thesis, I am still dreaming about spring, summer, warm weather and other lovely little things...

Works of note

Here are a few images of artwork I saw, that are stuck in my mind:

Figure in a Mountain Landscape I, Peter Doig.

Some wild and lovely nail art Via a nail art blog, but sadly, I've forgotten the name.

Jim Hodges, No Betweens. This work is giant and amazing in person.

Image by Lewis Carroll

Antiquarian Dutch tiles of children playing. Via The Rijks museum.

Trends

Leather jacket from Veda.

Strep and Knitting

I have wanted a cowl since i saw the yummy black cashmere YSL last winter. Even on sale it was $300, so when strep presented itself I finally got around to knitting one and updating this. I started this at 11am today, and even with miscellaneous errands I managed to finish by 8pm today. Yeahh me. I put in on ravelry and titled it "Big Fat Cow(l)" The color makes me think of Opening Ceremony in New York.

The yarn is from Twinkle. I c/o 60, knit 3 rows in rib stitch, and then alternated the rib stitch until it was long enough for my neck/head. Then I knit 3 more rows in an alternating rib and casted off. I used almost 2 skeins.

Un petit Vacation

We look so stupid in this picture

Rocky

Chinatown

I don't have any pictures from New York or of much, but I miss him and hope I can see him in December.

Coats

Photos of a coat from Opening Ceremony by Charles Anastase . I love him, his designs, and I wish I was making enough money to be able to buy this lovely coat. Perfect for all the rainy fall days in Philadelphia. ;)

Cranbrook and Beatrix Potter

Yesterday I road my bike over 5 miles (round trip), and ended up at the art school library at Cranbrook. Where, after spending an hour looking at two books on Swedish decorative arts, I found a book on the illustrations of Beatrix Potter.

As a child I loved her books about the adventures of animals and their deeds and misdeeds, but it was not until yesterday that I experienced the beauty of her artwork that she did for the books themselves and how as the author of the stories she was able to bring to life moments in her book so much clearer than by asking another person to paint parts of the books for her. 

I was also struck by a similarity between the joy in her work and Carl Larsson's. Perhaps its just a shared sheerness in their work or perhaps because I can picture the adventures of Beatrix Potter's animals taking place in the backyard and house of Larsson's family? I'm not quite sure, but I'll share some pictures with you anyways.

Beatrix Potter:

The Author and Artist

so sweet

Carl Larsson:

Photos of her cottage and studio just make me want to cuddle up by the fire with a sketchbook and this:

I am enchanted by you:

I've watching the first two seasons of Bewitched and am steadily making my way through the third. There is something so irresistible to me about the show, that makes me look past the kitchiness of the whole show and love it or maybe even love it more. Right now it's raining outside and I'm happily watching the show, in my own little world.

Here are a few more pretty little things:

The House

It was modeled after another cape cod in Santa Monica.

Samantha and Darren

A Flinstone's Special

Loving Endora, and her bright color choices.

Always end with a kiss!

Samantha

If I were Bewitched

If you're interested the first three seasons are currently on hulu.com for free.