The lilac has dropped all its showy blooms and the pretty pale carpet has turned to brown. But look how pretty it was on the brick pathway (lots of team effort to put that together).

I’ve been reading Wendell Berry’s essays for the first time after reading this recent lecture. I particularly enjoyed this excerpt from the book I’m reading now, What Are People For?:

True solitude is found in the wild places, where one is without human obligation.

In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives. The more coherent one becomes within oneself as a creature, the more fully one enters into the communion of all creatures.

I’m going to be visiting family in Atlanta soon and it is hot there! Yes! Actually it’s kind of hot here, which is awesome. Other than on the plane, I have no need for a sweater or jacket while I’m in Georgia and that is particularly wonderful. Summer! I’m actually really prepared for it in a kind of outrageous way. Note the striped bag and colorful wallet. Summer. Summer. Summer. I think if I was a computer I would always have a little program running that just repeated summer over and over again. That’s not weird, is it? I love the other seasons too but right now… oh summer, you sound amazing.

With that in mind, I put together some outfits for my trip. All of this plus undies / toiletries / pjs all fit in a carry-on bag. AMAZING. I did not expect that. I’ve come a very long way from my diva days. Thanks $25 bag check for motivating me to pack better.

I just sent this email to my Rank & Title subscribers and have copied it below. I feel the decision is one I needed to make but I felt a sadness as I pressed send, making it known to the world.

I’ve decided to close my shop. I want to thank everyone who has supported my Rank & Title endeavor throughout the past year. I’m happy I had the opportunity to create my own clothing line and have it received so well.

After much thought, I came to the decision that it would be best for me to close up shop and pursue other interests. I can’t thank you enough for your support, especially those of you who purchased my designs. It was a thrill to make something from scratch and send it out into the world!

I got some new kicks for summer. Floral Keds, kind of a Liberty-esque print.

The first time I heard the word kicks in reference to shoes was in college. I lived a fairly quiet life until then and wasn’t particularly familiar with popular slang. Or was kicks ever popular? I don’t know. It was a humid day and my geography lab class was meeting outside beneath the pines. I was standing next to one of my lab partners, an athletic misanthrope. I knew him from lit class as well and this guy would cheat on exams despite the fact that our teacher was so easy she’d give us points for getting our names right. Points.For.Our.Names.In.College.

We were looking at the ground because we were in geography class or perhaps because we were simply in college and didn’t have anything in common. I can’t remember his name now, but after a little ground-staring, he turned to me that afternoon and said, “Hey, nice kicks!” To which I looked around in confusion, someone was getting nicely kicked! After a bit of awkward shoe pointing and some embarrassment on my part of not knowing this term, I accepted his compliment. Kicks are fun, they are shoes, they are also the product of stumbling around in a soccer field or waiting for your baby brother to stop crying.

These are my summer kicks for walking and stomping. And wearing with stripes.

This is my 500th post! To celebrate, I’m going to share photos of flowery things that can be found around my home. A friend recently pointed out my house is full of florals, something I never realized. When told Chris I didn’t realize the house was full of flowery things, he said incredulously, “Really? Caitlin, the house is FULL of flowers.” Thankfully he doesn’t mind the flowers or my apparent lack of attention to detail.

When I was taking these pictures, I realized that there were waaay more floral items in the house than I’d noticed. I really only included a few here. Now that the garden has some blooming flowers, I have vases full of flowers on pretty much every surface. That is my idea of heaven [well, the part that doesn't include books and cats and knitting]. Flowers everywhere!

Spring has arrived. It’s violently announcing its presence in Portland. We’ve got gusting wind whipping up little tornadoes of pink petals, random hail/rain showers, bright sun peering from behind stormy clouds. The neighborhood crows have been holding a caucus outside my window for days. Some serious debates are going down. Colors of all kinds are peeping out of vibrant greens, flowers I’d forgotten all about are growing all over my garden.

Frog and Toad are my favorite children’s books. I love Arnold Lobel’s illustrations and I think I have all that he’s done, I’m a big fan. I especially love the Frog and Toad books because each story has something a little bit special about it that speaks to adult feelings as well as children’s. This is the end of “The Corner” from Frog and Toad All Year:

“I saw the sun coming out,” said Frog. “I saw birds sitting and singing in a tree. I saw my mother and father working in their garden. I saw flowers in the garden.”

“You found it!” cried Toad.

“Yes,” said Frog. “I was very happy. I had found the corner that spring was just around.”

“Look, Frog,” said Toad. “You were right. The rain has stopped.”

Frog and Toad hurried outside. They ran around the corner of Frog’s house to make sure that spring had come again.

I recently got a few pair of shorts for the upcoming warm-ish season (please oh please let us have a real summer this year!). It is a very short season and therefore I haven’t invested much in summer clothes since moving here six years ago, instead doing quite a lot of window shopping filling my imaginary wardrobe with really cute hot weather clothes. Have you seen how many cute sandals are out there right now? Most of my summer related pinboard is full of sandals.

