happy halloween

awesome! i'm going as Paula Revere but this cat has got me beat.

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antlers

this reminds me of the time i got held up doing something dumb like tying my shoe in nyc and had to run past a box full of antlers as to not lose my friends who had walked ahead. they were $20 a pair! and i'd always wanted a pair of oldies but goodies like that. what a shame :/ if i'd had a $20 in my pocket i would have snapped up a pair and been that girl walking around nyc galleries with antlers the whole day. i can't imagine i was tying my shoe though, was there even a time in my life i wore shoes with laces? this horrifies me, so not current boots or bust laura.

anyways, antlers always make me think of cool weather and wet slippery leaves in the woods. you know, that weird quiet you can only notice in fall because the bustle of summer is over but you're not so full of your own thoughts in winter yet to pay attention to it? i never really realized all the things antlers make me think of until now actually, that makes them even cooler. they're like magical objects from another world.

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thar she blows!

So this is the before pic of the new whip! Nabbed this lovely lass at Legend after a year of waiting for me safely in the back NFS corner. I helped to set it up and designed a rad (in my opinion) window display around this bike last summer. I have always wanted a mixte! I wanted this bike immediately upon seeing it because it's my size which is pretty uncommon, it's in perfect condition (seriously) and it has all the technical bs required in a frame to make my end game vision for it possible. All that time I thought it was going to be a shop bike because sometimes they keep the especially cool ones. Well on my mad perfect mixte hunt I hadn't found a damn thing half as good as it, so longer story short, I stopped into the shop at close one day, had a beer with the guys and rode it home. SO EXCITED! I can't wait to get rid of that black rack though, silver all the way.

With any luck the after picture will be even more epic, this thing is so rad.

bed tent

i'm sure you can see a pattern emerging here, or perhaps have thought "maybe this girl should just make a blog about tents."

well i love them and that's that. who doesn't though? they're so cool! whether or not this is a tent because tents are cool or a mosquito net is a little up for debate, but it looks rad either way.

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a pile of pretty

have you ever rifled through your bag for something and realized the mess you've made is completely awesome looking and you have to pat yourself on the back for having such a pretty to look at pile of random stuff? well just that happened to me this weekend. i was going to grab the grey sweater out so i could buy thread to match it for the buttons and i just had to take a picture. it was only things i've made by hand, a vintage silk scarf, my bike bag (only full of happiness ever) and pipe cleaners. how can you possibly lose with a lineup like that?

Marco Simoncelli, coolest dude.

yesterday the raddest of rads, Marco Simoncelli, got killed during a race. it totally sucks and seems so wrong and untrue. he was 24. on top of that being waaay to young to die, he was totally going to be the next motogp champion. he was my favorite EVER and was really fun to watch. he was a complete animal on his bike and on top of it he was huge compared to the other riders so he even looked like a monster when he was riding. on top of the really sad and fucked up part, everyone else in motogp is boring and now it sucks to be motogp, it's just not going to be the same. he got killed in a freak accident kind of way and it totally shouldn't have happened, it's like his bike defied the laws of physics.

while dillon and i are both super sad that Super Sic is gone (along with probably not exaggerating like a million others), we're really happy we got to see him race once when we went to the Grand TT in Assen on our honeymoon. I even got a picture of my lovely Simoncelli AND we ate his sponsor's bread in Italy and took pictures of that too... i bet you didn't realize i was that big of a dork for motorcycle racing hahaha. his bread was really good and i had already forgiven him for crashing lap one right in front of us in Assen, but i was totally convinced we'd see him at another race and that he'd win it.

the last picture is him on the left (didn't he have badass written all over him?) nabbing his first ever motogp second place last weekend, he was wicked stoked. i'm happy his last race was his career best but it makes it even sadder that he's never going to get his #1 in gp.

pic i think was from his fanpage but it's down now
pic mine
pic mine
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fallishness

the leaves are finally changing! i baked two pies from the apples we picked (one of which turned out to be a complete lake of apple goo) and have a family of pumpkins in the apartment. it's officially fall!

this pic is from when db and i went for a drive down the Kancamagus Highway in nh, it was beautiful.

things that are awesome

this is awesome. note taken. baguette and wine picnics are so fun and so easy it's shocking that people don't bust into spontanious wine and baguette picnics all over the place. gotta say though, this forest is pretty amazing looking. besides the wicker basket and the fact that this bike is beyond terrible this scenario looks pretty close to ideal.

on the bike note, i've finally found the perfect mixte! it's a sweet ass old school Centurion touring bike. she's light metallic cocoa, in amazing condition and in general totally awesome. she's going to be the perfect cruising bike, i am SO excited! i'm going to treat her to some cruiser bars, a Brooks saddle (yeah, i'm going there), an uzo sized front basket (puppy portage!), a rear rack, full fenders and a crate for the back and carrying yarn, beer, art supplies or a blanket and picnic basket. basically, nothing not completely rad will be allowed within 5 feet of this bike, it's going to be that cool.

