This is my current reading material

Better late than never, I give you a list of my current reading material.

Dances with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins: This is a total dance nerd, exhaustive opus of a read...it's over five hundred pages long! I picked up this book the moment that it came out a few years ago, and then it sat collecting dust up until this summer when I needed a good vacation read. If you're interested in Broadway or dance history, this book is a winner for you! I'm over half-way through, and I think my only beef with it is Lawrence's obsession with Robbin's sexuality. You can imagine how many people were interviewed for such a long biography, and I think that each and every interviewee offers their opinion on the topic throughout the book. I get it. Robbins was gay. He hid that from some people and not others. After about fifty accounts it gets a tad annoying and I just wish that Lawrence would move on, but otherwise it's an interesting biography.

Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman is on loan to me from my mum. In brief, the book points out that New England, where I live, is on the same latitude as Southern France, therefore sharing it's climate and ability to grow crops year round. They just have to be the right crops! An interesting read...with information that I can hopefully put to use in my plans for next season!

I mentioned recently that I was reading and enjoying A Greener Christmas, and last but not least on the reading list are my usual suspects of magazines: Living, Bust, Marie Claire Idees, Readymade and Dance.

I had a wonderful weekend that I'll tell you all about in few upcoming posts. I don't have my camera this week, so pictures will be few and precious. My husband left for China for six days today, and I'm already having separation anxiety! (For my husband, not the camera). (Okay maybe a little bit for the camera too)!

Remember to leave a comment on my previous post for the Readymade subscription drawing!

Today I am thankful for the time and energy to clean my kitchen. It was a jungle in there. I'm grateful for the tasty Indian food that I ate for dinner. What are you thankful for today?

this is my favorite children's book

Secret Garden, originally uploaded by Atomic Citrocity.

To say I was an avid reader when I was little is almost an understatement. I was crazy for reading! I loved getting lost in the world of a book for hours upon end, (I still do)! When I was little, I had a Disney alarm clock, with a glow in the dark star for a snooze button on it. I would hang my upper body off the side of the bed, hanging upside down, reading by that meager little light until all hours of the night.

There are so many books that were favorites of mine, but the first that popped into my mind today was the Secret Garden. I owned two copies when I was small. First a paperback, that was read so many times that it practically disintegrated in my hands, and then a hard cover copy which I still have, though it is worn and much loved.

Thanks to Handmaiden for this week's This Is topic!

this is how i like to spend my weekend

Eating tasty local food (this cuke sandwich is my non-entered our local summer week #11 meal- how many weeks have flown by since I've done this??? i'm a bad blogger!)



Taking care of business, i.e. cleaning, crafting, cooking, etc. On the agenda this week was giving myself a little hair cut.



Other activities that I like to partake in, and had the fun of partaking in this weekend, are thrift shopping and eating copious amounts of baked goods with my mum, hanging out with my hubby, watching my hubby's band play, discovering new things, like up and coming bands like Hayley Jane and the Primates, seeing old friends, eating indian food, fresh local peaches and enjoying life, every moment.

this is...what makes me happy {today}

1. Good coffee

2. Cat love

3. Cleaning my kitchen (kinda)

4. Ginger lime syrup over blueberries

5. Dinner parties with friends

6. Bedtime

this is...what scrambles my brain when i try to understand it

Math Gnomes, originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann.

Oh, math. I always joke with people that as a dancer, all the math I need to know is how to count to "8" and how to make change! Math was absolutely torturous for me in school. One of the greatest triumphs of my academic life was the realization that graduating from college meant that I would never have to take math again!

I was one of those students that excelled greatly in things that interested me, and did horribly in things that didn't interest me. Math was definitely one of those things. I saw no practical application for it after eighth grade, therefore, it lost it's usefulness. I was never going to be an architect or physicist, so I was over it. (Note: I did not knit, cook, garden, or build things pre-college years...hmpf, maybe I should've paid more attention.)

Maybe if I had an awesome set of *math gnomes* my interest wouldn't have waned so quickly. How could there be anything more awesome than math gnomes? I practically squealed out loud with the awesomeness when I found these on Pictures by Ann's Flickr Set.

That's what scrambles my brain. To the non-this is meme readers out there, I ask you, what scrambles your brain when you try to understand it?

