happy birthday haylie bird...

today i am grateful for...

a sketchbook page from our screen-printing class, many moons ago at scad.

a gratitude list from this summer.

my friend haylie b. waring. i am so glad she moved to new york, even though we live in opposite parts of brooklyn. reasons to love haylie...

1. she has the ability to make you feel like you are already old friends, even if you are just meeting her for the first time.

2. she pronounces, "orange" like "or-inge", and it makes me smile every time.

3. she is incredibly clever and a renaissance woman when it comes to anything textiles. she can turn straw into gold.

4. she is incredibly humble, so if she happens to be reading this i know she will hem and haw and exclaim, "oh ginnybranch!" with a roll of her eyes. and probably claim i am exaggerating.

p.s i'm not.

5. she is 1/3 mainer, 1/3 floridian, and 1/3 land where characters like mary poppins hail from.

6. she creates the loveliest statuettes (amongst many other things). i want to buy everything she makes. no joke.

7. she has naturally silver streaks at the age of 25 and i could not be more jealous. there is nothing more beautiful to me than silver hair, baby skin, and pink cheeks. she has the golden trifecta.

8. here are a few of my favorite things i think of when i think of haylie bird...

pegboards. peach, baby blue, chocolate brown, pink, and red. moustaches and beards. liberty print. banjos and bluegrass. camping and girl scouts. canoes and fishing chenille. good-natured gossip. doughnuts not cupcakes. all-night art projects. honey bees. lunch sacks. alphabet flash cards. silhouettes. fast dancing. donkey spirit animal. old-school office supplies. stacks of books and magazines.

everyone loves haylie. she is the kind of friend everyone wants to have. she makes you feel funnier when you are with her. adventurous and naughty. kind-hearted and loyal. talented and inspiring.

haylie, i am so glad you were born.

hello dollies...

today i am grateful for...

1. enjoying a hot bath with epsom salts. september is a busy fashion month...lots of hustlin' in high heels for eight + hours a day.

2. persuading my husband to give me a (much needed) foot massage. he is too good to me.

3. watching the new mad men episode on our very large, extra fancy flat screen television... a big thank you to ed's grandfather, pop.

4. celebrating my sweet haylie bird's birthday. i caught the tail end of her party in the park, just as the rain came to shoo everyone away.

5. eating haylie's gluten-free chocolate birthday cake for breakfast. it was baked with love by the adorable abby dear and effervescent emily cox.

6. the wedding dress chelsea cook is working on... it is so beautiful it hurts to look at. i want to kidnap it. or dressnap it.

7. helpful advice from mollie little, from one illustrator to another. and she has a line of letterpressed goodies coming soon!

8. working on new projects that keep my hands busy again. see below...

p.s i hate that the scanner reads some images as blurry. it really sticks in my craw.

dear sarah sophie flicker, you are my muse. love, ginny branch stelling.

here is the only kind of sewing i fancy. hand sewing that requires no real skill.

i'm trying my hand at making necklaces again. i love me some flair.

have you ever read jacques magazine? it gives french playboy a run for their money. and our dear friend, the coquettish savannah wyatt is the fashion editor.

tomorrow i am going to tame my unruly eyebrows and hopefully change out my sorry, wilting flowers for some fresh buds. i need a proper day off soon...

hide your love away...

i think it has begun...

as soon as the weather gets chilly, i become the ultimate hermit (this can also apply for hot weather too). i don't know why i am like this. so i sit and push my pen around paper.

i make bad drawings and try and cover them up.

it's true. i don't believe girls who make this claim. not one bit.

sometimes i miss my gap teeth. i got em all fixed when i was 15. i had braces 'til i was 18. ouch.

the next few weeks are all business. my days off will be with new projects(yay) and tying up the last loose ends with the old apartment(boo). so at the end of the day, all i want to do is curl up on my bed with a cup of milky tea or hot chocolate and draw. stream of conscious style. i feel like henry darger. a kind of crazy recluse with stacks and stacks of creepy girl drawings and collages that don't make much rhyme or reason. except he was a genius and i'm just a weirdo.

so i apologize for the illustration-heavy gratitude lists. i just am a busy bee who forgets to bring my camera.

hearth and home...

today i am grateful for...

darkness and light. silhouettes on walls. candles and the smell of a freshly struck match. practicing shadow puppets. creating vignettes in little nooks of my home. chamomile and lavender tea. a home-cooked meal. making collages on my bed with bits of scrap fabric and pressed flowers. my husband falling asleep on my shoulder.

having a clean home make you appreciate the small things.

