(Inside A Black Apple)

A Tiny Carnival

There is a magical place in San Francisco stuffed with fully-operational automatons, games, and mechanical curiosities. I had heard tell of it from several pals, but I had never been. This last trip to the Bay, I finally got to go, and The Musee Mechanique was as wondrous as I had hoped it would be.

In the center of the arcade/museum is one of the most heart-achingly beautiful things I've ever seen with my own eyes - a miniature mechanical carnival, full of flickering golden lights, tiny people, worn striped awnings, games, rides, and teensy puffs of cotton candy.

For the price of a quarter or two, you can see it all come to life, though it's so detailed and intricate that it's difficult to race around and see the whole thing moving and lit up with one go-round.



I think the tiny band might've been my favorite part.

Or the mouse-sized sideshow.

Or the glow of the tiny red ticket booth next to the whirring merry go round.

Between the glare of the glass, and me being dumbstruck with love for the thing, it was difficult to snap photos. I snagged these few, and I hope they give you at least a little scrap of an idea of how neat the whole place is.

If you're planning a visit to the city by the Bay, the Musee is really a treasure! And if a magical, miniature carnival isn't enough to sell you on the idea, there are also some early 20th century "risque lady photos" viewable for a dime, so maybe that'll seal the deal.

;)

 

River Rats

When we were visiting Georgia, Josiah, my mama and I went for an afternoon picnic to a semi-secret riverside spot we used to frequent when I was little.

It was just as nice as I remembered it.
Truly, I felt like we were living in Wind in the Willows. My mind was racing off with thoughts of how lovely a simple but cozy wooden house on a riverbank would be.

The water was freeeezing, but we waded in anyway, and perched up on the slightly-dryer rocks.

 
Then it's fair to say we spent the rest of the afternoon mostly hunting for skipping stones. And skipping them til' our arms were sore.

Josiah was really good!
I really think he got 5 or 6 skips off of one stone. I never got more than 2 or 3.

It was one of the best afternoons I've spent in a really long time, and when it was time to grab my trusty Mr. Fox tote and hit the road, I was more than a little sad to say goodbye to our river rat day!

All I know is that we've gotta get back there.
And I need to brush up on my stone-skipping skills.

Southeastern Mini-tour

All last week, we were on little jaunt through our home back South. We hit, in order, Georgia, South Carolina, Georgia again, Tennessee, and then headed back to end our trip in Georgia, like a couple o' native peaches.

I didn't take a ton of photos, and my camera did fall in the ocean once, so here's a rather random few!

Favorite things:

- The dogwoods, which were unbelievable every single place we went! It made all our driving much nicer...all those white and pink blooms are good company.

- My mama's garden in its Spring glory, and the fact that she will patiently walk me through dozens of plants while I hop around saying "What's that one? And whats that one?!"

- Laughing uncontrollably with one of my best college pals

- Chinese dinner with my sweet family & Chattanooga cupcakes with Josiah's

- A Chik-fil-a visit for ultra-sweet/tart lemonade and chicken sandwich - mandatory on any trip home.

- Little kids dancing to bad wedding music

- Watching old movies in a house full of comics and old toys (one of my favorite places on earth, 'cause it also contains two of my favorite people on earth)

- A morning at my old favorite junk shops in Athens

- An afternoon at the river with my two river rats...photos of that to come!

- Hunting for treasures in & around Nashville:

With so many people I love there and the beautiful, mild Spring weather, it was a little hard to leave. But then the humidity kicked in and suddenly it was in the 80's, which helped me tear myself away!

Being away from it for a few years now, I really do love visiting the South.

 

The Fremont Diner

On my weekend jaunt to SF, we drove out to Sonoma and paid a lunch-time visit to the Fremont Diner.

 
It was such a sweet, all-'round great little place, I think I should mostly just let the photos do the talkin'!

There were all kinds of sauces and bottled-up goodies for sale, in addition to the classic Southern-inflected American food on offer.

