Almost Two Weeks In - Nova Scotia

Hanging your lobsters was recommended by a vintage recipe we found; keeps the meat from getting water-logged.

Greetings from Nova Scotia!  We've been here a little over a week, and clearly time has gotten a little away from me.  While the image above depicts a sunny day, we've been having rather cool weather and a few rainy days.  It's only starting to get above 20C/70F during the day.  It's fine as we have plenty of things to busy ourselves with, like puzzles.

We finished this puzzle in about two days.  However, we'd sorted the pieces the last time we were here so a lot of the grunt work of starting a puzzle was done.  That doesn't mean it was easy.  We've already finished another one so we bought two more when we went into New Glasgow a few days ago.

We're working (yes, really - and it's good), crafting, reading, eating, and just letting our lives slow down a bit.  I finished Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking the first week.  The book is from the Chester Newsies Lending Library (also known as The Artists' Newstand).  I'll be bringing it back when we return if you want to borrow it.  It's a really good book.  I happen to love Joan Didion's writing.

I have another book on the go (read-in-bed category), which I'm pretty meh about - Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason.  It's a mystery set in Iceland, which I got from my mother-in-law when she was getting rid of books.  I'll finish it, but I have to say,  I don't really care about any of the characters, and this is a book where's there's a battered wife, a junkie daughter in a coma, and a couple of others one might feel for.  Meh.  The other books that I'm dipping in and out of at will are Consider the Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher, which is great, and Writing Past Dark by Bonnie Friedman.  Both are more or less collections of essays so maintaining a narrative thread isn't important.

I brought supplies for four knitting projects and two sewing projects (both Alabama Chanin things - one is the sampler quilt and the other is beading I need to do at the bottom of a finished skirt).

We're headed into Halifax (the big city!) tomorrow for a friend's opening at a gallery.  I'm excited to try a restaurant I've read about and stay at an iconic Halifax hotel.  Plus the farmers' market is on Saturday, which we'll definitely hit.

We really feel at home here.  People don't really know what it's like until they get here, and when they do, they never forget it.  Happy summer!

It's Still January; Still Time to Set Goals

I'm sure I said I don't make resolutions, and the following list is not so much a list of resolutions, but a list of goals and milestones that could help move my writing forward.  I've adapted my list from Brooke Warner's, of SheWrites, list of 52 Things - Ideas for Writers 2015.  Amazingly, I actually edited it down (rather than my usual urge to add/complicate).  I intend to amend/edit it as I accomplish one thing or another, and I will be happy if I do half of these things over the course of the year.

Here's my version of Brooke's list:

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1. Start or join a writing group.
2. Guest post for a blog you read/admire.
3. Commit to a certain number of submissions a month, and stick to it for the whole year.
4. Read a banned book during Banned Book Week, September 27 - October 3, 2015. For a list of banned books, visit: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/.
5. Submit a story to a call for submissions for an anthology.
6. Buy a book for a child or teenager in your life for no reason at all.
7. Commit to writing a certain number of words per week, or per month.
8. Attend a local author reading, or two or five or ten.
9. Support your local bookstore.
10. Write a book review and put it on your blog or your website.
11. Do one thing that truly champions another writer.
12. Read a book that falls way outside your general area of interest.
13. Go to a writers’ conference.
14. Apply for residency retreats, like Hedgebrook.
15. Do a 500 Words challenge. Writers like Jeff Goins have sponsored these kinds of challenges, where you write 500 words a day for a set number of days—a month or longer. Give it a whirl!
16. Read your work out loud, either at an open mic night or at a literary event.
17. Write and publish either an e-book or a chapbook. These can be as short as 25 or 30 pages (single stories or essays) and they can get your work on the map.
18. Enter your work into a contest. You have nothing to lose!
19. Map out a timeline for your book, or for your next book. Consider when would be a reasonable publication date for your book and write it down. Post it somewhere where you can see it to hold that date as a goal.
20. Commit to a certain number of blog posts a month—one, two, four—and stick to it for the whole year.
21. If you don’t already have a website, start one. If you have a website you know needs a facelift, commit to giving it one.
22. Memorize a poem.
23. Get involved with my local library.
24. Make a list of your top ten favorite books in your own genre and reread two of them.
25. Do something that shows your commitment to writing—plant something or buy yourself a house (or office) plant; get a piece of “writing” jewelry; or create or purchase something that’s meaningful to you that you see every day as a reminder to yourself about the meaning writing holds in your life.

