A little Ben and James to warm you up!

I don't know if I've mentioned this up here yet but I am a huge fan of James Taylor and his son, Ben Taylor, too. My mom played JT a lot when I was a kid and I really wanted us to see him together someday.  We got tickets for his show at memorial auditorium in Raleigh.  My dad died a week and a half before the concert.  It was hard time for us but I'm glad we went.  I can't speak for her but it got my mind off of everything that was going on while making me completely mushy inside too.  Whatever it was, it was good.  It soothed me.  Something familiar was nice.

Well, I found this on youtube.  It's from that exact show and it shows you pretty much how the whole show went--back and forth between James's and Ben's music, both of them singing on each other's songs.  The first three minutes is a song, I believe, by JT and Stevie Wonder, and the second is one by Ben called Nothing I Can Do, which was written for his mother and probably in my top 5 favorite songs ever.

I hope if you're having a hard day, or if you're just walking around with a worry or sadness in your chest (which I do sometimes) this will make you feel at home again with everything as it should be.  Even if things are not as they should be, in time we all realize that it will be okay and that what makes us so special as humans is our ability to create art, cook food, build homes, and sing songs to each other--to lift one another up.  Hope this warms you up:

Have a great Halloween weekend!  It's the least stressful holiday of all so enjoy yourself!

just a little lazy blogging

Some words of wisdom, random thoughts, and things I've been up to:

Some people do not believe the madness part however.  Side story: B and I lived across the street from this crazy guy who would stand outside of his building eating spaghetti noodles out of Tupperware for extended periods of time in the same pose.  I'm saying I would drive past to run errands and come back an hour and a half later and he would be in the exact same position, shirtless.  B suggested that he might be making meth and would stand outside to avoid too much time around the chemicals.  I suggested it was performance art.  Big mistake..."ONLY YOU would say that!" he said.  Ha ha.  He's right, though.  Some people aren't genius...they're just making meth.  

sick of doing these awful monochromatic collages in design class.  I want to make colorful ones that look like this...

Ben Taylor's The Legend of Kung Folk album cover

Which reminds me of this song B and I keep playing over and over in the car...

Which brings me to my favorite record (need a CD copy so I can listen to it in the car) of the moment--Flag by James Taylor...

Very cool album cover (mine is in great shape--its like art!) and the inside is really cool too!

Thinking about getting an Etsy account and making a bunch of different prints to sell...is this worth my time? is this a good idea?

Speaking of prints... here's the latest

My little Dutch shoe (carved linoleum block print)

    

A more complicated version to turn in (part of my edition of 5)

It took me a good twenty minutes to find the cord thingy that puts the pictures on my computer...thinking I probably should email this to mom before I have the chance to lose it again :)

So I bought this today...and now my apartment smells realllly good...

and this little book that had some neat ideas for printmaking off the $1 table at Black Bear Books...

Apparently Black Bear has a website: http://www.blackbearbooks.com/blog/
Hate that I missed Sharyn McCrumb there a couple weeks back!

So, I finally ordered a pair of Vans for B's belated birthday...

 They should be here tomorrow via FedEx and in order NOT to miss them (I hate getting that stupid little note left on my door! errr!) we are going to make sure to stay at my apartment all day tomorrow and not leave until they get here.  I have some school projects to work on but we have planned a long movie to watch to pass the time...

Really excited about this one! Seen some of it on TV before , ready to see it all the way through finally...we've been talking about renting it forever.

Well that's about it for now.

Man, nobody reads this thing.

Oh, well.

  

Fall Favorites

Fall is just about here and I'm thinking about the shift my wardrobe needs to make.  It's time to dig out all my cozier clothes!  I can't say how much I love this time of year...there is a freshness to it (even more than spring i think) that feels like a brand new day!  I love dressing for fall.  Here are my staples:

A slimming pair of cords. 

 

These are from Anthropologie but my two favorite pairs came from Kohl's (Chaps RL) and, believe it or not, Kmart (Route 66).  The Chaps pair is the most recent (bought them last fall) and are chocolate brown, stretchy, and give me a really great shape with their high waist.  I'm keeping an eye out for colored ones from Levi's this fall. 

Oxford Shirts.

