Happy Halloween, everyone! Here’s a video I shot earlier this year of a spider spinning a massive web in our backyard… look at that star on her belly!
Archive for October, 2009
Halloween spider!
Posted October 30, 2009 by Leah Hoffmannin Cabinet of Curiosities, Videos | 1 comment »
I want the flowers back, too!
Posted October 28, 2009 by Leah Hoffmannin Editorial | 1 comment »
Stephanie’s post at Rhodia Drive yesterday totally struck a nerve — I want it to be spring again, too! Fall is usually my favorite season, at least in the ideal East Coast version when it’s 60-70 degrees during the day and crisp and still at night. Fall is harvest, fall is weekend hikes and bracing swims in chilly, sun-lit ponds. But this year’s harvest was terrible because of all the rain, and the past few weekends have either been too cold or too wet to head out to the mountains.
In the meantime, I look at the unripe tomatoes on my kitchen counter (half of my plants didn’t even set fruit until September, which made them easy targets for last week’s near-freezing temperatures) and think wistfully about next spring, when the garden cycle starts again. Hopefully with better weather, fewer pests, and other improvements based on the mistakes I made this year… better stakes for the cucumbers, more space for the zucchini, and maybe next year my irises will actually bloom, though God knows what they’ve been missing during the past 2 summers! Really gets you thinking long-term, gardening.
In the meantime, anyone know a good recipe for fried green tomatoes?
Changing My 2010 Planner
Posted October 27, 2009 by Karen Dohertyin Pens, Paper & People | 10 comments »
I’m changing my planner for 2010. For the past several years I have used Space 24 and loved it. I had a full page to write down everything I needed to do that week for work and home: people to call, dry cleaning reminders, scribbled notes for books to buy, my noon class on Wednesdays, projects to work on, mailings, and all the other memoranda of my life. As usual, I would get done about half of what I planned to do, so I’d erase various notes and distribute them over the next week or two. The paper is strong enough to hold up to lots of erasing.
This year, Quo Vadis introduced Equology – a planner line made with recycled paper. As a former staff member and volunteer with the Sierra Club, and a committed environmentalist, I had a real dilemma on my hands: stay with Space 24 or go over to Equology.
I hasten to add the Clairefontaine paper used for Space 24 is made with strict environmental standards. The mill manufactures much of its own energy, all the pulp and wood by-products come from FSC and PEFC certified forests — none from old growth forests — and the water is cleaner when it leaves the mill then when it arrives. So clean, in fact, people can fish, swim and boat downstream within sight of the plant. With a background in Sierra Club fights in Alaska over logging practices and pulp mill pollution, that is pretty impressive.
But, recycled paper is recycled paper. I made the decision to give Equology a try for a year.
Then, I couldn’t find a format that would exactly meet my need for a notes page. Continue reading »
Where to Go: Lord of the Rings at Radio City Music Hall
Posted October 26, 2009 by Leah Hoffmannin Where to Go? | Add your comment »
Guest blogger Kate Marshall of K’s Notebook is back this morning with a great idea about “Where to Go” — New York City! (Of course, we think it’s great.) Read on to learn more about her recent trip to Radio City Music Hall.
Where to go?
New York City! Recently, I spent a weekend in the Big Apple, my first trip there since 2006. The soundtrack to Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was being performed at Radio City Music Hall by the 21st Century Orchestra, Collegiate Chorale, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus, conducted by Ludwig Wicki.
The kicker? While the soundtrack was performed live, the movie was shown on a large screen over the famous Radio City stage! It was pretty awesome. I’ve seen Fellowship several times over the past few years but seeing it like this made me appreciate it in a whole new way (it was the “shorter” theatrical cut which is still about three hours long). Live music is such a wonderful experience, but to hear this beautiful soundtrack performed live made it even better. I heard nuances in the music that I’ve never noticed before and it made me appreciate the film itself even more. This same type of show is expected to take place again in October 2010 at Radio City, with Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I’m already looking into hotels in the area for that weekend.
In the meantime, you can buy tickets to Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular, featuring the Rockettes. The show runs November 13 to December 30, 2009 with tickets starting at $45.00 USD. An added bonus is seeing New York during the holiday season (yes, it’s a bonus. You’re welcome).
