love + light

hi there! i know i have been MIA. i have missed blogging, but yoga has kind of taken over in the passion area as of late. i have been submerged in the world of love + light; just having finished my first 200 hour teacher training and then recently was so so honored to have been accepted into the Conquering Lion Training Program with renowned NYC yoga teacher Kelly Morris, starting in september. all the while trying to start my own business, and of course tippy top of my list, that which i am most passionate about is being a mother to my two beautiful boys. anyhow, enough of me...here are some of my favorites, from the many brilliant photos i came across on gretchen jones' blog...remember her? she was the winner of project runway season 8. love love love (did i say LOVE) her aesthetic and her fashion and jewelry collection. check her out PRONTO- she is such an inspiration!! ok gotta run. until we meet again (so many ideas and not enough time in the day and night)...

♥ much love (+ light), nikki xoxo

 

    

          

 

 

 

  

PS: besides leaving you with the most brilliant motto above...for info on any and all of these photos posted (plus so many more) please check out gretchen jones' blog, or feel free to email me or contact me via facebook. ♥

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SKINNY LOVE

bon iver

♡

♥ heart of a yogi

IMAGE FROM HEART OF A YOGI

hi everyone... it has been over a month since i have posted. i have been deep in a yoga teacher training so my life as been consumed with, yes of course...YOGA! i have posted before about my love for yoga and i believe it has grown even deeper if that is at all possible. i have met so many amazing women since starting my training at the yoga and healing center in scotch plains, nj. one of the women i have bonded with has a beautiful blog called HEART OF A YOGI. check it out!!! hope to get the fashion karma post up soon! enjoy + namaste, nikki xo

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ONE DAY

matisyahu

♡

♥ Happy Valentine's Day ♥

Do you know what you are?
You are a manuscript of a divine letter.
You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.
This universe is not outside of you.
Look inside yourself;
...everything that you want,
you are already that.
- Rumi

(Today, LOVE yourself!) 

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LOVE YOU MORE
time without consequence

alexi murdoch

♡

pure innovation

in a world where everything is saturated with concepts and ideas that have been altered just enough to seem fresh and new... pure innovation is astounding to me! i knew i had stumbled upon exactly that, when i came across 23 year old artist ALEXA MEADE, while reading nylon magazine a few days ago. here is a little about her brilliance...

"Alexa Meade has innovated a Trompe-L’Oeil painting technique that can perceptually compress three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional plane. Her work is a fusion of installation, painting, performance, photography, and video art.

Rather than painting a representational picture on a flat canvas, Meade paints her representational image directly on top of her three-dimensional subjects. The subject and its representation become one and the same. Essentially, her art imitates life on top of life.

Meade’s approach to portraiture questions our understanding of the body and identity. Meade coats her models with a mask of paint, obscuring the body while intimately exposing it, creating an unflinchingly raw account of the person. The painted second skin perceptually dissolves the body into a 2D caricature. The subjects become art objects as they are transformed into re-interpretations of themselves. In turn, the models’ identities become altered by their new skin, embodying Meade’s dictated definition of their image to the viewer.

Meade’s project plays on the tensions between being and permanence. The physical painting exists only for mere hours and is obliterated when the model sheds its metaphorical skin. What endures is an artifact of the performance, a 2D photograph extracted from the 3D scene. The photographic presentations create a tension between the smoothness of the physical photographs and the tactility of the painted installations captured within them, blurring the lines between what is depicted and depiction itself." - via alexameade.com 

 

it is completely inspiring to know that there is still space in this creative world for something new! let that be food for thought... xoxo nikki

ps: check out alexa meade's website to view her portfolio + flickr page, as well as, juxtapoz magazine for an online interview with the artist herself.

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A CASE OF YOU
blue

joni mitchell

♡

merry christmas ♥

"the hub of calmness... that's your heart.
that's were God lives within you.
so stop looking for answers in the world.
just keep coming back to that center 

and you will always find peace."

xoxo nikki

(THANKS TO SKY KOLTUN FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL QUOTE)

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THE CHRISTMAS WISH

kermit the frog and john denver

1979

♡

♥ the first americans

NATIVE AMERICAN INSPIRED HEADPIECES BY LITTLE DOE

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hi everyone! i know i promised a fashion post and it is in the works, but thanksgiving is fast approaching and it got me thinking about our country. no, i am not going to get political here, instead i would like to give appropriate thanks to the first americans...

the native american indians.
i have always felt drawn to this culture and have talked about it in a previous post. native american indians are grounded by nature, have a strong spiritual sense, and are family-oriented. all of the things that i hold dear in my own life. they have combined aspects of their strong traditional culture with contemporary life, without having sacrificed the core of their identity. this strength is evident in ALL that they inspire.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
xoxo nikki

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ARIKARA GIRL, 1908 (LEFT) KUTENAI WOMAN, 1910 (RIGHT)
VIA  EDWARD S. CURTIS: THE WOMEN

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"The Great Spirit has made us what we are;
it is not his will that we should be changed.
If it was his will, he would let us know; if it is not his will,
it would be wrong for us to attempt it,
nor could we, by any art, change our nature."

Seneca Proverb

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NATASHA KHAN OF BAT FOR LASHES

HANDMADE ARROWS BY FREDRICKS + MAE

ARTIST FANNY BOSTROM GENTLE + HUSBAND IN HER HANDMADE TEEPEE, PHOTO VIA THE SELBY

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"What is life?

It is the flash of a firefly in the night, 
It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the sunset."

