Happy Friday!

Abandoned Train Station- Simon Christensen

It's Friday AND it's a three-day weekend AND I have links for you!

(Three reasons to be happy right there!)

A fantastic interview with Regina Spektor

Wonderful Soviet book covers

DIY Hanging Garden

Inside the mind of Curiosity

A pedal-powered roller coaster

Succulents!

Highly amusing pen reviews

Urban decay

Home is where the heart is

Did anyone else read Shel Silverstein growing up?

A lovely Norwegian summer cottage

On growing a marriage

Have a wonderful weekend!

Short Film: Springtime with Obaachan

This is lovely. Enjoy:


Springtime with Obaachan - Japan from Andy Ellis on Vimeo.

A slow moving piece documenting the subtleties / importance of family and home life on returning back to Japan last March/April 2011.
Camera: Nikon D7000
Lenses: Nikkor 50mm 1.4G & Nikkor 18-200mm VR
Audio: Røde VideoMic Pro
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto // Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
www.theartofandyellis.com

A Workplace Safety Lesson (Soviet Style)

Labor Day is this next Monday! So in honor of the upcoming holiday, I thought I'd share these fantastic Soviet Worker Safety posters:

Be tethered when working on steep slopes

Containers with chemicals should be clearly marked

Gawkers, don't cripple friends!

No walking on fish

Stack bricks properly

Life lesson for the day: If there are fish on the floor, don't walk on them!

P.S. The rest of this collection of posters can be found here. Warning: some are a bit graphic.

P.S.S. Soviet ROBOTS!

All images found via 2leep

Milagrosa Canyon

For those of you who aren't in on the secret, Milagrosa is a fantastic hidden-away hiking spot in Tucson that has some lovely pools and cliff-jumping spots during the rainy seasons and spring run-off. Word to the wise: Don't go without someone who's done the hike before (the trail can be a bit hard to follow in a few places, making it easy to get lost). But it's most definitely worth it. 

Deserts are beautiful too

View from the top of one of the shelves (near the best jumping point)

Looking back across towards Tucson

The always lovable, but prickly, barrel cactus

Headed home

I'm suddenly very antsy for the start of fall and the chance to get outdoors without the searing temperatures.

All photos by Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved

On Changing One's Mind

via Suburban Misfit

Wedding dress shopping completely terrified me. First, I don't really like trying on clothes in front of people. More importantly, after some browsing the internet for a while, I was quite convinced that I would never find something I liked that was "wedding" enough for my family and that didn't cost a fortune. My requirements were simple:

1. It must not cost more than my laptop (which is infinitely more useful than a dress)

2. It must not preclude me from using the bathroom by myself  

3. It must not be fluffy, foofy, or reminiscent of a cupcake

4. It must not be covered in sparkles, glitter, sequins, or other excessively shiny things

5. It must not prevent me from walking through doors like a normal person

6. It must not have things which I might trip over (read: train)

7. It must have straps.

I was going for something simple, easy, and preferably flowy and elegant.

The dress I brought home (after a wonderfully un-terrifying experience) is flowy and elegant. It is not sparkly or shiny, excessively fluffy, or terribly expensive. I'm fairly certain I can manage bathrooms and doorways without too much trouble. However, it is in that dreaded mermaid silhouette, the one I derided as weird and poofy, saying that it made it look like one had a second waist at the knees. It is also strapless, though it does have optional spaghetti straps. And I really, really like it. 

And in this process I came to a distinct realization. I hate changing my mind. It makes me feel embarrassed and somewhat guilty. I was ashamed that I had changed my mind about the type of wedding dress I wanted.

And this shame (unfortunately) isn't limited to wedding dresses. It extends to my plans after college. What if I tell people I'm going to go abroad after graduation but then I decide I'd rather stay in the States and enjoy being married for a little while? What if I say I'm applying for graduate school but then decide to take a year off?

It applies to the social commitments I make.

What if I tell someone I'm going to be involved in some organization but then realize that my schedule won't allow it? What if I say I'll be somewhere but then I don't feel well?

It applies to most of my life decisions in general.

How do I tell people I'm getting married young after I was so adamant about staying single until my career was established? How do I explain why I decided not to study abroad my junior year? 

