Svenska Summer.

I feel that summer has officially started now that the Swedish Midsommer Fest here in Rockford has come and past--a day full of Swedish pancakes, ware, strawberries and ice cream, meatballs, flower crowns, and the sifting through of antiques at MorMor's Attic where I found a Dala horse candle holder, water color gift tags, a typewriter, AND an Andrew Wyeth painting for a grand total of $30.



$5...and it still works!





"Christina's World" 1948





The best part of the day was wandering around the John Erlander Home Museum with my dad for the first time since I'd started going to the Fest a few years back. Circa 1850, it's one of the oldest and best refurbished Swedish homes in the area with all original craftsmanship, painting, and Swedish decor to boast.

[Think color-block wood floors, hand-crocheted afghans, hand-carved mahogany desks and chests, hand-painted stencil and gild work around the top borders of walls, an antique coffee grinder in a miniature kitchen with a wood burning stove...sigh.]



"To travel is good, but home is best."





This grinder was my favorite. They used to mix an egg in with their fresh grounds for extra flavor before they cooked it on a stove. Strange, but I cannot wait to try it. My dad said egg coffee is excellent.



Ironically, I just painted my bedroom walls a light shade of sea foam green and found that the exact same color appeared everywhere in the museum home: that chest in the kitchen, the walls, the knick-knackery. My dad said that at least I come by my Swede roots honestly.

Having been so inspired by the home's dainty attention to detail and since I haven't blogged in a long while, I'm dedicating my first to some flowy, flowery, Svenska-inspired fashion and music.

Var så god.

[You're welcome.]



"Come Rain, Come Sunshine"
by Swedish band Pallers

Topshop's Swedish Summer Collection

Divas.

I might be a tad bit behind on popular music's latest ladies of the stage, but no matter. These two songs make me feel gooood.

Florence and the Machine "DOG DAYS ARE OVER"

Ida Maria "OH MY GOD"

Goorin Bros.

I scoured the streets of downtown Playa del Carmen for the perfect Panama hat but never found exactly what I was looking for - a malleable, burnt barn straw-hewed topper fit for a bright summer's day.

[I suppose Mexico was the wrong place to be looking for a Panama hat in the first place.]

Lo and behold, a customer came into the store just the other day wearing a Goorin Bros. crown label millinery gem, and I was so jealous that I almost jumped over the counter to find out where she got it.

Apparently there's a boutique right by where I used to live in Wicker Park. Looks like I'm going to have to make another trip into the city. I just love finding these things out after I've moved home.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Very...Britney, Brad, Johnny, etc.


Very Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Proud to announce...

that I have officially finished reading the 550 page Louise Brooks biography I started just under a year ago.

What a tormented soul she was.



One of my favorite quotes is an epitaph chosen for her by the book's author Barry Paris, taken from one of her favorite authors - Marcel Proust.

"Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces. Never will the world know all it owes to them nor all they have suffered to enrich us. We enjoy lovely music, beautiful paintings, a thousand intellectual delicacies, but we have no idea of their cost, to those who invented them, in sleepless nights, tears, spasmodic laughter, rashes, asthma, epilepsies, and the fear of death, which is worse than all the rest."

Indeed, Louise was one of these neurotics. She lived a boastful, fast, liberated existence, damning all that took advantage of her and only finding solace in the books on her shelf. She was undoubtedly lonely and overly self critical, thinking that she was a failure at most everything she attempted in life. But she contributed a great deal to the art of expression in her dancing, acting, and writing, candidly giving away her opinions and her soul to people who never expected nor deserved such passion or intellect from a uniquely beautiful young girl in mid-twentieth century social/hierarchical/financial (and the list continues) chaos. These qualities simply were not conveyed in women in film before her. More profound than her accomplishments in screen personality and conviction, however, was Louise's cultural challenge to strive for veracity in understanding one's past and meaning. She labeled eras of her life for what they were - good, bad, sweetly and sourly unforgettable, drunken, failed; periods of spiritual growth and periods of darkness. Regardless of the implications, Louise was (I believe) honest to a fault with her loved ones and herself, constantly searching for God and redemption. I only hope that I am neurotic enough to contribute as much of a masterpiece to the arts and to Truth as she bravely did, despite the cost and the sleepless nights.

Certainly she wasn't perfect...but at least she never pretended that she was.

Hesher

Definitely reminds me of an avant garde yet-even-more-twisted-and-dysfunctional Matilda. Being that the Dahl classic is one of my all time favorite childhood reads and being that Nat Portman produced, I'm sure I'll give this kooky flick a go.

Mink Pink

These Aussies knoww-ho-ho what they are doing when it comes to fashion, man. And come to think of it, in a recent post I'm pretty sure I said the same thing of the blokes down under when it comes to their fine acting capabilities.

Australians are just cool. End of sentence.

MinkPink.com

MINKPINK SUMMER 2011.

MINKPINK Swim 2010.

Summer reading.

New manicure, new leaf ring (creé par moi), newfound copy of Gravity's Rainbow in my old bedroom...



today was a good day.

Oh, and decided to slide in great Grandpa Walt's old sunshine state treasure box just to make the photo look cool.

;]

Lanvin's Private Library

The Selby has inspired me to appreciate decoration in living spaces a tad bit more.

In browsing through the photography collection of Todd Selby, connoisseur in documenting the diverse places people call home, I came across a special opportunity he had to photograph French fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin's private library. Her early photographs, sketches, and collection of Victorian mode literature are unrivaled in their attention to detail - winsome, aristocratic, intelligent, confident, and theatrical...like her.

listening to:

Bad Books

An epochal collaboration of Kevin Devine, Andy Hull, & Co.

"You're A Mirror I Cannot Avoid"

Catchy to the max.

God, give me motivation.

"I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, 'You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your mommy, I'm a white piece of paper. You wanna dance with me?' and I really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like."

-Aaron Sorkin