Crowfoot (Blackfeet), 1919

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A COLLECTION OF APACHE BASKETS
VIA  EDWARD S. CURTIS: VISIONS OF THE FIRST AMERICANS

KLAMATH WOMAN, 1923
VIA  EDWARD S. CURTIS: THE WOMEN

(LEFT) ACHOMAWI MOTHER + CHILD, 1923 (RIGHT) A HUPA WOMAN WEARING FUR + BEADS, 1923
VIA  EDWARD S. CURTIS: VISIONS OF THE FIRST AMERICANS

➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾ ➾  "Everything that gives birth is female.
When men begin to understand the relationships of the
universe that women have always known,
the world will begin to change for the better."

Lorraine Canoe (Mohawk), 1993

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RED MOCCASSINS (ABOVE) + APPLIQUE TOTE (BELOW) BY MANIMAL

DUNTON HOT SPRINGS, COLORADO  (ABOVE + BELOW)

A COAT FROM DUSEN DUSEN'S FALL 2010 LINE 

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"When you were born,
you cried and the world rejoiced.
Live your life so that when
you die the world
cries and you rejoice." 

Cherokee proverb

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JULIETTE LEWIS, ACTRESS AND LEAD SINGER OF JULIETTE + THE LICKS

NATIVE AMERICAN INSPIRED JEWELRY BY MANU  (ABOVE + BELOW)

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"The Great Spirit is our father, but the Earth is our mother.
She nourishes us; that which we put into the ground she returns to us,
and healing plants she gives us likewise.
If we are wounded, we go to our mother and seek to lay the
wounded part against her, to be healed."

Big Thunder (Wabanaki Algonquin), late 19th Century 

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(LEFT) AN UMATILLA GIRL, 1910
(RIGHT) A TYPICAL NEZ PERCE IN FULL FEATHER HEADRESS, BRAIDED HAIR, AND NECKLACES, 1910
VIA  EDWARD S. CURTIS: VISIONS OF THE FIRST AMERICANS

CHEYENNE SUN DANCE LODGE
VIA  EDWARD S. CURTIS: VISIONS OF THE FIRST AMERICANS

(LEFT) PRIMITIVE STYLE OF HAIR DRESSING, 1921 (RIGHT) COAST POMO BRIDAL COSTUME, 1924
VIA  EDWARD S. CURTIS: THE WOMEN

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"Peace and happiness are available in every moment. Peace is ever step. We shall walk hand in hand. There are no political solutions to spiritual problems. Remember: If the Creator put it there, it is in the right place. The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears."

Qwatsinas, Nuxalk Nation

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DESIGNER + MUSICIAN CHASE COHL IN HER APARTMENT, SOHO NY

HER NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN BOOT COLLECTION (ABOVE) AND DREAM CATCHER (BELOW)
ALL IMAGES VIA THE SELBY

 

 

HEADPIECES AS SCENE IN FIRST PHOTO OF POST (ABOVE + BELOW) BY LITTLE DOE

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"Only after the last tree has been cut down, 
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."

Cree Prophecy

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VINTAGE INDIAN MOTORCYCLE

 

INSIDE THE FREE CITY STORE

A SNIPPET OF MY EARRING COLLECTION

MY BOYS CELEBRATING THEIR NATIVE AMERICAN IINDIAN ANCESTORY
(THEIR GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHER WAS CHEROKEE)

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"Oh Great Spirit of our Ancestors,
To your messengers the four winds, and to Mother Earth
who provides for your children.
Give us the wisdom to teach our children
to love, to respect, and to be kind to
each other so that they may grow with peace of mind.
Let us learn to share all the good things you
provide for us on this earth."

Native American Prayer for Peace

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MOSA-MOJAVE, 1903
VIA EDWARD S. CURTIS: THE WOMEN

(LEFT) WOMAN'S COSTUME + BABY SWING- ASSINIBOIN, 1928 (RIGHT) CAGUSE MOTHER + CHILD, 1911
VIA EDWARD S. CURTIS: THE WOMEN

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ps.

"The faces stare out at you, images seemingly from an ancient time and from a place far, far away. Their names are just as arresting- Shot in the Hand, Two Moon, Bear's Belly, Raven Blanket- monikers that don't immediately register as human. Yet as you gaze at the faces the humanity becomes apparent, lives filled with dignity but also sadness and loss, representatives of a world that has all but disappeared from our planet. 

It's startling to learn that these stunning photographs were recorded in the United States and Canada not more than a century ago, images of Indians from tribes being overwhelmed by twentieth century progress. even more surprising is that these images- part of a body of work encompassing 40,000 photographs of American Indian life- were all recorded by a single man, Edward Sheriff Curtis. Curtis was a true visionary and a man driven by the desire-no the need- to record Native American cultures before, they disappeared. Along the way he became, for a time, the most famous photographer in America, fame that during his lifetime proved fleeting and came with a steep price.

Today, Edward Curtis is again acknowledged as one of the country's greatest photographic artists, but this renewed recognition did not come easily. He wrapped up work on his thirty-year Indian project in relative obscurity and when he died in the 1950s few people knew much about him or his work. Curtis was rediscovered in the 1970s as part of America's growing awareness of its long-ignored native people. His photographs and ethnographic data displayed an essential role in educating the country about its Indian tribes and their cultures. Most importantly, Curtis's emotionally charged images were a wake-up call reminding people of all that had been LOST in the rush of American's westward expansion"

- Don Gulbrandsen's
  "Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions of the First Americans

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HORSE AND I

bat for lashes
♥

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