Its That Time of Year Again

It is that time of year again- 

that time of year when people begin to feel inspired by the always waiting "unknown" expanse of the future.  Tomorrow, I begin the trek back to Savannah and am thankful that this journey falls on the first day of the new year.  I will have plenty of time to dwell on the highs and lows of last year as well as the endless opportunities this new year holds.  Reflecting on 2011, I have realized that I am so thankful for the school I go to. I love everyone of my classes and enjoy homework and the projects that come my way.  I love the friends that I have made both in Dallas and in Savannah.  I have realized that each one of my friends I love for entirely different reasons.  I have friends that hold me accountable, friends that are ridiculous, friends that I don't understand, friends that I can be silent with, friends that I can call, friends that I don't have to talk to every week, friends that complete me, friends that I can talk about nothing to, friends that I talk about how horrible life is sometimes, friends that are talented, friends that I am proud of, friends I know that one day we will be better friends, etc.  I am very very very thankful.  

Favorites of 2011

artist: Sheila Hicks

music: Benjamin Francis Leftwich

movie: like crazy

book: A Severe Mercy

drink: coffee

purchase: zig zag cow hide wedges

thing to do: go to foxy loxy (coffee shop)

place I went: Oban, Scotland

Looking on to the new year, I have begun thinking of my resolutions.  This year I am taking these more seriously and making an intense plan so that I can cross some of these off. What are they you may ask?

The List

-making a schedule for my weeks in order to simplify and make the most of my time in order to include the following: people, cooking, homework, new ideas, exercise, on the side projects, alone time, praying, letter writing, keeping up with people, and reading.

-camping on cumberland island

-studying abroad

-being active daily spiritually

-maken even more trips and explorations

-striking up conversations with the randoms of life more often

-weaving until my hands fall off

-reading a book/ month (hard to do with college life)

-being known at local coffee shop

Alamo Bowl

 Off to San Antonio.

GO BEARS!

Be Linen

BE LINEN MOVIE from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.

A View of Winters

Since my first road trip to Savannah from Texas, I have come to appreciate the variation of land from area to area.  The drive through Texas has been known to get "boring" but I love every bit of it- even the land of a small town in West Texas is beautiful.  

Feliz Navidaddddd (Proud Family)

It is the night of Christmas and I am sitting down after a long day of festivities and relaxation.  We usually do not spend the entirety of Christmas day in Dallas but did this year.  The day consisted of presents, great breakfast, church, nap, reading, cards, Christmas dinner feasting, visitors, record player jams, etc.  It has been wonderful.  However, the greatest Christmas "happening" this year was that the first of the cousins got engaged two days ago!  Peyton STONE is now engaged to Mike RUSSELL.  What are the odds.  We had the privilege of spending Christmas Eve with Mike and the rest of our family. We welcomed him with open arms as he took part in the annual cousin gift exchange, Noodle Nod (see facebook), and the newest holiday game- THE WOODEN SPOON GAME.  I'll leave it a mystery as to what this clever little game is, but I will leave you with two pictures.  

Tomorrow, Mary Claire, my dad, and I will be traveling to the small town of Winters, Texas (home of the Blizzards) to spend Christmas with my dad's side of the family.  My mom and Natalie can't come because of sickness and work :(.  The worst.  This only means one thing though- more Radiohead and The Streets for the road trip!

I hope you all have had a wonderful day and continue to enjoy the rest of the season with your loved ones! Feliz Navidad. 

Christmas Thanks

I am currently sitting in my room waiting on my family to finish wrapping last minute Christmas presents.  As I wait I can't help but reflect on this break.  These last few weeks have been a little different than last year and I find myself adjusting to the weird idea of a college break.  Even though we have left November far behind and are coming to the end of December, the spirit of Thanksgiving still weighs heavily in the air. 

a list

  I am thankful for old friends and reunions.

I am thankful for my family and how ridiculous it is we are so close.

I am thankful for Legal Grounds and the guy who works there (Matt).

I am thankful for the time to have creative days.

