I ♥ Illustration

Try as I might, I can't stay away from it for long. I just love love love illustration. I enjoy other art forms as well, and I know there are other genres that are pushing the envelope and being innovative and making people think, but sometimes I just want to look at something well made, with a ton of talent behind it, that is pretty. Really, really pretty. I feel that way about the art of Danny Roberts. His drawings make my heart happy.










Picture-A-Day: Morning light. K's new home, morning.

Listening to The Mountain Goats.

Fashion is better when it makes you feel special.

I haven't done a fashion post in awhile. I did find some awesome vintage dresses last weekend and I adore them for their unique one-of-a-kind quality. I occassionally go in for mass-produced clothes (I get a sort of happy headrush when I walk into the bright, colorful cotton world of American Apparel, and I fully intend to clean out Topshop while I'm in London). But I absolutely love finding new, smaller designers and only wish I had a bigger budget. One (among many) thing I miss about Portland was the accessiblity to local or less-well-known designers and occassionally finding great steals. I love the attention to detail and the quality one gets from clothing that isn't mass produced. Clothing really can make you feel special, and special clothing is a joy to wear. All that said just to say I found Heidi Merrick, and I am in LOVE with her designs.






She has a blog too.

Listening to El Perro del Mar.

little birds, lots of links.

Today I adore these darling bird illustrations by little doodles' Kate Wilson. They are pretty and charming and fun.






How cute is this one? (Okay, I may be biased because my name is Lily and because I DO love hotel jam...anything in miniature, really, even those tiny Tobasco bottles make me smile).


I also really like her fashion illustrations:






And, one more thing to gush about, how awesome is her "beach grafitti" (her fun term).

Anyhow, check it all out on her blog, on which I also found these two wonderful links: Yum Brella bowls via Rocket St. George and Beyond the Valley.

On top of all that, she's got another blog as well. Whew. So much to look at today!

Listening to Radio Moscow.

Happy Friday. Make it a "Cute" One.

Sometimes I just love cutesy illustration. Humans and animals with big heads and eyes, hearts and birds, adorable sentiments, a pleasing color palette. As much as I may want to deny it, I just can't fight it. And no one fits this aesthetic better than Kurt Halsey. His work just makes me smile (and sometimes groan due to the overabundance of cuteness, kind of like seenig a really happy couple do something really cute like share an ice cream cone or dance together in the street, or share iPod headphones).










For Poetry Month:
Children in a Field
by Angela Shaw

They don't wade in so much as they are taken.
Deep in the day, in the deep of the field,
every current in the grasses whispers hurry
hurry, every yellow spreads its perfume
like a rumor, impelling them further on.
It is the way of girls. It is the sway
of their dresses in the summer trance-
light, their bare calves already far-gone
in green. What songs will they follow?
Whatever the wood warbles, whatever storm
or harm the border promises, whatever
calm. Let them go. Let them go traceless
through the high grass and into the willow-
blur, traceless across the lean blue glint
of the river, to the long dark bodies
of the conifers, and over the welcoming
threshold of nightfall.

Have a good weekend!!

Listening to Menomena, whom I'm going to see on Saturday!

Love Me Some Victorians

I've been a fan of Jen Corace for awhile. I always loved the covers she would do for the Portland Mercury, but I hadn't checked in on her work for awhile, and I'm so glad I just did because I LOVE her new stuff!







But I'm such a sucker for the Victorian/Edwardians.

And for poetry month, here is a lovely Victorian poet;
If thou must love me... (Sonnet 14)
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
"I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

Listening to Metric.

Spring Fashion Cure

Spring fashion is usually not my favorite. I don't like too much of my body exposed, don't like to wear a lot of bright colors and would opt for boots over sandals any day. That said, I do really like Lyell's Spring 2009 line.

I ADORE this ↑ shirt.



I must get this ↑ bathing suit. I've been on the hunt for one just like it.

I just identify with this label. Their clothes are simple, beautifully detailed, borrow from a limited color palette and are feminine without being overly frilly or gratuitously girly. ♥

Here are some items from older lines that I especially like:





Listening to St. Vincent.