Wild and Mysterious

Ever since I read The Wild Christmas Reindeer as a child (written and illustrated by the always amazing Jan Brett) I've thought that the reindeer was one of the most beautiful and amazing animals on the planet. For a while my 8 year old brain confused some of the Christmas myths about them, so at some point I even thought that they were imaginary animals--you know, like unicorns or something?
Regardless, I love this tundra set on Flickr.

Ann Wood

As an artist myself, I often struggle with incorporating the art I love to make with the practicalities of "real life": maintaining my home, paying the bills, etc. Therefore, I have the utmost admiration for artists who appear to me to beautifully and seamlessly entwine their art and artmaking with the potentially mundane elements of day-to-day life.
Ann Wood seems like one of these artists. Her work is amazing, and the glimpses into her studio/apartment, strewn with vintage fabric scraps and hung with paper mache ships, give it the feel of some sort of Victorian fairyland. Looking through her Flickr page at in-progress photos of mysterious creatures, snippets of her workspace, and finished creations is a huge inspiration--the thread of creativity that runs through all of it is almost palpable!

Ann Wood, you're my hero.

Cold & Clear

First December weekend:
-Blue sky, pink clouds, and bitter cold
-Lazy, napping, crocheting days
-Fantastic Mr. Fox
-Good friends, family and food
-Holiday cookie baking
-Embarrassing amounts of Pushing Daisies (how am I just now finding out about it?!)
-Picking out and putting up our Christmas tree!

Forgotten Film

This time exactly two years ago I was living and studying in Italy. When I was preparing for my 3 month stay in Europe, I packed about 20 rolls of film which I planned on shooting with my manual Nikon. Once I got there, I found my trusty film camera to be too clunky and heavy to lug around all day (not to mention conspicuously loud inside cavernous Italian churches!), so after shooting just half a roll, I switched over to my smaller and lighter digital camera for the rest of the trip.
Apparently (and this was a shock to me, I couldn't believe it had been so long) I hadn't used my Nikon since that time in Italy. When I pulled the old camera out again on a whim a couple of days ago and finished up the partial roll I found in it on an Autumn walk, it was such a surprise gift to discover once I received the prints back that the first photos dated back to my time in Italy.
While I have literally thousands of digital photos of my Italian adventure, these few film images are so special to me.

Faces with Character

Gorgeous portraits by Anna Kharina.

Art Diet

I try not to make Folkloric too Seattle-centric, but I can't help it with this post--I'm super excited for this month's First Thursday, Seattle's monthly city-wide art walk. Eirik Johnson has some amazing looking photographs from his Sawdust Mountain series up at the Henry Art Gallery, James Harris Gallery is showing new work by Akio Takamori (sculpture doesn't always interest me, but I just can't get the images I've seen of his statues out of my head), and I've also been meaning to swing by MOHAI to geek out over their exhibit The Arts & Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest.
Anyone else planning on seeing something exciting this First Thursday?

Moth House

Moth House's new Autumn/Winter items are up in their Etsy shop, and everything looks just gorgeous. Also of note is their lookbook--with all the muted greens and greys, it's right up my alley. Can I add the whole collection to my wish list?

The Biz in Bizness

Like I need to be spending money on expensive shoes right now (especially since I'm still completely in love with my awesome Autumn shoe splurge of awesomeness), but when I saw these Biz boots my jaw just about dropped, so I had to pass them on. The buckles, the flat heel, the pointy toe, the smokey grey color! Could Jeffrey Campbell be more awesome?

Because we need more holiday treats?

Did you know you can order macarons off of Etsy? I was a little suspicious about the whole deal (freshness, etc.) but the numerous reviews for the shop and the cookies are all super complimentary, so maybe I'll give it a try. The batch with Caramel Apple, Maple, and Pumpkin Spice in it sounds mighty yummy.

Weekend Pairing - Thanksgiving Holiday

Had a glorious Thanksgiving--hope you did too!
Afterward, we flipped the switch from Autumn to Christmastime.
I laughed with my family, ate ridiculously well, sat in front of the fire, took chilly afternoon walks, listened to the dog purr on my lap, and crocheted my fingers off.
It was a good holiday.

Full Friday Flickr Faves

iliveinoctober . iliveinoctober . liekerroomijs . danske
I was kind of hoping that looking at these delicate photographs would help me balance out how heavy and weighted down I still feel from yesterday's feast, but alas, no luck so far.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Feasting!

Originally uploaded by djola_has_seen. BTW, the set this photo belongs to is GORGEOUS.

For all those in the US, Happy Thanksgiving! As a vegetarian, I'll be stuffing myself with everything but the turkey today, though what I'm really excited about is that by the end of the feast this evening my self-imposed restriction will be lifted and I can officially begin listening to Christmas music. Bing Crosby, here I come!

Pretty as a Painting

Painterly cocktail dresses in a painterly lookbook for Olivia Rubin, Spring/Summer 2010, photographed by Alistair Guy. Love it.

Cupcakes from Cupcake Royale, my one true love.

I'm celebrating my birthday today, so here's a cupcake for me and another for you! :)

Fact & Fiction

You know what these tights are? These are fairy tights. Paired with a little fluttery dress (black, maybe?) I'd feel like quite the woodland nymph. Wouldn't it be fun to dance about at wintry holiday parties in these lovelies?

Weekend Pairing - Fun to cook, fun to eat

The boy and I threw a little pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Feast this weekend, and the absolutely fantastic food blog Smitten Kitchen was a large part of it--I get so many of my recipes from Deb! Sunday evening we enjoyed salmon and wild rice with creamy lemon-dill sauce, rosemary roasted potatoes, cauliflower and brussels sprouts in caper-butter (definitely going to have to make this again), winter fruit salad, and a Dorie Greenspan cranberry upsidedown cake for dessert. Success!