A Little Midweek Cuteness!!

 

Mark Loper

                 I found this on my new Pinterest account. It's just a little too adorable.

Yarn Bombing

Pink M.24 Chaffee by Marianne Jorgensen 

In my Fibers Class, we are learning several different ways of working with yarn. So far we are learning fiber coiling, knotless netting and weaving. I am very excited to be woking in these ways, and am more inspired than ever to learn to knit. One of the themes that keep coming up in my process this year is Public Art or Guerilla art. (another name for these types of art is Interventions) Yarn Bombing is perhaps my favorite type of Guerilla or Public art. There are so many layers of meaning to these pieces. (a predominantly domestic artform in a very public arena, playing with perceptions of the feminine and the masculine, softening and beautifying the cold and industrial) I also love that Yarn Bombing is impermanent and relatively harmless. In short, this is a type of guerilla art that I can see myself working with. On a related note, does anyone have any recommendations for knitting books or dvd's that are especially helpful for a beginner who has a more modern taste in fiber art? I would love any suggestions or tips. Here are a few more examples of Yarn Bombing !

Artist- Magda Sayeg - Bus in Mexico City

I love this. Street Art Squared! So Meta.

Kitchen Adventures

I won't be using these pans today.

It is a nasty, dreary, rainy day here in Charlotte, NC. Since outdoor adventures will have to wait, I have decided to attempt the ginormous, rainbow layer cake I blogged about a few days ago. I am excited to try it, but it is a pretty large scale baking project for me. (I am much more of a cook, because I like to rebel against exact measurements!) I will take photos and tell you about the experience later! 

My cake will probably not look like this. 

Playlist for This Lovely Spring Weekend

Gratuitous Baby Fox Cuteness

Nerdy Thursday

This Thursday, I am Geeking out about two very funny things. The first is this video. 




This video is one of the most hilarious, brilliant and human things I have ever seen. Besides being funny, there is something so joyful in the gusto with which the baby consumes her food. I first heard about it on Donald Glover's twitter feed. Whenever I am in a funk, I can just watch this video and everything seems better. 

The second thing I am crazy about this week is the Judge John Hodgman podcast.

 If you are unfamiliar with John Hodgman, you need to remedy that immediately. The Judge John Hodgman podcast is part of the Maximum Fun family of radio shows and podcasts. Basically, listeners call in with minor disputes and Hodgman hears their cases and then rules, giving inventive sentences and punishments to the loser. The repor between John and "Bailiff Jesse Thorne" is great and the whole program is just a joy to listen to. Some of their cases so far have been "Are Machine Gun's Robots?", whether or not breaking the 4th wall in movies and fiction ruins the experience, and if it's ok to take abandoned Polynesian takeout home. The podcast is updated weekly. 

Links for Your Week

Delicious Rainbow Cake of my Dreams!

Today I thought I would share a few links that I have been frequenting this week. 


BBC Asia/Pacific - Obviously, we have all been keeping up with the tragedy in Japan, especially now that a Nuclear Situation seems almost inevitable. The scope and depth of this tragedy are huge and seem to get bigger by the hour. My prayers and thoughts and all the hope I can muster are with all those in Japan.


How a Nuclear Reactor Works - With fewer and fewer of us getting doctorates in Physics these days, a clear explanation of how exactly Nuclear Power works is timely indeed. I knew a little about nuclear power, but all the updates were confusing and I thought I should find out a little more. This link is a great refresher course. 


Red Cross - If it is at all possible for you to do so, a donation to the Red Cross would be an excellent  thing. 


Now for Something  a Little Lighter ...


DINOSAURS!! - I love this list of dinosaurs that probably didn't look the way we thought they did as children. As the field of Paleontology grows and discovers new specimens, we are finding out that many dinosaurs looked quite different from what was thought even a decade ago.


Rainbow Cake - I am determined to make one of these gigantic cakes before summer. They look so amazing and lemon icing just puts it over the edge.


Funny Podcasts - This list of top humor podcasts is exhaustive and accurate. My favorite podcast - The Bugle- easily made the list. 

Japan

My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan, and anyone on the pacific coast who have been affected by this earthquake and tsunami. As always, if you are able to donate anything, the Red Cross will certainly need extra financial assistance over the next months. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709850

Nerdy Thursday

This week I am geeking out about Evernote. This is a multiple interface app that helps organize your life. I am pretty much obsessed. It is free, which is extremely great. You can clip info from the web, write notes, upload images, and even email yourself with a special Evernote email account. I have only been using Evernote for about a week, but I can already see how much it will streamline online research, to-do lists and even my lil' ole' blog. I have it downloaded on my Macbook, my Chrome bowser and my iPod touch. Once sign up for free account on the Evernote home page, you can download the app on any applicable devices and whenever you want to, you can access your accounts and see your "notebooks". Here is a screen shot of my Blog Notebook. 

As you can see, mine isn't spectacularly full just yet, but there is a lot of room to grow, (60 MB to be exact) and you get a fresh 60 MB every month. I really recommend you look into this really cool new app and see if it doen't make your life a little more fabulous. Here is a video that helps to explain just how excellent Evernote really is. 

Big Girl Problems or Yoga, Prayer, and Pain Meds

My sister and the creepy neighbor dog.

  The last few days have been pretty sucky. Just as Spring Break began, my body decided to give me a bit of a spiritual test drive. First, my back went out. I could't move. I didn't even know backs could do (or, not do)something like that. I prayed and rested and learned the universes lesson about patience. I rather quickly recovered,(mostly) and with a little bit of restorative yoga, my back is feeling good again. I thought I would be ready for some spring break task accomplishment and leisure time, but lo and behold, my shoulder decided to give me some major trouble. My shoulder blade felt like it had fallen out of socket and no amount of extra strength Excedrin could assist. I was trying to keep my spirits up, but my brain was fuzzy and I didn't know what lesson not being able to move my shoulder was teaching me.


  I prayed, meditated and did some even gentler restorative yoga. I woke up today in even more pain, and hobbled downstairs to realize that my plans for college are going to need to be changed. At this point, I was ready for some little girl crying on my mama's lap. I sucked it up, researched some options for school and went to my dentists appointment to get a permanent crown placed. Maybe you can guess where this is going, but the crown wasn't made correctly, so instead of going home with a shiny new crown and being able to chew with both sides of my jaw, I got another hour or mold injections and two more weeks with one sided mastication.


  Strangely enough, I left the dentist office with a smile on my face. My shoulder is feeling better, and I think I am getting the lesson. Once again, I needed to be reminded that although God (or the universe or what have you) loves jumbling up our plans, we won't be left on the side of the cosmic highway with an empty gas container and no cell phone signal. This To Shall Pass. In my heart I have known for a while that a B.F.A wasn't in the cards from me, I have known that I need to strengthen my shoulder and learn to lift with my legs. I have avoided all of these "Big Girl" issues and choices. I have delayed growing up as much as possible. Part of why I was so upset about not completely a BFA is because it means I will graduate much sooner. I will have to jump head first into the working world without any arm floaties on. At the end of the day, all that yoga and praying and meditating was helping, and it will continue to help. I am growing up, and the journey will be a whole lot more enjoyable if I stop resisting and start embracing all that is in store for me.