Friday, December 27, 2013

Many Blessings and Catchphrases


This right here is what it's all about, this is my favorite Christmas ornament, and this time of year all of the many blessings in this life should bring us all to our knees. I had an incredibly blessed Christmas full of ugly sweaters, Oreo balls, Midnight Mass singing, and family catchphrases. There is no greater feeling of peace to be found sitting at the feet of the Lord sandwiched by your loving parents. And nothing compares to the relief and surrender that comes Christmas Eve when the presents are wrapped, the work is done and all you have left to do is curl up in your favorite furry blanket and gaze upon the frost patterns of your window while your heavy eyelids fall as softly as the starlit silence. 


My Christmas also involved a few shenanigans, as a gift to myself-- because you are never too old to get toys for Christmas-- I ordered a few original trilogy Star Wars figures that I had had my eye on and they fit in swimmingly with my already robust collection. Although Walrus man was supposed to keep an eye on Ackbar but of course he tipped back a little too much egg nog. He drinks like a fish.


I also ordered my first NerdBlock!!! Granted it's a little pricey ($20+$10 shipping per month) but I have nerdy friends as well and thought that if there is ever anything in it that doesn't strike my fancy then I can save it for them for gifts. My cousin Ryan received the sweet Samurai watch and a LOTR fan friend received the invisible Bilbo Baggins :) 


And yes I finally took a gander at crepe paper flowers and oh my word they are gorgeous and fun to make!!! This is the bouquet I made my mom for Christmas and they look like real blooms but they are huge! If you are interested in making them yourself pick up the book Paper to Petal, you won't regret it!! Also during the holidays we talked about what each of our memorable family catchphrases would be and it made for an interesting topic of conversation and induced a lot of laughter. We all seemed to have more than one :) Two things I used to say when I was little was "I want something I want", I was a very easy to please child as you can imagine ha ha, and when I was mad I would say "You badger!" Which made people laugh, except my parents who really knew I was trying to say "You bastard!" but couldn't quite pronounce it yet. I blame HBO for that one. 
So tell me, what is your childhood quote or catchphrase?

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Sparkly Snow and a Christmas Carafe


We had a big beautiful snow this past weekend it was lovely and made me want to stay in all weekend. I didn't have to go far, my girlfriends came over for our now annual Christmas Craft and movie night! We eat food, chat about all things, and then ditch crafts in exchange for painting our nails. I can't believe this year is coming to a close already, so much happened this year and yet there's so much I which I could have squeezed in too. I'm looking forward to 2014 though, I'm taking my writing more seriously now and am going to pursue some outlets. I've entered a contest with Writer's Digest so I will keep you posted there, and I'm half way through editing the novel that I've been crafting for the last 5 years. Also the Olympics are coming, Jimmy Fallon is moving to 10:30, and Hollow City the sequel to Miss Peregrine is coming out!!! It's going to be a good year! What are you looking forward to?


My mom gifted this to me for my birthday, I'm excited to use it. Even though I don't really drink I'm sure I can fill it with a tantalizing mocktail. It's so swanky!!!

Monday, December 2, 2013

Ode to Feisty: The Best of All Felines


So few things remain constant in this life, for me it was my cat, Feisty. She passed away today after 19 and a half years of being a faithful feline companion. She was the best cat I could have ever hoped for and there will never be another like her. I remember the day we got her and her sister. My family and I had just moved out into the country in the fall of '93. In the spring of '94, a family up the road had a litter and my parents let me pick out two, sister tortoiseshells. Adorable. We put them in a crate and I sat in the back of the van to make sure that they wouldn't jump out. One sat there quietly, so I named her Mellow, the other couldn't wait to jump out of the crate, so I dubbed her Feisty.

 

