moscow fashion

wow. this photoset has actually stopped me in my tracks. you simply must head over to Russia Beyond The Headlines to look at all fifteen photos from Alena Nikiforova.

and of course, this brings me back to my time in st. petersburg, and how we frantically tried to navigate the metro system....brains hurting from trying to read the cyrillic alphabet, wide-eyed at every stop, marvelling at the magnificent soviet-era architecture and wondering if we had gone a stop too far...

i simply must go back there. by the looks of these photos, moscow metro stations won't disappoint :) 

p.s. i just can't help but smile when i look at photo number 5...

lolz... another gem from marc johns

more awesomeness at www.marcjohns.com. go look now!

linky links: it's not easy being green...

from threadless's muppets t-shirt design challenge

well, kermit may have been right on that one, it's not easy, but it is possible!

i've had a couple of good reads this week -
 - offbeat home had an interesting discussion on ethical consumption of electronics
 - and one of my canadian heroes gave options for eco-friendly hair dye


both of these are issues that always kinda stick for me...electronics and cosmetics. there are certain things that i can cut out of my life, due to their environmental and ethical impact, but lets be honest - i'm not likely to ditch my cellphone or computer anytime soon. and though i love lush, i'm not always in a place to fork out $20 for a small bottle of shampoo, and they don't even sell makeup... so anyways, just thought i'd share those two little conversations i found this week. offbeat home and hipster housewife are both great sources for discussion on the challenges of living green. it may not be easy being green, but it's worth it :)

photo by keiko lynn

while i am aware that the world has totally moved on from NYFW and onto London Fashion Week, i am still totally enamoured by kate spade's fall/winter collection.... i just can't stop looking at it! luckily, keiko lynn recently posted even more photos for me to oogle over..... ah! can't get enough of the bold colors and the polka dots... 

while i am also aware that i am not in the tax bracket that allows me to purchase designer clothing, so much of the stuff on the runways at the moment is very classic, very 50s/60s...so i'm not feeling limited by this reality at all, but rather inspired to make stuff, shop vintage, and make it work for me :)

87 things.

today is the anniversary of the day that changed everything. it is still sad, and i still shed tears about it all. today i went down to the cordon and got the closest i have been to my past life in a year. i miss that life so much... i want to remember everything about it that i can - it's never going to be there again to remind me, so i best record it now before my memories start to fade. i have been writing down everything i have been thinking of today, from memories of people and events, to little things i loved.

christchurch and i, not long after we first met.

to celebrate these memories, i made a list of 87 things i loved about christchurch. i can count 14 that still exist (in the same way that i loved them). enjoy. maybe you were a part of one of these memories :)

1. the sea. 2. the port hills. 3. castle rock. 4. the 33k fellowship. 5. elliots house on Peterborough street. 6. learning things from joy. 7. celebrating new years in the square. 8. fish and chips on the beach. 9. steph mcewin’s studio, wherever it was. 10. 19 admirals way. 11. the exponents ‘why does love do this to me.’ 12. SOL Square. 13. Le Cafe. 14.walking on the smooth stones that paved cathedral square. there was just something about them. 15. going to the arts centre market on Saturdays. 16. getting 5$ thai and a diet coke for lunch after church on Sundays from the vendors behind the court theatre. 17. the sign of the takahe. 18. ginger tom. 19. salmon and cream cheese pizza at the dux. 20. dimitris. 21. c1. 22. fires at the sign of the bellbird. 23. the cupcake parlour. 24. the central library. 25. cheap but yummy. 26. sunshine bbq. 27. street 10. 28. joe’s garage. 29. latimer square. 30. eating lunch beside the avon. 31. getting dimitris for lunch during rich times. 32. getting 2$ rice for lunch during poor times. 33. eating lunch and people watching on cashel mall. 34. the art gallery. 35. getting a good park beside the river on Cambridge terrace. 36. splurging on a show at the Isaac theatre royal. 37. cheapskates. 38.punk rock gigs. 39. corpse parties, the few i went to. 40. gigs at antony's. 41. chats with axle. 42. satanchurch bike gang. 43. the eastern. 44. running along the avon. 45. goodbye blue Monday, as much as i hate to admit it. 46. fat eddies. 47. longboarding in hagley park. 48. going on adventures with Lindsay. 49. going to movies at the regent. 50. when church was at level 2, 140a Lichfield street. 51. boring Christmas eve mass at the basilica – the choir and the architecture was worth the boring. 52. Washington. 53. regionals. 54. the go-to’s 55. cups of tea. 56. going to lush on my lunch breaks. 57. people watching in the square. 58. tete a tete, and being called ‘sweet’. 59. smiths books, especially the top floor. 60. dan the punk. 61. Che. 62. hack circle. 63. the fountain kids. 64. hanging with antony in otautahi tattoo shop. 65. living in linwood. 66. the usuals. 67. skating from cheaps to wash on Monday at 5. 68. being Stacey taxi... in little red & in the jelly bean. 69. the wunderbar. 70. watching mali play. 71. Canterbury cheesemongers! 72. making gus curwood chuckle. 73. nood food’s chocolate macaroons 74. the high street family. 75. bumping into someone i knew every five feet. 76. visiting guy for drinks at flying burrito brothers. 77. new regent street. 78. the pointless moving sculpture at high st and Lichfield, and seeing how high the kids had got their stickers on it. 79. the walk from scarborough to taylors mistake. 80. the little baches at taylor’s mistake. 81. new brighton pier. 82. walking through town really late at night. 83. the girls at 104 barbour street. 84. riding my red bike around town. 85. Christchurch fashion, which you don’t realise is there until you go somewhere else. 86. watching Stig 87. walking home with alex on sunday nights.

