lady i swear by all flowers

//

I really, really wish tomorrow would be with these boys.

+C

JUST A FEW THINGS

I've been feeling fairly brain-scattered lately, with all there is to do in the next couple of weeks. 

Here are a few of the (more lovely) places my mind has been:

THERE IS a new wool people.  This one is my favorite. 

THIS IS one of those things a very selfish part of me doesn't want to share, because I want to keep all the goodness for myself.  But, all books deserve a good home (and, it turns out, not all the books can be kept in my home).  These ones are knock-outs. 

SPEAKING OF books, I'm pretty excited to get to choose my own this summer.  I think I'm going to start here . 

I HAD the most amazingly delicious (chopped black kale and smoked gouda and hazelnut and spicy anchovy dressing) salad of my life at Five Leaves last weekend...

AND I had it with a very dear friend who has a beautiful piece about her grandfather's jam in the newest issue of Diner Journal!

How about you?

+Chelsea

ANALOG / ANYLOG

This semester, I had the really awesome opportunity to take a masterclass with the really awesome Hannah Tinti, of One Story and NPR's Selected Shorts.  The class was about the writer / editor relationship, and our final project was to create the concept for a literary publication, accept a classmate's story for publication, work through the various editing steps to make the story the best it can be, and then actually publish the story.  A lot of work, but an excellent exercise.  

The "publication" I came up with is a really nice marriage of two of my greatest loves: photography and fiction.

"Analog is an online publication that plays matchmaker between photographers and writers.  We are interested in the stories that image can hold, and we are interested in the images story can hold.

Sometimes a story inspires a photograph; sometimes a photograph inspires a story.  Sometimes the writer and photographer are paired based on aesthetic to create something new from their collaboration.

Once a month, we feature the creative product of one of these relationships."

It's an idea I'm really interested in -- one that I would be interested in carrying out beyond the classroom.  Ideally, it would be a high-quality print magazine, released monthly (or quarterly).  But, I think, online is a good place to begin.  The website was pulled together pretty quickly, and there are many changes I would want to make before it would be a "real" publication. 

The "first" issue can be found here.  It features the excellent work of my classmate, Elena, and, because of the time constraints, I served as photographer for her story.  

What do you think?   

 

Yours,
+Chelsea

 

 

 

HI!

*film shot last fall

I'm very, very close to finishing my final semester of courses of grad school.  I'm very, very close to scooping these beautiful little critters up in my arms for the longest hug of all the hugs there ever were. 

And then the real work begins. 

It's all so very close.

 

+Chelsea

//

Every Day You Play

Every day you play with the light of the universe.
Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water.
You are more than this white head that I hold tightly
as a cluster of fruit, every day, between my hands.

You are like nobody since I love you.
Let me spread you out among yellow garlands.
Who writes your name in letters of smoke among the stars of the south?
Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.

Suddenly the wind howls and bangs at my shut window.
The sky is a net crammed with shadowy fish.
Here all the winds let go sooner or later, all of them.
The rain takes off her clothes.

The birds go by, fleeing.
The wind. The wind.
I can contend only against the power of men.
The storm whirls dark leaves
and turns loose all the boats that were moored last night to the sky.

You are here. Oh, you do not run away.
You will answer me to the last cry.
Cling to me as though you were frightened.
Even so, at one time a strange shadow ran through your eyes.

Now, now too, little one, you bring me honeysuckle,
and even your breasts smell of it.
While the sad wind goes slaughtering butterflies
I love you, and my happiness bites the plum of your mouth.

How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me,
my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running.
So many times we have seen the morning star burn, kissing our eyes,
and over our heads the gray light unwind in turning fans.

My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want
to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.

// Pablo Neruda

(+Chelsea)

EASTER PACKAGE

What I pulled together, from my many, many musings on the matter. 

• A set of pretty felted eggs from Katie's etsy shop, filled with yogurt-covered cranberries and dried papaya (because these were going through the mail and I didn't want things to get messy, I made packets of the treats with some little gauze sachets I picked up at the dollar store.  (Katie's handicrafts tend to sell out quickly, so if you're interested, it might be helpful to follow her facebook page so that you have a sense of when she'll be stocking.)

• Some springtime books: Tasha Tudor's A Tale for Easter and Around the Year; and Margaret Wise Brown's The Golden Egg Book.
  
