marvels & wonders

With this screenshot of the Anthropologie website, I would like to pose the question of how they became so perfect. It's so beautiful outside and going to be a lovely weekend! I would say that the week became somewhat slow towards the middle there, but I'm ready to go. I will be back in a little bit, hopefully with some pictures :)

house.

Forget big houses, this is exactly what I want.
Perfection.
I especially love all the science-y details:
New York Times Farmhouse Palette.

i picture you in the sun.

[Picture from Knee Deep Vintage]

Last week was mostly bad. I won't say entirely hopeless, but when the best things that happened to you occurred in coffee shops, it's not great. Rough tests and the like.

Regardless. This week has started out well, and here's why. It was the loveliest day in Chicago. In the world. And I just really wanted to tell somebody that. So I did in an e-mail to my friend in NYC whom I have been thinking about due to a postcard I received from her yesterday (late due to irregular mail checking tendencies).

Sure, I had to crack open an egg to search through yolk for a limb bud I had cut off from a chick embryo earlier last week. Sure, I've done a lot of things in this laboratory that I never thought I would be doing... i.e., turning a drosophila embryo inside out. What?

But you see, I got to talk to my soulmate in Spain for 3 hours. And be relieved again at how perfectly right the world is again. Especially because afterward I got to take a bike ride (in the not-so-beautiful weather, by this point). And go to the vintage store I've been dying to go to. And have the vintage store be vintage perfection. Anybody who visits me in Chicago with the slightest interest in vintage will be in danger of being taken there. And she knows who she is. I got a dress that I love and am going to wear tomorrow. The last time I bought several pieces of clothing was in Taiwan a year ago and I've been wearing a lot of the same things for a long time, so I might be slowly re-building my wardrobe this year, which I'm so excited to do.

And if that weren't enough, I had a fun grocery shopping excursion. And got to play badminton for 2 hours and come home at 11 PM to eat some grapes and knit.

I took some pictures this weekend, so maybe tomorrow? My dangerously low memory on my computer is making me nervous to do too much. I hope your day was beautiful.

the intersection of fashion and economics.

The dress that I posted previously was gone by that night. Naturally. I found a replacement object of my heart's desire, but it's definitely something that is a distant dream.
I also love this cool "Tree That Grows Books."

Today is such a beautiful day that I might go outside and see if I can grab some pictures. I wish I had brought my camera around this weekend. I miss my camera in general, but there's no reason for that, as it is right here.

song of the sparrow

I'm considering buying this dress... or at least sending a very strong hint by way of a certain mom for a certain Christmas gift. Mostly I haven't sent it yet because I'm concerned that if I do, she will get lost in the loveliness of the Anthropologie website for hours at work, as frequently occurs to me.
And at $243 (on sale!), this is an impossibility for me, but still oh-so-beautiful:

discipline of sorrow

So cool. By Alicia Martin. Kind of like being inundated with information/knowledge? Maybe a stretch.

how did you become such an absent love?

This week:1. Coffee places of the week: Sip Coffee House & Garden, Delicious Cafe, Mercury Cafe. Delicious and Mercury Cafe were complete accidents, but Mercury closed today, so of course, we had to stop. It's become increasingly important to me over the past year to patronize local businesses, not just for better atmospheres and higher quality products, but because I've started to realize how incredibly brave entrepreneurs are to pursue their passions. And it's just fun. But when businesses close, even if I had never been there, it's sad. Maybe because the end of dreams are always sad. Except when you're asleep and you're dreaming about THE apocalypse. Which is also another thing that happened to me this week. I digress. Random thought, I want to try this tango cafe. Despite the fact that I'm pretty sure they invented the concept of tango cafe themselves and there are perhaps very few other places that would fall into such a category, I live in a city with a tango cafe and I plan on taking advantage of it.

2. Went to a cold cubs game and enjoyed hot chocolate and nachos and a terrible game.
3. This is a cool tutorial.


4. I got a job! And I'm excited for it. Which is how most things start out.

5. Super busy running English as a Second Language. Like, preoccupied, sending out e-mails and talking to people non-stop. It must be annoying knowing me.

6. My friends and I went to Wicker Park to surprise someone for her birthday. After lunch, my friend Lisa and I decided to try to find My Place for Tea, which has relocated to an undisclosed location, and when we tried to meet up with everyone for Whirlyball, we got irrevocably lost and further north than I'd ever been (to North Center and Lakeview), but found this really cool area with antique shops, Delicious Cafe, a yarn shop, record shop, and some sort of tapestry shop. Although some were closed, it was still a cool discovery. I never drive in the city, but without a car, it would've been impossible to find these types of places due to the sheer size of area that needs to be covered. I love going around Chicago neighborhoods.

7. Learned about Reunion Island from a local while meeting a lot of different people and trying to understand Italian. It's sort of a long story how this happened, but Friday was a lot of fun.

8. Watched Paris, J'Taime.
9. Went to the gym for the first time in like 3 or 4 weeks. Cool.

10. Went for a bike ride in Ukranian Village and Pilsen.

11. Started listening to The Swell Season Saturday morning and have been re-obsessed again. It led me to buy the Once DVD from the record store for $5.99.
12. Do you think it's nice to answer the phone, "Hello, dead person," in reference to someone who is in a huge, tremendous amount of trouble?

13. I drew this week. Still need to share but I think I've been saying that for awhile now.

I had an amazing week. I tend to always think so, though, as a simple person and all.

remember brooklyn late nights; sneak up on the roof with flashlights

Obsessions as of late:

Figuring out different ways to stay warm. My apartment is like 1 degree Celsius and the heat has yet to be turned on. So there's turning on the oven. There's that. And also dreaming of making warmth-inducing things.
[From The Purl Bee]

Yarn. So beautiful.

[From Sundara Yarn]

Sleeping. Wanting to sleep all the time.
Braids.
[Found via Bluebird Vintage]