Blog Stalking Letters of Note

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Advice, Blog, Blogging, Correspondence, culture, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Letters of Note, Literature, Scottie, Snail mail

Letters Of Note Blog Banner
(Image from Letters of Note)

IMMHO, (In my most humble opinion) if you only ever read one blog, Letters of Note is the blog you should choose to read. A big claim, I know. I stand by it, despite the fact that I have some fabulous blog buddies here in the Blogosphere whom I risk offending by making such a bold statement.

What is it about, you may ask? Letters of Note is a blog-based archive of fascinating correspondence, complete with scans and transcripts of the original missives. And, it is fascinating. Truly. It’s also variously enlightening, funny, clever, educational, thought-provoking – and, so much more.

Let me give you an example from Wednesday, 21 March:

F. Scott Fitzgerald with his daughter, “Scottie” and wife, Zelda
(image sourced from Letters of Note)

On August 8th of 1933, author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the following letter of advice to his 11-year-old daughter, “Scottie,” who was away at camp.

(Source: F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters ; Image: Fitzgerald with both his daughter, “Scottie,” and wife, Zelda, via.)

La Paix, Rodgers’ Forge
Towson, Maryland

August 8, 1933

Dear Pie:

I feel very strongly about you doing duty. Would you give me a little more documentation about your reading in French? I am glad you are happy — but I never believe much in happiness. I never believe in misery either. Those are things you see on the stage or the screen or the printed pages, they never really happen to you in life.

All I believe in in life is the rewards for virtue (according to your talents) and the punishments for not fulfilling your duties, which are doubly costly. If there is such a volume in the camp library, will you ask Mrs. Tyson to let you look up a sonnet of Shakespeare’s in which the line occurs “Lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”

Have had no thoughts today, life seems composed of getting up a Saturday Evening Post story. I think of you, and always pleasantly; but if you call me “Pappy” again I am going to take the White Cat out and beat his bottom hard, six times for every time you are impertinent. Do you react to that?

I will arrange the camp bill.

Halfwit, I will conclude.

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about Cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship
Worry about. . .

Things not to worry about:

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about: 

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

With dearest love,

Daddy

P.S. My come-back to your calling me Pappy is christening you by the word Egg, which implies that you belong to a very rudimentary state of life and that I could break you up and crack you open at my will and I think it would be a word that would hang on if I ever told it to your contemporaries. “Egg Fitzgerald.” How would you like that to go through life with — “Eggie Fitzgerald” or “Bad Egg Fitzgerald” or any form that might occur to fertile minds? Try it once more and I swear to God I will hang it on you and it will be up to you to shake it off. Why borrow trouble?

Love anyhow

And, this is just one example! I get one of these fascinating snapshots from somebody else’s life delivered to my in-box daily. I love it.

The man behind Letters of Note is Shaun Usher, a Manchester-based, 33-year-old writer. He is the self-titled curator of correspondence. He is also currently putting together a book on the best Letters of Note to date. It is due for release in November. If you don’t already subscribe, go and check it out for yourself here.

(I am off taking a wee sojourn to sunny Queensland over the next few days which means my response times to your comments may be a little slower than usual. I do love hearing from you, so please don’t stop! – It may just take me a little longer to get back to you. Cheers!)

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Sir Peter Blake and His Lucky Red Socks

Tags

America's Cup, Auckland, culture, Leadership, Lucky Red Socks, New Zealand, New Zealanders, Peter Blake, Socks, Team New Zealand, Teamwork, Whitbread, Yachting

Sir Peter Blake’s Lucky Red Socks
(Image sourced from Sir Peter Blake Trust)

Today is national Red Socks Day in New Zealand. Do you know the story of New Zealand and Sir Peter Blake’s Lucky Red Socks phenomenon? It’s one of life’s inspiring stories, I think. It’s a story of how one person can make a difference. And, no – I’m not going to get all schmaltzy on you, but I promise if you are unfamiliar with Sir Peter Blake and his lucky red socks, this will make you smile.

Sir Peter Blake
(Image sourced from here)

Sir Peter Blake is a New Zealand-born yachting legend.