I come from Alabama where summer is unfathomably miserable, especially along the humid Gulf Coast. I could do with some misery right now so I’m dreaming of warm times (this weekend is gonna be amazing – high 70s!) and putting together outfits with my new shorts.

This year Chris and I had a laid back Easter celebration on the patio. We stopped by Bakeshop (quickly becoming my favorite place!) for some hot cross buns, corn & greyere muffins and one chocolate cookie. Chris made a lemony vinagrette for the romaine & egg salad, I chopped up some lemons and put them in some water, made a pretty looking table and we sat there eating, basking in the sunlight. It was a particularly beautiful day.

After the meal, we changed out of our cute Easter outfits (sorry, no pictures!) into grubby clothes and spent the next 3 1/2 hours working in the backyard. I spent at least 8 hours there this past weekend, weeding, planting, moving things around. It’s looking so good! The sun coming out, the wind blowing, the weather being just perfect… this is one of the many reasons why I love Portland. Anywhere else the sun is an every day occurrence. Here people notice, we talk about it “Hey the sun is out!” and we smile at each other, knowing the winter is coming to an end, the short dark days and grey dismal months are ending. It’s spring. New wonders are on the way.

On this Easter Sunday I leave you with this lovely poem for springtime by William Wordsworth.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Where has the week gone? I mean to keep up my frequent posting streak but seems like that didn’t happen. I’ve been thinking of my next knitting project, contemplating Brooklyn Tweed’s cabled Exeter cardigan. After that little sweater I’m a bit crazy for cables. The Exeter is covered in them, so some good practice, plus it’s really cute.

I’m still working on my second Knit Picks sock, kinda kicking myself that I got fingering weight instead of sport. After I finish the 2nd sock I think I’ll take a little sock break and just focus on a larger knitting project. We’ll see.

p.s. photo above is from a rather failed walking trip to Powell Butte – just too windy and cold!

I say this because my friend Liza absolutely loves these things but she never wants to know how to make them. It’s dangerous to know, actually. I think it’s been several added pounds dangerous for me. If you want to know how to make delicious peanut butter cups, continue on at your own peril!

The first time I made peanut butter cups, I kind of followed this yummy recipe. But I don’t like a lot of sugar so I omitted it. This is really ridiculously easy and requires so little ingredients. They’re not gonna win a beauty award but who cares? They’re going straight into your mouth. I actually just ate like four of these yesterday… You know, I’m just trying to get ready for wearing tight fitting summer clothes. Nothing like a few treats to help me out there.

Without further silliness may I present…

Peanut Butter Cups of Amazingness
adapted from here

Any amount of baking chocolate or chocolate chips
Any amount of peanut/almond/macadamia/hazelnut/etc. butter
Optional: Sliced almonds, hemp hearts, graham crackers, crackers, crumbled nuts of any kind
Pinch of finishing salt

Mix together the nut butter and any of the optional ingredients to make it crunchy. If you prefer, simply use the nut butter by itself.

Melt your chocolate in a small saucepan over the stove. Remove from heat. For best results, use silicone cupcake liners because the cups will pop out really easily and you don’t have to worry about paper liners sticking in the chocolate. Spoon a small amount of chocolate into the liner. Gently shake it to even out the chocolate layer. Put a dollop of the nut butter onto the chocolate. Spoon some more chocolate on top to cover. If you like, put a pinch of salt on top.

Place your peanut butter cup in the freezer for 10 minutes. Then remove and enjoy!

I completely forgot to update here about my clotted cream making! I used a simple recipe and it turned out very yummy. I’m sorry I don’t have any photos to show you, the cream was eaten up very quickly with no thought to blogging!

Clotted Cream (from here)

1 pint whole cream (unpasteurized is best, do not use ultra-pasteurized)

Oven at 180F degrees. Put your cream in an oven proof container and cover (foil or lid). Leave in the oven for 8 hours. Remove and let it cool. Try not to jostle it and place in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. Scoop out the thick portion on top and place in a container. That’s the clotted cream. The remaining liquid can be used to make scones!

My friend Caitlin gave me some really nice 100% yak yarn to play with about a year ago. But I neglected to do anything with it until recently when I decided to do some stash busting. The yarn is spun by ladies in Tibet and Caitlin’s friend sells it for them in her etsy shop but I don’t know if she’s still doing it now. I recently learned that a baby sweater can be made with only one skein of yarn. This was excellent news. I went searching on ravelry for baby sweaters. There are about a million on there and they’re all so cute and teeny tiny! Why are tiny things so cute?! I chose this one because it has owls and I’d never tried cables before.

I used some scrap yarn for the eyes, which are French knots. And the buttons are from Knittn Kitten of course.

