Kitties Playing Dead

Hot one, eh? It was the kind of weather that made you think about taking a nap even if you'd just slept a satisfying nine hours. BF and I sat around a lot talking about how hot it was and then we went out to air-conditioned restaurants to drink cocktails and get our appetites back. Oh, if you're in the Astoria area, I'd recommend Sparrow for excellent burgers and interesting decor. The Shirley Temple wasn't anything to write home about, but the BF enjoyed his specialty beer.

So, what else? The cats couldn't move more than three inches at a time; needless to say, there was a lot of this going on (And I am SO embarrassed by how fat they look here--I swear, the angle added five or so pounds!):






I wore dresses (and tried to do spontaneous poses, but man, I just can't):

(Dress from Forever 21)



(Dress from Century 21... and the hair went up immediately after this was taken.)


...Cringed while reading about Ambika's encounter with cicadas...


And thought about jewelry that looked like the sun:

Lemon Vine Earrings by Sarita108, $52


Yellow Thread Bracelet with Silver Chain by Beth Orduna, $225




Yellow Rutilated Quartz and Hammered Silver Ring, $118




Long Sun Drops Necklace by Stephanie Gibson, $54

I also listened to a lot of music: Lykke Li (the sweet-voiced female counterpart to Peter, Bjorn and John), the new Deerhunter called Microcastle (a band I never much cared for as psychedelic ambient punk, etc. is not really my bag, but I can get behind the new one... very poppy in a way), and a couple more runs through the newest Wolf Parade which is nothing less than amazing. Is Weezer breaking anyone else's heart? For like, the fifth time?

As Delany commented last week, I did have a blink-and-you'll-miss-it music blog, but I got blogger cold feet. I don't make any great efforts to hide my identity here, but I really don't advertise to people I know that I've got a blog. It's probably something all of us struggle with at one point or another, but I was concerned that the music blog would have become a little too personal in some ways.

Going Natural with Alex Monroe

I want to say that lately there's been a rash of nature themed jewelry, but that's not true. It's not recent: nature has inspired jewelry since the very beginning. But lately, nature has been pared down and the jewelry that results from this minimalism is really spare, and very pretty. Sort of Scandanavian, I think. Also, I don't think I'm the only who is sick and tired of birds, but I understand how hard it is to let the little winged things go: they make for ridiculously delicate silhouettes on all forms of jewelry.

Here's some pieces by Alex Monroe (linked to the right); a few from several collections. The prices are a bit high--for me, anyhow--but they seem worth the investment. (At first, you are lulled into dreams of ownership. Only 95 you say? I could do that! But then you see it is British Pounds and you cry. And begin your Christmas list in July.)

Anyhow, the collections are all chock full of birds, butterflies and flowers, and breathtaking, as you can see. They also come in silver.

(My personal favorite is the achingly fragile tiny butterfy ring)







More au naturale upcoming, but Mr. Monroe really deserved his own post.