I think the shame stems from my fears of others' expectations and thoughts. I've always wanted to be thought of as a person of my word. If I say something, I'll do it. And changing my mind sometimes feels like I'm breaking my word. I'm afraid I'll be given that label that's so often affixed to the female gender: "fickle." I'm afraid that I'm admitting that I was wrong, and, in so many of these cases where others whom I respect have encouraged me to pursue a particular direction, I'm afraid that I'm telling them they're wrong too. I'm afraid that I'm second guessing myself, making the wrong decision, chickening out. 

But this is wrong. 

Like it or not, changing one's mind is a key part of life. One cannot just go steamrolling through life on one set course and expect things to turn out well. Successful living requires constant reevaluation and recalculation. (Even my quirky little GPS takes time to recalculate, granted generally at the most inopportune moments.) No one expects me to know exactly where I'm going-- as events unfold and I mature and learn and grow, I will change my course. Keeping my word is important, but so is the ability to reassess, to admit shortcomings and oversights, and to try something different. Honestly, I don't think anyone can say they know exactly where they are going and how they will get there. That would be unreasonable. 

And so I must continue to remind myself that it's perfectly reasonable to change my mind. It's okay that my dress looks a bit different than I thought it would, that my post-graduation plans might not turn out how I've envisioned them, and that my interests and commitments are ever evolving. Reassess, recalculate, move forward. It's life. 

Songs for Sunday: Rachel Goodrich

This girl is crazy-talented-- her voice just has the gorgeous rough quality, and the guitar on so many of her songs complements it perfectly. I haven't tracked down her album yet, but it's next on my list.


Directed by: Louis Bolivar
Off the New Self Titled Album Released 2011
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/rachel-goodrich/id420715799



Johnny Cash cover, performed by Rachel Goodrich

Happy Friday!

Friday Hand Lettering by Lisa Congdon

It's finally Friday and the first week of classes are over! I think I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, but it'll still be nice to take a little bit of a break this weekend. (We might go hiking!) But before I go I have some links for you:

How cute is this cottage?

A beautiful year-long hand lettering project

I might try making this quickbread with my new gluten-free baking mix

How to make a fun DIY vase

A great writing piece from McSweeney's

Eye-catching tents

I love this pocketwatch necklace

A mixtape table

This is a fun way to display your weekly to-do list

Would you buy an area code poster? 

What-if XKCD has quickly become my new favorite read (Robot Apocalypse, anyone?)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Short Film: Fox Hat

I apologize for the sporadic posting this week- it's the first week of school and things got crazy much more quickly than I expected them to.

Anyways, this film, Fox Hat, is absolutely beautiful. I love the artwork and the animation. This version has been translated from Korean (click to watch the original). My partiality to foxes might have also influenced this pick. It's a lovely piece for a quick break in the day.

fox hat (english ver.) from earth design works on Vimeo.

Director : Kim, Young-jun (Earth Design Works)
Animation : Kim, Young-jun / Kim, Ji-su
Original : Kim, Seung-youn
Music : Ko, Jin-young / Park, Hyun-woo
Progression : Chun, Sang-hyun (Picturebook SangSang)

Inspired: Gemma Correll

Gemma Correll is a very talented U.K. artist. She's also pretty hilarious. And she seems like the kind of person I'd love to sit down for some tea with and peek at her sketchbook.

Her blog is one of my favorite weekly reads because of all the fun pictures. Check out her website for more!

All images belong to Gemma Correll

Wedding Planning and Life Skills Acquisition

**Case in point: Hexagonal Wedding Cake. Also, must one wear shoes at one's own wedding?

Confession: I hate wedding planning. 

After the last few weeks, I can confidently say that weddings are not my cup of tea. This came as a little bit of a surprise, though it probably should have been expected. After all, event planning has never been something I particularly enjoyed. But given my creative bent and love of DIY projects, I thought I would have much more fun with wedding-related details than I am currently having. I've instead realized that I would much more enjoy planning someone else's wedding- a situation in which I could happily do my creative projects without worrying about everything else* that goes along with planning one's own wedding. The creative projects (like designing invitations) are fun. It's the everything else that gets me. 

*What the Everything Else includes:*

1. Being the center of attention.
For some reason, my introverted self didn't realize that having a wedding meant becoming the center of lots of attention until she got engaged. Then she panicked. 