A five times competitor in the Whitbread round the world races, he went on to lead his Team New Zealand yachting teams to two successive America’s Cup victories. Sir Peter liked to wear his red socks for good luck, and during the America’s Cup challenge of 1995 New Zealanders supported the boat by putting on their own red socks as means to get behind Team New Zealand and support the country’s bid to win what is arguably the world’s most recognised yachting cup. The proceeds from the sale of Lucky Red Socks helped to fund the Kiwi syndicate (which, when compared to the other teams competing, had a fairly meagre budget).

As a young teenager living in Auckland at the time of the 1995 challenge, it seemed to me that the whole country got behind the Lucky Red Sock campaign. On race days EVERYBODY put on their lucky red socks – babies, women in power suits and stilettos, businessmen, school children, dogs – everyone. Sometimes living in a small country at the bottom of the world can feel like the best place in the world to be. This was one of those times.

Sir Peter Blake went on to become an environmentalist, but he was tragically killed on December 5^th 2001. Eleven years on, the Sir Peter Blake Trust strives to keep his memory, spirit and values alive for future generations of New Zealanders. Red Socks Day is an opportunity to remember him and the contribution he made to both New Zealand and our planet, and to re-tell his story for those who were too young to remember.

As a particularly poignant aside Sir Peter Blake’s headstone carries the words: “I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and sky, and all I ask …” from poet John Masefield’s famous Sea Fever – describing a life inseparable from the sea.

Sir Peter Blake showed New Zealand, there are leaders and there are dreamers. Leaders make things happen. Dreamers have a vision. The truly special people do both.

The video below gives a better insight to the man who was Sir Peter Blake.

If you would like to learn more about Sir Peter or the Sir Peter Blake Trust, or if you would like your own pair of lucky red socks, head here.

(I am off taking a wee sojourn to sunny Queensland over the next few days which means my response times to your comments may be a little slower than usual. I do love hearing from you, so please don’t stop! – It may just take me a little longer to get back to you. Cheers!)

Who Needs ‘the Secret’ When You Can Write Your Wish?

Tags

Art, Contemporary art, culture, Fine art, Modern art, Performance, Saatchi Gallery, Saatchi Online, Television, The Chasers, The Chasers War on Everything, The Secret, Visual Arts

Having a wee tootle through Saatchi Online* the other day and I came across Rainer Fest’s ‘Write the Wish’ work. I have to say, it kind of appeals. Using scrabble-like alphabet cut-outs (only prettier), you write a wish into the spaces provided by the stand-alone table. It is then available for the world to see, at least until you think of a better wish…

‘Write the Wish’ by Rainer Fest
(Image sourced from Saatchi Online)

‘Write the Wish’ (Detail) by Rainer Fest
(Image sourced from Saatchi Online)

It seems to me this is a much better way of putting your wish out into the universe than using the techniques espoused in the global phenomenon that was ‘The Secret’. For a start, there really is only enough room for one wish to be presented at a time, so it does mean you can’t be too greedy. And, then there’s the fact that the Chasers probably won’t do a 7 minute sketch on you with your ‘Write a Wish’ like they did when ‘The Secret’ first came out… (I had forgotten quite how well the Chasers capture that ‘finger-nails down a blackboard’ feeling)

Rainer Fest is based in the North-East of Germany. You can access his website here. His Write the Wish work is available through Saatchi Online for US$6,200.

*In 2006 the Saatchi Gallery in London, known the world over for discovering emerging talent, launched Saatchi Online as a way to give artists not represented by galleries a platform to show their work to a global audience. This simple idea attracted such a large and dedicated community of artists that the site was re-launched in 2010 with functionality that enabled artists to sell their original work as well as make their work available for print sales.

(I am off taking a wee sojourn to sunny Queensland over the next few days which means my response times to your comments may be a little slower than usual. I do love hearing from you, so please don’t stop! – It may just take me a little longer to get back to you. Cheers!)

Monkey Business with Jill Greenberg

Tags

animals, Books, Greenberg, Jill Greenberg, Monkey, Monkeys, Photographer, Photographs, Photography, Shopping, Tumblr, William Congreve

Wilding by Jill Greenberg
(Image sourced from Kopeiking Gallery)

I am captivated by Jill Greenberg’s Monkey Portraits.

I confess freely to you, I could never look long upon a monkey, without very mortifying reflections. (William Congreve)

You look into the monkey’s expressions, their faces – and somehow see yourself.  It is scary and disorienting and exhilarating and totally awesome. I’m not above unconsciously anthropomorphising my dog (sad but true), but with Greenberg’s monkeys, it is almost as if you can’t help but identify with their gaze, and be reminded of people you know and expressions that you have seen before. Wow. Just WOW.