    

    

As you can see this can go so many different ways.  With basic oxford shirts (the kind that brands like Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers are know for) you get a really ivy league look, while flannel is more rustic and casual.  A tuxedo or ruffled shirt is something that's more polished achieves a sophisticated, sleeker look.  I love all these looks, they're so effortless.  Wear them fitted for a tailored look wear them over-sized (raid boyfriend's closet) for an artsy, casual look.  However you choose to wear them make sure to add feminine touches to balance the masculinity of a button-up.  

Clogs, Flats, Riding Boots, and "Something Utilitarian."  

I'm a life-long lover of the clog! I wish I had a gazillion pairs.  Right now all I really only wear a pair of brown Danskos (and a really embarrassingly old pair of Birkenstock-style things).  

   

Moccasins, ballet flats, loafers, whatever! Just make sure they are special to you and bring some style and poise to your outfit.  That way you're feet are comfy, and you're not wearing sneakers (not a big fan of sneakers).

  

Riding boots--a no-brainer! Looks great with super slim pants (reminiscent of riding pants) or leggings (cheaper and, to me, a little less pretentious).  I mostly wear mine with skirts of any length but they look so cool with a skirt that hits you about an inch or two below the top of your boot!

When I say "something utilitarian" I'm basically referring to duck boots.  Another one of my favorite things are making a comeback!  They're comfy, warm, and keep your feet dry, but really cute too.  They come in a ton of colors and you can even get super-feminine slip-on and ankle styles.  Mine are traditional navy Western Chiefs, but Sperry Topsider and L.L. Bean sell these too.  Also I'll mention Hunter wellies, even though I'm personally not a wearer of rain boots, lots of folks wear them with tights and skirts with sweaters or tucked into jeans.    

Tights and leggings.

  

I'm one of those girls that needs her dresses and skirts even when it's cold out.  I wear opaque tights a lot skirts, dresses, boots, and even fuzzy moccasins.  I also like wearing leggings under a slinky dress or just as pants with one of those men's shirts I was talking about previously.  One thing I want to do this fall is wear plush corduroy shorts or jean cutoffs with tights, flats, and a turtle neck.  My mom dressed me that way when I was little and I never got how cool that was until I was older.  

Mini Skirts.

The colder it gets outside the more masculine and heavy a wardrobe can get.  Balance all the dark colors and neutrals and warm sweaters with a pretty little mini skirt to show off those stems (with tights because it's cold out there, you'll catch pneumonia!).  

More things I love for fall.

    

      

Creative living

The last time I talked to my daddy on the phone, he told me that when I got home next we'd have a talk about my future.  I never got to have that talk with him.  It breaks my heart but I know what he was going to say.  He had told me before and my mother confirmed this...What he saw for my life's work was making art.  He always thought that's where my future was.  He thought that I'd be good at simply making things and selling them.  He always wanted me to keep weaving baskets...thought that I had this capacity to market and sell.  It has worked once before for me, with the DMB posters and this idea gives me such a rush.  Well, he was giving my brother and me a pep talk once about us being lazy or bored or something.  He said you can't really do anything of worth without passion.  It probably didn't stick with John but it meant something to me.  I'm coming into that idea finally...that you have to feel strongly about what your doing or you will fade away.  I don't want to fade away.  He wouldn't want me to either.

So now this is the goal...to express a lot of things inside of me that very few people have ever seen from me.  I have a reason, a place in this world, even if it is small and unpublicised.  I feel the strong need in the pit of my stomach to be something, to make him proud, to have passion, and to be a legacy in a world that forgets him or maybe never knew him well enough at all.  My dad was an artist and a really sensitive guy.  So funny and warm, and so susceptible to sharing. I know that he felt everything so strongly because his blood runs through my veins, and we are so similar.  I really do feel that a creative person's senses are so much stronger than anyone else can comprehend.  This is how creative people can manipulate a medium so well.  We are those kids that are just so affected by things...more than the other kids.  We are those people that seem sad a lot but we "do" happy so well.  Every sensation is heightened and they're are all these layers to life that can be so hard to get through--just a mess--but you can't replace that excitement and variety and quality to life with anything else but those messy layers.  We often have a hard time but it's worth it to me to be present (ask B, this is a very big thing for me) and see the good and the bad in a way that only I can see it.  

I really just want to start working so that I can show the world as I see it.  No one else can do it the way you  do it--not quite the same and sometimes the smallest, strangest perception makes a huge difference to a stranger, your family, or just yourself (for your well-being/development).  EVERYONE is capable and everyone is different--this is one way I know God is real and still working among us.  

