ballet your way to a better ski trip

i just got back from skiing in steamboat, colorado with my family. it's my third time skiing, and before this trip i'd say i was... ok? i was terrified of falling, always very cautious - only skiing the super easy runs and stopping all along the way just to be sure that i could... but somehow this trip i had a breakthrough. the fear melted away and i found myself zipping down the mountain, bored with the ease of the 'green' trails, falling a lot less, and recovering more easily when i encountered unexpected terrain. what was scary became fun. i wasn't tired and ready to call it a day after a couple of hours like i have been in the past. it was awesome! i know it probably had something to do with having a little more experience this trip, but i also know that my improved balance, flexibility, and the strength in my legs came from practicing ballet. THANKS, BALLET! finally felt like i earned those après-ski beverages!!

getting noticed

yesterday in class i felt like i was kinda doing better at the barre. and then when we moved to the center of the room, i had a really difficult time with the glissade --> pas de chat (as always). i need to practice that on my own. oh, hey! we did fourth position for the first time! eee! we also learned our first "turn". it's really a half turn. errr soutenu? or something? there was definitely a sou something in there. i was completely not getting it in class, but later at work as i was walking through the halls i practiced a couple of times and something clicked. i was doing the demi-pointe version with the plié and everything!! it was amazing! and i can still do it correctly today which is even more amazing!

so anyway, immediately after class i met my husband for lunch at a sandwich shop. i was dressed in my favourite black leotard, pink ballet tights, and slippers with a pair of shorts and a hoodie on top. while i was waiting for him, a sweet middle-aged lady named helen walked up to my table and asked if i was a dancer. i said yes. her face immediately lit up... and then we spiraled into weird territory. with a thick accent and some gaps in her phrases, she proceeded to tell me how she had just watched a ballet documentary, and she knows how hard i work, and she kisses my feet (she emphasized that she has SEEN ballet feet). then she somehow managed to work jesus in there - she said "you know, jesus died for our sins...and i think it's so beautiful how you dance to make other people happy." and i was just thinking to myself this entire time "ABORT! ABORT! TYLER, YOU MORON! NEVER ENGAGE IN CONVERSATIONS WITH STRANGERS!" but it was way too late.

so, clearly, she thought i was a professional ballerina. when she started elaborating and gushing about how hard ballerinas work and how much she admires me and how impressed she was by me for dancing... i just did not have the heart to crush her and tell her i just started in like september. so, on behalf of actual ballerinas everywhere, i kindly accepted her over-the-top compliments and let her enjoy getting to talk to a dancer. much as it weirded me out, it seemed to really brighten her day.

rondes des jambes en l'air, at long last!

i started taking ballet last september at the tender age of 25. most people probably start around the age of 5, but whatever. growing up, i had several friends who danced. i was IN LOVE with ballet, but by the time i knew it (maybe age 11-12?) i felt like it was too late to start. i occasionally tagged along with them to their lessons in middle school, and would even sometimes dress in a leotard so i could participate, but i'd always get shy or feel inadequate and opt to just sit on the floor and wait for my friend to be done.

i was lucky to find a place in town that offers classes for beginning adults...AND! surprised to find that there were bushels (gaggles, pods even!) of local adults also interested in starting ballet. some of them had danced as kids but not since, and some were pretty much complete beginners like me.

today, after several months of slowly adding tiny complexities our barre exercises, we finally did rondes des jambes en l'air! oww! and yay! overall i feel like i totally suck at ballet so far... my feet are not as archy as i'd like (not to mention i have a broken toe that doesn't exactly bend) and i'm still very much working on my flexibility... but i'm having so much fun! i know i won't be in any kind of company or probably ever dance on stage, but my goals are to eventually get on pointe, and to dance all my life as long as i don't have some kind of debilitating injury. and if the broken toe means no ballet, i think i'll switch to tap! but i hope it doesn't come to that because ballet is kinda my jam.

french it up

two things i adore: franglais & vmk

fair time again!

all is fair from tylre on Vimeo.

fairly from tylre on Vimeo.

it's that time again! the NC state fair opened yesterday, and i cannot wait to find an evening to go next week! i just felt such euphoria watching videos from 2010 and 2012! someone please tell me i'm not the only 25 year old who gets this excited about the fair! also, i really miss these little videos i used to make... we're headed to philly this weekend so that i can attend girl crush philadelphia! i have been obsessed with shauna and stephen for so many years, i cannot wait to get to spend some time with her (and maybe meet him too?) and bask in their creative awesomeness for a few hours. oh! and i'm so happy to report we'll be stopping in DC on the way to PA to visit our dear friends hyunoo and colleen. i think this calls for another video!