And there were countertop boxes of old timey candies and silly novelties!

The sensibility of the place was just perfect. Comfy, not too precious, but really elegant in its simplicity. Lots of light, fresh flowers, and green or amber glass jars everywhere.

I would love it so much if this place was just a little hop, skip, and jump away from Portland.

It would be perfect for a weekend afternoon.
And I really want to take the fella there - I think Josiah would really love it!  

SF Weekend Gallivanting

I just got back from my long weekend in the city by the bay, and it was so nice. Francie and Co. were so good to me.

Some of the best parts were:

Bakesale Betty's chicken sandwiches in Oakland.

Playing with fur-pants Mr. Westie Dog pretty much all day, every day (there were about 40 pictures of this pup on my camera and maybe 15 of anything else from the trip).

Raspberry macarons as big as your hand from Bouchon (my little box made it home on the flight un-crushed! Hooray!)

Nerdy matching sailor sweater-coats.

Other highlights:

-Working on little projects
-Cozy tea and cozy quilts
-The Vintage Expo (we both turned up on this Modcloth post about it!)
-A funny and sweet side-of-the-road diner (so cute it deserves its own post)

Such a good visit, I could've stayed and stayed. But I have so many things to work on here, so it's happily back to my little world here with the rat Miette and my best fella.

Gallivanting: Miette

I wanted to share the photos I took on a few recent adventures.
First: Miette!
Which, to Mr. Disney, I'd say is the real Happiest Place On Earth.

We couldn't very well make a visit to San Francisco without a little stop in to the prettiest candy store in town to pick up treats.

We also had important business to attend to, because it was the outstanding Mr. Josiah's birthday that day, and he needed to pick out a cake!

 

He chose a very nice carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, which we enjoyed after a pretty incredible dinner at the cozy & in-demand Frances. But I digress -- back to Miette!

It just makes me so happy to be in that bright, dear place. I love traipsing around, basket over arm, picking up little treasures to send back to friends, and marveling at new, exotic candies.

And those jars!
There's something about rows and rows of little, pretty things in jars, isn't there?

I'm almost glad Miette's not local, because it's so fun to have it as a once-or-twice-a-year sort of thing. That way, like birthday cake, it's really and truly a treat.

Where the Forest Meets the Sea

We spent last Fourth-O'-July weekend at a beach house with friends. I'm still getting used to the differences between the Oregon coast and the hot, shell-covered Southern beaches of my childhood, but I really love the switch to these windy, cooler, rocky and forest-adjacent beaches.

 

We went to a cave-covered beach one afternoon, and it was so beautiful. There were excellent tide pools everywhere (I had been missing East Coast tide pools full of creatures)!

There were also these magical moss-doored (or carpeted) nooks and caves:

 

I couldn't help but thinking they might be portals to someplace else.

Our house was perched right on the edge of the forest, where it joins the sea (as seen in the above photo on the left). We had no internet, television, or phone reception, and I think by the time we left, our collective well-being was very high.

 

Even though it was really cold, it was such a wonderful holiday weekend...I kind of wish I was back there now.

Maybe I can find the other side of one of those mossy cave portals?

Sea & Sun

This weekend, we had a few elusive days of warmth and sun in Portland-town. When I saw the predicted turn-of-weather coming up, we made up our minds to brave the crowds we knew would certainly be at the beach!

We always do about the same thing: take a picnic, eat our lunch, stroll the beach for an hour or two (walk to Haystack Rock), and then hang out on the quilt for a little, listening to the waves.

 

It's always so windy - no matter how warm it feels when the air is still, there's always a little chill that comes and goes. When I was a little girl growing up in the South, vacationing on the Florida coast, I dreamed of a beach that you could wear a sweater to.

I also like to bring a scarf, because my hair goes crazy in all that wind. And because the beach seems to bring out the Little Edie in me, too.