2. Having opinion on all sorts of things one normally never considers in the course of one's life.
Are hexagonal cakes preferable to circular cakes?** Is white or off-white a more flattering shade? Do you like green-teal dresses, blue-teal dresses, dark-teal dresses, lighter teal-dresses, stormy ocean-teal dresses, pleasant weather ocean-teal dresses, muted-teal dresses, or hey-everybody-look-over-here-i'm-bright-teal dresses? (I swear there are actually this many different shades of teal.) 

3. Spending lots of money. Lots of money. On one day.
I know it's an important day, and we aren't spending extravagant amounts of money, especially in the realm of weddings. But this is going to do be the most expensive day of my life so far, except for perhaps the day I was born (babies are expensive- thanks Mom and Dad!). And while our families are incredibly generous and pitching in lots, it's still hard for me to accept spending this much money, no matter whose it is.  

4. Talking to strangers.
I was a very shy child, and I never outgrew my fear of talking to strangers on the phone. Or even emailing them. It's still slightly terrifying. (And so I procrastinate until Nate finally makes me get over it and email people. I know it's good for me, but still...not fun.) 

5. Talking about wedding details. All the time.
This really threw me off right after we got engaged. All of a sudden all sorts of people wanted to see my hand and talk about dates and locations and colors and other wedding-related things. I was a bit miffed ("I'm doing research! I'm going to Texas! I'm writing a thesis! I have a life besides getting married!"). After a little while, I got accustomed to it and began to realize that people were aware that my wedding was not my life. Rather, weddings are big, happy occasions that people like to celebrate and talk about. They're just happy for me- not trying to ignore everything else going on. But there are still days when the last thing I want to do is talk about the merits of one-shouldered vs. halter dresses or anything else wedding-related.
(On the other hand, I'm terrified that on certain days I might become that girl-who-won't-shut-up-about-her-wedding. Please don't let me do that) 

6. The Unknown.
Believe it or not, I've never planned a wedding before. And so much of this whole process feels like: "I think we need to do this now. Okay, how do we do this? Maybe like this? I don't know what I'm doing..."And weddings come with expectations (I think)- expectations of traditions and activities and invitations and other things. The last thing I want to do is hurt anyone, especially those many people we love and care about. So it's been tricky to figure out what things are really important and what things we can let go, how to be considerate of all our loved ones while doing what works for us, and when to ask for help and when to do things alone... Basically, it's a learning process.   

7. Life doesn't stop.
Weddings, unfortunately, don't come with a "pause life" button. There's still coursework to do, entrance exams to take, graduate schools to apply to, and a thesis to write. Bills still need to be paid, grocery shopping done, and dishes washed. And having pressing deadlines for applications and thesis components while keeping track of all the time-sensitive wedding-things can be a wee bit stressful.

Really, in all of this though, I can't complain because our community has been amazing in pitching in. Nate's mom, my future mother-in-law, is a wedding planning wizard and has been figuring out so many of the details for our wedding and reception in Hawaii, which has been a giant blessing. (And she's wonderfully creative too!) Many, many friends and family members are contributing little pieces of what we need. Nate has taken on certain aspects as his "stuff" and we're doing a lot of this together. (I really don't understand why it seems that the girl is expected to manage everything with minimal help from the guy. Things are so much easier when you work as a team.) And  Hannah is willing to put up with my (hopefully infrequent) wedding-related ranting.

And weddings, as frustrating as they might seem, are important. No, it's not going to be the "best day of my life." (I sure hope not- that means everything is downhill from here.) It's not really even "my day." Rather, having a wedding gives Nate and I the chance to make our commitment in front of our community who loves and supports us and to celebrate with them. Our wedding is not a show and hopefully we won't entirely be the center of attention. And all those things I hate about wedding planning? Well, maybe they'll help me learn something:

1. You can't be a wallflower all the time.
Some things require being in the spotlight, at least just a little bit. And it's important to learn how to manage those situations with grace. 

2. Figure out what's really important.
Some things really do matter. Other things are just the icing on the (hexagonal/circular/dodecagonal) cake. And it's more than okay to delegate. But learning to be decisive is an important skill. This is a good chance to practice. 

3. You can't save all the money all the time.
Saving money is important. And we're going to try our best to do this in a cost-efficient manner. But some things are important and require spending some money, possibly even more money than your very-practical-and-useful car is worth. Weddings are probably one of them. And that's okay. 

