"Civilizations are not remembered for their businessmen, lawyers, or bankers. They are remembered by the arts."
Eli Broad

Blogs You Simply Must Follow or You're Silly.

I've come across some really wonderful blogs lately, and I thought I ought to make a selection and recommend some to you guys :) (Though I wish I could recommend everyone; if I'm following you it's because I think you have some serious moxie.) Really though, go follow them. And I'll tell you why you should!

1. StyleNymph

 First up we have my lovely, talented, and very sweet friend, Sarah: affectionately known on the web as the StyleNymph. She is a model, photographer, and blogger who's incredibly fashion-savvy and always recommends really chill music. I've seriously found some of my favourite songs on her blog from her "current jams"!

There are so many artful, inspiring shots (like this one from photographer Anna Harty) on her blog - go check it out!

BLOG: StyleNymph
Photo (c) Anna Harty

2. Kitchen Karate

I just discovered Jordan's blog, "Kitchen Karate", tonight through foodgawker, and instantly fell so in love that I had include him in my recommendations. I'm secretly a huge foodie. Almost all of my memories of trips I've taken have been surrounded by food. The reason I get myself out of bed is for coffee and breakfast. And I love to bake and entertain.

Jordan's blog features gorgeous food photography that'll have you laying in your own drool, awesome recipes (I'm trying the "Rabbit in the Hole" recipe tomorrow morning), and it is HILARIOUS. You're seriously missing out if you don't add Kitchen Karate to your blogroll.

BLOG: KitchenKarate

Photo (c) Jordan D'Amico

3. Love at First Blush

This blog is such a source of inspiration for me. The designer, Sabrina Chin, creates amazing works of wearable art from leather (which is a medium in which I'm totally incompetent). I could seriously go on and on about how much I love her stuff, and am planning to buy her very-popular Black Feather Necklace as a birthday gift to myself this summer.

If that's not enough reason, here's another: amazing photography. Sabrina expertly pairs her products in with well-known labels, resulting in absolute loveliness.

BLOG: Love at First Blush

Photo (c) Sabrina Chin

I'm definitely going to be featuring some more blogs soon! Perhaps next week :) There are so many talented people out there who deserve more attention! Now go follow StyleNymph, KitchenKarate, and Love at First Blush! And have a lovely night :)

Summer, School, and More Snogging.

Life is going well, my friends. Sorry I've been absent on the blog this past week... long long hours at work and just being insanely busy. But this week is double-dark (meaning, we have 2 days of no shows) at Cirque, so I've finally got a bit of a breather. Which is good, considering that I found out I got into SCAD'S Illustration MFA program for this fall, and I literally have not had time to even start looking over the materials. Where the heck are my priorities?! (They were totally on the Easter Egg Hunt and Egg-Dying this morning with my 10 year old sister)

It's supposed to be feeling more like spring and summer this week, with hot weather and thunderstorms (my favourite!), so I figured tonight would be a good time to bust out my Summer To Do List:

What are your summer ToDo's?

My list has several numbers that are quite large umbrellas, so let's just add more margaritas, wearing more dresses, creating new jewelry, exploring different avenues with my illustration, buying new clothes, taking life less seriously, and drinking a lot more lemonade.

Lemonade Spring Bloom Necklace by Mirilovelove

Also, a follow up to my previous post: (because I am pretty sure my life is just one big self-fulfilling prophecy.) As per my completely un-serious words about the future of snogging in my personal life, voila! Some snogging happened, with quite a fine chap. I couldn't just write up a whole big "making out post" (as my friend called it), and not follow up to it! Happy snogging, fellow bloggers!

Incredible Image, "Armour" by one of my favourite artists, Homentashen.

Her works are always a feast for the eyes. Here's her blog.

Here's to the art of snogging, 

and to hopefully some good ones in the near future

because - let's face it - it's just plain fun.

I had my first kiss when I was 15, it was by a bathroom and he pulled away. HAHAHA. The pinnacle of awkward adolescence. Nothing like the stuff Taylor Swift sings about. Do you kiss and tell? (I can, now that I'm nearly 25 and have had enough therapy to get over my first lip-wrestling experience, err- fiasco!)

Typography by me. Font is courtesy of dafont.com; font, "exotica".

Transport Me to the Beach Please

Been reading up on a lot of fashion and accessory blogs lately, especially with the coming of my favourite season of all - summertime! I'm usually stuck inside, working like a dog all summer, which usually results in pasty white skin (ugh) - but this one will be different! I have quite a few (appropriately-themed) goals for this summer. But first, I've been gathering up lots of summertime inspiration in the form of colours and clay jewelry.

Lemonade, sunshine, and bright aqua-marine coastal tidal pools seem to be the theme for the summer's colours. 

(I've thrown in a more green-turquoise, a lovely cream, and a warm golden orange.)

All designs seen here can be found in My Etsy Shop. 

Ready to close my eyes and drift away with a sarong, bottle of suntan lotion, and a margarita... ahhh.

I'm still jotting down ideas for my Summer To-Do List, and I'll be sure to post it up once it's complete! Do you guys have any fun plans in the coming warm months? Any goals for this summer? :) Tell me about it!

I'm going to start by trying not to take life too seriously, and unwinding with this awesome bollywood-vibe track from Cirque du Soleil's "Totem". I suggest you give it a listen.

Whale in the Millpond & Realizing My Butt is Too Big

Being a big fish in a small pond has its advantages.

But what do you do when you realize your big old fishy butt is getting in your own way, making it impossible to stretch your fins and actually swim anywhere? 

 Dory, Marlin, and the whale (c) Disney/Pixar. Durr.

I feel like I've had a huge reality check lately. I've been spending less time in some places and more time in others. It's funny how the more you learn, the more you realize you still have to learn. One of the things I feel is appealing about being an artist is that it's a life-long journey with oneself, and it is a skill that you take with you wherever you go. Your skills can always get better; you can always learn something; there's always an other level to accomplish. But I also find that this can be incredibly intimidating to me.

Like I said, I've been making pretty decisive choices about where I've been spending my time lately. Not because I'm an elitist or a snob, but like I touched upon in this post, I feel an incredible sense of urgency in my life to stay focused and really make an effort to maximize the small amount of time I actually do have now that I'm working full time.
(On a complete side-note, I am waiting to hear some news, and then I will possibly be looking into a longer tour-contract with Cirque du Soleil.)

Since I have done that, I feel my millpond has exploded and opened up into a vast ocean, a place where all I'm familiar with are the shallows (baby pool imagery comes to mind), and huge creatures could eat me for lunch without a second thought. It's exhilarating in a way, and completely terrifying. 
 

We all love to hear our own voices. We all want to believe we are skilled at something, and can share that with others. But for me personally, I feel it is well beyond time that I shut my trap and just listen. Being a whale in a millpond gives a nice sense of security, but it reveals its falsities once one discovers the ocean.

In the millpond, you get lazy. In the millpond, you grow a nice big fat cushy butt, and all you do is sit on it.