Old photo albums

I have five of my mom’s old photo albums. I was looking through them today and found so many great pictures. Here are just a few. I scanned a ton of them so I may post more later on. I recognise my mom, my grandmother, and a few other family members in these photos, but for the most part, I have no idea who most of these people are.

Favourite Quotes #005

Image found via tumblr.

Birthday photos

My birthday was pretty swell! My boyfriend made me a cheesecake & my best friend/sister-in-law made me a chocolate-frosted yellow cake. (I am the girl with the most cake!) I bought myself a new pair of glasses (which I took far too many pictures of!). I played Scrabble. & I got some cute presents!

Daintier Smarter Favourites; Princess Hair

Daintier Smarter is my tumblr for collecting images of fashion & style inspiration.
None of these photos belong to me. All images are credited at tumblr.

Happy Birthday & “Random Awesome Things” Giveaway!

Not only is today the birthday of myself, Lewis Carroll, and Mike Patton, but it is also the one-year anniversary of my starting this blog. In celebration, I’d like to give away some gifties! I’ve put together a little care package of “random awesome things” for one lurvely reader to win!

Contents include: An original paper collage, two of my handmade necklaces & two bracelets, a copy of Chuck Palahniuk’s book “Fugitives and Refugees” (I’ve somehow acquired two copies over the years, so I’m giving one away!), stickers & stationery, a sequined Hello Kitty coin purse, various trinkets & treasures, and a mix cd (of course!)





How to win: I’ve just created a facebook page here for hercoffin.net. Anyone that clicks the “like” button below will be automatically entered in the giveaway. A winner will be chosen at random on February 17th.


Click “Like” to enter the giveaway!


This is my first of many upcoming giveaways. I just really like putting together care packages & giving gifts away. So I hope to do more of these soon!

Blank page was all the rage

Just a few photos & things:

Nice Things: Berry ice cream ♥ Mango mandarin shower gel ♥ “Sitting on the back porch, drinking red wine, singing ‘oh, french fries with pepper’ ” ♥ Winning a piano! (kind of) ♥ My never-ending obsession with Modest Mouse ♥ Watching the tv show Misfits ♥ Oh, I’m turning 27 on the 27th (tomorrow!) ♥ INFP friends ♥ Getting back into making paper collages (I honestly haven’t made a proper paper collage since I was about 15!) ♥ Chadu started a tumblr! ♥ Dictionary iphone apps ♥ Glitter pens ♥ Making jewelry ♥ Divine muses ♥ Inspiration all of the time ♥ Trying to be productive! ♥ Art-poems ♥ My winter scarf ♥ Taking pictures with Chadu ♥ Turning people into unicorns ♥ Teargarden by Kaleidyscope songs ♥ Candy canes, ring pops, etc ♥

Divine muses of creativity

A few months ago, I came across this video. To sum it up very briefly – This is a talk by author Elizabeth Gilbert. She speaks of how artists in general have a reputation for experiencing mental and emotional anguish throughout their lives and careers. Depression, mental illness, et cetera. That whole notion of a “tortured artist.” Elizabeth questions these paradigms and she offers a suggestion as to how we artists can separate ourselves from the overwhelming emotions and states of negativity that go along with our creative work. Divine muses, is her solution.

In previous times throughout the world, the work of artists was seen as a collaborative effort between the individual artist and a separate, invisible entity. The divine muse of creativity. The genius. The fairy. God. These are all names that could be given to that ethereal energy. A divine muse of creativity is simply the notion that you are not creating your art, your music, your poetry, on your own. There is an invisible force guiding you. Inspiring you.

As I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert explain all of this in her talk, I instantly and completely related to it. I’m sure all of you artists and creative types have felt it before. That sense of grandeur. That need to create, that you can’t quite control or can’t even quite make sense of. As if God or something like it is whispering the secrets of the universe to you. That sense of feeling so much beauty within yourself and seeing worlds inside your mind that you are trying to make real. It wasn’t until I saw this video that I realised this was the feeling I’ve had all along. I never thoroughly thought about it enough to give it a name.


