"De Sunflower Ain't De Daisy"

De sunflower ain't de daisy, and de melon ain't de rose;
Why is dey all so crazy to be sumfin else dat grows?
Jess stick to de place yo're planted, and do de bes yo knows;
Be de sunflower or de daisy, de melon or de rose.
Don't be what yo ain't, jess yo be what yo is,
If yo am not what yo are den yo is not what you is,
If yo're jess a little tadpole, don't yo try to be de frog;
If yo are de tail, don't yo try to wag de dawg.
Pass de plate if yo can't exhawt and preach;
If yo're jess a little pebble, don't yo try to be de beach;
When a man is what he isn't, den he isn't what he is,
An' as sure as I'm talking, he's a-gwine to get his.

A Patois poem about being genuine and accepting yourself as you are, even if it wasn't what you had planned for yourself. OWN YOU. The sooner you do, the happier you will be.

Daisy to Sunflower by HiLLjO on Polyvore

Daisy to Sunflower by hilljo featuring thick belts

See where the name for my blog came from in this post.

Yellow sleeveless dress, £46
Topshop rose print dress, $72
Franco Sarto floral sandals, $80
Frye ankle tie shoes, $120
Wet Seal studded handbag, $23
RED Valentino satchel bag, $595
Two tone jewelry, £25
Gold and silver jewelry, £25
Cole Haan thick belt, $88
Belt, $97

What is "Daisy to Sunflower?"

Van Gogh's "Sunflowers"



My obsession with sunflowers began nearly ten years ago when my father told me they reminded him of me. At first I was disappointed because I loved daisies as a girl, but I soon began to like the new flower much more. It was like a daisy, but richer hued. Like a daisy had been oxidized without wilting until its hues saturated into a vivid yellow with a browned center. It kind of resonated with me as I realized this that this would happen to me, too. As I got older I would no longer be a clean white daisy; I'm like a rolling stone and I knew I'd be getting dirty... "darker."
My affinity to sunflowers is not unlike Vincent Willem Van Gogh's obsession with The Flower. He is best known for all his sunflower still lifes and paintings. They also meant something deeper to him; they wilt so fast and change hue so quickly in the process that they reminded him of life and how quickly it changes.
Both Van Gogh and I see something truly meaningful within the Sunflower which we also see in ourselves. His paintings brought him friendship with another artist who loved them, so Van Gogh connotated Sunflowers with friendship as well as with gratitude. He painted many different versions of the print above and 2 of those versions were combined with a third painting depicting a woman, a mother, between them. Scholars say that he may have been inspired to create the triptych of the three pieces when he got sick and remembered his mother's care. One brings flowers to another to show gratitude and this may have been his way of showing it by carrying it out in his medium.

One thing that I see in sunflowers that Van Gogh could never see, because of his sex, is the symbolism of the flower as the nature of my feminity. I identified with it as a rapidly-changing teen, as a young woman, as a Bride, and now as the woman I am growing up to Be. All the stages of my life are represented within its growth, its hues' vibrancies, and its beauty.
I am the gesture drawing of a sunflower on a page in a sketchbook.
I am constantly changing.
I am looking toward the sun.
And I am beautiful.

I, for one, love my husband.

I resisted Pinterest ALL day. I made my bloggy reading-and-commenting rounds and continued working today instead of logging on... until 5 minutes ago!

What a mistake that was.

All I get from Pinterest is pissed off anymore. There is a slew of people making light of talking bad about their partners, and specifically husbands, on there in the form of repins of stupid quotes.





I can't take more than citing just 2 Pins I disagree with here. It's not that I don't have a sense of humor because trust me, I DO. But to me, it is the equivalent of men reducing women to their appearance to reduce a man to his faults.
I, for one, love my husband. So. Damn. Much.
To make light of his emotions and to not take into account how much he does for us would be a crying shame. Partners need to raise up each other with love and kindness and appreciation.
My husband is a man of character and that is why I wanted to marry him. I didn't want to get married before I knew him, but after I met him I only wanted to be married to him.
If we disagree, we argue with respect for each other and work through our differences. That doesn't mean one bends to the ideas of the other; it means we respect each other enough to let the other own their own thoughts.
My husband cannot be nagged. No one likes it, so why would he? If he was going to do something around the house and he has not done it yet, I simply (READ:)Let. It. Go. 10 times out of 10 the next time I think about it, he has already done it.
My husband is my best friend and he teaches me so many things by sharing what he learns about the world. He reads everyday. He researches for the sake of knowing something for himself. He is truly intelligent for seeking information for no other purpose than his own curiosity. He has taught me so much, and I hope what I'm sharing with him teaches him, too.
My husband is cool. He has style; he never wears jeans, just Dickies pants. I really love how he dresses as an individual. He likes good music that we both enjoy and has introduced me to bands I love who I'd never heard of before. He is open minded and open hearted and this just allows all kinds of cool things to rush in.
My husband encourages me by always believing in me. He sees how determined I get about so many things, and he never undermines it with reality. He's just there for me when I fall short to remind me of how far I got when I started with nothing.
My husband loves me. He shows and tells me everyday. Do you know what he told me this morning? That he keeps thinking about how I look when I smile and how precious I am to him. Yes, he is real.