I read aloud The Hunting of the Snark (which seemed appropriate, since it's about a sea voyage. Well, kinda). The copy I have ends with Jabberwocky, which Josiah read with panache. We have a friend who can recite it all - maybe I should learn it beyond the first four lines!

 

Then Josiah read some PG Wodehouse to me. The Jeeves & Wooster stories are some of the best read-aloud reading we have found.

 

And after the lovely afternoon, we bid the beach farewell for the day.

Happy Monday to you!

Tree-Spotting

Because we are nerds, and because he is awesome, Josiah recently gifted me this little map of the trees that grow in our favorite Portland park.

The other day, we went on our Laurelhurst expedition to learn about the types and names of the different trees (I was hoping we would look like official tree-spotters in those photos above).

   

Laurelhurst park has around 1,000 trees, and there are approximately 120 species represented. Among them are cedars, firs, birches, oaks, and these curious trees that look as if they're melting called "English Planetrees". As we walked by each little grove, we sussed out exactly which variety was which.

From the Portland Parks & Recreation website:
In 1912, Emanuel Mische, Portland's park superintendent from 1908-1914, designed the park based on his experience as the longtime horticultural expert for the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm. Inspired by the Olmstedian 'natural' landscaping approach, his plan included several distinct sections - the concert grove, Firwood Lake, children's lawn, plateau and broad meadows, picnic grove, and Rhododendron Hill.

According to our excellent little map, 10% of the trees are original to the land, and 30% were planted by Mische. Some of them are so enormous, you can tell just by looking that they must be very, very old.

   

There is also a big pond with lots of birds and turtles, and there are always cute dogs running about. It is a good go-to place when working at home makes a person stir-crazy.

 

Unrelated to trees, I've been experimenting with purposefully bumping the exposure settings on my camera way up and way down from the "correct" settings for the light. The element of surprise is really fun! In full disclosure, I also tweaked these myself, so it's not all camera hi-jinks. 

   

That naturally-occurring big heart on the tree is so sweet! I had never noticed it before. Going around with our little map made me notice every little thing.

It was such a great afternoon field trip! I love field trips.

Pumpkining Report, 2009 Edition

Last week, we headed out to Sauvie Island Farms with our excellent cohorts from last year's pumpkining. It has been very gloomy and chilly and lovely-in-a-sad-way around here most days, but we lucked out on the pumpkin-fetching excursion, and the island was Autumn-bright and beautiful.

Pumpkins as far as the eye could see!

I had a hard time not taking a bunch of identical photos to the ones from last year's post. I suppose we're just charmed by the same things over and over, and that's not such a bad thing.

 

Most charming pumpkin at the patch (coincidentally, holding in his arms a not-too-shabby pumpkin).

 

I love to see all the different types of pumpkins, squash, gourds and things. Are those with the little hats on the left called "turban squash"?
And goodness knows I can never resist a whole bin of apples.

 

The last of the flowers were sweet in their curly-edged, slightly wilty Autumn phase.

  

Everything is always so golden and giddy and fun out on that island, especially when we're out there pumpkining.

 

Me in my official pumpkin-picking gear with pretty rows of some enormous lettuce.

As I write, there are trays of sweet-smelling butternut squash roasting in the oven, and a chill in my toes. I've got pumpkin muffins, and gingerbread-blondies to bake, a pumpkin to carve, and I can't wait to see what trick-or-treaters find their way to us tomorrow!

Happy Friday & Happy Halloween!

Oh, Miette!

While we were in San Francisco, we managed to steal away Monday afternoon to do a few little fun things before we drove back home. After all, we didn't want our whole impression of such a neat city to be derived from the inside of the Fort Mason Center and the interior of the SF Marriott!

The only place I suggested insisted we visit was the famous Miette patisserie. It has the same name as my little fur-person, and it seemed just as sweet. I was so happy that they were open on Monday (and we were met at the door by the lovely, gingham-clad manager who happened to know me from the blog!).

