black & white

>>broke out the nibs tonight<<

currently:

buying this for my father in law but wanting to add 2 to cart

listening to Ziggy Stardust on repeat

planning an art challenge for December (maybe January)

making the gingerbread popcorn recipe from Treasures & Travels

small business Saturday

Fisherman's Terminal

today I went to Constellation & Co. located at Fisherman's Terminal to pick up my first Christmas gifts of the season. this shop has gorgeous hand-made cards and prints made by the owner. they also collaborate with local artists providing unique jewelry and gifts that are all gems.

another small business I supported today is Edgevale, an outdoor apparel company from California. all of their products are stellar, not to mention designed and made in Cali. I may have ordered the Campfire pants for myself.

water, water everywhere

 

 

so many great books adding up on my reading list. here's a 'lil sampling I'd like to get...after I'm done Christmas shopping, of course.

grateful

Huckleberry Basin at Mount Rainier

thankful for my sweeny, my partner and best friend Jake. this week marks our 18th year together and we love each other more each day.

>>Happy Thanksgiving<<

cut & paste

>>a walk in the woods before I get my pecan pie game on for tomorrow<<

closet space is overrated

...unless you want to fill it. that's right, I said it. I'm going to take this moment now to warn you that this is not a "minimalism" or "organize your closet" post. it's quite the opposite actually.
an ode to the full, beautifully messy closet.

don't get me wrong; sure, we all have things in our closet that probably should not be in there (Chucks with holes in both heels, high school soccer jacket, bridesmaid dresses). I will also admit that cleaning out your closet is a somewhat liberating process, and that the end result can in fact feel pretty great. but there are also those other moments, like when you realize that a certain new plaid jacket would look great with my old red jeans I no longer have and are living somewhere in Buffalo Exchange or (gasp!) someone else's messy closet. giving away items that I can't get back kills me. so, to all you shoe and clothes hoarders out there, this one's for you. after all, it is a collection.

I never know what to wear - via Catherine of Wolf Eyebrows

pattern greatness via Sara Waiste

my closet contribution shortly after picking up this vintage mushroom gem from Beats & Bohos

Eclectic-vintage-shop feel closet, swoon

Dylana Suarez's closet is multiplying! I love that it literally is growing out from the original closet.

Mondays

I was going to write my first whiny post. instead, here's a photo of the hottest day of my life: Death Valley.

Zabriskie Point in August

sidewalk art

 

I've always thought Campmor magazine was the J Peterman of the outdoors. also, packing tape image transfers are fun!

Birch Box

signing up for a monthly Birch Box has been the best ten bucks I've spent in a while. it's a lot like getting a Christmas stocking every month filled with fun little pampering treasures. except it's in a well-decorated box that's perfect for holding your stuff.

the summer months' boxes packed more punch for me with lotions for sun-kissed skin and dry shampoos. my November box was a mixed bag for me. the gamble is also part of the fun - not knowing what you're going to get and the bonus of getting products you never knew you needed or loved.

Friday's got me like

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

the enemy of art is the absence of limitations - Orson Welles

Pinewoods Campground, Kettle Moraine SF, WI photo credit: Jake Fritzler

NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Post Month involving a blog post a day for one month. on day seven I began to realize that starting a blog for the very first time via 30 consecutive posts feels a bit like jumping right into the deep end without swimmies.

luckily I can swim. I had always wanted to try blogging, yet I'm doing it without much planning and lotsa short deadlines. but I love goal-oriented challenges, love 'em, and this one was my way of making myself stop being fickle and face the dragon. just do it, don't think. thinking will come later. this is okay for me because, well, I'm an overthinker.

so please bear with my tinkering and occasional awkward content flow. oh, and bad jokes, sorry those are here to stay. nothing I can do about that, it's hereditary.

Raw. Vegan. (definitely) Not Gross. ice cream sandwiches

ginger cookie & chai ice cream sammies!

this dessert was absolutely delicious, and I actually can't wait to make them again. for the chai tea I used Tazo Vanilla Caramel Chai, other than that no ingredient changes were made. I did use the oven as I don't own a dehydrator (yet) and the results were perfect. I also like that it's really a fairly low maintenance recipe to whip up, given you have a food processor.

now if you haven't already, go check out Laura Miller. I'm a huuuge fan of hers - I love her photo shoots, her show Raw. Vegan. Not Gross. (even though I'm only an occasional vegan) and looking forward to seeing what's in store for her new show With Laura Miller on Tastemade.

small scale

going through my journals recently I noticed that a few of my favorites were always small, particularly two moleskines and this journal - one of my all-time favorites that I picked up at Fischberger's Variety in Milwaukee a couple years ago. sidenote: that store is my playground.

anyhoo, that left me wondering: is that because I'm limited to small pages that I fill them better? was it just timing and those were some of my favorite time periods? (nope!) is it just the journals themselves? (maybe. I do love this small 'lil fatty!)