Feel Me, Eat Me, Watch Me, Read Me

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?  Hope so because I've been pretty absent this week.  The good news is that I'm done grading and will have a little space to breathe, think, craft, and blog. 

I like to listen to podcasts, when I remember they exist, and one of my current favourites is Stash and Burn.  There are many reasons to like it - from the cool name to the Sleater-Kinney intro song to the feeling of just hanging out with your knitting buddies.  I always get pattern suggestions from them, and I'm seriously considering joining their 15 Hats in 2015 knit-a-long/challenge (check out their group on Ravelry).  Check out their latest podcast here.

I've had a serious lack of imagination when it has come to dinner this week, but I'm feeling my cooking mojo coming back.  On the menu for next week is Crock Pot Green Enchilada Soup.  I'm going to use a combination of corn (non-GMO corn that I froze from the summer) and hominy instead of all corn.

Here's a shout-out to my father's biking friends who really like this blog best when it deals with bikes. Hey, I can't blame them.  I'm missing my bike right now because I'm still recovering from the MCL sprain although I did ride the recumbent at physio for five minutes today.  It felt like a small victory!

The Online Bicycle Museum has lots of great vintage images as well as information on vintage bikes.

The LA Times did an article in September (but I just found out about it) on a mobile library called the Feminist Library on Wheels (F.L.O.W.).  Bicycles, feminism, and books?  What an awesome idea.

Finally, back to the crafting zone.  In my Pinterest gazing, I came along this handy tip for adjusting the tension on your sewing machine.  I've got some plans to sew some fussy fabrics soon, and this will probably help me.

So, that's about the size of it for this week.  Enjoy your weekend!  I hope you have lots of crafting, eating, and merry-making ahead of you.

On My Mind Mondays: Toward a Common Goal

Mulberry is fascinated by the pressure canner

• Independent bookstores:  I listened to a Fresh Air interview with Ann Patchett who was compelling in her argument for buying books at actual bookstores and not online.  More often than not, I buy online because it's often less expensive and conducive to off-hour (aka impulse) purchasing; however, I do value bookstores, and frankly, I can afford to pay full price to support local economies so that's what I'm planning on doing whenever possible from here on out.

• Wabi Sabi (continued):  I'm reading Simply Imperfect:  Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House by Robyn Griggs Lawrence, and her explanation of the concepts and how to make them part of one's life resonates with me.  I cannot claim to be a minimalist by any stretch of the imagination, but my life seems to be a constant work-in-progress where I continue to try to whittle things down and get everything closer to what I value.  I'll be working on slowly decluttering spaces around me.

• Eggplant with Anchovies:  This is what I'm making for dinner tonight.

• My upcoming trip to Oakland:  I'm off for a visit with the boy and will have a lot of time on my own (the boy's got to work).  I've signed up for a sashiko workshop already, and a friend has recommended I check out the Ai Weiwei installation on Alcatraz.  While I'll be seeing the boy daily, part of this trip feels as though I'm on my own, which is quite interesting.  What will I do with my time?

• Fashion Blows:  My friend, Abi Slone, curated this exhibit showcasing some of the late, great Isabella Blow's clothing.  It's got a short run, and I'm going to Toronto to see it tomorrow. 

• Interrogation of the Closet:  I've been trying to "curate" my closet/wardrobe for the last couple of years, slowly.  I'm working with the theme "Making my closet work better, not bigger."  Now it's time for the inquisition, as it were.  I'm going to take each rail of clothing (yes, there are more than one), divide it based on how often or the last time I wore an item, and then figure out what stays and what goes.  In conjunction with that, I've conceived of a creative nonfiction piece that deals with the process.

• Apples:  Today I've got to utilize the last of our apples.  Applesauce & hard cider are on the schedule.

I've never seen Gwendolyn so fully sacked out on the DVR before.

Reading List

 A number of years ago (2005 or 2006) the ladyfriend gave me this book in which to write down all the books I wanted to read.  (There are additional sections for books lent and what-not, but the "To Read" list dominates.)  And over the years I've done just that.

