last week of august

I can't believe it's the last week of august already. I've finally been out of school long enough to not be affected by the cycles of the school year, so summer always seems to last into september for me--it usually stays hot here that long. this summer has been even more unusual since I don't think we've seen a temp above 95 yet, so I feel like it's barely been summer at all. and which also means I have a lot of green tomatoes still hanging around, refusing to ripen. here are a few though.



some other random things:

last night I had a dream I was trying to construct a miniature of Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavillion (see below) out of frozen yogurt. It was going pretty well if you can believe it.


I also dreamt that Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum were time travelling robots from the future. Both of these things have made me smile throughout the day.

door county and milwaukee, august 2008

the subtitle for this entry would probably be "the bathrooms of wisconsin." i think the baby was sitting directly on my bladder all weekend long.

anyway! pictures!
on our sheep farm tour! I'm really excited, can't you tell?

mike and his sheepy friends

on a lookout tower, peninsula state park

eagle harbor sunset

whitefish dunes state park

milwaukee art museum



we had a great time, it was really relaxing. I always forget how much I love the country. we stayed on "the quiet side" of door county so I'm sure that made a difference. i think we experienced most of what door county had to offer, including: numerous wonderful hikes in state parks, a climb to the top of a lighthouse, a fish boil, yummy custard, browsing at touristy shops but not buying anything. . . and of course our wonderful bed and breakfast/sheep farm, whitefish bay farm, which I highly recommend. the breakfast was great and the sheep were soooo cute and friendly.

we also stopped in Milwaukee for a day this weekend too, and I always forget how much I love smaller cities. we visited the art museum, walked around downtown on the riverwalk quite a bit, mike drank a lot of brewpub beer, I loved shopping in the third ward and seeing the public market. happy times.

leisurely day off

some artworks for an online art journal class I'm taking.

I decided to take this class, not because I feel like I need instruction on how to make things, but just for more of a boost, new ideas, whatever. It's been a good experience but has underlined something I've known about myself for a while. . . I really hate to follow directions. I cook from recipes all the time, but use them as a loose guideline. I've never sewn from a pattern in my life. So, in making these pages I feel like I'm using the tutorials as more of a suggestion than a direction. and I am totally okay with that.

Today I have the day off work and I'm going into the city to get a haircut at my old favorite salon in Wicker Park. I'm feeling sorta nervous because I might take the plunge and get some blunt bangs or something completely new. I guess we'll see. I think the haircut urge comes from the fact that if I can't really control how my body looks in the next few months, I might as well have cute hair. Plus it's a nice excuse to go bum around in my old neighborhood. I do miss it sometimes.

Then tomorrow, Mike and I are off for a long weekend in Wisconsin-Door County and Milwaukee. It should be fun. We're staying at a bed and breakfast that is also a sheep farm so you know I'm deliriously excited.

bits and pieces

Some pretty things I've found in the past few weeks. Wildflowers in a park near my house. Zinnias in the side yard around dusk. And "natural graffiti," shadows from some foliage on our dining room floor.

Things have been nice and quiet around here. Lately I have been waking up fairly early and really enjoying it. sunday morning the whole neighborhood was so cool and super quiet, I ate breakfast on the back patio and it felt like I was the only one awake for miles. It's lovely. We've been having some friendly bird visitors on our back patio, too; a hummingbird, a pair of american goldfinches, and a daily afternoon sparrow party (dozens of them!). It's fun to watch.

I'm appreciating all these calm docile moments. Lately I have been feeling a little unsure about some of my friendships. Once again it's an issue of my being in a different life place than some of my friends and it makes me feel so awkward. I'm pretty sure it's all just my perception, but still, I think about it too much and it troubles me. Not everything is easy. But. Everything is good, ultimately.

here we go

It's been my belief for a long time that I don't want to buy a lot of things for our children. I mean, what kid doesn't love the box something comes in better than the actual gift itself? Also, most kids stuff isn't very aesthetically interesting to me. Who wants their house all full of colorful plastic junk? And I certainly don't want my child in either the all-princess or all-truck wardrobe that most stores seem to stock for little girls and boys.

But anyway. I think I found my weakness:



threadless baby onesies. First of all, they're all adorable and funny. Also, they're limited editions, so I think, ooooh, if I like it I better get it now. The dumbest part is that they're kind of expensive for something the kid will only wear for three-four months, tops. I still can't resist though.





