Since I found this last year, I was curious to see what the latest presentation from JWT would bring. From a T-F perspective, these entries caught my eye: BYOD – Bring Your Own Device. I actually have been using this phrase for a while now at my work because we have been experimenting with checking [...]
I am continually inspired the more I read and learn from Brene Brown’s work on vunerability and whole-hearted living. Then, the other day, I was visiting her blog and noticed this badge: I was intrigued. In a nutshell, Free-Range Social Media encourages you to share yourself openly, use others for inspiration but not for wholesale [...]
I was quite taken by a story I heard while driving home this week. On National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, they shared a story about photo retouchers working on damaged photographs rescued from the tsunami that hit northern Japan earlier this year. The sentiment by the main person profiled in the story really struck [...]
This TED talk really spoke to me. The last part is something to keep in mind…. This is what I have found: to let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen; to love with our whole hearts, even though there’s no guarantee — and that’s really hard, and I can tell you as a parent, [...]
At a recent unconference I attended, the “keynote” speaker, closed his remarks by listing some things that can help you live, in his opinion, an “authentic” life. He said these actions help you create a Point of View that is yours and yours alone. These were: Create memories (his suggestion was to participate in a [...]
I know that I have already blogged about how BIG the internet is. But, in many ways, it does feel small. For example…. Earlier this month, I was sitting in a webinar learning about new functionality for a system used at my school. It was quickly getting over my head so, of course, I went [...]
It’s a snow day, which means I “get” to play on the computer more than work since it is a Monday and all. I have had the new interface for Facebook for a little while now. I like it. Cleaner, easier to use and things make sense up at the top rather than the bottom [...]
This blog has a tagline about exploring “both sides” of the brain and I do try to explore and nurture both the techy and the feely of life. Of course, I am always interested when they intersect. Part of the official parts of my job is to be technical support for the faculty and staff [...]
I have a ukulele now. And I take piano lessons. Add in the drum set in the basement and the guitar in the closet and there are a lot of musical opportunities in the house these days. Right now, the uke is the winner…it sits out by my desk and I pick it up about [...]
I have been reading about contemplative photography and I am intrigued and challenged to give it a whirl.
What started as a quick glance through the bookstore of the Shambala Sun has developed into much more of an interest. Basically, the practice takes photography away from simply subject matter and into the mind/body/spirit of the photographer so you are more aware of noticing the image, taking the image and creating the equivalent image in your camera to what you noticed.
Of course, the website, Seeing Fresh, explains is much better than I can.
I am part of a Flickr group for Shibui, which is a Japanese term referring to a particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty. And I can see a relationship between the two. I just want to bring in some awareness and mindfulness into my photography and I hope this might do it. I so enjoyed my Project 365 from several years ago and I guess I am ready for another photography experiment.
Stay tuned.
A friend bought a new car this week. Well, new to her. And, my “new” car is about 4 months old now. Made me think about the progression of cars in my life and I thought I would capture it here:
First Car: 1969 Plymouth Satellite (with a huge dent in the trunk lid) – we could cram 8 folks in there and make it to the Rocky Horror Picture Show during college. Great fun. This car is the one that taught me the importance of paying attention to the Oil Level warning light.
1980 Plymouth Horizon – with awesome louvers on hatchback. Thanks to hail damage during a tornado in South Carolina, I paid college tuition that year with this car
Volkswagon Dasher Wagon – loved it! I could fit my entire life into that station wagon. Looked a lot like this one:
Image: ‘Volkswagon Dasher‘
1984 Volkswagon Rabbit – equally loved it. Sunroof that cranked open
1990 Geo Prizm – I liked the scientific name
Acura Legend – bought from my parents. Fun car to drive
1998 Honda Civic – the purple juicebox
2010 Honda Insight – my current car which is a techy-feely dream.
Image: ‘Gone ~ Econ‘
Well, since the end of the world as we know it might be tomorrow, I thought I had better share the experiences of remodeling the kitchen over the past 2 years.
Why 2 years? Good question! After the mortgage was paid off (yay!), we decided that it was time to update the kitchen and we could save up for each part and not go into debt to do the job.
Many brainstorming sessions, dreaming up ideas over coffee in the morning and flipping through design books and magazines and watching HGTV for hours, the ideas started bubbling up to the top as well as a determination to follow two “rules” as much as possible:
In addition, we wanted to be as fiscally responsible as possible but not choose cheap simply for the cost.
So, first up, cabinets and the flooring. Many kitchen remodeling shows start with the studs on the show ripping everything out to the studs in the house. The cabinets were in fine shape so it seems wasteful to trash them simply to replace them. New hardware and paint has really spruced them up and filling in the small grooves on the doors that gave them a country feel before painting put them back into a more sleek line that I liked.
However…since this entire project was kickstarted by a leak under the sink that resulted in a slow softening of the wood under the sink cabinet and into the kitchen itself, we knew we had to replace that cabinet. And, this was the first place where we didn’t really follow the rules (what? already?) but we did take advantage of zero percent financing and bought energy star appliances and the replacement cabinet from a big box home improvement store. We did add three more cabinets to the kitchen in the process to give us hidden space for recycling, storage for baking supplies and a bit more storage for keys and so on. We also splurged on a new door with better insulation and a window to allow for more natural light.
