acid wash

This summer was way too hot and I don't miss it, but I do miss wearing matching acid wash with my babe.

Mom jeans and overalls for the win.

Shorts - American Apparel
Overalls - Vintage Osh Kosh B'Gosh

yearly peony

I take a pic of my peony bouquet from Db every year and this year is no exception. So here we are, a very Caravaggio-esque photo of a particularly beautiful five peony bouquet. This pic is from June of course, I wish peonies bloomed until now! We actually have three peony bulbs coming in the mail as I write this so hopefully next year I'll have some garden peonies to post, too!

Something pretty for everyone.

cutest hat for the cutest head

Seti is all set for fall! I scored a puffy coat and mittens from Patagonia's 'clearing out last year's line' sale and now I've made him possibly the coolest hat I've ever seen. It fits awesome, was a really easy knit and I finished it in only four days. I'll definitely make this pattern again for baby gifts because it turned out so nice. The pattern itself is laid out really oddly and was a little harder to use than other patterns, but not too bad. Also I suggest swatching if you make this one because I think the designer might knit a bit on the loose side.

Seti may be just shy of 11 months but he has a really big head so I made the 2 year size and it's just right. It'll maybe last the season, but if it doesn't I can always pull out the crown decreases and add a cable repeat which is really easy. Made a crazy pompom, DONE.

As if I thought that kid could be any cuter, the giant colorful pompom bobbling around is just absurd.

Shoots-n-Ladders Hat by Ainur Berkimbayeva
Madelinetosh Chunky - Murakami & the pompom is various, but the white is Berroco Peruvia Quick in Blanco  which is the best pompom yarn I've found.

summer

This summer was both absolutely amazing and kind of awful. We had some really lame luck with our house, some sadness and some stress, but we also had our amazing babe Seti experiencing all our favorite things for the very first time! And I've got to say it even though it's cliche, it was magical. It was so so cool taking him to the beach and to NH and showing him all the best of everything. His wide eyed wonder is so pure and beautiful. That kid is the shit. He's cooler than all of us. So that being said, here's our new beach family foot portrait.

Summer is good. I hope you all had an amazing one, too.

HOUSE!

So, big news… we bought a house! Right after we stopped looking for the season, Uzo begged for a walk and I saw the sign on this beaut right across from the park and community garden the day it went up! Every time Db or I see a new for sale sign go up in our neighborhood we take note and look it up together because it's fun to see inside all the local houses and even more fun to laugh at how absurd the prices are around here. Like $799k for a totally run down fixer upper? 1.25m for an ugly as hell and poorly laid out new condo? HA. So yeah, usually it's just entertainment.

Well not this time! This time when we looked it up not only was it a lot less expensive than most other homes in our area, but it has a big yard, the inside is actually done mostly nice and doesn't need very much major work, and the location is IDEAL. Like what? Then, by chance yet again, Uzo wanted another walk and it happened to be during the open house for it that weekend (mere hours after looking it up on Zillow) and I practically dragged Db inside to investigate. Good fucking call, because now we have a house! The whole situation kind of reminds me of how I convinced Db to get Uzo. Like there's no right time for this, but HE'S THE ONE! He chose us, and now he chose our damn house too. Smart dog went and got himself a yard.

It rules. We love it. So thanks to Uzo's very well timed walk begging, all of us get to live in a totally rad little home in the city. So excited to make it ours :)

NH!

When I was younger my family used to go up to my Grandparents' cabin in the woods for a week once every summer. It was amazing, it's still my favorite place on Earth. Since I started working at 17 I haven't had the chance to do more than 3 days and although I've gotten to do tons of amazing things, a week in NH has been the white whale.

Well day dream of lazy reading on the porch no more! This year Db and I got our own week because you know, we're adults now (hahaha).

It kicked ass.

We didn't climb trees or play in the creek in the woods all day BUT WE DID get to play in a frosted donut shaped water tube and hang in a hammock by the lake all day. The weather was beyond perfect, especially compared to the annual Philly mid-summer sufferfest. It was almost like mother nature was saying "sorry guys" for raining on our wedding day, the majority of our camping trips and all our anniversaries so far. I'll take it!

