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I'm sooo ready for the weekend. I'll bet you are, too.

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This was taken sometime in April last year, somewhere in Bavaria just south of Nuremberg. Memory serves me well: it was a beautiful Spring day, typically sunny and filled with nothingness. I helped weed the flower beds and water the garden, then I wandered around in the forest looking for early berries. Total silence, total bliss.This year is such a contrast. Having moved back to Southern California, I look forward to weekends where I ride my beater bike to the beach, have a lazy, hours-long breakfast at the teeny French café, and walk along the shore, the sand and ocean swirling around my feet. It's crazy to think that elsewhere people are hunkered down in their houses blanketed by so much snow while out here it's warm enough to go out in short skirts and flip-flops. Having lived with low temperatures in Germany and France, I'm so very grateful to be here.

Still, there are things back there that I love and miss, and I think another trip back to the continent is likely. If not this year, then perhaps next. We shall see...

There has been some knitting: test knitting, knitting for myself (and painfully frogging every last bit of it), a bit of finishing, and lots of swatching. I'll save it all for another post. Have a good weekend! Do nothing at all!

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Some weeks ago, Holly of Knitted Thoughts gave me a Stylish Blog Award. Thank you, Holly! Yummy Yarn, stylish? Who'd've thought?

One of the prerequisites to this award is sharing seven things about myself, and to make this more specific, I made it seven stylistic things:

1. My wardrobe is primarily California casual (jeans, soft tee, flats, gold hoops) but when working onsite I tend to wear all black. It makes matching in the dark easy!
2. I try to onsight my routes and boulder problems, as much as possible.
3. I adore mid-century modern furniture. My best find was a coffee table abandoned on the sidewalk. Score!
4. This may stem from years of presenting to clients, leading creative teams, and giving and receiving constructive criticism. And why I've been called an enabler. It's a good rule to follow: One catches more flies with honey than with vinegar.
5. Louise Fili, Rebeca Mendez, Paul Rand, Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Scher, Erik Spiekermann, Gael Towey, and Massimo Vignelli.
6. I like the Impressionist and Renaissance artists over the contemporary ones. But I make an exception for Anselm Kiefer.
7. Electronica and classical music rotate continuously on my iTunes. With the odd Britney Spears song (yes, just like you)!

On to knitting. Here's my current project at 5, then 9 repeats of pattern. It's calming knitting, something to help wind the day down. This past week was quite busy!

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It also helps that I know Antalya like the back of my hand. Every stitch, every short row turn, every loop picked up, all executed from memory. All that remains is grafting, and I'll probably wait until Shannon has finished the knitting part on hers; then we can have ourselves a little grafting par-tay!

I also signed up for Twist Collective's February Finish Fest, because I do need a little prodding with my knits. While I have an endless list of projects lined up in the coming months, a bit of reminding and egging on by the group should help, hopefully, with finishing the ones already on my needles. Care to join?

Flickr ::: Screenshot from Dr. Martens website

Fifty years ago this April 1st, one Doctor Klaus Marten of Munich, Germany, an inventor, collaborated with the shoe-making Griggs family of Northhampton, England, and an iconic shoe was born. It was, according to the company itself, "...an icon conceived of innovation and self-expression."

Raise your hand if you *don't* own a pair of Docs.

Flickr ::: Montage by MJ, screenshot from Dr. Martens website

My first of a half-dozen pairs was the classic black 8-hole boot, the 1460, the one that started the "quiet revolution". I wore it to school almost every day. Those fantastic AirWair soles kept my feet comfortable, walking from the farthest school parking lot, through the admin buildings, up the hill, across the lunch area and quad, and up the stairs to my classes (hey, Cal State Long Beach). I was an art student; Docs were part of my uniform and half the class wore them. My brother wore his steel toe boots for work (and otherwise). "They're to kick your ass with," he once said with a wink, "so you better not eat that last slice of pie."

Flickr ::: Montage by MJ, screenshot from Dr. Martens website

The 1460 that started out as a utilitarian work boot worn by postal, factory, and union workers crossed over first into the fringe and then into mainstream society, and has evolved into so many iterations, colors, designs, and styles. My 2 pairs of 8-holes are boxed up somewhere in the garage, reserved nowadays for motorcycle riding. These days my tastes are far more relaxed and directed toward comfort, so in a heartbeat I would pick these up: the Breeze Dona buckle toe post (top left) for weekend market and lazy days at the beach, the Breeze Toa gladiator sandal (bottom left) for everyday use, and the New Authentic wedge boot (right) for work and colder weather.

Happy birthday, Dr. Martens!

Dr Martens ::: 1460 Men's : 1460 Women's
The Vintage Collection ::: hand-cobbled shoes : made in the original Northhampton, England factory
Dr Martens For Life ::: boots and shoes with a lifetime guarantee