SECRET OBSESSION: VINTAGE TIES

So, I believe everyone has some secrets...so here is one of mine: 

My modest vintage tie collection!

I started collecting ties about 15 years ago. Why do I call this a secret? Because sometimes when I let people know I am 'into' something, I end up getting tons and tons of that genre of item...thus my 'secret' obsessions or collections..my little quiet treasures.

Not that I would mind tons of vintage ties! But the lovely part for me if randomly finding ties that want to come home with me. I am actually rather particular! 

I look for enticing patterns, textures, color families. 

And I love them all so much.

6/365: Things are Coming Together

There have many moments of convergence today. Of ideas. Of the past and present. Of the astral past and present. To the fruition of ideas and manifesting the life you wish to lead.

And...on another awesome note...even though I had been praying for a ukelele, I was gifted my very own, and super adorable vintage Glockenspiel, courtesy of the generous and multi-faceted Jay !!

It sounds like fairies and Mister Roger's Neighborhood. So much fun. I can only play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" so far...but I am slightly in love.

KARMIC GOODIES: "KIND OVER MATTER"

I have to start by giving love to one of my favorite creative sites to visit: One Pretty Thing . Their daily round-ups not only give me loads of inspiration, but also introduce me to so many other amazing gems on the internet! So, my latest obsession is: KIND OVER MATTER . I cannot gush enough over this creative tour-de force and their beautiful messages!! Through a link on One Pretty Thing, I discovered printable cards that said "kind over matter" and immediately I was intrigued on this mindful play on words. When I reached the blog I was swept away!

photo and concept by: prettyfnmess!!!

The concept is based around acts of kindness in artistic or expressive ways. It combines the world of Keri Smith with the movement of craft. This site is artful, mindful, smart, and savvy. Might I add that their downloads are beyond wow. I can't wait to make some of these to give to friends or hide places!

photo from Amanda Oaks one of the beauties behind the site!

I especially can't wait to tuck some of these  places for people to magically come upon...perhaps hand them from a tree...

made by prettyfnmess and taken from the Kind Over Matter flickr group ! (It's awesome! Check it out!)

Visit their blog for inspiration--creative, spiritual, or emotional! Oh, and spread kindness, it can be infectious in a positive way!

GEEK LOVE

Reasons I Love my MacBook (aka Mac)

 1. The Genius Bar!! Seriously, until I had a Mac I was somewhat computer illiterate and never bothered calling some outsourced voice from out of the country….and now…my computer needs a facelift? Easy. Need to understand how to operate a program? Easy!! Everyone in the Apple store is so happy and helpful with everything. It’s such a relief to be able to drop in and speak face to face with a human who has a true understanding of your machine! And the kicker—it’s free!! I just got a whole scan and new keyboard with all of these cool features in an hour for nothing!! It just keeps getting better!!

  

     2.Widgets!! Instant access to my dictionary, events, my cute dancing hula girl, calculator, and numerous fun gadgets!!

   

     3. Corner sensors!! I love that I can move my cursor to a corner and instantly get a scope of all of the projects I am working on, switch pages effortlessly, and access my widgets without fear of accidentally closing something or having to constantly minimize to switch around. Beautifulness!

    

     4. Everything has a curve to it…the keys, the icons, the body of the laptop… sounds so sultry…but I love how soft and aesthetically pleasing the entire system is! Sigh.

     5. No confusing hidden files backed up in some strange folder that you have to send a search team to find.     

     6. Itunes and my genius!! (though it takes some of the art out of making a mix-cd)

  

     7. Everything can function on drag and drop! So smooooooth…  

     8. Built in camera and photobooth!! Yay pictures of me and me and me and me...and sitting on my ichat watching Lost while talking to Cristyn--- or introducing our pets to each other through it!

     9. Magnetic power cord!! No more breaking a piece of from the constant ‘in-out’—and if you were to trip over the wire (which I have done) you will not send your laptop flying with you!

     10. Mactips! Apple makes life so easy that you almost feel wrong. It’s as if my computer has become more than just a tool….freaky yes…but I love this thing!!!  

Sigh!

KARMIC GOODIES: CRITERION COLLECTION {Part One}

Being an inspiration/eye-candy junkie, I can't help but want to share everything I find! If there is ever a shortage of design love in my daily life, all I have to do is look at some film sleeves and find myself day dreaming of possibilities. The Criterion Collection has got to be the most eclectic and artistic company--to the point of a cultish following!! Even if I am not a fan of the movie, I swoon over the consistently high level aesthetics produced!! I hope you enjoy, these are just some of my favorites!

 

  

 

  

  

You can browse around and even order posters at the Criterion site and for more inspiration check out Cinema Retro or the ultimate source for images (where I downloaded my collection!): Criterion Dungeon 

NARCISSISM IS...