The kittens lived in our basement until they were old enough to defend themselves, we would often find them curled up in a different place every night whether in my dad's helmet or in the piece of chicken coop my parents had salvaged. One day when we came home from getting groceries we found that a dog had got loose and come through our farm. He had killed Mellow, but Feisty sat in the crook of a nearby tree looking down at us. She was a fighter and she had instinct. Being an only child, she became my partner in crime. We would sit atop my playhouse and soak in the sun, she would sit on my lap as we would sled down the hill after which she would jump off at the bottom and run up to the top to wait for me to go again, she would curl up on my lap and let me pet her for hours. In the winter she lived in the barn, protected from the elements, coyotes, and owls. 
She bore two litters of kittens which greatly amused us and livened up the place, but we always gave them away. We kept one but she died too soon. Feisty remained and I began to grow up. My best friend and I loved to sleep in our camper, one particular sleepover, we brought the cat in to sit with us. She loved the warmth and free rubs, that and she loved watching us play nintendo on the tiny tv and would put her paw on the controller. She was fascinated by the tv and would sit outside and watch it from the windows. When our sleepover was over, and Liz had gone home. There was Feisty patiently waiting outside the camper, ready to be one of the girls again. 
When I say she loved warmth, that was no passing comment. Feisty would do anything to get in the house. Ever sly, this cat knew when we were distracted, when our hands were full, when we let the screen door open a little too wide. Pew! She would shoot past our feet and run upstairs or hide in the basement. One time she did this while we were taking luggage to the car for a trip to St. Louis. We were gone for 4 days and when we returned we froze when we heard meowing in the house. Feisty had inadvertently been locked in the house without food or water for 4 days. She didn't poop or pee for 4 days. She didn't break anything, although there were paw prints on just about every single window. She may have drank out of the toilet, but that's a secret she took to the grave. 
I loved to walk our long lane and Feisty used to follow me then lay in the gravel and wait for me to pass and pet her at each lap. She would lay in the most relaxed positions and roll over repeatedly to take a sandy dirt bath. The angry birds on the telephone wires would dip and dive at her. Likely getting even for her expert hunting skills. She was an extremely good huntress, I remember her dragging whole rabbits to the back porch with pride at her prowess, much to my mother's disgust. There was always one organ that she refused to eat, the stomach. She'd eat everything else but that, I guess she didn't want to get heartburn! And every morning she waited at the back door to drink my dad's leftover bowl of milk from his cheerios, she was picky too, she didn't like skim milk or the bargain brand food. She had taste for a country cat.
As the years went by, she was always there. After I had moved out and got a place of my own a few years ago, I always came back to visit and there she'd be curled up on the glider on the porch watching me walk up the sidewalk. She'd meow and I'd meow back, and so it would go until I reached the porch and petted her head. One Christmas I stayed the night and when I awoke, I found her curled around the top of my head like a Russian hat with her nose to mine. Mom had let her in to wake me up, and commented that she couldn't get much closer to me if she tried. She loved my parents as well. Mom had the best lap and Dad enjoyed teasing her and keeping her spry. Eventually more gray hair showed up in her tale, the extreme cold and extreme heat were hard on her and thus my parents began bringing her indoors part of the time and she and Dad became very close. She liked watching PBS with him in his man cave, Feisty even would stick her nose to the tv during the nature programs, whales and eagles were her favorites. She had a chipped tooth, one white whisker, and a light patch on her breast. She had character. 
Last night I got to scratch her under her chin in her favorite spot on her favorite blanket. I'll never forget her, she was not just a great cat, she was a great friend. And she lived every one of those nine lives, and then some, to the fullest. Love you Feisty. 
Love, Nicole. 

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Legal Graffiti and Lightsabers


I get paid to make art. That's my job...technically. We were working up some new cover designs and I did three layered graffiti texture paintings and experimented in just about every kind of paint I could get my hands on in the art cabinet, aka THE CAGE. It felt really good to get my hands dirty again. On a side note it was my birthday on Friday, and my friends and I celebrated with a bonfire and s'mores. It makes getting older just a little easier. 




Also my coworkers are pretty boss, they bought me a mini lightsaber. What was your best or worst birthday gift?




Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Block printing into existence


Now that I work for Blick Art Materials, I've been getting the hands-on bug again! Art is my therapy, my catharsis. My coworker was working on a catalog page and asked me if I had any block prints. I remembered a linocut I had done in college and dug it up. Today I rummaged around in the cage (our affectionate term for where we keep all of the supplies, and no joke it's a big wired cage in the warehouse!) and I found some really nice violet and turquoise inks to try out. This is the result. Feels good to be making things again, it reminds me that I exist. What did you do today to prove your existence?

Friday, October 4, 2013

A night out and welcome to October!

 

Music is the outpouring of the soul and hearing it live is an experience like none other. The other night I went out on the town and listened to the Peoria Symphony Orchestra at the Civic Center in Peoria. It was gorgeous, I was gifted a box seat in exchange for promoting the performance on Twitter. It is a new and amusing marketing strategy to have a group that discusses the key points and interesting details of each season's performance.

