birds, mom

Birds in the shop now.

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I wanted to give you an update on my mom, because I've been consumed with doing things here and have not had time to explain what we know. It turns out that the bleeding on the brain caused a stroke, which led to loss of some function on her left side, as well as hearing in her left ear. The doctors told us this week that the odds of someone surviving this experience are one in ten. Not only did my mom survive, she has been in the physical and occupational inpatient rehabilitation center (i.e. out of ICU, where she was since June 4) for the past week and is just astounding the doctors with her progress. If you know my mom, you know she is very independent and stong-willed, so this is not an easy place to be. But it's a great place to be, and they do expect a full and (relatively--within months) quick recovery. Thank you all so much for your comments. It's helpful beyond words to know people out there are thinking of us, and your thoughts and prayers must have done something, because here we are. Lucky us.

Now the scary part is the bills. But whatever it is, my mom's still around and that's (I feel like a credit card commercial) priceless.

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For the last eight years, I've purposefully worn reds, pinks, browns. I used to wear a lot of green, and my mom likes blue, and I wanted to move away from that once I got to college. But lately (for about half a year), I've been in a blue mood, and I think in part this is because of how elegantly French women wear navy blue.

I've finally had time to sew and I'm working on my next summer collection. It's called Oceanside, and I'm hoping to have it online August first. My process has been different this time. Usually I start with fabrics and then find shapes for them. This time, I began with an outfit I wore (one of my new favorites!). and the idea for the title of the collection, and then made drawings of garments and collected images of things to help me form the aesthetic.

This outfit (left side) is faded green pants and a blue shirt with white polka dots (it's seersucker!). I wear it with my dad's mom's pearls. I love the by-the-sea-ishness of it. It's cool and roomy; grown-up but playful.

So I began to think about phares (lighthouses!) and things by the ocean, and bottleglass that's been swept over and over against rock, and the cool feel of supple linen. And then Martha took me to S.R. Harris (hurrah!) and I found the fabrics for the things I had drawn.

And now I'm working on them. I've made three shirts, all boatneck with short or 3/4 length sleeves. If I'm not too tired, maybe another one tonight. Or maybe Sen to Chihiru no Kamikakuchi (Spirited Away) with my dad. He hasn't seen it yet, and it, like Amelie, is one of the movies I come back to perennially for inspiration--for a real in-breath of ideas, color, magic.

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I'm long-winded tonight.

If you're interested, speaking of my long-windedness, you can read some new reviews of my book. They're here and here. There was a very nice one in the Washingotn Times (?!), but it's off the site now. Oh! And they're reading it at Ship of Fools, so if you have read it and want to, you can comment.

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I know I said I would disclose some Big News, and I don't mean to be coy--but I want to give it its own post. Like Molly, I like for posts to have thematic unity, and this would kind of ruin that.

Not that thematic unity is a strong suit of mine; that's actually something I've written down to include in this next post.

It's not a wedding, so put your fancy hats away.

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See you soon.