Lunar Eclipse

One of the very few good things about waking up at 4 in the morning to go into work to make coffee is that I got to see the lunar eclipse that happened two nights ago. It was pretty cool, and explained why my neighbors were sitting outside at such an odd hour.


image is from the make blog.

Corey Arnold

This guy makes me want to be a documentary photographer. Anyone know of any great subject matter to document?

Cooking

I love how cooking. I love the food network, I love making new recipes and getting my hands covered in deliciousness. I also love how making certain recipes and eating certain foods can remind you of people and places, and how great it is to share food with one another.

For instance tonight I made a caesar salad and homemade crepes for dessert.

•The recipe for the salad is Ginger's infamous salad dressing...though mine never tastes as good as hers. I think I need a salad spinner.

•I wrote the crepe recipe down in the recipe book Donna, my old wonderful roommate and adopted sister gave to me for my birthday.

•I shared the meal with my mom who loves when I'm home because I do things like grocery shopping and cleaning the fridge.

•The crepes reminded me of this amazing banana, nutella, and whipped cream crepes Adam and I had in London while on an adventure to scope out Wimbledon.

•Then I made a crepe especially for my friend Megan who is leaving for college tomorrow since I wanted to get her a gift but no one needs another thing they just need to find a place for.

Food is good.

Light Bulbs

I had the best day yesterday. It was my day off and the only major thing that I did was change the broken light bulbs in our house. The porch light has been out for over a year and required a ladder and screws, the lights over the sink have been out for over two years, and the light in our fridge which was the kicker had been out for a week and a half. So I went down to lowes found my odd shaped bulbs after extensive searching and now our house is brilliantly illuminated. And then once I actually saw how gross the newly illuminated fridge was I cleaned that out too.

I also made this amazing shrimp pasta from things we already had around the house, but went to the grocery store literally at the end of my block that I hadn't been to since the beginning of college. It was weird to really feel home. I liked it.

Tea Set

I found my tea set! It was waiting for me at the thrift store behind jiffy lube. It's got lovely silver lining, wispy flowers and scalloped edges. It is perfect. It was also $5 for 4 sets of cups and plates. I think I'm going to make crepes tomorrow to enjoy on my new lovely china.


I snapped this shot on my back deck at 9:00pm so sorry if you don't get the best view.

Digital Polaroid

Sign me up for this digital camera/printer in one.

Ugh

Sometimes life after college feels like this:

Acoustic Umbrella

I was watching MTV's the Hill's yesterday (one of my guilty pleasures) and was really impressed with this acoustic version of Rhianna's Umbrella and googled it right away. Here's what I found.

Marcus Walters

This guy makes me want to keep a better sektchbook.

design gangsta

no widows ya heard?


Thanks Phil

cake breath

I love manifestos

and quotes about cake.

"Childhood is a strange country. It's a place you come from or go to - at least in your mind. For me it has an endless, spellbound something in it that feels remote. It's like a little sealed vault country of cake breath and grass stains where what you do instead of work is spin until you're dizzy."

-Lyall Bush

Polaroid Kid

You can almost smellthe polardoid kid's photos.

Great Etsy shop.

today

Me: I should just find a sugar daddy
Other starbucks employee: I'll be your nutrisweet daddy

Sorry, all I do these days is make coffee. I'll try and find some more fun links at some point.

a lil davinci

To the ambitious for whom neither the bounty of life nor the beauty of the world suffice to content, it comes as penance that life with them is squandered and that they posses neither the benefits nor the beauty of the world. And if they are unable to perceive what is divine in Nature which is all around them, how will they be able to see their own divinity, which is sometimes hidden. - Leonardo Da Vinci

Summertime

These are my glorious friends trying to fit into one set of photobooth pictures.


Our great summer night included
a meal of crabs, corn on the cob, hush puppies and hoegaarden on the porch
arcade games (including me schooling nick in some arcade basketball)
and a midnight walk on the beach

Perfect.

More starbucks

Today at starbucks
1. An actor from the Christopher Guest movies came in.
2. when I went on my lunch break there was a maserati left on in the parking lot.
3. An 80 year old man came in with his iphone and when I asked how awesome it was he said it was, "f ' ing awesome".

Rehoboth is apparently Washington DC's Hamptons.
Quite the day. I'm exhausted.

Starbucks

You will be able to see my photos in our local rehoboth starbucks starting monday. Take a trip down, hang out with me, and enjoy a fabulous latte (I'm getting better I promise).

