It’s been a few weeks now since I received a surprise package in the mail from Milla.

It was just the kind of surprise I like to get- full of good books! And two perfect handmade cloth bags that I have used a thousand times since.

Ella and Mycelia were very excited about all the items there were to remove from the box and peruse.

This beautiful coloring book was one of my favorite things included in the package.

And the girls got right to work coloring in it and reading through the sweetest li’l book, Children of the Forest by Elsa Beskow. If you’ve never seen her books, I highly recommend them as the perfect vintagey woodsy gifts for the children in your life.

I can’t wait until Mycie is old enough to read the Narnia series. Thank you so much for these Milla! I have begun reading The Golden Spruce, and I love how it transports me to a misty, numinous Northern land where boundaries are shifty and unusual events take place (it’s a true story!).

Milla also included two of the most darling mugs I have ever seen (and I’m a girl who loves and collects darling mugs). Both whale themed, I’ve used them every day since their arrival.

Check out the little whale tail INSIDE the mug on the right. I love that the one on the left has an image of the great white whale (okay, it could be a beluga, but since its baby is dark I’m saying it’s a sperm whale).

And what do your eyes see here?

Delicious dried stinging nettles that Milla hand picked up on her lush island last season! Nettles are extremely nutritious and make a soothing, grounding tea. I’ve only ever found one patch around here that I am loathe to pick from and thereby diminish, so all of the many nettle infusions I have drunk over the years have been store bought. I can’t tell you enough how much it means to me to receive such a gift. For more on the many, many benefits of nettles, check out Sasha’s post from her one time blog Kitchen Witch.

I got right to work filling those whale mugs up with nettle infusions. I had been having sinus issues- I think due mostly to the extremely dry atmosphere that permeated Nevada City before we finally got some rain (and would you believe that we have one of the worst air qualities of any place in California? It’s true, due to the fact that pollution from the nearby great central valley pools up here in the foothills), and perhaps from some early pollination thanks to all the sunny weather- and was using the Neti pot every few days. I was grateful to have gleaned this one bit of information from my herb teacher Kami McBride that I have never read in any herb book: If you are using nettles to help with mucus membrane issues (which it does), make a cold infusion instead of the usual hot infusion, or it will kill the components in the herb that soothe the membranes (though the vitamins and minerals will be retained). For more on making infusions (which are simply long-steeped herbal teas) see Sasha’s post linked to above.

“Nettle makes us open up to life and our senses, but because she doesn’t take any crap, she also imparts a vital sense of self-protection.” My goodness, re-reading Sasha’s words is really making me  miss her herb blog!

Cheers with mugfulls of nourishing herbal brews to all of the amazing women in my life whose friendships fill my heart with love and my mind with fresh ideas and my body with strength and healing.

(Oh! Be sure to check out my current **$50 vintage gift certificate Giveaway!**)

(For the record, it’s pronounced loo-sha, not loo-chee-a or loo-see-a). We were surrounded by beauty in this tucked-away community, where folks keep to the old ways and live off the land in a manner that most of us no longer do. Ramblings gardens, ancient barns, and manzanita pathways were all perfect backdrops.

Despite the natural beauty, I couldn’t help but tweak some of the images in iPhoto when I got home that night. Lately I’ve been debating with some other vintage sellers- is it worth it to try and create “artsy” photos, or should you just stick with straight-forward plain & simple clear images of the piece? What do you think? After 3.5 years of doing this, I’ve decided that the more creative the shot, the more views it gets, and the better my shop does. So I’m all for it.

It was another warm and sunny day.

The perfect setting for spending time with some of my dearest fellow Aquarians, just as we enter into our birthday season. We exposed our souls in hilarious talks about our kids, our men, our closets, our kitchens, our lives. And were richly rewarded with the sweet saturation of sisterly love.

Speaking of… Happy Birthday today to JenJen! How lucky am I to be able to count these lovely women among my closest friends?

Speaking of A LOT, here is a lot of amazing vintage I scored yesterday! I figured that sharing this lot with you would be a quick n’ easy way to get a post up in the meanwhile.

I made a last minute decision yesterday afternoon to abandon my plans and drive to the next town over to hit up their two amazing little thrift stores.

Good call, me.

I used to drive there once or twice a week, but then moved a little further away when we settled in Nevada City.

But I vow anew to return more often. Because, look at this haul of killer vintage! (Both of these boots are already listed in the shop). It’s small rural area, and the merchandise reflects that.

I even found this sweet little guitar for Mycie.

