• A few years back I heard Steve Martin play music at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Ever since then I’ve been impressed by his range of talent. I didn’t have much time to read for fun while studying for the bar exam, but I did manage to read Steve Martin’s new novel, Object of Beauty. It was a delightful book made even better by the full-color reproductions of the artwork discussed in the book.
• The week of the bar exam I wanted to read a book that was light and hopefully that would make me laugh out loud. Luckily, after being on the waiting list for months, the library informed me that it was my turn to check out Tina Fey’s new book, Bossypants. It was the perfect antidote to the stressful week and easily satisfied my goal of making me laugh out loud.
• This week I whipped up a batch of sour cherry bam and slathered it over this easy bread. Delish!
• I saw these photographs today and they made me giggle. What can be better than a juxtaposition of vintage, jello, and deadly weapons?

Did anything strike your fancy this week? Please share in the comments below, I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration.

• Growing up my mom always carried around a day planner and her “book” kept our family organized. Over the course of my adult life, I’ve attempted many different versions of a planner. At this point, I have a collection of apps in my iPhone that I attempt to use for the various functions I would like a day planner to accomplish, but it’s clunky, scattered, and doesn’t totally fit my needs. This tutorial from iHanna about repurposing objects to create a custom day planner might just be the next method I attempt. (via Craft)
• For some reason I’ve always wanted a staghorn fern mounted on a wall in my apartment. Now thanks to Apartment Therapy I have instructions on how to create one. These instructions combined with some Wally Pockets would a very cool living wall.
• Lately I’ve been seeing jewelry tutorials that appear easy enough for me to attempt. This week another one popped up, a cute little necklace made from an old t-shirt. I pulled an old t-shirt out of my Goodwill pile and am going to attempt to make one of these this week.

Have you discovered anything this week that jumped out at you? Let me know below. I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration!

For much of this week San Francisco finally had to confront “winter.” Here are a couple of items that struck my fancy this week and kept me happy during the past week of rain:

• I recently was introduced to The Jealous Curator and this introduction has lead to another lady blog crush. Her blog is a collection of work, that in her words makes you think “Damn, I wish I thought of that.” This week she featured Tara Donovan whose installations made of common objects like buttons, styrofoam cups, and paper plates makes me jealous.
• The last few months I’ve been collecting a little bit of handmade jewelry but I’ve not attempted to make anything. I think these little string and paperclip earrings might be the perfect first attempt. (via Craft).
• Another blog that I regularly visit for art inspiration is my love for you. This week, Meighan featured Uri Korn’s new website. I got lost in the images on the site.
• Of course, my week would not be complete without coveting some sweet treat. This weekend I whipped up a batch of whole wheat chocolate chip skillet cookies and they were fantastic. The skillet cookie is perfect for those days when you crave a cookie, but don’t want to deal with shaping individual cookies (i.e. really lazy days). I ate these all weekend while finishing up a lovely little novel, The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova.

Have you discovered anything this week that jumped out at you? Let me know below. I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration!

• I know that the idea of a vegan cake sounds a little scary. But this recipe for chocolate ginger orange cake is probably one of the best chocolate cakes that I have eaten in some time. I made it for the first time a few weeks back and have been craving it ever since. Note: the recipe is written as cupcakes, I halved the recipe and baked it in a 8 in square pan.
• This owl paper mask is adorable and would be the perfect addition to a little kid’s room. The patience and foresight required to plan out this mask is way beyond me. (via My Owl Barn)
• I made a batch of apple butter over winter break and am always looking for savory ways to utilize it. This barbecue sauce with an apple butter base, sounds just up my alley. (via Food in Jars)
• One of my new year’s resolutions was to start paring down my possessions. One of the struggles I am having as I start eliminating objects from my home, is the blank space where objects used to be. This post compares white space to the silence in music. It really struck home and is helping me embrace the holes.

Have you discovered anything this week that jumped out at you? Let me know below. I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration!

• This week I discovered the work of Pete Eckert, who appears to live in my hometown, Sacramento, CA. Pete began to lose his sight at 28, but still lives the life as a visual artist. Artists Wanted created a fantastic 4-minute documentary on Pete and his work.
• I haven’t canned anything in almost a month, but these preserved lemons sound like just the canning project for this week.
• As a law student, I’ve been intently following the lastest antics of Jeff Koons. If you are unaware, he attempted to sue a San Francisco gallery, Park Life, for selling ballon dog bookends, claiming that they infringed on his famous balloon dog sculpture. Well, this time the little guy won, as Koons is no longer pursuing the lawsuit.
• I know that I’ve been on a scoutiegirl kick as of late, but I must share her post about creativity is not a stop-gap with you all this week. This post really resonated with me, because it goes to the core of what I am trying to achieve this year, to be creative day in and day out. To make demands on myself (and my creative self) to create something daily, even if that creation is something small like an iPhone photo or dinner. (As a side note, I’d never heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer prior to her post. He seems fascinating and I’ve added a book about him to my to-read list.)

Hope you all had a great week. Is there anything that struck your fancy this week? I’d love to hear.

• I discovered Susannah Conway’s photography courses this week through a post on scoutie girl about heros of creative living. I’m not going to be overly ambitious and try to take it right now. But I wish I could.
• I’m a huge fan of The Big Picture and can’t wait for the launch of Alan Taylor’s new project with The Atlantic next month, In Focus.
• These bento boxes by Susan Yuen are adorable. They make me want to pack a lunch and give it to a random kid on the street. (via My Owl Barn)
• The Learning to Love You More project by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher is no longer accepting submissions. But their assignments seem like a fun idea to spark creativity when the well is dry.