4. Overcoming fear.
Lots of things in life require talking to strangers, so you need to get over this fear. This is your opportunity.
5. Let people celebrate with you. And set boundaries.
People like to talk about happy, pretty things, and it's fun to indulge them. But at the same time, it's more than okay (and probably healthy) to declare some days wedding-free zones.  

6. Life is unknown.
Better get used to it. 

7. Life never stops.
See #6. But never hesitate to ask for help.

So maybe planning a wedding teaches important life skills-- I'll get back to you on that. In the meantime, I need to start writing some emails to strangers. Wish me luck.

Monday's Music

I'm a slacker, and I didn't get this up yesterday.
I found another Russian, classically-trained pop musician! She sounds eerily similar to Regina Spektor on some pieces, but she's is definitely very talented. What do you think?

New song from upcoming brand new EP, recorded live in Elizaveta's home (Home Sessions). 
Ben Cassorla on guitar. Styling by Missy Washington of i102fly. 
For more music: http://www.elizaveta.com

Happy Friday!

Amazing Industrial Kitchen via Desire to Inspire

I survived the GRE! And I scored pretty well on it, if I do say so myself. Most of you at this point are probably thinking, no surprise there- it's the GRE, not rocket science. But I was an itsy-bit worried about the math- it's been a looong time since I've done this kind of stuff and I'm a bit rusty.

Anyways, I'm headed up to Phoenix for the weekend because it's my little sister's last weekend at home. She's heading off to college in California on Monday. (So grown up! How did this happen?!) I hope you have fun weekend plans (and that you're not too snarled up in the ugly construction+freshman move-in traffic mess that's made it impossible to drive around Tucson). 

Oh, and of course I found some links for you:

Who wants to run away and play dress-up in the woods?

State Stereotypes, according to Google

This might be one of my most favorite designs for a photography website ever

This site made my day (warning: some cursing)

Some very encouraging wedding planning advice 

Free printable back-to-school tags on Creature Comforts

A worthy Public Service Announcement

These quotes are lovely

An industrially-amazing house

A pretty, pretty dress that would look perfect on my sister

These are my new favorite toy- I'm having so much fun with them

Well, that's it for this week! Have a wonderful weekend!

Short Films: The Valtari Mystery Film Experiment

Over the summer, Sigur Ros has begun to release a series of twelve films by twelve different filmmakers inspired by the songs on their album, Valtari, calling the series the Valtari Mystery Film Experiment. According to their website,

"The idea [of the Valtari Mystery Film Experiment] is to bypass the usual artistic approval process and allow people utmost creative freedom...'We never meant our music to come with a pre-programmed emotional response. We don’t want to tell anyone how to feel and what to take from it. With the films, we have literally no idea what the directors are going to come back with. None of them know what the others are doing, so hopefully it could be interesting.'"

Here are a few of my favorite films so far:



Sigur Rós - Ég anda from Sigur Rós Valtari Mystery Films on Vimeo.

"First useful pop video in history. File under: Educational." - Ragnar Kjartansson, Director

Sigur Rós - Varúð from Sigur Rós Valtari Mystery Films on Vimeo.

"For a little while now I have been experimenting with doing videos that are more like moving images or paintings. They have no beginning, middle or end so the video doesn´t expect anything from you. you don´t have to watch it all, you can glance at it or watch for an hour, it´s just your experience.
"I have also been doing music videos which are almost the total opposite. They have to be fast, lot of things happening in a short period of time otherwise you just turn it off.
I was curious to try to combine the two...
"Varúð means caution or warning so this image instantly came to my mind. someone making warning signs with a flashlight. I wanted the Varúð video to have a slow build up like the song and leave something for the viewers to imagine for themselves. We have no idea who they are or what they are warning us about. I made the video by animating a postcard (see attached) and filmed myself over and over again climbing on top of a woodenbox in front of some blue paper." - Inga Birgisdóttir, Director

Sigur Rós - Ég anda from Sigur Rós Valtari Mystery Films on Vimeo.

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Check out their website to see the rest!

I'm taking the GRE tomorrow...

Sorry about the late post- I've been buried in the books. I'm so glad this will be over tomorrow. 

This, I think, adequately expresses my thoughts at this point:

Nobody likes the GRE...

Image by Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved