Monday, January 30, 2012

Jane Austen is my HERO!

I’ve got the Monday blues again…why do weekends go by so fast?! I never have enough time to clean, bake pies or exercise. Yes, that was sarcasm. I wouldn't get those things done if I had a whole year! But what I always find time for is movies. Oooh so many movies…

Once I start I can’t stop. And now I’m on an eighteenth century English kick, so I’ve been watching any movie set way back when that I can get my hands on. I sifted my DVD collection and scoured over Netflix and found any movie that fell under this category and watched them last weekend.

And I just want to say THANK YOU, Jane Austen. THANK YOU…

…for the greatest love stories of all time. I think I’ll vote for Pride and Prejudice being my favorite of the weekend, you know the one with Keira Knightley, not the 6 hour BBC version. (Don’t get me wrong, that one’s fantastic too! I recommend it for a sick day)

How can I not watch these over and over? Plus I learn fancy new words from every single movie. Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park…ahh Jane you are an angel! Of course I like to mix it up…with ones like The Other Boleyn Girl, Jane Eyre and the Elizabeth movies. Yay for strong female roles! Yay for GUMPTION!

Of course these movies have fanciful fashion throughout, another thing to inspire my crafting gene. I’m bound and determined to start making my own clothes, styled after those traditional English garments worn by Elizabeth Bennet and her 4 sisters. You can’t find clothes like that anywhere! Of course their jewelry is magical, inspiring more items for my growing stock. I wonder if Jane ever thought that her stories would still be inspiring people 200 years after she wrote them…

Now if you haven’t seen any of the above movies, and are wondering what the H I’m talking about…you need to go to Blockbuster, or get a Netflix account and get to work. Tell everyone you’ve got to “clean your garage” this weekend and lock yourself inside your house and get ready for the best, most romantic, most biggest-words-ever-learned-in-your-entire-life weekend! Grab your softest blanket, sit in your favorite place on the couch—don’t forget to close the blinds if the sun is reflecting off of the tv—and enjoy some of these spectacular adventures! The cleaning and exercising and working can wait!!!

Here is a little visual for you...some of my favorite clothing and jewelry from the movies:

Pics from Google Images

PS - These are indeed mostly chick flicks. I realized this while I was forcing my manfriend to watch girls dancing around getting excited for a ball. Yes, he is a trooper!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Ahh the splendors of nature...

What is it about nature? Something about feeling the sun on my skin and breathing that fresh air brings out my inner cavewoman. My internal instincts are allowed to take over and I turn into a wild harpie (reference: Ronia the Robber’s Daughter)…out to explore, conquer, or at least find something worth taking a picture of. I just can’t get over that feeling…of…what is it?...ahh yes, freedom. No clocks to tell you to get going, no horns honking at you, and no concrete to hurt your feet.

Do you know what I’m talking about? I often catch myself thinking of these things while I’m sitting at my computer all day. So when my mind is screaming “FREEEEEDOM!”…and 5 o’clock rolls around, it’s time for me to get outdoors.


Under the wild blue yonder…


Where I can practice my Indian call, hike at my own pace and let my imagination wander.


Where I can do whatever I want! Explore anything I come upon and capture the beauty seen by my own eyes.


Where I can freeze a moment in time, never to be seen again.


Isn't it grand, this feeling? Knowing that you are seeing something that will never be the same?


I love nature and all it has to offer us...we just have to get off the couch, strap on those dusty hiking boots & actually...yes, I mean it...cross the threshold of your house and start exploring!


"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."  -- John Muir

All pictures were taken by me, in good ol' North Dakota!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

C’est la vie!

I have been doing a lot of daydreaming and drifting lately. The New Year hasn’t been very kind to us around here. There have been accidents, dreadful crimes and now winter has finally woken up and we are trying not to freeze our tails off! Sometimes I just have to get away! So my mind has been wandering quite frequently to hills of warmer places, cities across the sea, and cabins up on top of mountains.

A couple days ago, I was flipping through my look book (my binder of clippings and photos from magazines that inspire me) and I came across an ad for the perfume I wear. I remember saving it because, first of all it’s set in Paris, and secondly the colors are amazing. This made my mind travel back in time to when I visited “La Ville-Lumière” or the City of Light. I think my desperate-for-a-vacation mind skewed the memory because Paris was more magical than before! The little cafes, the night time ferry ride and the twinkling Eiffel tower all seemed to be just an image I dreamt up.



