Friday Music Muse-Great Lake Swimmers: Changing Colors

I love this song and it inspired me to make a painting. I scanned it and it looked washed out and horrible (it was watercolor) so I played around with it in Photoshop which was fun!
You look at me with uncertainty,
You look at me with urgency.
You look at me with fear in your eyes
like you're about to fall away.

But don't be afraid to change your colours now.
I've known you all Summer, and you rose above it all.
I see you hesitate to fall now,
But it's a pretty good view from down here, too.

And when the wind takes you, it takes me, too.
When you change colours, I change mine, too.
Try not to think, and I will try to.
When you let go, I will let go, too.

I knew you when you were green and strong.
You were like a feather on a wing, so long.
You know I will miss you when you are gone,
but don't be afraid if you just can't hang on.

'Cause when the wind takes you, it takes me, too.
When you change colours, I change mine, too.
Try not to think and I will try, too.
And when you let go, I will let go, too.

The cold air is pushing hard on you.
I know what you're saying; I can feel it, too.
You'll go through changes, and I'll go through them too.
Don't be afraid now, don't be afraid.

'Cause when the wind takes you, it takes me, too.
When you change colours, I change mine, too.
Try not to think and I will try, too.
And when you let go, I will let go, too

Inside a fishbowl

Isn't this Vegas Chinese restaurant amazing??? I found it via Being Tazim's blog. The place is called Bejing Noodle 9 and was designed by Design Spirits Company.

Baby Fat

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez circa many moons ago.
As Joan says, they still had their baby fat back then.

*photo from Fossil Museum

Erdem

This Erdem dress screams SPRING! That's not a print but tons of overlapped embroidered flowers. Hello gorgeous.

Tuesday Poetry Post-Robert Lowell: Mr. Edwards and the Spider

Mr. Edwards and the Spider

by Robert Lowell

I saw the spiders marching through the air,

Swimming from tree to tree that mildewed day

In latter August when the hay

Came creaking to the barn. But where

The wind is westerly,

Where gnarled November makes the spiders fly

Into the apparitions of the sky,

They purpose nothing but their ease and die

Urgently beating east to sunrise and the sea;

What are we in the hands of the great God?

It was in vain you set up thorn and briar

In battle array against the fire

And treason crackling in your blood;

For the wild thorns grow tame

And will do nothing to oppose the flame;

Your lacerations tell the losing game

You play against a sickness past your cure.

How will the hands be strong? How will the heart endure?

A very little thing, a little worm,

Or hourglass-blazoned spider, it is said,

Can kill a tiger. Will the dead

Hold up his mirror and affirm

To the four winds the smell

And flash of his authority? It’s well

If God who holds you to the pit of hell,

Much as one holds a spider, will destroy,

Baffle and dissipate your soul. As a small boy

On Windsor Marsh, I saw the spider die

When thrown into the bowels of fierce fire:

There’s no long struggle, no desire

To get up on its feet and fly

It stretches out its feet

And dies. This is the sinner’s last retreat;

Yes, and no strength exerted on the heat

Then sinews the abolished will, when sick

And full of burning, it will whistle on a brick.

But who can plumb the sinking of that soul?

Josiah Hawley, picture yourself cast

Into a brick-kiln where the blast

Fans your quick vitals to a coal—

If measured by a glass,

How long would it seem burning! Let there pass

A minute, ten, ten trillion; but the blaze

Is infinite, eternal: this is death,

To die and know it. This is the Black Widow, death.

*photo by Simen Johan

Dream Collaborations

Here is another look from my Dream Collaboration with Louis Vuitton:
(Available here)

Shrimp Place Cards

Aren't these shrimp place cards by Timeless Paper fantastic?

It's on

I've always liked Joni Mitchell, but I've got a bone to pick with her after she made these comments about my Bob Dylan to the LA Times last week:

"Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I."

Woman needs to step off and stop trash talking my Bobby.

*article from http://www.themusicmagazine.co.uk
*Joni image from http://image.guardian.co.uk
*Dylan image from

Fashion Inspiration

I'm loving these drawings inspired by the runway!
Check out anouchkapotdevin's site here.
Louis Vuitton Spring 2010



Chanel Couture Spring 2010

Papa Bear

That's my guy. Love you Karl.

by Natalia Grosner

The Great Lake Swimmers

I love the Great Lake Swimmers.
I love this new video.
I love that they are coming to Chicago to play a free concert at Millenium Park June 14!!!!!!!

Louis Vuitton Dream Collaboration Opera Choker

Here is the first opera choker from my Louis Vuitton dream "collaboration" available for sale here!

Friday Music Muse-Pink Floyd: Mother

I'm picking up The Wall from my Tuesday Poetry Post to share some Pink Floyd brilliance.
A terrorizing yet beautiful song.

Mother - Pink Floyd

Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb?
Mother do you think they'll like this song?
Mother do you think they'll try to break my balls?
Mother should I build the wall?
Mother should I run for president?
Mother should I trust the government?
Mother will they put me in the firing line?
Mother am I really dying?