I also stopped in at TOMES, a local used bookstore, to use up some credit I had. I went straight to Faulkner. As you know, he’s been on my mind lately. Eric Tome, owner, said that he loved the book in the middle there when he read it 40 years ago (he used to read one Faulkner novel a year, until there were none left to read). As for the non-Faulkner book on the left, it caught my eye, and when I picked it up I flipped right to this page and my eyes fell immediately upon the middle quotation:

Due to the fact that I recently titled a blog post this very phrase, I had to get the book. I was inspired to seek out Faulkner’s books yesterday morning while listening to his very own voice on an old recording on NPR. I was especially moved by the piece entitled Man Is The Living Sum Of His Past, in which he says that

“…man is complete in motion only because he is the son of his ancestors, and his condition, his time”.

This guy popped up on a wall not too far from our house just after we moved in.

He helps to prove what I was saying in my recent post about how history is everywhere you look in this town. Our graffiti artists don’t leave their names in big block letters or scrawl obscenities on every available surface, but rather take the time to render a well thought out and very well executed likeness of an 1850s miner panning for gold.

Mycelia & I enjoy spending a few moments with him on our morning walk to school.

It’s true, there’s gold in them hills.

She is in her fourth month now, and she and Spencer have been interviewing midwives.

You may have noticed her awesome cleavage in the Bizarre post. It’s like Mother Nature at its finest, watching her mammalian body prepare to nurture a newborn. She and I each bought this same flutter sleeve summer shrug on a shopping trip to Sacramento last year. It’s perfect for throwing over a sun dress.

Like this amazing spaghetti strap smocked maxi dress with the most perfect peacock print (and plenty of room for baby to grow!).

Ella & Mycelia were excited to feel the baby bump.

If you know anyone who is pregnant, or who was ever a fetus themselves, I couldn’t recommend these amazing videos any more:

In the Womb from Maternal Newborn on Vimeo. (There are also episodes on multiples, identical twins, one on animals featuring a dolphin, elephant, and dog, and one on cats & dogs. All are available from Netflix.).

That’s right, Heather & Darin are soon to grace the world with a dear little baby. And guess who else is pregnant!? Our very own Suuzi! She and Spencer are every bit as thrilled as our neighbors to the south. I took this video last month at the Bizarre, and have been very anxiously biding my time until I could post it!! (All of these exclamation marks are totally called for!!)

How lovely and amazing are these mamas?

Jen and I were lucky enough to be there when Suuzi took her test a few months ago (Spencer was out of town!). I cried and smiled and smiled and cried. I usually only have that cockamamie grin on my face when I’m a little tipsy. (Speaking of, Suuzi was drinking homemade kombucha in that fancy crystal goblet). I still sometimes cry just telling someone about her pregnancy! She was already, as you can see, deliciously round and soft and glowing with the little light inside her. Some people, like both of these couples, were just meant to be parents. And are at the exact right moment in their lives to do it.

Jen took these wonderful photos, Suuzi and I loved how she laid the test on a giant rose quartz to get this image.

I was also lucky enough to hear from Heather pretty early on. I got her message when I was with my family in Tahoe, and so Adam and Mycie and I decided to drive back home through Placerville instead of our usual route through Truckee and surprise Heather at The Bookery! I had to keep my excitement kind of hush-hush because she hadn’t told her co-workers yet. But I was beaming just as much as I had been with Suuzi (and, it appears, wearing the same dress).

Here’s to the world going ’round, beginnings and endings and laughter and tears and love from one generation to the next.

And here’s to Mariee Sioux, a friend of all of ours, for writing the beautiful lyrics quoted in the title…

A few days ago Sarah and I scurried down to the Miner’s Foundry (home of the Nevada City Bizarre and the place I saw the secret Red Hot Chili Peppers show) to bust out a quick photo shoot in front of a gorgeous stone & ivy wall.

The Foundry is less than half a block away from us, but we drove my van anyway so that we’d have a semi-private place to change ;-)

All of these items are already listed in the shop.

I realized that our booth at the most recent Bizarre was on the other side of that window on the right. Heather’s was behind the window on the left!

This car is somewhat infamous around town, and I cracked up when I looked to my right while snapping shots of Sarah and saw this little scene. Curious cat!

Crazy story about this dress- I found a similar one in black last month, and Kerry bought it at the Bizarre as a secret xmas gift for Nicole before I ever had a chance to list it in the shop…

(Here’s the other side of that window!) I can’t believe I found a slightly different sequined Egyptian dress by the same maker only a few weeks later.

I oughtta make a folder just for shots of behind-the-scenes laughter at photo shoots. Flared nostrils and all.

I almost hope this dress doesn’t sell, it would be sort of perfect for my upcoming trip to Big Sur(!!!)…

AMAZING red suede corset boots. Size 7.5.

