acrylic on bristol

Cruising is a little painting I spun out at a painting marathon in my friend’s apartment. She’s the happiest whale I’ve ever known, and was created in record time, too. I’ve been very interested in texture and patterning, and my usual dots & swirls combo showed in full force this time around. I used almost all remaining paints I had, which gave me a very strange but satisfying palette to work with. Inspired by my general fascination with whales, and a very vibrant color selection. It reminds me of an illustration out of some slightly psychedelic children’s book.

{ taken on my second cousin’s farm }

Take a look at this guy. He’s one happy goat.

I don’t normally anthropomorphize,

(a lie, I totally do)

His smile reminds me of the morning.

It’s time for the Sunday special— The Love List. It’s a collection of the things I’m totally loving this past week. And, of course, you can get in on it too. What have you been loving this week? Leave the good stuff in the comments.

1. Fleet Foxes — Headhunter Dupstep remix. It’s beautiful and hypnotic.

Going barefoot, I realized, is a perfect metaphor for my philosophy of life: the barefoot philosophy.

When you go barefoot, you become naked, you simplify, you become a minimalist.

It’s a hard philosophy to explain, because others often judge it as weird, hippy-like (as if that’s bad), unpractical. It’s very practical, and while it may indeed be weird, it’s also beautiful.

It’s the simple life, in a nutshell.

Appleseeds is the name for my little iPhone photograph collection. For the times when I don’t have a camera on my person (there aren’t many of those), I know I can depend on my little iPhone to record the moment. Here’s a little collection of recent appleseeds I’ve taken and processed with the super cool Camerabag application for iPhone.

the campus: University of Miami

I found a tiny action scene taking place on the IM fields.

sometimes I like to build forts.

the haiti elephant: painted sculpture, contributed to Haiti benefit art auction

resting on campus

I’ve resorted to iPhone photography, and I’m almost positive this is because I haven’t yet backed up my thousand plus photos from England, and so they sit on Dean’s memory card, keeping me from snapping off new digital photos to my heart’s content. Think I’ll have to finally get around to that today.

It’s sneak peak time.

I wonder what the contents of my handbag say about me. The contents of a person’s handbag can be quite fascinating, once you ask yourself this: what makes these items so important that me must carry them with us? I try to travel light whenever possible, usually because I’m toting at least one camera on my person at all times.

1. fresh polaroid, taken on the university green.
2. super beautiful taxi wallet, made by vera.
3. metal bird sculpture keychain, crafted by my lovely metal sculptor friend Yael Brisker.
4. super fly sunnies, found at haight/ashbury in San Francisco last spring.
5. yeah, I’ve got an iphone. I know.
6. candy cane parcel string. not quite sure how long it’s been in my bag, or how it got there.
7. spare change. because you never know.
8. burt’s beeswax lip balm. because I am addicted.
9. nail polish in “blu”. funky & bold nail polish colors are my favorite.
10. it’s more ON my bag than in it, but I just have to mention my adorable barn owl pin, which I received at the Holkhom nature reserve in Norfolk, UK, courtesy of RSPB: a million voices for nature.

And since we’re already sneaking a peek, I figured I might as well throw in a polaroid of what’s on my bed. Living in a dorm room means that your bed becomes so much more than a bed. It’s also my couch, library lounge, laundry shelf, and home office.

yes, those headphones rock. SO HARD.

I guess it’s easy to have a home office on your bed when you require few things: laptop, music, backpack full of observation notebooks and “homework”.

It’s time for a brand spankin’ new Sunday ritual— The Love List. It’s a collection of the things I’m totally loving this past week. And, of course, you can get in on it too. What have you been loving this week? Leave the good stuff in the comments.

1. These shells remind me of summers spent on the shores of Long Island. I could walk for miles along the coast, on a mission to find the most beautiful shells for my collection. Yes, I’m still totally obsessed with A Collection A Day.

A Collection a Day: #86  Seashells

2. Jamie of From Me To You (an amazingly gorgeous tumblr blog) dishes out the recipe for some fantastic Tacos al Carbon, Homemade Tortillas, & Fresh Roasted Salsa. Get in my mouth, you beautiful food.

3. Younicorn Me turns anyone with an iphone and a minute or two into a UNICORN. I discovered this last night. I was, in a word, overjoyed. Totally worth the 99 cents. I think I make a very majestic unicorn:

my unihorn brings all the boys to the yard.

4. And since we’re on the topic of unicorns, I’ve got something even more magical to share with you: Robot Unicorn Attack! This game is presented to you with the highest recommendation: the Oak Owl Crest of Magnificence.

That title sounds so awesome, I just might need to make a graphic for it.

I must say, Robot Unicorn Attack! is absolutely thrilling. The premise: you are a robot unicorn. In the style of super mario world, you are moving forward throughout the game, leaping (or even double leaping!) from rock to rock. When you leap, you leave a beautiful, sparkling rainbow trail. Your objective is to collect rainbow butterflies with your leaping skills, and impail huge metallic stars blocking your path with your magical unihorn. Or else you crash and burn in a very big, robotic way. If for nothing else, please try this game for the sound effects and theme music. Absolutely magical.