So join me in my challenge to you, dear readers: RISE UP AND LOVE YOUR PARTNER. Be a true partner to your spouse, fiance/e, boyfriend, girlfriend, and show the world that "They are More."

Wedding Dress Shopping FAILS

Blast from the past post! This was originally at Weddzilla but I wanted to share it here!!!

Entirety of Wedding Photos

Long story short, I was having a bit of a time getting all of the wedding photos back... well, let me tell you two things: it was worth the wait, and WATCH OUT for swooooony pictures ahead!

All by Dawn Pohlen

HiLLjO's Flowergirls + Kate Moss's Flower Girls



D.Pohlen

Similar lighting and softness. And they're ALL cute.



From VOGUE

 Thanks for coming by if you're coming from Green Wedding Shoes! Long live GWS!!!

Jeannie Gold - 3: Colored Shadows

This week I am inspired by colored shadows.

No, not the museum exhibit! Actual shadows that have color to them from light casting through a translucent/transparent pigmented object!

I caught a glance of my heart sunglasses in my shadow last week and have been in love with translucent colored films since.

I have found some mod-comme-80's inspiration with contemporary artis Martin Neuhaus. He makes lamps from retro plastic neon-colored cups.

So this is what the Jeannie Gold for next week will center around: neon, hearts, + 80's. I'll see if I can't design another gown to go with this.

And NO it will not be similar to the November Rain video's gown. lolz.

Did you just have a flashback, momma?

Homemade Wedding Cake

Quite possibly the first thing I envisioned for our wedding was a DIY cake made by myself.

I have made many cakes in the last 4 years or so for family and friends. Birthday cakes, graduation cakes, groom's cake... some had my homemade buttercream on them, some had fondant coverings, some were sheet-cakes, some were tiered cakes. They were all delicious, of course ;o)

But I have never had the opportunity to rise up to the challenge of making a wedding cake. They have to look and taste good while being structurally sound.

So I prepped for this cake like any other cake I make: I made a sketch, made recipes, and designed it up. We chose to make a 3-tier multi-flavored wonderment covered in ivory textured buttercream and fresh flowers. Of course we got the bunny cake topper!

My Design

You may or may not know but Shawn and I are organic foodies. So choosing the ingredients for my cakes is not as typical as picking out a box-mix and walking to the checkout at Hy-Vee. I use whole wheat pastry flour, farm eggs, non-homogenized whole milk, real unsalted pastured-cow butter, and the like. This makes for a high-quality texture cake with an amazing fresh flavor. I was even told by the neighbor [who mills his own wheat] at the wedding that "I make good cake."

The top layer was green tea for us, middle layer was animal cracker (everyone's request and favorite), and the bottom was good ol' marble.

Unfortunately, being a bride and baking your cake doesn't always work out. Fortunately I was able to bake it. More fortunately, while Shawn and I had to run off to meet with the DJ (before all hell broke loose Wednesday night starting with the bachelor/bachelorette) my wonderful Maid of Honor Meaghan and Shawn's (and now my!) Aunt Dee helped to ice it and assemble each layer! I showed them my design, what I wanted the icing to look like and they. just. did it. Like freakin' Nike.

When I finally got to see it after Aunt Dee assembled it at the wedding venue, I just got all teary! I had made a wedding cake, finally! And although I didn't get to decorate it all by myself, it was even more special to me that I was able to let it go and trust my family to help me. I learned so much just from that cake!

PS: At the end of the night, one of Shawn's friends who had jokingly told me he would be taking the rest of they cake home--did. It was half of that large bottom layer there. The whole thing. Gone.

PPS: At least someone got to eat it! We only got the piece we gave to each other... oh well!

FREE Favicon Design

I don't know if you have noticed but lately blogger has come out with some new features to brand your blog! One of these is using a Favicon. Instead of the Orange Square with white Blogger B, you can now use any square image 100KB or less!

If you would like one but don't care to make one or you don't have time, I would LOVE to make you one for free. It just gives me a happy skip in my heart.

Just email me or leave a comment here and I will get on it!

