londontown

hey muffins!

apologies for the lack of posts - we've been on the ground here, getting settled and then moving, settling, then moving . . . being poor is hard work.

so far i have :

- frolicked about oxford cross
- bumbled around chinatown
- drank in stoke newington
- picnicked in brixton
- wore some good outfits but neglected to take pictures.

i am living in a council flat in hackney for the next couple of days, then on to stoke newington.

i promise pictures soooon! but i feel like such a tourist whipping the ol'camera out . . .

killing time

enjoying the air india terminal at jfk, relaxing with a gin+tonic.

see you in london!

up and up and away

in the best interest of furthering humanity's knowledge, i present the travel list for the style-conscious backpacker. it may come to no surprise to some of you that i love lists. and planning. and being neurotic about both.

upon embarking on this adventure [short story=adam+i are living abroad next year, teaching english in a yet-to-be-disclosed location], i explored what the interweb had to offer me in regards to a packing list. after all, a year is a long time to be living out of a backpack, and adam was very adament that i must pack light. so we're looking at about 30 lbs or so. plus a carry-on.

now, some sites suggest such things as teva/chaco water sandals or some sort of convertible garment in line with this. fine, i can understand the appeal of quick-drying, rugged clothing. and if i were, by chance, cliff-diving in acapulco or rappeling down k2, great. get me some patagucci.

but i would rather shoot myself in the face then walk down the champs-elysses or head to a show in shoreditch wearing something that is tan polyester. so i present to you, the fashionable backpacker.

i'm bringing ::

`(4) dresses - one black silk, one blue cotton, one blue silk tunic, one blue shirt-dress
`(4) skirts - one green floral cotton, black american apparel nylon, one pink cotton, one blue wool
`(4) t-shirts - black, green, (2) grey
`(1) pair skinny jeans
`(1) pair nice black straight-leg trousers
`(3) long-sleeves, one grey, one purple-striped, one cream
`(2) cardigans, one black, one cream
`(1) silk blouse
`(1) silk cami
`(1) trench coat
`(3) pairs shoes - one pair silver sandals, one pair black/gold ballet flats, one pair gold peep-toes
`many necklaces
`many silk scarves

this gives me at least a couple of weeks of outfits before i need to start washing things and i can be seen in public.
i should supply you all with pictures, but I'M LAZY. sorry.

next stop: jfk for a 7 hr layover. then onward! on air india to heathrow. will let you know if we get to watch bollywood!


listening to : apples in stereo, her wallpaper reverie. LOVE ME SOME ELEPHANT SIX.

23.8.08

i get a lot of comments on how i am usually in a skirt or a dress; how "dressed-up" i always look. i hate to look slovenly or overly casual but i am fundamentally lazy; the cost-benefit of looking pulled together vs. spending hours doing so results in non-pants. i feel people do not understand the pure easiness of throwing on a dress in the morning; there's nothing to match to each other, no worries about body-images [i find dresses/skirts are generally miles more flattering than pants, on me at least], and you instantly look nice! BAM.

in addition, i believe very strongly in the enduring power of oldey-timey things, such as, but not limited to, watch fobs, gloves, heels, pencil skirts and veiled hats; one feels and acts better when one looks more put-together. in particular, i LOVE vintage hats as no one wears hats anymore . . .



i found this one at the flea market this morning - originally 18$, marked down to 10$, and then i only had 9$, so it became mine for 1/2 off. JACKPOT. the guy said "you never know, maybe those willl come back into style" and i said i was doing my best.
hat : vintage, flea market
shirt : h+m, boston
skirt : aa, montreal
shoes : uo, montreal

i originally had balked at buying this skirt - it was what? like $40? i don't remember now - but i love it. i prefer to wear it with tights over bare legs - it is a bit short - but i love the fabric, the cut, the silhouette and the elastic waist. LOVE ME SOME ELASTIC WAIST.


twoooooo more days until adam and i leave for the old country . . . . blergh. packing.

a call to arms

dear citizens,

i challenge you, my fellow americans, to formalize your life!

please! no more sweatpants, white sneakers or other sloppy attire in public. coif your hair! wear side-button gloves and veiled hats! consult a pocket-watch! don a skirt or dress! free yourself from the tyranny and general discomfort of bifurcated garments!

hear me! i appeal to a greater sense of aesthetic and a common love of beauty! for the sake of your fellow man, apply care and thought to your garb, speech and life; treat every outing as a special occasion, worthy for preening and praise!

until then,
i remain yours,
anna

things i love ii

a week has gone by! yowza.

i. thrift stores! honestly, i prefer them to "real" clothes store. i love that weird funk of old lady and dust, i love spotting fellow ladies searching for gems [or rather it makes me anxious because OH MY GOD what if they take something neat?!? because the good lord knows that EVERYTHING is a competition for me], i love paying 10$ and getting a skirt, belt, shoes, and two books. i love spotting interesting fabrics or neat clothes shapes on a rack from miles away now.