  
• Easter surprise eggs, inspired by these.  Instead of a plastic egg, I began with a small bottle of bubbles, and then padded the middle with bulkier items (like seed packets and tea bags and stickers) to fill out the egg shape.  I'm pretty excited to see what the boys think of these!  

The night I was pulling all of this together to put in the post, Pan and I had a lovely FaceTime conversation on the computer.  I had called him earlier in the evening, but he couldn't chat for long because he had to have his dinner.  He asked me to stay at the computer so he could call me back afterwards, so I did.  And sure enough, an hour later his sweet little face showed up on my screen.  I showed him the project I was working on (wrapping the crepe around the treats for the surprise eggs), and he decided that he wanted to make a special surprise, as well, and began drawing.  We sat there for almost an hour, working on our projects, mostly quietly, occasionally I'd ask him what he was doing and he'd tell me he couldn't say, because it was a special surprise.  It was the most connected I've felt with him since we've been apart.  It was magical.   

Happy Easter to you all, sweet friends!

+Chelsea

PS: These photos were shot on an expired roll of generic film, which is what gives them the little pink snowflakes! 

PPS: The stickers and lables used for wrapping are from the Botanicals Labels & Stickers set Josie sent in her care package.  

LUCKY I AM

I received the prettiest, most thoughtfully composed package that I've ever received.  And, of course, it was from Josie. 

She knew just the way to brighten up a bit of my baby-lonesomeness and school-work-stress. 

Included:
Rifle Paper Co.Botanicals Labels & Stickers
Eggwhite Soap
Yvette van Boven's Home Made Winter (and look! there's a summer one coming out soon, too!)
A Truffalo Bar (which I've never had, and which is so delicious, and which is already gone)
One of Emily's sweet cards
A tiny beewax candle on a tiny wooden perch, and a beautiful stationary set (so beautiful, in fact, that I became almost anxious when I sat down with a sheet to write a letter -- on paper so lovely and fine, the letter better be equally good!)   

Thank you so very much, sweet friend.

Yours,
+Chelsea

SOME THOUGHTS ON EASTER PACKAGES

(some instagram photos from last easter.)

As I won't be with the boys for Easter this year, I've been compiling ideas for a nice box to send their way. 

I've been sending lots of little things their way, mostly because I worry that they'll forget about me.  They are very happy where they are right now, with a big yard, lots of play space, many aunties to love them and give them gobs of attention all the time.  

Pan is really wonderful on the phone.  When he was littler and pretended to talk on the phone, he would always speak very loudly, saying "Hi! I call you back.  Bye!" -- which is basically what he heard Seb and I say to anyone who called us. 

Now he asks me lots of questions ("what you doin' mommy?"), and follow-up questions ("what you eatin'?" "what you workin' on?"), and really holds his own.

It's more difficult to connect with Quinn.  It's very "hi" and "bye" with him on the phone, and he has no patience for sitting still and staring at a screen on Skype.  He's little still, and I'm struggling with how to maintain our bond.

But.  Easter ideas.  Here's what I'm thinking:

Some of Katie's lovely wool felt eggs.  I made several of these last year (you can kind of make them out in that top photo), but they are all packed away somewhere, and you can never have too many Easter eggs, right?     

And for filling them: these little wooden yoyos are very sweet; as are these pocket baby buntings.  I made  jelly bean bracelets last year, and the boys were a bit confused by what to do with them.  I think I'll try again this year.  Or, maybe some color dipped marshmallows?      

I wish I had someone to make a Polish Easter cake for. 

These rabbit masks would be easy to print off and send. 

The Bobble Sheep Pillow project from Purl Bee popped up in my email this morning, with rather perfect timing.  If I can get them knit up in time, I think it would make for a perfect long-distance hug from mama. 

All wrapped up in a grass-green playsilk...

Do you have anything special planned? 

+Chelsea

SELF PORTRAIT

Just because.  Taken in my pension in Bila Voda.

Today I am sending in several applications for summer writer residencies -- fingers crossed something works out!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend,
+Chelsea

POSTCARD FROM PRAGUE, PART II

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And a few more.  These are mostly from Prague. 

Please do tell me what you think!

Yours,
+Chelsea