his & her picks

sometimes when you dip dye clothes, little miracles happen...
nate is like the dip-dye master these days.
 it's also linen, my favorite kind of fabric.

Teal Marble Tie Dye Shirt

my forever love for way-too-big shirts continues. this one is ultra soft too. 

that weed looking thing in the wheelbarrow, is actually a chard plant gone wild... got so big, i had to just pull it. r.i.p.  

Floral Patchwork Top

los angeles

hi guys!

we went to LA last week! 

we sold at the long beach flea market (so fun! love that place) and then played a show! nate and i have a band called doom & gloom, and it was going to be just the two of us opening for our pal robert schwartzman. but then our buddies from our old band (castledoor) wanted to play with us too :) our friend (the sweet hurt) joined us on guitar (she's like... a genius).
anyway, don't want to go on and on about it, but the show went so well, and people cried and laughed and sang along.

a fan (& now friend, aaron) filmed so you can watch some of the show here.
of course it's not the same as being there, but still...

we're playing another show june 5th in LA (same line up, yay!)

i'll always love LA, whether we live there again, or not. too many good memories there. & the city keeps growing, every time we visit, new places to stop by and see (and of course gotta stop by the old favorites too!)
seeing our friends is so nice too, with their (way too cute and smart) babies.  love you forever.

thursday playlist

hi. it's nate here...

we're still hooked on the new vampire weekend album.

another current favorite around our house is phosphorescent.
and sometimes the stars just aline or whatever cause i just discovered he made a willie nelson cover album , and it's really really good.  check it out here:  PHOSPHORESCENT - TO WILLIE.

here's a cool video for the first song on our mix...



and now for a batch of 8 random songs we like (the cover photo is a picture i took of a wall mural in denver, co last week):

5 / 16 / 13 from natetracks on 8tracks Radio.

friends and fleas

as in flea markets! :)

a couple months ago, my friend olga had this ingenious idea of meeting up with us, in oakland/alameda/SF after we were done with the flea market. since they live about an hour & 1/2 away from SF, & they love us so much,  they drove out for drinks/dinner/walks :)
we have a few friends that live in sacramento, so now it's kind of a thing,  after selling at the flea market, we get to hang with our pals.

selling at the flea market to me is very fun.  the hustle & bustle of bargaining i dreaded at first is actually growing on me. i love seeing repeat customers, and talking to the new ones. i always wonder if anyone ever looks up my blog or our etsy shop.
i also wonder if we are going to sell at the flea markets forever... (i know we wont, but still...maybe, right?) i wonder if we'll ever become like that grumpy grumpy bickering old couple setting up next to us last time. i mean, they're in their late 60s and still saying stuff like "you just can't do anything right" or "how many times do i have to tell you to not put this here" "a million times" at 5am in angry loud voices. they actually were cracking us up, b/c it was just so embarrassing i thought, but they were past caring, obviously. but maybe they were like us 30 years ago...

one of my favorite couples i see every month shopping around the flea...now i could totally see nate & i looking something more like them when we're older he he. 

we went into SF to hang out. for dinner we decided on a vegan mexican restaurant, it was cinco de mayo, after all. that restaurant is one of my favorites!
then "walking distance" is humphry slocombe ice cream shop, with many unique ice cream (& sorbet) flavors.

cutie leeza, with unintentional (or so they said he he) matching lipstick/jacket. while it was 100degrees in fresno, it was jacket weather in SF.

so anyway, that was our flea market weekend. looking forward to the next one. (our friends better not ditch out, haha)

his & her picks

my pick is this dress, with an accordion skirt. it's sheer & ombre & so pretty.

nate is wearing a levi's sherpa jacket. totally not right for our weather here, but good for someone somewhere else :)

the background flowers grow like weeds in our neighborhood. i love them.
unfortunately they barely last a day once cut.

see ya!

your thursday playlist

would you look at that, here i am again with a playlist for you on this wonderful thursday afternoon.
(but... you know it's only b/c nate actually put it together, and i have nothing to do with it, ha.)

anyway, he has a few of my favorites on there, like tammy wynette's "stand by your man." we go to this little bar, some friday & sunday nights, where they have open mic, and there is this one lady who always sings this song. so nate & i have both started really liking it.
i'm actually trying to learn it so i can sing it next time we go do karaoke!

in other music news, vampire weekend is streaming their new album, modern vampires of the city, on itunes! we're loving it. the new album sounds very fresh, and i like that they're trying some new things. nate keeps saying how good the actual recording is too.

did you watch any of the steve buscemi promos with them? pretty funny... 
 

