November Playlist.

I feel like November feels wispy, winglike, sparkly, and ephemeral.

Here is a manifestation of that in music.

On Your Wings

-Iron & Wine

I Left Town

-Julie Doiron

Hands in Pockets

-Lauran Gibson

The Letter B

-Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez

(please don't associate the song with the video, not a huge fan of the vid)

Photos 1, 2, 3, 4

Snowfalls in November.

Lazy Sunday morning. Redecorated room. Good music. Yummy cereal with bananas and chocolate soy milk. About to take a little stroll all bundled up.

Tribe and True.

Today told me it was a time to be a colorful hippie, so I obeyed it. I woke up this morning, yoke lightened, but not weightless, after a very lonnnngg sleep-deprived week, and I had this strange desire to make a gossimer canopy around my bed with twinkle lights because I want to retain my childlike sense of wonder. Then I turned on We Added it Up by Sarah Worden and came across this cool photographer. The combination of all of these things resulted in this odd get-up. Currently, I am writing this post and continuing the boheme bourgeoise theme by munching on taxidermied vegetables from Earthfare (horrible dysphemism, eh? but it's the only way I can describe it). So yes. Here's to Saturday. Here's to not reading loads of film articles right away.

Moon Waltz.

Even though I'm sick, look rough, and am about to take a nap, I figured I would bring you all some galactic love from Athens. A few months ago, I was determined to be spacey looking and constantly look like an extra from Back to the Future II (because 2015 is not that far away and we should ready ourselves for the transition to lots of spandex and shoes like these). So, finally this weekend I got to print a t-shirt that achieves that look. Now my nebula ring from Anthro finally has a companion in my closet and all is right with the world. This isn't as severe looking as I initially thought it would be, but it has a militaristic feel so maybe the edge comes from the idea that the future is foreboding? I don't really know.

Also, for all the photophiles out there, excuse the cut off feet, I know that is a photo no no.

Lastly, the title references this song. The sound doesn't really pair with it, but oh well.

This is a variation of the outfit I tried before deciding on the top one.

Here's the ring in it's unnatural jewelry habitat, not a similar member of its species in sight (well maybe that cockatoo headband and it can be friends)

Here's looking at you, Day.

Part of me is not really partial to the typical "look-of-the-day" blog post, it seems oh so very "look at me" and I want to stray away from that. But I guess it's a rite of passage when one has a style blog, so I'll give it a whirl for a while to see what I think.

This idea was prompted for a few reasons 1) I finally figured out a way to take style pics that don't look like they belong on Myspace, 2) while driving to dinner I realized that I am really J. Crewing it up today and figured people might want to see it, 3) I will do absolutely anything to avoid preparing for a French composition tomorrow.

So it's your basic slouchy denim number with a messy side ponytail, socks with moccasins, and oversized glasses. The look is tied together with a smirk inspired by a guy my friends know who uses it to woo the ladies. How very Jim Halpert of him. So I decided to wear it too to see if it does anything from the other side of the spectrum.

Well that's it. Tell me if this is lame and I won't do it again.

Aminals.

Whoa. Some major inspiration magic just happened. I was taking a picture of some pretty things for fall when I started to notice a theme, animal related! I started taking away and adding and getting excited then I took the picture.

These are the items:

My friend's Dave Matthews Band Moose Shirt

a piggy bank change purse

My pig friend named Toot (after the Toot and Puddle books)

Calfskin shoes

Animal print blanket

Tortoise shell glasses (eh? eh?)

All of this happened in the middle of the DM Stith song Pigs

(I wish I had more pig things then this would have been REALLY cool)

I suppose this theme of animals runs farther than the afternoon because of other things that have happened recently. For instance, I came upon a little kitten this morning on a walk and found some people who knew where to take it to find a new home. Then a few weeks ago my friend told me about this song Aminals which dictated the theme for a cd I made for another friend. Cool Stuff. Well okay that was my wierd little rant for the day. Wishing you all a great week! xoxo

Oh and P.S. Pshh I said I would get right to homework this afternoon. That will NEVER happen.

P.P.S. Also watch this, it will make your heart melt and you might cry, but this is also animal related and is SOO good.

"Hello, House" "Hello, Jo".

Welp this is my humble abode! Let me give you a little tour.

This is my foyer where people like to look at my barnacle lamp. I've shown it on other occasions throughout my blog history, but now it has a permanent place in the central part of my home.

This is my front mirror and table and my finished vest/jacket (vackest? I jest.) The table is complete with a copy of "A Waste of Time" by the team at kate spade. Come on by and flip through it, you'll get a kick out of it.

This is my living room, where people come and watch movies sometimes.

Then here is my shelf which has a nice little ledge at the top that you can't see that is fairly close to my bed and I fist bump it every morning for stability. We have a good relationship.

