Lust

I'm back after a little blogging break. I want to thank all those who sent me well wishes on my last blog. It's been a really hard week, that's for sure.

So I indulged and bought myself this W magazine that I've been lusting after since I first saw it on the newsstands. This nice thing about my artwork is that a lot of my research comes from fashion magazines. They layouts in this issue are beautiful. Juergen Teller shot a spread with a Woodstock theme and Jennifer Jason Leigh starred in it. I think she's really beautiful. If you're into these magazines rush out now and buy the latest W. Look at Kate Moss! She looks like she was plucked right out of the 70s. She reminds me of Jerry Hall in this picture.

Besides happily going through fashion magazines I'm keeping busy in the study. This is my last year of grad school! That means stress! Sleepless nights! Cry fits! I can't wait. I'll be sure to document every last roller coaster high and low. Hang with me, folks. It's going to be a long year!

Granddaddy

My Granddaddy died yesterday and I still feel like I can't believe it. I knew he was ill but sometimes because I'm far away from everyone, it's easy to think everyone is always going to be fine. I loved my Granddaddy so much. He was always joking and teasing and smiling. Even when he was being cranky he was often doing it for a laugh. He lived a long happy life and now he can go somewhere and be with my Grandmother. Those two loved each other so much so I'm happy they can finally be back together.

This reminds me to always tell my family how much I love them all the time. You remember, too.

Go Green with The Giving Tree Band

Tuesday night I went to see The Giving Tree Band at a Best Buy in Chicago. What an amazing show! These guys deserve every bit of success they are receiving. They just released an album that is sold in Best Buy stores. You can purchase it here. I promise it is absolutely worth it. This band knows how to put on a good show and every song will make your knees a little week. They are also an environmentally conscious band. The CD was made in a solar powered studio and made of recyclables. Read about all their efforts on this cd here.

I know people don't buy a lot of CDs these days but this is one definitely worth purchasing. The music is good, the album art is beautiful (created by Jen Husted), and the message these guys are sending is one that a lot of people should be paying attention to. So if there is one cd you buy this year consider this one.

Check it out:

The CD in stores now.

The Poster for the show.

A little clip...

More band goodness...

Can I really Teach?

This has been quite a summer. I've had a ton of changes happening in my life. I had the best time ever at Frogmans. I enjoyed a vacation with my family. I discovered new things with my artwork. I also experienced personal sadness and pains and change. Now summer vacation as I know it is drawing to an end. This may be my last "carefree" summer vacation.

Summer is coming to a very surprising and nice ending, however. I can't wipe this silly grin off my face even while I anxiously get ready for the upcoming semester. Did you know I'll be teaching Intro to Printmaking? Am I really qualified for this? I think it is going to be fun and exciting and scary and weird and every other possible emotion at once. I think I might start a blog for my class so if you're interested in seeing what we're doing and learning more about printmaking I'll post a link here as soon as I get it up and running.

And right now, when I think of my future, I want to live in the Carolinas. I want to wear dresses and be warm and have a garden and swim in a lake and walk around barefoot.

Tomorrow that whole plan could change. Right now it feels pretty peaceful.

Good luck to all of you who are also ending your summer vacation and starting back to school. Don't forget your milk money.

New in Shop

Just added this to my shop!

Claudia

My best friend Claudia has just started a blog that is associated with her artist residency program she's involved with right now. It's a new blog but it's already funny and interesting and filled with great photos. Go check it out and tell her hello. Also look at the rest of the website, check out the artist residency program and get to know other artists in residency there.

Check back later, I'm going to post a new piece of work in my Etsy shop!

Art Show!

I cannot believe I've waited so long to post this photos. One of my best friends Joanna Goss, who is frequently featured on this blog, recently had her first solo show in Chicago at Dovetail, a cute vintage boutique and art gallery.

Joanna created works based on the theme of an old summer camp a family member used to run. You can see evidence of that by the window display with the painted rocks and "god's eyes." The show was a huge success and many people made it out. As soon as Joanna starts a website or etsy account I'll be sure to post it. Her works is really beautiful and inspiring.

Joanna's family has a lot of talent. Her brother Andy's band The Giving Tree will be performing tomorrow night at a Best Buy in Chicago where they will be releasing their new cd. If you are in the area it will be at the Bucktown Best Buy at 7:00 p.m. Meanwhile check out their webpage. They are an extremely talented band, one to keep an eye on.

I Cooked Again!