5 / 9 / 13 from natetracks on 8tracks Radio.

the simple life

we were invited over for supper, by our friend don, who plays a lap steel guitar & his wife denise. they live in a little house, on a big property, with horses and dogs and cats. while we were there, the water stopped working and we all went out to the water well, to see if it was hopefully an easy fix (it was).

denise makes, literally, the best iced tea i've ever had. i brought my "famous" fruit salad (with mint from our yard), and a kale salad. (when you have a certain way you eat, the best (and nicest) way to go about that is to bring something tasty with you to share with everyone too.)
also, our friend is currently on a diet, so i looked up the special diet, to make sure & not bring something she wasn't allowed to eat.
don said "you can really taste the kale," when he tried the salad. he said it was a quote from cheers, but i can't seem to find a clip of it.
nate had a slice of angel food cake with a few scoops of ice cream & cherry jam topping, but said no to whip cream. i told him to just go for it, since i don't ever make anything like that at home.

don strummed country tunes, and sang and nate sang some of the ones he knew.
the sunset was the prettiest thing.

their cat buddy was the best. he's one of those friendly lil guys, who wants you to pet him as much as possible. just lounging out there, he knows who the real boss of the house is ;)

i'm still getting used to living in fresno, but also starting to prefer this life to city life. cinco de mayo marks one whole year of living here! 
when i was little, i couldn't wait to grow up and move to some big city (like paris)! so sometimes i can't help but think maybe i'm failing my little-self''s dreams by not living in london or somewhere. 
i feel like i'm getting the best of both worlds, really...a bunch of trips planned thru august!

also, i have this way of forgetting anything negative about big cities, for example, the living spaces we could actually afford in new york city if we ever moved back! (lolz)

anyway, more on all of this later!
for now, thanks for stopping by!

it's that time again...

alameda point antiques faire!

here we are again, middle of the night & we are heading to the flea market.....why do we keep doing this again?lulz.

it is a lil rough getting up im the middle of the night & driving three hours...but hey, ya do whatcha gotta do, right? I'm looking forward to seeing who will come by, & which items will get picked.

also looking forward to lunch (it's 3am & food sounds pretty bad, but I know 10am rolls around (my lunch time on flea market days) I'll be hella excited about the indian food stand there!)

anyway! if by chance you are in the San Francisco area today, and you are reading this, go to the alameda flea market! (& of course come by & browse our racks at j28:) )

you know it! n8 tracks thrusday

gawd, please tell me it really is thrusday today.

so here you have it, 8 tracks for you, hand picked by nate.

last week we lost a legend, and this week a legend turned 80 years old, happy birthday willie nelson! 
there is a willie track on the mix for you today (one of my favorites!).

enjoy!

5 / 2 / 13 from natetracks on 8tracks Radio.

what to expect when...

you come visit us in fresno! :)

i'll make coffee, juice, breakfast, lunch, dinner, we'll have plenty of wine, beer, cocktails. i'll take photos of your pet or child (when applicable), you will choose to either chill out at our house most of your stay, or venture out to yosemite or another national park for a hike. perhaps you'll want to go out on the town, maybe go to a thrift store or estate sale, go get coffee at a place where they're out of their best drink (come on fresno, get it together!)... or drop in for some karaoke at a dive bar, maybe go hear some live old timey country muisc....it'll be up to you.
also, my sister got me this vegan baking cookbook, so i may try a recipe out while you're here.
& you can definitely count on a magic hour walk.

our friends tim & michael came up for the weekend!  we went to sequoia national park for the afternoon.
sequoia national park is a slightly winding, one hour drive from our house. & it so happens that the current issue of sunset magazine (why didn't i realize earlier, how awesome this magazine is!? duh!) mentions a couple hikes in sequoia national park! we were headed to hike the congress trail & possibly muir grove & moro rock, until the park ranger at the entrance of the park, suggested we go to hume lake, and described it as "spectacular."

so we deviated from our original plan to go see this spectacular lake. i will say,  while it was a nice lake, but considering its surroundings (3,000 yr old trees, mountains), spectacular wouldn't be the word i would use to describe the lake. 
we took a quick stroll around hume lake and then, by following road signs, stumbled upon big stump basin.
we walked thru a green meadow of tree stumps, to the what seemed like, the edge of the earth. just beautiful!
nate brought his mini instax, so nice to see actual photos vs digital for some reason!

anyway, can't wait to go back and find more trails.

alright guys, til next time!
thanks for stopping by :)