...finding websites that make your pictures look so much more fun!! For the photoshop challenged (ahem...me) these sites provide me with opportunities to make cool effects in such easy ways!!

POLADROID 

This involves downloading an application, (and really there are even easier ways to achieve this effect), but I love watching the photo develop on the screen like a real polaroid!!

BE FUNKY

This site has sooo many fun and artistic effects and allows you to adjust levels!! Fun fun fun!

AND, my penultimate fun spot:

CORALINE : The Other Mother's Workshop

I made so many of these, but this one was the least scary! I haven't done a review yet because everyone (especially artists) needs to see this film!! I just got the original graphic novel, so perhaps after I read it I can make an even more fair evaluation of the film...suffice to say, I LOVED it!

If you are really bored, or really narcissistic, here are other tried and true favorites:

 Picnik  and Photofunia 

CORALINE OBSESSION

A new obsession....wow, today I feel so lucky. First I need to tank How about Orange for being te one to introduce me to what I think is a dream world come true for me....sigh...please experience the magic, and if you know me even a tad, you could probably gander why this would be the latest thing for me to get wide-eyed about...STOP MOTION, CRAFT, STUFFED SCOTTIE DOGS (ahem, see my last post), all from the director of long-time-love "A Nightmare Before Christmas"and written by Neil Gaiman ....what more could I ask for? Perhaps an amazing website world rife with fun treasures and retro/artistic downloads (here is my favorite!)...I need to catch my breath...check this: 



And there are even viral blogs for characters! Check out Bobinsky !! Excuse my emphatic overuse of exclamation points...but I am super excited for some eye-candy fun!! 

KARMIC UPDATE: a wise owl once told me...

...to keep on truckin'...and I am. I don't know of any alternates. Despite my dream of blogging and crafting all day, in reality I am too busy to focus on  what makes me truly happy...but I still have obsessions...and the latest is EMBROIDERY and hand sewing altogether! I run advise a new club cutely named "Sew Fierce" and realized tat most of the members need serious teaching, thus I had to teach myself and master some stitches if I was going to share! All I can say is bless the internet, particularly YOUTUBE for providing me with a free intensive sewing course! I am so super inspired, partially because creation is my therapy, and really, I need some in my life right now. Luckily, simple things like my little owlie make me feel warm and fuzzy inside...he took forever and was done entirely free-and based on this guy .

Next up is a surprise project that if all goes to plan will be my first blog giveaway!! I am also hoping to make a cute scotty dog plush for my step-mom's birthday (I am practicing embroidering hand drawn letters!) and make some stuff from my awesome Aranzi Cute Stuff book  and then take over the world!!! 
I am awaiting a package of floss I won off of e-bay and my other craft obsession I'll share another time. PLUS, I keep listening to this album, WOW...they may get their own post....must find a show!! (It's been since November, I am going trough live music withdrawal!!!)

(BTW: I spilled coffee and my laptop, watched my life flash before my eyes, cleaned it up and the letter 'h' doesn't work....so I am pasting a random 'h' in the proper places! grrr...it never ends!)

Stick around blog friends, I'm not going to let upside-down cake life stop me from becoming....and I am thinking of getting another tattoo...but where on the body is my question...

KARMIC GOODIES: EAMES CHAIR EYE-CANDY

My apartment has become infested with dust...even after turning it into a plastic-covered-a-la-Dexter-bubble, everything is still lethal to an allergy sufferer as myself. The worst part is that a deep-clean is futile since the windows still need to be installed...welcome to me hell-o-time-to-focus...So, what do I do when I am depressed and have crazy sinus headaches and hypochondriac delusions of dust-mites eating me piece by piece? I obsess over stuff that has nothing to do with what I should be doing!! So, welcome to my dream world, brought to you by the letter P for procrastination, A for allergies, the number 1 (as in the last day of my 'vacation') and the oh-so-glorious world of Mid-Century Modern Chairs and EBAY...

Now here is a true Eames beauty!! Sigh...

Perhaps my next obsession will be making a FLICKR MOSAIC of Eames Chairs...hmmm

These here are my loves!

Is it sick that this picture makes me gooey and happy?

If you are obsessed with this period as well, check out Herman Miller for the mecca of Mid-Century Modern furniture and inspiration, or the lovely blog the Mid-Century Modernist, or the very nifty shop Vintage Swank ...sigh...who knew English teachers dreamt of chairs... It is 5pm...I should be marking papers and returning to the land of "tomorrow I have to go back to work!"-- a place I haven' t missed all that much...

ONE WORD, A THOUSAND MEANINGS

Which should it be?