He aha te mea nui o te Otautahi? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

what is the most important thing in christchurch? the people, the people, the people.

under pressure

the past couple days have been pretty frustrating. the usual things, you know - flat tire, friction at work, people letting you down, and the like. all of that, mixed with the impending emotions of tomorrow - the one year anniversary of the thing which totally changed everything - had left me struggling to stay positive, though i really was trying.
on my way home from work, i turned on the radio and one of my absolute favourite songs was playing - queen's 'under pressure'. i love that song for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it is played in one of my favourite movies - it's kind of a funny story. just thinking about that bit of the movie puts a smile on my face...something about this stressed-out kid in a mental health facility escaping reality to belt out some queen just speaks to my heart. totally worth the watch - oh look, there it is just down there :)

the glitter in zach galafanakis' beard gets me every time....

after dinner i decided to take a walk up to the hills again, which turned out to be a most cathartic wee trek. on the way up, grumbling and re-hashing those arguments, and forcing myself onward and upward (both literally and figuratively!) on the way down, singing out loud to florence's 'shake it out' and smiling as i watched the sun dip below the peaks of the hills....again, with the whole perspective thing....

from here you can almost see the sea...

a couple days ago i went on a walk up the port hills, which are the beautiful, brown southern backdrop to christchurch. i am so happy that i am currently living right at the base of these hills, just a few hundred metres from the start of a track to the top. i have always loved the view from up there... sure puts life in perspective.

after losing so much of what i found beautiful in this city (and still having dark dreams of the earth shaking, after all this time), it was hopeful to see that she still looks beautiful from up here. 

its just the weight of the world

giving out under the string

but we're a part of it

everyone

we're a part of it

everything

and when a nightmare finally does unfold

a nightmare finally shows

it's not the end of the world

just a calamity

and we're a part of it

everyone

we're a part of it

everything

and when a nightmare finally does unfold

perspective is a lovely hand to hold

- relient k

i choo-choo-choose you!

happy valentines day!

it has been such a great day, despite the relentless drizzle outside. i was looking forward to wearing my favourite dress with festive red accessories, and even my black and white heart cardi for the occasion. i will admit that i have not always been a valentines-day-enthusiast, but these days i am stoked to just celebrate for the sake of celebrating.

Life is good, and was a treat to make today special for some of my loved ones. It was my night to cook, and so I made heart-shaped pancakes for the whanau, and the boys absolutely loved them...joel ended up with the berry sauce all over himself, which was adorable. Now looking forward to some lindauer and Les Mis with Char. Happy Valentines Day, indeed :)

kate spade at NYFW - wowza!

 

totally in love with what i have seen from the kate spade show at NYFW... from the striped pedestals to the dots and details... i kinda want it all! above photo from the glitter guide- click for more photos from the show. 

or click here for pretty pics of all the delightful details from keiko lynn.

photo by keiko lynn

nyfw begins!

so stoked on the skull cape - from the Libertine show. via keiko lynn.

gah! so excited for the flood of images that will come this week :) thank goodness for the internet!

to think i had never noticed his hair before!

i just discovered the clever hand drawings of marc johns... there will be more where these came from, i assure you :)

berlin in april? i wish.

so apparently there's something called 'The Russian Criminal Tattoo Archive,' and even a website called 'Russia Beyond the Headlines,' both of which i discovered through the hope blog, and both of which excite me a great deal.

i kind of have a thing for russia.

anyways, the archive is going to be on display in berlin from april-june this year, and MAN i wish i was in europe to go see it. RBTH has kindly displayed 12 of the photos, along with descriptions of the meaning behind the tattoos here.

speaking of russian criminals, here's a little-known fact about me:

6 years ago i preached an easter sunday sermon to an audience of russian prisoners peering out at me from behind the barred doors of a corridor of cells. i kid you not.

norma jean reads

casual & classy: marilyn monroe reading. posted today, over at awesome people reading. photo by John Florea (1951)

the best street art of 2011

click here to see more of the best - from urban knitting to little people who are in too deep...i love seeing people think outside the box to make a city a more beautiful place to be :)