Uzo got over his fear of water… mostly, and he swam every day like a champ. Just one week in the woods turned him into a mountain dog. His dirty little bandana gave him courage to do dumb shit and generally be more independent it would seem. It was super cute. He was even down with chillin' in the hammock!

IT WAS AWESOME. A far cry from our usual full throttle traveling escapades but equally as fun in totally different ways. Doing nothing is the best sometimes.

NH I love you.

epic vaca to the motherland aka. faial, açores!

Over a month ago Db and I went to Faial with my family, and oh man, it was SO COOL. I had no idea my Dad was from somewhere so beautiful. I've heard stories my whole life and always imagined it to be pretty rad, but holy shit! I got to see where my family lived and where all the classic stories took place. This house is actually the house my dad and the whole family lived in until they came to the USA. That front window was a bedroom view of the open ocean. I got to see the stone oven my Vavó used to cook bread in, the whole house was magical.

 While we were there we got to hang out with super nice people always, eat such good cheese, bread and fish, see dolphins, black beaches, volcanoes and tropical plants. I would totally like to go back someday. The island maybe takes an hour to ride around the whole thing, and the villages are all really small and cool. They have names that translate to things like "Deep Ravine", "North Beach" and "Little North". Db, my brother and I were all kinda of surprised by how much we liked it. Totally worth the wait in making it happen!

For more pics, read more >>>

london

 Last week Dillon had to do some work at the other office, which happens to be right outside London. We picked a hotel in zone 1 and while Dillon was at work I got to wander the city, slowly turning my feet into hooves between taking breaks to read Orwell's 1984 while IN London, where it takes place. My mom lent me her copy (published before 1984 which is important) and I saved it so I'd be able to read it here. What an amazing way to read this book, wandering around and then reading a bit at night and realizing I was at the place they met up in the book earlier in the day? Reading about the capitalists and how the worst of all is called the King while sitting within view of Buckingham Palace? So so cool. Everything about this pic amuses and disturbs me, including my dollar bill bookmark. I also finally found a legit art store in England, so London is alright by me.

I figured out the first day we were there I walked just over 7 miles! We saw Buckingham Palace, walked the Mall and saw pelicans in St James' Park. We went to The National Portrait Gallery, which disappointingly and surprisingly did not have a portrait of England's national treasure and most often heard voice, Sir David Attenborough. FOR SHAME. We watched Big Ben toll 6 and then a huge rainbow form over it and checked it out at night looking all spooky and imposing, too. We deemed just about everything to be "the Queen's favorite". Shitty pub named The Bag o' Nails? The Queen's favorite. White Pelicans? The Queen's favorite. The geraniums that are in all the gardens in the city? Geraniums must be the Queen's favorite. The Queen also must make her guards wear their stupid uniforms for fun because they carry automatic rifles, no old fashioned weapons there.

It was really fun, and this past weekend when we were there was Summer Bank Holiday which is basically English Labor Day aka. "Summer is over, PARTY!" So we got not only an extra day to explore, but we also got to go to the Notting Hill Carnival with two friends who live outside London! It was … huge. Really I can't compare it to anything except what I imagine Carnival in Rio to be like. I have never seen so many people in one place in my life. Everyone was having a great time, the music was so loud, everyone was gorgeous, people were walking around covered in chocolate and the drinking was no joke. No little nips on the street, we're talking people dancing with 750s of Jager ten feet from cops. I would love to know what it looked like from above, it was wild!

We went all over really, it ruled. I was surprised by how cool London is.
For more pics, read more >>>

hey hey norway

Db travels a lot for work. Usually in the US he travels podunk places and occasionally somewhere cool like Portland or San Fran. But in the UK where can you go? Oh, places like NORWAY. Now I've been pretty lucky so far in life when it comes to seeing things I want to see, like the Pantheon. Not to discount that, but I didn't even know it existed until college. Norway and the fjords on the other hand? I have wanted to see them since third grade when I found out I was part Norwegian.

Story time!