START BY UNCLEPHIL, BELIEVE BY HEIDIB, ADVENTURE BY LELLO, ART BY SZENVOLTA, CLEAR BY WEBPONCE, DECIDE BY SP33078, CREATIVITY BY SEATTLEBRAD, BE BY LELLO, DO BY BRILLIG, ENJOY BY ARTSYFARTSYCANUCK, FINISH BY LELLO, FREEDOM BY FUGITIVE, OPEN BY GRIT, REFRESH BY NH, SEEK BY LELLO, RELAX BY CYKOCHIK

Usually these things just come to me and I let things be...why do I feel I need to change a pattern? Maybe there's a part of me that wants to start this year differently. Prepared. Ready for whatever comes at me...yet I revel in letting things happen...do I need to decide? Are people better off when they are prepared? Does this mean I need to be more active in my life? Hmmm...

I DREAM OF DEXTER...

Okay, I am doing it...going with what's been on my mind rather than what I think I should be doing or posting....my current OBSESSION (besides making paper toys ad-nausea and ad-'burning my fingers with the glue gun'...)

This gift probably benefitted me more than Angelo and has since become fodder for my obsessive mind. It is rare that a show follows me the way this one has. In recent time, only LOST has really had the ability to make the lens of my perception switch gears and pick up on patterns related to the show. Perhaps I think too much, or perhaps I am open to digesting other artist's messages. Some may disagree, but I see Dexter as a piece of art. I have only watched the first two seasons (in a crazy two day marathon...sickness), yet I was so moved by:

-the cinematography!! This is best exemplified in the opening sequence of each episode. I marvel over the bleached out colors mixed with poignant exaggerated hues, like being in a technicolor sandstorm. Then there are the 'punny' visual references between Dexter's daily routine and the actions of a killer. The close-ups are stunning, eerie, and intensified by...

-the music!! The themes run through my head day and night...a Cuban and Orchestral fusion that draws (almost literally) at your heart strings one instant and makes you want to deviously grin and swagger the next.

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-the characters! There are definitely corny moments, but these characters grow on you because they are somewhat ordinary, caricatures at times--which plays nicely off of the personality of Dexter, the boy-next-door serial killer...come on Dexter fans, didn't you  love Angel's 'Oprah' moments throughout season 2?

-the convergent plot lines-- mystery, murder, humor, love, the origin of a special breed of killer....may sound sick, but the thing I love the most about Dexter, (besides the acting chops of Michael C. Hall) is:

-WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN-- the  driving question behind this show...the concept that has lured me into moments of squinting and contemplating...is it okay to feel like you relate to a serial killer being depicted on t.v.? (My opinion is, no, this is not a problem..but I am certain that there must be people that would detest the show because they wouldn't be able to handle that...how could you, gasp, actually like a person who is a 'killer'.) This show makes the viewer deal with many complicated feelings about identity, the affect of one's past, the way people handle relationships, the psychology of a 'human'.

THE POINT OF THIS...besides my obsession with a show that keeps me guessing, laughing, and thinking...what has struck me most about Dexter is the character's struggles with his inner desires and humanity. He often claims he isn't human (which I did as a kid) in order to help him explain not only his actions, but his detachment and general emptiness. It is in this that Dexter's humanity is revealed...in many ways the character is an exaggerated archetype for all of the outcasts in society who aren't really evil as much as in touch with their darkness, or perhaps the primal part of their humanity that is really just another animal species--or maybe just those of us who don't fully understand status quo or weren't nurtured properly as kids....who knows, that's for Freud to figure out...LOL. Now, I am not glorifying a fictional murderer as much as the writers of the show who have made me look closer at my own humanity and the forces that drive me in life, the battles I have inside, and the intricate layers of the human psyche. I look forward to watching the way Dexter handles his own psychology and the relationships around him, the discovery of those universal human ties that so many people choose to avoid, and some great eye-candy to distract me from other work I should be doing!! HAHA!!

P.S. If you read this and have seen Season 3, don't tell me anything yet!!

P.P.S. I love the art-deco style evident in the show's design and must admit to Michael C. Hall's eerie sexiness....

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMM: Oh, and interesting that Hall (who lost his father and an infant sister) has played David from "Six Feet Under' a man dealing with internal demons, surrounded by (and responsible for the preparation of) death, and who lost his father, now plays Dexter, a man dealing with internal demons, surrounded by (and responsible for) death, and who lost his father! Random factoids...

Happy New Year to you and your dark passengers...just remember who is driving!!