Heima

Please watch the new beautiful trailer for the Sigur Ros documentary Heima.

Singles Map

I found this map on a blog on a blog of strange maps, and decided that it confirmed a suspicion of a serious lack of single awesome guys in this vicinity. The pacific northwest is looking better and better.

DIY Foreign Aid

I am fascinated by micro-financing and what we can do with a little bit of money in developing worlds. I am also always suspicious of giving away money to charity and being unaware of how that money is being spent.

I found this great organization through my blog travels and decided to make my donation today. It is an organization where you can lend money to people in developing nations to start their own businesses, and they are held accountable for paying you back. I love that it teaches people discipline and care with their money. The organization is called Kiva. You scroll through people and get to read descriptions of their business ventures. You pay through paypal, and they repay you in the same way, so once your loan has been paid back you can help more people with the same $25. It's a beautiful system that keeps on giving.

Here's a great video on the work Kiva does on the NY Times Website.



I chose to donate to Matagiaila, a mother who runs her own fabric printing business.

Storm

Holga Photo from the beach the other day as a storm was rolling in.

My favorite VC alum Melissa Scotton has a new blog about all the things she loves including snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, and design.



Also be sure and check out the new boards she designed for Roxy. She's responsible for the Envi, both Silhouettes, the Sugar Inspire, and the Roxy Girl board.

Started

I'm a day into this whole vegan experiment and I've already learned a lot.

Like:
Soy hot dogs suck
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls are vegan
as well as unfrosted pop tarts
And vegan chicken wings are flipping amazing especially with this awesome ranch dip that I made with one of those mckormick ranch dip packets and nayonaise (vegan mayo).

So far so good.

Also the The Sketchbook Project Only has 185 sketchbooks left out of 500, so definitely buy one, fill it up and maybe we can all roadtrip to Georgia for the show.

Vegan?

I've been thinking a lot about becoming a vegan. Don't get me wrong I love chicken tenders and a good burger, but meat just isn't looking as appealing lately. I think it started with my uncle telling me about The China Study.

"The book examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illness such as cancers of the breast, prostate, and large bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, degenerative brain disease, and macular degeneration." Which also supports the findings from my great grandmothers book called, "Will Bible Foods Prevent Cancer".

I also got a chance to visit my friend David's chicken farm.

I had just had this little guys cousin for lunch.

And on top of that there was an episode of This American Life which went and examined a pig farm. There wasn't any slaughtering of animals or anything like that but it just seemed really unnatural.

Here's a clip.


I've been looking into alternative recipes and seeing just what I'm getting myself into. VegCooking has been a pretty good resource.

What do you guys think?

Alexandre Bettler

Really super in love with Alexandre Bettler's work, a designer from London. I found him while blog searching and recognized one of his posters from the Royal College of Art Exhibit we went to last year. His work is not overwhelmingly beautiful, but it is playful. He makes includes clever observations from the world around him. Click the picture to see more. I like the object section the best.


The full phrase on the cup is "This is my cup of tea".

State Fair Gloriousness

Went to the DE state fair last night with friends. We rode scary fair rides, I had a corn dog, and we paid too much money to see freaks that weren't really freaks. It was a beautiful night. Hopefully I'll have some sweet holga shots once the film is developed.



blurry trapeze performers

BIG WAVES!

Every now and then we get some great waves. Abby and I went body boarding. We almost died multiple times...it was awesome. Here's the surf report 8.5 ft waves which is sweet considering good waves around here is anything over 4 feet.

I want a mobile

Mobile's from shoptheescape.com

Oprah has one.

A great site, with great photography, for a great cause. Buy a meter.

Vintage

I'm digging the "new" vintage collection from Nike

haircut

So I did it anyway.
Hello grown up haircut.

The Sketchbook Project

Here's a cool project. A gallery in Atlanta, GA is sending out sketchbooks to the first 250 people who order one. You get a moleskine notebook, and fill it with sketches or writings about your fears. Then you send the notebook back and they are going to have a show with the completed notebooks. I just ordered one, at least it will keep me drawing. Click the image above for more info.

Punk Rock Flea Market

This looks like it's going to be fun.

*THIS* Saturday July 21st 10:00am to 5:00pm
At The Starlight Ballroom / Club Polaris
(460 N 9th Street - Just Below 9th and Spring Garden)
All Ages - 21+ To Drink / $3 entry donation / Tables Are Sold Out

THE PUNK ROCK FLEA MARKET - SUMMER EDITION

(100+ tables of vendors selling old records, clothes, art, music, food, junk, bicycles, stereo equipment, instruments, automobiles, tools, posters, furniture, computers, skateboards and lots of other stuff ! All proceeds goto making sure that all ages shows remain a reality at the first unitarian church !)