So far I've kept it under control, for the most part. I just ordered the Cookie loves Milk, and the Giraffe and Elephant fire brigade. I should also confess that I bought a Giraffe and Elephant fire brigade shirt for myself too. Maybe I'll email a link to the Noah's art shirt to my parents, I'm sure they would approve and be happy to oblige.

gratitude

thank you for all the congratulations and well wishes, my friends. one thing that has been really nice so far about pregnancy is getting a chance to connect with people in a new way; new conversations with friends who are parents, a good reason to get in touch with old friends I haven't talked to in a while. so, it's been nice.

As far as my pregnancy goes, I have been soooo lucky so far. No real morning sickness to speak of, only some tiredness (but nothing that a nap on the couch or going to sleep at 9 pm can't solve). I feel pretty blessed by that. The worst thing I've noticed is that I pretty much lost interest in everything for the first few months. Hence, not much blogging. :) Hardly any new pages in my art journals or scrapbooks. And my garden got a little overgrown. Things are getting better though, my house is actually clean again too.

January 17 feels like a long time away now, but I know it will be here soon. We aren't going to find out if we're having a boy or a girl, so it's an exciting surprise to look forward to. I just hope that everything continues to go as well as it has been so far. It's a pretty amazing experience.

the newest adventure

Speaking of books I've been reading lately. . . . there's been one on my nightstand for about three months now. Even though I haven't been enjoying ALL of it, I've found it educational, amusing, perplexing, terrifying, eye-opening AND reassuring.

What is it then? Well,



Yeah dudes. It's true. BABY time!

I have lots to share, more soon, but after 16 (well, 14) weeks of waiting, I had to put it out here. :)

all things considered.

Things i've been considering lately:

1. Getting a haircut with bangs.

2. Taking a life drawing class.

3. Cleaning out/tossing a TON of my paper stash. (just considering though. we'll see.)

4. How can I make the most of the rest of the summer? I need to regain that adolescent feeling of exciting summertime adventure.

I think we need to go on vacation somewhere new and exciting. Currently the top of the list is a bed and breakfast in Door County Wisconsin that is also a Sheep Farm and Art Gallery. I swear I didn't dream that up, it's totally for real.

5. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that the premiere of this season of Project Runway tonight pretty much negates every bad thing that's happened to me in the past two days? Oh, Tim Gunn, his voice is like a soothing balm to my troubled soul.

verstiegenheit

I don't have a way with words and most of the time I can't express my thoughts on things very well. At least not without saying Dude half a dozen times. Anyway, I read books for the way they make me think and feel, for the way they change the way I think and feel. But I'm going to try and get some thoughts out on this one.

So with that, I've jumped into all 1,000 + pages of Infinite Jest for the third time and I'm going to try to keep up with the Infinite Jest Online Summertime Appreciation Society and/or Book Club. It's totally official.

I vaguely recall buying the book the summer after I graduated from college. I can't remember why but I suppose it was partially because I liked the cover, the clouds and the orange, white and black futura type. I started reading it for real, the first time, somewhere in the spring of 2004. I can almost pinpoint the day that cemented my first reading. I even have a little souvenir.


That's right, cook county jury duty. I sat in that room all day and read read read. To be honest, I didn't get a lot out of my first reading. I understood practically nothing about Marathe and Steeply and anything related to Quebec (still some of the rockier parts for me to get through) and overall, i just didn't GET it. I don't remember finding it funny, I don't remember thinking about it when I wasn't reading it.

Then came the second reading, last summer. It became such a joy to me. I laughed out loud. I think I frightened all my friends and coworkers by always bringing up anecdotes from some weird book they'd never read. I thought about the book constantly. I even felt like the characters should have been there when we took our trip to Boston last fall.

It really helped me to keep notes, something I've almost never done with a novel. By the end of my second reading, little index cards were scattered all over - my nightstand, the living room, my purse, my car - all with character notes and vocab words. The vocab words really helped. I wish I would have saved all my vocab cards from last summer since apparently not all those words stuck.

So, there's that. In an attempt to not bore people that don't care about Infinite Jest (most of you, I'd wager), I'm moving my book nerdiness to a tumblr, oltremare.tumblr.com. See you there. It's going to be the best tumblr o.a.t.

fyi.

just thought you should know. i figure if I don't have any interesting thoughts or new works of art to blog about, I might as well blog about my snack choices.

hope you're having a nice summer. :)

Some of my last month

So I've been feeling kind of "meh" about the internet in general lately. Sorry folks.