ii. miniature toiletries! i am getting packed to leave [on tuesday! ack!] and all the mini scaled-down bottles are uber adorable

iii. tattoos! despite some negative backlash from the dentist today ["why you have tattoos! that's why you're not married!"], i can't wait to finish my chest-piece and to start brainstorming and stewing about a possible half sleeve. bme is a real inspiration, although i believe the piercing part of my life is over.

iv. sasquatch! um, apparently some people "found" him in appalachia! but, sadly, it was all a hoax. someday. someday he'll pop up. i wrote an academic term paper on the possible existence of the 'quatch - short answer? oh yes my friend. it's possible.

v. adam! he is my boyfriend and i love him very much.

the original tilt over here

20+19.8.08

a little out of order, natch, but no worries. i just finished making alternations to this dress this morning - i bought it being a medium, so took in the side and shoulder seams. they're a bit sloppy, but oh well. i am not known for my skills as a seamstress. also hemmed it up by 5". inside are neat oldey-timey labels - "proudly made by a woman's union in the usa!".

cardigan : remixed beyond belief
belt : thrifted, goodwill. similar braided belts were at h+m for 20$! thrift shops in maine are overrun with them.
dress : thrifted, goodwill. altered.
shoes : target


i just bought these shoes at target for $5 - very pleased. they're a bit summery, but i feel confident about being able to pair the yellow with black tights in a month or so! super comfortable too.

the true glory of our boston trip - the elusive shirt-dress! i've been coveting one for a while, in the back of my mind, and i love this dress! the length, the puffed sleeves, gentle blue and white stripes, glorious.

necklace : h+m
dress : h+m
belt : thrifted, goodwill
sandals : old navy

another shot of this fantastic dress with my new thrift belt. i am in serious love.

i trimmed up my bangs this morning - a friend informed me i looked like a beatle, so i took off a little of the fringe in front.

this is long-coming on the w_r front, but i've been wearing the same three loose dresses for. weeks.
and the nature of this new scar is such that wearing pants is uncomfortable . . . but that don't matter, never really liked them anyway.

domesticity

. . . . or how to gain back all the weight you lost after surgery.

yesterday was a lovely return to the city - boston. it was hot and busy and crowded and sweaty and awesome. so wonderful to be away from the country.

and! i finally! found a good shirt-dress at h+m; pictures to follow.

this afternoon i hung out with a younger cousin; when at a loss what to do with a 12 year old girl, i turned to cupcakes.

generic cupcakes

1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
[other tasty spices - i love cardamon!]

3/4 c. milk [soy, rice, coconut, cream if you're feeling CRAZY]
1 tbls. flavor extract [vanilla, lemon, almond, coconut, anise, etc.]

cream butter and sugar together. alternate adding dry and wet ingredients - keep the mixing to an absolute minimum for max deliciousness.

bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, or until the tops are slightly springy to the touch.
cool and frost.

generic buttercream

1/2 c. butter
more confectioners sugar than you ever thought necessary
some other tasty liquid substance [milk, coconut milk, cream, soymilk, ricemilk, vanilla extract, lemon/lime juice, etc&]

cream butter with sugar - add small small small amounts of your liquid of choice but be careful! it's real easy to go from beautiful thick consistency to dripping liquid sugar.

---

these are so easily customizable and are wicked fun to play around with. i was doing coconut cupcakes with lime frosting for a while, then on to "americana" cakes with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in the cake and with an apple jelly buttercreme. today we just went classic.

à la bouche

while not pining over montreal, i have been busily brushing up on the habits and rituals of the elusive and wily "english-man" through many hours of bbc america while enjoying delicious organic beer.

tonight there was nothing veggie to eat in the house. i had been promised pizza, let down and decided to take matters into my own hands.

pantry pizza

crust : half-assed. pizza dough is pretty forgiving of such things. just throw together like 1 1/2 tsp of yeast, around a cup of water, 2.5-3.5 cups of flour, some olive oil, sea salt [and herbs, if that's your bag], knead her up, rise anywhere from 30 mins to 2.5 hours and roll her out. done.

topped : some generic store sauce, lovely fresh local mozzarella that mysteriously materialized in the fridge, sun-dried tomatoes, sauteed onions/fresh garlic, [dried and reconstituted] wild maine mushrooms and peppercinis. mmmh.

no picture because I'M JUST NOT GOOD AT TAKING PICTURES OF FOOD YET. there.

froze 1/2 the dough and have 1/2 a pizza left for tomorrow. nom nom nom.

a l'orée des bois

listening to: plants and animals, parc avenue.

i miss montreal. i am looking forward to london and further; it's a new challenge, a new step for mine and adam's relationship, but goddamn i miss canada. i know it wouldn't be the same if i was going back to mcgill in a week or so - most of my good friends have graduated, frosh looks younger and younger every year and with the first paper due, i would be moaning and writhing in agony - but i’ve only been gone for three months and i have been so nostalgic for montreal and mcgill.

i just graduated in may, and i miss the people most of all. i was in a small concentration, and the community of students and professors was really fantastic.

