big moments

my sister got married almost two years ago. she was 24 and the groom was 23 and that ushered in the era of a wedding seemingly every week on facebook. my sister is one of the most serious people i know, but she'd been obsessively watching "say yes to the dress" on netflix, which taught me about the overwhelmingly powerful interestingness of wedding planning. i mean, my mom and i thought that the "say yes to the dress" episodes that netflix kept recommending to us were part of some weird glitch, until my sister, whose idea of an extravagance is diy reupholstering the seat of her two-person tricycle, confessed.

anyway, her wedding was so wonderful. really magical. there's all the planning, and then the day. you just have to push it and it starts to roll.

i love the idea of making a day that embodies my very favorite aesthetic. though i'm certainly not going to be married anytime soon, i already have a folder of favorite things that might somehow relate. i care about invitations, photography, and colors (red and blue). i don't care about table settings. there were three weddings in the backyard of the stately 1930s house where i grew up in durham. i always imagined how fun it would be to pour the cost of a normal wedding venue back into that house. along the upstairs hallway are giant closets which peaches macpherson flung open when she was showing the house to my mother, and declared, "and these are where we kept our debutante gowns!" i was invited to be a debutante in durham, and it is one of my greatest regrets that i didn't say yes. i didn't know who my marshal would be.

 bella figura wedding invitation

 from somewhere on style me pretty

 a jason munn poster

from the voynich manuscript

my sister made all the bouquets herself from chiffon, but i love the idea of fresh flowers, like shakespeare and company uses for decorations.

 amy flowerjugs sets up for the paris literary prize

i love spending so much on perishable things. there are very few times in life where there are truly "no holds barred."

i just love this wedding, jemima kirke's. it's given me the clearest possible image/articulation of the poignance of the perishable beauty of a wedding...

she'd been saving since teenagerhood a set of antique french candles that looked like a bride and a groom.

the hoarder in me thinks, no, don't burn them! save them, save your antique candles.

but this is the moment that we save such things for.

Tumbleweed related thank yous

So touched and happy to have been included in roundups on A Cup of Jo and Messy Nessy Chic! I love both those blogs so much.

Sophie Gallagher of Bull Magazine (from the University of Sydney) wrote a really great article about tumbleweeding too, including some bits from an interview with me. Read it here.

And here's the list of all the posts that relate to living at the bookshop!

Dear Colette looking winsome in the children's section.

So excited for Krystie Yandoli's post about Shakespeare and Company over on Buzzfeed!!

Here's the list of all my posts with photos/stories about the bookshop.

A blog rec for the people interested in tumbleweeding!

My friend Tom has this amazing blog where he interviews Tumbleweeds and staff members. So you can get a lot more information about the Tumbleweed ~*~lifestyle~*~.

And here are all my posts about Shakespeare and Company.

I did some drawings of Kitty and Colette. See more of them in my interview on Tom's blog!

In honor of tonight's Rookie post (!!!!), here is an audio recording of the June tumbleweeds singing my favorite song on my last night.

Here's a list of all the posts about tumbleweeding. 

June tumbleweeding, Shakespeare and Company

 Sita engages in the universal tumbleweed activity, screwing the shutters onto the antiquarian

 The tumbleweed closet, from which you will have to wrestle your possessions each morning, if you become a tumbleweed. Don't bring anything fragile or valuable! This little closet along the stairwell used to be a "Turkish"-style toilet--back when tumbleweeds had to go to the public showers.

 Another classic tumbleweed activity: fishing the change from the wishing well. Before the bookstore installed that table on top, the coins in the well would regularly surpass 20 euros' worth each day. Nowadays we might get about 5 euros a day. There also used to be a gas valve at the base of the well, and sometimes George would open the gas and set the hole on fire.

 Every night by the Seine, hundreds of people filled these little amphitheaters to salsa dance.

The place Maubert, two blocks from the shop, hosts regular produce and flea markets

 While the staff went bowling, Sita manned the corner till

Tumbleweed Life, Shakepeare and Company, Paris

 Ben

 Many more posts about tumblweeding at Shakespeare and Company listed here.

 me and Sita

 Sita and Colette

 Chris Adrian reading

 Terry, whose favorite song is "Girl from the North Country"