Edible Liberation

Edible Liberation, just in time for the weekend...

The day to day grind scratches the body and frustrates the mind.
Sometimes I feel like the expectations for what we need to accomplish in life weigh on us all. What do we do for ourselves? How many of you have tried time and time again to form your schedules with a little wiggle room for naps, online shopping or facebook? I know I sure have tried. One thing that I miss here at school are those long hot luxurious coconut milk and Epsom salt scalding hot baths. But one thing that does remain true where ever I go is that I always find time to stretch, meditate and eat chocolate. Lots of Chocolate. I constantly find in my paintings the theme of liberation with finding(or creating) that true haven and balance in life. I think I have found all of things that my day lacks solidified in one bite/bar/ or truffle from Vosges Chocolates. The real test to find that one action/object/ or idea that gives you liberating satisfaction, I find, is whether or not it makes you dance. When the sweet cocoa lays against your taste buds and the opera beings to play in your mind and as the orchestra plays the subtle notes in the chocolate flavor, you dance around and can find no other way to express then to dance with both eyes shut. It is like your mind produces the aerial-view image of you twirling in a a beautiful dress laughing to the clouds. Vosges Chocolate is known for pushing the envelope of what people put into chocolate. All of the bars featured in this post are exotic in their own right.

My favorite Vosges Chocolate bars are:

Calindia Bar- Indian Green Cardamom+California walnuts+dried plums+ Venezuelan dark chocolate

Naga Bar-Sweet Indian curry+ coconut

Woolloomooloo- Roasted and salted macadamia nuts+ hemp seeds + Indonesian coconut

Black Pearl bar- Ginger+wasabi+black sesame seeds

My favorite Vosges Chocolate Truffles:

Oaxaca-guajillo and pasilla chillies+ 75% Tanzanie chocolate +organic pumpkin seeds

Viola- Milk chocolate+candied violet flower

Wink of the rabbit- Soft caramel+milk chocolate + organic New Mexican pecan

Excuses Excuses Excuses

"I just can't help it."

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Oh they comfort us so. Once asked the typical tongue and check phrase "why not.." you are doomed. Unless you are one of the people that can think on their feet and create a perfect counter story to back up your excuse, but other wise you are screwed. I for one am terrible with making up good excuses. I revert back to the old sayings like, "When pigs can fly" and "It is raining cats and dogs." Oh dear. Or also even using "being sick" as a undisputed response. These lines are not well taken by people of my age. But the one counter response that I am reminded of time and time again is "Because I said so." This line is the quintessence of perfect liners. Instead of putting thought into furthering the complexity of your excuse just say this line, "Because I said so", and you will have just reiterated your first crafted line with a response that will not be challenged. Brilliant. If only I could remember "because I said so" when the time comes to use it...hahaha. For now "When pigs can fly" will stay on the forefront of my frontal lobe as I continue to get funny looks and off topic responses back. Ah- Carrumba!

Fashion: Anonymous Skirt from India, "Three Dot" white T, Medieval Moccasins-Irish gillies, and A Egyptian Revival necklace, shown below, is from The Bee's Nest.(Click to see the post with more outrageous jewelry items)

Fashion Channeling..

I ordered Indian food in and watched the 4 hour movie of Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra. I was reminded of my unhinged love for rich cultures. My Lamb Kebabs and Sweet Curry Chicken were richly spiced and packed with historical flavors. I was very content....

Add all of that along side of the rich colors, fabrics, carvings and emotion of the ties between Egypt and Rome in Cleopatra, and you have a heavily rich night. haha. Inspiration by the world and it's history brings about change in trends and fashion styles. My style is eclectically measured by my love for rich cultures, such as the Rococo period(Victorian and Edwardian) old Asia and everything Egyptian. Each day I "channel" each outlet of my fascination for these ways of life into my dress. Today I felt ripe with the color of red and ancient with it's patterns. I do not plan outfits strictly day by day. But yet, I just let the color of the day direct me to what I wear to express what I am feeling on the inside. Next time you put on your clothing, look at it and see if you can connect the colors to your mood. Everything depends on the mood and your subconscious is more knowledgeable than you think....