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I'm sure more details of my home will arise as the year goes on, but here are the basics.

If you didn't get my general theme to this post (Meredith, I know you most certainly did), then you should watch this trailer and then go find the movie in theatres!

If you go to my school, feel free to stop by and you can choose from my wide variety of teas and foreign magazines! I'd be happy to hang xx Jo

White Stuff That People Like.

This could be a potentially boring post, but I can't help but notice that I have a favorite: detailed white things. I think my obsession with interesting textures came from this guy who loves wearing neutral colors but all of them still look exciting. I've posted about the beauty of white before, but most of the pictures were forms of inspiration and not actually owned by me.

There is more detailed white stuff in my room than this which is a little wacko, but I thought I'd give a little sampling.

Decadence and Tom Waits.

Don't you love pairing weird flavors together? I'm trying to expand my palate a little more in relation to my musical taste and my culinary tastes. So tonight I took a little inspiration from a meal I had at Farm 255 the other night and made a delectable cheese platter. The cheese is a Dutch chevre, then I added some yummy Georgia peaches topped with Valdosta pecans that are flavored with orange zest, cranberry and black pepper, and then a dash of honey. Boy oh boy, divine! And if my senses weren't already through the roof, I listened to some Tom Waits. I normally would pair a culinary experience with classical music or something very light hearted, but what the heck, let's make it really great. So, yes, this was my 8 oclock-instead-of-dessert. It's almost better than dessert in my opinion.

Scoring Goals.

Well my dears, the summer has officially come to a close. It is the eve of my Junior year of college and I couldn't be more thrilled for it to be here. Much like the end of last summer, I am going to sum up how I did with my Summer Goals List that I made at the very end of April. My oh my how priorities can change in the matter of three and a half months! Clearly I didn't do some of the things, but there was method behind my badness. Here it goes, I hope you enjoy.

1. Attack my "Learn About This" folder.

Yes!! I attacked it in a more efficient way than I could have ever imagined.

Any of my good friends could tell you that I am a die-hard bookmarker on the computer. If my good ole Mac could sit down for an interview and speak its mind, it would say how weighted down it was with websites I have made note of in the past few years. So I discovered Pinterest and now most all of my websites I have relocated somewhere on there.

I did however break down midway, had a fit (because it practically took me all day to go through all of the sites), and just deleted my last page of websites and all of my "learn about this vocab". If I ever run across those words again (knowing most of them came from the mouth of Hamish Bowles, I do say it is rawther unlikely) then I will learn them organically and chronicle them into my everyday vocabulary at a natural pace. Not a major loss.

2. Learn about Graphic Design.

More or less I did learn more about this. I watched the documentary Helvetica whose primary focus was on the art of type design (changes how you look at everything!). I'm sure I subcosciously took in a lot of notes as far as layout design is concerned given my new devotion to the next point...

3. Read more Culture Magazines.

I most certainly did. If you hadn't noticed from my previous posts, I had a bit of a magazine awakening. I had always limited myself unknowingly to the biggies (primarily Vogue, Elle, Dwell, etc.) but I had never really explored past the genre of Women's Interests and Home to see what else was out there! For example, men's magazines are fascinating. I have read many a good article in Port like the one about the Hollywood Machine in the 30s-50s, another about the beauty of staying in rather than going out, great articles abound in International Men's Vogue like the feature on James Franco, and there was an interesting exposé on a certain kind of gun found all over pop culture in another mag that I cannot remember the name of.

You catch my drift. There is a heck of a lot out there and just as it is crazy to limit yourself by only learning about one field and nothing else, it is crazy to limit yourself to one section of the newsstand or bookstore. Think about it.

4. Have my Barista Friend make me a Latte at her New Job.

So sad this didn't happen! I fully intended to journey to the center of the state on a few occasions, but it just never seemed to work out between our schedules. Ala dear: this fall, you, me, coffee, soul-focused talks, movie watching, laughing our heads off. It will happen and I can't focus on it too much now because I will yearn for it much too much.

(Photo credit goes out to Meredith of Delicate + Porcelain)

5. Make Über Flowy, Fun Clothing.

My initial idea was to recreate the French clothing I see time and time again at Worthwhile in Charleston. I put this task off a very long time (I just started making my garment last week!) but I am nearly finished with an interesting looking jacket/vest. The fabric I used was salvadged from an old skirt I had in middle school, which needed a facelift. So now it is in the making of being a modern, beltable piece that is lined with linen, love it!

6. Find an interesting backpack.

I didn't techncically buy any interesting backpacks, but I didn find one my sister got at her internship a few years ago. It does the trick when I want to wear modern clothing; it's black and simple and perfectly Kate. Raspberries.