It was a very calming day dream, and with it came loads of inspiration! As you know, I’m getting my stock up to start selling on Etsy, so right now everything I see I turn into a piece of jewelry. So I turned on Quelqu'un m'a dit by Carla Bruni and got to work. Here are a few snap shots of my process in making my c'est la vie necklace, and another sneak-peek at what my shop will be filled with…


My ballons in their first state, just out of the oven.
Getting ready to assemble.
Balloons are ready! Had to make them fly a little :)
And it's finished!

Thank goodness for this daydream! It reminded me - C'EST LA VIE! (That's life!)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Gallops Among Angels

I am sure sometime in your life you’ve owned a pet, be it a squirmy goldfish or a special puppy, that touched your heart and helped you learn about life. I have been pretty lucky in the pet department. A lot of my childhood memories are filled with these loving critters…lots of fun stories and maybe a few not-so-fun incidents...

One of my favorite memories of all time was when my dad came home from work one day and told my sister and me to look in his lunch box. We rushed to the old container and slid the cover off. You cannot imagine our surprise! For hidden between my dad’s lunch remains was a puppy dachshund! Yes…a wiener dog! That was probably the coolest surprise, even though my Momcat wasn’t too impressed at the time. We named him Rusty and he was definitely in the running for BEST DOG EVER.



A lot of my favorite pets have been horses. We used to own a Shetland pony, named Cherokee. He was white all over and sprinkled in brown spots. He had a very interesting personality and got into a lot of scrapes. But they all turned out okay! I remember the exact brown spot that tickled him and also singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on beat with his farts when going uphill. Or downhill. Or basically anywhere…he also put up with us little kids, sometimes three of us at time riding him bareback. He was very tricky and got out a lot, but once we started chasing him, he knew where he belonged! I remember riding my first trail ride on Cherokee…I was pretty young and after a while I had to go to the bathroom. But for some reason I couldn't move. I called to my dad and he lifted me off and set me down but my legs were so stiff I couldn’t walk. Hahaha I also got a black and blue hand from holding on to the horn so hard! But it was a great ride, and I remember galloping for the first time by myself on good ol’ Cherokee.

I think my all-time favorite pet, was our horse Tilly. Full name: Matilda Bay. She was a bay quarter horse and was basically us kids’ second mother. She gave us some great foals over the years and she ruled the roost. (Of course…she was a female!!!) She was the horse everyone wanted to ride when we’d camp in the Badlands. She never did anything bad, except maybe crow-hop a couple times if you didn’t let her snatch a bite to eat. She was the same age as my older sister, so Tilly was in my life for, well, for forever. Unfortunely, like most pets, you have to say goodbye. Last year we had to put Matilda Bay down, she had terrible arthritis and could barley walk. That was very hard for all of us, but she left us with tons of fun filled memories and lessons.



I got to thinking about Tilly the other day, and I decided to create something in her honor. And since I’m on a jewelry kick I decided a necklace would be fun way to remember her by. So here is my Gallops Among Angels necklace, in honor of a great horse, that will forever be in our hearts...


Thursday, January 5, 2012

Some new twists & ties!

Okay, I’m obsessed. I love scarves. I love wearing scarves, I love tying scarves, I love shopping for scarves. I’m always looking for new ways to wear those lovely pieces of silk, cotton and cashmere. While I was browsing my favorite store in the entire universe, Anthropologie, I noticed how awesome their product pictures were for the scarves. So I decided to compile a pictorial list of my favorite ties to share with you…enjoy!


I can't wait to try these! I hope they help you out if you're ever in a scarf tying bind.
You can find all of these scarves at http://www.anthropologie.com/

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Godt Nyttår!

Hello 2012! We are officially having crazy weather here in Western NoDak. I haven’t seen a snowflake here for months! I was really glad to be down in South Dakota for New Years, where the Black Hills welcomed us with an early morning snow flurry. Plus the Black Hills are the next best thing to the mountains!



The view off the deck of my Aunt & Unc's cabin in SD

I hope you had a wonderful New Year’s celebration…and that you didn’t get too wild! Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I hope you are taking this time to reflect on the year past and getting excited for one ahead of us!

What opportunities a new year brings…it’s like a clean slate, another chance for us to get it right! I wish you great happiness and success in this new year. (If you're wondering about this post's title, it translates to "Happy New Year"...my Norsk classes are starting up again next week so I need to get some practice in!) Skol 2012!
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