HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Gloria Steinem and thank you.  

Jennifer Grey (BABY!)!  You will forever have lived my teenage dream. I am forever jealous.  (via)

Astrud Gilberto...how your voice has mesmerized. (via)Trying to make a date to see Francesca Woodman at the Guggenheim.  I love her I do.

I don't know what is going on with the political temperature of feminism, I know I don't like it and it feels like we are moving backwards (sorry Gloria!).  What I do like is this!

I am always going back and forth about wanting long locks and short style. But this hall of fame makes me yearn for long hair. I am determined to make bread this weekend as a gift to a friend.  If you don't see some pics of fresh baked goods Monday, you can yell at me. My mom got me this beautiful and tasty looking book a year ago and I have to start eating my way through it!Speaking of baking a fabbby DIY blog, A Subtle Revelry, posted these amazing bunny sticky buns for Easter. Remember the bunny cakes?  Here is a change of pace (a sticky bunny bun all to yourself!)

Call me crazy but I love these pattered Jeans from 7.

I saw this video about a year ago and watched it again yesterday. What an inspiration.  Here is to vulnerability and the courage to know we are worth it....what a good way to start the weekend.

I am heading to Beacon, NY this weekend  (again).  My good friend is celebrating his 30th on Mt. Beacon.  So very excited.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHEN!

Bisou bisou and bless...

Words of the day

"life is a single span, a continuum marked, by certain periods and creation"- In a dream I wrote this, but in reality I am not sure if it came from my head or elsewhere.

Song of the day...

oh yea!!!!!!!!

Art of the day...

Can anyone guess what these are?  I think this is some of the most beautiful and creative work I have seen in so long.  They are ethereal yet familiar, confusing us in their familiarity. Bravo Christopher Jonassen.

Love changed into growth

I was thinking of making my day of love (Wednesdays) a broader day dedicated to life discoveries and growth.  Therefor encompassed in this is love and everything beyond (though is love all there is and all we are made of?  Does all stem from?). I just read this article and it inspired me to feel this is the right choice to make for myself and my audiences.  Let me know if you have any ideas or wants of subjects discussed to this day dedicated to growth and all those big and little questions that make up life!

 I want to discuss with my readers and friends, open up the conversation of something that is ever present in my own life right now.  Finding joy, being at peace, being at the now, facing fears, freeing myself of bad habits and being the best me I can be.  I think this is something we can all empathise with, yes?"Why is this important? Because it suggests that joy is dictated not just by what happens to us but also by our expectations. While it’s important to plan for the future and put ourselves in circumstances that we believe will make us happiest in the future, we can’t control exactly what will result from our efforts. And at the moment-to-moment level, we don’t know how others around us will behave or what opportunities or challenges will crop up without warning. When our expectations are very specific and narrow, we increase the chances of disappointment. When we’re more open to a range of possibilities, we create the possibility of savoring “the happiness within our reach,” or joy"

all artwork Hildur Jonsson

Coffeeman anyone?

via

Did anyone ever have a milkman growing up?  I did!  His farm was from Milton, MA and we would get milk, coffee, butter and sometimes ice cream!  Thinking back I have such a nostalgic memory of these deliveries and it's sad that these kinds of exchanges seem obsolete and archaic, when they should be welcomed and supported.  I want to have a milkman again! But what about a coffeeman? This Brooklyn company, Kickstand is doing pretty rad things.  Bike delivery? Bottle exchange?  Sustainable coffee from socially and environmentally responsible producers. Love it.

If I were a....

1. My goodness. I know one might think it's crazy to spend this $$ but I'm obsessed with these N 6 shoes!

2. Summer time please come so I can sport these American Apparel babies!

3. I have a really hard time wearing earrings, but if I could I really think these are special.

4. How beautiful are these?

5. New bedding??  If you have not noticed by now, I am forever in search of the dream bed.

6. A flower share at my local CSA.  What an amazing gift?

Anxiety

Did anyone read this? Interested to know your thoughts.  I enjoyed learning more about the history of our cultures anxiety and also how different medications correspond to where we are as a society (so we need to chill out? or zone out? be high?..).  But I wasn't sure if the writers last few lines sat well with me.  Read this and let me know!

"It is in our anxiety that we come to understand feelingly that we are free, that the possibilities are endless."

Monday Mondays

I had such a wonderful weekend.  Spending time with my girl Aly from CO was so special and refreshing. She is such in inspiring woman and mother.  Selfishly, I wish we were closer because we are so like minded in so many ways, I think we would work really well together.  But I am excited for her own endeavors ahead and am grateful for the support we are still able to offer each other. After Aly and I spent the day together myself and Ben headed upstate for group Hunger Games viewing, amazing! The past two years I have spent so much time here in Beacon, it feels like home.  Ben and have discussed endlessly where we will move, if we will move, places we could never live, dream places and adventures.  But at this point, we have to be at peace with Brooklyn and more so be grateful, psyched and surprised by the wonderful city we live in.  Change will come if and when we are ready.  Right?

via etsy

Also, have you heard of Future trippin'?  My friend Liz enlightened me to this this weekend.  Defined as: This is ego mind control. The ego keeps you obsessing about the future to make sure that it has you in a stronghold. The fear is present even though the future has not been created yet.

