Did you catch this?

The piece "Every Teenager Should Have a Summer of ’65"  by Joyce Wadler in the New York Times made me smile today. I loved the above illustration by Rebecca Mock that accompanied it as well.

the first year

It what has become a spontaneously themed week on anniversaries, I just want to throw my own modest celebration into the mix - my one year wedding anniversary. Just over a year ago I married the sweetest man I've ever met in a ceremony surrounded by those we love most. It was the start to what has been one heck of year that has included major home construction, the completion of a dissertation, and the birth of one smiley and squeaky little boy. We are tired, but also very happy. And even though we really, really hope our next year is just a teensy bit less crazed than this past year, we look forward to collecting up our own autumns in the years to come.

image via the State Library of New South Wales Collection 

a picture story

photographer unknown 

via Fifikoussout (via *Bootsie)

Julia's valentines

Julia: "Valentine cards had become a tradition of ours, born of the fact that we could never get ourselves organized in time to send out Christmas cards."

via Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. "My Life in France" 2006. pg. 301

via lit blue light

One of the things I loved about the movie "Julie & Julia" was how wonderfully the real life love affair between Julia and her husband, Paul Child, was portrayed. They were fun and romantic and what proves it is the fact that, instead of Christmas cards, they were known to send out sweet and goofy postcards of themselves to family and friends. I think these Valentines are about the cutest (and funniest) things around...

via Vanity Fair

Paul in 1967: "How fortunate we are at this moment in our lives! Each doing what he most wants, in a marvelously adapted place, close to each other, superbly fed and housed, with excellent health, and few interruptions."

 via Marilyn Mellowes. "Julia Child." PBS.org

via i-concepts

our little wedding

It been over two whole months since I got hitched to the sweetest southern boy I know and now we've got the pictures to remind us what a lovely day we had back in November. I don't want to bore anyone with too many personal pictures, but I can't help sharing a few especially since our photographer, Sarah of spots of time photography, did such an amazing job. So here are a few images...

Before the ceremony:

One of the best parts of my wedding was just how much my wonderful and generous friends put into making the day go off without a hitch. For example, Hiving Out's own home talent Lorelei made all the bouquets and  boutonnières and  my friend Evelyn's mother made the beautiful ring pillow out material that once belonged to my grandmother.

The ceremony:

My nephew was such a brave soul to walk down the aisle ahead of my sister, but he just about broke my heart when he paused and turned around to look back at us. My mother gave me away in front of some of the loveliest and sweetest people there are in the world. And we both cried a little bit.

The reception:
I loved the look of my reception which was, without a doubt, the gift of my friend Ruby who put together the centerpieces, hand wrote everything in her lovely handwriting, and organized the heck out of all the details. It wouldn't have been anything near this pretty without her. And of course, there was the dessert table which was covered with all sorts of delicious treats made by friends (Mae's husband made us 2 to die for cakes), family (my mother's walnut cake is a tradition), and a favorite local bakery (Halgo European Deli & Grocery).

 

 

I will admit that the best part of it all is that it is over! And now I have this pretty good husband beside me and these lovely pictures to look back on. It's a nice place to be in just over two months in... :)

"sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead”

So I got married last week and though I've still feeling the love and happiness of marrying such a sweet and wonderful man (blah, blah, blah) - there is still nothing that feels as good as a good song about heartbreak. For example, Adele's "Someone Like You..."

Oh, and thx to a dear friend of Lorelei's for posting this video to his facebook page from which I swiped it (by the way, LL's friend also has a pretty amazing blog - check it out if you can stand following a blog that is, like, 100 times cooler that this one: http://www.fiftyfivehundred.org/).

a toast to vivi and mr.

I met Vivi in 7th grade science class. We pretty much immediately hit it off. We had a lot of important things in common. It had been surprisingly difficult to find another preteen Streisand fan and watcher of The Golden Girls up until then.
I have always considered her one of the best people I have ever known. Anyone who knows Vivi is aware of her intellect, compassion, and incredible sense of humor. She is one of those rare folks you can turn to in life's scariest or saddest moments and she instantly helps. No matter the demands of her own world, she will take the time to ground a friend who is adrift or bring a laugh when it is needed most.
I don't know Mr. all that well, but from what Vivi has told me and from what I have seen- in addition to being creative, funny, and generally wonderful... he is one of those rare folks too.

