I'm back!

Well, I've actually been back from my honeymoon for a few days now, but I sort of felt like I needed even more time to recover from the craziness. That and there's been a lot to accomplish since I've been back. I have not really accomplished much of it, but I have gotten one big thing finished. I set up an site for everyone to upload their photos of our wedding.

Our first dance, photo by Paul Beck (my dad)

Wedding photos tend to be the biggest chunk of change for many brides/grooms and their parents. In order to save some money we asked my stepfather to be the official photographer and then told everyone else not to forget their cameras. After the wedding I planned to set up an online account with a photo service where everyone could upload their photos.
This is the only thing I've really accomplished since returning. My house is still a mess. Miyagi seems to have forgotten large chunks of his training. I have piles of gifts (which we are really grateful for) from extremely generous friends and family that I'm hoping to finish writing thank-you notes for soon. And on Friday we are moving back to Newport News.

You may now kiss the bride, photo by Myrna Teague (my great aunt)

But I have officially set up a pro account on Flickr. Everyone can upload their photos there so I can download high quality original copies instead of shrunken files from Facebook. That helps triple the total number of photos I have access to when I'm finally able to afford printing good quality copies. Looking through my stepfather's pictures, I've realized he doesn't have the right eye I wanted for catching some of the details of the wedding (which I worked so hard to visualize and my friends and family worked even hard to implement). He did capture the basic photos you want, but some shots were missing. Having others take photos as well allowed me to have shots I wouldn't have gotten if I had depended on just my stepfather's shots. Such as this shot from my new sister-in-law:

Table settings, photo by Jenny Land (sister-in-law extraordinaire)

So if you plan to get married, I really recommend doing this if you can't see spending $3,000 (minimum!) on wedding photos.

Technical gibberish, or Why I chose this method
I chose Flickr because for about $25, I get unlimited downloads, storage and access to the original sized uploads.
Why is this important? Well, I wanted the chance to Photoshop photos that might not be perfect (most have beautiful potential, but many need a little tweeking) and that is extremely difficult to do when you are working with sizes that have been shrunken down for web use.
Facebook, for example imports photos at a resolution of 72 pixels per square inch and a size of about 720 pixels wide by 540 pixels high. For comparison, the camera my dad was using saved pictures at 4,272 pixels by 2,848 pixels at 72 psi. That may sound like gibberish to you, but pixels hold the information that make up the building blocks of a photo. So, the more pixels, the more information I have to work with. Ergo, I can make a beautiful photo perfect.
At the same time, to print photos they need to be at least 200 psi for quality printing. If you resize the Facebook photo to 200 psi, it can be printed no bigger than 3.6 inches by 2.7 inches. And that is too tiny for me to use.

Coming soon
Finally, I wanted to let you know that I am going to be doing a lot of posting in the near future. Not only do I want to go through some of the awesome details of the wedding, I have several other posts I've been putting off, including: several book reviews (including The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender and Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber), a photo tour of our new home and the setbacks and triumphs we've hit while training Miyagi.
So, please come back soon and let me know what you think!

NaBloPoMo: Musical distractions

I must admit that I spend far too much time on the interwebs discovering ridiculously awesome distractions from what I should be doing. For example, you can watch an amazing flute player play the Mario theme song WHILE beat boxing. He might be the most mindboggling musician I have ever seen.

Or, if you have more time on your hands than even the beat boxing flutist can fill, you could create your own music using a french website that lets you mix and match preloaded sounds. From basic hums to crashing symbols, the combinations are quite entertaining. Now, my dear readers, go free and be nonproductive.

NaBloPoMo: Recognition

Yesterday's prompt was quite lame. Today's would take me too long to write about (What is the first thing you think of when you think of your father?). I may return to it at a later time, but until then I wanted to congratulate myself. I found out a few weeks ago that my book review on Powell's.com was chosen for the Daily Dose contest. Basically the Portland-based indie store offers a Daily Dose e-mail, in which it shares reader reviews of books. When a review is chosen, the writer gets a gift, usually a monetary credit on the site. Well, I was chosen for my review of How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall. It was one of the best books I received through Powell's Indiespensable program. I never reviewed it for this blog because it's one of those books that I found hard to describe. It's amazing, but its amazingness is difficult to put into words. Yet, somehow I did well enough for Powell's to choose me.

As a postscript, I wanted to mention that I added another feature to my sidebar. It's called "One night to read a poem" and will feature a new favorite poem whenever I discover one. I have to say that the e.e. cummings poem featured there is my longtime favorite and I may never remove it from its hallowed spot. If you've never looked at my sidebar, here's your chance to see everything from my photography to blogs that I consistently read. Bottom line folks: I put stuff on my sidebar because I want to share it with you, so take a look.