First of all I want to thank Jennifer at Jennyfur's Sketchbook and Oddities for sharing her story on my recent blog about places to live. I love hearing other people's stories. Feel free to pop by and share your own.

Today I had a deliciously lazy morning followed with a trip to the grocery store. I was very hungry and craving some sort of egg dish. I remembered I had this recipe saved on my computer when I found it on the L.A. in Bloom blog. Now remember I'm very new to cooking and even newer to following recipes. I grabbed a bunch of ingredients and set to work on this frittata. I was overwhelmed with happiness when I finished it. I've never made something like this before. Again, I know the picture quality isn't the best but trust me this was very beautiful. I almost didn't want to eat it but I did. It was really really good! There were plenty of leftovers, I wish I had someone over to share this delicious dish with but alas it was just me and my new adventurous spirit in the kitchen.

By the way, I've spent the last two days having a yard sale with some good friends including Cassie from The Adventures of Cassie and I'm proud to say I made a whopping 21 dollars! Haha. Not the most successful money-wise but I had a wonderful time with my friends and that's the most important part, right?

Red Balloons

Three red balloons floating around my apartment couldn't make me any happier. A better picture of them could make me a bit happier...

Have a great weekend. I am having a yard sale the next couple of days and hopefully a delightful end of my weekend Sunday. See you Monday!

p.s. I really hope to hear from you regarding my last blog. I want to hear YOUR stories!

The Places You Go

This morning I've been thinking a lot about where I'll live someday; where I will ultimately live. I grew up in a very small rural town and now live in a town a little bit larger. Chicago is next door so I have a city right at my fingertips which is great. I have one year left of grad school and then what? Where will I plant my roots? (is that the expression?)

For the past few months I really thought I wanted to move to a cool city. Portland! Chicago! Nashville! But there was always part of me that wanted the countryside, too. Sometimes when I go for long drives in the country I see lone houses and think about the people who live there, what their lives are like. Do they make art? Do they spend their Saturdays outside doing outdoor things? Are they happier?

My best friend Claudia (whose birthday was yesterday, happy birthday if you're reading this) says I don't really want to live in the country and that I'm over romanticizing it. In some ways this is true because my idea of where I want to live may be non-existent. I want to live in an incredibly liberal place and I know that can be pretty hard to find in rural towns, especially in the south. Not to say that people who live in southern rural towns are not liberal but they are fewer and far between than a place like Portland.

A friend and I talked about an artist commune that we want to someday start in the future. I know that's a very far out idea but we're pretty passionate about it so I think that could eventually happen.

Maybe I should quit fretting about where to live and focus on where I am now. But how do you choose where to go? I would love to hear from you, how did you end up where you are? Will you stay there forever? Please, share!

(by the way, the image is completely unrelated to the post. I didn't really have an image for this post but I hated for it to be bare.)

eating and sleeping

Last night I slept in my bed as opposed to my couch for the first time in a long time. I kinda marked it as the beginning of something new in my life. I had restless sleep, though and strange dreams. I think it was because I was reading Geek Love before I went to sleep. I've read it before but it's a very strange book.

Yesterday I made this for today's lunch and dinner. I know the photo does not looking appetizing but it really is. The photo is from my phone so that didn't help in the aesthetics. This is a wheat salad with lentils, chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumbers and every herb I can find in my cabinet. Someone recently took me grocery shopping and taught me how to buy proper ingredients. I'm not normally a cook but with my shopper guide's help I think I might have learned a few things. I cheated and tasted this salad last night and it was quite delicious. It could use some cilantro but all my cilantro was rotted much to my dismay. I suppose I need another trip to the grocery store.

Heath Ledger's last movie and it looks stunning.

House on the Rock

I spent the whole day at The House on the Rock yesterday in Wisconsin. If you haven't heard of it click on the link for awesome pictures and info. It's basically a house built by Alex Jordan that is very similar to Frank Lloyd Wright's work but I think Mr. Jordan's house is better and more interesting. He then began a huge collection of bizarre and strange finds. He added warehouse like buildings onto the property to house his collections. Unfortunately I did not have a camera so I could not get many photos but the link shows photos of what you can find there. I did get a video on my phone. The lighting is terrible but the music is very eerie. Some of the rooms were huge scenes with musical instruments but no one to play them. If you put in a token they would play themselves. My travel companion and I were very eager to hear the music in this room but we ran out of tokens so we sat and waited until finally someone came along and started it up. It ended up being worth the wait. The sites and sounds in this room were a bit overwhelming. Click on the video to hear for yourself.

