A friend of mine struts her stuff on etsy!

Check out this gorgeous pendant made by my friend for her new etsy shop: margotclaire!


I am so happy she's decided to put some of her creative pursuits online. I knew her as a painter, and as a fun, creative, multi-talented friend. Hooray for Margot! I WANT ONE!

-Papermoon

Stressful job detox shopping cures.

If someone could fill me in as to what gave me the idea I could afford these things, that would be very helpful.

Thanks.

-Papermoon

PS: Since when am I such a girl?

My sweet little room.

I love my room, now*.

Lower East Side isn't half bad, either.

Being a teacher sounds pretty good, too.

I guess I shouldn't have been worried...

-Papermoon


*Except for the HEAT...it must be a million degrees in here. Yikes!

The Mysterious Book Club Society.

I am in a book club.

The members range in age from 11.5 to 23.5.

We will be varying our locations between NYC, suburban NJ, and a nearby university.

We are all sisters, and the book of the month is "The Mysterious Benedict Society".


How can you resist a cover like that?!

-Papermoon

Mountains, Moving, and Monroe Bisque.

I am back, having hiked the Alps.



If ever I must leave the country I love and live somewhere new, by all means let it be Switzerland.

'Real life' (and my job) begins this coming Monday, and so this week I am moving, little by little, into my little room-to-live-in on the Lower East Side. My living space is tiny, but I will pay no rent (and love little spaces) so I have decided there is no reason to complain. Plus, it's got a fearfully high ceiling...which I think will be exciting and fun to tweak around with. I am thinking of putting in some floating bookshelves, 10 feet off the floor. With a little rolling stepladder, I can be Audrey in 'Funny Face' when I go up for a book.



I am painting my room just the color of my bedroom here in my parents' house. Why not? Monroe Bisque makes the room so cozy.


I am basing my design daydream for the room on a painting I made a year and some ago, set in a favorite Evanston bookshop.

Very teacherly, I think.

More to come, assuredly, when New York assaults me with things to talk about...

-Papermoon

A break ( after a break. )

Well... camp #2 kept me busy. (And cranky.) I haven't posted here in a while.

I am headed off for a last bout of relaxation, pre-job, today. I'll be here:


Au revoir / Auf Wiedersehen.

-Papermoon

My friend Tim, on Design*Sponge.

My friend Tim is famous.

Tim Mazurek was dazzling through his MFA while I was finishing up my undergrad art career at Northwestern. Despite my being a boring, Catholic, conservative, Tim was always very nice to me and I enjoyed every shared class with him immensely. As I recall, we met in my Installation Art class, for which he was a TA. (A great TA.) My 'art friends' (we called our clique 'the knitting club') and I all latched on to him and he somehow managed not to act annoyed.

I digress. Tim has an outstanding blog! Lottie + Doof has long graced my 'lovely things' side bar, and I ogle his photos daily. He has been picked up by Time Out Chicago, Refinery 29, apartment therapy, the kitchn, good bite, and Pioneer Woman. And today he made it onto one of my all-time favorites, Design*Sponge! It's no wonder, considering his organic, fresh choices are so enticingly displayed courtesy of his photography skills. The work of an artist, indeed.

I couldn't be happier for Tim. And I couldn't feel hipper for knowing him.

Check out Lottie + Doof here: Lottie + Doof
See Tim's artwork here: Tim Mazurek

-Papermoon

A Bag for Anna.

Yesterday's project: a bag for my dear friend Anna, six months late.



She'd given me the color scheme in January, I'd apologized and promised it was coming by Valentine's day, and I had been making excuses and looking at the fabric ever since... until yesterday.

I got up, ate my breakfast*, put on a dress and some pearls (I am more productive that way), whipped up a little seltzer-with-vanilla, and got down to business.


I used the same oh fransson pattern I have before... it's easy and effective.


I like it. I may make myself a wallet in the same color scheme.



-Papermoon

*cream cheese on whatever I can find seems to be the summer favorite

Again...Yes, Please.

Wouldn't this look well with that vintage suitcase you're going to buy me?


Found via { simplesong }, from Etsy shop Death and Texas (DNTX).

And in all reality, I'll take anything in the shop.

-Papermoon

PS: If it means anything for my chances, I will add that I did indeed accomplish the Audrey Tautou haircut.

Odosketch.

Check this out:


This is certainly the best online sketch program I have found to date.
And who doesn't love watching it build itself up?

-Papermoon

Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood.

America...

The Free.

The Beautiful.

The Bountiful.

The Winner!

-Papermoon

Yes, Please.

You may indeed buy me some of this luggage.



And, once I get my hair cut, and modify my hair to look just like this:



I will officially be primed for time travel, fancy clothes, and imminent engagement. To be sure.

I have been babysitting up a storm and raking in the cash, so I can at least take care of the hair!

-Papermoon



Images of luggage c/o Streamline Luggage.

Film stills of the prettiest woman alive c/o Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Chanel, for the new Chanel No. 5 'filmercial'.

A Dalmatian Plantation!

Yesterday I enjoyed a post-work movie with some of my siblings and my mother. My youngest sister and I had the unique opportunity to pick out the movie without the input of the others, so we opted for the genre that might not be the first choice at a 'family movie night': a cartoon!




We both feigned interest in a few other films we'd included in the 'options pile', but settled on the movie we really wanted to see: One Hundred and One Dalmatians, made in 1961. I had forgotten how completely beautiful the animation is!




