Behind the Curtain

Havering Quine

© NRM Pictorial Collection - Science and Society Picture Library
These posters celebrating the Coronation Scot are in a special exhibition "See Scotland by Train" at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, until June 24 2012

Tomorrow I jet off to my honeymoon in Scotland. I think I quite prefer this whole delayed honeymoon thing; I doubt I would have been able to plan a wedding and honeymoon at the same time while keeping all my marbles.

While I'm away,  I have three very lovely ladies writing some guest posts: Donovan Beeson, Carolee Wheeler, and Elide Enderson. They have some pretty awesome posts lined up, so I hope you enjoy their words while I am gallivanting around the Highlands.

For now, I leave you with a fun little "Soundy" of Martha Tilton singing "Loch Lomond."

“Loch Lomond” (1941) – Martha Tilton.

Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced in New York, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946, often including short dance sequences. The films were displayed on the Panoram, a coin-operated film jukebox or machine music, in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, factory lounges, and amusement centers.
- Wikipedia via Retronaut

 

Three Books

We leave on our Scottish honeymoon in three days.Three days! Eeep!

We already know where we'll be and have an idea of the sights we want to see. With most of that in order I've been fretting on what to pack. My friends have been helping me on some aspects of this. Such as reading material for the long long flight.

Kateri drew my attention to the publisher Melville House, who have a series of novellas (Art of the Novella) and as well as a series of overlooked novels (The Neversink Library). I got a couple of books from both series. For the trip/flights/train rides I picked-up Lady Susan from Jane Austen and After Midnight by Irmgard Keun, both of which I'll report back on when I finish them. I also purchased the ebook of May Day (F Scott Fitzgerald) and preordered The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars, which I'll most likely get to sometime this summer.

But, the book I'm most excited about is one that is completely blank.

The amazing Carolee handmade a journal especially for my honeymoon and I am completely overjoyed at how it turned out. The inside pages are a dream to write on with my fountain pens and the cover is a lovely mix of linen and leather. The best part though is the end papers...

Look at the awesome pattern! I love the split-pea soup green of the background too. Super sigh. I'm excited to start writing in it, but I'm holding off until I am at least on the plane to Scotland. It's been hard to hold back though.

Light Headed

This past weekend I sat myself down in a salon and got a little over 10" of my hair cut-off. I was so freaking excited to finally be able to cut it. See, I only ever grow my hair long so that I can donate it. Other than that, I prefer short hair on myself.

I'm donating the cut hair to Beautiful Lengths, which is where I donated to last time I cut off this much hair (in 2009). Back then I also dyed my hair red, but I discovered shortly afterward that I've developed an allergy to hair dyes. So, no more drastic color changes for me!

I really love the hair cut I got this time and think I'll be keeping it short for a while. I got the cut done at a new salon in my neighborhood called Pin Curls. Although they specialize in vintage cuts and styles, they also do a damn good job at contemporary cuts. I don't bring in photos when I get my hair cut; I find that the stylist tries to mimic the cut exactly rather than making it fit my face. So, I went in there with an idea and the owner had her suggestions on how to make it more flattering, which is what we went with.

I am absolutely tickled pink with how it turned out. If you are in the area, let me know if you want to get a cut there - she gave me two $20 off coupons and I'd be happy to mail one to you. (Two of my fellow library workers pounced on these!) Totally not a paid endorsement, I think they are using these coupons to get the word out about them, which I'm happy to do for a cut well done. A good stylist is really hard to find.

If you are interested in making the cut and donating, here are a few organizations that accept donations:
Wigs for Kids
St. Baldrick's
Locks of Love
Pantene Beautiful Lengths 

Weekend Snapshot

This past weekend was one of the few times I've had nearly no work-related tasks on my plate. It was so awesome and yet I found I didn't know what to do with myself! Thankfully, those around me were able to help. Record Store Day filled most of my Saturday morning and then Donovan reminded me that the Circa Ceramics studio sale was that afternoon. I was able to find some awesome bowls to replace my sad little chipped and cracked Ikea bowls. After 7 years, I finally have some grown up bowls and plates.

The evening was planned with drinks with friends, but I unfortunately started losing my voice. Instead of walking in the cold and yelling over a band, I decided to stay home with tea and some knitting. (I finally started the neckline on the vest!)

Sunday found me in a poopy mood, but my throat was feeling much better, so I decided I needed to go out and wander. The day was quite nice, so the walk was a good way to get me out of the doldrums. I stopped over at Butcher & Larder and picked-up some of their Marrow Burgers I've been hearing such great things about. I'm planning on cooking them up for dinner tonight, so I'll let you know what I think.

On the walk back, I also stopped by a local bakery and picked up some sweets and cheese. When I arrived home, the light was so nice in my kitchen, I decided to make a little lunch for myself with my spoils. It was so tasty, especially topped off with the very latest beer C brewed up, a Special Bitter.

Sadie has a drinking problem.

I know the Special Bitter looks dark and the name makes you think its bitter, but it is actually sweet and light flavored. Donovan hates dark beers, but enjoys SB's. My favorite of these types of beers is Fuller's ESB (extra special bitters), which I would suggest anyone who thinks they don't like dark beers to try. If you do, let me know what you think.

So that was my weekend away from shop work and trying to steer clear of glowing screens. How was your weekend? What do you do when you are trying to stay away from the computer/TV?