The House on the Rock was an amazing adventure. If you are near the area I urge you to go. It took us about four hours to explore the whole place. I could definitely go back and spend more time there!

Today I took photos of a friend dressed up as one of my ghost girls. This is just one of many but I am going to be doing some photoshop things to them and see what comes of them. I'm very excited about the pictures and Joanna was a great model who endured the heat underneath that ghost suit without complaints. We decided it wasn't the best idea that we filled our bellies up with Thai food before the shoot, however. Next time we'll know better. I'll keep you updated on the progress of these photos.
After that we went to see Julie and Julia which was so incredible sweet and charming but there was a little part of the movie that bothered me a great deal. I can't really say what that was because it is a small spoiler. If you see the movie can we discuss your thoughts? I'll wait. ( :

Tomorrow I'm going to Wisconsin to see the infamous House on the Rock. Click on the link to learn about this place. I've been on the edge of my seat to go there since I first heard about it. I can't wait to post photos from my trip. Since I still don't have a camera they might have to come from my phone. I'll see you tuesday!

Vintage Etsy!

I decided to start adding vintage items to my shop. These are a couple of things I just listed but will be listing more over the weekend. Keep an eye out for lots of lovely vintage things!

Also, I have really enjoyed all the responses from my Day In the Life post. Please, if you are interested in making one of these posts contact me! They are fun to do!

I've been having a fabulous week. Hope you have, too!

<3

This is the best thing I've seen in a long time. Please take a moment to watch this.

And on a much different note, thank you to all who responded so sweetly to my last post. I think we can all agree Maria-Therese is an amazing artist and person!

Une journée dans la vie

In high school I was in a french class and we had to make a children's book on all in french called A Day in the Life and then we got to choose who we covered.  My good friend Michelle and I were pretty snarky back then so we covered a poser rock star and made a pretty cool pop-up book.  Now I'd like to translate this idea into blog form, minus the snark of course. For my very first Day In The Life blog I'm excited to show the day of Maria-Thérèse Andersson ofAfiori.  Maria-Thérèse has been mentioned on my blog several times.  You'll remember she was the sweet lady who sent me an amazing package of fun stuff in the mail.  She is an artist that works in many mediums.  Without further ado here is... Une journée dans la vie...

I wake up and then I snooze for about an hour. I can't really think or speak before I have my breakfast. Black coffee, a sandwich, some fruit. 

Then I take a look at what I worked on the night before, answer e-mails, check my Etsy shop, my bloglist, my statistics, read comments from my readers and so on

The first few hours I tend to do practical stuff but sometimes I start to create things right away. Today I cut a lot of paper and started to make new mixed paper books. Then a coffee break, then finished the books. I eat lunch late, or dinner early depending how you look at it. Anything vegetarian / vegan, for instance pasta with tomato / olive sauce and halloumi. 
I go for a walk, buy groceries and mail packages. I like to go for walks and listen to music, if I want to be alone, or I go for a walk around town if I don't mind being around people. On this particular walk I listened to Björk, Josh Groban, Lily Allen, Karin Bengtsdotter Olsson and Janis Joplin. I met a lot of dogs. 
I take photographs of new items for my shop afiori.etsy.com and then I keep working on my photography, writing or whatever else my inspiration tells me to do. I work according to my inspiration because I feel it's really the only way and I get more things done if I don't try to force myself.

Today I pondered my next project while eating chocolate ice cream. Then I did a photo shoot with a theatre / masquerade theme. (My model won't work unless you give her chocolate.)
At night (summer nights are freakishly light where I live, in Härnösand, Sweden) I upload and edit photos for my Etsy shop and start to create listings, which takes too much time, if you ask me. Then I update my blog, see what's happening on the internet and continue to work on whatever I've been doing during the day. I also like to watch a good film. 
Before I go to bed I renew listings in my shop, have tea, write and read a bit. Around 1 a.m. I start to think about going to bed and if I'm lucky I fall asleep within an hour or so.

Thank you, Maria-Thérèse! Are you interested in documenting your day for my blog? Contact me!

So Good

I know you all have probably seen the trailer for this movie a million and one times but watch it

one more time. Please. Every time I watch this I get so weepy. Yesterday I saw the trailer in a

movie theater and I cried a little. This movie may be the most beautiful movie ever. I'm so excited!

I'm also excited about tomorrow's post. Check back for a special 

surprise!