country mouse

Today, I was dressed, and felt a little bit like the country mouse in the city, a bit overwhelmed with annoying transportation, overcrowding, pricey fare and the muggy city air. And then I came home, to my little nook in the city, visited the little window box on the balcony, where our vine has started to flower, thought of my home home in the woods and felt a little bit better.



Now you must know that a town mouse once upon a time went on a visit to his cousin in the country. He was rough and ready, this cousin, but he loved his town friend and made him heartily welcome. Beans and bacon, cheese and bread, were all he had to offer, but he offered them freely. The town mouse rather turned up his long nose at this country fare, and said, "I cannot understand, cousin, how you can put up with such poor food as this, but of course you cannot expect anything better in the country; come you with me and I will show you how to live. When you have been in town a week you will wonder how you could ever have stood a country life." No sooner said than done: The two mice set off for the town and arrived at the town mouse's residence late at night.

"You will want some refreshment after our long journey," said the polite town mouse, and took his friend into the grand dining room. There they found the remains of a fine feast, and soon the two mice were eating up jellies and cakes and all that was nice. Suddenly they heard growling and barking.

"What is that?" said the country mouse.

"It is only the dogs of the house," answered the other.

"Only," said the country mouse, "I do not like that music at my dinner!" Just at that moment the door flew open; in came two huge mastiffs; and the two mice had to scamper down and run off.

"Good-bye, cousin," said the country mouse.

"What! Going so soon?" said the other.

"Yes," he replied. "Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear."

Stick Boy + Match Girl

Today, I thought I would share a snippet of one of my favorite books to glance at. I picked up The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy last year mostly because it is by Tim Burton, one of my favorite directors from childhood (Batman, Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands were on constant rotation in our VCR). He started out his career as an animator for Disney but apparently his vision proved to be a bit too macabre for the Disney crew...anyway, then he started making movies, became known for his twisted dark style and came out with this little tome in 1997. It is filled with the poems and illustrations about misunderstood outcast children accompanied with that perfect Burton mix of dark humor and sweetness. Here's one of my favorites, the very short love story about Stick Boy and Match Girl:

A Book & Its Shelf

I just spent all day yesterday laying on my couch and reading this from start to finish:
And the best part was, for the first time, I actually correctly guessed who the murderer was! Normally I'm kind of stupid about those types of things, and Agatha Christie, the sly little minx, always gets the better of me. Not today though!

Other than clothes, the thing I have to generally control my spending on is books, both new and secondhand, but especially secondhand. Any time I go into a used bookstore (one of my favorite past times, especially in London where they are so perfectly disorganized) I leave with at least 3 novels, normally one of them being a Christie... what can I say I've been reading her since I was 11!

When on the oh-so popular, the selby, I love to look at peoples' bookshelves, to see what the books they have, how they arrange them, etc. Maybe, it's cause I like to think a person's bookshelf/bookself (ha!) can provide pseudo-psychological insight into their personality, just like their clothes.

So, here are a few of my favorite bookshelves, and some of my own thrown into the mix at the end...

My two favorites:
Lesley Arfin: books in the kitchen = perfection! If I didn't have a gas stove and no fan, this would be my ideal arrangement.
Ingrid Schram- a bookwindow!And some others....





And some of my own various nooks of books:

Sunday Morning Words

A favorite of mine, that coincidentally happened to appear (handwritten by ingrid schram) on the selby:

[Click to enlarge.]

better known among me more intimate friends as...

...the Artful Dodger. He's a sly fellow, one of the more famous of famous Dickens' characters and a sartorial delight.

I recently got a 1907 edition of Oliver Twist, and though I haven't cracked it open yet, I'm kind of excited to immerse myself in Dickensian London, with all that soot, crime and flowery language (with wonderful words like thither and rapscallion!) Without even reading it, I already have a (pop-culture & BBC informed) image of the Artful Dodger in mind and my, is he inspiring: velvet, waistcoats, ascots and a top hat--somewhat sumptuous in his Victorian poverty. I'm on the look out for any of those materials to create my own Dodger circa 2008 outfit (which Lou Doillon has mastered in her jean range for Lee Cooper).

(Vests: pret a portabello, jacket: ebay, shirt: etsy, shoes: asos)

At the mo', what with the credit crunchin' and all, I've resigned myself to the pieces I already have... dug into my closet for an old vest, a blouse with some pleating and my trusty bowler (though I did just buy the shoes in the collage -- sale!). While the bowler's more banker than pickpocket, and not quite 1838, it'll do. For now.