5. My new purple sneakers are totally awesome.

6. This song is looping in my headphones all week. The accompanying video is very pretty, as well. It’s not the official music video or anything, but it is a beautiful collection of slow-moving nature clips.

On a completely unrelated topic, I dreamed of Samuel L. Jackson as his character in Pulp Fiction. The Crest of Magnificence should go to my brain this morning. I actually imagined up extra scenes to the movie, in which Jules Winnfield tours the local burger facilities in hopes of finding “a tastier burger”. Yep. Thanks brain, for leaving me completely puzzled (and a little bit hungry) upon my awakening.

1. a beautiful mind, 2. dark horse, 3. mirrors for the sun, 4. bagel at bergen, 5. st. patrick’s day cupcakes, 6. sweet tooth, 7. goddess of the koi pond, 8. dreams of school, 9. one owl, two owl…

I call it a retreat because that is exactly what I did. I retreated from the hectic and ever-busy Miami. I climbed into my big blue bed and had long sleeps. I spent some quality time with my couch that swallows one whole. Have I ever explained my couch? It’s like a big, fluffy brown beast. Sometimes, I think I can feel it breathing ever so gently, as if it has been hibernating in a deep sleep for months.

I went to see Alice in Wonderland, which was the biggest retreat of all— being thrown down the rabbit hole for an hour pair certainly did the trick.

I think I’ve just passed through an Escapism stage in my life.

That’s not to say things were particularly bad. I just felt like running away to someplace comfortable for a while. And oh did I get comfortable. It was practically a SARKtastic pajama party.

And I whipped out my SX-70 for some serious playtime.

Speaking of Polaroids, have you heard the news?! The Impossible Project has brought Polaroids back to juicy life! They have two new films: Px 100 and Px 600, which can be fed to SX-70 cameras and 600-type cameras. These films go on sale this Thursday. Cha-ching! Sign me up for the inaugural batch.

That was certainly the cherry on the cake for my spring break. Without further ado, here be the top hits list from my adventures:

{ taken by the lovely chelsea olson }

best of spring break: retreat style

1. my big blue bed.
2. my fluffy beast couch.
3. waking up to birds greeting the spring through my open window.
4. baking st. patty’s day cupcakes.
5. visiting the horse stables.
6. walking around on the first beautiful day of Spring. My cheeks turned a little pink from the Sun.
7. playing loud music in my car with friends & windows down. all the way down.
8. cooking leek & potato soup. always a comfort.
9. Alice in Wonderland. of course I saw it in Imax 3d.
10. taking polaroids around the neighborhood.
11. family dinner at a lovely local restaurant.
12. crazy winds to keep me inside and cuddled up.
13. hosting a dear friend for that crazy stormy weekend.
14. finding some brand new purple shoes!
15. teaching a young (and totally awesome) horse-loving girl how to take photographs of her favorite horses
16. meeting a fabulous thrift store collector of the stars, Marion the Magnificent.
17. pleasure reading and warm baths

Overall, totally relaxing and much needed break. And so I welcome the he arrival of April, my last month of school work down in Miami.

Bring.

It.

On.

It’s time for a brand spankin’ new Sunday ritual— The Love List. It’s a collection of the things I’m totally loving this past week. And, of course, you can get in on it too. What have you been loving this week? Leave the good stuff in the comments.

1. It’s official, I am completely obsessed with Lisa Congdon’s A Collection a Day. Each day, my RSS feed gets a little gift delivered to me in the form of quirky, charming collections. Some of my favorites from her Collection project:

vintage plastic figurines

vintage boy scout cards

2.  Amanda from the lovely blog Mocking Bird talks about the creative bliss that comes with a lost afternoon. Slowing down and taking a creative break (I prefer mine along with some tea and chocolate) is a very important, nurturing ritual that everyone should infuse into their weekends. Amanda talks about taking time to create, just for her. That’s something I can totally get behind.

3. This totally HOT bedroom decor:

The black hardware, circle swirl designs, all against that turquoise… what a sexy design! Thank you laced.candy for a most excellent eye for style.

4. Everyone should be downloading their own free copy of Lianne Raymond’s crazy beautiful compilation e-book, What is Dying to Be Born? This is an absolute gem, filled with creative inspiration to go forth and be awesome. As Lianne says, “It is a celebration of the imagination and vision of women.  The ideas in this book are important and my dream is that they will be shared widely and freely, with love, so that they can make a difference.”

5.  All credit goes to my sister for this one. This is quite simply THE trailer for Every Oscar-Winning Movie Ever. And it’s hilarious.

This should have been done on Sunday, but it’s going up on a Tuesday. I adjust for weekend sickness (dude, it sucked).  Hope you have a t-t-terrific Tuesday!