a.k.a. thomas jefferson snodgrass

It's Mark Twain's birthday today! 
(Thanks google.) 

I LOVE Mark Twain. Earlier this year, Tony read Tom Sawyer to me, and I was a fan immediately. Now we're working on Huckleberry Finn, among others though, so it's slow going.

I decided to research him a little today and read that Haley's Comet was visible in the sky both on the night that Mark Twain was born and on the night he passed away. 

I just love these chair photos...

Here are some good quotes from the man of the day:

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." 

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." 

"When in doubt, tell the truth." 


"Always do right. That will gratify some of the people, and astonish the rest."

And look! This is the only known video footage of him! According to the uploader, this is "silent film footage taken in 1909 by Thomas Edison at Stormfield (CT) at Mark Twain's estate. Twain  is shown walking around his home and playing cards with his daughters Clara and Jean. The flickering is due to film deterioration, but this is the only known footage of the great author."

This is my favorite. Gotta love kittens.

And the last interesting thing I found today, was that his older brother's name was Orion. I like that.

Have a lovely literary day! 


~love, nico

krakatoa

Tonight I'm working on finishing the book Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. It's basically a biography of the massive volcano that used to exist off the coast of Java and exploded during the summer or 1883. I love books like this because you learn so much about so many things. I will admit, I put the book down for weeks at a time to explore more fiction and dip into the dozen books I'm reading at any given time, but I keep coming back to Krakatoa. It's fascinating.



This one begins a couple hundred years before the eruption explaining the behavior of the volcano and the culture of the surrounding areas then jumps ahead to the twentieth century sharing the discoveries in science unveiling some mysteries of the plates and faults and magnetite compasses, then moves back again to the dramatic story of the paroxysm(what a great word), then the aftermath, from earthly reactions like tsunamis and shock waves, to cultural reactions like religious uprisings and empirical collapses!

And I'm not even finished reading yet!

I was so excited when I first opened to the prelude and saw that it begins with this quote from A Little Prince:
           "He also had one volcano that was extinct. But, as he said, 'One never knows!' So he cleaned out the extinct volcano, too. If they are well cleaned out, volcanoes burn slowly and steadily, without any eruptions. Volcanic eruptions are like fires in a chimney. On earth we are much too small to clean out our volcanoes. That is why they bring no end of trouble upon us."

....Okay, now back to the book!

~nico

mecca.

we. got. ANTHROPOLOGIE.

Grand Rapids has it's own Anthropologie store!! I love getting the catalog and dreaming of occasions for all the pretty dresses and crazy jewelry, but when I finally got to go see the store here, I just floated around touching all the books and candles and perfumes and ornaments and china and.... 

These were some of my favorite things:

I love this embroidered and painted fox pillow..

(craft night anyone?)

 

this smelled so delicious.. I need it...

collectible clothbound Penguin Classics

 pjs made of the softest silk ever. I just wanted to carry this around with me...

whimsical sea story octopus ornament

 vintage glass narwhale! 

this has questions you answer every day for a year, for five years.

 another gorgeous silk piece with quirky camels!

 pretty christmas decorations...

 

 travel journals always get me dreaming...

 and the first thing I saw walking in was this gorgeous shrug. I'minlove.

Really, most of all I am in love with their book selection. Whoever curates it is going to save my life! So many happy, inspiring titles!

I'll probably have more to share soon. Maybe even crafts inspired by the stuff I can't afford! :)

Hope you're still enjoying fall. Why don't we all make autumn treats this week? I'm making pumpkin pie. What's your stand-by?

~nico

p.s. the captions under most of the pictures here contain the names of the items, so if you want to find them on their website, click here and search the keywords.