FNO=GTO

I was a bit of a humbug about Fashion's Night Out this year, since it's always felt to me like a mix of all the worst parts of Halloween and New Years combined with, uh, shopping that I can't afford to do. But this year I made the wise decision to stay in Brooklyn and meet up with some extra fancy friends, new and old. It felt pretty frickin' fantastic (and surreal) to be strutting around town in a pack with none other than Ashley, Emily, Hannah and Frankie, even if some dude did refer to us disparagingly as a "five person lookbook". Oh Billyburg, don't ever change.

(photo swiped from Fancy Fine!)

I LOVE THE FLOWER GIRL

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One of the best parts of going home to the island in summertime is that it means I get to work with flowers again. Above are a couple of my favorite bouquets that I made for sale at the Farmer's Market in Friday Harbor. I was inspired by sunsets, long walks on the beach, and Dag's sweet Hawaiian shirt ;n )

I grew up helping my mother plant, weed, harvest and arrange the cut flowers on our farm, and it's had a lasting effect on my brain and my life. I doodle flowers, I dream about flowers, I obsessively save and dry flowers and stick them in jars and vases and hang them on my walls. There's a special corner of my mind--way in the back where I keep secret, special, important things--reserved for the imaginary corner florist shop I will own someday, somewhere, somehow.

WEEKEND

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In a perfect world, this would be my uniform for the long weekend. But seeing as it's too muggy for mohair (the thought alone makes me sweat), I think I'll go to the beach instead. Hello, Rockaway Taco.

CANELES ET LES MÛRES

Two of my most favorite things to eat while at home: canelés from Café Demeter at the Friday Harbor farmer's market and fresh picked wild blackberries. Preferably while wearing stripes.

CAMPING IN THE ISLANDS

The first few days I was in Washington, we went on a camping trip up into the Gulf Islands in B.C. Our boat is an Albin, originally meant for nosing into fjords with families of lithe, blonde Swedes at the helm (it also came with the original 1970's-era manual), but she does a fair job tackling the Salish Sea as well.

The price of an incredible sunset from our campsite that evening was a steady downpour starting at about 3am, but the next morning the clouds slowly broke as we ate our fried potatoes. That day I finally set foot on Saturna Island, a hulk of land that I had spent 26 years gazing at from North Bay, off in the Canadian distance. We slept aboard the Tern that night, Dag and I bedded down in the aft cabin with our National Geographics. When I crept out a few hours later for a midnight bathroom break there were shimmering phosphorescence in the cold salt water all around us.