November wishlist

Coleman Deluxe Propane Lantern with Hard-Shell Case >> Domke Camera Protective Wrap >> Trangia stove >> Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long Term World Travel >> Terramar Thermasilk Pointelle Scoop >> Vasque Talus UltraDry Waterproof Hiking Boots >> Toyota Tacoma "Women on the Road" Poster by Hallie Rose Taylor of She-Explores 

slices on slices

the #weeklyfoodphoto challenge theme for this week is "slice" (verb or noun). so many great places you could go with that. I took it to sandwich town featuring the classic grilled cheese: Grand Central Bakery Como sliced bread and Colby Jack cheese. nom.
food photography challenge hosted by @paolacthomas

                                                                  >>for Paris<<

cauliflower shoefie

Trona Pinnacles

that surface just looks like cauliflower to me. anyways, we're having multiple systems of torrential downpours, flooding and wind gusts here in the Pacific Northwest. so here's a photo of me standing on tufa in the sunny, hot desert from last month.

sidewalk art

>>building some art making habits this week<<

closer

last weekend Jake, my dad and I attended Kenmore Camera's Digital Photo Expo. Jillian Bell from Tamron gave a lecture on macros and it really rekindled my love for getting up close.

at a young age my dad taught me shooting on his Minolta with the 50mm and 100mm lenses, and a macro photography phase quickly ensued. fast forward back to present day, I'm surrounded by tons of big-skyed landscapes on Jake's and my hiking trips and macro shooting went by the wayside for broader views. having said that, I'm ready and excited to delve into macros and look a little closer again.

you get close enough to something and the distractions go away - Jillian Bell

California dreamin'

Dome in the Desert via Airbnb

how terrible would it be for me to be researching vacation lodging? ...one month after coming home from vacation. time flies when you're having fun is a cliche expression for a reason. we blinked and our trip was over. not to mention we've gone to this area three years in a row and STILL feel there are so many places we want to visit. (I can't help California being a flippin' giant state.) typically we're campers, but there are just so many great unique places to stay.

so here's a note to self for our next trip (date TBD) with potential lodging ideas. by potential, I mean I kinda have to stay at all of these places at some point.

Hicksville Trailer Palace in Joshua Tree via Mucho Mucho Bueno Bueno

Rimrock Ranch Cabins in Pioneertown

Bonita Domes via AirBnB

you do know I could go on and on about this right? maybe not yet.

homemade Wheat Thins, wut wut!

I am so thrilled with the results of this recipe. run, don't walk, to Smitten Kitchen to make your own homemade Wheat Thins. the recipe is well written, accurate (I made no changes), requires a low quantity of ingredients and really fairly easy to make (especially if you have a food processor and rolling pin). now, my food photography during the winter is another story and needs some work, but lookit - Wheat Thins!

almost forgotto

got way, way caught up in Sunday rituals (bloody marys, sweater shopping, cleaning & snoozing) and nearly skimmed right over Nablopomo today. so here's some affogato since I almost forgotto.

Cloud City Cafe

and because I believe collages pair nicely with espresso and ice cream, some gorgeous vintage material collages by Augustine Kofie via Colossal.

apples & macros

apples & macros today for the food photography #weeklyfoodphoto challenge hosted by @paolacthomas

goin' mobile

every year on our trip to the eastern Sierra Nevadas, I like to stop at a very small home called the Rock Pile in the very, very small (almost ghost) town of Keeler to buy minerals, wind chimes and mobiles. 

Rock Pile art

following our trip this year, I watched Pedro E Guerrero: A Photographer's Journey - a phenomenal documentary on one of my favorite photographers (more on Pedro another time) that used his lens to paint portraits of the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright, Louise Nevelson and Alexander Calder - the creator of the mobile.

Alexander Calder stabiles in Sache, France, 1976, photographed by Pedro E Guerrero.
Credit: Pedro E Guerrero Archives via Thirteen Pressroom

is it the kinetic effect? the speed of the movement? maybe the memory of one dangling over our cribs as a child? I don't know but I truly love it. if you ever have the chance to see a Calder exhibit, make it a priority.

arrow mobile DIY

on the more obtainable side, I highly recommend this mobile DIY via Smile and Wave. I made one for my house and it really is perfect: simple yet very eye-catching. I used a different color, a red stain, to match my house. the movement is great, and withstands windstorms (several tests performed).

sometimes you feel like a nut

>>a small reminder that sometimes the more difficult way of doing something is the more interesting way<<

cut & paste

bits and bobs from California: a lil paint, a lil washi, gift store bags, campsite registry tags, sagebrush flowers, Joshua trees, minerals, my honey on the way to Convict Lake and probably the best beer I've ever had.

currently:

rockhounding & shootin' pics outside an old mine near Darwin, Calif.

trying to hold on tight to the memories (and the temperature) from Jake's and my trip to Death Valley. that was only a mere three weeks ago but it's starting to feel like a lifetime already.

building collages from vacation bits

wide-eyed over HQ Architects' interactive flower blooms in Jerusalem via This is Colossal 

drinking more tea than coffee (gasp!) 

listening to Leon Bridges

wanting a dramatic warm coat like these

also wanting to spend too much money on this TOASTER

making Whole30 pork carnitas for din-din

what twenty years of journaling looks like

finding my voice in the last place I left it.

here we go, hello!

I've toyed with the notion of having a blog for quite some time, and reading this quote was the exact kick-in-the-pants that actually made me do it. so I'm walking the plank and jumping right in.