This is not going to be a post about wedding stuff, but I included some things from my inspiration board for eye candy and for those who keep hounding me for such things, since my inspiration board is online private. Credits at the bottom of this very long post.

This weekend Will asked me, “do you still have a blog?” and he was totally serious. It’s a topic that causes a bit of pain in my stomach and heart because I feel almost paralyzed about what to do with this blog lately as I open up a page for a new post and feel no inspiration on what to write whatsoever. It’s gone so far that it feels awkward to just suddenly start again, but as Will said to me: “you just have to go back to your roots, just start, just do it before it’s too late.” And he’s right. It’s like when you’re creatively blocked and you just have to make something, anything, to get the juices flowing. I can question why I even blog in the first place to death, but after reading Lauren’s amazing post about needing a witness to our art and making connections, I feel energized and inspired. So here I am, I want to try to connection again to something that brought so many good things into my life before I lose it all.

I would like to start on a topic that I’ve written roughly five drafts on but never hit publish on: the wedding. I’m glad that I didn’t hit publish previously because up until about a month ago, I was in a bad place with planning. I hated it, I dreaded it, I was so unmotivated I’m sure I gave off the vibe to others that I didn’t want to get married. But that wasn’t it, I was just suddenly terrified that maybe I didn’t want a wedding, but to just be married. Just as I had to do a lot of soul searching to decide if I was ready to get married again (long time readers, holler?), I had to do a lot of soul searching to decide if a wedding was what I wanted as well. But guess what? Contrary to what many wedding blogs may make you believe, it’s not all the bride’s decision, it’s not just her day. And I’m not just talking about the groom here, I’m talking about your family, and what you want all of your guests to be a part of. Our families are so important to us that there can only be a certain amount of “this is what we’re doing, deal with it.”

So I soul searched. I did a lot of eyes-closed imagining of what would happen that day to make me happy. I made plans, I hired vendors. I got excel spreadsheet happy and made a budget that will win awards. I decided what wasn’t worth a dime and what would make me feel more sane to throw money at (biggest tip I learned from A Practical Wedding). I learned to shed guilt and most of all, I learned through reading stories of other weddings that our day will not be a display of wealth and glitter, but as saccharine as it sounds (you have to get so used to that when planning a wedding) – our day will be a day for our friends and family to witness us promising and declaring our commitment to each other. To welcome each other into our families. To celebrate not only the present and future, but the past hardship and magic that got us to that very moment. And to thank all the people in the room that day for being a part of that journey.

So, I have arrived on the other side of soul searching and now I am excited. I relish in the planning lately because I’ve come to realize to my amazement this past year that I am really into planning things and that Will is (and has always been) a good counter to my crazy ideas that need to be roped in. Because I cannot stand being bored and like a DIY challenge, I am happily elbow deep in felt and Martha Stewart hole punches. I’ve learned how even more awesome my helpful friends and family are. I still have some anxiety over our itty bitty budget and how exactly this whole camp on an off the  grid mountain will go, and there are still moments of tears and yelling and totally non-understanding family members, but it’s a challenge I am much more accepting of than a few months ago.

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Inspiration board credits:
Studio Choo - Felt Garland DIY - Cupcake stand DIY - A&B Creative - DIY Dot Garland - Flowers* - New Orleans Wedding - Beauty Inspiration - Happy Menocal

*Pinterest link I found didn’t include a direct link, sorry!

Official Trailer (2:45) from Andrew Bird: Fever Year on Vimeo.

The Andrew Bird documentary, Fever Year, looks really great. I think he seems like a really interesting person whose talent amazes me, so it’s bound to be a good watch. The scene where he starts to sing “Sifters”, one of my favorite songs off the last album, gives me chills. And documentary bonus: Annie Clark!

Let’s listen to Sifters just because it’s so beautiful.

There are three new prints in the print shop for sale that I’m particularly excited about! It was tricky to pick from all the desert photos I’ve been taking lately, but I finally landed on these three I liked best and you guys expressed the most interest in here. Maybe a good Mothers Day present for your nature loving mom?

A few weeks ago my pal Katie told me about how she was attempting to make a friend an ice cream cake with his favorite ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. I thought that sounded ambitious and delicious, I am a faithful Ben & Jerry’s addict ever since Will made me share a pint with him our first week of dating, destroying my veganism with 16 ounces of dairy heaven. But Katie decided the whole cake thing was not her jam, so being the cookie master she is (I’ve eaten many of her delicious creations) she figured out a way to turn it into a cookie recipe.

I didn’t try one of hers, but after she posted the recipe on her blog, I decided to be the hero at a friend’s birthday in Joshua Tree over the weekend. I don’t really know these friends well, and winning people over with baked goods is my go-to move. Once people were well liquored up, sunstroked and full of desert magic happiness (real thing that happens) – I busted the cookies out of the fridge to the cheers and tears of my fellow party goers (ok maybe not that dramatic but people were pretty excited). They were a hit, but I only got to eat one of them, so naturally I had to make them again this week for a care package I’m sending to a friend. And save half for us, duh. Guys, these cookies are a flippin’ revelation. I would dare to say they rival the most popular blog post I’ve ever posted recipe, and they are so much easier. BUT! They are not for the faint of heart – they are very sweet, and if you don’t like toffee, keep on movin’ (literally, we can’t be friends,this is awkward.)

