I think I fell in love with agates when I was about five years old, scouring the shores of Lake Superior with my mom. I collected them year after year on our annual family vacation to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in hopes of one day figuring out how to crack them open and make my own jewelry.

Although they vary in color and texture by region, a rough beach agate is not exactly something to write home about:

But once the agate is sliced and modified using a variety of methods like polish or dye, no two pieces are identical. Their unique nature is my favorite thing about them, actually. My favorite designs are those that are of natural color and incorporate various metals and shapes. Here’s a few from my modest collection.

Abby Halo Ring by badass jewelry designer Dara Ettinger, given to me by Matt for our one-year anniversary.

Geode Link Necklace by Erica Weiner, a present to myself circa 2008-ish.

Another company I’ve been loving lately is Stone & Honey, offering a new spin on agates by throwing geometric shapes or “prizmatics” as they refer to them, into the mix.

And they have some other darling designs, too.

The past few trips to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, I haven’t found many agates – probably due to “over-hunting” by other admirers like me. Fingers crossed for some good discoveries as I head to the most stunning place I know of tomorrow for a week of vacation [that I'm in dire need of]. No phones, internet, work, or drama allowed; just the Great Lakes, a cozy porch, and a million books that demand to be read. I vaguely recall what finishing a novel feels like…

On my vacation reading list:
Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
About Alice by Calvin Trillin
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

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Dark chocolate with Toasted Marshmallow Fluff (we actually blow-torched these!)

Almond Tea Cakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing

Gingerbread with Cinnamon Icing

Nom nom nom nom!

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Good food is art. And not just in the general sense (presentation, color distribution, etc). In my opinion, if I’m going out on the town somewhere classy it should be a visceral experience. Bern’s Steakhouse is surreal in every way imaginable. I know what you’re thinking…what is a devout vegetarian doing at a STEAKHOUSE?! Well, it’s is not your average steakhouse in any capacity my dears. Unlike commercial joints where I’d be stuck with a mediocre baked potato and wilted iceberg lettuce, Bern’s is vegetarian friendly – offering dozens of dishes loaded with vegetables organically grown in their local garden. Here is the excerpt from their menu (it’s online here) that made Matt and I decide that this was definitely the place for our anniversary dinner:

“Like everything else at Bern’s, our farm is far from an ordinary commercial establishment. It exists solely to grow farm-fresh, pesticide and chemical-free vegetables and salad greens for our restaurant – and for your pure dining pleasure. We’ve done it this way from the very beginning, because we feel strongly that the best tasting vegetables are those that are grown naturally, with no poison sprays or harmful chemicals.

Organic? Yes. In the truest sense of the word. We use compost, sea weeds and crushed rocks, mother nature’s food, to nurture and enhance our products. And, in general, bugs and disease stay away.

Depending on the season and the weather, we try to serve what we grow on our farm daily to our customers. (The only exception is our land cress sprouts which are grown in our kitchen). Our goal is to offer you one or two farm-fresh vegetables at no charge. Want seconds or thirds? We consider it a compliment and will be happy to serve you more – again at no charge. Just ask your waiter.”

Dang, son! Wish every restaurant was this accommodating!

Nestled beside a Tampa freeway overpass in the middle of a residential neighborhood, Bern’s is an unlikely one-of-a-kind experience.

The place is huge and extravagant as all get-out. The interior design and decoration of themed rooms may verge on gaudy anywhere else, but Bern’s pulls it off just fine. They opened in 1956 and I’m not sure much has been updated since! Win. Also, please note that the extreme low light inside made for total crap photographs (I had to resort to the dreaded flash ::gasp!:: in some), but I still had to share!

After dinner, we got a tour of the kitchen. My favorite part about it? As mentioned above, they grow their own land cress sprouts in there!

And then a tour of their expansive wine cellar (6,500 different labels dating all the way back to the mid-19th century).

I liked this label.

Hand-crafted tiled stairway leading up to Bern’s famous Harry Waugh Dessert Room.

The dessert menu consisted of several pages of sugary magic.

After (literally) 20 minutes of weighing our options, we decided on the flourless chocolate torte with homemade whipped cream and hot fudge on the side!

We chose jazz for our cozy private booth, for obvious reasons.

The perfect end to our incredible nearly four-hour culinary adventure: cappuccino.

Medium format photos taken in our backyard before leaving for Tampa!

Good times.

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Marabou Thomas grew up proudly rootless in Nairobi, Kenya. He moved to Orlando, FL in 1997, and has been trying to root himself into this habitat ever since.

When I came across his work, shock waves ran through my body. The vibrancy of the colors, the sharpness of the moss, the sticks, the leaves, the moth; every piece of every image – it all amazed me. In talking with Marabou a little, I found out more about his medium. He uses a Panasonic Lumix digital camera, then remixes the images in Photoshop, and finally he paints and draws over them in Corel painter. He uses a pressure-sensitive convertible tablet PC. This set-up is both high-tech and low maintenance, though – Marabou rides his bike everywhere and manages to transport it just fine, on his back. I really liked his exact response: “It’s much easier for me to be nomadic when I can carry all my art supplies, not to mention all my art, in my backpack at minimal weight.”

Here is a small piece of Marabou’s artist statement:
Basically, I’m trying to engage in an ongoing daily conversation with the dirt. I’m trying to remind myself that I’m made of cells, that my cells are made of the same stuff that every other living being on earth is made out of: water, air, and rock. I’m trying to remind myself to keep my eyes awake, to stay sensitive, and to celebrate being alive every single second that I get to be alive.

