Off line

I have been making a load of art lately.  I have been far away from the computer most days.  This is a good thing.  A very good thing.  It also means less blogging.  I'm just going to go with the flow.

Everest

A few weeks ago my parents came to babysit and we got all dressed up and went out for a glorious dinner up high at Everest.  Seems like a century ago. 

Beach

Crickets here are due to a vacation to the Bahamas my little family took.  It started out a bit scary, with a trip to the ER the night before we left.  David's doctor thought he had a pulmonary embolism.  It was terrifying.  He's ok thank goodness. 
We went back to the same place we had our babymoon.  It was not quite as relaxing however.  Shine got sick, she almost ate a nail, I got food poisoning, and David lost his wedding ring in the sand on Valentine's day.  (He found it a few hours later!)  That said, we are happy to be home and in one piece!

Horse Ebooks

Have you heard of Horse ebooks on Twitter?  My friend Lauren just started selling these hilarious necklaces with a few of the funniest Horse ebook tweets engraved on lockets.  Check them out here!
ps- the photos were shot by my amazing intern Sam Reckweg!

Flurries

A few snowy shots from my neighborhood.

Friday Music Muse

My cousin and his wife just had a sweet baby girl.  They named her Avery. This song has been stuck in my head since her birth.

Dear Avery
The Decemberists

Dear Avery
I think of you only
Were you waving
Were you dead on the vine?

Oh Avery
To think of you lonely
 I could just grab you
By the nape of your neck

There are times life will rattle your bones
And will bend your limbs
But you're still far and away the boy you've ever been
So you bend back and shake at the frame
Of the frame you made
(But don't you shake alone)
Please, Avery, come home

Head strong
You and your long arms
Listing lazily
On the cusp of your teens

But you were my Avery
And when you needed saving
I could just grab you
By the nape of your neck

*beautiful image by talented photographer Melissa Shelby

In person

Henrique Oliveira's work. I need to see it. 








































Here, here, here, here

Underlined: Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta

I haven't posted an Underlined segment in a while, even though I have been reading more than ever.  The first quarter of Stone Arabia was a bit slow, and had I not known the premise I might have dropped it, but I was too intrigued with the story.  Without giving too much away, it approaches the topics of music, memory, and family.  The main character Nick is an aging wannabe rock star, with traces of Henry Darger, minus the perviness and total isolation.  My favorite paragraph in the book made me weep. The aging mother in the book has dementia and her daughter is caring for her.  I couldn't help but wonder what it will be like when I am very old.  I will look at this photo above, and remember the closeness, how our bodies almost seemed like one.  The newness of this love, this all consuming mother and child world of nursing, nurturing and beauty.  It's fleeting.  That day seems like yesterday, and light years away.  Just read this:

Her hand squeezed mine.  I put my other hand on top of hers and stroked it lightly.  She seemed to relax slightly.  I held her hand, and she didn't pull back.  It made sense.  We started out with all this body intimacy when I was a baby and then a child.  After that there were years when we hardly touched.  We would give a hug or a kiss on the cheek, but it would be perfunctory.  We would already be pulling away as we did it.  It was just how adults behave.  And now we were hugging, holding hands. I helped her at the doctor, I did her nails for her, I knew all about her body.  It made sense--we retreated from the mind.  The body remained.  We lost the memories, and so the past collapsed and disappeared.  We were back to the intimacy of our two bodies.  And I realized the intimacy was never gone, not completely.  It hummed just below our surfaces, held down by our array of vanities and privacies.  It felt very simple, and very comforting, that our bodies get returned to each other in the end.  It was almost as if the mind has to disappear to get us back to the elemental.  To our pure mother-daughter love.  It felt better when I thought of it like this, when I felt how good my touch made her feel.  How it eased her fears. ~Dana Spiotta in Stone Arabia

Buds

Ever since Shine started eating more solids (and began throwing food on the floor) these two are like two peas in a pod.  Turns out the schnoodle doesn't mind the baby so much after all.

Weekend

I'm so looking forward to this weekend.  David and I have a Friday night ritual which includes pizza, wine, and spending some quality time together while Shine sleeps.  I think our Sweet will need a few extra snuggles because she FINALLY got her first tooth!  (More are on the way too.) 

Friday Music Muse

Oh how I love these lyrics.  The song makes my heart ache in a really good way.  As does this Christenberry photo.


Iron and Wine
Resurrection Fern

In our days we will live like our ghosts will live
pitching glass at the cornfield crows and folding clothes
like stubborn boys across the road, we’ll keep everything
Grandma’s gun and the black bear claw that took her dog
And when sister Lowery says “Amen,” we won’t hear anything
The ten-car train will take that word, that fledgling bird
and the fallen house across the way, it’ll keep everything
the baby’s breath, our bravery wasted and our shame

And we’ll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Both our tender bellies wound in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern

In our days, we will say what our ghosts will say
“We gave the world what it saw fit, and what’d we get?”
Like stubborn boys with big green eyes, we’ll see everything
in the timid shade of the autumn leaves and the buzzard’s wing

Then we’ll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Our tender bellies all wound around in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern

Leandro Erlich

Bâtiment, Leandro Erlich au 104 by Palagret
This is a pretty incredible art installation by Leandro Erlich.
Reblogged from Marvelous Kiddo

Axe Man

My brother Adam working on his axe, naturally.