Cork or bamboo was our first instinct for flooring but a very nice salesperson at Broadway Carpet told us that they were both too soft for kitchen use, in her opinion. We figured since she was losing a sale but was being honest, we needed to heed that. I had wanted REAL linoleum based on a suggestion from my sister but I couldn’t find that locally. A trip to Asheville, North Carolina to the green building store, Build it Naturally, provided us with Marmoleum in a nifty click to install system and so we were off with our Sahara floor and an inset of blue for a “rug” under the table.
While the floor and new cabinets were going in, I tackled my own personal project – a wine rack made completely from found materials around the house. I gathered up scraps of wood from past projects and dug up all kinds of fasteners and devised a holder that would fit in the “dead” space between the end of one cabinet and where we wanted the return on another new cabinet to be. The results can be seen here:
I also repurposed a knife holder from the side of a rolling butcher block island and hung it up between our cabinets and the new refrigerator to fill that space and provide a needed knife storage area.
Then, we had to decide on countertops. Working with Southern Kitchen, we met Karen, our wonderful designer. The original choice was a gorgeous cobalt blue Ceasarstone, which is a crushed quartz eco-friendly material. However, to save up for the project took over a year and by the time we went back to order it, the color was no longer being made! Boo!
We had to setting for our second choice, this time by Silestone – Stellar Marine in their Stellar series. Lovely sparkles inside the blue. We used Stone Creek Surfaces our of Louisville, TN as our installers and they were great. Project was on time, installers were professional and they even figured out a way to keep our smaller than usual (24″) dishwasher in place.
So, we went from this:
with makeshift countertops on the new cabinets and old formica on the existing, to this:
Fast forward from October 2009 to this week, and that bring us to:
Going from three lights (two ceiling fixtures and one over the sink) to eleven should make things brighter, right?
After finding a fixture that we loved at a local store (who shall remain nameless because of their TERRIBLE customer service), we had to turn to Ebay for the fixture as it has been discontinued for a long time. So, thanks to the reuse culture of Ebay, we found the fixture and then turned to Schoolhouse Electric for the fixture to hang over the table. Schoolhouse Electric is a small company out of Portland, Oregon that uses handblown glass globes based on 150 year old molds to match the fixtures in schoolhouse from long ago. We went with one of the Black Line shades to call out the lovely black display cabinet we have in the room
Throw in four new can lights using dimmable CFL bulbs and some Xenon undercabinet lighting and we are good to go. Thanks to Angler Construction for the wonderful installation job.
So, now, all that is left is
We actually already have the tile having worked with Donna, a wonderful designer at Tile Sensations. We bought a warehouse overrun (yay, more reuse and a bargain) and then augmented with a lovely glass tile in green that will be the accent over the stove and sink. That installation will happen soon and I will post some photos when it does.
Stay tuned!
Thanks to Alan Levine aka CogDog (who I get to meet next week at ITC eLearning 2011!), I have fallen for Pummelvision, which takes the last 2000 photos in our Flickr account (or DailyBooth Dropbox Facebook and Tumblr) and makes them into a movie that is then auto-magically (if you give it they keys) to YouTube or Vimeo. Sweet!
As they say, your life flashes before your eyes and I see that I have been some places (or at least I only upload photos of places i have been). Give it a shot if you take shots. I might have to revisit my Project 365 set and give that a whirl as well.
I guess I just have to keep finding fun things in my life right now so another post with something humorous. What Star Wars job would you have (I turned out to be an Ewok Chief)
I did drill down to the original source, which is an online school site but I wasn’t thrilled about giving them a linkback so I went with the original site I saw.
This TED talk really spoke to me. The last part is something to keep in mind….
This is what I have found: to let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen; to love with our whole hearts, even though there’s no guarantee — and that’s really hard, and I can tell you as a parent, that’s excruciatingly difficult — to practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror, when we’re wondering, “Can I love you this much? Can I believe in this this passionately? Can I be this fierce about this?” just to be able to stop and, instead of catastrophizing what might happen, to say, “I’m just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I’m alive.” And the last, which I think is probably the most important, is to believe that we’re enough. Because when we work from a place I believe that says, “I’m enough,” then we stop screaming and start listening, we’re kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we’re kinder and gentler to ourselves.
I have always been a fan of the Beloit College Mindset published each year right before the start of the fall semester. It lists the experiences that are “molding” the incoming freshman class.
This set of predictions from JWT Intelligence is much more widespread covering fashion, art, food, travel, business, technology and more. It was fascinating.
Some of the predictions were right up the T-F mindset like:
33 – alternative social networking sites to Facebook. Like Diaspora, which I helped fund in its Kickstarter campaign.
59 – the Life in A Day user generated documentary. I participated in that as well. Doubt my footage will be selected but I find the whole idea of collaborative art projects really interesting and a nice mix of the technical with the psychological
83 – Social Objects which will allow folks to scan or otherwise interact with objects merging the digital and the physical. My pals Brandon and Lia are all over this trend with their materialmashup site.
and, of course
93 – tube free toilet paper!! What????? Where will all of those kids find raw materials for their art projects?
Or even the professional artists might have problems with this one…
What do you find most interesting?
Trying out the WP android app thanks to a recommendation from AppBrain.
How could I NOT love this project? Combining Google Street View creation with a large performance art exhibit so that you have “easter eggs” all over Google Street View for this particular part of Pittsburgh. Brilliant! Completely T-F!!