 

Tonight we were delighted by Wagner, Rachmaninoff, Strauss, and Debussy. Olga Kern, award winning pianist, brought down the house and nearly set off the fire alarm with her smoking hot key moves. Personally I think her gorgeous gown alone deserved a standing ovation, it looked like something straight out of a couture collection. I sat next to a long time concert going couple, aka cute and classy old people, she was all decked out with her sparkly clip on earrings and matching necklaces. Yes I said necklaces. And her husband sat behind her listening attentively. The only slightly annoying thing that happened occurred during the up tempo movements of the Rachmaninoff piece, a woman in front of me had particularly loud fingernails and enjoyed tapping them. Thankfully she moved after the intermission. After the concert I ran into some old friends and left smiling inside and out!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Pretty Paper Petals



These are not paper, but aren't they pretty. It's a volunteer that started growing in my side yard. I don't know what type of flower it is but I'm glad it made its home outside my window. Fall is here and the apples are ready to be picked on my tree and the garden is looking more and more sparse. Time to start thinking of winter projects! I have many new stories to write and hobbies to hone. I want to get ahead on my Christmas gifts this year, I don't want to scramble like I always do. What are your favorite hobbies.


 

Paper to Petal is a book I recently splurged on and I can's wait to make some of these flowers!!! They look amazingly life like and will last far longer than real flowers. Rebecca and Patrick are magicians. This is a must read, and it even has templates! I will keep you posted on my progress. 

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Throwback Thursday Vinyl: Boots by Nancy Sinatra


I picked this little number up on my thrift trip for a scandalous 75 cents at an antique store in Galesburg, IL. It's fabulous. The delicious Nancy Sinatra is the ultimate razor sharp blond bombshell who could hold her own in 1966. She covers everything a teenager was feeling in the 60s high on the drama of love, lies, and loneliness. What surprised me were the Beatles, Dylan, and Rolling Stones covers on this album. These tracks are ultimately given the Nancy Sinatra camp stamp but what makes me laugh is if the artists weren't pleased with them, who would dare insult the daughter of Frank Sinatra. You better prepare for a swift boot print on your face. Besides the obvious title track that is one of my all time oldie favs, "In My Room" is a dramatic affair that makes me want to stand in my house like I own the place and the cover of "As Tears Go By" is a dreamy serenade. Definitely pick this up if you get the chance and support your local record store.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Happy Fish, First Fridays. and Ribbon Records!

 

Friday night my cousin and I partook of CIAO First Fridays in Peoria, but first I had to make it out of her home filled with swanky vintage treasures from her latest road trip to northern Illinois. Happy Fish Sushi was our dinner of choice, a cool little joint in Campustown with super fresh sushi, although the tables are a tad too close together and there is that awkward moment where you feel like you are dining with the strangers next to you and you almost reach for something on their plate :) Carrie and I highly recommend the Miami Roll and the White Dragon roll.

 

Our next trek was Ribbon Records, a new favorite of mine, you will have to excuse the impressionistic photo I took below, but it is jam packed with bins of used records and the coolest vintage clothing collection you will find outside of a big city. This is a must see hole in the wall in Peoria. You can listen to music at your leisure as well!

 

We then traversed the artist studios of the Murray Building on Walnut street (Ribbon Records is in the first floor, artists are on the next 3 floors). We met Ken Hoffman, Ken Tiessen, Tracy Frugoli, and a few more very talented folk. Our night ended under the stars eating ice cream and discussing our life's passions. It was a pretty stellar Friday.


 

Carrie wants this lamp.


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Hello New Job!

 

What a summer. I got a job!!!! So I've said goodbye to my old job with Numéro in the warehouse district of Peoria and hello to a design position with Blick Art Materials in Galesburg. As much as I enjoyed my old job, I'm adjusting nicely to the security, plus the 401K and benefits aren't too shabby either. I'm proud to work for a company that supports artists, and products I can truly get behind. I've got some more writing and illustration projects which I will post on soon. What exciting things happened to you this summer?

Monday, July 1, 2013

Impromptu Life and Luna Moth Wings

 

Lately I've been taking a breather and planning my work schedule as I see fit, which has been a bit nice to say the least. I went for a short nature walk on my parents' farm and found this tattered luna moth wing. A luna moth features prominently in one of my stories and they seem so other worldly to me.

