No more antlers, said the NY Times. So, no antlers.

I put this together after reading the NYT article on a still "moony" couple who bought a 1.7 million dollar loft in Williamsburg and wanted to avoid that "Brooklyn" look. Meaning antlers, for one thing, which is — I am sure — a not so subtle dig at the flea market/instant heritage/vintage taxidermy aesthetic that can be satisfied so easily on etsy.

 If you have $13,000 to spend on a couch (as this couple does), maybe you're above all that. If not, there are plenty of amazing pieces being made and curated by shops on the e'sphere that have nothing to do with antlers. I don't even think too many of these are in Brooklyn. But if they are, they're not in a 1.7 million smackeroo loftette. And I happen to love antlers anyway.

Piper wakes up after dinner.

Filmed in the worst light imaginable with a crappy iphone. Just click play.

Piper is the small one. The bigger one with the black ear is her cousin, Pixel. The one with the brown ear that looks calm isn't really calm at all. She's Pixel's sister. Name's Widget.

New pup

Her name is Piper. She is 8 weeks old. She's a Llewellin Setter.

She has a very strong personality. She will not sleep in her crate. She will not hang out in her crate. She wants to be where the action is.

But since she's a puppy, she stays awake with everyone as long as she can and then she can't stay awake anymore. And falls asleep. But only on laps. No crates.

On a lap she'll sleep for hours. And hours.  And hours. Just no crates. Absolutely not.

From the family album

Proton, daughter of Quax and Maya, in the field, May 2010

Maya teaches Proton all about the water, same day.

Pups from the Quax and Maya litter pretending to be pups in a Japanese woodblock print, around May 2010

German shepherd play in the back room, involving lots of mutual teeth clacking and other forms of bonding, 2010

Quax as he appeared on the TOC of Field and Stream magazine

Chicks and scarves

Not to say chicks in scarves. We do not call each other chicks anymore. Not really. Without a certain tone. But Lucille did her job and now has three chicks scooting and peeping around her and is already looking relieved. More on her later. Trying to leave her a lone a bit. Give that hen some space.

Meantime I have finally gotten to sorting through the dozens and dozens of scarves I unearthed recently. You don't really unearth scarves, or they'd be a mess. But they were all laid like a crazy, thousand petalled flower, over the arms of a chair in the upstairs of a house, and the colors were singing. Some have never been worn. Ever. Some are in triplicate. Bit by bit they are coming to the shop.

 Other hats, department of:

Editing a book-length critical essay on the artist who made this.

And this.

As usual when I am this knee-deep in editing I tend to fall in love with the subject. When the book is done, promise I'll lift the veil. But the good cousin of love is discretion. Just ask my grandmother, who had to chase her husband down with a camera to catch him with his mistress back in the day. She is also the one who coined the euphemism "time to take off the apron," which meant, leave the bastard.

Shagmoor

From September, 1970 ad for Shagmoor coats

I happened across this Shagmoor coat recently.

Purple plaid wool coat with fox fur lining by Shagmoor

It has so much going on that it's like a vintage happening in itself, including a giant silver fox fur collar, deep purple and green plaid, textured, molded, tricolor acrylic buttons, banded hip pockets, swing shape and yet something a bit modified about it, vivid purple lining, and three separate labels. There's a Woolmark label that was introduced in the mid 60s, a Shagmoor sewn in label that looked like the 50s, and then, to really baffle the cook, a red, white and blue IGLWU label that placed it smack dab in the 70s.

So. A 50s swing coat with a fur collar that had been updated for the 1970s? They did that? Clearly.

I can spend hours researching. I started digging up Shagmoor.  It was owed by the Linder Brothers, and started in 1921. The name was developed to convey something luxurious, something high class, slightly British, slightly Wallis Simpson. And so it did. Shagmoor was a kind of wool that, according to the manufacturers, nearly floated off the body. The Linder Brothers original Shagmoor logo:

There's an obituary online from just a couple of months ago for a man who worked in the Linder Bros. cutting room for decades, and was on the company bowling team. He was a decorated WWII veteran who was awarded the Bronze star.

From 1922, this marvelous announcement:

There are 26 different listings when you search "Shagmoor" on etsy. Some, to be frank, have got their eras wrong. But it's not hard. This company, like many — you can practically hear them in a design meeting, hopeful that their new and improved versions will retain their faithful clients and yet attract those new girls. What would they think now.

Marbella

is a

very

feminine

hen.