How Bazaar

Carolyn and I ventured out to one of Southern Delaware's best kept secrets. It's a little store in Millsboro DE, aka the middle of nowhere, and it's called the Millsboro Bazaar. The first floor is all amazing jewelry. It's all vintage and lots of huge gaudy costume jewelry. They also have some antiques, comic books, and postcards. Upstairs is all vintage clothes. I could seriously spend hours in there trying on crazy dresses and hats.

I ended up buying these 3 pairs of earings for a total of $16. Carolyn got some earings too and a really super sweet green houndstooth coat.

More Kites

The Renfrews, my amazing adopted family, came down for a beach day last week. This gave Ashley and I a chance to fly my terradactyl kite. The kids liked to run around with it and chase the shadow. It was a beautiful day.

Here's a shot from the day

This American Life

I love This American Life. I was first introduced to it through the NPR podcast and finally got around to watching the first showtime episode last night online. It's a series chronicling real life Americans. The first episode is about a family cloning it's pet bull and a man from NYC who organizes people and creates happenings around the city.

little chuckle

I was watching Martha today and couldn't help but laugh when she had Kermit the Frog educating her viewers on being green, and then in the next segment gave away a chevy suburban.




I think this pretty much sums up America's attitude towards real green living.

More Simple Way

Here's a video from Shane and the other Simple Way members about the fire that claimed their community center last week in Kensington Philadelphia.

Julien Pacaud

I love this guys collagey, bizarre, beautiful illustrations.

I hate church

If I hear another bullet pointed sermon or acronym I need to remember to boost my faith I may puke all over a pew. Church should not be a self help series, or a pulpit for a motivational speaker or political activist. It's not a place for you to share your own deep convictions, but rather where the word of God should be read and taught on.

I realized this morning how hard my heart has become from church of all things. I've left many services just broken hearted at how watered down the gospel has been made and leaving with no more knowledge or wisdom than when I entered the building. This weekly process has been so discouraging that I've wondered what the point of going to church was at all.

What enlightened me to my bitterness was attending this awesome church in the middle of nowhere. It's in a modest cement building with young families, and older people (essentially no one my age) where the preacher goes through books of the Bible one chapter per Sunday at a time. It was beautiful. He merely read the passage through gave background context on the culture of the time, elaborated using the literal greek translation, and walked through what God was saying in the passage. He also went into old testament examples to help you to understand the concept and tie everything together. It was hearty teaching that you truely had to pay attention to to keep up with. There's nothing flashy about the place. There is no praise team, just a man leading songs with his guitar. There is no powerpoint presentation, just the passage of scripture projected on the wall. There aren't 1,000 people, maybe around a hundred. No famous songs by worship bands, but beautiful updated hymns. Just stripped down, bare bones theology. I absolutely love it.

yay for Phil

Phil is one of the most interesting people I know. He's a graphic designing, Jesus loving, bodybuilder. Congrats on winning best poser.

Daily Show

I am one of the Americans who gets their news where they shouldn't. I'll admit that I stay informed by watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Here's what I learned last night:

Americans are statistically shorter than Europeans. Some take this as a sign of our declining health. The average height for men is 5'10 which concerns me mostly because I am a freakishly tall girl. I think I'm moving to the Netherlands.


I was also enlightened to the fact that you can get Barack Obama ringtones from his website. Just scroll all the way to the bottom of his page. Pretty much hilarious.

Yoga onDemand

I was bored so I gave yoga on demand a try.

I was still bored after that so I went for a bike ride on the sweet newish bike trail they built from Lewes to Rehoboth, and then around the state park. It was a beautiful day.

more about the new bike trail

Now I'm reading some Roald Dahl short stories. The stories always end in fun surprises though it's no BFG.


Trying to stay busy.

Simple Way

One of my favorite authors, Shane Claiborne, of The Irresistible Revolution needs your help. He's been running an urban commune of sorts in Kensington in Philadelphia. It's a super poor neighborhood where he serves his neighbors by running after school programs and summer arts camps for kids. Their community Center burned down last night, all of their possessions have been lost and nearly 100 people have been left homeless. Read more about it and how you can help here.

And that’s when things get messy. When people begin moving beyond charity and toward justice and solidarity with the poor and oppressed, as Jesus did, they get in trouble. Once we are actually friends with the folks in struggle, we start to ask why people are poor, which is never as popular as giving to charity. One of my friends has a shirt marked with the words of late Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara: “When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist.” Charity wins awards and applause but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for living out of love that disrupts the social order that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.

