Hunter S. Thompson-isms

I heart biographies.  The lives and experiences of other people really interest me.  There are so many amazing people in the world with such great stories to tell and I want to read all of them.

I just picked up a copy of Gonzo, a biography about Hunter S. Thompson, and I can't wait to start reading it! He was so crazy and impulsive and i just LOVE it! 

I came across these Hunter S. Thompson motivational posters on Sloshpot.com. I only posted a few of my favorites but there are more on the website if you want to check them out.

Quote for the day:

"Myths and legends die hard in America.  We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men's reality.  Weird heros and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of "the rat race" is not yet final." -- Hunter S. Thompson

I was in TWO treasuries today!

I was so happy to find that on a Monday (notoriously the worst day of the week) I was included in not one, but TWO treasuries! Check them out!

Quote for the day: 

"Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors." - Hunter S. Thompson

Thanks Vintage Indie!

I'm so excited!  Today I was featured on Vintage Indie! 

Quote for the day: "Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced." --Ned Rorem (an American Composer)

Burried Treasure, Arggggg!

Thats my best online impersonation of a pirate...lame, I know.  The good news is that I have been included in a couple of treasuries recently!

The carrots are mine in this one.

The one with the Chihuahua is mine. Isn't he funny?!

Diving into Life

So, today I turn 26.  The first 1/4 of my life is over.  I had to think of some amazing way to celebrate.  Then it came to me!  Skydiving!  There is no better way to celebrate my life than to hurl my body out of an airplane at 18,000 feet.  Last Saturday, that is exactly what I did.

I just got my harness and I was ready to go!

I was so pumped!  That is my instructor, Mark, sitting behind me.  He was so amazing.  Mark pointed out all the landmarks and he even let me steer the parachute on the way down.

This was my first look out of the airplane.  If you look in the bottom left corner you can see how far down the ground was.  18,000 feet is the highest tandem skydive in the world, but it doesn't really hit you exactly how high that is until you're about to jump out of the airplane.

This was the view I saw.  Monterey, CA is so beautiful.  It was the perfect place to jump.

There we go!

The free fall was 90 seconds.  That doesn't seem very long until you are falling and falling and falling at 120 mph.  Then you start thinking, "Shouldn't the parachute have opened by now?"

But just then, the parachute opened.  Thank God.  After that I could just really enjoy the ride down.  It is so peaceful and quiet up there.  The world is so beautiful from this perspective.

Here i am drifting back to earth.

The landing was a lot softer than I thought it would be.

I didn't get nervous about what I had done until it was all over.  I had both feet firmly on the ground when it hit me...I just flew through the air at 120 mph!  Whoa.  The whole experience totally blew my mind!  Even as I write this, it is still blowing my mind.  I can't imagine anything that could top my 26th birthday.

The Quote for the day:

"...and once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you long to return."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

Pure Sweetness

Who knew that desserts could look this stunning?  A friend of mine recently showed me Amy Atlas' website and I fell in love.  Amy is a party and event planner who specializes in creating amazing, themed dessert tables.  Her displays range from playful to sophisticated and everything in between. 

These tables are not only beautiful, but delicious!  She can plan a party for me any day!

Diane Von Furstenberg

My first love in photography is fashion.  If I could only photograph one subject for the rest of my life I would choose fashion, no doubt.

Diane Von Furstenberg creates the most beautiful, feminine clothes for women.  She has lived an incredible life and is such a great role model.  If you ever have a chance to read her autobiography, I highly suggest that you do.

I just got a look at her Spring 2009 collection and I love it!  These are just a few of my favorites:

The ad campaigns for DVF are photographed by an artist/writer named Francois-Marie Banier.  His work is so inspirational to me.  He combines photography with writing, drawing and painting to create the most interesting images.  A Russian model named Natalia Vodianova (of course she is breath taking) is the muse for these artistic advertisements. 

I love how he uses big swipes of color over the images.  It creates a whole new life for black and white photographs. To see more of his work you can visit his website.

Quote for the day:

"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual."

--Arthur Koestler

Secretary Desk: Mission Accomplished!

Around Christmas I found this awesome secretary desk on the side of the road with a giant "FREE" sign stuck to the front of it.  I immediately pulled over and loaded it into the back of the car.  I'm sure people were staring as they were driving by, but I had hit the furniture jackpot and I wasn't about to leave it on the side of the road! 

This is what the desk looked like when I first picked it up.  It had so much potential.  What crazy person would have thrown this out!?

There was a weird, thin layer of shiny wood on the outside of the drawers.  It was cracking and peeling off anyway, so I chipped the rest of it off with a paint scraper and a hammer. Don't worry, I was wearing goggles.  I'm a photographer!  If something happens to my eyes its all over!  The whole thing was super wobbly, so I had to break off the legs and re-attach them to make it more stable.  

Once I got it all cleaned up I primed the desk.  I sort of liked the way that it looked with just the primer.  But I continued on with the original plan anyway.

This is what the secretary desk looks like now.  I love it!  The color is "Black Suede" and I think it looks so slick!

