Sunlight through Fog

Today Seattle is covered in fog.  The air hints of the fall crispness yet to come.  Weather like this makes me reflect on life, not really sure why, but it does.  This September will be the last time I go to college.  It will be my last orientation, my last few classes, the last time I get grades.  I don't know quite how to feel about it.  Certainly there is the feeling of elation, I'm finally going to get that pretty piece of paper with some calligraphy on it that tells the world I have spend over $90,000 and am now a completely qualified human being.  Then there is the apprehension.  How am I going to make a living?  How am I going to afford anything after this?  I need a car, and insurance for that.  I need a heart monitor, and insurance for that.  The list is endless.  I know I will make it all work out, I always do.  I just have to sit a worry for a spell first.
When one is a child, we spend all our time wishing we were older, bigger, stronger, faster.  Wishing ourselves into adulthood.  When one is an adult, you wish life were slower, simpler, quieter.  Wishing ourselves back to the peaceful simplicity that is most childhoods.  You don't worry about repaying your college debt, or buying a house.  These things simply are there for you.  It is the beautiful, dreadful thing of being responsible.  Or worrying over where the money is going to come from to pay for this or that.  You can sit around wishing your whole life away.
I'm not wishing I was a child any more, nor am I wishing away being an adult.  Today I do wish I knew what the future held.  I wish I could peer into it's depths and know where I'm going next or what I am doing after this chapter.  But then, what fun would life be if we knew everything to come?  Yeah, we might be able to be more prepared or something, but still.  You'd end up dreading things rather than being elated to have them.

So I sit at my desk and watch the crows quibbling on the rooftops and I reflect on where  I have come from and where I want to go.  I consider all of the ways to make the future my reality.  

Neverwhere Design - Part One

I don't think I've written about my senior project for Cornish yet, so here's the beginning!

Cornish is doing a stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and I have the honor and delight to be designing the costumes for it.  If you didn't know already, I am an enormous fan of Neil Gaiman's works (as well as his wife, Amanda Palmer's music) and was utterly over the moon with delight when Cornish announced what the show would be.
Neverwhere is a story about a Scotsman, Richard Mayhew, just moved to a new job in the big city of London, who ends up on the most peculiar adventure of his life.  He has it all, a beautiful (if controlling and stiff) fiancee named Jessica, a good job at a nice firm, and a smattering of friends.  What more could a chap want?
The more comes in the form of a ragged girl who appears out of nowhere, clothing torn, arm bloody, catalysing Richard to care for her.  She turns out to be from another place, London Below and leads Richard on an amazing adventure that ultimately leaves him asking himself; what does he want from life?  Is going to the pub, and marrying Jessica, and accepting the promotion to Junior Partner really all there is in life?  Is it really all he wants?
I can't tell you that, darlings.  You must read the book.

The world we're creating is based on inspiration of the layers that occur in life.  If you look across a subway platform, you can see several tracks, platforms, lines and layers.  Action could occur on a series of planes, each sitting on top of another.  London Below is a bit like that, it interacts with our world (London Above) but we don't always see it.  It lives in those odd people who live on the street.  The group of urchins who feel like kings and celebrate the little pleasures.  Perhaps in Below they are princes and kings?  You'd never know to look at them in Above.

For now I'll leave you with an idea of our main heroes.  The Lady Door, Richard Mayhew, The Marquis de Carabas, and The Hunter.

Lady Door

Richard Mayhew

The Marquis de Carabas

The Hunter

- Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
- Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
- Post them here for everyone to guess.
- Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
- No Googling/using IMDb search functions! Por favor....
- Since there are only 10, limit 2 per person



1. I cried like a baby, a hungry, angry baby.

2. It's a twisted sister! Twisted parts make it do twisted things!

3. You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate. There is more eloquence in a sugar-touch of them than in the tongues of the French Council.

4. Nonsense! Name a shrub after me. Something prickly and hard to eradicate.

5. That can't be good for the table.

6. Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest of forms.

