Quick Question

Could I just live inside an Anthropologie catalog, please?

Things

Things that are making me happy today.

Today is the day before Halloween. That is what is making my daughter happy, along with pumpkin carving, and volleyball practice. But these are the things that are making me happy:

My Anthropologie catalog that arrived in the mail today. The combination of intricately unique items in it, and the inspiring layout make me drool. It also makes me sad that I have not been receiving the catalog for ages. I can almost taste the shelf full of loving bookmarked catalogs sitting in a nice neat row. Le sigh. Life is full of such small regrets, I suppose.

Also, that skein of recycled silk with it's circus bright colors, and sheen. New today. Yippee!

This cover made from this crochet pattern is not new. I finished it a few weeks ago, but it is still making me smile.

Wedding Photos

You know how you take pictures of an event and it's like, oh there is Aunt Susan, and here is Uncle Jim, and there we are dancing? And then some photographers take pictures of the same event, and it looks like something really interesting happened. Well, that is what these photos of Cassi and Cameron's wedding are like.

And here is Nicole Nichols Blog. She is amazing.

Oiyi Oiyi

Pretty pretty shawl right his way! Check out Oiyi's Blog for a chance to win her beautiful first shawl, complete with pattern and some really super lovely extras!

Zero History

Reading William Gibson is like slipping into a world that is ours, but is somehow smarter, edgier, and infinitely cooler. Each time I start a new Gibson book I want to chase after people on the street and beg them to read too. I try to explain the genius that is Gibson, and each time, fail utterly. Putting that genius into words only seems to belittle it somehow. If you have any insight, please, let me know.

Gibson always describes what people are wearing. And I love this. Instead of seeming light or shallow, he introduces fashion as a window into the person, as a way of telling who they are by what they wear, or refuse to wear. He tells about their hair, and describes in infinite detail what they do, and how that doing seems to the viewer. His books are about now, but are ever at the edge of, and seem closer to what will be happening, than what is.

I have mentioned before that William Gibson's Pattern Recognition is my all time favorite book whose logo allergic main character Cayce Pollard I took into my heart as soulmate and friend. The sequel, Spook Country though just as well written thrilled me less. Perhaps because the protagonist in this case Hollis Henry seemed to be one of those people to whom things happen rather than on who makes things happen. Hollis plays a leading role again in Zero History, surrounded by a cast of seriously quirky characters who do, in fact, make things happen.

If you have any interest in fashion, marketing, art, pop culture, language, the future, flea markets, design, history, corporate espionage, or military surplus, read these books. Start and the beginning, and when you get to the end, you may want to start all over. That is what I am doing.