A wedding, in the simplest sense, celebrates love. A marriage is part celebration, but also it is about navigating life's constant chaos and I think Vivi and Mr. have a good team going. It is all about meeting the perfect partner- they just come in so handy.

Vivi is one of the first friends I found for myself as I was growing out of childhood. We were not brought together because our families were friendly or because we lived in the same neighborhood or happened to share the same kindergarten teacher. Twenty-three years ago, I decided to strike up a conversation with the girl sitting at the lab table behind me- in my whole life- it will always be one of the best decisions I ever made.

I wish Vivi, and her Mr., nothing but happiness- because nobody deserves it more.

Image courtesy of google

words to marry by...

There are lots and lots of wedding stuff to post, but how about some words? Here are some quotes which reflect what I wish my wedding and love and marriage to look like...

via These are a Few of my Favorite Things...

"the irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating -- in work, in play, in love. the act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around like rational hesitation. to commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life." 

~Anne Morris   

via naturally nina

via somerset

"i love you also means i love you more than anyone loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, & also, i love you in a way that no one loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, & also, i love you in a way that I love no one else, & never have loved anyone else, & never will love anyone else." 

~ J.S. Foer

via These are a few of my favourite things...

via it's mary ruffle

via saying images

via the devil and god...

this i the last paragraph from Jane Austen's "Emma" via Michael Fusco Design, but if you can't read it from this image, it says:
"The wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have no taste for finery or parade; and Mrs. Elton, from the particulars detailed by her husband, thought it all extremely shabby, and very inferior to her own. "Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business! Selina would stare when she heard of it." But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union."

one benefit of marrying a shorter man...

Marrying a guy like this:

Means getting to wear beautiful flats like these:

Image of Dustin Hoffman and his wife Anne found here.

Jessica Simpson (seriously) "Lepolia" flats found here.

family and fabric

"Passage Quilt"

In the midst of the excitement/stress/self-inflicted anxiety of planning our fall wedding (yes, we're thinking THIS fall) - I am missing my grandmother a whole lot right now. Well into her 80s when she passed away a few years ago  - up until the very end she still lived independently in her neat as a pin apartment and had more energy than any of us. Though the anchor and center of my family - my mother's mother was also its engine in how she loved us into our choices and helped us make the hard decisions. She was also darn fun to be around.

A year or so after my grandmother passed away, I learned that my friend Evelyn's mother was a talented maker of quilts and so, thinking it'd make a great Christmas present for my mother, I asked Evelyn if her mother could take my grandmother's collection of housecoats (which we could never part with) and make a quilt out of them. She could and she did, and it was beautiful. Evelyn's mother also made two pillows, as gifts, out of the same materials for myself and my sister. To see all those familiar little patterns of flowers and dots sewn together with such care and craftsmanship was overwhelming for me. My mother loved her quilt too.

And so in thinking of that beautiful quilt and my grandmother and how happy she would be about this wedding - I've asked Evelyn's mother to make just one more pillow. She is going to make the pillow that my sweet four year old nephew will carry up the aisle in his role as ring bearer. It will have my and my husband to be's initials stitched into it, but it will be so much more than ours. With that fabric belonging to my grandmother, in my godson's hands, surrounded by our family - it will so much more than our little ring pillow. I get weepy just thinking about that image. But, to tell you the truth, this is actually the kind of thing that made me want to have a wedding... despite all of these silly tears that come with it. :)

"Passage Quilt"

P.S. These images are all by Sherri Lynn Wood who also thought to make quilts "from the clothing of the  deceased and the intimate materials of every day life." You need to see more of them so be sure to go to her "Passage Quilts" flickr page.

camping can be nice

 via cherry blossom girl

Sorry I've been away from blogging for a few days, but I've gotten caught up in a surprising amount of end of the semester activity. Aside from the usual rush of grading and meeting with students, my dear friend Bootsie was in town which was quickly followed by a visit from my mother. Their visits were wonderful especially because I got to celebrate a little bit of news with them - I got engaged.