7. Create and collect a lot of goodies for my new room.

This one exploded in the past month. Every day I would be out and about and see random things like children's toys and hand-made paper and say to myself, I can use that!. I ended up creating four paintings (3 of which are in my vest picture above), collected other art to sprinkle around the room, and my desk is a heck of a lot more beautiful than one would expect for a dorm. Another post with more details soon to come!!

10. Start doing monthly playlists on the blog.

Although they tend to come at the end of the month rather than as inspiration at the beginning, this did start happening. Here are the playlists for May, June, July. (Funny, I made my friends three mixed cds at the beginning of the summer last year, one for each of the months. Here is the picture of them.)

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8. Learn more about England.

9. Make Leather bound notebooks!

11. Finish my new project (it's a surprise!)

It may seem lazy that none of this happened, but I had a major focus change around the end of May.

You see, in my late teens I strategized my plans for learning in my early 20s:

There are two fields of thought people seem to devote their time to: the past and the present. I don't have a lot of time to do independent learning during school and I have a lot of things to cram into my brain before I enter the workforce/adulthood when I don't have nearly as much free time. I should focus on learning about things in the past as much as possible, and then when I am well grounded in all things old (film, literature, pop culture, news, etc.), I will focus on the day-to-day news of this dying world. This transition should occur when I am a grown up.

It's funny because I just thought there were two general fields of thought, but I didn't factor in another important one: the future. There are loads of intelligent people giving a lot of thought to what will be and how to prepare for it. I get really excited for my generation as well as generations to come and I had a major mental explosion when I started learning about innovators of today and what they are conjuring up for tomorrow. I pushed aside my focus on making antiquated notebooks, learning the history of England, and most importantly, I set aside a major project, writing a book, which didn't seem relevant anymore to my aesthetic or for the company my book would have been for.

So, phewww that was a long one, wasn't it? Well thank you for enduring all that hullabaloo and I wish that all of you going back to school have a purely wonderful experience this fall. Here's to the future: may we live it well and be flexible with change as it comes our way. xoxo

Photo 1

A Room with a Viewpoint.

Recently I've been exploring what a space can say about a person. I've found that just as the clothes on a person's back reflect his/her personality, so does a space say something about the way they live, because well, they live there.
When getting ready to set up my home for the fall, I have been looking for things that are punchy and make a statement. It's almost like I've been designing a set for a character, who is me, and I want to add specialized touches that bring light to who I am. This is the first time I've ever had my own place without roommates so it's new and exciting for me to have a space that gives off a singular expression of personality rather than a compromise between two distinct voices.

So basically, after painting like mad last week (which I discovered I love! I may buy and eisel for the room too so I can paint after long days) and reinventing items to make them unique (like the play animals I repainted for display), I am officially done planning my room, which I move into in a little over a week.

I think my space will give an air of playfulness yet calm, detailed but not overdone. I can't wait to share it with you when I'm all moved in! xoxo

Also, side note, I wanted to include the picture above of my new trompe l'oeil sandwich pencil case (isn't it fun?), but you may have thought at first glance I'm just randomly holding a sandwich. So, yes, no it's not a sandwich.

Everyday Beauty.

Life is so big and so exciting, isn't it? I feel like there are so many magical things happening in so many different places. Even if they don't scream at you to look or that they are important, when you are keen to their ways therein lies the treasure. I was talking with my dad today about this. He said for example he didn't like Seinfeld when he first watched it, but when you get to know the humor and personality of Larry David, you pick up on the specifics of the humor and it becomes so much more enjoyable.

This applies to every day beauty. When you are trying to understand the ways of our glorious Maker, sometimes it helps to see a part of his personality. For example, He is rawther creative. If you even get a small glimpse of the creations He makes, you see he is a God of big proportions. I was driving through my little hometown today, not expecting anything particularly grand, when all of a sudden I looked up at the painting of the day in the sky. I was in a particularly good part of the road near my neighborhood where the view of the sky is breathtaking, visible for miles and miles. I look up and I see the most perfectly fluffy clouds all in rows extending as far as my eyes could see. For the first time I actually stopped on the side of the road and just gazed for a bit. It got me thinking how wonderful He is and that He thinks a little town in Georgia is just as worthy of a beautiful skyline as Cortona or the poles. People in the creative field search day in and out for the world's idea of beauty. They will study it, move for it, and devote their lives to it. I myself have to travel a good half hour to look at beautiful hand-made paper or a store design worth oggling over. But the Lord gives us wonderfully detailed and hand crafted beauty to awe over day in and day out. The trick is recognizing the patterns in his work to really appreciate all that He has made. It also must be said, if He pays that much attention to creating a beautiful sky to show His handiwork, how much more is He already working through things in your life to reveal Himself to you?

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