Yesterday, as I was catching up on the NYTimes Book Review I went to add a couple of books and realized there were pages and pages of books I'd listed and had yet to read.

There were some books that I had read, which had little check marks next to them (I even saw a book on the list above that I'd read but had failed to mark as so.  Bonus!), but for the most part, there are pages of books that I thought I'd like to read that, frankly, I'd forgotten about.  So yes, you guessed it.  I have a new project.  I'm going to start going through the list and reading them.

When I noted the books, I made little notations as to whether they were fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or other (e.g. photobooks, crafting books, etc.) and if fiction, whether they were collections of short stories or not.  Later on, I began to write a brief description because frankly, as noted above, I can't always remember why they're on the list.

Today, I started a list on my library's website of the books they have that are on my list, and I picked up the first one today:  Molly O'Neill's Mostly True.  My goal is to write a brief review here of each book I read from the list.  Of course there are always other books that butt into line, but the idea that I'm actually going to follow up on the books that at one time caught my imagination is really exciting.

A few years ago I remember reading a brief piece by Lisa Moore in The Walrus (I'm pretty sure) about how as she got older she realized that she had a limited number of books she could conceivably read.  That's not the impetus that's moving me (at least consciously); it's more of a "I have all these books on my To Read list; better start working on them now."  I'm a list-maker, and I like to check things off.

Stay tuned for reviews.

Book List

Holy cow!  It's been three weeks since I've posted anything (at least it was only three weeks).  I guess that's what deep relaxation can do to you.

I hate to reduce vacations/trips to things accomplished on them, but for the sake of getting the blog up to speed, I'm going to resort to a little list.  I actually happen to love lists and make them all the time.  (I even keep the notebooks where I jot those lists down, but that might be changing soon...)

Books read:

The Feast Nearby:  How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, bartering, and eating locally (all on $40 a week) by Robin Mather
     Verdict:  Enjoyed it although the memoir aspect of it overshadowed the "on $40 a week" aspect for me; nonetheless, it's got some great recipes in it.

Hit by a Farm:  How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn by Catherine Friend
     Verdict: Meh.  I found the writing to lack sophistication, and I often thought the two women were embarrassingly naive about things.  I left it in Nova Scotia for someone else to read.

Grace by Grace Coddington
     Verdict:  Fun but lacked depth/self-awareness.  I enjoyed feeling like I was part of the fashion in-crowd through the decades but found Coddington's lack of self-examination (glosses over the devastation to the fashion community caused by AIDS, does what I call a 'hit-and-run' about her miscarriage and her sister's death, etc.) disappointing.  In my Creative Nonfiction class I would've given her a C+/B- for her lack of disclosure or willingness to be vulnerable.

Unless by Carol Shields
     Verdict:   Interesting and well-written novel; found the conclusion a bit too tidy and the narrator unsympathetic but not so much that she inspired any kind of deep reaction from me (which would've been better).

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
     Verdict:  Compelling and smart although I don't know that it will stick with me.  There were a few other issues with it (uh, almost complete lack of fully formed female characters) that are probably more reflective of my politics than the book's literary merits.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
     Verdict:  F*cking amazing.  (Yes, it deserved the emphatic swearing.)  A stunning book that does so much within its pages (and incidentally is entirely narrated by women).  Read it if you haven't already.

I had a lot of time to read, which was great.  Nova Scotia is the place where I get to feel like a reader again.

But Where's LeVar Burton?

See?  Books are even groovier than you thought!

What I'm Wearing to Teach Today: I Know Where This Story's Going

(Yes, I live in Canada so turkey day will have to wait until tomorrow - but stay tuned!  There's a 19-pound turkey involved.)  Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family in the States.

Dress:  Chaiken
Scarf:  Hermes
Tights:  Wolford
Shoes:  Aerosole
Book*:  Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

*If I were really reading, I'd be wearing my glasses.

Sometimes a Chasm Is a Nice Place to Fall Into

 Yes, I'm currently in the timewarp that is Nova Scotia.  (Yikes!  It's been a long time since I've posted and so much has happened in the intervening few weeks, but let's save that for later.)  Each year we get better and better at relaxing more quickly.  When we first started coming here, we'd still be whirring about in our heads about things that needed to be done.  Now, those things still come up, but we're finding it easier and easier to give over to the deep chill that is Nova Scotia.