Crate training: A beginning

Well, I guess my first post strictly about training will be on crate training. Leave it to me to pick the most controversial topic among dog lovers. Well, maybe it's the second most since Cesar Millan's methods tends to create a deep divide among owners and trainers alike.

Here's the basic concept: When you're not around, crate your puppy. When you are going to sleep, crate your puppy. All of this keeps him from chewing or ingesting foreign objects. It also can keep the little guy from having accidents because generally dogs will NOT pee or poop where they sleep unless they have no other choice.
Why is this so controversial? Well, humans have a tendency to think of dogs as humans, and so dogs should of course have the same panicky feelings most of us do about being confined.
But the first thing every dog owner should know is that dogs are NOT humans and shouldn't be treated as such.
Secondly, most training methods have their own merit and should be chosen depending on your lifestyle and your dog's temperament and abilities. But it's also important to realize that when done wrong, any training method can also hurt your chances of having a happy and well-behaved dog.
I chose crating because I wanted to be able to crate Miyagi when he's a puppy so that at night he can't endanger himself or ruin something of ours. Puppies will naturally chew on anything they don't know. They use their mouths like we use our hands. It's better for Miyagi to just not be tempted.
Also, I've found that if done right, showing your dog that the crate is a safe zone (or "den") for them makes them happier and well adjusted. If it's a comfy place where they can get treats or hide if there is too much noise, than they will likely choose to go into the crate. In fact, in the 5 short days we've had Miyagi, we've already gotten him to walk in alone. Last night he walked in and promptly fell asleep. That is the goal for crate training: to create a comfortable and safe space for your dog. But if it's used as punishment or if they are left in there way too long, it can be considered cruel. Again, it's all based on how you implement the methods.
For a cuddly dog like Miyagi, the breakthrough was when we put a blanket and the fiance in there. Miyagi couldn't keep himself out of the crate and cuddled with the fiance for several minutes. Later, he walked right in and took a nap. Soon we won't even need to close the door to keep him in there over night (that's the hope at least).
Crate training is fairly easy, it just takes patience, lots of treats and a willingness to offer effusive praise every step of the way. The Humane Society of the United States offers this tutorial on crate training. But here are the basic tips I learned as we attempted to get Miyagi comfortable with his new hiding place:

• Buy a big enough crate. Generally it needs to be big enough for your animal to walk in and turn around. Too big and he or she will likely relieve himself in one corner and sleep in the other without being bothered. Too small and he will be cramped and the opposite of the comfort that you want to achieve.
• Tempt don't force. Use treats, his favorite toys or a blanket that smells like you to get him in the crate. Never push him in as it will just make your dog panic and associate the crate with a negative experience. Try not to shut the door until he seems comfortable in the crate. At first we hid treats in there so when he'd walk by he'd smell the treat and hop inside to get it. Later we used a Kong ball stuffed with peanut butter and treats to distract him while we closed the door and went to bed.
  
• Patience is key. The biggest problem in the early stages of crate training is that people can't seem to ignore a whining puppy. If you ignore your puppy long enough (most only need 10 -15 minutes in the beginning of training) he will eventually settle down and entertain himself. (***IF you are crate training overnight know that when he wakes up and has to pee, he will likely whine to signal you. This whining will likely occur after he's been in there for a few hours and is different from the whine he will likely do when you've just shut the door and walked away.***)
  
• Toys and treats make a crate a home. The best way to encourage your dog to enjoy the crate is to pick an item that he loves and only let him have it in the crate. For Miyagi this item is his bone. But we also hide a treat in there and toss his Kong ball in if it's during the day. Giving him things to do will distract from not being able to run around and make a mess of your home. For Miyagi, a soft blanket also created the welcoming retreat that he relies on when our couch is full of visitors and he's tired of laying on the wood floors.
  

So far, we've gotten Miyagi to go in there using temptation. Our next goal is two fold: I want to get him to go in there on command (to make bedtime easier). To do that, he needs to associate a command with entering and laying down in his crate. I'll update as he progresses.

What's your opinion on crate training? As someone who has seen it go woefully wrong and has also witnessed the positive effects it has on our energetic puppy which has little respect for personal boundaries, I'm open to everyone's opinions. Training is a very personal experience and every person must decide on their own what is right and what is wrong for their pet. The key is to take in as many opinions as possible to find the right method for you.