Now hold your horses with comments full of glee and joy. It's not that I'm not absolutely overjoyed and filled with glee myself over the promise that the kindest and sweetest man I've ever met wants to marry little ol' me, but I'm just bashful in what follows in the sharing of such news. Let me explain.

The man took me on my very first camping trip a few weeks ago. One of my best friends, Ruby, and one of his as well as their equally as loved significant others joined us on this city girl's first experience sleeping in the great outdoors. And it was wonderful. The fire. The burnt popcorn. Watching a boy scout troop who set up camp near by. Relishing in how dark and quiet it got to be at night. Taking a nap with Ruby, but really listening to a light rain tap against the tent. Being in my bf's element and loving how happy it made him. All that would have made for an amazing weekend, but it was also on this trip in which he decided to ask me to marry him.

After hiking up a mountain (I'm pretty sure this was a test and it seems as if I passed even though halfway up I had to hand him my pack to carry) and snacking on the sweetest of tangelos and the most refreshing gulps of water from an actual canteen, my bf asked if anyone wanted to climb the little fire tower/observatory to look at the view from an even higher point. Since all were in the know, no one seemed interested other than me.

And so that's where he asked. Actually, that's where I answered (and started to cry) before he got the words out. It was so beautiful and special and when we looked down at our friends and he yelled down my answer - they blew party horns that were carried in a backpack all the way up the mountain, hidden under granola bars, hidden from me.

So this leads me to why I am bashful in all of this. I love my story. I love this man. But all that is to follow makes me uncomfortable. I'm at ease with him and in marrying him, but this thing, this wedding thing with all its details and planning feels like a monster. How do I plan a wedding that is within our very modest budget that feels like its about us? How do I also do this thing without making it all about ME, the monster bride, and not also about all the people that we love and love us? Despite how it may otherwise appear on a blog in which I tend to ramble about myself more than my fellow Hiving Outers, I am not a girl who handles the generosity of the spotlight well. I prefer the humbling space of the background, the one who gives attention and not gets it.

So this is the state I'm in - engaged and overwhelmed with the love and attention that comes with it. I know I'm not the only shy girl out there who's gotten married so if you've got any advice on how to embrace center stage - I'd love to hear that. And thanks for reading my extra-long, long overdue announcement too! (And I feel so lucky that I kept my complaining about that killer hike to a minimum...)

Finally saw this movie...

...and cried my face off.

{"Up" images via here and here}

Love

"Romeo and Juliet" sculpted by Milton Hebald, Central Park, NYC via flickr

So, we are coming to the end of February. Did you know that February is "Creative Romance Month", "National Mend a Broken Heart Month", and "Relationship Wellness Month"? -that is all in addition to being the home of Valentine's Day of course. I decided the last post for the month should be about love (seems only fitting given February's credentials).

I am not a poetry person and I can say this even with an English degree under my belt. I do have two very favorite love poems though and, yes, they could be considered trite, but they get me every time..... and isn't that the point really?

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

e.e. cummings

*********************************

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

e.e. cummings

Reason to love rain (#5)

Because even when it looks like this...


Rain is still so romantic (especially as a metaphor for teen love):
photo by recurrent dream (via here)

passage from the young adult novel via ffffound
(By the way, the Alaska of the title? A girl, of course.)

Shakespeare In Love

I came across Shakespeare In Love the other day on television and I could not believe it has been almost a dozen years since its release. I watched it because, despite the fact I own the DVD, it had been forever since I enjoyed it. I remembered immediately why I love this movie...

Beyond the incredible costumes, sets, score, and cinematography, there is wonderful wit accompanied by downright silly humor and heart-wrenching romance.