We now make it a point to come during the last week of August so we can take advantage of the local lobster season.  It did, however, feel at times like it was getting out of hand. I basically was on a lobster murder spree.  We "processed" 16 lobsters over the course of about a week.  Yes, 16.  I know - crazy.  But what is great (and so crazy in its own way) is that I brought my pressure canner and have canned a dozen or so pints of lobster stock.  Oh, how I'm loving the pressure canner, and oh, how I love lobster stock.

We froze some of the lobster meat to use later in our stay, but we did have the traditional lobster boil, lobster rolls, lobster macaroni salad (oh yeah), and chili lobster (courtesy of a NYTimes recipe).  That's already a whole lot of lobster love.

Another Week in Paradise

 

First things first.  Right after my last blog post, we came back to the cottage and a gorgeous evening.  It felt like a reward for sitting through a number of cold and wet days.  The weather since has been a good mix of sunny days with overcast ones.  Sometimes, in the fog of reminiscence, you forget that not all the days of your holiday are sunny.  In short, the weather overall has been quite favourable.

The crafting has taken on a different focus.  I managed to finish the second sock of a pair destined to be a gift, but knitting has fallen to the wayside.  In its place is some Shake-n-Make work.  The photo above is of one element of our site-specific installation for the Hamilton Supercrawl in September.  We’re making reverse appliqué beaded “cozies” for three concrete planters along James Street North.  The holidays, for which most of my current knitting is destined, are at least four months away.  The Supercrawl is only five or six weeks away.  The great thing with priorities is that you can almost always shuffle them around (just ask my collection of short stories – sigh).

Vacation Paradox

Yes, I'm on vacation, but why doesn't anyone write to me?  Out of sight, out of mind?

A brief accounting of some of what's happened so far:

1. Consumed copious amounts of lobster
2. Read Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson, Veronica by Mary Gaitskill, and four back issues of the New York Times Book Review
3. Sewed the buttons onto my Rowan vest (yay, another project off the list)
4. Worked on some stories
5. Ran, biked, walked, lounged

Tomorrow we sail to Newfoundland.  It feels like we're going to the edge of the earth.

Judge Not Lest Ye Miss Out

I'm probably the first to admit that I can be quick to judge.  I don't like "judgmental" because it sounds so negative and persistent.  However, I judge, and I had judged Amanda Brooks' book I Love Your Style as yet another socialite's unnecessary foray into publishing.

Yet I was intrigued enough by it to get it from my local library. (Yes, I own a library card and use it often; you should too - good for the budget.)  I hadn't dismiss it in its entirety because I'd read how she wanted to create something like Cheap Chic, my style bible.  I believe in this book so much that I own two copies of it - my original that's falling apart, with notations throughout, and a second copy scored from Powell's for far less than it now goes for on the open market.  It would be one of the first things I saved if there were a fire.  It's that monumental.  Trust me on that.

Anyway, now that I've flipped through I Love Your Style, I think I might've been wrong. (If I were really judgmental, that would be difficult for me to say.)  While there's a lot of Brooks as style exemplar in here (at least it shows that she walks the walk), I find the attention to detail around different kinds of looks really great.  In addition to outlining, say, "Street" or "Bohemian" style, she provides ideas for mixing it up, icons (both contemporary and historic) who embody that style, as well as books and movies you can turn to for further information/inspiration, and more.  I have to admit - it's a pretty nice package, and when I can, I'll try to find my own copy.

I'm always on the lookout for great books about style and fashion.  If you have any favourites, I'd love to learn about them.

Blog Love

I bought this book at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art when we were in the Bay Area over the holidays and have recently been using it for both inspiration and procrastination.  It's a great compendium of fashion blogs from around the world (one is even from Burlington, ON - right next door to Hamilton!  Fashion abounds!).  Anyway, I've fallen in love with this blog, sad pony guerrilla girl, from Croatia.  I can't read the text, but I love her photos, the ambiance, the mood, as well as the way she styles herself.  Hopefully she won't mind that I've used a photo from her blog to illustrate my point:

Sometimes I just get excited by discovering something new, something that makes me think just a little differently.

