Sentimentalism

Valentines 2k10: Part I

Despite the dreaded “commercialization” of holidays, I love Valentine’s Day.  I do.  I can’t help it.  If you look past the Hallmark-y overload, Valentine’s is an excuse to creatively express sweet sentiments with abandon– what’s not to love? 

Images:
1: window display at The Booksmith via Design*Sponge
2 and 3:  le love
4: chez sucre chez
5: etsy store Neither Snow
6: Martha Stewart
7: cute postcards and prints – rar rar press
8: illustrator Brian Rea
9: unknown
10: Martha Stewart
11: the wife of this cutie on Garance sewed this heart into his cuff– love it!

PS- Anna, it was about the cutest thing yesterday when you didn’t have time to chat because you were toiling away on your valentines.  I still remember the ones I’d always get from you in school, and actually recently found a few in a shoebox at home…

Sentimentalism

Hair Like a Present

Tavi and Jane Aldridge are pretty awesome, but they ain’t got nothin on Augusta. Like one-name-only Tavi, I’m pretty sure Augusta will make a name for herself as just AUGUSTA. She’s my sister’s four year old daughter, and I can’t get enough of her.

This morning, she did her hair “like a present” — wrapped up in bows.

And she layered different striped components and tucked the shirt into the stretchy body-con-esque skirt. Like the outfits, the hair, and the makeup, the poses are all her. She needs no instruction.

Last Thursday, for school, she borrowed a shirt from her mom’s friend, Monica, to wear as a dress, which she belted, natch. Over a crochet tank (seen peeking out above and below the shirt/dress). Plus short-sleeve sweater and jacket. She’s all about the layering. This outfit necessitated a happenin side part and a little eye makeup.

Feelin a little boho/bag lady/country for school on Tuesday, with an attitude to match. No accessory was left unconsidered in completing the effect.

Lady Gaga, are you paying attention? This is how you do the no-pants thing. Just pretend you are wearing normal pants, and wear a classy button-up with the collar popped, then tuck it into some crazy layers on the bottom. Girlfriend knows how to work some boots.

Here, we see the little sweater (over a hoodie) and pink cowgirl boots again, but today she’s feeling a little street, a little sassy, ultra girly, for a sort of overall Dukes of Hazzard (J. Simpson version) meets Bring it On feel.

Now if you’ll excuse her, she has somewhere to be.

Sentimentalism

i made this for you

I think it’s probably common knowledge by now that I love (love) letters, general world-brightening acts of creativity, and clever sentimentalism, so I find this couple, of the blog Something’s Hiding in Here, to be beyond cute. In fact, I can’t believe they exist in the real world and not an Indie movie starring Zooey Deschanel.

Here, a few of the things they made for each other in their “i made this for you” project.

Shauna had been working on a big project, so Stephen made this sign along her route to work out of paper cups to cheer her on.

Stephen carved Shauna’s initials into a tree in a park where they walk their dogs… love how old fashioned and simple it is. Swoon.

Shauna took out this ad in one of Stephen’s favorite magazines, Uppercase.

And in my unending love of creative public defacement in the name of love/beauty, I of course really like this one. Stephen went out and spray painted hearts on a billboard that faces their loft. He said she was quite surprised when she woke up the next morning and saw it out their window.

found via the wonderful pixelsandarrows

Sentimentalism

A Love Letter For You

LOVE this mural project, called “A Love Letter For You,” in Philadelphia spearheaded by Philadelphia-born artist Stephen Powers. Powers, who grew up in Philadelphia and used to use the neighborhood walls for graffiti, is now an artist with his work shown in places like the Venice Biennale (one of my favorite events ever) and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

Many of the messages and designs reference the original signs that might have been painted in those locations, like this one next to a barber shop.

Made to be viewed from the El train, the blog about the project captions each photo with a description of what train each mural can best be viewed from.

Who can resist a love letter?

Sentimentalism

Missed Connections (again)

We shared a bear suit at an apartment party on Saturday night.
I asked for your number and you gave it to me, but somehow I don’t have an area code written down. I had a great time talking with you, and I don’t trust Chance enough to wait until I see you in the elevators…

Sentimentalism

I heart French Bulldogs

Especially this one!!

From this cute blog.

Sentimentalism

Missed Connections

“You had a guitar. I had a blue hat. We exchanged glances and smiles on the subway platform. I pretended to read my New Yorker, but I couldn’t concentrate. You got on the Q and I stayed to wait for the B. You were lovely.”

I love reading the missed connections on craigslist and other sites, thinking about how people really do sometimes believe in the fleeting eye contact they shared with a stranger, or believe that they understand something about someone simply through their clothes and body language. And I like that missed connections exist for the sole purpose of, well, connecting to another person. They are never malicious.

This blog, where illustrator Sophie Blackall creates illustrations to match missed connections she reads, is so charming.

It inspires many trains of thought for me…

As in the one at the top, I love the little bits of honesty like “but I couldn’t concentrate,” that result from someone putting something anonymously out into the world. Or as in the one below, the tenderness that would never be expressed face-to-face with a stranger. I like knowing that people think such tender things as they walk around in the world.

“Phoenix w/ crutches: I would like to carry you around piggy back until you can walk again.”

I like that Sophie creates art using material that is already out there in the world waiting to be given a visual form. I mean I suppose that process is actually intrinsic to art, but I like that it is emotions and thoughts coming from someone else originally, and she interprets them. It’s interesting that it’s not an introspective or self-centered art. As she says of the missed connections, “Their messages have the lifespan of a butterfly, I’m trying to pin a few of them down.”

It’s also entertaining how people describe themselves. Sometimes the missed connections start off sweet and then the person says something like, “and I was that toned, attractive brunette guy,” and you’re like, “who would read that arrogant statement and want to reestablish the connection?”

…and also thinking about how the way the one person experienced the interaction could be so totally different from the way the other person perceived it. The writer may have thought it was love, and the sought-after may have just been looking off into space and accidentally made eye contact! Who was it that said that no two people will ever experience anything the same way?

“Remember? Uptown A train. Sunday around 9pm. I was the black dude reading Bukowski’s Post Office. You were reading the Arts and Leisure section. You passed wind rather loudly and started chuckling. I’d like to see you again. The flatulance wasn’t a turn-off.”

Or, as in the case of the one above, maybe one way you know you’re meant to be with someone is that you DO experience things similarly. Maybe this guy was the only other person on the train that thought it was funny that this girl passed gas and then chuckled at it, and he knew they were soul mates!