Let’s do this thing. But before you start I must give you a few tips: cook them nice and big (I put 9 on a pan), and store them in the fridge because they are 100x more delicious out of the fridge.

Espresso Toffee Crunch Cookies by Katie Wilson
(adapted from Ambitious Kitchen’s brown butter cookies, which are life changing)
you’ll need…
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 T instant espresso powder (you can add slightly more at the end for a heavier coffee flavor)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (this is adjusted, as I always have salted butter on hand. If you use unsalted, up to 1/2 tsp)
2 sticks butter, browned and cooled (see instructions below)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg plus 1 yolk
1 T greek yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup toffee pieces (you want these)
directions…
First, brown your butter: heat slowly in a pan over medium heat. Whisk as you go and watch carefully. After a few minutes, the butter will foam and then recede, turning a carmel brown color. It will smell sort of nutty. Don’t let it burn, but be sure it’s actually browned (not just melted) – when you pour it out of the pan and into a bowl to cool, it should be a rich, burnt sienna color. Let the butter fully cool before you start – 20 minutes on the counter should do it.
Meanwhile, mix together all your dry ingredients (flour, espresso powder, baking soda and salt). In a separate bowl, combine your brown butter and sugars thoroughly. Add the egg, yolk, yogurt, and vanilla and stir until smooth. Gradually mix in your dry ingredients about 1/2 cup at a time. Stir in the toffee bits and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Taste liberally. Add more espresso powder if you’re into that sort of thing, but be sure to mix well.
Stick the whole shebang in the fridge for at least an hour. Preheat the oven to 375. Roll loosely rounded balls of dough (make sure you get all those chocolate chips in there – sometimes I’ll dot the tops with a few extra) and drop 2-3 inches apart on your pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies should look slightly undercooked in the middle, but they will set up within a few minutes of removing from the oven.
Enjoy!

It took everything in me to not post two music posts last week, and I think I’ll have a lot of those moments this spring as it’s going to be a great season of new music.

The new Junip album comes out tomorrow in the US (out now in Europe!), and up until today it was streaming on Pitchfork, so I was obsessively listening to it the last few days. It’s near perfect.

Somehow the new James Blake album, Overgrown, was released without me hearing a blip about it after the Retrograde single stole my heart. I worried that meant it wasn’t the best, but that is not at all the case – it’s spectacular. I’d say that it’s just as haunting, but maybe a bit more approachable and less sparse than the last album, which I love but can only be in certain moods for.

The new Kurt Vile album, Wakin On A Pretty Daze, is just as good as I hoped it would be. I think it will be the anthem of my spring and summer here in LA, I foresee some long drives with the windows down with it playing on the stereo. I have tickets to see him live in a couple weeks, I can’t wait.

Also I love how weirdly adorable this video is and how Kurt is probably a cool dad:

Are you sick of photos of the desert yet? I didn’t think so. Will and I celebrated out last anniversary together as non-married people in Joshua Tree a few weeks ago. I can’t think of a better place to celebrate six years of magic than in the most magical place I know of. Will had never been, and of course, he fell in love and never wanted to leave. We spent hours upon hours driving, rock scrambling, hiking, napping, healing, being, loving. We stayed in a bungalow at the 29 Palms Inn and listened to coyote pups howl to a epically full moon in a crystal clear sky dotted with stars. I still have cholla spines in my sneakers and dust in the cuffs of my pants.

Photos by Kate Miss, taken on an Ikon Ikoflex with Fuji Fujichrome Velvia 100

Exactly six months ago Laure, Makoto and I drove to a tiny (emphasis on tiny) town in the Searles Valley for a magical one time a year event called Gem O Rama where you dig and collect gems and go to a big gem show. I took a roll of film on my Ikoflex but had two damn shots left, and the camera sat in my closet for weeks until recently. I didn’t take photos of the actual event as I didn’t want to ruin my camera, but here are some photos of the drive. We gave ourselves lots of time so we could make fun stops along the way. The evening we went to a Benny Hanna-type restaurant in the town where we quickly discovered half of the town’s high school kids were at before going to prom. It was an experience to remember. On the way back we stopped at a not so fabulous apple and pear orchard where we bought rock hard pears and apples the size of walnuts riddled with holes. But it didn’t matter because it was so fun. We drove back on the winding, beautiful Angeles Crest Highway and I thanked my lucky stars to live in the greatest state in America. We already have so very many takers for this year’s trip and I can’t wait to make this a yearly thing.

Photos by Kate Miss, taken with a Ikon Ikoflex with Kodak Portra 160 film.

Lovely Bre asked me to share what essentials I carry in my Scout & Catalogue Mañana Clutch, which you can read about over on her blog. I am normally a plain jane with accessories but have been branching out lately with fun stuff, like studded flats and this animal print-reminiscent clutch. It’s perfect for karaoke nights, if I do say so myself.

There is a little peek here of a new necklace that is coming very soon.

It’s time for another grab bag, people. Not really new music, think of it more as a mini mix of stuff I’ve favorited on Spotify lately. Mostly for wedding reception purposes, I must admit. My brain is consumed, save me?

Bjork/Crystalline (Omar Souleyman Remix)

Aloe Blacc/If I

Luke Temple/Make Right With You

Low/Plastic Cup

Melody Gardot/Goodnite

Buena Vista Social Club/Candela

Have a great weekend!