Fashion: Native Indian poncho, no name. Gap jeans and Nieman Marcus short boots.

Clinics

This post is long over due. These shoes, called "The Clinics", arrived at the dawn of spring. I was one of the many who had preordered these babies up. They have a 4 inch wedge a mirror planted on the sides and a strict line of buckles. These are Jeffrey Campbell shoes. I am a adored fan of his fashion forward items. have worn these shoes in this posts thus far "MFA."
Love, Carter

Mid day Spring Dream

The importance of sleep...

We all realize the unparalleled importance of sleeping. How the right amount of sleep gives us energy to spring through our day and ultimately remember things that we might have been slaving over the night before. But yet against our better judgment, we stay up later then we should to just lay in our beds or talk on the phones to appease our demanding boyfriends or family members. We all should sleep more. Yes, but it is harder to do then it sounds. It is great to say confidently "I am going to bed early tonight" and when the time comes to slip into bed the urge to sleep is lost. Perfect! Now that you cannot go to sleep earlier you end up actually staying up later..... oh the irony.

One thing that has been invading my body more than usual is the frayed connection between my body and my brain. You sleep because you are tired, but when just your body is lethargic and your brain is wired (or vice versa)... What do you do? How do you go to sleep when your body wants to but your mind is active?

I have created a list of ways to convince the unruly brain that it actually is tired..

1) read a book (less likely ahah)

2) watch a movie

3) play games on phone

4) other mindless tasks.. etc...

But God forbid you start thinking! Because once your mind starts wondering after you have missed that opening of falling to sleep, you might as well forget it. You start thinking .. it leads to a pondering overload... no sleep for you...

What things do you do that help you fall asleep?

Fashion: Dress- My great grandmother's dress, no name. The necklace is a vintage Mariam Haskell. This necklace is such a special piece from The Bee's Nest ,blogged about here.

-Love, Carter

The Classic Kryptonite

Is the world only filled with either the Heroes or the Villains?

From Xmen's Magneto,Spiderman and his Green Goblin and to Superman's Lex Luther, there is always a yin and a yang to life, and love. Because of this, are we given an excuse to be attracting to our yang, our Lex Luther, Green Goblin or Magneto? What is so appealing about a conniving, confident leather jacket wearing guy, anyways? Don't you just hate when you are attracted to your kryptonite? You even think it over in your mind and it makes no sense why you might be attracted to such a creature, but you are. It is almost out of your own control, like your subconscious is subconsciously desiring to elope with his subconscious, subconsciously of course... haha.

Who knows.. you live, you learn and even Love the bad man in order to know how much you cherish the X-men, the Spiderman and the Superman.

Happy Friday.

p.s Below you will see my Belly Dancing video. Enjoy !

My Belly Dancing

Put a Knob on it!

Customizing and Redesigning...

My kitchen was dull and needed something that yelled "This is my house." But we didn't want to knock down walls or install different cabinets, no no no... everything just seemed way to pricey and honestly, unrealistic. We thought smaller, taking the shab and making it chic, I guess I could say. Knobs! Put a little trinket of happiness on every drawer and cabinet in the kitchen and it turns it into something different and something that yelled "This is my house". Ha! take that! other over priced ideas! Victory can be yours by either buying knobs from Anthropology or even going to a "Paint your own Pottery" store and do a family bonding experience by painting your own knobs. Bet you never thought of that...

Enjoy your Thursday and think of ways to change up your shab to chic..

Adios.. 

Levitating and Romancing

Hopelessly Romantic is just one way that I can describe myself. To get my romantic fix, Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightly version) was on my computer screen in the comfort of my dorm room. It was just me, the movie and my passionate (lonely and single) heart, haha. Why cant the men be like they were back in that time?

I wish it could be easy to find a man like Mr. Darcy, intelligent, attractive, generous, genuine, giving,wealthy, attractive, romantic, speaks in an elaborately seductive tongue and is attractive. haha. Well, I might as well shake that unrealistic image of a man out of my head.