Yikes by Jill Greenberg
(Image sourced from Kopeiking Gallery)

Worried by Jill Greenberg
(Image sourced from Kopeiking Gallery)

Uh-oh by Jill Greenberg
(Image sourced from Kopeiking Gallery)

Undecided by Jill Greenberg
(Image sourced from Kopeiking Gallery)

Joker by Jill Greenberg
(Image sourced from Kopeiking Gallery)

Rocky Portrait by Jill Greenberg
(Image sourced from Kopeiking Gallery)

Kenuzy Insane by Jill Greenberg
(Image sourced from Kopeiking Gallery)

Jill Greenberg was born in July of 1967 in Montreal, Canada. Over the years, she has made memorable images of many of the world’s most recognisable celebrities.  She is recognised as being an early adopter of digital effects, and (according to her bio), “has developed a world that is more intense, more razor-sharp, let’s say supra-real, than the one in which we actually reside. Jill Greenberg creates portraits that seize our attention, that create an altered universe staring back at us.”

Certainly, her other work is amazing, but I just keep coming back to the monkeys…

If  you’d like to see more of Jill Greenberg’s work, you can get to her Tumblr site here. A more comprehensive portfolio of the Monkey Portraits series can be seen here. And, if you’re keen to pick up a book of the Monkey Portraits, Amazon sell it here.

(I am off taking a wee sojourn to sunny Queensland over the next few days which means my response times to your comments may be a little slower than usual. I do love hearing from you, so please don’t stop! – It may just take me a little longer to get back to you. Cheers!)

Wyatt Little’s Chandelier of Rude Birdies…

Tags

Aesop, Art, Bird, Bird Poop Chandelier, Blue, Denis Norden, Design, Furniture Design, Glass, Interior design, Lighting, Wyatt Little

Bird Poop Chandelier by Wyatt Little
(Image  © Wyatt J Little)

There’s an unseen force which lets birds know when you’ve just washed your car. (Denis Norden)

I think it is supposed to be good luck when a bird poops on you? Well, even if that is true, if it’s ever happened to you, I’m pretty sure you didn’t think so at the time. Apparently, Wyatt Little felt inspired by his memory of being on the receiving end of an inconsiderate bird’s antics. He has created this beautiful, elegant and fun chandelier which is actually called the ‘Bird Poop Chandelier’!

Don’t you think it would bring good luck and joy to just about any dinner party? Certainly, it would be a talking point…

Bird Poop Chandelier by Wyatt Little
(All images © Wyatt J Little)

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. (Aesop)

It seems our designer-with-a-sense-of-humour, Wyatt Little is a shy kinda’ guy. There’s not much detail to find BUT if you’d like to see more of his work or drop him a line, you can do so here.

(I am off taking a wee sojourn to sunny Queensland over the next few days which means my response times to your comments may be a little slower than usual. I do love hearing from you, so please don’t stop! – It may just take me a little longer to get back to you. Cheers!)

My Infinite Home by Hanemaai

Tags

Accessories, craft, culture, Interior design, Living Simply, Luggage, Maya Angelou, Minimalism, Netherlands, Shopping, Suitcase, T.S. Eliot, Textile Design, Travel, Wood

My Infinite Home by Jolien Hanemaaijer
(Image © Hanemaai)

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself. (Maya Angelou)

How brilliant is this concept by Hanemaai? Seriously? A choice of two portable objects for storage that have the double function of a suitcase and a personal ‘show ‘n’ tell’. You carry them with you or put them down as personal shelving. Best of all, they transport what you need, and show what you have chosen to take with you. In these days of accumulating less stuff (which I have yet to master), and living more simply and sustainably, this gorgeous design by Jolien Hanemaaijer has got to take the cake.

This project started from Jolien’s personal experience with extensive traveling and having to live out of one suitcase. She had to make choices about what to bring and what to leave behind. While making these choices was hard, it also allowed her to get rid of unnecessary things. In Jolien’s words, “the important and good items that you decide to bring are the objects that define your identity.” What would you choose?

The suitcases are made from bended beech, leather and metal. The objects kept in place by elastic bands that are pulled through small holes in the wooden frame. If you want to bring a lot of luggage, you simply adjust the elastics.

