INSPIRATION: HANDMADE VALENTINES

Film stills from Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) / Edwardian Valentines from LaMeow Vintage / my photo

Friends: thank you for indulging my mopey-ness. Someday we will look back and laugh at these dark times when we are all living in our Scottish castles surrounded by endless verdant vistas and staffed with an army of kitty butlers. Shall we proceed?

Let's be honest: just about all of us, myself included, have employed Valentine's Day as an excuse to wallow in self pity at one point or another. This is unacceptable! I have enough fuel for that fire, thank you very much. I have come to believe quite firmly that Valentine's Day is about All Loves Great and Small. It's about loving your friends and your family and your favorite meal and your potted plants and yes, if you happen to have a significant other, it is absolutely about loving them too. It's about who and what YOU love; it is about what YOU have and not about whatever it is you think you are lacking.

I love making Valentine's Day cards, and this year I will be making them for as many people as I can--my Grandma, my best friend, my Uncle, my parents. If you email me your address, I will make one for you (I'm serious! Do it!) I've always longed to replicate the delicate paper nothings the girls circulate with quiet rustles and soft shy smiles in the opening scenes of Picnic at Hanging Rock, and an Etsy search revealed a treasure trove of Victorian and Edwardian-era inspiration. In particular, LaMeow Vintage has an incredible selection of beautiful ephemera to take a peak at. My own versions, created from a hodge-podge of junk I found buried in my crafting pile, are not quite so achingly glorious...but I certainly wouldn't mind finding one waiting in my mailbox :n )

MR. MARVINLOUS

The last day I accomplished anything truly productive was January 24th; I know, it's on my Google calendar. Since then, my general life/work trajectory has settled gradually into something of a flat line. These short but sunny days, half of me wants nothing more than to run away back West. The other half, however, understands that I have no realistic choice but to drag myself forward, into the bright and hideous future, one sorry step at a time.

The handsome gentleman in these photos? Meet Marvin. He showed up one frosty evening under the front porch of my parents' house, yowling and hungry and playing shy guy. Eventually I coaxed him inside and upstairs, where he became a welcome fixture amongst pale sunlight poking through dark trees, grimy paperbacks and cups of spicy tea. Another thing I've been feeling a lot lately is that life is barely worth living without out a cat, which from what I understand is how I'm meant to feel about making babies, but, well, there you have it.

THREE FOR THE END OF JANUARY

1) January/polyvore 2) Meghan Collison by Michael Donovan for Vision China 3) "Early wake ups. My parent’s home. Disposable camera. Sometime, December, 2011" by Francesca Zmetra

Warm colors and soft fabrics to help me shake off all these wintery feelings. This week I am busy getting ready for a shoot that is just about the antithesis of all this--but that's cool, too.

IN THE COLD, COLD NIGHT

My pal Frankie has been blogging on the regs again over on her site Lawrence, and I couldn't be happier! Recently, she asked me to contribute to a roundup of little things that help get us safely and sanely through the winter months--and I'm in mighty good company! If you're feeling blue, or if that's just the color your toes have been turning lately, click over for a sneak peek at a few well-loved pick-me-ups.

CRYSTALINE ENTITY

Home in the islands for a while, hunkered down, ploughing my way through Jane Eyre, wooing shy felines and baking big chocolate cakes. Hope your 2012 thus far has been as magical, and then some, as this torso-sized amethyst I saw on the top of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina in 2011. Strange, strange magics indeed!