It's safe to say that our visit there made me incredibly, dorkily, sweet-things-ecstatic.

 

 The wrappings and foil and boxes and bags were almost too good. There were so many candies there I had never even seen! And then a few that I had, but only once or twice before, like those jewel-colored pansy chocolates on the scale below:

 

Here's our bag of goods! And a close-up of these beautiful, beautiful bee chocolate bars we brought home.

 

These are the two candies that we're really hoarding:

 

Seriously, we're both interested in proposing candy-marriage to them. I found the Napoleon sour candies online, so the hoarding can relax a little as far as those are concerned. But if anyone has a source for those incredible, so-rich-you-can-seriously-eat-one-for-dessert foil wrapped strawberries, feel free to send it on!

They're so beautiful, it's really a little heartbreaking to eat them right now.

Renegade Dispatch

Hello, everyone! I'm about to bombard you with a bunch of photos of our little temporary Black Apple store at Renegade SF. I debuted quite a few new products there, as well, so those eagle-eyed among you might spot some!

My adorable helpers, and this spinning-rack for the prints that I was kind of crazily excited about:

 

Booth treats!

Dolls and things going into shopping bags:

...and dolls in their little trunk.

Plus Fancy Wearables!

It was such fun to meet so many of you in person, and take photos and chat (I chatted myself right into losing my voice by Sunday night)! I suppose I don't talk so much in my everyday life.

Dear Renegade,

Thanks for the memories. And that Michael Jackson commemorative cupcake.

love,
The Black Apple

*****Lots of you are asking about the jewels! They were such a hit at Renegade, and we sold out of every piece we brought! Buuut, luckily I kept some reserves at home just for my lovely online customers, and I'll be adding the rest of the collection to the shop on Friday afternoon. I'll have very limited numbers, but multiples of each piece.  Keep an eye out!*******

Strawberry Fields

On Monday, we went out to the wonderful, calm, restorative Sauvie Island Farms with the lady Berkley for the last of the season's strawberries.

 

Ashley blogged a couple days back about her trip out there...and I think they brought something like 20 pounds of strawberries home because the fields were so bountiful just a few weeks ago!

We had to peek under leaves and crouch and search for our berries, but the last of the harvest were so sweet and just perfect (if a little shrimpy). They were like little jewels.

 

 

But we persevered, and eventually Josiah, Lu and I had each collected a respectable harvest.

Not too shabby!
We took home enough to have some for freezing (future smoothies), jam-making, and just gobbling up.

We also took home a few enormous heads of spinach.
I'm including my feet (also enormous) for scale:

Such a good, chilly, Portland afternoon...and then we had delicious spinach and strawberries, and a day later, jam!

 

I like tart, not-too-sweet jam, and it ended up just right on that front. That's one of my favorite things about making things for yourself - you can tailor whatever it is to your exact persnickety tastes.

Happy Friday!

New York Dispatch 3

 Aannnd...if you missed the TAL live show, there is actually an encore tonight (May 7th)!

Hooray!

New York Dispatch 2

 

Naturalia, Part Second

I have lots of actual photos from the AMNH to supplement my little comic from yesterday's post, so I thought I would share some of the diorama-ific goodness with you.

When I was looking through my photos, I noticed two things:

1.) It's unbelievable how much some of the (three dimensional!) dioramas look like 19th century paintings. Especially when photographed! They are really things of beauty.

2.) Even though the dinosaur wing is my second favorite place (the first being the bi-level underwater chamber), I have no good photos of anything from it. I think that can be chalked up to the different approach in there: it's bright, white, not cavernous at all, and the dioramas (if there are any) are quite spare...to complement the bones, I suppose.

 

  

 
(I knew there was something different about that polar bear...and looking at my post from a few years ago, my suspicions were confirmed!)