Home is where one starts from. (T.S. Eliot)

My Infinite Home by Jolien Hanemaaijer
(All images © Hanemaai)

Jolien Hanemaaijer Traveling With Her Infinite Home
(Image © Hanemaai)

Jolien Hanemaaijer currently lives in the Netherlands. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague) with a degree in Textile Design, she started her own design company called Hanemaai. If you’d like to learn more about here fab’ designs (this is not the only one!), you can access her site here. She is definitely a designer to watch, I reckon!

(I am off taking a wee sojourn to sunny Queensland over the next few days which means my response times to your comments may be a little slower than usual. I do love hearing from you, so please don’t stop! – It may just take me a little longer to get back to you. Cheers!)

Matthew Cox Clashes the Tactile With the Technical

Tags

Art, Artist, Colour, Conceptual Art, Contemporary art, Embrodery, Fibre Art, Male Embroiderer, Matthew Cox, Philadelphia, Textile Art, United States, Visual Arts

‘New Knee With Tulips’ by Matthew Cox
(Image © Matthew Cox)

I was always shocked when I went to the doctor’s office and they did my X-ray and didn’t find that I had eight more ribs than I should have or that my blood was the color green.(Nicholas Cage)

Matthew Cox is motivated by redefinition. At least, that’s what he says got him started with this wacky idea to create embroidered x-rays. One material is tactile and labor intensive while the other technical, and quickly a finished product. He reckons that, “by simply placing one of these materials on top of the other the understood purpose of each is redefined.” Certainly, it makes the observer stop and look (more than once, in my case)

I like that for Matthew Cox, “stitching has a nurturing aspect and acts as care giving or healing to the injured, a socially feminine sort of action, while the x-ray itself can be considered masculine and unemotional.”

Snow White by Matthew Cox
(Image © Matthew Cox)

Underwire Bra With Tulips
(Image © Matthew Cox)

Pacemaker Barbie by Matthew Cox
(Image © Matthew Cox)

Lips by Matthew Cox
(Image © Matthew Cox)

Olive Oyl by Matthew Cox
Check out her belly button ring!
(Image © Matthew Cox)

What will he think of next, I wonder?

Matthew Cox is a Philadelphia-based artist. You can check out more of his work here. He is represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, Packer/Schopf Gallery in Chicago and Widmer and Theodoridis Contemporary in Zürich.

Abigail Brown & Her Fine Feathered Bird Creations

Tags

Abigail Brown, Animalia, Bird, craft, Design, E. E. Cummings, Elle, Fibre Art, Flora and Fauna, Haberdashery, London, Ornithology, Peacock, Recreation, Shopping, Sparrow, Takashimaya, Textile Art

Peacock by Abigail Brown
(Image © Abigail Brown)

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. (E.E. Cummings)

I seem to have developed a previously unrecognised fascination for birds… Truly. Last month I featured a post on the paper bird magic of Diana Beltran Herrera. Today I bring you the fabulously fanciful world of Abigail Brown, a textile artist who creates amazing birds by hand out of new and reused materials.

Abigail studied a BA in Surface Decoration and Printed Textiles, graduating in 2003. During and since that time she has worked as a designer and illustrator of children’s books, children’s wear, stationery, and greeting cards, and produced work for the advertising industry – all whilst continually exploring ideas in fabrics for herself.

She has enjoyed coverage in magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Elle Decoration and Selvedge, and has sold her work through many beautiful stores (including my favourite, Liberty).

Abigail’s studio is in London and she has the most comprehensive menagerie of fabric bird-life…

Great Tit by Abigail Brown
(Image © Abigail Brown)

Robin by Abigail Brown
(Image © Abigail Brown)

Kingfisher by Abigail Brown
(Image © Abigail Brown)

Flamingo by Abigail Brown
(Image © Abigail Brown)

The sparrow that is twittering on the edge of my balcony is calling up to me this moment a world of memories that reach over half my lifetime, and a world of hope that stretches farther than any flight of sparrows. (Donald G. Mitchell)

I’m a fan of sparrows. They’re everywhere in New Zealand and are such unassuming wee birds. When you come to Australia, one of the first things you notice is the incredibly noisy bird life – the cockatoos and the galahs wake you up in the morning with their chattering. For some reason, there don’t seem to be any sparrows, though. I miss them.