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pink pink PINK

apparently this pink phase i've discovered i'm in is just getting more and more out of control. i also have 3 pairs of pink tights and painted one of my nails a color that can only be described as late 80s unicorn neon pink.

have i mentioned my frye boots are also a very dark pink/purple? in it to win it people.

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bike nomads

dillon is going to race bikes next fall, and likely mountain bikes (which is way more awesome than road btw). now i can't help but drift off into daydreams about it. i imagine packing up some awesome little feast and our gear into our sweet little car and driving off to some awesome wilderness place, then setting up our rad zip together sleeping bags (i LOVE zip together sleeping bags!) and sleeping with nature sounds under the stars. the next morning we'll wake up ass early and drink coffee before the race, eat some weird power food that i'm sure db will discover, he loves that shit, then getting all geared up and heading to the start. dillon will be all stoked and riding fast and i'll be chillin on the sidelines with uzo and screaming stupid shit like "how does it feel TO BE AWESOME?!" as he rides by. after the race we'll chill with other rad mountain bike-y, nature loving people while drinking good beer and recapping the days events around a fire.

i just think the idea of the three of us darting off to the woods every weekend and having a rad time is awesome sounding.

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butterick 4067

just got this baby in the mail and can't wait to make it! the thought of a warm, wool maxi skirt for this winter is SO awesome, i'm totally making the pink one, and likely in pink but that's just coincidence. i have a dress i have to finish before i'll let myself spend a cent on fabric for it, but at least i've got the pattern in hand. i have a new rule for myself; i have to finish a project (any project) before i can get supplies for the next. hopefully i can stick to it and it'll cut down on my unfinished project guilt/absurd supply shopping sprees. only exception is buying vintage patterns, if i find it in my size and i definitely want to make it i can totally buy it right then otherwise risk my years long search for mystery 70s halter jumpsuit i lost on ebay and didn't write down repeating itself. now i just have to finish my cardigan! it's hard to mobilize myself to knit grey on a grey day, but i'm 95% done! the end is near!

sparkle world

listening to Crystalline on Biophilia (which of course i picked up today on my way home from work) and looking at this image just made me imagine an amazing dream world of sparkling nature, cozy caves, dancing while watching the stars twinkle and then drifting in and out of sleep wearing a monster of an amazing dress. very specific i know, but i think i might have to listen to this album outside in a grassy meadow as the sun sets the first chance i get...

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biophilia

my day got immeasurably better when this link was sent to me by my precious, musically like-minded cousin, and my day was fairly rad to begin with.

full free listen of Biophilia

thank you npr! now i'm even more excited to pick this baby up tuesday

happy three day weekend! i'll be riding bikes, watching bike races, meeting custom frame builders, drinking beer, picking apples and cooking vegan delights :) i love columbus day weekend!

rooftops

something we noticed in Italy was that almost all the windows in all the apartment buildings in the cities (and outside the cities) had plants and flowers in them. it was nice to see the people valuing nature and beauty like that, very different from here. if all cities were like this one i think urban sprawl wouldn't exist, but since we make our cities so overwhelmingly artificial i think people deal with it for as long as they want the conveniences and excitement of a city and then need to escape. it's not like the apartments in european cities are any bigger than here, they might even be smaller, it just seems like they take the time and put in the thought to make their little spaces beautiful instead of building and enduring concrete hell until the invariable flight to the burbs like here.

it's pretty inspiring, i wish we as a culture could learn more from european city life, they've had enough practice to figure it out.

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beavertail

this weekend we took a ride down to beavertail in jamestown for rock skipping, rock hopping, serious off-road dog adventuring (uzo is hardcore for a dachshund) and a cruise around the island. it was awesome! we saw a bunny, a weird bird, a rock covered in cormorants and 22 deer! really, 22. i also decided we're an adorable little fam :)

i love jamestown!