Baked Challah french toast

There are pros and cons to shopping at bulk retailers like Sam's Club or BJ's. The best part is that you can often save money in the long run. The worst part if you are like me and you buy actual fresh food from BJ's, you have to use that food before it goes bad, or you'll have wasted all the money. I usually shop for nonperishables at these retailers, but sometimes the deals are so good (or the food looks so good) that I grab that 24 pack of Italian sausage or indulge myself with two giant loaves of golden Challah bread. I've stretched that sausage from a cookout with the fiance's coworkers, to a sausage, cabbage, carrot and potato soup, to sausage and cabbage pot stickers. I've even added a few chunks to an omelet and some more to a rendition of the Spicy sausage and rice recipe I posted in February.
The Challah has done little except sit on the sidelines as a slice of toast or half a grilled cheese sandwich to accompany the soup. But no more. I decided to honor the slightly sweet and soft bread by making it into french toast.
I love french toast. But, by the time it takes to grill all the slices (grilling them two at a time in my not-so-giant pan) seems to take forever. By the time I'm done I'm usually hot, hungry and at least one of my pieces has gone cold. This recipe is the best solution to that.

Baked Challah French Toast
Adapted from a recipe by My Italian Grandmother

1 loaf Challah bread
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3 cups milk (I used soy)
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

1. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. Cut up Challah into 1 inch cubes. Place into pan. You will have to squeeze the bread together to get it to lay in a single layer. Sprinkle cranberries on top and press them into between the bread cubes.
   
2. Whisk together the eggs and milk until combined. Mix in the sugar and spices until the mixture is frothy and well combined. Pour over the Challah. Press the bread down and make sure the milk is soaking all the bread. Cover and put in the fridge at least four hours or over night.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add syrup, brown sugar and walnuts. Mix to combine.
   
4. Pour mixture over the bread. Spread evenly. Bake in the oven for about an hour. Bread is done when a tooth pick comes out mostly clean. Baked french toast is closer to bread pudding. If you want to the mixture more done in the middle, cook longer but know that the outside will eventually burn.
   
5. Serve warm, covered with more syrup.
   

Dispatches from the job search: Networking

The following is from a new blog I've created to record and cope with the trials and tribulations of my job search. Follow it here.

I wanted to get this topic out of the way because I've always found it to be sort of a confusing subject. And yet the No. 1 thing you're told as you begin any job search is network, network, network.
Here's the main principle: Introduce yourself to as many people as possible. It's so simple it almost makes you feel silly, right? I've never been big on networking. A lot of searching for a job, as Joe Grimm (recruiter extraordinaire and one of Poynter.org's job experts) explains it, is selling yourself to possible employers. That's not really my style. I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves. But here's where that philosophy doesn't hold water in a job search: Potential employers have never seen you in action and they can only base their decisions on what they've heard about you, whether their source is you or one of your references. And that's where networking comes in.
Back in the day networking required putting a lot of miles on your car and shaking a lot of hands.
Now, like almost anything else out there, the process has gone high tech. But in the end, you're still doing the same thing. Your connection to your boss connects you to everyone else they've worked with, which connects you to everyone those people have worked with and so on. And this doesn't even need to be just with your boss. Say you volunteer at an animal shelter (guilty). The volunteer coordinator might be able connect you to someone else in your field.
The most exciting and well-known tool for networking is LinkedIn. Think Facebook for professionals. It's a place where your profile includes your recent employment and your qualifications rather than your favorite movies or those embarrassing photos from that one party. You know the one I'm talking about.
Thursday morning, the day after I learned I was joining the ever growing ranks of the unemployed, I logged onto my little-used account with LinkedIn and "connected" with every person I could find at my company. By that afternoon I had received four recommendations (these are posted on your profile, which can then be viewed by your connections and anyone else you allow to see your profile). Recommendations can also be read by the connections your boss or coworkers have, thereby exposing you to professionals you have never even met. Essentially this is almost effortless networking.
It's actually kind of exciting when you get right down to it. So there you have it: A quick and simple way to network. Of course that's only the beginning, but at least it is a beginning. And every job search has to start somewhere.

Want to join my network on LinkedIn? Click here to see my public profile, or click on the LinkedIn badge on the right side of this page.

I will post the first few posts from "Dispatches" here, and then I will discontinue. I'll continue to do my normal posting here. Please follow both, if that's what interests you.

~Beth

Dispatches from the job search: On cookies and (un)employment

The following is from a new blog I've created to record and cope with the trials and tribulations of my job search. Follow it here.