Just Kids

Last night, on my way home on the train, I finished Patti Smith's book Just Kids.  There were a lot of things I really loved about it.  It gave a window into a time period that I've already credited with being one of the most dynamic and creative of the century (late 60s - 70s) in a city I wish I could've experienced then - New York.  It was lyrical (something I had to allow myself to settle into) and moving.  I found, however, that Smith maintains an emotional distance throughout.  Not that her love and affection for Robert Mapplethorpe isn't clearly demonstrated.  It is.  However, I missed her emotional responses to things that were happening to her specifically, individually.

(Almost) Over too soon

(The "yard horse" down the street from us) 

While it feels like we’ve only just settled into our routines here, we leave in just a few days.  This year I didn’t quite plow through as many books, complete as many projects, or read all the NYTimes Book Reviews I’d brought with me.  Such is life.
    I did finish the Elizabeth George book (With No One to Witness).  Reading mysteries is a must-do here, and I’m glad I got at least one in.  Although had it not been over 700 pages in length, I might very well have read another one too.
    As for knitting, I’m deep into my Noro sweater, which is giving me great love and satisfaction.  The Cash Iroha yarn is amazing.  I’ve finished the back (making a few adjustments like adding a selvedge stitch at each end and leaving the shoulder stitches live so I can use a Kitchner stitch to put the sweater together) and have started the front.
    Unfortunately, the love didn’t extend to the tank top I’d actually finished and stitched together.  Yes, after working the armhole a couple of times, I realized that the whole thing was too big and that I would never wear it in its current manifestation.  I’ve taken it apart and already ripped out the back.  I’ll rip out the front when I get back.  I just couldn’t stand it as it was and will reknit it (once I recover from the trauma of needing to “put it down”) in the smaller size.
    We’re not always just hanging around the cottage.  Last week we took a day trip out to Joggins (fossil cliffs) and Cap D’Or.

We’d never been to Joggins (the photo above is my feet on the rocks of the beach), but it was pretty cool.  We found what we think are fossils, which we photographed (on Liss’ camera).  I was really good and resisted my acquisitive desires by not taking one home with me (you can only take a fossil if you have a permit).  I was tempted.
    We’ve been to the Lighthouse on Cape D’Or before.  It was our “nice” dinner out – the restaurant is good and the setting is gorgeous.   However, my choice of footwear for the evening teetered dangerously on the border of foolhardy and stupid.
    Here’s the path:

Here’s where we were headed:

And this is what I wore on my feet:

    I am, however, determined and managed to make it down unscathed.  Going back up was no problem (as anyone who wears heels knows – up is always easier).
    We saw some incredible riptides after dinner:

And a great moon over the horizon sent us home.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I canned some beans from Green Dragon, a local organic biodynamic farm and B&B.

Before:

After:

Two pounds of beans actually ended up making four quart jars of pickled beans.  Because of the relatively small yield, I generally tend to hoard them rather than give them as gifts.  Last year I made a ton of strawberry jams and raspberry jam, but not this year.  I still have strawberry products left from last year, and we just didn’t make it to raspberry picking this year.  I imagine if we’d been here for our usual stay (four weeks), it might have happened.  But maybe not.
    And finally, I’m back running.  After taking advice from both my father and my physiotherapist (sent her an email with a photo documenting area of pain), I’m back on track.  The problem may have stemmed from my shoes so I’ve ordered a new pair, put new insoles in the old pair, and am switching between my old running shoes and my trail running shoes.  I’ve been running steadily since last Friday and did an 11-mile run on Sunday.  So far, so good.
    From here we’re going to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (stopping near home along the way).  Yes, we’re headed to “the land.”  It’ll be our first time.  I’m looking forward to making Liss learn how to swing dance and playing some ultimate Frisbee.  We’ll see how it all goes.

Possible titles: Vacation Pride, King of Vacations, Where do Lions Go on Vacation

It's only because I snapped this photo on our drive from Ontario:

I wonder where he was headed.
   Well, we're back at the library for our weekly reconnection with the rest of the world.  Last week I had this idea that I would clam along our shore and then eat the fruit of my labour.  Here's what I ended up with.