Looking back through some of my old writing, I found so many examples of the times I wrote about the creative muse. Trying to make sense of that very notion:

“It’s like I’m constantly trying to grasp fragile things. Curious fingertips, invisible sea-ships, traversing oceans of energy. I can’t touch fragility, just its static electricity. Trying to make sense out of invisible things; it’s strange.”

“I feel beauty all of the time. I always acquire universal truths and that sage-like spiritual knowledge. It comes in flashes of lightning. It faintly thunders within me on and off. It always builds up, leads to momentary outpours. No, it never lasts. & You’ll find these feelings anywhere. Everywhere. The thing is, there’s always that pain that comes along with it. Sad smiles. Bittersweet, delicious heart-hurting. I think the problem (for artists, at least) is that we are trying to capture that beauty. We are trying to catch God’s lightning-darts with our bare hands. Trying to contain it and make it last forever. Trying to share it. Trying to make others feel it and understand it as we understood it. It takes so much mental and emotional energy to do what we do. But the moments that we do it, that’s worth all of the pain.”

I found that I actually was referring to my divine muse, in the past, without even consciously realising it:

“This sense of perpetual melancholy is something I’ve grown to love. A friend beside me. Not me. But she’s always there. Her hair is dark and waves like a murky, dying ocean. She wears a flower halo of crunchy, brown roses. Sprinkling bits of her broken flowers everywhere she goes. Like sad magic & dysfunctional faery dust. She is so beautiful. So terrible.”

Along with the beauty and sense of awe and wonder in art, there’s always that pain. I’ve found that I often feel more compelled to write or create when I am in a sad or sour mood. I would even go so far as to say I thought my work was actually better when I would create it during those sour moods. Regardless of whether that may or may not be true, it’s still completely overwhelming for one to live their life in such a way. Almost needing to be sad, negative, or angry in order to create. But this idea of a creative muse instantly releases that tension. If we were to begin thinking about it in this light, then there is no longer a need to hold onto that negativity. We can see it for what it is. Our sadness and bouts of near-insanity don’t have to be who we are, all of the time. It’s a fleeting muse, simply there for us to observe and make use of, but to let go of when our work is complete.




It feels as if we are sometimes haunted by our muses. They tend to hang around much longer than they are needed. I know, for sure, this is what always happens to me. The sad muse of my creativity doesn’t know when to leave. My perpetual melancholy. My murky-ocean hair girl, I decided to send her a letter to let her know that she’s outstayed her welcome:



So I wrote my sad, divine muse that letter. & You know what? She hasn’t come around quite as often.

The soul plays the role of a lost little kitten.

Recent-ish things:

Photos with Sookie-kitten



Digital journal; Jan. 10th, 2011



Dictionary charm photo outtake



Fritzie wears ties because he is a proper gentleman



Professional business cat



The unicorn obsession persists. Gala Darling likes it.



Way too many pictures of my face



S’mores & night cheese omg



A custom necklace order



More Sookie-kitten & my head adornments

For Sale; Dictionary Charms

As some of you know, I love words. I’m obsessed with words actually. When I was younger, I would keep a pocket dictionary with me at all times, and read it for fun and write down new words that I liked. So, a few days ago, I decided to make some pendants out of dictionary pages. My goal was to make around 3 to 5, but I had so much fun making these that I ended up with 20! Since I don’t know what to do with all of these, I’m going to sell them all at a discounted price. Five dollars each, or 5 pendants for $20. (I’ll refund the difference to you after purchase.) Please note! These are just the pendants themselves for sale. No chains attached to them.

You can purchase them in my shop: hercoffin.etsy.com

LIST OF ALL CHARMS (in alphabetical order!)
armadillo / artichoke / banyan / chinchilla / concertina / conch / cutlass / dachshund / dogwood / gazelle / gondola / pheasant / pug / schooner / scorpion / semaphore / strawberry / surrey / teal / whipporwill

Unicorn Club

Hi. I’m a unicorn.

Younicorn is quite possibly the best iphone app that has ever existed. I am addicted to it. Here are some people that I’ve turned into unicorns. Ooh, magickal!