words as art.

i'm plugging away with my classes this semester - spending less time writing and more time creating, which is right up my alley!

i've posted a few examples of my work from my visual aesthetics class - the kandinsky replica and the yoga collage. and i wanted to share some more of my work. so it's time for another show-and-tell.

this time the assignment was to use nothing but letters and words to create an original image, or piece of art for that matter. we were allowed to incorporate color and stretch and warp the words. below is my masterpiece! can you guess what words i used repeatedly throughout the image? the answer is below...

turks & caicos

i created this from a picture i took when i was in the turks & caicos with a dear friend several years ago. i'm in love with the photo so much that i kindly requested my art teacher boyfriend to make me a painting of it, which is now hanging in my bedroom.

here's the original photo. in comparing the two again, i didn't do such a bad job afterall.

buttons.

there's been a button frenzy lately on several of the blogs and websites i visit daily that i can't quite understand. this button tutorial on craftstylish and this new button book that soulemama mentioned on her blog gave me inspiration to check out my own collection of buttons.

so i pulled down from the closet my sewing kit that, i must note, was given to me by my father. yup! instead of tool kit, my papa gave to my sister and me each our own sewing kits filled with items that my grandmother used years ago.



beautiful spools of thread, old vintage metal scissors, and the best part, her very own labels (pictured above) is what he filled our kits with.

among all of these treasures, i found my collection of buttons scattered everywhere inside. several of them were in those small little white bags that are attached to new clothing (yikes! is that a sign?). the others were miscellaneous ones that i found and collected over the years.

after i gathered all of my buttons, i plopped them into a jar and decided to display them, along with all of the vintage spools of bright color thread from my grandmother. they all seemed too pretty to put right back into the closet.

so their new home resides on a shelf in my bedroom where i can admire them every morning and every evening.


now for those of you who are feeling left out because you don't have any buttons (and, truthfully, i think you have a collection stashed somewhere in your drawers), have no fear, you can get a scoopful of buttons here for just a few dollars.

and in celebration of buttons, i've added a new blog to my blogroll over there to the right, 3 buttons! check her blog out!

my buckle.

no. it's not a belt i'm talking about; it's my homemade blueberry buckle. i made it three times over the course of two days a few weekends ago, and i'm ready to make it again! it's the type of baked good that can be enjoyed in the morning with a cup of coffee or in the evening hot out of the oven with a scoop of chilled vanilla ice cream. yum!



more often than not, i use frozen blueberries, which are just as good as fresh or even canned blueberries. as long as you incorporate two cups of them, it doesn't matter what kind you use.

this is the buckle minus the crumble topping

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blueberry buckle

bread ingredients
¾ cup white sugar
¼ cup butter
1 egg
½ cup milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)*

1. preheat oven to 375°. grease 8x8 pan.
2. cream together sugar, butter, and egg.
3. in separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. alternate flour mixture with milk as combining with sugar/butter/egg mixture.
5. stir in blueberries.
6. pour into pan.


topping ingredients**
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ cup butter (softened not melted)

1. combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter.
2. sprinkle over cake batter.
3. bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick pull is clean.

* if you are using frozen blueberries, i recommend thawing them a little first. it will help when you mix them in with the batter.
** i always double the topping (a.k.a. crumble). you can never have too much butter, cinnamon, and sugar with your buckle.

enjoy!!!!!

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a letter from mama.

i was sorting through some old papers and photos recently and came across the most beautiful letter from my mother that she sent to my sister and me. i will post a picture of it later tonight (picture is posted below), but i want to share the words she wrote with you all now. hopefully it brings some inspiration to you on this very dreary and rainy day.

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May 12, 1985

Dear C and T,

"Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all of the world there is no other child exactly like you!" - from Joys and Sorrows "Reflections" by Pablo Casals

As young ladies you have to be willing to take the daisies that are offered to you, without false humility. When they are not offered to you, you need to make the whole-hearted effort to pick your own armfuls of them. And always, no matter what, you need to be free enough to run barefoot through them.

Love,
Mom ("Mama")

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white.

i love white. i love white. i love white. did you know that i love white? seriously, i really do love and appreciate the color white. from white furniture to white jeans to white towels to white candles. i love to surround myself (as much as I can) with white. one day i want to have an all white room in my house. now whether that actually comes to fruition is another question. nonetheless, it's fun to imagine what the room would look like.

anyhow, i was reading the latest issue of women's health magazine today and was delighted to find an article entitled, reasons to wear white. so in support of my passion for white, i wanted to share the reasons right here on my blog and invite you all to incorporate a little bit of white into your lives.

:: reasons to wear white ::

1 :: what better way than to show off your curves?

2 :: it toes the line between sultry and sweet

3 :: it's hard to screw up

4 :: it gives instant polish

5 :: it's like having your own personal spotlight

and the best reason of all...

6 :: because black is for wusses!

mocka-doc-gock.

you're probably wondering why i titled this post "mock-doc-gock." well, let me explain.

you see when my sister (pictured below) and i were little, we could never understand what our parents were saying, sort of like how all of the adult voices in charlie brown are muffled, that's how we heard our parents. we (maybe more me than my sister) wanted so badly to talk like them and have adult conversations, but we didn't know how to say the fancy words they were exchanging, never mind understand what they actually meant.

so we made up the word, mock-doc-gock. we would say it to eachother back and forth several times as though we were having a very important and mature conversation with each other, and we would laugh so hard until our bellies hurt. oh, to be a kid again...

p.s. the image above is of my sister when she was wee-little, before i was even a thought in my parents mind.