Here are some other things I've been doing with my time:
1. Mike surprised me with a trip to the zoo on my birthday.
2. Trip to Iowa to visit my parents, eating Dari Barn twice in a span of less than 24 hours.
3. Trying to get my snow peas to climb up a little support I made for them.
4. I was out of my office for a photo shoot all last week, which was a nice change of pace. I took home all the unused prop fruit and made some tarts this weekend. Yummy.
5. Took a trip to Goodwill this weekend too, it's been a while since I've been to a thrift store. Thrift shopping is great because I enjoy the process and the outcome ($3 perfect fitting short sleeve cashmere sweater! among other treasures).
6. I saw David Sedaris for the first time yesterday on the Daily Show. Can you believe I have never seen his face? It's totally surreal to hear a voice that is intensely familiar coming out of a strange head. I can't really explain it other than to say it weirded me out.
7. Lots of other fun things that I can't really recall right now. Things have been good though. I just don't feel like writing about it very much. :)

rainbows and flowers

I'm still feeling pretty quiet. I have to say, my break from the internet has not been as much of a break as I'd hoped, but I feel like I'm making strides. I have been taking walks and reading and cooking more than before.

I've also noticed that I feel a lot less pressure to start new projects. When I constantly look at flickr and read art blogs, I get crazy with the amount of stuff I want to do/try/accomplish. That has definitely subsided in the past week or so. It's refreshing, and I feel like it's allowing more room for original ideas and my own taste/aesthetic. Essentially, I feel better about making my own way, rather than wishing I was more like someone else. If that makes sense ...

Anyway, here are some pretty pictures. Rainbows and flowers. Word.

not fast enough for us

"Walking was not fast enough, so we ran. Running was not fast enough, so we galloped. Galloping was not fast enough, so we sailed. Sailing was not fast enough, so rolled merrily along long, metal tracks. Long metal tracks were not fast enough, so we drove. Driving was not fast enough, so we flew.

Flying isn't fast enough, not fast enough for us. We want to get there faster. Get where? Wherever we're not. But a human soul can only go as fast as a human man can walk, they used to say. In that case, then where are all the souls? Left behind. They wander here and there, slowly, dim lights flickering in the marshes of the night, looking for us. But, they're not nearly as fast enough, not for us, we're way ahead of them, they'll never catch up. That's why we can go so fast; our souls dont weigh us down."
Margaret Atwood, The Tent

I have a lot to share but not a lot to write today. i'm conducting an experiment this week and trying to slow down and cut back on some of the noise in my life. I'm hoping to reduce the massive and wasteful amount of time I spend on the internet, the mindless TV watching, the obsessive email checking, the shopping online with no intention of buying. It's just NOT good for too many reasons to list. I want to be more aware of my time and how I'm spending it.

So with that, I don't know when I'll come back to my blog, it could be a few weeks or so. Just a little break. I'll leave you with a few links and art projects and things.

I can take a break from a lot of things on the internet, but not flickr. And definitely not my favorites. Lately I've been looking for photos of creative gardens, outdoor rooms, and beautiful naturey things.

I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver right now, and it's definitely inspiring me to spend more time in the kitchen and garden. All the seasonal, super healthy recipes from the book are here.

Measure for Measure is a New York times blog about songwriting, and Andrew Bird is one of the contributors. Fascinating stuff.





some collages from this weekend. i could have made ten more pages in the same color palette, I was really enjoying it.

Thanks for listening. See you soon.

Want to know what makes me sad?

Imagine you're enjoying a nice saturday morning reading the newspaper. You turn to the second page and see. . .


Yep, that's right. Narwhals are totally endangered and facing extinction now because of climate change. I had a suspicion about this and now it's confirmed. The whole article is here in case you're curious.

I have been a little extra sensitive lately, but seeing this threw me for an emotional curve and it made me SO sad. I ended up crying on and off for hours after I read it. I just love narwhals so much, and for me, it represents so much more than just the endangerment of my most beloved weird arctic marine mammal. What's happening in our world? It's frightening.