The other best thing about catching a Lord of the Rings performance at Radio City Music Hall? You may just see Gandalf, or a very convincing doppleganger in the audience. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Joan Didion, Elena McMahon, and Clairefontaine
Posted October 21, 2009 by Leah Hoffmannin Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »
I was reading Joan Didion’s 1996 novel, The Last Thing He Wanted, the other day (not as good as Play It As It Lays or A Book of Common Prayer, but still gripping), when I came across the following passage:
Dream, the notebook entry is headed, all in caps. The notebook, a spiral-bound Clairefontaine with a red cover and pale-gray three-eight-inch graph paper inside, was one kept by Elena Janklow during the months in 1981 and 1982 immediately before she left the house on the Pacific Coast Highway and once again became (at least for a while, provisionally) Elena McMahon.
“I seem to have had an operation,” Elena Janklow’s account of the dream begins. Her handwriting, all but the last entries made in the same black fine-point pen.
Oh, and speaking of dreams, thanks to Diane Fennel for letting us know that Carl Jung’s Red Book recently arrived in New York City! You can see it at the Rubin Museum on 17th Street until January 25.
My new customized Rhodia pads!
Posted October 20, 2009 by Leah Hoffmannin Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | 5 comments »
I’ve always felt very fortunate to be a part of this blog (the community! the creativity! the paper!), but this is almost too cool for words — Gentian graciously offered to customize my Rhodia pad after I saw some of the cover art she posted last month on Flickr.
Needless to say, she went above and beyond with two different cover designs and three adorable animal characters. She’s already put them up on her blog and on Flickr, but I’d like to feature them here and give her a big thank you!
Click through to see the second notebook, and visit her blog for closeups.
Habana review giveaway!
Posted October 19, 2009 by Leah Hoffmannin Announcements | 11 comments »
Karen has about 15 large 90g Habana notebooks that are available to the first 15 people who email us. The covers are all black, but if you really can’t stand that idea, let her know and she’ll try to find a sample in a different color (taupe, blue, and red are the alternatives).
On your marks, get set, and good luck!
Hockey Time
Posted October 19, 2009 by Karen Dohertyin Where to Go? | 4 comments »
Sarah Palin and I have several things in common: we both have roots in Alaska; we were both photographed by the Mendenhall Glacier, and we were both hockey moms.
My life as a hockey mom got started when my son, Robert, was about six. He started playing in roller hockey in Brooklyn, skating at a rink at 53rd Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway. Joey Mullen, one of the best American born ice hockey players ever, got his start at that same outdoors rink. It was cold, gloomy and had no place to sit. You had to stand to watch. The only refuge from the cold was a pizza place across the street.
A year later, Robert was playing at Sky Rink in Manhattan. The “old” Sky Rink on was on the 16th Floor of 450 West 33rd Street, not far from the equally famous Cheyenne Diner. Hockey players, cabbies, clubbers, mobsters, hookers, parents, European tourists hit the Cheyenne for coffee and breakfast at 4 and 5 am. I miss the old Sky Rink: it was grungy, unfashionably painted a hideous blue, and stunk of hockey just like a skating rink should.
Coming to a retailer near you?
Posted October 15, 2009 by Leah Hoffmannin Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »
A Textagenda fan recently asked us if any local stores carry our products in Virginia Beach, VA. (As it happens, Swisher Pens does.)
We love to support local businesses, and there’s a section on the Quo Vadis website where you can find a state-by-state list of stores that sell our products. We’re always eager to expand that list, however, so if there are any art, gift, book, or stationery stores near you that you think would be perfect for Quo Vadis (or Clairefontaine, J. Herbin, or Rhodia), please let us know!
Your suggestions, like your artwork, are always welcome here.
Color and shape: Anna Watson’s doodles
Posted October 14, 2009 by Leah Hoffmannin Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »
And now for some contemporary marginalia: Photographer Anna Watson recently emailed us these doodles she made with her red and blue J. Herbin inks (Rouge bourgogne, Bleu pervenche). They’re bright and colorful and fun. I especially like this herringbone-like pattern, which has a wonderful simplicity:
Thanks, Anna!
More doodles after the jump.