7. We're navigators, we're aviators, eatin' taters, masturbatin' alligators, bombardiers, we got no fears, won't shed no tears, we're pushin' the frontiers of transcendental perception.

8. If you make money from war, you're scum. If you can't make money from bounty hunting, you're an idiot!

9. They've got a cave troll!

10. Time is what counts, Mrs. Hubbard, if we are to complete this inquiry before reaching Brod. I will therefore make my questions as brief as I hope you will make your answers, and the more often you can confine yourself to a simple yes or no, the better.

Ladies who Brunch

One of the delights of growing up is spending time with people in totally new ways.  My mom and I have had a lovely relationship throughout my childhood, but it wasn't until recently that we have started spending time together as adults.  We go out for brunch, we peruse antique stores, go shopping at the thrift stores for treasures.  China is our favourite thing to look for.  

It is really wonderful for me to get to know my mom as an adult, we're becoming closer friends and often dissolve into giggles like a couple of little girls.  It is a very special time for me.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of the snaps of a recent trip to Pacific Galleries Antique Mall which is a little beyond Seattle's SODO district.  Pacific Galleries is HUGE!  I've been in some large antique malls, but this one is so easy to get lost in.  They have a wide range of items from furniture, and home goods to jewelry, some toys, books, and interesting knickknacks.

I was particularly taken by this World War 1 era German helmet.  It's got little knob-like protrusions on either side, almost like you could clip something on to it.

Each avenue has it's own name, like a little city within a building, but I still got lost.

Pretty watercolour-like china pattern.  The fuzzy flowers are too funny!

Someone had put a little matchbox inside a set of nesting Asian boxes and collected the tiny, ripped corners of money.  I thought for one second that I had stumbled upon someone's allowance, but was then throughly amused by their collection.  Every time I see a torn off corner of a bill I want to start my own.  Only I collect too many things already.

My parents have been working hard on clearing some of the overgrowth at their house.  It has widened up the view considerably, and even this picture doesn't do it justice!  It is so very lovely there.

And what trip to the antique store would be complete without some tom-foolery?  Or Anna-foolery, in this case?  Mom and I had coffee, so I put my spoon on my nose.  I might be 27 years old, but I am resolved to remember how to be silly once in a while!

Until next time.

xoxo,

Anna

Currently: July

It feels like only yesterday I was done with school for the summer and impatiently awaiting the arrival of warmer weather.  Today I am trying to ignore how close August is, which means September and the start of school.  Not that it's a terrible thing; I am going to England AND graduating this year.  It just means the busy time is up next and I feel like I haven't quite exhausted the glories of summer.

I have been sewing a little.  Played with my stash of "fancy scraps" and came up with a little dress.  I have no idea what I'm going to wear it for but that is okay.  Something pretty for the closet costume stash.

Nathen has been wanting to take up Warhammer again, and I have been introduced into the world of assembling and painting miniature figurines, or minifigs as some say.  They are very, very tiny.  

There have been long, lazy evenings spent at my parent's house, sometimes with these rascals, sometimes just my folks.  Realising the upstairs has been too quiet for too long lead me to seek them out.  Naturally they were on the roof, inhaling the sweet scents of the evening and marveling at the sunset.  I love their appetite for being young and experiencing all life has to offer.  

Internship is going nicely, working on both of the Wooden O shows; Henry V and The Tempest, makes for one tired intern at the end of a hot day.  However the delight of air conditioning made the sewing much more lovely.

I got to visit my darling Jocelyn while she was house sitting for friends.  We played with the pup (whom we were NOT drumming on, I just caught her mid-gesture), pitied the cat, and sipped iced tea on the porch.  Delish.

Oh, yes.  The hair is, once again, happily in the land of purple.  It has faded quite a bit this time, into the fuchsia range, and I am letting it be for now.  I'm not a fan of pinks, but this one is on the raspberry side, so I am letting it be for now.

More posts coming, just had to squeeze in a little update.

xoxo,

Anna