shopping!

Usually i don't do too much shopping when Ethan and I travel cause he's really not much of a shopper, but this afternoon he was at work, so i visited some lovely stores in the city. The first is Marie Papier, an amazing paper and stationary store. In the wedding of my dreams, my invites would come from here!





Next, on to Dalloyau, for some pastries and fruit confits!





finally, a stop at free'p'star, a vintage store recommended by Alix on her blog. it was a crazy, crowded little store just packed to the brim with vintage! in the end, i didn't get anything, i think i was too overwhelmed, but it was very fun to look through all the racks.




oh and last night i was ambitious and put in some rag curls, this is the result! not so bad, maybe my best curling effort yet...

musee moyen age

today, we made it to one and a half museums: first the museum of the middle ages and later attempted to go to the musee quai branly. here i am on my way to the museum of the middle ages.
at the museum of the middle ages, there were the most fantastic tapestries that had just the cutest little rabbit and foxes on them. all of my pictures came out fuzzy, but i found some good ones here and here.



this gorgeous dress is from this always fabulous lady, who really has the most amazing taste in clothes ever!



la dame et licorne (the lady and the unicorn)



the cutest little sad bunny!




later on, we tried to go to the musee quai branly, which has art from africa and asia, but i got the day wrong, and they weren't open. however, it has the greatest gardens, so i got some good pictures of ethan in the bamboo forest and in front of the wall of plants!

musee d'orsay

Ethan was at his conference all day today, but we met up for a quick lunch at the musee d'orsay. there is the best little cafe there, with an entire wall taken up by a giant clock, and they serve the most wonderful tea.

by the seine

after such an exciting day the day before, we took things a big more slowly yesterday. but, because the weather was so wonderful, i knew that i wanted to eat dinner outside by the seine. so after getting a cafe creme at le soufflet, we bought some wine and groceries and headed to the banks of the river! there were so many people eating along the banks, even on a tuesday night! just as we were finishing our food, a huge group of students, who looked like maybe they were in their first week of college sat down right next to us, so we decided it was time to move on down the river and see what else was going on. i'm so glad we did, because we came across a whole group of people doing the lindy hop by the river. it was great to watch them, and it made us think that maybe we should take some dance lessons before our wedding :)

In Paris!

so i feel like i've been running all over the world, to woods hole, northeast pa, baltimore philly and back again. now i am in paris, and somehow things seem both slower and faster at the same time. i've had more time to slow down and enjoy little things, like drinking un cafe in the Jardin Luxembourg, but at the same time things seem to be speeding to a blur because on our first day here, Ethan and I got engaged! Of course, i'm so excited, and the ring is amazing, a beautiful platinum Edwardian era ring. now i'm just looking forward to finding a perfect (hopefully vintage!) dress!




in the meantime, i'm going to enforce some structure on my life, and i'm going to post one picture each night for what i've worn that day! i'm doing two today, one for yesterday and one for today... here they are!

Three sisters dresses

its so amazing, these dresses are so similar... same material, same belts, same look, but three different sizes. i like to imagine that they were made for three sisters to wear!



i think i may have to keep this one.. it fits so perfectly and i feel like such a fashionable lady when i'm wearing. (actually, i kind of have to act like a lady too, cause the skirt is sort of longer than i'm used to, so my steps have to be a little smaller!)






here are the fantastic 40's dresses that i got recently... they are very similar and seem to have been made at the same time, but each also has its own unique details. they are three slightly different sizes, and the blue one fits me perfectly! oh, and despite what it looks like in this picture, i'm not really missing my arm! ;) i'm just standing all funny trying to balance on a pot to get this picture. can't wait till i have a good photo spot... when i move to baltimore, that'll be the first thing i set up! these dresses will be going in the shop late tonight, so keep a look out!

catchin' up

so this has just about been the craziest month ever for just so many reasons...
- Ethan finished his PhD
- we went house hunting and then bought a house in baltimore
- our parents met eachother for the first time (even though we've been dating for 4 years!) (it went well :) )
- i turned in a very important part of my thesis to my committee
- Sirus got very sick, had surgery, and now is on his way to getting better
- Ethan moved to baltimore

anyways, this was basically all in about the span of a month, so its been crazy to say the least! but i have still managed to get a few things together for the store. i'm really excited about these 3 40's day dresses that i found. they are all a very similar style, but in different sizes, so i like to think they belonged to three sisters:) One fits me perfectly, so i'm keepin' it! but the other two are going up in the shop sometime early this week, so look for pictures very soon :)

also, in other exciting news, i went to my first estate sale today! it was one down in baltimore, and it was at a house from 1905, and many of the household things were from then as well. there were piles and piles of vintage records and books, and some cool kitchen appliances. but of course, what i was most interested in were the clothes. i scored a few really neat things from the 20s and 30s, and as i was going to pay, the lady running the sale asked me if had a shop. then she said she has a bunch of other clothes and she wants me to go back tomorrow! so exciting, and i promise, pictures are to come:) :)

this picture is from our night out with Ethan and my families! it was the first time i got to wear my new skirt from Francesca that i love love love! i'm sorry you can't see the whole skirt, i didn't realize at the time that my sister didn't get all of me in the picture. but its just a good excuse to wear it again soon!

shop update this week!

i've got some great things that i'll be adding to the shop this week! a few lovely 40's and 50's dresses that have been very hard to part with!

Stars of the cortex

so, here it is, my first science post. science is what i do during the day, and while its such a different world from fashion and art, it does have its own certain beauty. for my research, i study the brain, and one of the very first scientists to study the brain also made some of the most exquisite drawings anatomical drawings. Ramon y Cajal lived and worked during the early 1900's and his detailed drawings of brain were some of the first proof that the brain was made of specific cells, rather an some amorphous substance.



this is a detailed drawing of a single brain cell, called a neuron.



neurons are arranged in very specific patterns throughout the brain. these neurons are arranged in layers in the cortex.



cells are arranged differently in another brain area, the cerebellum.



these are some examples of a different cell type, the glia. these are called astrocytes, the astro part refers to the fact that they look like stars.



The little guy marked "D" is a one of the inspirations for the name of this blog. he's a spiny stellate cell, stellate meaning 'like a star'. i've always thought it was the cutest little cell, and that stellate was one of the loveliest words.

snail and the cyclops and forest bound on etsy!

I'm pretty sure mostly everyone has seen this already, but if you haven't, definitely check it out! Francesca and Alice both run the most wonderful shops and it was amazing to see inside of their home! Also, the dress that Francesca is wearing is the first dress i ever sold in my Etsy shop, so it was very cool to see it here!

I love seeing the things that i've sold in picture's on other people's blogs and flickr pages! whenever i see one, i get really excited and i always leave some sort of comment. of course, sometimes, i just randomly stumble across them, so i end up leaving comments on random people's flickr and it does make me feel a little bit stalker-ish! but i can't help it, its just the coolest thing to see the stuff you sold being worn well and looking great on other folks. maybe those of you with your own stores can understand.... do you end up feeling super excited/happy when you see stuff from your store being worn?