Have you discovered anything this week that jumped out at you? Let us know below. I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration!

]]> http://www.kiffaniestahle.com/2011/01/31/things-i-fancy-january-31/feed/ http://www.kiffaniestahle.com/2011/01/24/things-i-fancy-january-24/ http://www.kiffaniestahle.com/2011/01/24/things-i-fancy-january-24/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:00:39 +0000 Kiffanie http://www.kiffaniestahle.com/?p=713

Image via the Guardian

Things that are striking my fancy this week:

• I always have about 10 projects laying around that I have abandoned because I think that they are “not good enough” (not counting the projects I’ve sketched out but am scared to try because they will not be perfect). This perfectionism streak is something that I have been trying to work on and Tara’s post on Scoutie Girl this week about Perfectionism is a Process is now in my rotation to read when I’m headed down the perfectionist path.
• A few years back I discovered salted caramels and they are delicious. My Baking Addiction posted these Vanilla Bean Caramels with Fleur de Sel this morning and the next dinner party I go to I’m offering to bring them as a thank you (hint, hint).
• These Pac-Man snow ghosts popped up a couple times this week in my RSS reader and each time they appeared they made me giggle.
• This YouTube piece about Scott Schumann, aka, The Sartorialist, came across my RSS reader this morning. I had not heard of him before, but he’s an ex-fashion industry guy turned street photographer. I popped over to his blog and poked around for about 20 minutes and was really impressed with the images I saw. However, the reason I am sharing this is for a quote that he said during the YouTube piece: ”I just started doing [photography]… The way I do it is just the way I do it.” This really resonated with me as someone who has no traditional training and just figures things out as I go along.
• Finally, the image posted above is one of many of the gorgeous images that are part of a new book “The Ruins of Detroit” by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre. The Guardian posted a gallery of images from this book and the images are a powerful voice to show the decay that the city has undergone over the last decade.

Things that are striking my fancy this week:

• As soon as I finish the stirrup socks that I mentioned last time, I’m making this adorable aviator-style knitted cap.
• This petal origami skirt is so adorable, but I don’t know if my sewing skills is good enough to figure out how to make it.
• This image above is from April 2010, when Banksy fever hit SF after he visited here promoting his movie Exit through the Gift Shop. I finally got around to watching it this week. If you haven’t checked out this film, add it to your short list. My cynical side has concluded that this is all a long hoax perpetrated by Banksy, but the film makes you think about who is an artist, what is art, when is art legitimate, and what is street art. Regardless of whether Banksy created a documentary or a commentary on street art, it is worth watching.
• Speaking of street art, I love this photo collage project by Fabian David. The artist set up a photo booth on the street and then created a wheat paste collage of the images on a wall.
• Finally, my dear friends at Lightbox SF have launched a different kind of 365 photography project, entitled Creative Exposures Photo Project. It’s all about capturing the raw inspiration all around you on a daily basis, opening your eyes and seeing the things that catch your eye.

Image from Smitten Kitchen

Over the last few days I’ve been thinking about what my personal, artistic, and professional goals will be for 2011. About a month ago, I started a file of blog posts that I wanted to consider when creating my 2011 projects and goals for my website (including this journal). One of the blog posts I tagged was a post written by my friend Genevieve over on SF Bay Area Etsy Street Team about finding a theme for your blog. This is a topic that I had discussed with her and Shelly during one of my Lightbox SF consultations, but I feel like I’ve never really carried it out to the extent that I should (even though I somehow get mentioned in her post).

For those of you that know me well, you know that I am slightly obsessed with food. While I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, during law school this passion has reached a new level. Cooking has come to be a creative endeavor that I can accomplish everyday. While I may not be able to pick up my SLR for several days at a time, each day I can create something not only delicious and nutritious, but something that challenges me creatively. While I was pondering what my theme for my blog really should be, I was perusing several of the cooking blogs that I frequent thinking about what I was going to cook for dinner. I then decided that maybe this was a component that I should be including in my theme, since cooking is such a central part of my life.

To that end, I’m going to test out if this topic fits in with the theme that I have developed for this year. To start, I’d like to share some of the cooking blogs that I frequent, not only for the recipes but because they have fantastic food photography.

First up is Deb of Smitten Kitchen. She combines beautiful images taken in her small NYC apartment with delicious recipes. While I hardly ever follow a recipe, I usually stick to 95% of Deb’s recipes and I’ve never been disappointed.

Image from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Of course, no list of food photography blogs would be complete without mentioning Ree from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. To me, this woman’s life is crazy, she lives on a ranch in the middle of Oklahoma, gets up at the crack of dawn, teaches her kids at home, and somehow finds time to cook and create fantastic photo tutorials for all of her recipes. I’m not sure how she does it, but she’s a rock star. If that’s not enough street cred, she went head to head against Bobby Flay cooking Thanksgiving dinner and won.

Finally for baking, I regularly get ideas from Buns in My Oven and My Baking Addiction. Both of these sites I utilize not only as a jumping board for my own creations, but will often utilize their recipes almost in their entirety.

I hope you enjoy this new idea I’m testing out and as always please let me know what you think via comments below or via email.