While searching for images, I discovered an utterly fascinating blog dealing with color in animated film. Check it out here. (The images I am using came from Mr. Iten's site.)



I love the almost papercut-like look of the buildings, and the way the foreground and background move like stop-animation. I also can't get enough of the color scheme... or the characters' clothing!



Lovely!

-Papermoon

Camp. / Up.

First day of camp job #1. This being a very general, half day, primary-grades day camp, I felt that I was running the risk of planning too many activities for such young folks. After today I had to kick myself... these almost-first graders wanted a lot more out of me. Tomorrow I will have a much more chock-full schedule for them, I think.

Not that I had a bad first day... we opened with visor and backpack decorating, which (due to the inclusion of Sharpies and stickers) was a hit. We then moved on to some waterslide time; a good idea except for how cold they get, and how looooooooong little girls take to change into their bathing suits. If only women didn't talk so much.

Next up we played some games (a variation of 'heads up, seven up' and some playground tag) until lunchtime. Despite the fact that no child under the age of eight years eats real food unless forced, lunch went alright, too. After lunch we took a vote and decided on another round of playground time, before finishing out the day with pastels and colored paper. This last bit was a 'fly by the seat of my pants' moment because I got some very flawed advice from a fellow camp counselor, and had banked in a 'storytime' period. Which I knew wouldn't work... Should have trusted my gut.

Tomorrow I am going to give it a go this way:

9 AM Arrival, hopefully wrapping up by 9:15.
9:15-10:00 Model Magic 'fake food' craft–usually a big hit.
10:00-10:30 Water games, hopefully extending well past this time period.
10:30-11:00 Team obstacle courses. The two counselors will each champion a team.
11:00-11:30 Changing out of bathing suits.
(You would not believe how long this takes. It's unbelievable. I think I will have a sidewalk chalk or obstacle course game going on out on the blacktop so that once kids are done they can go join an activity. This, or the playground.)
11:30-12:00 LUNCH
12:00-12:30 Playground time.
12:30- 1:00 Simple paper kites (with popsicle sticks).


Hopefully it will work out.

* * * * *

On an another (though still vaguely child-related) note, I saw Up! today with a friend and my sister and mother. It was wonderful. Simultaneously evocative of childhood enjoyment of Disney movies while also drawing a very nuanced, adult tear from my eye, it was a real story achieved through absolutely breathtaking animation. I am pleased to say this was a movie (like Finding Nemo) that was better because it was digital. Purist that I am, that really matters. The balloons carrying that dear old man's house looked SO real, and that wasn't something that classic animation could have achieved. Reality was surely suspended!

I am too tired (ah, first graders) to go on... but everyone should see the film. The little boy's character is made to seem pesky in the commercials, but he is actually irresistable on the screen. Likewise, what can seem to be an annoying dog character in a quick preview is actually hilarious.

One warning: I cried throughout the movie. My face was consistently soaked. So was my eleven year old sister's. While we are both sentimental, I don't think I could fairly say our reaction would be unusual. You have been warned.

-Papermoon

Modern Wing, Moving Things.

So busy...

I spent a lovely day luxuriating in the summery weather with friends today. I have been biding my time lately in my apartment, dutifully packing like a droid until I have a compelling enough reason to allow myself a break from the box-filling. Today's reasons took up almost the whole day: First, I had to go out and get some dishwashing soap. Then, I just had to go out and see the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute. These things are necessities!

The walk over to the museum was sunny and cheerful, and I am happy to say the Wing itself did not disappoint, either. I couldn't take pictures, so I stole a few from the web.

I especially loved this view–

I was pleasantly reminded of the stairway in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Cph, DK).

See the resemblance?

Of course, my inner conflict raged over most of the artwork. But, no matter; a lot of it was fairly stimulating. I do like Gerhard Richter, who had quite a few pieces displayed.


I also enjoyed the Giacometti sculptures (as always), some interesting architectural and design works, and some very large Cy Twombly paintings. However, my friends and I agreed that poor Twombly would do better to decline interviews; what quotes he had made him sound like a colossal idiot. Nonetheless, I love this particular peony painting:


It's a year of loving red, for me.

We ate lunch at the Intelligentsia over on Jackson, and let it be known that their panini sandwiches– fresh from Southport Grocery– are utterly perfect. I am still full from lunch. No joke. And all of this loveliness was topped off by a seasonably early-in-the-day gin and tonic, after which I handed off the remainder of my gin to these friends of mine, said some goodbyes, and proceeded to the packing.

Tonight's box themes? Sewing notions, books, plates and cooking tools, and my lovely set of eight white bowls, in eight of the most necessary sizes.

(To elaborate on that last point, these white bowls give me some kind of unnatural pleasure. I think they are perfect. They are by Gibson "White Elements" and I think everyone in the world should own them. So beautiful. And so nice to only have one of each size, when I am so used to having a set of everything. I never take these eight individuals for granted. They were the only things I enjoyed packing today. Lovingly nesting them in their original box, I really felt rich.)


After all of that, I am exhausted. Tomorrow's goals: managing to keep myself "zenned out" (as my Papa might say) enough not to stress over the boxes fitting in my car this weekend, and finishing most of the food in my fridge and cupboard. Wish me luck!

Oh Chicago... you are fast slipping away from me!

-Papermoon