Sunday, May 31, 2009

loving JJJJound



















JJJJound....I think I could get lost...

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Friday, May 29, 2009

for the love of maps



Radical Cartography

from Share Some Candy

Frank Lloyd Wright LEGO sets



It has been officially announced that there is a new line of licensed Frank Lloyd Wright LEGO sets. The first two in the series will be Fallingwater and The Guggenheim.

Read more here.

{image via PrairieMod}

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Wow, I love maps



ComplexCity Moscow

by Lee Jang Sub

{photo via but does it float}

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Appreciation



I had a good conversation with a friend today about realizing the beauty in everyday life. Small children are so good at seeing the beauty and possibly in everything. They do not have the same practicality that we can be constrained by. (I can be way too practical.) We are surrounded by so much beauty everyday, yet it is so easy to miss with all of our hussle and bussle. This has prompted me to make a list of the beauty in my days...

5:30 a.m. yoga at the lake
water droplets on the grass
pretending we are opera singers at dinner
roasting marshmallows on bamboo skewers over tealights to make s'mores
the steamy inhale after a shower
the hum of the sewing machine
standing on the couch eating my cereal and watching the happenings outside
watching my disc fly through the air during disc golf(and finding it after losing it)
job leads
a full stomach after a family picnic
cupcakes
bright skittles in my birdie vessel
creating art for an upcoming show(more on that later)
listening to laughter
the singing birds every morning
evening strolls
the guy at the convenience shop wearing the tiny top hat
fresh greens
the intoxicating scent of lilacs
gift giving
everything always working out(I guess there's a lesson in everything)
giving advice and recieving advice
reading, reading, reading
my grandma's hilarious stories(thanks jen)
sunshine
bare feet
happy mail
new music
sitting on the patio
watching the boys smell tulips as tall as them at the flower gardens
salty chips and dip
falling into bed exhausted
fuzzy caterpillars dropping out of the trees(and the squeals that follow)
Phantom of the Opera(thanks Don and Paula)
sharing our days by fuzzy lamplight in the evening
my beautiful friends and family

Beauty

Monday, May 25, 2009

Kitty in a box













I crafted this kitty in a box as part of a gift for my niece. It was so much fun!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Jackson Meadows













While visiting family nearby, we stopped by Jackson Meadows, an award winning conservation community in Marine on St. Croix. The guiding principles behind the development are to preserve and conserve the land and create a sense of neighborhood and community.

Hop on over to jacksonmeadow.com to read about the people, places and processes of the community. If I was going to live in the country, I might consider living there...Marine is charming and the principles behind Jackson Meadows align with what I want in a home and community.

Friday, May 22, 2009

10% Off at Design Collective this weekend



Design Collective
is having a huge sale this weekend. Natural Salvage cards will be 10% off!

Etsy Shop is up!




My Etsy Shop is up and running! It happens to be full of children's cards at the moment, but check back soon, as I'm presently working on other cards.

{You can always link to my Etsy Shop by clicking on 'SHOP' in the right-hand column>>>over there>>>}

Lolita



I just finished Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov's most famous novel-a story of unrelenting, obsessive passion. Next up-Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. I started reading that first, but learned that it would make much more sense to actually read Lolita first. Yep, the book is much more meaningful now.

Oh, my








A special someone gave me a bright bunch of ranunculus, one of my favorite flowers...thank you, thank you, thank you!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Sangria!



Doesn't a cold glass of sangria sound so refreshing in this warm weather?

I found this tasty recipe(and photo) at TasteSpotting. I currently have a que of hundreds of recipes I'd like to try. It is such an inspiring site when you just don't know what to make or what you feel like.

www.tastespotting.com


{photo via tastespotting via patiodaddiobbq}

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Richard Scarry's Polite Elephant



















I find the illustrations in Richard Scarry's Polite Elephant absolutely charming.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Work-life balance

I found an interesting article in Time highlighting 10 ways your job will change. I am including an excerpt here that focuses on work-life balance (and women, but I'm really interested in the work-life balance part), whose importance is SLOWLY rolling around in the U.S.

Time
Special Report
The Way We'll Work

Excerpt:

Women Will Rule Business

Work-life balance. In most corporate circles, it's the sort of phrase that gives hard-charging managers the hives, bringing to mind yoga-infused, candlelit meditation sessions and — more frustratingly — rows of empty office cubicles.

So, what if we renamed work-life balance? Let's call it something more masculine and appealing, something like ... um ... Make More Money. That might lift heads off desks. A few people might show up at a meeting to discuss that new phenomenon driving the bottom line: Women, and the way we want to work, are extremely good for business.

Let's start with the female management style. It turns out it's not soft; it's lucrative. The workplace-research group Catalyst studied 353 Fortune 500 companies and found that those with the most women in senior management had a higher return on equities — by more than a third.

Are the women themselves making the difference? Or are these smart firms that make smart moves, like promoting women? There is growing evidence that in today's marketplace the female management style is not only distinctly different but also essential. Studies from Cambridge University and the University of Pittsburgh suggest that women manage more cautiously than men do. They focus on the long term. Men thrive on risk, especially when surrounded by other men. Wouldn't the economic crisis have unfolded a bit differently if Lehman Brothers had had a few more women on board?

Women are also less competitive, in a good way. They're consensus builders, conciliators and collaborators, and they employ what is called a transformational leadership style — heavily engaged, motivational, extremely well suited for the emerging, less hierarchical workplace. Indeed, when the Chartered Management Institute in the U.K. looked ahead to 2018, it saw a work world that will be more fluid and more virtual, where the demand for female management skills will be stronger than ever. Women, CMI predicts, will move rapidly up the chain of command, and their emotional-intelligence skills may become ever more essential.

That trend will accelerate with the looming talent shortage. The Employment Policy Foundation estimated that within the next decade there would be a 6 million – person gap between the number of college graduates and the number of college-educated workers needed to cover job growth. And who receives the majority of college and advanced degrees? Women. They also control 83% of all consumer purchases, including consumer electronics, health care and cars. Forward-looking companies understand they need women to figure out how to market to women.

All that — the female management style, education levels, purchasing clout — is already being used, by pioneering women and insightful companies, to create a female-friendly working environment, in which the focus is on results, not on time spent in the office chair. On efficiency, not schmoozing. On getting the job done, however that happens best — in a three-day week, at night after the kids go to bed, from Starbucks.

And here's the real kicker. When a company gives employees freedom, it doesn't just feel good or get shiny, happy workers — productivity goes up. Ask firms like Capitol One, which runs a company without walls or mandatory office time. Or Best Buy, which implemented a system called ROWE — results-only work environment — and found that productivity, in some cases, shot up 40%. Flexibility is no longer a favor to be handed out like candy at a children's birthday party; it's a compelling business strategy.

So we need to get rid of the nutty-crunchy moral component of the work-life balance and make a business case for it. It's easy to do. In fact, a decade from now, companies will understand that hiring lots of women, and letting them work the way they want, will help them Make More Money.

Seth Godin

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Deadwood







We just finished Season 1 of Deadwood and started Season 2. Complex, dramatic, smart, amusing, suspenseful...

{photos via HBO}

Detroit Ruins









Detroit Ruins is the gallery of Nicole Rork, who explores and photographs abandoned buildings. Her goal is to "find beauty in everything and share it with others." Her photos speak for themselves.

{photos via Detroit Ruins}