In the inside there is an added surprise.  I couldn't just leave it all black, there needed to be color somewhere.  I searched high and low for the perfect paper to use on the inside.  I finally found this paper at Paper Source and just fell in love with it.

I am so proud of this desk.  It really fits in with the rest of our condo and the paper on the inside adds an extra pop of color.  Since we are renting our condo, we can't paint the walls. Ugh!  Everything is very tan and white so I try to sneak in some color wherever I can.

Quote for the day:

"You will achieve a grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day.  Not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow.  Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won't have to drag today's undone matters into tomorrow.  Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours.  Be patient.  Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal: to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished."

-- Og Mandino

Lets Stay Together

I love when things are grouped together.  So naturally, I do this with my images.  This week I have a new diptych and a new triptych in my Etsy shop.

"The Lake"

"Poolside"

There will be many more sets of images to coming soon!

Quote for the day: 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, its the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead

Gone to the Birds!

There is a new addition to my Etsy shop today.  A while back John and I took a mini road trip around the bay area and we came across this cute little white church.  Come to find out later, it is the church that was in Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds!

"Purity"

It just looks to perfect to be real.  I remember thinking to my self that the whole scene looked just like a movie.  Little did I know that it actually was in a movie!

Slightly Askew in a Treasury

I think this is a great treasury, and I am happy to be a part of it.

Etsy Front Page!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the computer screen in front of me!  My photo was on the front page of Etsy!  I was so excited!!

"Sunday in the Park"

I'm so glad that I saw it on the front page, otherwise I would have never known.  It made my day!

Slightly Askew

I have a new print available in my Etsy shop.  This is one of the images that I took on my New Year's road trip.

"Slightly Askew"

Everything in this image looks so normal.  Its a scene that you pass every day on the street without a second glance.  However, something is just slightly off.

vintage style at its best

One of the things that I love most about the art from the 60s is the psychedelic concert poster.  It was an art unto itself.  A couple of years ago I saw an exhibit of vintage psychedelic concert posters in Boston and they were incredible.  There is so much detail in the layout of these designs.  Its really impressive.

Trying to read the information on half of these posters is near impossible.  I don't know how anyone would even know when and where these shows were happening!  I would love to have a few of these hanging in my house.

Flying Trapeze

This is something that I have been wanting to try for quite some time.  I found a place where you can learn how to perform all sorts of aerialist activities.  You can take a one-on-one lesson and its actually really affordable.  Of course there is a harness and a net so I won't seriously injure myself.  Which, I will probably manage to do somehow despite all safety precautions.  But I'm so excited to finally get to do this!

Now I'll have to run off and join the circus!

Scissor Skills!

Imagine my surprise when I was walking down the street, minding my own business, and I saw this amazing paper creation staring back at me through a shop window. 

 My photos don't do this justice at all.  It looks like a tangled mess, but it was actually quite interesting.  There are so many little intricate shapes that make up this enormous web of paper.

I was truly impressed.

I GOT GRATEFUL DEAD TICKETS!!!

I almost forgot to update everyone on my quest for Grateful Dead tickets.  Believe me, this was no easy task.  I thought I was going to have a heart attack during this entire process.  I wouldn't be surprised if the stress of this experience caused permanent damage to my young heart.

There was a countdown clock on the Grateful Dead website for the ticket pre-sale.  On Tuesday I was sitting with my finger on the button as the final seconds on that clock ticked down. 3...2...1!  I clicked and nothing happened.  It said that it was loading, but of course there are a million people trying to get tickets at that exact moment.  I kept waiting and waiting and waiting.  I started to panic a little.  The screen said not to refresh, but how would I know if it was really working or if it had frozen.  My eyes were bugging out of my head in anticipation.

Then, the server crashed!!  My heart sank.  I had to start all over.  At this point, in a desperate attempt, I had my co-worker in on my scheme and he was trying to get the tickets also.  Both of our computers were loading SO slowly due to the traffic on their server.  My palms were sweating.

Finally, his screen loads.  So, I put in the ticket quantity, I enter my credit card information and press the checkout button.  It starts processing...and it keeps processing.  By this time I'm sure I have the tickets so I'm starting to breathe again.  Then, I hear, "Oh no!" from my co-worker.  The server stalled and he got an error message! NO!

I had to start the process all over again!  I was so bummed.  I thought I had lost my tickets for sure.  So, I took a breath and started over.  To my surprise...IT WORKED!  I was jumping up and down and silently screaming to myself.  Had I not been at work I would have definitely woken up my neighbors with shrieks of joy.

It was then that I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone at home!  I couldn't share my good news with anyone.  Really, I thought that I might explode.  So i did more jumping up and down.

Now, I have to wait until May to actually go to the concert.  I checked back later in the day to see if there were any tickets left and they were entirely sold out!  I'm so glad that I was able to get my hands on two of those babies.  It was really a miracle.  Plus, its the last show on the tour, so I think its going to be extra special.

Thank you to my co-worker for putting aside what he was doing to help me in my quest to see the Grateful Dead.  Without your help, I would have no tickets and I might have cried a little.

Treasured

I was in a treasury today!  I always love when that happens.  It brings a smile to my face to know that someone appreciates my work.

Thank you beadsire!