Isn't that the best though! I have a case of the future trips! I think we all do?  

Thank you Liz and Brendan for having Ben and I.  Here is to the week ahead...

Birthdays and weekend ahead.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ...

Mr. Fred Rogers.  Have you seen this clip?  Anyone who isn't a lill' teary or hasn't falling in love with this man at the end of this, please go plant your heart in the soil and give it water and sun!

Spike Lee, I will never forget watching Do the Right Thing for the first time and Crooklyn.  That song "Ohh child things are gonna get easier..." stuck with me for a long time with that imagery. Thank you for putting your work into the world.

Robert Frost...."this air of withering sweetness."

What are your weekend plans?  A really good friend, who I get to see once in a blue moon is in town on work from Colorado. Have you heard of Left Hand Brewing company? She works for them an will be pouring their beer all over this city! I plan to spend Friday evening drinking their milk stout with her and most of Saturday.  THEN I am off to Beacon for the hunger games and Mad Men.  I can't wait!

In the meantime a few things to fill the empty spaces....

Spoiler Alert! Don't read this is you don't know anything about the Hunger Games but plan to via book or movie.  But this list is crazy and speaks volumes on how harsh this story is! Speaking of...

Has anyone been following this on NYMag?  A poll of the best TV dramas in the past 25 years.  There are so many good ones on there! Though, Coop will always be number one man in my heart.  He was just sooo good.

Check out my gal Liz's post on flavoring your own spirits.  So so yummy!

Someone can get me this, I don't mind.  It is the song my mom would sing to me when I was a lill' one.

I love this blog THE GLOW.  It's inspiring and beautiful.  Cheers to amazing women worldwide!

Bless and be well. Bisou bisou! 

Words of today...

I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.--Georgia O'Keeffe

Art of the day

I want to escape in the world of George Oommen.  These beautiful pieces are inspired by Kerala, India.

 

Song of the day

ohhh so warm and good!

Love.

In my recent trip I was overwhelmed by the love of my friends.  And there was such a flow, such a smoothness.  Realizing this I became aware of how much time this particular group has spent together, in New York, in Ithaca in traveling and vacations.   So today is not specifically about love from one friend to another, more so love within a family created over time a family that you create.  My dear friend Denise wrote some blissful words that I want to share with y'all speaking directly upon this.  Thank you Denise for sharing. 

She wrote:

Another, and not any other, vacation in the sun.  Lagoon water sun dried in my hair, sand rubbing me, hugging me gently.  
Heart, most importantly, open & joyous, inviting & curious.
Possibilities expanding.  
Love, I'm surrounded by a tremendous degree of it, and tenderness.
Positively abundant persons questing for pleasure & beauty.  In their embrace there is only: yes & right & you don't say & nods & open arms.
All-stars.

You belong among the wildflower
You belong somewhere you feel free

I find peace in knowing that I'm in company of positive vibrations
rippling and surrounding me outwards
experiencing connections with life
collecting moments, divine, short lived, & fleeting.

A seeker of joy & connection & cosmic mystery & perplexing beauty
willing to say goodbye as much as hello
that is part of us

so much love
from caverns to lagoons to oceans to the sky above

And I said:

Somewhere along the history of ancient civilizations and centuries past we sat together in a field and discussed clouds and dreams.  And we knew we would meet again. And we have.

You know what I LOVE! Is lucky shoes at great prices (I can't believe I just said that, sounds like a advertising jingle!).  And they are on sale at checkout!  OK, I'll cool it on the shoes but I just love summer feet gear!

These are on sale at Madewell!  if I save $2 a day I can have them in 1.5 months!

Do you think they will still be there?

If I were a...

I would escape in these carpets to cover my floors.  I would rub my bare feet over them and exfoliate in their lush textures and colors. These beauties, such works of art.

via ebay

via ebay

via  Luke Irwin

via ebay

via esalerugs

via Anthropologie

via ABC Carpet

via ABC Carpet

and every rug here and here and here (faint)!

I have returned from Paradise.  I feel reborn and refreshed and full of gratitude.     I want to share a few things I thought about in my time in the sun and under the ocean standing on it's floor, pulled along the coral and sand.

In my reflections I made a list of things I thought necessary in an environment to make it nourishing and  fill my heart with love.  They are:  friends, family, vegetables, yoga, independent cinema, the ocean, nature, love, health, like-minded folk, inspiration and creativity and warmth (this is in utmost ideal situation).

I also made a list of that which I consider strengths of mine:  compassion, diplomatic, good listener, dreamer, love kids ages 3-6 (all ages at that), patient, creative, photography (a constant internal struggle).

Lastly, I wrote this:  happiness is now.  Stop searching and desiring.  All that we need to create change we already have.  Be now.  Accept.  Let your strengths intersect and start from there.  Be.

Perhaps you too can practice with these questions.  Make a list see what you find.