In 1994 when my family went to Epcot my brother and I each got to pick one country to visit and with zero hesitation I chose Norway. It was cool, and amazingly I still remember it pretty clearly… it's probably the only thing I remember about 1994 besides the next part of the story. The next fall the whole fourth grade class had to choose a country to do a project about for "country fair". No country could be picked twice and you got to choose when your name got pulled from a hat. The entire fourth grade classes' names in a hat! That was like… 100 kids. As I nervously sat there willing my name to be called all the other kids picked off the usual suspects; England, Canada, Ireland, Brazil… I was afraid someone would pick Norway because in my mine why wouldn't they?! But lucky me got my Norway even considering I wasn't called until near the end. That day I went home and up to the (scary) third floor where my mom's set of Encylopædia Britannica was, sat on the floor right there and cracked it open. I so, so clearly remember everything about it, right down to the rug I sat on and what that book smells like. Literally the second I saw a picture of the fjords, and struggled to figure out how you would say it out loud, I wanted to go there. I think I even remember where on the page the black and white pic of the fjords was; top left of the left page. Clearly it left a huge impression. My project ruled, I even went to the library. Oh 1994.

Wanting to go to Norway was the longest standing desire of my life. No joke. All the usual "I want to do this someday" things hadn't occurred to me yet, like getting a puppy or owning a house or falling in love. Nope, wanted to go to Norway. And it was also the one desire I still thought was the most inaccessible and unlikely. Like if you don't want to go to Oslo, where do you aim it? It's a huge country! And the airfare. Yikes. So fast forward to a few weeks ago. I land in England and Db goes to work the next day and we have this conversation via text out of absolutely nowhere;

he - "You want to go to Norway wed-thurs?"

me - "Like, the day after tomorrow?"

he - "Yep. We could take the weekend. Look up Stavanger."

Hahaha, BEST WORK TRIP EVER. So I tagged along on his business trip and my dream life became real life for a few days. Enough story time! It was absolutely amazing and there are far too many pictures! I literally cried tears of joy on the ferry through the fjords, I still can't believe it was real. We would both go back in a second.

For more pics, read more >>>

portugal

Db and I went to Italy and Amsterdam on our honeymoon, and on the beach in Fiumicino we decided that our next big vacation would be a beach vacation in Portugal. Three years later that trip is tomorrow! Finally! The MOTHERLAND! We're meeting my family in the Açores where my Dad's side of the family is from, and then Db and I are splitting off to Lisbon for a day and then the Algarve to swim near caves and wear tiny inappropriate bathing suits! I cannot wait for the bakeries, seriously. If the Portuguese bakeries in RI are that good then I can't even imagine how good the ones in actual Portugal are. However beach vacation + tons of amazing pastry = ??? Whatever though, I've been hearing about the real Portuguese bakeries for my whole damn life, I am eating EVERYTHING.

I'm so excited, mid-summer is the perfect time for adventures, I hope you all are having a rad summer so far!

pic

hey hey rhode island

First stop, last stop: the beach.

peonies

Because I shouldn't be one of only two humans who were lucky enough to see this bouquet. Have a great weekend!

new adventure!

Hey all, sorry I've been truly shitty at posting fun things lately. Truth be told I have some crazy stuff going on and we are in the process of…

moving to England for 6 months!

Db and I got a really cool opportunity and jumped at it! We got very little notice and now are kind of scrambling to get everything ready to go, as is evident by most of my houseplants in the "loading area" that is my studio before boxing them up and driving them north to my parents' this past weekend. Our house feels so quiet and empty without them!

So there it is, insanity is on its way! Don't worry though, in between the insane number of things we have to do to prepare I have made time to pick out a few cool knitting projects to stowaway in my luggage, special for England. Best parts? Weekend trips all over Europe and England's generally shitty weather will never make it too hot to knit. Knitting season year round!

I'm so excited to share our adventure with you guys, we have no idea what to expect but we know two things, it will be weird and awesome, and the candy and soda in Europe RULES. Priorities!

the little things

This lovely place in which I live is full of the most interesting urban decay, combinations of colors and guerrilla art. Sometimes you just need to pick yourself up a flower though, something beautiful and soft to contrast all the beautiful and harsh. This is the alley to my house. Which is nicer to look at? Hard to tell, but the flower I can bring inside with me…

new glassessss

Good glasses rule. In my whole life I've only tried on a pair of glasses and been like "THESE ARE THE ONES" twice, and this pair was one of them. The last pair I felt like that about I wore everyday until I literally wore out the temples and couldn't have them replaced which was the start of my contact lens era…almost ten years ago.