 

While working at home my mom showed up on my doorstep and offered to take me to get a haircut, lunch and a little impromptu thrifting. How could I refuse, we went to two of our usual jaunts and they did not disappoint. All in all I think I spent under $12. You can see all my wears in my Etsy shop! coleblk.etsy.com

 

I even found this, its from the 40s or 50s, the backing is a butterfly wing and the the glass is painted on the inside with an island scene.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Thrift Stores Are the Bacon of Shopping...


Sorry for my absence, my cousin Carrie and I went on a thrifting road trip and it did not disappoint. We laughed our way through Springfield, the Quad Cities, and Galesburg, IL. We were led on some wild goose chases and experienced lots of bargains, screaming babies, chatty hotel neighbors, one man motorcycle wheelie popping fist pumping shows, PMS ice cream outings, Gumbo Ya-Ya, would-be yogurt bandits, singing horrible 90s music, Bad Girl Video and Fat Cat's Tattoo lounge, a license plate that said WHO AM U, drive-in movies, paying in pennies, forgetting to eat lunch, and Willy Wonka saying "tell me how you're going to try and eat a salad." It was a magical journey.

  

The Sangamon Antique Mall in Springfield, lotsa junking fun.


The Route 66 Drive-In, I highly recommend this!! We saw Fast & Furious 6 (bleh) and Star Trek Into Darkness (woohoo!!!!)

 

Coasting through small towns scouting out garage sales, that is the best way to get deals.

 

Totally misleading, don't always trust the signs, they had a wooden tv table painted like a watermelon for $20. No thank you! Where's the quarter table?!? 

 

Oh heck yeah, ice cream, cures everything...except diabetes.



 

My haul! Lots of fun treasures! I've already listed some in my shop, coleblk.etsy.com. If you want to check out some of Carrie's treasures, check out swankyladyvintage.etsy.com

Always remember: "Thrift stores are the BACON of shopping, antique stores are the STEAK!"

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Memorable Days

 

It's been a doozy of a month, for those of you who do not know, I was laid off from my job a few weeks ago and NumĂ©ro magazine is coming to a close after 7 years. It's sad to see it go, I've been through several waves of emotion over the last few weeks but overall I'm excited for what lies ahead, but I wouldn't have traded all of the priceless experience and relationships that I've formed over my time there. I updated my portfolio site, check it out!! www.NicoleBlackburn.com. This past weekend Carrie and I from Swanky Lady Vintage did some trip planning for our ultimate thrifting road trip coming up next week! I made yet another recipe from the orange book, Tuna and Artichoke pasta  - seriously delicious, and Carrie made nutty hummus! 

 

Memorial Day I woke up early and joined my dad for Mass in old St. Patrick's Cemetery, the oldest still in use Catholic church in Illinois. Very small but very cool. Our hearts go out to all those who have lived and died for our spiritual and physical freedoms! Dad also surprised me and took me for breakfast at the Jubilee Cafe where most of the patrons have white hair and the waitress has teased hair and long fake nails and there's a case of pies when you walk in the door.

 

It has been the wettest year, storming or deluging every day for like a week and there's more to come. But the flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping like crazy. Mom had me down for dinner and cooked corn on the cob, burgers, potatoes and deviled eggs! 

Monday, May 20, 2013

Life Lately

 

The weather has been gorgeous, this weekend I took a nap with the windows open. Ah bliss. You need to take a step back once in a while and just enjoy the day. I've been so busy lately with design projects and branding that it was nice to step away from the computer a bit over the weekend. 

 

My best friend Liz graduated from nursing school and had a graduation party on her and her fiancé's farm, so picturesque. I'm so stinking proud of her!

 

Star Trek Into Darkness opened and my friend Becky and I went to the midnight showing on Wednesday. Holy cow! I wanna see it ten more times. I could write a term paper here about it but I will spare my non-Trek readers from that. All I can say is that you definitely don't have to be a hard core fan to enjoy it but if you are there are so many little things that they threw in there for us. And I kinda want to kidnap Benedict Cumberbatch and hide him in my dreams. He's such a fantastic actor I could go on and on and on...

 

Somedays you just gotta watch Sherlock and eat ice cream. 