I am thankful for health.

I am thankful for the warm layers the rest of my family wears as my mom bravely enters this hot phase in her life. 

I am thankful for energy and laughter.

I am thankful for new family members. 

I am thankful for new friends and the excitement of returning to them.

I am thankful for Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for marriage.

I am thankful for parties and conversation.

I am thankful for the continual working out of my faith. 

This break truly has felt so good.  I am sad that it is coming to a close but am so excited as I look forward to the new year.  There is so much happening.  So much.

Melissa Castrillon

Keeping a sketchbook has always been a challenge for me... Rather, FINISHING a sketchbook has always been a challenge.  Check out Melissa's wonderful drawings and her dreamy sketchbooks.  I can't deny it.  I am a little bit jealous of it.  

Nest Floral Studio

Yesterday I had the privilege of experiencing the "greatest" of Lewisville (outside of Dallas) with a friend who lives there.  Lewisville is a place I never really go, but has so many gems.  We hit "Dat's Good BBQ", a local comic store who knew A LOT about Dungeons and Dragons, and Nest!  My favorite among the three was Nest which provided floral, stationary, and party services.  They had a great room in the back of the shop where great parties or events could be held- exposed brick-LOVELY!  They also have a letterpress that they just "play" around on.  Alright. Cool.  Their window display drew me in with their 'potted' succulents.  I tried to pick just one, but couldn't limit myself.  I got two.

 

Nick Cave

Sorry for all of the images...I couldn't pick a favorite.

Alright.  This weekend while in Arkansas, something amazing happened.  I got to experience two of Nick Cave's pieces in person at the new Crystal Bridges Museum!  Crazy stuff.  I was enthralled and my eyes couldn't move fast enough as I tried to take in the nature of his whimsical "soundsuits".  These suits are made from every texture that you can imagine including twig, crochet, knit, buttons, sequins, odd trinkets, flowers, pattern, etc.  He explores the idea of the sound the suit would make in motion.  His pieces stand as both static and sculptural as well as performance suits.  I cannot wait to go to a full exhibit of his.  

forecast: frozen

Tomorrow, I am off to spend the weekend with some of my favorite people in all the lands...in Arkansas.  Yes, that is right.  ARKANSAS.  It has been snowing and I am almost positive I am going to freeze.  EEP.  I cannot wait to snuggle, drink coffee, and see my favorites.  

Josh Faught

LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME

check out my website (it is in process, but STILL!)

"There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city. There is silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same. There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, the silence of doubt. There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need of a man, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak. Its voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay. Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is a soundless echo."

Beryl Markham 

Dead Man's Bones

I don't know why I haven't shared this yet... but Dead Man's Bones (Ryan Gosling? Yes please.) has been on my top played list for a few months now.  I just stumbled upon this wonderful video.  Check it out.  

East Coker

                             East Coker: V

                                 T.S. Eliot

So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years-
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres
Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it.  And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion.  And what there is to
conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once of twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot
hope
To emulate-but there is no competition-
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under
conditions
That seem unpropitious.  But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying.  The rest is not our business.

Home is where one starts from.  As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living.  Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise.  In my end is my beginning.

Day One of Productivity

Today began my first day of PRODUCTIVITY!  If you haven't already heard, I have thrown the idea of returning to my old job out the window and have settled with finally diving into all the art projects that have been building up in my mind.  Between paintings, spinning yarn, weavings, and other fibrous constructions I have my work cut out for me.  This morning, I continued working on a watercolor that has taken me far too long to finish...a say by tomorrow it will be done! hip hip!  For now, I am about to head out to White Rock Lake with a big fat blanket in my back seat (freezing temperatures in Dallas!).  I am going to cozy up with warm beverage in hand, read, write, and look out at the leaves and lake around me. 

I am very very excited and this is only day one. 

Elana Herzog

Elana Herzog has an incredible portfolio along with an incredible resume.  I have been staring at her fabric and staple installations for a couple weeks now wondering when I can have one permanently in my (future) home.