where i wish i was

photos by autumn de wilde

Home: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

Home

...okay so I actually am home right now. But with a cold. Wishing I could see this band live in the city! Or running around the countryside with this band, playing my mandolin that I don't and probably never will play, braiding sunflowers into my hair that is barely long enough for a short stub ponytail, feeling nostalgic about a southern carefree rustic childhood I never had but still somehow feel connected to. Thats the funny thing about nostalgia.

Take antique stores and antiquing. People, myself included, buy old things because they want to feel a connection. To what? It varies. But it is interesting to me how sentiments of nostalgia and yearning for history surface and compel me to fill my room with stacks of old books, jars, photographs of people I never knew, frames from a time I never lived in. Its like pretending I had memories I never had or something. Whatever it is, I love objects from the past, and love that objects carry with them stories and history and context and love, war, peace, growth, tears, joy, relationships...all in a little insignificant object.

I love insignificant objects. Because in the small object can be such a world of unrecognized truth and beauty! Not everyone sees this. Or claims it as important. But its a lens I can't shake, just as I can't shake the treasure hunter's magnetic pull towards rummage and estate sales.

the goodness of muffins

I am getting kind of into baking muffins. As one who has on more than one account wailed "I'm a domestic failure" while trying to fix a kitchen mishap, this is a pretty progressive step. For October, I mastered Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins (Betty Crocker's recipe, tweaked a bit), after a few failed attempts. For November, I choose these Coffee Walnut Chocolate Chip Muffins! They are absolutely amazing and the espresso adds the perfect amount of sweetness. My sister found this recipe on TasteSpotting, a blog that encourages my cooking by showcasing tantalizing food photography and giving you the recipes! It makes me say "I wanna eat that" and then....viola! Also, I highly recommend using Ghiradelli chocolate chips!

COFFEE WALNUT CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS
from The Frog Commissary Cookbook

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease/flour a 12-muffin tin.

2. Cream butter with sugars, coffee and vanilla.

3. Beat together eggs and milk.

3. Combine flour, salt and baking powder. Alternately add the wet and dry ingredients to the butter mixture until just combined.

4. Add chips and walnuts. Divide among muffin tins, filling until almost full.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

6. Cool 5 minutes and then remove from tin and cool on racks.

7. Enjoy!!

shake it

Over the past 24 hours I have discovered something so amazing that it has almost helped me get over the death of Polaroid. Almost. Almost in the way that I still am not over Marshall Fields becoming Macys on State Street and will forever complain about it and refuse to give Macys my business.

So in the spirit of embracing change and technology, I have become addicted to the iPhone app Shakeit. Which is actually quite economical considering my Polaroid addiction nearly made me go broke, and this one only cost me the equivalent of 1/4 a white mocha at Starbucks.

Shakeit polaroid-izes your iPhone photos. It makes them square and gives them a little digital white border and ups the contrast but not in the annoying "I iPhotoed my spring break and now we are all really tan and bright" way you know? It smooths the big patches of colors and gradates and texturizes in mmmm.....all the ways a Polaroid does. Almost at least. Enough at least : )

all is fleeting, but all is good

#91.3 Noah and the Whale - Episode 3
by lablogotheque">


La Blogotheque take away shows are one of my favorites because they combine gorgeous music, talented musicians, artful filming and the spontaneity of human nature in one short film. Musicians play in streets, apartments, alleyways, and parks and whatever happens, whoever happens to stop, listen, and interact, is kept part of the experience. I am absolutely in love with them!

Here is one from one of my new favorite bands, Noah and the Whale. I love the colorful and youthful way they play in Paris elevators and streets.

They also recently released a film for their song, The First Days of Spring. Check it out, its beautiful!

"blue skies are calling
blue skies are coming
but i know that its hard"

"

The First Days of Spring Official Trailer from charlie fink on Vimeo.

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hello, brave world

("eggs", etching, 2009).

"creating a work of art is in effect the setting up of a world...in terms of truth...providing a space to dwell" (Heidegger)

Of most things I am unsure:
Probably makes sense since I am an F, feeling, on the Myers-Briggs test.
Of the blog world I am very unsure. It seems everyone's blogs that I read have intent, purpose, a well rounded and focused image, and seem like they have it all together. But then again, thats how we view "everyone else" in the material people non-web non-texting present reality, and, at least in that world, everyone doesn't have it together. So no longer shall I be shy of starting a blog post such as I am not shy of starting a conversation!

Of this I am sure:
I love beauty. And stuff. And the "marrow of life" as Walden calls it.
I make a lot of art. But it is everywhere. Physically. It lives on borders of post-its or collaged cards or on sketchbook pages or on my walls or on my floor. Sometimes it gets deconstructed and reconstructed into something new. I want a way to share and receive criticism and a way to organize all of my favorite places on the web. The web, to whom, I as a charcoal-on-my-hands artist am trying to fit into my materials based work. So here it goes...