Tag Archives: Books

Five for Friday Pt. 27

1) Dance: I wish elections were as fun as this dance. After this number I decided I wanted Lauren to win, and she did! At the 0:55 min mark check out how far she goes back and how quickly she snaps back up. That my friends is crazy. Sometimes you can see dancers fatiguing in a difficult routine but not this girl. She backflips up a few times and then comes at Twitch like it aint no thang.

2) Music: Speaking of Kanye, I love this video of him rapping for the facebook staff. I follow him on Twitter and he provides a never-ending stream of cuckoo for cocoa puffs crazy artists bon mots like “Sometimes I get emotional looking at fonts”. Love it.

“If you fall on your butt, that ass-phalt!”

3) Design: The on-line shelter mag renaissance is very encouraging. I love how the web is democratizing design! Ck out the newest contender here.

4) Stuff: Yikes, I just found out there is a whole series of books called Listography. You use them to make lists. Obviously I am in love. Ck them out here.

5) Books: Yet another celebrity memoir! I know, I know. This one offered up the promised snark and celebrity insider gossip that Kathy’s famous for but it wasn’t exactly what I expected. The book included some very honest and raw chapters about her brother and the collapse of her marriage. Kathy is a rabble rouser and a lot to handle but she’s also unafraid to be real and I love that.

Five for Friday Pt. 17

1) Books: I just finished “Like Water for Elephants”. It was good. It’s heroine is an elephant named Rosie. It’s currently being made into a movie with R. Pattz. All good things. Get it from the library. You’ll like it, I promise.

2) Design: I’m thinking this would be awesome when two decades from now we replace our garage door with french doors.

Emily Hensen's house via Design Sponge

3) Food: Last Tuesday was declared ”Hot Dog Day” by my Mom. With the aid of Lisa and Em it became an impromptu hot dog dance party. Dancing provided by Elian. I am salivating over the Mexican style hot dog and the Tropical Style Hot Dogs. Should I be having a try 50 different types of hot dog item on my 40 X 40 list? I do love them so.

via David David 2 on flickr

4) Funny: Old Spice Man and I are in a committed YouTube relationship.

5) Local Love: Last week we went to dinner with Dan and Lisa at Ella’s Dining Room. It was like eating inside an Anthropologie. Silver piled everywhere and everything so pretty. The food was really good too. Arnold had a gnocchi that I’ve been meditating about. :) Perfect place for a special occasion dinner.

The ceiling is completely covered with shutters of every shape and size. V. cool.

Five for Friday Pt. 9

1) Cuteness: We saw baby sloths in Panama last year. I can testify that they are pure sweetness.

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more about “SLoth!“, posted with vodpod

2) Blog Love: Coco and Kelley. This blog is beautiful. I chose the word beautiful very specifically. Caitlin covers both design and fashion. I’m not a fashion girl per se but I cannot resist this one.

via www.cocokelley.blogspot.com

3) Design:

I like rainbows. Both real and implied.

4) Food: I spent this week in Atlanta. I tried my first Mint Julep, grits and real southern style greens. I also hit up FlipBurger for some funky moleculary gastronomy food… like the infamous Nutella milkshakes with toasted marshmellows on top. Love the south.

: Mint Julep from Watershed

: Nutella Shake with Toasted Marsh-mellows at FlipBurger

5) Books: I’ve been reading a new book. Thank you to our sponsor “free time on the airplane courtesy of business trip to Atlanta”. It’s been slow-going because it’s a little more challenging: higher register vocab, literary references and more complicated than Bridget Jones plot line. I like it though. I feel like a challenge. I can do it! I’m only halfway through but I think it’s going to be a recommend. Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco.

I stayed up too late in ATL. Look at that digital alarm clock!

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

I’ve gone on ad nauseum about how I love Elizabeth Gilbert and TED. So obviously I love them together. In this talk she describes creativity/inspiration in a way that many other writers that I admire have: as a gift given by God.

