'Traspasar os sete mares, espellismo tatuado, labirinto de consciencia e nacen cantes.'

Just about a year ago, I was madly working on two giant freelance projects about Barcelona and Dubai. And even though they took up every waking minute of my spare time for about five weeks last September and October, I look back on the time fondly because I discovered all sorts of fantastic things about both Barcelona and Dubai in the process. The lyrics in the title of this post are from a song called "Todo Tiende" by Ojos de Brujo, a Barcelona-based hip hop-flamenco band (with quite a few other influences as well). The group and song are just one of the gems I discovered on those projects. Among some others are a Filipino pop group popular among the expat set in Dubai and Pink Sushi, a fabulously awesome Emirati designer, whose quirky handbags are unfortunately only available in the Gulf.




But all this is just an aside to the main purpose of this post: to showcase my new -- OK, new-ish -- Barcelona skirt. I made this on a whim back in the summer. I'd gotten some cute Free Spirit fabric at Ipso Crafto and already had the pattern from my apron overlay. So I cranked out the layered skirt. I love the frayed look on the unfinished edges, though it could use a few more washings for an extra distressed look.

Suspense

I'm nothing if not good at keeping you in suspense. At long last, here are the some pictures glamour shots of the lacy dress in action. And yes, I realize it's way too late after Labor Day to be wearing white, but I'll hope you'll forgive when you think how long this thing took to make... (Special shout out to Richele for being my Tyra.)




(And no, I don't know why my eyes look even squintier than normal in these pics. They don't look like this on flickr.)

This is what I like to see

'Some days go on forever, sometimes the weatherman says rain'

1. Isabel, 2. Ivan, 3. Cindy, 4. Katrina, 5. Rita, 6. Ernesto, 7. Humberto, 8. Fay, 9. Gustav

Tomorrow is a special day. It's my blog's first birthday. It's also the day that Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to douse the eastern seaboard. One of the biggest pitfalls of living in subtropical paradise was the likelihood for violent storms to roll through the region, wreaking havoc, flooding my apartments, leaving death and destruction in their wakes. When I left New Orleans in the spring, I was quite happy at the thought of getting out of Dodge before another hurricane season. And with Gustav's pummeling the region earlier this week, I can see that I left not a moment too soon.

But now, come hurricane season, I've been lulled into a false sense of security on the east coast -- thinking I'm safe and secure in my high-ish ground, miles inland position. Yeah, not so much. I should have known it was too good to be true. Hurricanes have been following me all over southeastern coastlines -- and inland mountain valleys (thanks, Isabel '03) -- for the past five years.

So now it's time to batten down the hatches and hunker down. Here's hoping this apartment doesn't flood!

Icing on the cake

Here are some better FO pics of the Wallis cardigan I made for my mom's birthday. She came up to visit me this past weekend, so we staged a little fashion shoot.

Blackberries for Katie

Who knew there was a farmers market in the basement of the Cannon House office building? Certainly not me. But I'm glad I know now. These blackberries were delicious!

Vive la Révolution!

I love celebrating holidays, whether they have any significance to me or not. So that's why this past Monday I hosted my second annual Bastille Day fête. Last year's fête came about as a result of having to work on the Fourth of July on a freelance project about Paris. The Fourth of July is generally my favorite holiday of them all, so naturally I was very sad, and decided to remedy the situation by celebrating a similar holiday just a few days later: Bastille Day. BD07 was such a huge success -- with me, my stomach, and my Francophile nature -- that I decided to make it a tradition, this time with friends included.

Five friends joined me for soupe à l'oignon gratinée, ratatouille, quiche, baguettes, and that most French of desserts: petits gâteaux. And of course lots of vin. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen last weekend, but the result was well worth it!

This:



turned into these:



And these:



became this:



We also had this:



this:



and of course these:



Bon appetit!