on slowness

it is no secret that i am a rather slow paced person. early on when we were dating, my husband would call me ( in all lovingness, i'm sure) "tortuga sal". i talk slow, i eat slow, and i walk slow (though i prefer to think of it as sauntering or sashaying). i'd rather walk than run, sit rather than walk, and lay down rather than sit. some people call this "lazy" - i just call this "taking my time".

but what i've never understood is why this is such a bad thing? whats the big deal with speed? in sewing, there are certain moments that require us to slow down - to take our time and focus on the details. these are the moments that i relish. i love hand sewing. its an incredible treat for me to sit down with some music or (i'll be honest) a trashy tv show, a needle and thread and just focus on making even stitches.

slowness seems to be a bit of a "thing" nowadays. there's the "slow food movement" and i've even heard the term "slow fashion" being thrown around. i came to sewing through my love of fashion - or as i think of it - my passion for shmashion - a passion for well made, beautiful fitting, detail oriented clothes that well exceeds my wallet - but not my ability. i've never considered that making my own clothes could be a political act - a turn away from fast consumerism. because for me - slow is just how i go.

i get a bit of extra time off this week for the thanksgiving holiday here in the states. you can bet i will be filling it as much as possible doing the above - lovingly working my hand stitches as i tailor the jacket i'm working on - at a snails pace.

if you celebrate thanksgiving - i wish you a lovely holiday.

and guys - slow down.

xx

inspiration for the cold that never comes

images from the no. 6 blog

i'm not really sure what sort of lifestyle would render it possible for me to dress like this - but whatever it is... i want it. "swedish ranch hand" perhaps? "post-apocalyptic gypsy"? "mongolian sheep herder socialite"?

i just don't know.

but what i do know is that in another life i lived in a place that had cold weather. and when that cold weather hit i seriously contemplated wrapping my duvet around me, belting it, and calling it a day. maybe i'd throw on some super stylish clogs too.

but in all seriousness (sorta) its no secret that i love a little bit of drama in my looks, and there is just something about draped and layered fabric that has a certain theatricality to it. can you imagine the billowing that happens when the wind blows? when she walks? gasp! what a silhouette!

you can bet that when if the cold weather ever comes to my part of texas i will start eyeing up my navajo throw. and i suggest you do the same.

xx

on the table

just some peeks at whats been happening on my sewing table. i often get so caught up in envisioning the final outcome, that i forget that whats happening along the way is pretty important too.

xx

versatile blogger award!!

i was incredibly flattered the other day when i discovered that stephanie of stoutysews tagged me with a "most versatile blogger" award. thank you stephanie! i'm always slightly bewildered when i find out people actually read this blog!

so now i have to reveal seven of my most top secret secrets! get ready for some truly enlightening information....

1) i'm 26. ha! bet you didn't see that one coming!

2) my husband and i have a dog, lucille, and a cat, mister muscles. lucille is one of the sweetest, most well behaved dogs ever, but she is really my husband's dog. she was part of his life before i met him, and lucille will never let me forget it. we acquired mister muscles on our drive down to texas a little over two years ago. he's pretty good at knocking things off shelves, giving a major stink-eye, making weird gremlin noises at odd hours of the night and, you know, being a cat.

3) after much deliberation i have finally come to the conclusion that my favorite flavor of jam is marmalade. wait. does that count as jam?

4) i am an aries (pisces cusp). my chinese zodiac is an ox. a wood ox to be precise. i'm not really sure what any of this means. i don't follow my horoscope. but i'm pretty sure its all true.

5) i have a really hard time saying the name wichita (as in wichita, kansas). every time it comes up in conversation (it happens more often than you would think!) i have to pause and tell myself "its wichitaw, sallie, not wicheetah". but i do think that if it was wicheetah i'd probably want to live there. food for thought citizens of wichita, food. for. thought.

6) i once got so scared in a haunted house that i ran out the emergency exit. it turned all the lights on inside the haunted house. a zombie followed me outside to make sure i was okay. looking back on this i probably should have been way more embarrassed than i was. i was, like, 18.

7) ohmygodiloooovvveeeeharrypotttteeerrrrr! i really don't think this needs any explanation. i mean, i'm practically a wizard....


and that, dear friends, is seven useless facts about me. my favorite person. that was really fun, by the way. i like making lists.

and now i get to pass this little blog award on to others! i'm pretty sure i'm the last person to find out about... everything - so these are by no means new blogs. in fact these ladies have all been around longer than i have, they're just "new to me" blogs! if you've already been tagged by this, no hard feelings, okay?

paunnet

a good wardrobe
lazy stitching
just skirts and dresses

xx

for your viewing pleasure: shoe + art

so since i already spilled the beans on my rachel comey obsession i thought i'd just ride this lovefest for a bit longer. while the clothes set my heart a-pitter-pattering, my devotion is really to the shoes.

a fellow comey lover once told me that rachel studied sculpture before she began designing clothes. this struck a major chord with me, and also made total sense. her designs are incredibly sculptural - with just the right combination of toughness, timelessness, elegance and awkwardness. perhaps not the combination most people would look for in a shoe, but for me they possess something just slightly off which makes me want to keep looking at them. if ever i could make a case for adding a bit of artistry to an outfit it is in ones choice of footwear. basically i'm saying, quit being a pansy and put some sculptures on your feet!

after a trip to the philadelphia museum of art this past summer (seriously one of my favorite musuems, and its not just my philly pride thats talking...) i came away with brancusi on the brain. constantine brancusi was never one of my favorite artists. its always amazing to me when you can look at something you've seen a million times, read about and studied, and yet all of a sudden its like you're seeing it with fresh eyes. this is what happened with brancusi. its like a light went on and something i had always glossed over came into focus. i just can't get over those forms (i know... nerd alert...)

perhaps its a bit of a stretch to make a connection between rachel comey shoes and brancusi sculptures - but i don't think so. the restrained palette, the references to classicism, the elegance and awkwardness...the stacking!

all rachel comey shoes via solestruck, brancusi images via the pma, here, and here.

xx