i miss bike-riding up to jean-talon to buy veggies and following the rachel bike path out to pie-ix to go thrifting! i miss montreal's bakeries - i used to take walks up up up parc and buy butter cookies from the jewish bakeries, where you’d go inside and everyone would be speaking in hebrew …

i miss bantering with mr. boustan on crescent with the aoiis and adam's st. laurent loft - where’d we drink whatever beer/wine that was on sale at the 4 freres and watch the sunrise over the mountain and the cross. i loved exploring the different neighborhoods - either taking the metro to some random spot and walking home or going for a three hour bike ride to see where i’d wind up.

i miss going to the gym with sarah and vanessa, and all-you-eat-sushi at osaka with the sisters and frolicking to l'avenue with kate . . .

of course, if you had asked me this question in january, i would have spat that i hated montreal and all it stood for, while desperately trying to salvage my favorite boots from the incessant salt attack …

lil'guy gets cozy

on the knitting front, i finished my leaf foliage scarf. overall, was not terribly pleased with it. the malabrigo lace weight was beautiful; really soft, gorgeous tonal monochromatic color that's hard to find. but the lace gauge given was really a little too dense for my taste and oh my god did this project drag on. blergh.

BUT moving away from tiny yarn and needles for a bit, i have recently acquired a new macbook as a grad gift and it is beautiful and shiny and still has that fantastic new-electronic-smell [sometimes i sniff its gorgeously white keyboard]. to protect the lil'guy, i've been swaddling him in scarves, but he deserves something custom, something tailored and lovingly made.

enter entrelac! it's one thing i have still never done, even after 10+ odd years as a knitter. there's a similar sleeve somewhere on the interwebs but googling is failing at the moment.
i'm following this tutorial and i'll tell you, this shit is easy.

i'm going to try alternating colors on the rows simply because this is meant to clean out some of the yarn lingering in tupperware underneath beds. then maybe some sort of decorative embroidery joining-stitch? i'm going to do two rectangles and take it from there!

things i love thursday

one of my favorite blogs to read is gala's. and without further ado, i present my tilt - listing good things in your life is supposed to do wonders for your mental health and happiness and i am happy to take even a placebo effect.

- chickens! my parents keep (6) hens for their eggs and during the day they get to roam outside. they love to sit and rest together under the peach tree in the garden and make little clucking noises to each other.

- macbooks! i will never return to the tyranny of vista.

- internet! we live on an island in maine, down a dirt road with no cable lines. and somehow! some technology has enabled me to be on the internet without using dial-up like its 1996. amazing.

- weeds! fantastic show.

- london and further adventures! this is both exciting and extremely anxious for me. in (12) days adam and i will be in the old world, and i can see kate, emma and dario again! i also spend most of my days researching further tefl possibilities - south korea? thailand? who knows?!

- akron/family - ed is a portal mmmmh so fantastic.

slowly surely

getting back to cooking.

as i am living at home, i don't do the shopping. and cooking for myself is likely to be whatever can be improvised from the fridge.

in montreal, i went food shopping several times a week and cooked almost every meal. sarah, van and i got sloppy towards the end and succumbed to dominos perhaps one time too many, but i genuinely enjoyed trying new recipes and shocking the roommates with what i planned to put in my mouth [kd and hamburger helper were staples for 2/3rds of the apartment].

yesterday, i made diy peanut butter cups. they do not photograph well, as they bear a striking resemblance to cow patties. i subbed regular sugar for the confectioners and some sort of gourment melting chocolate i found in the pantry - pretty tasty! i think i actually prefer the slightly crunchy texture of regular sugar. yum.

today, i embarked from normal lunch laziness and made a much modifed hot and sour soup. lacking any sort of leafy green vegetable, i added tofu, mystery dried mushrooms and sprouts. no mirin, but added a couple of tbls of honey to make up for its sweetness. lots of sriracha and reading about esl in thailand and it turned out pretty good.

sasquatch

from natalie dee. i love sasquatches.

hola

i have returned, minus a left ovary, 6 lbs of benign tumor and 2 more incidental lbs.
quickest diet ever.

i'm doing fine, feel pretty good but am on a reduced-movement plan, where i watch hours of crappy television, drink tea and knit. thursday marks 2-weeks and when i can drive again! adam is coming for a visit friday-monday, so i am very much looking forward to seeing him after two months.

we're busy co-ordinating and planning - adam and i are leaving on the 26th for london, where we'll bum with various friends [who may or may not remain friends after we crash for un-socially acceptable lengths of time] and try to budget-live with our crappy crappy american dollars. the plan right now is to take off for gloriously cheap and beautiful sarajevo at the beginning of october and hopefully hopefully hopefully land tefl jobs.

i am outside, enjoying whatever technology lets me get the interwebs without a dsl hook-up or wireless; watching the chickens roaming around, enjoying illicit cigarettes, trying to re-gain camp tan and enjoying this new little guy "macbook". i've made the switch!

in the crafty front, i've finished (6) log cabin blocks and have almost finished the leaf shawl! pictures to come. in the style front, i've been wearing the same three shift dresses for the past (9) days. blergh.

and if anyone asks about the scar, the story is it's from a tijuana bar fight.