Chicago & Collaboration

This image and all other included in this post are by Carolee.

My friend Carolee came from San Francisco to visit for the weekend and it was just lovely. Carolee, Donovan, and I happen to be collaborating on a project together, so much of our time was spent over drinks and notebooks. It was so much fun to finally be in the same spot and bounce ideas off of each other.

Carolee only had a few days here before she had to drive off to another Midwest destination, but was able to see a few good things in the area. For those of you planning a trip to Chicago anytime soon, here was her list of seen items:
- Quimby's Bookstore (Wicker Park)
- Greer Chicago (Old Town)
- Nelson Algren's house (Wicker Park)
- LWA HQ (aka, Donovan's studio where we make Letter Writers Alliance stuff!)

And here are the places she feasted at:
- Hoosier Mama Pies (West Town)
- Owen & Engine (Logan Square)
- Bongo Room (Wicker Park)
- Bite Cafe (Ukrainian Village)
- Blind Robin (bar, Ukrainian Village)
- Small Bar (Wicker Park)

I always intend to write-up a little guide to Chicago to help people out in doing non-touristy things, but I never get around to it. Hopefully this mini-guide to what Carolee did in three days will fill the gap until I get around to writing a full blown "What to see & eat" post for Chicago.

Favorites & Changes

As the Letter Writer Alliance grows and my day job gets more and more busy, I'm finding it hard to keep up my posting schedule on here. In order to maintain the blog I'm going to start posting twice a week, rather than my normal three times a week.

I've been debating reducing the frequency of my posts for months now and it has finally come to a point of just not being able to keep up with my responsibilities, so it became a must rather than a possibility.

I'm sorry for the changes, but I do hope you all continue to come by twice a week to read my little musings, as I do enjoy having you all visit.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

As for the awesome images above, here are their original sources:
1. Untitled, 2. Ogden's Midnight Flake Tobacco, 3. Vesper, 4. At the lake, 5. mail from Fred One Litch, 6. Portrait of Admiral Abelmeyer

Chronodex: Radial Time

Do you know of Patrick's Chronodex radial day planner? Well you should. It is an interesting way to schedule your responsibilities, especially if you are more of a visual person. He offers it as a free download on his site and it has caught on so quickly, that several people have also offered modified versions for download as well. For example, there is a Circa version and a GTD version (both paper and digital (iPad) formats).

I'm really enjoying this format for my datebook, although I would like to make a few modifications when I have a bit more time. One thing I would really like to do is to create the radial days for the weekend, as much of my shop activities happen then. I would also switch out the AM and PM locations in the 9 to 12 time range, as much of my appointments occur in the evenings than the mornings. Ah, but, no time to make such changes now. Luckily, the datebook still works pretty darn well as it is.

I love how thin it is, so I can just keep it in my bag with my journal without adding extra weight. Oh, and it was so easy to make. The one addition I have done is to add my to-do list to the cover of my datebook. That way I can see what tasks I have to get done without opening my planner. Its like a nagging inanimate object, but without being annoying.

So, if you are looking for a new way to keep your appointments in 2012, take a look at the many variations of Chronodex. There is even a Flickr group for it so you can see how different people are using and modifying the system.

Letter Writing Week

It's letter writing week, so I figured I should show you some fun mail I recently. Two of the items in the batches below are L.W.A. involved, but the correspondents added a neat little touch. Such as the above request to participate in Initiative Response, a mail project we have. I love that the writer included an interesting photo of the spot they wrote their first LWA pen pal letter. How cool is that? I was so humored by way they sent their concealed cash for the project in a glassine envelope with the different terms for money. I nearly fell on the floor laughing over "skrilla."

Above is Donovan's awesome holiday card and a lovely Garbo stamp that came on Ana's card. I also acquired two new pins from Donovan and Carolee. While the bottle isn't mail related, cocktails do rank nearly as high as mail does in my list of loves.

I'm loving the stamps on the Australian airmail letter. I also really dig the card from _ of the alpaca and sheep knitting together. Too cute. Lastly, check out that $1 bill folded-up into a $ sign! Oh, and that cigar box, look below to see what it contained.

Hmm, yes, little things to make an office supply junkie's heart go aflutter. Pencils, a to-do pad, mini-journals, and scraps of red paper items. Thanks to fellow office supply nerd Ana for the neat package!

So, who are you writing to during letter writing week?

2012

Happy New Year everyone!

Now I'm going to crawl back into bed and pretend it is Spring.

Interesting Ladies

I've been having trouble finding the motivation to crawl out from under the covers and put down my knitting in order to type on the computer lately. Fortunately, a lot of the lovely ladies I read on a daily basis have had some great blog posts recently. Here are some of my favorites as of late:

- Tasha's guest post on Casey's blog about adding a grosgrain ribbon button band to a knitting project. (Have you seen her most recent cardigan? Knock me down with a feather!)

- Sarah Becan's post on her favorite winter beers.

- Pumpkin Pudding from Smitten Kitchen.

- Jamie's lovely holiday cards this year.

- Landgirl 1980's review on BBC's Landgirls makes me want to watch all three seasons.

- Joan Didion's packing list on English Muse can came in handy this holiday season.

- I can't decide if I love or hate this short row sweater pattern from Purl Bee.