I was in the 11th grade when I took an advanced writing class at my high school. By then I knew I was going to be a wordsmith, I just hadn't quite figured out where to apply my talents. It was in that class that I was introduced to the field of journalism. My senior year I was accepted into a mentorship with the local newspaper. From day 1, when I was assigned my very first story as a reporter, I was hooked.
When I graduated from college - armed with a journalism degree, a year of experience as the editor in chief of the school paper and an undying passion for the art - I took my first job as a copy editor at a hyperlocal newspaper. Unfortunately that was also the year the newspaper business began a nosedive that ended with a phone call and the giant cookie you see above.
Alright, the path to that cookie wasn't nearly direct as I make it sound. I enjoyed almost two years of wonderful people willing to teach me the ropes. I grew to enjoy designing pages and eventually became a little obsessed with the online medium that all newspapers are moving into. And I will be forever grateful to those who took me under their wing and fought to keep me around. But, alas, I couldn't stay there forever. It seems a twist of fate has finally bulldozed me a new path.
On Wednesday morning - St. Patrick's Day - I received the summons to the HR office that all of us were dreading since the announcement came that layoffs were imminent. I was among those who were being laid off. It was the third round of layoffs that I had experienced since joining the paper, and I suppose my luck had finally run out.
I'm not embarrassed to say that I went to a bar that night. Of course, so did the rest of the nation. It was St. Paddy's Day, after all.
My fiance made me promise that I would not attempt to do anything for a few days. Take a break; that was his advice. But I'm not much of a take-a-break kind of person. I did start my job the day after I accepted my diploma, instead of taking a week off like everyone said I should have.
So, after celebrating that I was one quarter Irish (and mourning my career), I made the giant cookie you see above. And then I ate it. With ice cream and peanut butter. Because I could. And then I fell into a coma.
I woke up this morning, less than 24 hours into my newly unemployed condition, and I was already bored.
And this is where this blog comes in. You see, I love writing. I realized about half way through my enormous cookie that I would not be able to survive a job search on writing cover letters alone. I also realized that many of you might be in the same boat as I am and could use my failures as lessons on how not to go about recovering from being laid off. And eventually, you could learn from my successes on how to find a job. At the very least you can laugh at me as I struggle to network, apply and interview my way into the next step in my life.
Won't you join me?

I will post the first few posts from "Dispatches" here, and then I will discontinue. I'll continue to do my normal posting here. Please follow both, if that's what interests you.

~Beth

Blog find: "Young House Love"

If you know me, you know I'm an obsessive blog reader. At last count I follow 81 blogs, split almost evenly among the general topics of design, food and weddings (and by follow, I mean I visit them at least 3 times a week). Whoa, this is the first time I've actually counted them. That's a lot.

Anyway, I've been building this list since senior year of college. Before that, I only ever read my friends' blogs. I still read those, but I only see them when they update, which is infrequent for most of them.

I began my obsession with food blogs, moved to design (think interior design) and, obviously, got on the wedding blog craze in September (I wonder why?).

I didn't discover one of my favorite design blogs until January. To be honest I can't remember where I found this one, but I'll tell you how I've built my 81-strong collection soon. Until then, let me introduce "Young House Love."


Here's the deal: A couple in their 20's buys a house that's over 50 years old outside of Richmond. The savvy couple decides to renovate and chooses to share their experience online. They can't be the only people to do this, but they are so popular because they are so down-to-earth and funny. And their house is lovely. It makes me want to buy a house and paint all the rooms (and change my mind and repaint, and then repaint again, or so their running joke goes). Seriously, one of the things I'm looking most forward to when I "grow up" is making a house my home. This couple takes you on a journey as they update their kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms to sometimes jaw-dropping results. Through it all they were nice enough to include photo tutorials and fun hypothetical redesigns for readers.
Can I gush enough about this blog? Seriously go there, read it all and be entertained.

Saving money versus eating awesome food

Here's the deal: I'm a miser. I find it very difficult to spend money. I don't purchase clothes all that often. I believe I bought a shirt on New Year's Eve. Before that, I think I bought a pair of jeans in July ... maybe. I've needed a laptop for about 6 months now and I still haven't purchased one. But there is a caveat in all this thriftiness: Food. It's my weakness. I love buying food to try out new recipes. In any given month I spend about half my paycheck on food. I only spend a quarter of it on rent/utilities. I have decreased that number in recent months, thanks to my obsessive use of coupons and sales, but I still buy things I don't need. I still spend a lot on delivery/eating out.
The solution here is really a combination of things:

• Eating out less frequently
• Buying cheaper food and taking full advantage of coupons and sales
• And tracking the amount the fiance and I spend on food