-Shane Claiborne

Bliss

I have gotten over the whole stressing about being in between school and job when I realized having nothing to do is not a bad thing. So I spent the day tubing with the Sadlers on Sunday, and went to the mountains of NY on Monday and Tuesday with Carolyn to see the ever glorious Mike Cavaliere before he moved to Arizona and to volunteer in Lake Champions kitchen.

Life is good.

friend news

Abbizzle Smizzle just started a new blog. Get excited. I usually laugh so hard I cry whenever I hear Abbey stories.



I made Joel's picture of the day yesterday after a mishap with grilled cheese and the george foreman. Check it.

Sarah's got a sweet blog too. I love her egghead with fresh grass.

Sucks

Abby and I went on an adventure tonight and we found this farm that has llamas and emus and crazy donkeys. It was great and we took some fun pictures, and it was all in the middle of nowhere in Milton. We then ventured further down the road and took some great photos by this little canal when the back of my holga camera dropped into the canal and floated downstream. It was sooooo sad. I almost jumped in to get it, but it didn't look like there would have been anyway to get out, so I opted to just watch it float downstream.
Also broken:
-my computer (AGAIN?!?) it was fixed this week and I took it the hour and a half home from the mac store only to use it for 15 minutes at home and have it break again.
-4runner turns off at stoplights
-cellphone will not charge
-digital camera I turned it on yesterday and the screen won't work
-and I have not gotten a call back from my internship...sad day
I typically take really good care of my stuff too. Everything just decided to break all at once.

design makes us happy

Stefan Sagmeister on design and happiness.

Kendra's insane

I have this amazing friend Kendra. Really amazing. I was talking to her yesterday and after announcing that this would be the year she would rebuild her savings account she let me in on her genius plan. On top of her internship she is tracking craigslist weekend opportunities and taking on little part time gigs. Last night she was a chefs assistant at a cooking competition and made $30 an hour. She then invited me to model jewelry with her next weekend in baltimore and help old ladies try on necklaces again for $30 an hour. That's one way to build a resume.

she's my favorite.

crash

My hard drive crashed on Sunday which is stellar timing since I have a project due for anthropologie on Wednesday. After I made the trek an hour and a half to and from the mac store sans a fixed computer I decided that there was no other way to make the day better than to buy a kite. Carolyn and I flew our cheesy plastic dino kites down by the bay and watched the sun set. Hopefully my computer will be fixed today.

Allium

my new favorite flowers
Allium

Peonies

patrons of the arts

Sometimes I wish I had a patron. The artists equivalent of a sugar daddy. Live in their villa and make stuff all day long. I think Starbucks is the new patron of the arts. Even if you work part time you get benefits, you make amazing contacts and caffeine is definitely a staple in most artist diets.

I love the crafters site Etsy because it makes it easy for you to be a patron too. Artists at all levels can sell their crafts online. I like how democratic it is, no discrimination on who can sell what. It takes away the elitist mentality and price tags so you can merely find what suits your tastes.

I just bought this little woodblock print from a guy in Singapore, and it only cost me $6 including shipping.


I love monsters.

today

beautiful. I road my bike to the bay and went kayaking with cousin mary and aunt Cathy. I also bought "The Dangerous Book for Boys" for my friends having a baby boy. It's filled with things boys must know like building tree houses, all about dinosaurs, and tying knots.

Kehinde Wiley

With all this talk about textile designs I've been submerged in lately I'm really loving the paintings by Kehinde Wiley. I love urban juxtaposed with the traditional prints.

purple berets

Life at home has been great after I unpacked and organized all my crap. I went over to my grandfather's (he's the coolest) to eat burgers the other night and got talked into staying to watch some home movies. Christmas '93 was a particularly scary year. I had on this purple LL Bean coat and a purple beret that I wore the entire video. Words of advice to all parents out there DO NOT LET CHUBBY KIDS WEAR BERETS.

I'm kind of enjoying internetless life, and making the trip to the local coffee shop to exploit their free wireless. I'm making my first trip to the beach with some cool kids later today, and carolyn's moving in on Saturday. I have yet to start my job at starbucks and am interviewing at Antrhopologie on Wednesday. I think I may be in over my head.