Forgive me for being such a tease all the time, but I am, as usual, having a Keep Or Sell crisis with the following two pieces:

Royal blue is kind of my color, and I’ve been looking for vintage overalls like these for years. But I am much more likely to wear the dress than the overalls. Hmm…

Later that day Mycelia and I decided to go on a walk. Someone had told me about a trail down behind the Miner’s Foundry, so I set off down that-a-ways for the second time that day.

The trail wasn’t really there, but there was an abandoned house with Deer Creek running behind it. We decided to go for it, the sound of the creek was so sweet and inviting…

Green moss, green cedars, green sprouts, green irises…

I’m always trying to capture the beautiful colors in her eyes when we are out in the sunshine.

Sitting there, eating seaweed snacks, I noticed this very rusted horseshoe hanging on the little tree in front of us.

I swear, everywhere you turn in this town you are surrounded by what once was.

We had to climb up a treacherous, dry-leaves-and-pine-needles-covered hillside to make our way back up to the street. When we got there we were greeted by this beautiful hawthorne tree. I wish I could make a career out of photographing hawthornes at different times of the year.

The little white flowers that blossom in May are delightful in a fresh and hopeful way, but there is something so compelling about these overripe, bordering-on-decay winter berries.

We walked back by the Foundry…

And Mycie decided she wanted to play (and SING) around the 19th century equipment before heading home. This is an old wine press at the Nevada City Winery, mere feet away from the Foundry.

You may have noticed I’ve been adding a lot of videos to my posts lately. That’s because my new camera has that option on it, while my previous one didn’t. It’s so fun being able to capture little moments like this on the fly, moments that I will treasure forever even though they’ll break my heart. I recently watched this adorable video of Mycie when she was 3, and I cried my eyes out with sweet sadness over the fact that that little girl is gone, that that moment in history, when she had her little curls and she called her dad “papa” and she pronounced her words that way, is irretrievable.

I have always been lucky enough to live within walking distance of some sort of historical landmark, from Empire Mine to the Foundry to St. Joseph’s Hall (which, like the Foundry, is a building from the Gold Rush days that now bills itself as a “Cultural Center” and always has cool events going on).

I really do appreciate living in a place where there is such a palpable sense of the past. There was no such feeling where I grew up in South Lake Tahoe, CA (despite its entanglements with such historical giants as Kit Carson, Mark Twain, and John Steinbeck). And I have been to places (like where my cousin lives in Prescott Valley, AZ) that literally didn’t exist 20 years ago and that are made up of nothing but strip malls and housing developments. I suppose one can always find a sense of history out in nature, but I have a feeling that people who live in such places prefer to spend their time at Kohl’s and Cost Plus instead.

Geez, I was just saying that I feel like I’ve been gushing lately on this blog about how cool my town is, and I want to try to tone that down a bit. And here I am doing it again! But I just can’t extricate my life and my daily experience from this place, it’s all around me. And the feeling and personality of Nevada City/Grass Valley really do infuse each moment in a way unlike any other place I’ve ever lived. Every house I’ve lived in here in the foothills has been over 100 years old and has felt very much like it. Aside from the odd layouts and scrappy single pane windows and antique keyholes and doors that hardly fit in their frames anymore, they were/are all on a slight tilt. This is due both to settling over the century and to the fact that there’s hardly a lick of level ground in these parts. Most every step you take is either up or down an incline. When I cook eggs in the morning in bacon grease or butter, all of the liquid fat pools to one side of the pan, and I have to nudge it over before I crack the eggs in. When you sit on our toilet, your whole body slides slightly to the left and you can’t help but just rest your head against the wall right there and be grateful for a moment of rest. Having lived in the level bowl carved out by an alpine lake in the High Sierras (Tahoe) and in the great central valley of California where there isn’t an incline for hundreds of miles around (Sacramento), I must say I prefer the charming quirks that askew foothill living (right in between the other two) has to offer. And I have come to believe that it has something to do with the profuse creativity that has poured out of here and given this area such a distinct personality. (In fact it was just listed in Lonely Planet’s list of top ten travel destinations for 2012).

It’s sort of like how everyone says they “have the best friends ever!”, and how we all (if we’re lucky enough, or are good friends ourselves) feel that way. We all have the best friends ever, and that’s such a good thing! People are awesome. And I hope that everyone loves where they live as much as I do just like they love their friends as much as I do. Only I’m more self-indulgently and long-windedly vocal about it all.

Okay and seriously, if you haven’t read Faulkner, you haven’t lived…

“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.”

“Wonder. Go on and wonder.”