Not meaning to sound pessimistic or anything but do you think that all men in the world have just gone down hill?? I sure think so. I mean I still try (with all of the power within me, dear God, I try) to have confidence in men. To have confidence that there are actually people out there who are considered "Darcy" material. No, no, they don't even have to be like Darcy. All I am really asking for is a man to stand up when a lady walks into a room, to show her genuine kindness, generosity and love. Poof....and just like that...I start craving Chocolate. When you are not satisfied romantically, chocolate is your Darcy. Hello Mr. Darcy, you look darker, smoother and taste more pungent then ever. Can I get your wrapper for you? haha...

I have decided that I will know when I find my next love when I walk into a room, he shall stand from being seated and help me with my own chair. Gosh, I hope I don't stay single forever haha.

Fashion: The shirt is a BeBe find. This shirt has studded buttons down the front and all the way up the sleeves. The over-alls are French Diesel. I got this piece the same time I got this outfit earlier in an earlier post.

The thigh high boots are Jeffrey Campbell. They actually are boots/chaps and go even high. But for the spring I still struggle with parting from them, so I put the higher extension of the boot rolled inside. Yippeee

Enjoy the new action photos that look like I am levitating. SO COOL. Always expect the unexpected with my photos.

Must Love Dogs, my PupYups.

MY DOGS.

I am an animal person. My dogs are both one of kind and have very established personalities. Leo, short for Leonardo, is the Yorkie featured in the first photo up top. Where do I start with him? He is so cute with his smile, perky trout of a walk and when he wants something from you he turns on all of the right moves to charm you. Leo has a little problem that we like to call "little dog syndrome." Leo is convinced that he is 4 times his size and can therefore take on the mammoth Retrievers.Leo is called a "Sumo Yorkie" this remarks on the fact that he is quite the little porker and he would (if he was allowed the chance to) eat until he popped. Maybe I am more like him then I thought(?) hahahaaaa.

ON the topic of food... Leo is known for ripping a few appendages off if you try to take away his treats.

 The lovely posed white dog is my Westie, Angel. She truly is her name. She is the smartest dog I have ever encountered. But because of this immense brain power she has, she is one to get into small depressions. Awwwwwwww....But if you pick up a toy and/or just sit down, she will be the first to cuddle with you. Fun facts about her- She has the biggest fear of bugs and she is the first one to come into the bed in the morning to give you some morning kisses so you may rise in a happier mood. She loves to wake people up...

Darling and adorable Angel/ Cynical and cute Leo... So glad Leo and Angel are my dogs...  

He is electricc....

leo- action shot

MFA Museum Day

It took 2 hours to get to Boston from my school. The bus was filled with students ready to see art and to eat a good lunch in Boston. I was excited mostly for the art. One of my favorite artist of all time is Sargent and luckily the MFA has a whole room dedicated to some of his pieces. While roaming through the MFA, I asked a few of my friends "If you could paint like anyone who would it be?" Many replied in a confused tone to deflect answering the question. But me? Oh Sargent, I would love to paint like him. Well I can try to channel his brilliance while I paint, but that is as close as I am going to get. I know it is terrible to want to paint like some other artist. I am not disregarding my own natural talent with the brush.. but dreaming is in my blood(while asleep or awake). Click to see my artwork here.

 I left the MFA glad to have the opportunity to visit. But also slightly,umm how do you say it?.. oh yes, AmAzed. 

In the 21st century-some can say that art has come so far, and others say art has digressed entirely. I'll stick to being positive. Heading back on the bus I observed the strange feeling that people always get either traveling to or from a destination... Why does one leg of the trip always seem like it takes twice as long as the other??? A point to ponder..

Fashion: I am wear my french Diesel high waisted denim pants that have also been featured in this post.

The jacket is a vintage Victor Costa embroidered piece. I always feel like a "Spaniard" in the jacket. To die for. The shoes are Jeffrey Campbell =).

Renior, Sargent and Signac

Renior

Sargent

Sargent

Signac