Anyway, once again I am seriously considering starting up a Narwhal Appreciation society, proceeds going to a Save the Whales or Save the Arctic organization. Honestly, polar bears shouldn't get all the press! Narwhals are way more magical and interesting than a big jerk of a bear.

mail art and a meme

this is a piece of mail art I made for robyn. our trade was my first experience with this kind of mail art, and it was really fun!

and. Here's a meme I've seen in a few places around the blog world lately, I thought I'd share my answers. . .

What was I doing 5 years ago?
2003. . . hmmm. Kind of an awkward time of my life. I was living in chicago in a weird neighborhood, still not used to not being in college anymore, not loving my job at all. i had great friends, though I don't think we were the best influences on each other at that time. Overall, probably your run of the mill 23 year old malaise. On the upside, i saw a ton of great live music that year and bought a lot of shoes. So, there you go.

Five things on my to-do list today (or things I did today):
1. Get work done so I don't have to stay late at work.
2. Return a purse I bought from anthropologie. but this probably won't happen today.
3. Cook dinner.
4. Go out and look at my garden even though there's only three little sprouts so far.
5. Watch LOST. yay!

Five snacks i love:
1. triscuits and cheese.
2. hummus and pita
3. chips and salsa.
4. fruit crisp with vanilla ice cream.
5. dark chocolate.
apparently I love combinations of things.

Five things i would do if i were a billionaire:
1. pay off our house and buy a vacation home somewhere nice in the midwest.
2. pay off my parents house, buy my brother a new house
3. give money to our church and my dad's church
4. Buys lots of goats and cows for heifer international.
5. Ginormous blowout of a European vacation with all my friends and family! italy, paris, london, ireland, copenhagen, croatia, germany, etc. etc. Seriously, you're all invited, all expenses paid. :)

Five bad habits I have:
1. Never answering my cell phone.
2. Spending waaay too much time on the internet.
3. Keeping a super messy car all the time.
4. This is probably TMI, but it's my worst habit right now. . scratching my itchy excema hands. :(
5. Not keeping in touch very well with my old college friends and extended family.

Five places i have lived:
a selection of the many, from smallest to largest :)
1. Wentworth, South Dakota
2. Marshfield, Missouri
3. Ames, Iowa
4. Rome, Italy
5. Chicago

Five jobs i've had:
1. Camp Counselor.
2. "Bingo the Dog" at a pumpkin farm.
3. College Residence Hall Tour Guide.
4. Screen printer at a sporting goods factory.
5. Graphic Designer for lower-grade textbooks.
This list could go on. . . i've done a lot of weird jobs in my life.

well, that was fun. now i'm off to do all the things on the to do list for the day. :)

warmth!

my mom and I at "cloud gate" (aka, the bean) millenium park, Chicago.

okay, how many other good things could have happened this weekend?
1. friday night i fell asleep on the couch at 9 PM. yes, that's a good thing.
2. my mom came to visit. and she brought dari barn ice cream. .. with crunch coat (a hometown favorite). dude, best thing ever, in the universe.
3. we went to millenium park saturday afternoon and just sat there forever watching people. i really love millenium park, I truly do, and am really happy that some of my tax dollars as a city dweller funded it's billion dollar-ness.
3a. we had such a nice day walking around downtown, walking along the lakefront, drinking warm drinks at the cosi on michigan avenue with all the art kids, taking the metra through all the western suburbs, etc. etc.
4. today I did the crossword on the patio, then fell into some kind of dreamy sun coma/ half sleep. SUNSHINE. it is back, and like I said, I honestly feel like I'm in a whole new world. it's glorious.
4a. also this afternoon I made some collages with the windows open. is there anything nicer than a good music mix mingled with the birdsongs from the backyard? it's kind of the ultimate nice sunday afternoon sound.
5. tonight mike and I rode our bikes over to a friends house, sat on a patio, drank beers, and petted dogs. let's think about all the good things in that sentence. there's a lot.

Honestly though, it's so strange to live in this new universe of warmth. I feel like this was one of the worst winters I've ever lived through and now it's totally bizarre to get used to non-winter anymore. I'm sure I sound like some kind of weirdo talking about this, but I'm guessing if you live above the mason-dixon line you'll probably understand. SPRINGTIME. Yes.

"but now I'm gold"

portrait of a backyard, friday at 5:30 cst.

This morning was one of those sucky mornings when everything is frustrating, wrong, headachey. Which was a shame since it's kinda lovely outside. The first days of spring here feels like moving to a new continent. . . the t-shirt continent. Can I get a YAY for t shirt weather?