*Note: Some of the images below have small text within them – be sure to click through to the larger images to view pieces properly.

And a poster from his recent exhibition at Dandelion CommuniTEA Cafe in Orlando…

Contact Marabou: unholding@gmail.com

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Ever searched your name or nickname on YouTube? A while ago, out of sheer curiosity, I searched “EmmaBunny,” and this is what I found.

WIN!!!!!!!!! The attention span of clumsy girl on the end cracks me up every time I watch it.

Also, Happy 4th of July! Although the below photo wasn’t taken today, it reminds me of sparklers so…

Matt took this using a 15 second exposure and a small flashlight. One shot, no photoshop. Pretty rad!

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I heard about a massive flea market about an hour and a half west of Orlando that has over 200 antique and vintage vendors. Naturally, I called an adventure day and Matt and I headed to Webster, FL to check out the Flea Market’s “Westside.” The market is every Monday, aaaand luckily I’m on vacation this week.

The sign doesn’t lie. It is the best side! The only side, as far as I’m concerned (read why at the end of this post).

I made a new friend. He had a very interesting view on weapons.

Webster is not the most vegetarian-friendly environment as you might be able to tell from the minuscule cow roof ornament.

Treasures I found – all were in the $2-$5 range…

Whale figurine.


Equestrian tea tin – marked 1943.


Mod vase – early 1970s.


Victorian portrait (with Matt’s reflection in it – ha!).


Amazing handmade plaster artwork – 1948 (front)


(back)


Tin Florida beverage tray – 1960s, I’m guessing?


Framed candy advertisement from the late 1800s (not sure if the lady I bought this from is right about the year – it’s in pristine condition, regardless).

Just hung this up in our kitchen, yay!


Wood-carved profiles.


My new favorite water glass. Come on, you know I had to get SOMETHING owly. Just one thing!

Once we finished antique browsing, we learned the hard way that the “Westside” is the ONLY side that should be visited at the Webster Flea Market. The “Farmers Market” side had some pretty horrific vendors including several tables of Walmart produce bought in bulk and sold by non-farmers, a slew of Canal Street-esque knock-off purse vendors, a guy selling diapers and cell phone chargers, an African-American woman selling confederate flag area rugs (!?!?!), a man selling parakeets that were packed 20 to a cage, and probably most heart-breaking of all was an obvious puppy mill selling baby teacup pups that were caged on top of a table in the blistering 97 degree weather. I spent some time being outraged and pissed about this, trust me. It was a rude awakening and so off of my radar that I never would have guessed something like this existed so close to home. Matt then reminded me that we live in the South…and then followed that up with “I feel like we’re in a third world country right now.” Indeed.

I’m not one for ending a post on a bummer note though, so I will chalk this experience up as a positive one overall. We definitely got in some excellent people watching in Webster. And I walked away with a stockpile of dirt-cheap vintage art! As Gilda Radner so expertly once said “It’s always something.“

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I stumbled across the book “Those We Love” in an incredible old bookstore in the sleepy country town of Drexel, NC over a year ago. I finally got around to scanning some of this hilarious (and outrageously sexist) book featuring “portraits” of what the typical wife, “good old dad,” and a little boy, amongst others, should be like. This is copyrighted 1960 and the photographs are particularly fantastic. I still am unsure if the book was meant to be clever or if the guy who wrote it was actually just a total doucher and an advocate of these stereotypes. Enjoy – I know I did!

“A boy is truth with dirt on its face”…

“A little girl likes tea parties and one boy”…

“Little girls are available in five colors…”

“Mothers are mostly just people with husbands to clean up after, children to love and spank, and houses to turn into homes…”

“Good old dad and his hard-earned paycheck are usually taken for granted, like the foundations of his house…”

Ahh, my personal favorite portrait. “Wives are available in weights from 98 pounds to 200…”

“A wife is a person whose intuition should be ignored…”

Mmm my husband is so smart. How did he fix those curtains? I could have NEVER figured that out myself.

The nuclear family!

All images above are via “Those We Love” by Alan Beck, 1960.

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Matt and I rarely run dry on ideas for dinner but now and again it happens. Thanks to this New York Times article, I can’t imagine that happening at all now! Here, you can easily search a recipe database by ingredient so you can utilize what you already have in your refrigerator or pantry and build your dinner around that. Simply fantastical!

Check out recipes and more food porn pics at Recipes For Health here.

Photo cred for above: Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times.

And for dessert? Well, I’ve been dying to try these out – homemade pop tarts, via Smitten Kitchen!

When the current chaos in my life settles down a bit (hopefully in a week or so), we’ll be able to get back to cooking every night. Fingers crossed!

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Finding unexpected beauty in the minutia of everyday routine. Something that may have been overlooked on a normal day, but today hasn’t exactly been normal…

Semi-frozen cup of h2o sitting on the counter.

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75 American silent films from the early 1920s were recovered in New Zealand this week. Virtually unseen and untouched until now, some are obviously damaged. But from the few stills I’ve seen, the damage looks gorgeous!

Reminds me of an artist I worked with years ago when I was curating a themed exhibition about ”beauty in destruction” at my alternative art space. His name escapes me at the moment, but his work consisted of slide film that he had found amongst the ruins of a burned down home in Detroit. He developed the damaged slides himself, enlarged them and displayed them as is. The colors and burn patterns integrated with the film’s natural deterioration were remarkably eerie. I need to find photos of that exhibit and post them – it was a good one!

Photos via NPR via the National Film Preservation Foundation

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