A Little Thing, That I'm Quite Excited About

When I first heard of this I was sure I'd be disappointed... but I think this looks very promising!

Decide for yourself.

A Beautiful Thing

Strolling through the many blogs I read, I found the story of photographer Ryan Marshall. He is documenting his wife's pregnancy through photos and personal notes that his wife and he write to their future baby. The photos are wonderful and artful, doesn't hurt that his wife is a beauty! 

The best part though is the notes that accompany each set of photos... there are two photos for each week of the pregnancy. These personal notes have jump started my tear ducts on occasion.

One thing I have always wished was that while my mom was pregnant with me that she had left some sort of message to me. I letter, some notes, the best would be a video.

Having no memories of her is extremely difficult for me and I find Ryan and his wife's idea touching and brilliant.

Found via Smitten

Condoms Make the AIDS Epidemic Worse??? Really!!!

It disgusts me that Pope Benedict XVI has so much control and respect from Catholics around the world. The whole idea of giving faulty, dangerous news just to push one's religious views aggravates me. On his tour to Africa, the Pope spoke that condoms won't stop the AIDS epidemic, and in fact make it much worse... whaat!!!!! That is ridiculous and insulting to the millions of people around the world infected with HIV and AIDS. No condoms won't stop the spread of HIV, but its scientifically proven that they help minimizing the spread of the virus! I suppose anyone can have complete faith in his or her religion, but I believe the Pope has no right to use his religion to feed people false information. He is literally harming people by spreading his ridiculous beliefs. I think that a person with that much popularity and power should be held accountable for his words. I'll be very disappointed if the Catholic people as a whole don't stand up against this.

No one step will end the rise in HIV/AIDS, but distributing condoms is one of the many steps needed in a well thought out plan of how to bring the number of future infections down. Sorry Pope, but abstinence is not the way, and even if condoms promote promiscuity... as he says... maybe you fear that promiscuity is against your precious religion. Stop spreading bullshit and worry about the people in Africa that you are pretending to care about. Catholicism is not going to save them. Real scientific facts might help though.

"Pope Benedict XVI has re-opened a running sore in the side of the Church and Africa with another scientifically illiterate attempt to justify a policy that is unjustifiable even by faith." - Ruth Gledhill (The Times religion correspondent)

BBC Article
Thank you BBC for another article

I'm In The Mood For A...

ROADTRIP!!  Who wants to go with me? I've been longing to visit New York soon, and there are so many other places I'd like to see, driving sounds like the best idea. I really want to just drive up the east coast. Maybe visit Moses, and see Boston, see my sister in NY, and see Maryland and New Hampshire! All of these feel like places I need to be.

I always want to visit Oregon. And yes I was made in Oregon.

"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old" -Kafka

I don't remember where I got all these pictures  :(

Books Make Me Smile

I especially love bookshelves full of books. And color coordinating your books makes a bookshelf looks very organized. One day I want to have a library in my house with one of those ladders that rolls across the shelves.

SFGirlByBay posted a lovely display of various book shelve here.

The colors of this room are peaceful and elegant. I would love to sit in here and read all day!

I find reading to be such a wonderful past time. Does that make me a nerd? If so I can't wait till the day I have a room overflowing with books so I can spend hours nerding out!

Allergic

Anytime I come in my bedroom, I sneeze uncontrollably. I wake up with a sore throat and have had two sinus infections in the past six months, and three throat infections. Am I allergic to my own bedroom? Cause thats how I feel.

So Intricate

I'm very into paper art right now. It fascinates me and I think its such a delicate medium to work with and so intricate!

Above image via The Heart of Papercuts

Do I need some sort of lazer cutter to make such amazing things? Or just a sharp exacto knife and patience? I want to make hanging light covers that look like this... or a dress. So beautiful.

Above image via Bovey Lee

A Must See

This amazes me. I want to meet these men. They seem like quite a fun time.

Dead Weather

I, for one, am very excited about this grouping. Allson Mosshar is a stone cold fox, and has a great voice. And oh Jack... you will always be in my top three... sexiest men.

You can check out their video Hang You From the Heavens on youtube.

What can I say

I love a good beard on a boy. Anyone who knows me knows I've got a jealousy issue... I'm jealous of boys that can grow mustaches. It is just not fair.

Image found via 826 Valencia

My current project

Not only does Lisa Hannigan share my first name... but she has a stunning voice and plays a hand-pump keyboard. She also made her album cover, hand sewn. I think I'm in love. Check her out. 

This video inspired my most recent art endeavor.

I'm making my little nephew a hand painted, hand bound pop-up book!

Can't wait!

Visited the little man today

Took the day off of work so I could see my sister and the amazing one-and-only Beckett! It was such a nice day seeing my dad and we all walked and got coffee.

And Emmy and I put a fake tattoo on little Beckett... now he looks like a pirate that love his mom!

Lonelily

I started my second job today, which was uneventful and more hectic than need be. Amongst the craziness of the bar I managed to think mostly about my sister in New York, because it reminded me so much of the restaurant that she used to work at. I've been waiting weeks for this new job to began, in hopes that I would start making decent money. This new job has kind of been a weight on my decision scale of wether to stay or leave this area. If I could accomplish to save up a bit of money then I could stay here longer and build a little nest egg for my future plans.

But atlas I started today just to be thrown into chaos that was completely unneeded.

It was ridiculous how unprepared everything seemed to be. It's only a waiting tables job, so no matter what its not too difficult, but I'm not one for chaos.

So the job is looking to be less of a saving grace, and more of just one more thing I wouldn't mind walking away from.

Anywho, I ended up missing Belle and New York and thinking of how I now work everyday of the week, four of those days at both jobs. That made me miss my other sister, Emmy, who I see at least once a week, and my beautiful little nephew!

First day of new job = bummer.

Myself and my sister Belle

Decisions... decisions

I've been debating lately which move to make in the planning of my recent future and I'm struggling immensely. The main problem I'm having is the inability to choose one specific point to work towards. I have so many things I would like to do, but no singular future stands out. 

I want to own a bakery.

I want to live in the city: Portland or New York.

I want to go to graduate school.

I want to be a literature professor.

I want to write.

I want to move into the woods.

I want to travel around Europe.

Mostly, I know I don't want to stay where I'm at, livinging a boring city and waiting tables. I wouldn't even mind waiting tables, if it was somewhere I could do more than bare... somewhere I could enjoy living.

I need to decide on one goal and start achieving it, I suppose.