House Sparrow by Abigail Brown
My bird of choice from Abigail’s collection
(Image © Abigail Brown)

All Abigail Browns birds are made to order and can take anything from 1 – 6 weeks to complete. Each piece is unique and may vary slightly from the image she provides on her site.

If you’d like to learn more, you can access Abigail’s site here. There are many more wonderful birds to see.

Please Sir, ‘GAN’ I Have Some More?

Tags

Design, Fibre Art, Furtniture Design, GAN, Italy, Knitting, Patricia Urquiola, Pouf, Rug, Shopping, Soft Furnishing

Mangas Largas by GAN
(Image © GAN)

Today, I’m sharing with you something that I had to think twice about. Not because I didn’t think it was up to TSL standards. Rather, I love this design so much I wondered whether I should be just a little selfish and keep it all to myself. Seriously. I think it is that gorgeous. And, it’s not even new. The range has been around since 2009. I’m just a little behind.

The ‘Mangas’ (meaning: ‘sleeves’) range from GAN was inspired by hand-woven sweaters (or, jumpers if you’re not from North America!) Apparently, designer Patricia Urquiola was thinking of old knitted socks and that treasured winter scarf that finds its way into your wardrobe when she created these gorgeous numbers that are so warm and woolly.

Perhaps I love it so much because it’s cold and raining outside as I write this in Sydney?

Mangas Largas by GAN
(Image © GAN)

Mangas Minis by GAN
(Image © GAN)

Mangas Mini by GAN
(Image © GAN)

Mangas Puff by GAN
(Image © GAN)

So many choices…
Mangas Largas by GAN
(Image © GAN)

This range ticks all my ‘design’ boxes. It’s fun. It’s practical. It’s a little quirky. I’m sure it will feel great under foot. If you’d like to learn more about the GAN Mangas range, check out their website here.

Twig – Not so Easily Contained in Brooklyn

Tags

Antique, Blog, Brooklyn, Diner, Garden, Glass, Katy Maslow, Marina Chetner, Michelle Inciarrano, New York, Online Shopping, Photographs, Shopping, Travel Blog, Travel journal, Twig, Twig Terrarium, Wythe Hotel

‘Sunbather’ by Twig
(Image © Twig Terrariums)

Since I started blogging back in February, I have come across a few cool ‘n’ groovy things in Brooklyn that I’m keen to see in real life. Not least of these is my blogging bud’ from the very cool travel blog, MarinaChetner.com. Go check it out*. She’s a fab’ travel writer and her blog always features wonderful images, too. (just in case you’re wondering, Marina currently lives in Brooklyn).

Anyhoo, in addition to the lovely Marina, and the Wythe Hotel, and the Diner restaurant, and the Brooklyn Flea market, and, and, and so much more, there is now Twig, as well!

I know, I know – for all you hip ‘n’ happening types out there saying, “Duh! So yesterday!”. This post isn’t pitched at you. This is for the rest of us. The ones at the bottom of the world where it sometimes takes a while for cool stuff to find us.

Twig Terrariums is the Brooklyn based venture, sprung from the minds of two old friends, Michelle Inciarrano and Katy Maslow. They create moss terrariums and other small worlds in antique, vintage, and new glass containers, apothecary jars, science glass, kitchen ware, and any odd glass objects they find on our travels. And, despite the fact that there is no green thumb on my person, I think they are just the bees knees. Do bees have a sense of humour…?

Each Twig Terrarium contains a very special scene using miniature figurines to complete your little green landscape – from idyllic pastoral scenes with cows and horses to angry punk rockers and Central Park muggings.

Have a look…

‘Boobies’ by Twig
(Image © Twig Terrariums)

‘Picture That’ by Twig
(Image © Twig Terrariums)

‘Bike Break’ by Twig
(Image © Twig Terrariums)

‘Basking’ by Twig
(Image © Twig Terrariums)

‘Lightbulb Moment’ by Twig
(Image © Twig Terrariums)

‘Full Moon’ by Twig
(Image © Twig Terrariums)

Twig Terrariums can be purchased at their studio in Brooklyn, selected stores in New York and online (here). They even offer custom orders.

All this is fantabulous if you happen to live in the States.  If, like me you don’t. The girls at Twig have helpfully arranged for you to be able to design your own terrarium by following the instruction in their book!

I’ve checked. You can buy it through Amazon here.

*Marina, I do recognise that you are a person, not a thing. Promise.