Friday, May 3, 2013

Oh man. Siamese Cats and Peanut Noodles


"Oh man." Those were the only words that came out of my mouth in between stuffing it with this dish. Spicy Chinese Peanut noodles. This recipe is super easy and amazingly delicious (another recipe from the orange book, thank you Renee). I ended up making this for dinner because I saw a bottle of cider vinegar in my cabinet and couldn't remember what I bought it for. Then I saw the peanut butter and pasta and my memory miraculously returned. And it contains garlic and cilantro, any argument against this dish is invalid...if you have a peanut allergy just skip this post. Also if you are distracted by the two felines, you should be because they are cute. But don't get too attached, they just sold this week and are destined to become a Mother's Day gift for someone in North Dakota! Happy Friday.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sharks, Salmon, and Spiced Carrots

 

Saturday I had an impromptu visit to Goodwill where I picked up this 99 cent treasure. Jaws is one of my favorite movies and I could not resist this tourist trap impulse buy. I will be using it for eating ice cream...yes I eat ice cream from cups and mugs. Unlike bowls, mugs have handles so your fingers do not freeze off while trying to enjoy your creamy load of fantasticness.


 

Tonight I tried a new way of cooking salmon, it was good but not great. Even in a sealed foil packet the salmon was drier than usual. I may try to make some sort of salmon spread that I found on foodily to rescue the leftovers.

 

To accompany the salmon I made spiced sautéed carrots; they were better than the salmon and had an unexpected flavor. Spiced with cumin and cinnamon, they were smoky and mildly sweet, I may add a touch more salt and garlic the next time around. They were very light on the oil. I'm all about adding more vegetables to my diet, especially carrots. What is your favorite vegetable recipe? Please share it and perhaps I will try it and feature it!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Whirlwind, what a week

 

What a week. They say one of the only constants in life is change. They were right. The other constant in life is God, and that's how I know everything is going the way it is supposed to. The best way to respond to change is by grabbing hold of it and letting go all in the same instant, like a great weight has landed on your shoulders but somehow you know that it will soon pass through you into space. 

 

I will spare you anymore metaphors and move on to lighter matters. Congrats to MaryAnne at lifeathaven, that was the best phone message ever! I also got the magazine sent to press and saw my friends Jared and Stephanie Bartman in concert and they were excellent as always and Henry was a wiggle worm but he clearly stole the show. The string quartet were magical and everyone brought their best to the table, not to mention the fact that this concert was BYOB and there was one table in particular that brought their best booze to the table and were very giggly. Also kudos to Denim Dragons and your freaky masks but great tunes.



Renee, I'm holding true and working my way through the book. I'm so proud of this meal, ginger teriyaki chicken and smashed spinach and garlic potatoes. MMMMMmmmmmmmm. I will be eating on this for a while. It really feels good to eat real food for a change. 



Sunday, April 21, 2013

Happy Record Store Day!

 

There is just something about vinyl, the tactile feel, the odd eye-grabbing album art, and yes that 1970s-sandalwood-incense-plucked-straight-from-a-woodpaneled-basement smell. This is the first time I truly celebrated Record Store Day (sans Jack White, I guess he was too busy being an ambassador or something to come to Illinois). My friend Luke happens to be a big time vinyl collector so we met up at Co-Op Records in East Peoria where we quickly learned that you need to be in line before the dawn has cracked if you want to get that elusive Blind Melon record that the store - correction, the city - only ordered one copy of. Our trek included not one but FOUR local record stores because we're hard core like that. EP Co-Op, Peoria Co-Op, Pekin Co-Op, and Ribbon Records in downtown Peoria which I think was my favorite for quirk value, hence I will be going back. You meet some interesting characters along the way as well and it's cool to hear what everyone is after.

 

Here was my haul, I really wasn't looking for anything too specific so I plucked some Guess Who for my dad for Father's Day and the Spiral Starecase and Steve Martin are mine all mine. I know you are jealous, you are just playing it cool. I was pleasantly surprised to find this 8x10 portrait of Steve still in the sleeve!


Here is my friend's haul, 15 total. He was most pleased with Nick Drake and The White Stripes. Quite the eclectic array. He even asked me to make him stop before his spending got out of hand, but as I've learned from shopping with Carrie of Swanky Lady Vintage, no amount of hand slapping can deter someone from a good bargain. I may have to borrow a few.

 

It was a beautiful, sunny spring day, a little chilly in the morning, but it warmed up as the day progressed. One of those days where you can't help but take the backroads, turn up the Radiohead B-Sides, and sing away in your best Thom Yorke voice.