P.S. This-Izzers: I'm having a blog give-away here, if you're interested!

this is...my most treasured childhood possession...a day late

This is Pookie.

This is...my best op shop find

Or antique shop rather. I've been wanting a bicycle for so long now, one with vintage lines and a basket. A brand new one is way out of my league, price wise, which is why at $79, I knew that this was a gem I could not pass up.

Presenting, my new ride:



So pretty!



::Swoon:: I'm in love!



I don't know anything about it except that it's marked "Sears". A little air in the tires and she was good to go. I've been out with it twice now, and I have to say that the only thing that's lacking is a comfortable seat! Somehow, even with my ample bum padding, it manages to grind my sit bones like no other. I have a bit of a sore bottom! I might be over-sharing there, but it's true!

Being on a bicycle makes me feel like I'm twelve all over again. It really is a lovely form of transportation. Exercise, check. Fun, check. I think what I like the most about riding a bike is that it's fast enough to get you to your destination in a timely manner, but it's slow enough to let you take a good look at the world around you, to feel the breeze on your face and breathe in the summer.

This is... my most favorite outfit that expresses my individual style

Wowza! When I saw this week's theme for "This Is," I thought - what a stumper! How could I possibly choose just one outfit. The fact of the matter is that I can't, because I don't think of myself has having any one particular style.

Fashion-wise, I think I'm sort of a cultural chameleon. I adapt my style to the time and occasion. Sometimes I wake up feeling like a dirty hippie,



and I dress accordingly, then other days I want to look like a 40's pin-up girl



and my look does a 180 degree turn around.

There's the cafe sittin' poetry talking hipster in me,



and the part of me that just wants to dress like a five year old child.



I think that growing up in a tradition of theatre and dance has greatly contributed to the way I dress. It's still all dress-up to me, only now it's more elaborate and complicated and reflects "who I am" that particular day.

And of course - I must mention my holy triumvirate of style - head scarf, big dangly earrings, huge sunglasses.



Rarely am I ever seen without at least one of these accessories on! It's a must!

Thanks for reading - this izzers!

This is...my favorite travel memory

When I was nine years old, all I wanted to do was to be a Radio City Rockette. I think I saw the Rockettes perform for the first time at the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade on television. Holy moly did I think that they were glamorous - and being a Rockette instantaneously became my little life's goal. ** Let's ignore the fact that I never took tap dancing, and I was barely four feet tall at the time, I had a DREAM! **

On Christmas morning that year I had just finished opening all my gifts, when my mom asked me to go look in the tree. I saw an envelope, with my name on it. EXCITING! Oooooh!!! Inside were three tickets to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular featuring my beloved Rockettes. I was going to New York City for THREE WHOLE DAYS!

That was the first time that I ever went to NYC, and so many details just stick out in my mind from that trip: Eating apple puff pastry and strawberries in a huge brandy snifter with whipped cream on top at the Russian Tea Room, buying a fancy red hat from a street vendor in Times Square, the sobering memory of my dad giving a man on the street our huge leftover deli sandwiches. I remember that man's gaunt face and how grateful he was for those sandwiches. I think that was the first time that I really saw what poverty was and I still think about that man from time to time and wonder if his situation ever got better. Then, of course, there was the magic of Radio City, the show and NYC itself, which is so bright and big and magical when you're nine and you're so tiny and small. I can think of no other vacation that filled me with such wonder!

These are my pets...

I had so many pictures to choose from - indulge me! - I love these two little fuzz heads more than I can possibly explain!



Big sister Hobbes...







Little sister Cassiopeia better known as Cassie, Cass, or the doughnut...

This is...what reminds me of my mum

When I saw this week's "This is" topic, it really stumped me for a moment. My mom is such an integral part of my everyday existence, that it was difficult for me to think of something that reminded me of her. I see her a few times a week. We knit, we cook, we sew, my mom fixes my sewing mistakes as I get crabby and eat doughnuts, (more on that thrilling topic soon)! Being reminded of something makes me think "past tense" so it's not surprising that the memory that popped into my head for today's Mother's Day post was something from our mother/daughterly past...