Anyway, here is a chronological list of the things that improved my day:
1. giant bottle of san pellegrino
2. carefully crafted on-the-go playlist on repeat for a few hours
3. a little bit of fresh air
4. closing my eyes and just dropping out of the cubicle world for a bit
5. mashed potatoes for lunch
6. finding awesome snacks in the break room and totally freaking out over how good cream cheese+marionberry jam is on crackers. Yes!

All these things were totally a formula for greatness. I feel ten times better than I did a few hours ago. BOOM! What a way to start the weekend. Happy Friday.

lettuce and bloomsdale spinach germinating as we speak

tiny signs of life in our yard. and a stack of books that sums up where my thoughts reside these days.

"the art of french vegetable gardening" is dreamy and full of gorgeous garden photos. it makes me kind of swoon-y and gives me romantic notions about my own little "potager" (fancy french word for vegetable garden).

growing my own vegetables has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done and I highly, highly recommend it for everyone. even if you only have a little patio you can grow container tomatoes and herbs or even super fancy stuff like dwarf eggplants. seriously, go for it!! okay, that's the end of my little gardening PSA. :)

just born this way

Lately I have been looking back through my years and seeing that so much of me really hasn't changed, even since I was a little kid. I mean, here I am at 27, still writing, drawing, dreaming, making little art projects. The same kinds of things I did when I was in elementary school. Looking through an old diary, I found an old list of goals I made when I was a senior in college. it's interesting to see which I've accomplished, which are still relevant. Really only one of the goals is no longer relevant, and the ones I haven't accomplished I'd still like to.

1. Get a radio show.
Yes! One of the best experiences of my college years.

2. Run a 10k.
Sadly no.

3. Design a typeface
Two actually! Here's a shamless plug: one of which you can purchase if you so chose. :)

4. Fall in love.
Of course! Yay for Mike.

5. Buy more purple t-shirts.
What a random one. . . I actually don't think I own any purple t-shirts.

6. Bake more.
I've been highly successful on this one. Just made some bacon muffins yesterday. Mmm. . . bacon muffins.

7. See Caedmon's Call, REM, The Rentals, and Sigur Ros in concert.
Funny. . . none of these. I did see countless other bands while living in chicago, so I think this is mostly a success.

8. Become more knowledgable about wine.
Yes. Here's some photographic evidence: visiting the Gloria Ferrer winery on our honeymoon, intently studying some kind of brochure.

9. Paint a triptych.
Hmm. . . haven't done this but maybe I'll revive this goal.

11. Host a fondue party.
Best party of my life. . . I should do this again sometime.

12. Write a hit play.
Ha ha, this one is a bit tongue in cheek. Who knows though, maybe someday.

13. Learn more about classic rock.
Check!

14. Get a cool job.
Yes again! Finally.

15. Start writing more faithfully in my journal.
Another one I should probably revive.

It's nice to see that I've actually made strides forward. Sometimes it's hard to see changes because I've evolved so slowly. I'm starting to compile a new list, too. I think this will be a "things to do before 30" and more of a big dreaming list. Coming soon. . .

five things

five things!

1. some new art journal pages. :)




2. this past weekend was one of the best we've had so far this year. absolutely perfect weather. and this morning when I woke up the grass had all magically turned green. it kind of feels like the wizard of oz when everything turns technicolor. and after all the yard work and being outside this weekend, I feel like pinocchio when he turned from a wooden puppet into a real boy. thank you springtime, i am a real girl again.

3. if you are at all interested in the work of emily martin of the black apple, do yourself a favor and download the podcast/interview with her at craftsanity. it's an hour and a half long but it just flies by, she is so charming and informative. it made me respect and admire her even more than I already do. highly, highly recommended.

4. i have been stuck in a lunch rut for about two months now and I couldn't stand the thought of another spinach salad or tuna sandwich. thank goodness for smitten kitchen. I made this bulgur salad with chickpeas and red peppers and it is sooo good, I was in nigella mode after work, eating it straight from the bowl standing in front of the frig. In general, I don't cook a lot of fancy or new things, but I always want to, and this was a great way to do it. now have a week's worth of lunches I can actually look forward to.

5. finally. there was a little talk of this in the comments of my last post, but I think it's definitely time for a mix cd swap. I made a boo-yah playlist and I'm willing to trade . . .email me (katielicht at gmail.com) if you're down. YAY.