KARMIC GOODIES: LOST goes WPA

SO MUCH NERDY EXCITEMENT to share!!! It's funny, even though I feel very misunderstood by some of my colleagues, I realize it is essentially because they are close-minded and ordinary. That probably sounds really mean, but I guess I am tired of being treated like I have a contagious disease because I don't complain about life and don't gossip about others, maybe because I believe in creativity and critical thinking, or because I have a plethora of interests and passions that transcend my day to day routine....and perhaps I am just a tad geeky....mostly because stuff like this makes me so elated inside:

LOST POSTCARDS 

How amazing??? It's as if LOST knows how to make me truly warm and fuzzy inside--here's the recipe, take my favorite phenomena (aka show) add sweet graphic design and create WPA-style postcards for me to swoon over before the fifth season starts!! The think-tank behind this 'show' (because really it is sooo  much more than a show) is pure genius-- a combo of science, literary, art, religion, mysticism, anthropology, you name it genius is required in the world that LOST has created...or been created by...There is so much out there for this show, like the hub at DarkUFO , or the LOSTPEDIA to name a speck, so I chose to avoid blogging about LOST , but truly, this blog is about my passions and inspirations, and LOST is the penultimate (well, during the months it is on!) Truth be told, my relationship with the show (yes, relationship!) is perhaps unhealthy and obsessive, but I AM NOT ALONE!! I guess that is the beauty of the internet, as much as I have to deal with small minds and even smaller hearts, I know there are enough people out there who GET IT, for whatever it's worth. Be forewarned, my love for WPA Posters will continue to be expressed, and perhaps I will be forced to share more LOST love...because in January my life will predominantly revolve around returning to the island....

It's beginning to look a lot like KITSCHMAS!

I spent a lot of time ( and I mean A LOT!!) on flickr today, mostly because I MISS IT!! There is an overwhelming amount of inspiration over there!! Here is a mosaic of my X-mas love...

1. Wax Christmas carollers, 2. Basket of pixies and dollies 2, 3. Plastic!, 4. Doe Re Mi Fa So La Te Do, 5. Vintage Wrapping Paper, 6. Bendy Knee Elf!!, 7. A Ho Ho Ho Lotta Santas, 8. Vintage Christmas ornaments #2, 9. Vintage Candy Containers and Ornaments

KARMIC GOODIES: BARBIE LOVE

No crafts today though I did get  out of the house! Bless Cristyn and my sister! Thought I'd share some interesting and unique finds in Barbie land!

Love Hitchcock and now have a newfound respect for Barbie!

This has to be the coolest Barbie I have ever seen!! I originally found her on BOING BOING ank outd then decided to check out the section entitled "Pop Culture" and was dumbfounded with the awesomeness I found. All of these were found at the Barbie Collector Website.

Aren't their eyes the cutest? And I adore the display!

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER FROM GREASE

How cool are these Frenchie dolls?

AND WOW...

The details of the dress and entire scene design are so beautifully executed!

Again, love the colors, and those pouts!

... and the most beautiful (though some poetic license was taken here)

sigh.

KARMIC GOODIES: Some of the animals in my life!

Even though I have learned that I am allergic to most animals, they are still an important part of my life.  the holidays, don't forget that they are most certainly part of the family too! (Which is why I need to make them some homemade treats!)

In my last entry I wrote about my Dad and Step-mom's Schnauzers and thought it was essential that you get to know them a bit!! : ) They are too adorable and my parents treat them like their little boys. 

Here is THEO! He is the older one and such a "Rump" (as he is nicknamed) He is the perfect big-little dog and loves his big Sis so much! (That would be me!)

Here are the two of them together, Vincent and Theo (named after the Van Gogh's!) Vincent, aka "Rimp", is the little one in the foreground. Little Vincent is about to turn a year old and is a recent addition to the family. I was amazed that my parents were able to find another white Schnauzer, and one even smaller than Theo!! Cuteness!

Dogs are so interested in humans!

And then there was my home!! Here is my true-love Jasper Johns! (Named after the artist!)

It is so hard to describe Jasper for what he really is...a WACKY CAT!! He is unique in so many ways! He isn't afraid of anything, yet he is gentle and cries like he's a kitten even though he weighs 14 lbs.! He loves to cuddle and even like to have his paws massaged. He does backflips for the laser light and various toys on strings. He loves water, kisses, and is a total Mama's boy!! Can't you tell he is a handful?

At the time of this picture he had managed to nudge himself within a few inches of our other cat Fana (french for crazy!) who generally dislikes him like most big sisters feel towards their little annoying brothers. However, this was the closest I have witnessed them lay without a fight breaking out or some form of hissing happening.

As you can see here, she is quite annoyed!

But they are sooo precious!!

What makes the two of them even more funny is that Jasper is literally twice her size (if not more) and yet she is the boss!! Sigh!

I love the  dynamic of these animals and how different having cats is as opposed to dogs...yet, they all have so much character and fill my life with so many funny anecdotes and love!