LoLz...Bun can u beleevs we were at teh zoo last year today?

Indeedz... I do haz a happy!

Shawn and I were engaged precisely a year ago, give or take a half hour!!! Here's the story that you can find on the proposal page, in honor of today!

-------------------------fake page break!-----------------------------------------------------------------

Shawn had asked me the previous week to take off the 9th and 10th of August to "look at some houses to buy." The plan was to both have two weekdays together to drive by some houses and then Tuesday hopefully look through some. Shawn also said there would be more than enough time to go to the zoo on that Monday, as we LOVE to frequent the zoo.

He dressed up a little, which made me dress up a little, and we left for the day. We got there and looked at several exhibits before Shawn made the suggestion to me that we go to the butterfly house, which is my favorite. I happily agreed and we made the long journey up the giraffe hill, sweating all the way.

When we arrived there, we were the only two entering the exhibit. We walked in and I started down the path to take a closer look at a larger butterfly while Shawn appeared to be looking at the large pond in the middle of the pavillion.

Happened right here, people!!!

He called me over all excitedly to the pond where he was bent down over the water. As I went over to him, he held his cupped hands out to me and said "I got one!" As I looked at his hands, he opened them slowly leaving me to find the strangest butterfly I'd ever seen... an engagement ring!
I looked at him with tearfilled eyes and we hugged as I said "YES!" over and over. It was perfect.

Our Wedding Jewelry

Lucky Elephant Bracelet that I won!!!

Shawnie in his handmade bunny plugs from etsy seller arksendeavors. She makes RAD plugs.

Close up of Shawn's jewelry with the bunny plugs!

Shawn's Nana's Necklace.

Shawn's mother wore this the day she was married (my to-be birthday years before) but we didn't realize it until after she let me borrow it.

Clockwise from upper left: Daisy ring from my parents for my 16th birthday; I wore it the night before when my ring was taken away for the wedding! My mother's grandmother's ring made of blood coral; Lucky Elephant bracelet again; wedding ring. PS: Yes, I did get a manicure but no, I did not wear fake nails! I just wanted them painted a nice light-almost-white pink.

Photo I took of our hotel-gift champagne cork; Shawn's pocket watch from his Papa in California; and my resting bouquet.

My "Something Old." Shawn's Grandma's hanky with my hand embroidery of the monogram and date in white. The pin is one of two that my mother's grandma gave to her. I wore one and mom had the other!

Nose ring! Or should I say Naath? I wish someone would have said "Come here..." and brushed my bangs out straight. Immediately after the wedding I started looking like myself, with disheveled hair, once again!

What do you guys think?!

Wedding Pictures of Us

Credits: D.Pohlen, friends, & family.

For more photos, click here.

Jeannie Gold - 2: Rosette Prize Ribbon Wedding Accessories

Sources from Left Clockwise: HiLLjO Swatches, GarlandsofGrace (etsy), unknown, natashaearly (etsy), leftandwrite (etsy), princess lasertron.

For more of the entire post series:
Rosette Ribbon Wedding Accessories
Rosette Ribbon Wedding General Inspiration
Rosette Ribbon Wedding Dress Design by HiLLjO

The previous Series:
Jeannie Gold Series 1: Pine Cones + Roses Wedding

Jeannie Gold - 2: Rosette Prize Ribbon Wedding

Sources: Recycled Bride, Violet Cottage, HiLLjO-made swatches from Ava's natural coloring.

For more of the entire post series:
Rosette Ribbon Wedding Accessories
Rosette Ribbon Wedding General Inspiration
Rosette Ribbon Wedding Dress Design by HiLLjO

The previous Series:
Jeannie Gold Series 1: Pine Cones + Roses Wedding

HiLLjO design: Ruched Faille Ballgown with Rosette Ribbon Sash details©

This is my own creation. Upon repeatedly drawing it out I came to realize my subconscious sources of inspiration:
¤My bloggy gal pal Kim's wedding dress shape
¤princess lasertron's recent rosette ribbon 1st birthday for her daughter Alice
¤Ava, my pink and gray kitty cat

Stay tuned for a dress-inspired Jeannie Gold series!

Design ©HiLLjO

Other Design Sketches: Ombre Blush Ostrich Gown

For more of the entire post series:
Rosette Ribbon Wedding Accessories
Rosette Ribbon Wedding General Inspiration
Rosette Ribbon Wedding Dress Design by HiLLjO

The previous Series:
Jeannie Gold Series 1: Pine Cones + Roses Wedding

Jeannie Gold - 1: Pine Cone + Roses Wedding Setting

Puget Lowland Forest - Joseph Rocchio

Kiss Shot