New bird on the block No. 23 and a visit to the farmers market

{Wonderful hand-made soap from Susan Parks at Rich Valley Farm in Stafford Springs, CT. It has a fresh, spicy scent and rich, creamy feel thanks to all the goat milk from Scooter and Olive (pictured below) and their friends.}

On Sunday, Marie-Louise from Cottage Industries and I went to the Coventry Farmers Market, a festive and busy weekly organic extravaganza on the bucolic grounds of the historic Nathan Hale Homestead (as in "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country"). We tried not to gorge ourselves on the best kettle corn in the world (it even says "Caution! Highly addictive substance!" on the package), bought veggies, fresh blue-ribbon pickles, big bunches of dahlias and homemade fudge. We also visited with Heather of Beauty That Moves and Paula of The Beading Tree; Marie-Louise will be blogging about them and their gorgeous handmade wares sometime this week. I did buy one of Heather's stylish dog collars for my neighbor's golden doodle Boddington, and admired all her pretty bags and pouches made from modern and vintage fabrics -- you can see some in her Etsy shop.

I love handmade soap and spent a good deal of time sniffing and savoring the delicious products at Susan Parks' booth. All her soaps are made with a goats milk or the hard-to-find egg yolk base, and use plenty of shea butter, soy and beeswax for silky rich lather.

{I'm a sucker for pretty packaging too, and all Susan's soaps are wrapped in white parchment with charming labels featuring unique and whimsical woodcuts.}

{Olive and Scooter were not at the farmers market but back at Rich Valley Farms enjoying the sunny day.}

{Top photo by me, all others from Susan's website}

Dreaming of candy pink earrings

It is evening. I am five or six years old. I am in the bathroom with my mother, she at the sink, me sitting cross-legged on top of the carpeted toilet seat cover. Our bathroom has the most fabulous '70s wallpaper: giant purple poppies (or anemones?), white daisies and bright green ferns.

I am watching her "put her face on". She is getting ready to go to a party with my dad, wearing a pink satin tunic that she sewed herself, two rows of silver sequins adorning the keyhole neck and the cuff of each 3/4 sleeve. Her frosted hair is pulled back from her forehead with a tortoise barrette, the ends are straight with a flip. She looks so glamorous and pretty, even without the makeup, and I am in awe as I watch her apply powder, blush, eyeshadow. Her eyeliner is in a red plastic pencil that requires a twist, and it doubles as an eyebrow pencil. Mascara, lipstick for her, less lipstick for me. A spritz of Joy perfume for her, much less for me, on my wrist.

I am holding her earrings, candy pink squares that dangle from long silver sticks. They almost touch my shoulders when I try them on and they have always fascinated me. They are one of the items I covet most in her jewelry box, even more than the iridescent green crystal earrings, which are like shiny fairy moss, or the chunky smoky quartz ring, which barely fits my thumb and I'm always tempted to lick, certain it would taste like the root beer barrel candies that I don't really like anyway.

The babysitter is here. She is very pretty and she gets me into my pajamas soon after they leave for the party. She lets me brush her hair, which is dark brown and really, really long. It's time for bed, and I fall asleep smelling the perfume on my wrist, dreaming of candy pink earrings that dust my shoulders like magic.

{all photos from Etsy, click on the earrings to get to their respective shop}

Good morning sunshine

{red gerbera, originally uploaded by robinsegg0523}

While my "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" tomato plant puts forth one lonely little fruit, my gerberas are doing nicely thank you. They smile at me every morning when I water everything in my little balcony garden.

A diva's work is never done

Sorry for the long absence folks, I've been busy with the installation of my self-portait series...

Opening my boutique...

and getting my photo taken for Russian Vogue.

Actually my life is nowhere near this glamorous and I've just been busy with work stuff and haven't had time to post anything interesting.

Addictive photo fun by PhotoFunia.

Shall we dance?

{RFC_5025, originally uploaded by robcuni.com.}

When I first saw this picture on the Flickr homepage (under "Everyone's Uploads") I thought it was a dance studio or a very fancy karate or exercise studio. Then I realized that the contraptions in front of the "paneled" wall were not pilates torture devices but garage door tracks. It's a garage. With chandeliers. And a tin ceiling. And checkered floor that would make Fifi Flowers swoon.

Don't you just love Flickr?