The pattern was so-so. It was free and a few things were worded poorly but overall it was a fine pattern. I don’t think I’d knit it again because there are so many other baby sweaters out there. I really like this idea of making little sweaters that have details on them I haven’t tried before. They are really quick to knit and it feels nice to have a project that doesn’t take weeks or months to finish. This pattern had an i-cord cast on, knit from the top down, and cables. All of those things were new to me. I think it came out really well!

[edited to add that this pattern is the one I used]

I recently found out about Case Study and I really love that place. It’s so bright and clean and it’s not too crowded. Plus it’s next door to Good to the Grain author Kim Boyce’s Bakeshop which is a draw in and of itself. Love it! Anyway so I am working on some ideas and it’s better for me to get out of the house to do that because I’m distracted easily by home things. You know what I mean? Sometimes it’s good to get out. Later on I met up with Elena who should be a street photographer because she made taking photos so fun! She’s the one who keeps encouraging me to post about my outfits. So here’s another one this week!

coat – thrifted and falling apart inside
sweater – J.Crew
scarf – Ilana Kohn
jeans – L.E. Canvas
boots – Hunter
shirt – J.Crew Factory
belt – J.Crew
briefcase – thrifted and borrowed from Chris
glasses – Warby Parker [I really need to get 'em checked again b/c I wear them even when I'm not doing close-up work...]

I wear this shirt alllll the time. It’s a tunic length version of my Vale shirt made in Liberty of London floral and lined in navy voile.

Again, this photo was taken by Sarai at work.

Details:

shirt – made/designed by me
scarf – Ilana Kohn
sweater – J.Crew
necklace – Abigail Percy
jeans – Lands End Canvas
boots – Frye

I’ve been trying to incorporate some new tops into my wardrobe. I recently got this rayon top from ASOS and really like it, especially all those buttons. I need more tops with sleeves. I’ve pretty much tapped out my need for tank tops [I made more 10 last year]. Sometimes you need to keep those arms under wraps. Actually most times if one lives in the Pacific Northwest. This is pretty much a gratuitous fashion post featuring me. There’s one more this week! They will only look this nice and clean when Sarai takes them at work.

Details:
shirt – ASOS
pants – GAP
sweater – J.Crew
shoes – BCBGeneration
shoe clips – my mom’s from the 90s
necklace – vintage

I’m in the process of growing my hair out and my wonderful hairstylist recommended dying it red. WHAT? I thought. Immediately that horrible fake red popped into my mind, why would I do such a thing? But I trusted her and with some trepidation let her have her way with my hair. She dyed it a little darker just around my face and underneath the back. The rest of my hair is my regular auburn. So far only one person has noticed (that’s you, Caroline!). It is very subtle and it doesn’t look fake. Besides being a huge relief in the present (not fake looking) it gives me hope for the time when my auburn locks will fade to dreary washed out red, which is what happens when one ages. I can have red hair forever! I did actually dye my hair black once and give myself very horrible bleached chunks (weird orange color, turns out red doesn’t bleach easily!). The lesson here is that I will only have a professional dye my hair.

Sarai has been practicing the new photo set up at work and I’ve been modeling for her. Which is where these photos (and a few outfit ones to come) were taken. Apparently I can only do weird things when being photographed:

I was trolling through an antique store in Lincoln City, and I should’ve known by the name that it would have a treasure for me. I found a stack of watercolor paintings stuffed onto a crowded shelf in the back of a room. They’re by an English painter with a penchant for landscapes in the 1950s. They were priced at an unbelievable $12 a piece! I bought four, and it was hard to choose because they were all so lovely. The colors in each were muted and had this same almost child-like style. Some had little people in them and shark fin cars contrasting with the medieval stone towns. Others were vast fields with white castles kind of floating in the valleys.

I tried to find the least damaged ones as many of them had tears, water spots, fold lines and general aging. While those signs of aging can make a painting more endearing, it wasn’t something I was looking for. When I saw these, I knew they were exactly what I wanted to put in my guest room. Right now I’m in the process of making my guest room cozy and welcoming. You can check out my inspiration folder here on Pinterest. You can see how these painting fit right into the look I’m trying to create.

I’m really delighted with these paintings! I love finding original artwork and these are just so special. Who was this mysterious painter? Were they young or old? What was their life like? What drew them into this world of muted landscapes and bright blue streams and lakes?

p.s. I just noticed all these are water scenes! I wonder what it is about the waterscapes that drew me in more than the landscapes.

This is one of my favorite poems. From Granted by Mary Szybist.

Mutatis Mutandis

Pebbles, leaves, rain—
they disappear into the river.
Even the shadows of the black branches above
(their bark peeling like thick burnt paper) disappear.

But we don’t disappear:
Not in the breeze: it brushes
against the pale sides of our arms
(rustle of dry leaf against wood, quick suckle
of an inhale, cool shearing of cracks)—

Granted, this is not a world that keeps us.

Granted, there are some sadnesses
in which I do not long for God.