Yes, that would be three whole clams.  To be honest, I don't really know anything about clamming, but I was lucky enough to find these three.  However, I ended up letting them go.  I kind of felt like eating just the three of them wasn't worth the effort, and I also worried about the one with the muscle hanging out.  Flesh-eating disease would blow on vacation.  Maybe I'm a wimp.  Maybe I wouldn't cut it on (Wo)Man versus Wild, but who knows?  If push came to shove, I'd probably have popped those babies in my mouth without a second thought.  Since I'm on vacation, I have plenty of time for second thoughts.
   One of the great things about where we are is the availability of local food.  We drive to farm stores where we get free range and naturally raised chicken, pork, and beef; stop by a stand and buy vegetables that they dug up that morning; pick our own local strawberries to make strawberry ice cream later in the week.

And in between all that activity we read, craft, nap, and run or bike although I seem to have a (hopefully) slight injury on the top of my foot.  I'm trying very hard not to freak out and think that it's going to kill my marathon training.  (Yes, I can easily jump to the worse-case scenario).
   The weather has been mixed, but today it looks like we'll be enjoying the sun and the ocean.  It's hard to complain when you get views like this:

Not to cause any more jealousy than I might have already stirred up, but this is the view of low tide just a few feet off the back deck of our cottage.  Yes, we hear the ocean when we got to sleep.

Report from the edge of civilization

We've made it to the cottage, and although it's been a rainy few days, the benefits of an entirely different environment sans many of the stresses of home (television, phone, or internet) has already been beneficial.  So far I've finished the back of the tank top, the toes of a second sock, and am making my way through Sam Lipsyte's "The Ask."

We've also been cooking a lot.  We brought with us some meat we'd gotten from a meat CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) we belonged to in the fall/winter.  We've taken a hiatus from the CSA, not because the meat wasn't great (organic and grass-raised) but because we got so much of it that we needed to catch up with what we had.  Needless to say, the meat pretty much thawed on our drive despite Liss' great packing.  However, now we have meals frozen for later on in our stay.  It's pretty satisfying to cook together on a rainy day.

I went for a long run in the rain yesterday (around 9 miles).  I was pretty shocked and excited at how good I felt throughout it (I did it without an iPod).  I'm really trying to stay on track with my training.  Today is a day of rest.  I think I might take a nap soon.

Return of the Redressed

  As one might imagine the last few days back have been busy with getting back to the business of the everyday, which is never quite routine, and I'm off to New York City for the weekend (a little Mother's Day rendezvous with my mother).  I haven't even unpacked my suitcase from the road trip!
   Liss came home Tuesday evening with items from our friend's late mother's estate, and one of the items was this booklet:

It contains the description of hundreds (well, 501) free pamphlets and stuff one could send away for in the 70s.  In addition to mailing away for patterns and instructions, one could find out about starting a career as a diamond cutter (courtesy of the U.S. Department of Labor!) or get a guided study of Rembrandt's etchings so one could better their own technique (hello U.S. Government Printing Office!).  There are also things from various private enterprises, but I was really surprised at how many U.S. government documents there were.  (It's funny, I recently thought about all the brochures that came out of Pueblo, Colorado in the 70s.  I visited the website, and they're still cranking them out: www.pueblo.gsa.gov.   I'm sorry, but downloading pdfs is just not as much fun as getting something in the mail.)
    This booklet also immediately brought to mind one of my favourite possessions, one of the things I'd grab if there were a fire in my house:

    My mother gave me Cheap Chic way back in the late 70s, I think, and the love for it is evident in the well-worn pages and spine.  I still reference it.  It is, by far, the best fashion/style guide I've ever read.  Yes, styles have changed but finding cool stuff in a thrift store, reimagining work clothes as fashion items, or integrating classic items without looking like your name should be Muffy is timeless!  I am constantly looking for another copy of this because mine is starting to lose pages.  If you find one, let me know.  I'm willing to pay.
   501 Valuable Free Things also reminded me of how I used to send away for all kinds of stuff, and with Cheap Chic, I mailed away for a ton of catalogs.  You can see my little scrawl, with notations, in this photo (not the best picture, but hey):

    Did I ever order from any of these?  Probably not, but as anyone who's into personal style knows - fantasy and inspiration go a long way.