+ question: why are we an aesthetic people? +

bloggers: i'm sure you've stumbled on someone's blog and left it before reading anything because the design instantly discredited anything they had to say.

web designers: i'm sure you've gotten so fed up with horrendous fonts and layouts that you decided it wasn't worth even digging around a site to find what you want.

bookworms: i'm sure you've passed up hundreds of books because the cover art looked like it was designed in paint.

musicians: i'm sure you've clicked off a myspace page before you got 10 seconds into their default song because their layout screamed either buttrock or isuckattheinternet.

and everyone: i'm sure you've never spoken to someone or not considered a friendship because they just didn't look how you want your friends to look.


if i'm being painfully honest, i am guilty of all these things. but for some reason, only the last causes a consciencious twinge in the core of your heart. and it should. or should it?

isn't this all the same? isn't this simply judging the value of content by the quality of the visual?

why is it justified in every single area, with the exception of people?

this is something that is clearly built into us, and i'm sorry, but it is not a symptom of our culture. yes, society places too high of value on the surface, but that is only pushing a few steps further what already is by nature. so,

why are we such an aesthetic people?

if beauty is found only in the eye of the beholder, and if you should never judge a book by its cover, and if looks and brains rarely come in the same package, why do we always choose the aesthetically pleasing over the not?

- - -

look in these eyes
we know each other like our own skin and bones
we know the scars,
how they got where they are,
in places no one else knows.

I'll watch you falling from me
when you hit the ground maybe you'll see
the only way to fall is down
and I'll be up in the stars
but I'll be anywhere you are
just say you need me and I'll come down

- - -

today's playlist [perfect fall music]:
swimming with dolphins, lily allen, lydia, the maine, myriad, sleeping at last, copeland, as cities burn, edison glass, i can make a mess like nobody's business, death cab for cutie, brightlights, carolina liar

+ sick for what i've lost +

- - -
i don't know which i like best.

+ weekend finds. +

lots of thrifting, rummage sales, and fun surprises this weekend. i would do this every day of my life if i could.

*a lot of people have asked how i got this lighting/coloring for this photo. i used my 580ex and bounced it off the ceiling. in LR2 i bumped up the clarity, vibrance, shadows, recovery and exposure, and bumped down the saturation a bit.

i also stole a nice little piece of wood from a neighbor's trash bin on yesterday's walk and started to hang up some of the necklaces i've been working on.



close up...



- - -

okay, more to come soon. sleep time.

- - -

p.s. i drew this for lydia this evening...we laughed, thought i'd share:

+ flowers. +

nicholas made these for me. i love them, so i thought i would share. :)
*edit: this isn't showing, so until i get home and can fix it, you can view them here.

- - -

i wish my wall looked like this:

and my room looked like this:

and my closet looked like this:

i will make it happen.

- - -

I wish we could open our eyes
To see in all directions at the same time
Oh what a beautiful view
If you were never aware of what was around you
And it is true what you said
That I live like a hermit in my own head
But when the sun shines again
I'll pull the curtains and blinds to let the light in.

Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole
Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound
But while you debate half empty or half full
It slowly rises, your love is gonna drown

Your love is gonna drown

- - -
these are beautiful.

+ growing. +

i want to be the girl that makes everything beautiful simply by being present.

+ sneak peek: new jewelry line +

so, i'm making jewelry/pretty things again. i'm a lot more excited for this than normal, which means i'll probably be slacking on 90% of the rest of my life. but, that's okay. i apologize for the horrible photos - i'm excited to take some with natural light within the next couple days (it's been challenging as i leave before the sun comes up and come home after the sun goes down). anyhow, the line will be listed on etsy for purchase within the month.

---

nothing was ever beautiful for you.

+ what are you doing with your life? +

I think everyone should read this post, from ChelseaTalksSmack.

My back up plan? I don't have a f*cking back up plan, because when you things get hard, which they always do- in any profession, that "back up plan" BECOMES the plan. It's a cowardly way of giving up.

the rest is here...

---

"Seeing our lives as contributing to a valued larger whole is one of the things that gives them a point in our own eyes. The morally good person cares about the goodness of what happens in the world and not just about the goodness of his own actions. If a right action can be seen as contributing to some great good, that increases the importance it has for him. Conversely, if he thinks that things will turn out badly no matter what he does, and especially if he thinks that the long-range effects of right action are about as likely to be bad as good, that will diminish the emotional attraction that duty exerts on him. Having to regard it as very likely that the history of the universe will not be good on the whole, no matter what one does, seems apt to induce a cynical sense of futility about the moral life, undermining one's moral resolve and one's interest in moral considerations." - Robert Merrihew Adams b.1937

+ ache. +

"Time heals all wounds. It does not heal love."

---

flickr: flickr.com/lauren_nicole

---

Europe may have picked me up off the floor, but it stole from me the romantic innocence I took for granted and now long for in the presence of the cynicism, uncertainty, and jadedness that flew home with me. I am bereft of such naïveté and mourn it's loss. But I'm trying.

---

this writing was stolen from madison over at her blog. i hope she doesn't mind. read her a bit. she's wonderful. and now, i'm off to find coffee. oh and ps. i went to an estate auction this weekend and got so many pretty things. pictures soon. yay. annnd p.p.s. i also re-organized all my links over there --> by category so it's easier for you to find the pretty things you want most! xoxo

+ wishlist+

I never make wishlists. Ever. For a whole lot of reasons. But today I'm making one. It's a really short one, but still. Here it is. The end.

+ hearts +

Who gives his heart away too easily must have a heart
under his heart. -James Richardson

---

more photos of kristin here.

---

The heart under your heart
is not the one you share
so readily so full of pleasantry
& tenderness

it is a single blackberry
at the heart of a bramble
or else some larger fruit
heavy the size of a fist

it is full of things
you have never shared with me
broken engagements bruises
& baking dishes

the scars on top of scars
of sixteen thousand pinpricks
the melody you want so much to carry
& always fear black fear

or so I imagine you have never shown me
& how could I expect you to
I also have a heart beneath my heart
perhaps you have seen or guessed

it is a beach at night
where the waves lap & the wind hisses
over a bank of thin
translucent orange & yellow jingle shells

on the far side of the harbor
the lighthouse beacon
shivers across the black water
& someone stands there waiting

CRAIG ARNOLD