These frames are by Rapp Eyewear, designed and made in Toronto. They make super limited run fucking wild frames, these are the style "Cortelyou". The temples and details are titanium, so now guys will even think they're cool. The shape is so sharp and strong but still really feminine, very into it. They had so many colors but this creme was by far the most rad. I have been wanting creme glasses for YEARS, it was meant to be. I think I've finally found my spirit frames.

because, flowers.

Nothing beats spring. Growing up I got to walk past a huge lilac bush everyday on my way to and from school, and now I get to walk past a huge lilac bush everyday on Uzo's walk. I can smell them from down the street, it absolutely rules.

forsythia, bearer of good news.

How lucky we are to be human and get to see and appreciate all this beauty? This was on my daily bike commute to the shop. It's 20 feet from the highway and four feet from where I spotted an abandoned dildo in the road debris earlier this year. No matter what dumb and inconsiderate shit people do to try to make the world ugly, they somehow always fail. Nature is magic.

a humble dish towel

A few weeks ago I got a text from my mom asking if I'd checked my mail yet that day (always a good sign!) I jumped off the couch and ran down the alley to find a surprise package waiting. It wasn't a birthday or holiday, and when I opened the box I found a note that said "Just because". There was candy for Db and I, a pig ear for Uzo, AND THIS.

I've said it before, but I come from a family of talented and crafty people. The most recent development in craft is my mom taking up weaving, and as soon as I saw this nicely folded fabric in the box I knew she'd made it. When Db and I opened it up we seriously stood in my studio inspecting it, turning it over, and generally being amazed in total silence for a good minute or two. Weaving is so impressive to me, it's like magic. The concentration and skill required is just insane. So when she told me it was a dishtowel and that she wanted us to actually use it to towel dishes I laughed and was like "Are you serious?!" with a sort of amused horror. Nope. It's been folded neatly in clear view from my spot on the couch since getting it. My mom constructed woven cloth just for me and hand stitched that little love note on it, so so cool. I plan on keeping this forever.

bike adventure in the pinelands

Two weeks ago we had a freakish and thorough break in the weather. The snow melted, the sun shined, the coats and gloves came off. We opened the windows to get some fresh air in the house and then packed up our bikes and drove to the pinelands! The pinelands are this really weird ecosystem that apparently only exists in southern New Jersey so they're protected and NJ made a fairly large state forest of it. There is a lot of mountain bike single track to ride, but since I don't have a mountain bike (yet) we brought our cross bikes and rode around on the fire roads. It's great because all the sand drains really quickly and the massive amounts of snow didn't make anything muddy.

It was great getting out there and seeing trees even if most of them were dead, and also riding without tons of gear on. We heard a tree fall in the woods (yes it made a sound) and heard the most berserk screaming hawk/eagle ever… we decided it must be it's mating call but honestly the thing just sounded insane. And as we rode through the sandy, abandoned and creepy trails Db told me stories he'd heard about people apparently using the pinelands as a place to bury bodies. Good to know, don't go to the pinelands at night ever.

birthday adventure

Every year the week of my birthday is the first real nosedive into frigid, wretched winter. Usually my actual birthday is the worst day out of all of them and this year was no exception. It's been like that for so long that I actually plan for it at this point. This year for my "birthday weekend" Db and I went to Longwood Gardens so we could look at plants, smell dirt, and most importantly, sit in the jungle room! It was great, that place is so cool. It's an absolutely enormous greenhouse and it's full of the wildest plants I've ever seen. They have a fern hallway, a desert plants room that's almost all grey plants, indoor orchards and grapevines… it is almost certainly more serious and insane than what you're imagining.

Not a bad way to punctuate winter, to go somewhere warm that's full of sweet plant smells. At the gift shop I almost got a maidenhair fern, but I'm putting all my plant buying resources into the largest citrus tree I can afford this spring. How rad will that be? It'll live out on the deck in the summer and be a fake yard, and in the winter it'll live in the living room. If you can't live in the jungle room no one said you can't build your own.