One of my favorite books is Walking on Water by Madeline L’engle. In the book she described writing as her vocation: her calling from God. She felt that it was her job to write everyday and do her best. In her opinion it was God’s job if he chose to speak through her. Elizabeth Gilbert describes writing the same way on her website, saying that her commitment to be a writer was as sacred as any wedding vow. She feels that she cannot guarantee that what she writes will touch people, she can only promise to write. Right now I’m also reading a book from Anne Lammott that describes writing in a very similar way.

All three women are writers who I highly admire. All three describe feeling that their calling was to write but that bursts of greatness were a blessing for which they were the conduits not the source.

Although I’m just learning to write I totally get it. I am not an accomplished writer by any stretch of the imagination but I try to post everyday in the hopes that occasionally something worthwhile will emerge. And like them I feel like I have little control. When I write a good post I know it is good even before people tell me. I know it that way you do when you nail a test, or hit the high note, pirouette with perfect balance or stick the landing off the pommel horse. It just feels right! Unfortunately for me (and you my dear readers!) I have little control over when that happens or not… sometimes I blog stuff knowing that it’s not good but I’m unable to make it better. This terribly wounds the perfectionist in me, so I have to tell myself over and over again: Just like all of life, the commitment is to try your best everyday, the rest is up to God.

Description from TED: TED Talks Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

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more about “Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creati…“, posted with vodpod

Five for Friday Pt 7

1) TV: If you aren’t watching Community, uh you should. I’ll give you two reasons. First up the social justice reason: the cast is super-diverse. On Community the Spanish teacher is Chinese and a lunatic, as spanish teachers should be. Second reason: Turns out that Joel McHale is not only surprisingly hot but shirtless far more than seems necessary. I need some shirtless hotness to replace the gaping hole that LOST will leave when it goes off the air in a few weeks. :)

2) Food: For Mother’s Day my Aunt Carole sent me a FRUIT bouquet. Arnold called me as I was coming home last Friday and said “Uh, I think we are having fruit for dinner because there is a fruit explosion here!” I can’t describe how psyched I was when I got home. It was so pretty and edible and healthy and FULL OF CHOCOLATE covered apples. I’ve always wondered if they were good and now I can testify. Yum.

3) Design: This is the closet of J. Crew creative director Jenna Lyons. A closet like that and unlimited access to J. Crew clothes? Sign me up! I love her whole Brownstown which was featured on the cover of Domino and was the inspiration for the striped ceiling in our hallway. You can see more pics here.

I love the settee. I like to imagine that I am some chic Parisian girl. Never been to Paris but I hear they are pretty chic over there...

4) Blog Love: I Suwannee. Jamie Meares runs such a funny, cool design blog. She uses so few words and yet manages to provide both helpful information and sassy commentary on the good, bad and the ridiculous of the interior design world. I also like the big fuss she makes about her own birthday every year because I like to do the same thing too. And super-nerd that I am I lurve her “Bookcase of the Day” feature.

Bookcase of the Day via I Suwannee

5) Books: I’m still literate and putting this superpower to good use. Last week I read Chelsea Handler’s new book. She is so foul and so wrong but I love her. I can’t explain why, I just do.

St. John the Divine

I once read an article that said “There are two types of girls in the world, those that read Madeline L’engle and those that didn’t”

I loved that because Is am the type of girl who read Madeline L’engle and the supposition is that those who do are creative, headstrong, brainy types. And I love the supposition that I might dare to be considered all of the above.

Madeline L’engle is best known for her children’s book about time travel “A Wrinkle in Time” but she wrote A LOT and my favorite book of hers is called “Walking on Water”The book is a meditation on creativity and the Christian life; the vocation of twriting/art. The call to create. I love that book dearly and read it once a year or so. In addition to writing 50 or so books during her life she was also a devoted Episcopalian and served as the writer-in-residence at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York. St. John the Divine is the largest gothic cathedral in the world and it figures prominently in some of her novels so whenever I get a chance to go to New York I feel compelled, obligated even to visit and watch my childhood stories come to life.

When Arnold and I visited New York last fall on our “last hurrah” before the hurricane we ended up staying directly across the street from the Cathedral. Everyday as we left Liz’s apartment the Cathedral was our great hulking friend bidding us good morning at at night it’s flying buttresses watched us head safely back home. Here are the pictures from that trip and the beautiful building that holds not only a house of worship but my childhood dreams.