                                                                                                   

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." -Maya Angelou 

Just a few fun things to look at...I've been going through this really basic nostalgic phase.  Concepts like childhood, home, education, magic and miracles, probably just because it’s that time of the year when we all sort of get like that :)

Chris Van Allsburg, Author/Illustrator of "The Polar Express" and "Jumanji"

The Morton salt girl--almost 100 years old!   Thinking about carving her into linoleum and making lots of prints! Blank cards in interesting color schemes, maybe?

"back to school"

I've been gone for a while in efforts to move all possessions from one place to another along with helping bf do the same.  Saw my latest blog post and thought that was a little depressing.  I was having a really hard time when I first moved here.  It's not the new place--because that part is awesome--but I just went through one of those sad spells that results in me in bed and bf trying to drag me out of it during dinner breaks from work.  He works a lot...I don't anymore and I think a sense of self fleeted when I quit my job.  I don't regret it one bit.  I hated working for those people--pretty sure half of them are sociopaths.  I mean pulling someone into your office and telling them to be more positive and peppy a month after their dad died is just weird.  Good riddance!  this post is not about that.  It's never been so much about that since I've quit.  I'm just used to doing things for myself, that's all.  I realize now that it is much better to let someone you love take care of you than feel completely unloved in your independence.  


So this is a happy post!  I'm starting art school on Thursday.  So maybe this is my "back to school" post.  I have a sick new apartment that is cool and relaxing and I can't wait for fall.  I have a new RL flannel shirt bf gave me that actually looks pretty cute on me.  I'm still looking for a job but at least I don't smell like rancid sugar all the time (lol).  Oh and I've--for the first time in years--made a decision that I think will make me really undoubtedly happy.  Here's the big secret...I'm moving home when this lease expires, and I'm going to transfer in time to graduate at East Carolina!  I can't wait to tell the grandparents. :)

Tried to find a photo..something for you to rest your eyes on, but this will have to suffice until I take pictures of my massive fireplace :)  Just a sweet song I like:

daddy

imysmih.

"It's hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world." -Dolly Parton 

The Great Gatsby

Okay, from silly Bridget Jones to finishing The Great Gatsby in one day. I have been profoundly affected by this book. I can't remember what year in high school I read it the first time but I must've been an awful slacker (not too surprising) to not remember this book. I think I skipped around a lot and used spark notes for my quizzes because all I really remembered were some romantic details and the symbolic importance of eyes on the billboard--like the eyes of God watching sinners below.
I've decided it makes no difference that I didn't appreciate it then because it doesn't mean anything (beyond "when are we watching the movie?" Robert Redford is one fine preppy!) when your too young to understand something like...
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
...because we don't have a past to row away from.
It's a beautiful book. I always thought that F. Scott Fitzgerald was cool because I knew I was supposed to think he was--all cultured people new how significantly cool he was, but now that I'm at that age I just get it. You have to be around lots of different young people to understand this book. You have to see it all around you to understand and oddly I think being college age in a town like Boone is an unlikely but accurate insight into a modern version of the parties and the interations of the upper classes and the complete and vulgar carelessness that happens when everything is given and nothing is earned. Okay, before I go off on a rant about the socio-economic issues in this book, I must say that's not what it's all about at all. It is about being young and so old at the same time. It's about loving someone (or the idea of them) enough to completely change your life and suddenly realizing they have no intention to do the same. It's about true friendship and genuine connections you make with people, and then the massive illusion of friends that don't exist. It's about moving forward in a way that's seems so impossible that you don't even know to do it. It's about something that resonated with me most: that is, being where you belong, knowing that where you live is not always home, and that the majority of who you are (in a positive sense) is where you came from. This phenomenon has always been a struggle for me. I've gone back and forth, and back and forth. I know this is why no real success latches on to me. You go off to somewhere you think is so much of who you are--perhaps who you want to be--and you find yourself looking around a large party wondering who are these people? What do I care about them? Knowing that you know something they do not. You hover over their heads...but for all you know they hover over your's in a million other ways.
I could go on like this for a very long time. My point is it's a beautiful book. Maybe the best thing I've read so far.

"To Bridget, just as she is!"