*****and a box of juicy clementines and containers of pomegranate seeds*****

trying new things...

today i am grateful for...

pushing myself to be proactive on my day off. i had a back-to-back breakfast and coffee date with two different gal pals in the city. i moved a load of stuff from the old apartment. i fiddled with flickr to try and work out technical kinks. i played with markers and pastels. oh, and i made some unsuccessful sketches. but i am forcing myself to try and incorporate materials i don't normally like to work with.

tomorrow i have to do a crazy clean sweep of the apartment. the hands and knees scrubbin' kind. right now our home looks like senior year of art school... not a good look.

and i will show you mine...

today i am grateful for...

indulgences. last night i unabashedly cheered my lil' heart out watching the UGA football game in a soho sports bar with my husband and friends. i introduced my coworkers to the genius that is "party in the USA" by miley cyrus (and a few other current top 40 chart toppers). and i shared cheesecake ice cream with eddie. in bed. while i drew some cheeky pin up gals.

i am a huge fan of guilty pleasures. in fact, i kind of swear by them. things i (not so) secretly love...

*biting my nails.

*being an obnoxious sports fan, mainly football and soccer.

*espousing worthless pop culture trivia.

*bad dancing, such as droppin' it like it's hot... probably the worst offense of them all.

*taking cabs, whenever i can "justify" it.

*making my own ice cream sundaes, in the pint carton, and eating the whole thing.

*eating a cupcake in one whole bite.

*drinking prosecco and cleaning the apartment.

*wearing granny panties, and not in an american apparel, ironically sexy way. the kind you buy in a pack at a discount department store. white cotton and high-waisted to the navel.

*reading self-improvement books and children's books. you will probably never find me on the train reading palahniuk or bukowski.

*staying up til the wee hours to watch netflix's watch instantly t.v. section.

phew. i feel better. i tend to surprise people with these certain guilty pleasures of mine. i know it's not very fashionable to reveal such shamefulness, but this is me. so what are y'alls? it's only fair to show me yours, since i showed you mine...

girl of my dreams...

today i am grateful for...

lying in bed watching i put a spell on you, the new film short collaboration between the belles of the black diamond field, topshop, and lula magazine.

oh holy smokes. maximilla lukacs and my ulimate girl crush, sarah sophie flicker, create the most intensely beautiful and bewitching films. this particular ethereal piece of goodness feels like a mixture of some my favorite films- picnic at hanging rock, valerie and her week of wonders, the virgin suicides, and daisies.

i love how the film decays from a languid and sweet picnic scene to a dark and sinister stormy mystery. the lighting and colors are so eerie and delicious. i loves it.

now all i want to do is hang out in prospect park in fabric tents, blowing bubbles and making flower crowns. and can i steal miss flicker's polka dotted legwear and that beribboned hula hoop? oh summer, you were short and sweet and i can't believe fall has already come to take you away.

'til we meet again...

au revoir...

farewell fashion week. you were a long haul and worth every extra hour. i hobbled down cobblestone streets in ridiculous shoes. i wore an obscene amount of red lipstick. i bought my man friend's balenciaga brief case for pennies. i accepted every glass of champagne that came my way. i saw some really beautiful collections and met some fashion legends and icons, young and old(er). i think fashion is starting to see the light at the end of the so-called recession tunnel.

and i met the style rookie. hot dang. and i didn't even freak out too much on her. i didn't ask her to rap or take a photo with me. and i didn't call her "precious" or "adorable". i hear she hates that. instead i fixed her and her blogger pals a snack plate at the slow and steady wins the race installation. and played it cool...kind of.

*p.s if you haven't invested in some sswtr pieces, i highly recommend it. not only is it reasonably priced for avant-garde fashion, but the designer is one of the kindest and smartest, down-to-earth girls on the block. someone i am thankful i know, and happy to have worked for. go here, here, and here for the goods.

necking...

today i am grateful for...

source: vera wang spring 2010

source: the glamourai

shiny necks. two summers ago, a heat forced me to remove my layers of bling, and i never really put it all back on. when weather gets hot, the last thing i want is another layer. but it is time to break out some glittery baubles, a la the queen of glittery goodness, the glamourai . i need to reintroduce more flair into my wardrobe.

how many pieces of flair do you wear?

hit the marc...

today i am grateful for...

source: all photos via style.com

still lovin' marc. he is the reason i went to design school. the reason i was able to move to new york. and the reason i still love fashion. this collection makes me want to dress up again.

he's still got it.

i'm ready to break out the sequins and frills and re-work color into my life. i'm gonna save up for those fancy bras and maybe, by spring, i can wear a scrunchie again. having a short haircut has forced me into some awkward, sloppy, tomboy way of dress. and i'm ready to feel like me again.

thank you marc jacobs. i will always be an mj girl at heart. thank you for keepin' it pretty.