Recently

On my mind lately:

silk, my bangs growing out, whales, handmade shoes, old leather, more photographs, finishing books, new chambray to break in, minerals everywhere, apple cider donuts, shop ideas, the end of the world, Randy, pie, days when the fog won't lift, hours in Photoshop, tattooing my hands, packages, Helsinki, lagarconne, bean boots, ice cream sandwiches, good socks, Iceland, bears, how to make pretzels, painting all the walls white, Goshen, an apron, the path of the ecliptic

Constellation Buttons

They're here! Well, almost here. I haven't been able to get a good photograph of them together yet since the sun is blaring today, but here's a teaser.

They should be in the shop by the end of tomorrow!

Picture Ghost

In high school some friends & I stupidly played around with an Ouija board. It gives me the chills even writing that word, let alone thinking of what followed after our using it. I believe in unexplainable happenings in our world, ghosts or spirits or whatever you want to call them. I've experienced things that can only be explained if you have hours to listen. For a while, between the years of 2002 and early 2006, I genuinely thought I was haunted. Hmm, maybe that is the wrong word? Not cursed either... what I mean to say is that I believe to my deepest core something followed me. Something invisible to the eye, but very clear to all my other senses. Even a sixth sense.

I hadn't thought about this much until I started noticing when I take photographs, sometimes strange anomalies come out. It's happened a few times on Polaroids, and now 35mm film. In Polaroids, there will be a strange, soft blue orb that is completely unexplainable. And really, they're not even expired Polaroids, they're new Instax. In film, from totally different cameras, there's this white, almost circular streaking. Maybe it's the film, or dust, or a scratched lens. I don't know. A scratched lens or bad film would most likely cause continuous effect, but this never happens. One photo here, another photo there. Call it what you want, but I've decided to start calling it my 'picture ghost.' I really need to scrounge up those Polaroids to share, the blue orb is really somethin' else.


Oregon


Sweden

Hietikko

It must look like I am constantly on the move thanks to my serious lack of updating things on time. Ha! Quite the contrary, most of my days are spent working or muddling around the house like an old woman. But that's okay, because I like old people.



Oregon's typical quiet gray has been trying to make an early debut before fall really starts, and last week, since Dan was visiting all the way from N. Carolina, I invited him to the coast to visit my favorite place in the state. As an introvert, simple pleasures tend to set me at ease, so sitting on a fallen log watching the surf roll in - or rather, crash in, as the swell was about six foot overhead and really sweet! - for a couple hours, taking pictures, and wandering around the sand looking at crab parts was a-okay with me. Nothing beats quiet time where your heart is most content.





If anyone ever heads west to Portland and wants to know how to visit this spot, I'll give you directions or take you there. I like to pretend it's my secret place, but realistically surfers know all about it.







Back in March I bought an Instax for the trip to Mexico & constantly forget that I own the thing. There is a precious, almost holy, sense of delicacy in my mind about instant film - like, 'alright, you only get one chance with this photo, you'd better make it right!', even though I know Instax isn't disappearing off the face of the earth like Polaroid did. Since middle school I've held on to my instant film as long as I could so as not to spoil it, but I was pretty pleased to try it out in such low, diffused light that day. The photo above is my faaavorite. You can view more of them on my Flickr.

Anyway, projects coming up, new items to add to the shop soon, changes in the air. I love fall, it's the best season. Everybody around here is getting excited at the prospect of bundling up again - nobody wants to admit it, but you can tell because scarves are being broke out on the 60 degree days. Tomorrow I'm ordering a pair of beautiful, hand made shoes from goldenponies as a treat for myself this fall. No more canvas getting soaked through, yesss. Her stuff is to die for, if you like clean, simple lines, check the shop out!

Time for another chapter of Never Let Me Go, and off to bed.

Swamp Thing

Some of my favorite people & I went kayaking/canoeing recently, leaving the city behind on a beautiful day which has been more than needed. SKM has been moved to the back-burner unfortunately, while my job gets some things sussed out I've had to put in full time work which is really life/creative/emotion sucking. Hell, I thought I'd posted these pictures a while ago, only to realize today how neglected Etsy & blogs have been. Kudos to those of you who work full time & operate successful online stores or creative endeavors; I am the biggest baby about working full time & not having enough creative space or quiet time. This trip out onto the water, which wound up looking like a Southern swamp thanks to the lack of rain (hmmmm, "lack of rain" in Portland seems like an oxymoron), was refreshing, inspiring, and somewhat hilarious. And laughter is always a nice cure for the work-day blues.




This disgusting monstrosity is made up of... you guessed it, OCTOPUS! BRAINS! DECOMPOSED HUMAN FLESH! (Someone's been watching too many Bones episodes). Hmmm, no. It is made up of thousands of frog eggs, though!? We swore to high heaven the four of us had stumbled upon a horrible murder mystery, but research later proved us wrong. Which is good, I think.





My mind has been swirling around with what can come up for the (scary) fast approaching holidays, and I think skm can finally take a turn toward the more personal, illustrative, more appropriate path I have always wanted it to follow. While I am fortunate to have spent part of my summer this year abroad, the past few months have been some of the most challenging I've ever experienced. One of the things I have always told myself and others is that life is so, so short, that we need to live in our hearts and live out our hearts at every moment possible, and I need to start taking my own advice. This year has been devastation and death, which are two things I struggle with on so many levels, but it has also been beauty, inspiration, and a tremendous amount of personal understanding. I'm looking forward to sharing what I truly want to put out in the world, so thanks to all of you for reading, supporting the shop, sending me nice e-mails, extending friendship (especially new friendships), and allowing little trips on the water to be shared electronically.

Film

This post is quite a bit overdue, though my film from Finland & Sweden came back about a week ago. It is so exciting looking through every single photograph, all that anticipation! I was so excited, in fact, that instead of waiting til I returned home, I walked out of the photo shop, sat on the ground outside, and pawed. The camera I used is a Superheadz Slim White Angel, which more often than not takes great pictures. The key is a lot of light. One roll of film has gone amiss, time to hunt it down.