There are really two loves involved in this film- the connection between the character William Shakespeare and his muse, Viola de Lesseps, and the love of art, of the creative process. We watch both relationships unfold and flourish throughout the film (and get the better part of a fantastic performance of Romeo and Juliet to boot). I know there was a lot of controversy surrounding this film's Oscar win, in fact I found it on numerous "least deserved" lists. That is such a shame. There were some incredible movies competing in 1998, but I still think Shakespeare in Love was deserving- a near perfect combination of humor, passion, all aspects of the arts and...love.

Images courtesy of google

Happy Birthday, Mae!

Our own Mae is celebrating her birthday today! We just want to give her a little shout out and let her know how fantastic we think she is (and it's not just because she is so generous with her talents and spoils us with the beautiful crafts she makes).

Mae is also a tremendous storyteller, a model for having a sense of humor in the raising of your kids (and making sure they have them too), and is, without a doubt, a real kindred spirit. Oh, and did we mention that she makes crazy beautiful crafts that she will, like, just give us? Yeah, that is great about her too...

Mae, we only dream of being as divine as you at your age! ;) Have a great day!

(photograph by Gemma Comas)

a confession

via weheartit

Are you ready to be shocked? Brace yourselves, faithful readers.

Alright, here it is... I adore Taylor Swift.

Now, I know that this news totally blows your mind because you think of me as so incredibly edgy with my many posts on poetry and cats, but you are just going to have to believe it.

This confession is also major because I don't want it to reflect upon and embarrass the two dear friends that I share this blog with and who are both the epitome of hip (what with Mae's concern about archiving her children's school work for the long hall and Lorelei's near mania for children's libraries - there is a real chance that these ladies are going to cut me loose!).

via weheartit

Alas, I kid. Those two are as dorky as I am (thus my love for them), but loving Taylor Swift is still a goofy thing to admit to since I am not 15 (I'm more like two 15 year olds and a first grader).

Other celebrities her age annoy me to no end (cough, Miley) so I'm as surprised as anyone as to how much I enjoy Ms Taylor. Sure, she has cute style and is up for anything (check her out on SNL), but I think the heart of her appeal is that there is a real sincerity to her songs about young love.

Her songs are, yes, simple and sweet, but in that way they are also able to capture an earnestness and vulnerability that reminds me how it felt to be in high school when every emotion was so new, so heightened, so raw - even when you were happy.

via weheartit

Anyway, I sent the acoustic version of Taylor Swift's Fifteen to my friend Ruby who, because she is such a beautiful writer, knew exactly how to express how this teenager singer taps into a thirtysomething's nostalgia:

"It makes me remember the first time I ever held hands with a boy. It makes me remember the first time I ever got caught kissing a boy. Joe Silvio. Italian hunkahunka, football player, Catholic, older brother to a new born baby sister. It makes me remember the poem I wrote in high school about all those people there. I memorized a bit of it...In a place of jagged edges, may our circle of light shine through. In a place where there are no benches, tell me where to sit, to read, to believe what I say I believe. It reminds me of my dramatic nature, my mother's dramatic nature:-), a smug teenage self rolling my eyes. I'm with you, friend. That kinda shit does all sorts of things to you. It's really nice to be all ages at once, as Madeleine L'Engle says we are."

Doesn't Ruby just nail it? Taylor Swift's songs totally speak to the inner geeky teenage girl and it is nice, every now and again, to feed her needs too.

P.S. Oh, and I am so outing Lorelei... she loves herself some Taylor too. So does her 1 1/2 year old daughter who is obviously already laying the groundwork for her future teenage soul...

Shirley and her girl

via allposters

I bookmarked this picture of Shirley MacClaine with her daughter on A Cup of Jo because I just thought it was so incredibly fun and goofy and just the kind of relationship I'd want to one day have with my children. Turns out that there are plenty of other pictures of Shirl and her girl, Sachi, hamming in it up in front of the camera which I adore just as much. Speaking as someone who has none, I know that having kids is hard and stressful and not always easy, but it also looks like some of the most fun you can ever have too. Maybe I'm being a little too romantic about one day being a mother, but these two make motherhood look so darn joyful.

via art.com

via art.com

via cup of jo

via imbd

via allposters

via usatoday