Hush now baby, baby, dont you cry.
Mother's gonna make all your nightmares come true.
Mother's gonna put all her fears into you.
Mother's gonna keep you right here under her wing.
She wont let you fly, but she might let you sing.
Mama will keep baby cozy and warm.
Ooooh baby ooooh baby oooooh baby,
Of course mama'll help to build the wall.

Mother do you think she's good enough -- to me?
Mother do you think she's dangerous -- to me?
Mother will she tear your little boy apart?
Mother will she break my heart?

Hush now baby, baby dont you cry.
Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you.
Mama wont let anyone dirty get through.
Mama's gonna wait up until you get in.
Mama will always find out where you've been.
Mama's gonna keep baby healthy and clean.
Ooooh baby oooh baby oooh baby,
You'll always be baby to me.

Mother, did it need to be so high?

*image from Pink Floyd's The Wall album

Remember in the Sex and the City movie when Carrie gets a package delivered to her (a huge box) and opens it up and it's the Vivienne Westwood wedding dress she tried on during the Vogue photo shoot that Vivienne so generously gave to her? Well I pretended that happened to me. It went like this:
Someone knocked on my door and handed me this HUGE box. I opened it up, and it was the Marc Jacobs dress that has been keeping me up at night, with a note from Marc that said:
"Michelle, it was so wonderful collaborating with you. I know how much you have been gushing over this dress and I felt like you just had to have it.
xo
Marc"

How do you think it looks with those white socks??
It's pretty amazing what a little Photoshop can do for a girl's closet.

Yes it is raining on my tights.
Yes they are my new favorite thing in the world.
Yes I have been obsessed with the primary colors since I was about 19 years old.

Move over Vicki

I think Victoria Beckham is jealous of me because Marc replaced her with ME for his ad campaign!!
Head over to my Dream Collaborations blog for more info about this project!

Marc and I

HOLY CRUD I "met" Marc Jacobs. Head over to my Dream Collaborations site and check it out!!

If he's the Sean Penn of Schnoodles, what does that make the squirrel?

Underlined: Sam Shepard-Day out of Days

I read Sam Shepard's latest book a couple months ago and found myself underlining and filling the margins that contained this line with stars:

"Suspended"? Floating"? Nothing quite nails it down. It was immediate, though. I'll say that much. Not unlike the hackneyed magician's trick where he jerks the entire tablecloth out from under the plates and saucers and they all remain exactly where they are. Something like that. Or the way all the lights in the city go black and suddenly everyone's silent. Everyone waiting for the world to fall away but it already has.

*photo by Peter Franc

Book Stump

I think I might need to move to Berlin. How cool is this tree stump book exchange?? It was in the NY Times last Wed.

Creatures of the Wind

Yep, Creatures of the Wind Fall 2010 line=minor cardiac arrest here.
Seriously, are you seeing the beauty of the gold fabric? Are you with me??

Reality Check

I just read a fantastic post about understanding growth within a small business, managing expectations, and explaining why a one woman business can't grow at the rate of a large corporation. Reality check. Sometimes I need one.

*photo by flightlessxbird

Happie Loves It

Happie Loves It has the best dresses and they have new items available finally! I stumbled upon this shop when I was in London and have been obsessed with it ever since.
I'm in love with:

Tuesday Poetry Post-Langston Hughes: As I Grew Older

I have been thinking about dreams a lot lately. Not the ones you have when you're asleep, but the ones you create when you are young and hold onto and wait for them to come true. Then you get older and start to realize every day living might not let those dreams happen. I don't want to wake up one day with big regrets. I'm going to do everything I can to keep my dreams alive and not let the wall rise too high. (Hence, projects like this) Langston Hughes wrote a perfect poem about this very thing.

Here's to tearing down The Wall. Thank you Mr. Hughes.

As I Grew Older
by Langston Hughes

It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun—
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky—
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!

*image from one of the greatest albums ever, Pink Floyd's The Wall. That album contains lyrics that deeply affected me in my teens.

Old Friends

I had a really great weekend. Sometimes I can be a bit of a hermit/loner. I love when that side of me disappears for a bit, like it did this weekend when my friend Amy was in town. She got here Thursday and her pure goodness and joy filled up our household all weekend. We lived together in college and ran cross country and track for Purdue. She lives in Denver and she's a pediatric nurse practitioner and I've always thought she was a real life angel. Not a bad bone in that woman's body.
This weekend we ran together.
We ate and ate and ate:
Lou Malnotis-pizza heaven (take out)
Gilt Bar-a croque Madame! (which I mentioned here)
Sushi Samba-the El Topo Roll...my absolute favorite (sushi with melted cheese, yeah)
La Madia-Calzones, yes please
HEAVEN
She even came into Marc Jacobs with me and didn't even seem the slightest bit embarrassed by me as I was drooling over the clothes and making weird noises. (especially over THIS dress. How could there possibly be evil in this world if this dress exists???)

Are you seeing the pearl details???

Here's to good friends. Love you Zookie.