Imaginary Event Project

friends, i'm working on some invitations to imaginary events. it's so much fun dreaming up the themes! so far i have a few in progress, and a few more ideas queued up to execute! but today i have to drive to virginia to have my harp looked at... my third octave c is buzzing! and it's driving me crazy. anyway, just wanted to give a small update on my progress. my goal is to have a set of 7 all fixed up and ready to publish on my website by september 15! so stay tuned!

Coffee Thoughts

How do you take your coffee? Have your tastes changed over the years? I used to always drink coffee with tons and tons of cream and sugar, to the point where the beverage becomes barely recognizable as coffee. I think that's how lots of younger people probably start off, though.. I remember my dad letting me & my brother have tiny, tiny cups of coffee that way as far back as when I was 9!

My dad likes coffee with lots of cream and sugar, my mom drinks it black with a small piece of ice and maybe the tiniest bit of sugar. These days, she's even been known to foo-foo it up a bit with some hazelnut creamer! I always admired my mom on some level for drinking her coffee black, like she's so badass she doesn't even need cream & sugar! So at some point in college I decided I was going to be able to drink coffee black, too. I drank it until I liked it and somehow it made me feel closer to my mother. Of course, I never knew she'd sprinkle sugar in her black coffee until years later.

The most I ever appreciated a giant cup of coffee was in Paris when I studied abroad for a month...Everything would be closed on Sundays and I'd be so sleepy from the late night before, and let's face it, nuns don't know how to make good coffee (oh, our class stayed at a convent while I was there, welcome back to the conversation!). The best thing to do on Sundays would be to go to Starbucks (I KNOW, I'M SORRY) for a big ol' cup of good, strong coffee. Parisian cafes are so cool, but sometimes a tiny cup of espresso for €5 won't accomplish what I need in the morning.

I had a really unique coffee experience a few months back. My friend Meron had me over and made us coffee the way she does every morning, Ethiopian style! She roasted her own beans on her stove (y'all!), ground them into a fine powder, and put them in this really cool pot and poured boiling hot water inside. The coffee steeped for a while and then she poured it into tiny cups for us to drink. I told her I'd have it however she had it, which was apparently with THE MOST sugar you can fit in that tiny cup, like if the coffee cooled the solution would probably crystallize. I'm talkin' supersaturation. The strength of the coffee helped balance all the sugar, but dang. At any rate, it was delicious - a different coffee experience. I thought it was so neat of her to share her morning ritual with me!

At work, there's a little coffee break crew that assembles every morning and brews strong coffee we bring in from the outside - often Starbucks, sometimes yummy selections from a local shop called Southern Season, and if we're really lucky someone will bring Counter Culture, roasted locally in Durham! I always try to make time for a morning caffeine break to chat with them about work and other things. For no particular reason (other than I do genuinely like it that way), I drink my coffee black at work. It seems more serious. Plus those room temperature coffee mate singles they keep in the break room really creep me out.

My taste for sweets has definitely changed in my late teens and early twenties. If I make coffee at home these days, I'll drink it with milk and sugar -- but only a tiny, tiny bit of sugar! Sometimes I treat myself to a sprinkle of cinnamon or even sweeten with honey instead of sugar! Ooh, the decadence of honey+milk+cinnamon+coffee! Try it!

As the years have rolled on, I find that I can't even drink weak coffee anymore (like, really, what's the point?!). When my husband and I go on long vacations, as the time to leave and return to real life and work and all that stressful crap creeps up on us, there's so much comfort and reassurance in knowing we can make our own coffee when we get back home! After seeing our beloved cats, it's the thing we're most excited about when vacations are over! Ha! Everybody needs something, I guess.

...hhh..hi?

so! 8 months or so of silence, i deactivated facebook and hid most of my stuff on flickr and changed all my blog posts to drafts and took everything off my website so i could focus on being a real person and find a direction and go with it! so anyway, i'm digging my blog out of this black hole, correcting flickr links, republishing things but trying to make sure they have the correct original post date, gah. i'm going to try to be less reclusive, and this post will go away because it's a little pointless..just wanted to say hi. i have a harp blog now if you're into that sort of thing. think i'll keep it separate from art/life stuff (this blog).