For a complete sellers list, visit :
http://www.r5productions.com/prfm.html

haircut

I like Victoria Beckham's new hair for me, but that would include lots of hair straightening.

thoughts?

Starbucks

I started working at Starbucks, and making frappuccinos makes me tired.

The face of the West Bank

This artist takes huge images of israeli's and palestinians with the same jobs and pastes them next to one another with goofy faces to show the similarities between the two groups.
Will it do any good? I say it can't hurt.

beach

Who says you need big waves to go surfing. It makes me really happy when I see people surfing, and making the best of the little break. This is dedication. I tried to paddle out today, but I think I should probably stick to photography. Being a girl and a beginner is super intimidating.

A photo from today.

Will it blend?

Adam sent this to me and it reminded me of when we used to put random stuff in the microwave and play "will it melt" in the studio before class junior year.

The new indie rock trend

I stole this posting from the veer site, but I thought it was too funny.

Apparently the latest male indie rock trend is to have a cat. Check out this flickr site dedicated to them.

Hilarious

I was hanging out with Abby today and since she is an avid gardener now she decided to give me her first eggplant. I was super excited about this because I've been wanting to make some baba ghanoush. Then she handed me the eggplant.

Priceless.

If a city banned advertising

Maybe it's just because I did really bad in advertising class in college, but most advertisements that collage cityscapes just leave a bad taste in my mouth.

"Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom."

This is what Sao Paolo Brazil has decided to do by passing a mandate that makes it illegal to advertise in the city. This includes billboards, on transportation, and even banning blimps. I love the idea.


Tony De Marco has taken photos documenting the new city. Click on the image above to view his flickr shots.

Mix Tape

The Burnside Writers Collective put together a sweet summer mix tape.
Download the free tracks from their favorite myspace artists at the bottom of this page.

Looks like "Blue Like Jazz" may become a movie.

Also Sarah had the great recommendation of using Pandora to set some sweet mood music for festive occasions. She says, "For example, cooking spaghetti? Type in your favorite Italian Opera singer (because we all have one... ha), and voila. Moody music. Bliss."

Sounds great to me.

Amandatron

Check out my illustrator friend Amanda's site.

Make it Work

Me and Tim Gunn from Project Runway.

A couple things

First do yourself a favor and read Abbey's traumatizing first day stories. I read the first one while in a computer lab and looked insane while laughing hysterically at my computer screen.

Also Tim Gunn a la Project Runway was in town today doing a book signing. His mom lives in Rehoboth. Super funny since I am a project runway addict of sorts.

He of course signed it "Make it work!".

This inspired the renovation of my closet since Dewey Ave is doing a yardsale next weekend. I'm constantly astounded at how my crap I own. So I'm trying a ruthless editing approach. I hope I have clothes left to wear by the end of the week.

I rediscovered Pandora this week since I lost a lot of music when my computer crashed. It's an online radio station that you enter your favorite band in and then it plays other artists that resemble the artist you entered. I really like this band. Don't let their name scare you, their music is pretty.

Riddles

What's big and red and eats rocks?

A big red rock eater.

Found this book in my grandfather's basement. I love it not only because I love corny kids jokes, but because it's got super cute illustrations.

Inspiration

I like looking at things that inspire other people to gain some inspiration for myself.
Here's some great design from the Creative Review Blog.


I'm loving these scene overlapping stamps.

Aye!

Pretty pirate cards for all occasions from Rosebud Design Studio.

Tea Sets

Carolyn and I watched The Queen this week. It really made me want to make scones and have a tea party. I mean REALLY. It made me think of a day last Summer in London where Adam, Greg and I went for a walk in Hyde Park and had high tea next to some pond with a little english kid feeding swans a prawn and rocket sandwich. So I've been looking for tea sets online and can't find any that I really like. The closest I've come is this website called Steptoes Antiques. I really want something old and special, but they're based in London so shipping would probably be grossly expensive. I think I'm going to go to the local thrift stores this week to see if I can find anything, and if I do you are cordially invited to my backyard for tea and homemade scones.
These are my favorite tea sets I've found so far:


Antique Victorian Blue & White China 12 Piece Tea Set


Antique 1920s Art Deco Crocuses Tea For Two Set


My favorite the simple, but still fun. Antique Edwardian White China Shelley Tea Service.

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