Little to do with knitting, but all beautiful things make me want them.
Rainy and gloomy day in southern California, I'm sick in bed. I even skipped work today, for the second time this week. I came down with a weird case of a cold: backache, runny nose, watery eyes, headache, coughing and sneezing. It's like I have a combination of a cold and a seasonal allergy.
A perfect thing to do when you're sick and the weather is crabby, is to curl up in bed with 3 sheets of blankets and a hot tea next to bed, with a laptop on your stomach and read.
After wrapping up Lady Mary this week, I have been focused on finishing up the sample for a magazine. What I like to do between pattern releases is to keep myself inspired by nature, old movies, and fashion magazines.
On Vogue.com this month, there's a beautiful spread about Bettina Prentice's new home.
From the art she hangs on her walls, to the projects she takes on at work, she curates her life with a practiced ease and discerning eye. “Quality is a consistent theme in my life,” she says.
- From Vogue Magazine APT with LSD
This quote by Bettina Prentice is exactly what I (want to) live by. I go into my closet and used to think "there's nothing I want to wear." As a serious shopaholic trained by my fashion designer mom, "shopping" wasn't a concept for our household; it was a lifestyle. Everyday, I would come home from school and Mom would take me and my sister to the mall. We would walk around, chat, look at clothes, hear mom critique, and buy stuff here and there.
It was only when I got to college, I realized that people go shopping when they actually have time, like on weekends, and then spend all day shopping and spending money. And being a poor college kid on monthly allowance, I used to think "quantity over quality" and would buy fashionable and trendy but cheap clothes.
Approaching 30s, I am now going back to my mom's way of shopping. Critiquing before purchasing, and have an eye for quality versus price. My mom was never the one to only shop at expensive shops. She would buy clothes from department stores or even consignment shop if the quality was good. But she would also have Hermes, vintage Dooneys, and Burberrys that she loves and cherishes. I am becoming more appreciative of her shopping method and have been applying it to every aspect of my life, not just knitting and shopping.
So from that APT with LSD page, I love the
1) Madeline Weinrib dusty blue mandala rug, $2,000 For information: madelineweinrib.com
2) Christofle Rubans picture frame, $275 christofle.com
and
3) Tempaper Edie wallpaper in Frosted Teal, $85 per roll tempaperdesigns.com
I have been talking to my husband about slowly looking around for a home, because we are right now paying a lot of money to live in this fancy apartment, barely 1000 sq ft. Living in an apartment has its perks, like not having to worry about cutting the grass or worrying about the security (our apartment comes with security alarms) but I know the QUALITY of living in a home that you can one day own after paying off all the mortgage is much more worthy.
On this rainy day, I am dreaming of one day being able to fill my home with finer things in life -- and of course beautiful things.