First Position (Kinda)

I've recently pinpointed my exact style: grungy librarian. I rarely wear makeup, I typically keep quiet and to myself, and my hair is usually disheveled or unwashed... or both... HOT, I know. How lucky I am to have already snagged my dream prince - my highschool sweetheart, in fact! I'm not so sure I could snare another mate given my current beauty routine, adopted sometime during my undergrad days studying Chemical Engineering.

Today has been alarmingly warm & sunny... I'm thinking of it as a parting gift from fall. With Thanksgiving coming up this week, I've been growing more and more anxious for the holiday season. Slipping into the holidays to me means cranking up the Tchaikovsky and dancing around like a loon (more than usual).

For Keeps

On cold, sunny days the light seems more precious and intense (undoubtedly due to the fact that at some point, the leaves on trees give up on us all and stop doing their fancy shade trick). I've been carrying an old quilted bag as my purse for a long while. The stitching in some places is totally frayed and I sometimes feel a tad silly as a twenty-four year old carrying a bag with my name on it... but still. My grandmother made it for me to carry sheet music to piano lessons as a kid. I love it so much more than I could love any designer bag. I'll have to switch it out pretty soon, though, so it doesn't become too worn.

cardmaking

lately i've been brainstorming a lot about launching a website featuring handmade cards and other art-related things. i've become quite obsessed with the thought! for now i am gathering ideas, themes, supplies, reinforcements, inspiration...........

bea (demo), alternate title: i have no rhythm either and that's why we're friends

we've been trying to neglect our instruments less lately and it's been amazing... even if the music sucks. it just feels awesome to make sounds again. yadadamean? this is a song i'm writing for my friend's baby, beatrice! it's totally not done... but she's not due for a couple of months, anyway, so we've got time!

&&&&&& here's a short documentary about said friend and her husband playing my autoharp. this should explain everything.

jennifer trausch & her giant polaroids

my favourite image from jennifer trausch's recent project.

the duke of durham, part one

making up songs about our new home state..

repeatedly

so, i have this friend from home named amelia who keeps a very neat blog over here. maybe a little over a month ago she challenged me to a repeat pattern contest! the theme: ADVENTURE. she was inspired by this tutorial on design*sponge.

obviously, i couldn't say no. but i procrastinated a lottttt. in fact, i really only started on it a few nights ago and we set the due date for christmas...so...tick tock! i drew stuff that has to do with mine & matthew's life together, where we've been, where we are, what got us here...and things that will remain constants as we continue life's adventure together!

i discovered that just about any crappy drawing starts to look impressive once it's repeated a bunch of times... i loved my dad's response to the pattern - "i see all your life in there." that was the point!! &&&&& here's documentation of the process, because i so often find that to be infinitely more fascinating than the finished product.











this was my "aha!" moment from the other night - i found myself staring at this blank space, wondering what the hell to fill it with and then realized i had a perfect drawing already made up...BAYBERRY HOUSE! dreams, imaginary adventures, and future plans totally count.

i feel like i need some sort of drum roll considering i've been hard at work for two nights straight...but anyway, here 'tis!

motivation

i think i need this framed.

motion picture

i spent the afternoon assembling all the little video clips i took whilst in dc... i wanted to have something a little bit more fun than just photographs of myself in front of the white house and stuff. if you're interested in catching motion sickness from all the bumpy car ride footage, please enjoy!!

part 1, getting there from tylre on Vimeo.

part 2, the district day one from tylre on Vimeo.

part 3, the district day two from tylre on Vimeo.

part 4, day trip to baltimore! from tylre on Vimeo.

part 5, la fin from tylre on Vimeo.

snooooeeww

we don't get a lot of snow accumulation in the deep south...so, yesterday when it snowed a few inches, some friends & i set out to frolic about and have magical times!

we were on our way to a place called kiesel park, but the bridge was out... alas! we found directions to some place called arrowhead park...which sounded comparable in terms of nature & vast spaces to run around in the snow...so! we set out on about a 10 minute detour on these back-woodsy roads to find this place and discovered that it was a TRAILER PARK. surprise!!!!!!!! luckily, the detour took us near kiesel and we got to go there anyway! the rest is pretty much self-explanatory.