Sylvia Plath

"Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air."

When I was 17 I read the poem that held those words and fell in love. I had enjoyed poetry before but I never really felt connected to any until Sylvia Plath. She changed the way I viewed all poetry.

Niki Milns

"I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited. ”

Ponder and Stitch

"I love people. Everybody. I love them, I think, as a stamp collector loves his collection. Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me. My love's not impersonal yet not wholly subjective either. I would like to be everyone, a cripple, a dying man, a whore, and then come back to write about my thoughts, my emotions, as that person. But I am not omniscient. I have to live my life, and it is the only one I'll ever have. And you cannot regard your own life with objective curiosity all the time."

Just Be Designs

 "With me, the present is forever, and forever is always shifting, flowing, melting. This second is life. And when it is gone it is dead. But you can't start over with each new second. You have to judge by what is dead. It's like quicksand... hopeless from the start."

Panopoly

 "Can you understand? Someone, somewhere, can you understand me a little, love me a little? For all my despair, for all my ideals, for all that - I love life. But it is hard, and I have so much - so very much to learn."

My Soul Shines

"Because wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air."

Before and After: Desk

I spent a long time looking for a great desk that would provide a good amount of storage, have a classic look, and at a decent price. After a few months of searching, I found this piece on craigslist for $35! Full of potential and in a nearby neighborhood. I loved the fact that it needed some work, because then I was able to customize it to be just what I wanted.

needed some love all over

I started off by sanding down the whole thing. That took the most time, by far. Then I spray painted the entire thing with a glossy white. I took the drawers out and sprayed them a mustard yellow. I was going to look around for blue glass knobs and handles like these ones from Anthropolgie, but didn't feel like spending the time or money.

I ended up spray painting the hardware it came with a deep teal that I already had laying around. I love the way it came out!

Travels

When I graduated from high school I decided I would make a goal for myself to try and visit at least one new city every year. So since making that, here's where I am so far:


2006:
New York, New York
Glasgow, Scotland
Loch Lomond, Scotland
Ft. William, Scotland
Ft. Augustus, Scotland
Loch Ness, Scotland
Nairn, Scotland
Blair Atholl, Scotland
Edinburgh, Scotland
Dublin, Ireland
Cashel, Ireland
Cork, Ireland
Blarney, Ireland
Killarney, Ireland
Ring of Kerry, Ireland
Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
Shannon, Ireland

2007:
Otto, North Carolina

2008:
Carmel, California
Yosemite National Park, California
Berkeley, California
Alamo, California
San Fransisco, California

2009:
Columbia, South Carolina
Nantahala, North Carolina
Cary, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina

2010:
Amelia Island, Florida
Portland, Oregon
Hood River, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Vancouver, Canada
Asheville, North Carolina
McCaysville, Georgia

2011:
Jekyll Island, Georgia
Bowman, Georgia
Dublin, Georgia
Pigeon Mountain, Georgia
San Jose, Costa Rica
Penshurst, Costa Rica
Cahuita, Costa Rica
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Quepos, Costa Rica
Jaco, Costa Rica
Montezuma, Costa Rica

Updated with 2012 :
Statesboro, Georgia
Knoxville, Tennesee
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Buffalo, New York
Niagara Falls, New York
Boston, Massachusetts
South Casco, Maine
Scarborough, Maine
Portland, Maine
Freeport, Maine
Limerick, Maine
Bridgeton, Maine
Brunswick, Maine
Conway, New Hampshire
Pine Bush, New York
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2013:
Las Vegas, Nevada
Flagstaff, Arizona
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Oh, baby!

For most animals, spring is the time of birth and I certainly have found that to be true with my friends. In February I went to baby showers for my friends Georgina and Dama to celebrate their soon-to-be-born baby boys!

 

George

3 other pregnant ladies at the shower!

Dama

So much blue!

Both showers were so much fun! The only shower I had ever been to before was one that I actually hosted. So I definitely got caught up with these back to back ones.

Georgina's baby decided to come a little early - so less then a week after the shower we got to meet baby Luke!

so handsome!