Watched Bridget Jones last night.  I've heard something about a third installment coming out relatively soon.  I sure hope so!  Her character is so honest and funny.  I really identify with her attitude and awkwardness.  She can't be anyone but herself and I get that.  

(priceless)

"When you're finished changing, you're finished."--Benjamin Franklin

I've been such a slacker the past few weeks when it comes to blogging.  But--I think--with good reason.  I was a little distracted with quitting my job, going with bf to some Phish shows in MD and then laying around my mom's house for way too long.  Well I'm back "home" with a completely new direction.  Looking for a job and it looks like my plans for school have yet again changed.  All these changes feel good.  I just couldn't continue the way I was going.  There are definitely limits to what a girl can put up with so I am in the process of changing things for the better, and changing the way I look at things.  Quitting the job was just a start to better things coming.  I'm moving in a few weeks, and though I have very little money to buy some necessary things for the new apartment I don't really mind.  I know that if I really need anything I've got lots of people looking out for me.  Making money isn't worth working with a passive-aggressive ego maniacs.
  The prospect of not having to share my new space with anyone is so exciting.  It is completely my own, though I know bf will be there 24/7.  I know it's really sort of "our place" but I like the idea of doing what i want with it and organizing it so it really works for me.  Also excited about getting back to school soon.  I feel like I did when I was a kid...ready to buy new school supplies.  Craving that beautiful Boone fall weather.  School, art, hiking, cozy movie nights and weekend nights at Boone Saloon.  Well this is what's been going on and what I'm looking forward to...lots of positive change in more ways than I've even let you in on. :)

Bossypants

John bought this book for me.  I read it last week when I was in Lumberton with Daddy Jack in the hospital. It really was a great distraction.  Daddy Jack is home and doing better now.  This book was hilarious.  I'm a huge Tina Fey fan.  30 Rock is my favorite!  She makes me proud to be a woman.  This book covers it all.  READ IT.  It'll take no time and every bit of it is funny and smart and like I said it makes you proud to be a woman instead of a man (because we're better), unless you are a man and then I still recommend it.  If you're like one of those jerks who doesn't believe a woman can be funny:  first of all, YOU ARE WRONG, and second of all, read this book so Tina Fey can tell you why you're wrong and at the exact same time prove to you how funny ladies like her really are!

move over pacey witter...

Oliver Hudson is the dreamiest.  I do know that no one understand's this post but me and that I should probably get a life and stop watching so much Dawson's Creek.  He's just so fine.  lol

The poster is done!

I miss bf tonight! He's off doing silly stuff without me which always makes me jealous.  Oh, well.  I do have good news via twitter.  My brother finally matted the swanky screen-printed DMB poster bf got me for Christmas.  Pirate purple mat board is the coolest!  After everything this ended up being a pretty expensive little piece of art. I can't wait to put it up on the fireplace mantel of my new apartment.  Look how pretty...

simplify...

I've felt this pull to simplify and streamline lately.  I'm moving in July and even though it sounds far off it really is not! I want to utilize the things I have and buy nothing.  I want to eat less so I can fit into the smaller clothes of past summers instead of buying new bigger ones.  I want to use the greenway and parkway to exercise on instead of joining a gym in the middle of summer (I think when it gets cold the gym would be a great idea!).  I want to read and learn new things instead of buying things to entertain me.  I want to save as much money as possible.  I want to get rid of the things I do not need in order to make room for the possessions I really enjoy ad use.  I need to remember what I've got.  This is a weird example but in the last couple of days I've found four sticks of deodorant sitting around my apartment.  Why!? I don't unpack at the end of a trip.  The deodorant stays in my duffel bag and I buy another one because I "can't find it."  I need to take inventory of the material possessions and all the stuff you can't see.  The stuff that determines who I am (good and bad), the stuff I carry around with me everyday.  I'm ranting.  I know this.  I think success is determined at your core, in your home.  How I handle everything can be seen as I handle my home.  I'm not doing well in that respect--I'll be honest.  I can be wasteful and I don't want to be.  My life is cluttered.  In order not to waste space, I'm going to donate all my crappy looking t-shirts and organize my kitchen.  I want everything organized before I move out.  All this stuff is not coming with me to the new place!

I want to be a combination of this...

and this...

Namaste.  hehe

You get the idea.

wish list

wish list by mMs41 featuring engagement rings