Music, for me, is something that is inherently entwined with memory. I'm sure that if I put enough thought into it, that I could make a mix tape of songs composed entirely of music that reminds me of specific moments in my life. Certain songs just bring me back to a past moment in an instant! You may laugh at what comes next, but it is the absolute, honest truth.

The album that reminds me of my mother is ABBA Gold - Greatest Hits



Oh, ABBA. I love ABBA. Listening to ABBA is a completely corny, guilty pleasure of mine. It may be one of my mother's lesser gifts to me, but a gift nonetheless!

I don't remember exactly when my mom got this CD, but we didn't have a CD player until I was in 8th grade/high school, so it must have been around that time. This was definitely one of the first CDs that my parents bought for themselves. Every weekend my mom would blast this throughout the house. ABBA was cleaning music. ABBA was for washing dishes, and shouting lyrics over the hum of the vacuum, and I ate it up. To this day, hearing Fernando, Chiquitita, Money, Gimme a Man After Midnight and all the rest make me think of my mom. Those songs make me want to dance with a vacuum, sing into the handle like it's a microphone and hard core clean my house.

I'll leave you with an ABBA classic, Thank You for the Music. I loved this song as a kid. I thought it was about me, except for the golden-haired, beautiful Swedish girl aspect of it. Thanks for the music mom, and everything else that you do for me. Happy Mother's Day!

This is (these are) the pair(s) of shoes I would sleep in if I could

Yesterday I went to the Mass Market in Boston with a bunch of the ladies from my Stitch n' Bitch group. I had such a blast! I think the best part was watching my mom shop til she dropped from all of the indie vendors!

One of my very fortunate purchases were these heavily marked down sample moccasins from Manimal



These puppies retail for $140, and I scored them for $15. Now that I've worn them for a day I wish that I had had more money on me to buy a few more pairs. They are ridiculously comfortable, and very well made. I love that the soles are made out of recycled tires. These are definitely my new fave kicks.

Now, in keeping with the "shoe" theme of this post, I must share a shoes that I have been lusting over the past few weeks...

XXHi Converse



I saw these on one of my students a few weeks ago and I just about fell over in awe of the awesomeness! I'd love to pair these with a girly dress or skirt :)

This is...my latest discovery

Parallels...

Mark Rothko


Beach Rothko


This was the beginning of my fantastic day today...we'll chat all about it tomorrow!

This is...my perfect dinner party

I'm two days late for this week's This Is post, but since I have no new crafty-ness to show you for the moment, I thought I would share just the same!

This is a tough one!

Location: In a cabin porch at Silver Bay - where Matt and I got married.

Music: Hmm...arrival a little Marvin Gaye, drinks/Prince, dinner/Ella Fitzgerald and dessert/digesting time/Feist (the first album).

Drinks: Seadog Blue Paw (Blueberry Beer) and Mojitos

Meal: Grilled Salmon with mint and mustard sauce, w/Rice and maybe some sauteed summer squash and zucchini (clearly this is a summer party)

Guests: Me, Matt, Jess and Allen, Q, Rachel, Allison, Mark, Biggie, Geoff and Renee

Maybe some post dinner swimming!

This is...my demon(s)

The first is obvious...the second sinister and lurking in the shadows, because it is a demon that haunts me and encourages me to waste time!

This is...my creation

The good, the bad and ugly. Mittens for me=good yay! The giant mess that they are perched upon=bad, eww! I finished these weeks ago, and I haven't had a chance to take a picture of them to post them. I wanted nice natural light, but ah well, that didn't happen!

Today was the most unproductive day of all time. That's what happens when you drink gallons of wine. It's all good though. Last night was a fundraiser for the dance company that I work for, and I usually loathe those things, but it was awesome. It was at a patron's mansion by the beach, the food was delicious, the gospel choir/band that we have the upcoming collaboration with performed, and I partied like a rock star with my friends. Most excellent.

Off to hydrate with non-alcoholic beverages...

This is...

looking out my back door.



Sun faded table cloth, empty window boxes, pottery cracked open from the cold, chairs tipped. All signs of the ravages of winter, but wait! I see GRASS in the background! It rained so hard over the past two days that all of the snow washed away, revealing the grass. Through this door I hear what sounds like a thousand birds chirping! Oh little porch, dare I even venture to say that it's time for a good spring cleaning?!