I wanted to make something for Georgina that was baby related, but not "too" babyish. I decided she could use a new picture frame to display one of the many new pictures of her little one! I went to Michaels and picked up a frame, some small wooden circles, and fun little white sticker letters. Between my coupon, and teacher discount, I spent about $6! I already had appropriately colored paint and wood glue at home.

I used green, blue, and yellow paints and had to do about 3 coats of each. The paint dried really quickly, which was nice, so by the time I finished painting the 4th circle I could go back and paint the first one with another coat. I let them dry overnight to be on the safe side, attached the sticker letters and then attached the circles, with wood glue, to the frame.

I think it turned out really nicely and Georgina really liked it. When I brought it over she actually had a frameless picture sitting on her desk! It was such a simple project and a cheap way to create a customized decoration that is also functional.

No Child Left Behind

DIY Chalkboard Storage Boxes

I've been wanting cute storage containers for my room for a while now and decided to paint a couple of shoeboxes solid black. Then I was looking at Lemme Make It and Kristin had painted a banner with chalkboard paint. So I figured I could do the same with my shoeboxes. I went down to Lowes and they had a container for $13 (which will last me forever) and so I came home and got to work.

Supplies

I probably had to paint on at least three coats. I would recommend doing your last one (or maybe all three) with a sponge because the paint strokes were very evident on mine. I liked the look but it makes writing on the chalk a little less smooth.

Finished Product

I love them! They live on my bookshelf and look great. I love that I don't need to worry about making new labels if I decide they need to contain something else. Total spent was $13, but my can of paint is still almost full, so I'd say these storage boxes cost less then $1 each!

Beautiful Day!

Today it's beautiful outside! This morning I helped my cooperating teacher put up student artwork for Capitol Art and I've just spent the rest of the day enjoying this incredible weather, eating some yummy food, making a little art, and straightening my room. So far it's been pretty productive but still laid back. I've had music playing at the window's open to this 70's temperature. I'm loving it.

Jub Jub's loving it too

bowl of peaches, strawberries, and raspberries

new creation

I framed some fabric I got a couple of weeks ago and put them up

This has been a really nice day - I can't believe it's already after 5... It's going to be Sunday before I know it... I don't want this weekend to end!

A little attention twards our 16th president

"It is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln. He always steals the show."

 - Kurt Vonnegut

sweetheartsinner

I've always been a huge fan of pop art and like artwork that draws from the everyday. Just a reminder that you can get inspired from things you run into daily.

Scatterbrain Ties

President Lincoln was really into seances and his wife held them in the White House.

Aaron Reichart

Straw Castle Design

Lychee Kiss

Anaïs Nin

My baby girl Anaïs Nin

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." 

Hour Glass Productions

"Life is so fluid that one can only hope to capture the living moment, to capture it alive and fresh ... without destroying that moment."

"I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls."

Every Little Counts

"Ordinary life does not interest me. I seek only the high moments. I am in accord with the surrealists, searching for the marvelous."

"Oh, God, I know no joy as great as a moment of rushing into a new love, no ecstasy like that of a new love. I swim in the sky; I float; my body is full of flowers, flowers with fingers giving me acute, acute caresses, sparks, jewels, quivers of joy, dizziness, such dizziness. Music inside of one, drunkenness. Only closing the eyes and remembering, and the hunger, the hunger for more, more, the great hunger, the voracious hunger, and thirst."

Persephone Plus

"Passion gives me moments of wholeness."

"For me, the adventures of the mind, each inflection of thought, each movement, nuance, growth, discovery, is a source of exhilaration."

Fire Weed Impressions

 

"I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself."

Good Day

I don't really plan on leaving my bed today. And why would I want to when I've got these two in it?

After a pretty rough week - I don't feel guilty for a second of the laziness I'm soaking up today. I've spent the morning enjoying positives. Looking at different blogs, reading inspirational snippets from some of my favorite authors - and from strangers, finding out when I graduate, thinking about THREE upcoming vacations, downloading the newest Real Housewives (Atlanta and Beverly Hills, duh) cuddling with Ginger, hydrating, looking at beautiful artwork and just enjoying the comfort that is my bed. I have no complaints today. Except that slight pounding in my head leftover from an enjoyable night... But with most good comes a little discomfort. Good Day.