Also, I am crazy about those little prehistoric under-sea dioramas. They are so nostalgic and comforting...I think they look a lot like illustrations in my childhood World Book encyclopedia or something.

 
Tiny skunk babies!

When I lived in NY, I would go to the Natural History Museum to get some quiet time in the dark, cool beautiful world they've created. It had been so quiet + deserted every time I've been, in fact, that I've actually worried for them! This time, it was hustling and bustling with tons of schoolkids, grownups, travelers, etc.

But it didn't diminish the magic that place holds for me. Not one bit.

New York Dispatch 1

Taking the Airship

(amazing old postcard image via Flickr)

Even if it won't be all salmon-tinted skies and airships, I'm pretty excited to be back in ol' New York.

Bagels!
The Natural History Museum!
Books!
This American Life!

We leave late tonight/early tomorrow...Take care & See you soon.
xoxo

Pumpkining!

It seems that Ashley and I have gotten into the habit (or maybe it's really just me) of talking about outings as (example)-"ing". Like when I really wanted to take her to this magical local store I love (Flutter), I wrote "Fluttering?" as in, "when are we going to go there?".

Anyway, so yesterday when we went on a trip to the pumpkin farm, naturally it was "Pumpkining" for us and the respective boys. It was a perfect day for it, and I think a really good time was had by all four! The farm was nice and quiet (but not deserted) and there were lots of distinctly fall treats and sights.

   

Pretty + healthy snacks were available.

But you know what kind of apples won out (with me, anyway).

My lovely friend and her non-Drew constant companion. (The cup, not the pumpkin).

Proof that a certain author/editor is also a farm owner, but not the most creative with aliases.

I am crazy for this variety of pumpkin! I had never seen them before yesterday (maybe I'm just not savvy about pumpkin-types), and they are so beautiful and have a most excellent name: "Cinderella Pumpkins". Like the magic carriage, I suppose.

On the way out to the fields, we had a "wheel incident".

But Josiah persevered and somehow made the wonky wagon useful anyway.

While I looked for little and quirky ones, Josiah searched for the perfect big pumpkin for us. He found a really good one.  I think he's a keeper.

These kind of little festive trips mean so much to me. I attach a lot of significance to holiday traditions, and carving out the space for them. I'll always try my darndest to make time for pumpkins in October, and I can only wish to always have such good company in which to do it.

Bits of Philly

We had a really nice time in Philly, all told, and  I found the city to be immensely charming. It felt to me to be by turns unpretentious, full of details, splendid, sad, and comforting in its old beauty.

Here are just some little photo-snippets of observations/things from our trip:

-Visiting with my sweet friend Janelle, who has an adorable apartment and an adorable wisp of a dog (and many clusters of nice old things, such as carded buttons).

-Maurice Sendak at the Rosenbach. which is located on the most  perfect, quiet little street you have ever seen. There were lots of sketches, finished paintings, and the coolest items (to me) were his little mock-up mini books that he made himself to plot out the finished composition of words and images.

Here's a little example:

-The abundant anachronistic collaging of incredible, if unkempt, old homes and vintage details with check-cashing places and gas stations. I thought the image above would illustrate this point nicely.

-Sorting through boxes and boxes of neatly organized vintage photos in a cute junk store

- Shopping and great conversation with the gals at Art Star

-Walking around Germantown, which has streets of houses that I thought only existed in my dreams. It also has more than its share of the run-down-ness that peppers Philly's blocks.

We also had some great food (thanks for all the suggestions! The Dutch Eating place was a big hit!), and went to the Mutter Museum, which I've always wanted to see (sorry that I don't have any photos of the skulls-with-holes-in-them exhibit, or the things-swallowed-and-removed drawers). We also visited the Anthropologie headquarters, which was very interesting and surreal, as you might imagine. Alas, there were hoagies, but I didn't get any gelato or ices in, which is unfortunate to say the least.

Happy Weekend, everyone!
xoxo