cozy time

Well, I hope everyone had a great Halloween, because now it's cozy-down time. The clocks have been turned back, it gets dark before dinner and the nights are damn cold...but don't despair! This time of year is PERFECT for movie parties, potlucks, memoir writing, marathon scrabble games, baking, sewing projects, cocktail parties, saunas, embroidery, poker night, intensive studies, love affairs, catching up, letter writing, coffee dates, comic reading, life drawing, soaking pools and tarot. It's important, when undertaking all these indoor activities, that you keep things warm and well lit. You can find super cute antique rewired desk and floor lamps at Flutter, then go get your full-spectrum bulbs from the Light Bulb Lady at Sunlan right down the street. They really help combat Seasonal Affective Disorder, as do all the above mentioned activities. Also, finding yourself a comfy non-bed place to curl up is vital. If you haven't been in lately then you haven't seen the blood red leather couch from New Orleans, the plushy pink Victorian bench, or the scalloped maroon mohair armchair that are all just begging you to cuddle up.

Now @ FLUTTER...

PAPER TREASURE

by: Jess McCloskey

Jesseca McCloskey's line of

Paper Treasure jewelry was born in 2006, shortly after

her move to Portland from her home state of Rhode Island. Jesseca has always been a maker of things but it wasn't until she was given a big, inspiring treasure chest filled with broken bits of vintage costume jewelry that she realized her passion was in jewelry.

Paper Treasure jewelry is carefully created using re-claimed bits of the past: vintage and antique beads, charms and pretty little pieces. Paper Treasure has become a favorite source for those looking for charming, one of a kind locket necklaces. Each necklace has been named

after a different, actual shipwreck and comes tagged with information about its namesake as well

as a signature ship charm at the clasp.

budding philatelist??

The last thing I need is a hobby. I can barely post photos to my flickr account, I can hardly finish a lexulous game on facebook, I often forget to call my mother.. and yet, the allure of the tangible physical hobby was never real for me until i wandered into a stamp show at the Oregon Stamp Society's clubhouse on NE 33rd. I've got an envelope of stamps at home from when I was a kid, I used to soak them off of my correspondences with my aunt, and I admit to digging deep into the stamp-filled trunk at Flutter but I never thought I'd look farther than right under my nose. The best thing about stamp collecting is this line that exists dividing people concerned with cancellation, perforation and rarity, and those who like pretty stamps. I fall squarely in the latter category, and the guys at the stamp club were very pleased to sell me all their less valuable but very lovely stamps. They made it very clear to me that the stamps I liked weren't always the most valuable, and I made it clear that I didn't care at all. Lola and I walked away with our own collecting binders full of manila stock pages and 50 lovely stamps for $6. The guys all promised to come visit Flutter's stamp box to hunt for square centimeters of treasure. I had a lot of fun that evening putting my other stamps in the book, giving Lola the doubles, inventing categories (nurses, buildings, Iran, ships, birds, etc) basically dorking out on philately, aka stamp collecting, my new hobby. Check out the photos below, we have (or had) all the crazy Hungarian ones. The blue one of the lady's head is one of the most expensive stamps ever sold (not at Flutter, ours are 15 for $1).

Amy Earles

Self described: "Heavy handed, easy to anger, not very friendly, a monstrosity basically" ...then you see Amy Earles delightfully creepy and undeniably adorable paper dolls...

Now at Flutter!

Amy Earles

See her post on the history of her paper dolls here:

http://pushedunder.com/woolandwater/?p=111

AUTUMN JAMS

Autumn is my favorite time of year. It's chilly but mostly dry, so you can wear suede boots and silky wooly things that might otherwise be destroyed in the rain. The smell of crunchy maple leaves and old musty roses and grapes really does it for me, and the anarchic disarray of overgrown front yards and gardens sprawl like an endless altar to fertility. Plus, there are all those end-of summer barbeques and bonfires and street parties. You might run into a unicorn, like I did! This time of year it's also pretty safe to listen to otherwise paralysingly depressing music like the Smiths, or 'Blood on the Tracks'. You could watch Harold and Maude, actually watching movies in general is more of a wintertime activity for me but there is something distinctly autumnal about that one. I'm including a ton of pictures of the shop to try and convey the way the end of September looks in here.