I've been implementing these things off and on, but I can't tell you if it really has decreased. So for the next month I'm hoping to track food spending a little bit better, while at the same time cooking with an eye on saving money. Making steak instead of ordering Chinese really doesn't save money, now does it? After tracing food purchases and uses, I might be able to implement a plan. So, in April you can look forward to my account of all my struggles to save money but still satisfy my passion for cooking.
Until then, here are some inspirational blogs you can visit if you want to know more about cooking and eating on a budget:

• Budget Bytes: My favorite blog covering cheap eating! Beth is a New Yorker who started out hoping to help herself and her other 20-something friends eat well and cheaply in the city. She breaks down her recipes by price (total and per serving). She also has some great resources, like how to build your pantry so you don't have to go to the store every time you need a specific spice or thrifty rules to live by. Her mouthwatering photos don't hurt, either.
• Money Saving Mom: Everything for recipes to menu planning to links to coupons and deals, Crystal Paine seeks to "help you become a better home economist."
• Cheap Healthy Good: With a combined focus on eating healthy and saving money, a group of women in New York offer you cheap, healthy alternatives. This site has other great features, like roundups of awesome finds on the Web and a list of in-season foods to help you focus on produce that is more readily available and, therefore, cheaper.
• 30 bucks a week: Can you eat three meals daily on 30 bucks a week? Apparently you can often do that with less. A couple in New York posts scans of their weekly receipts and offers recipes. It's a pretty unique way to stay accountable and prove to us all that it's possible.

Thursday's tips: Reducing food waste to save money

Alright, so I've been experimenting with weekly theme posts, even if you haven't noticed. That's right, those lovely finds on Flickr? You can expect that every week because I plan to bring you weekly inspiration every Monday with my Flickr Finds posts. But that's not all folks. I'm hoping to bring you weekly tips on Thursdays with a new feature called Thursday's Tips (oh, hello Mr. Alliteration, so nice to see you again.)

Everyone is trying to save money these days, even if you aren't planning to fund a wedding in the near future. For someone like me, who loves buying and cooking food, it can be difficult to save money when there are so many amazing recipes out there just begging to be tried. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to buy all the ingredients and only using a portion. Or buying the ingredients and forgetting to make the recipe until some of the ingredients have spoiled.

Alejandra Ramos, who writes a fun blog called "Always Order Dessert," has this to say about food waste: "Americans throw away 50% more food today than they did back in 1974. How awful is that? Not only is 50% more food going to waste, a lot of money is also being tossed away along with the slimy parsley and shriveled carrots."

Having just thrown away a bag of potatoes attempting to colonize the bottom shelf of my pantry and about half a bag of slimy spinach, I see where she's coming from. And it times like these, when there are people all over the world who would kill to eat that rotting spinach and lack of money is glaring even well-off individuals in the face, it's even more important to cut down on food waste.

Alejandra offers 10 tips to help you on the way to cutting your food waste. If you're like me, the thought of implementing so many new behaviors at once is a little daunting. So I suggest going to her post and picking two or three (or just one - every bit counts) that you can start doing right now. Then slowly working the rest in.

The easiest tip for me, and her number one recommendation, is "To become a Grocery Day Prep Cook." When you buy fresh food, part of what you should do you do when you get home is to prepare those foods to last as long as possible and to prep them so it is easier to eat them when you're busy. Like cutting up an onion so you don't have to do it later. Or wash your lettuce, dry it and then store it in a sealed container with paper towel. The number one enemy of most fresh produce is moisture. Drying your fruits and veggies thoroughly and then storing them with a paper towel to absorb the natural moisture that they release is the best way to keep them around for days and even weeks.

I happen to have a bunch of Tupperware's FridgeSmart line because my mother is a huge fan and a Tupperware consultant.

Last night, the fiance bought grapes and spinach. Both were washed and patted dry.

Both went into their own FridgeSmart containers lined with paper towels.

But, you don't need FridgeSmart to have healthy and happy veggies last in your fridge. Wrapping leaves in paper towel and then stowing them in a gallon-sized resealable bag will do the trick just as well.

My second tip that I'm trying to do is Alejandra's number 8: "Keep a Reverse Grocery List." Basically, you should just keep track of what you have instead of what you don't have. That way, you obviously will know what you need, but also not forget that there is oatmeal hiding on a top shelf or carrots tucked behind the beer (this happened once to me and created some creepy looking carrots). It's actually been pretty helpful, and has caused me to become a better menu planner. It's much easier to just look at a list to see what I have (and imagine new meals to make with those available foods) then to root around the fridge and pantry looking for something that might not be there or just going to the store and buying something when you had a perfectly good meal waiting for you to put together from what you had at home.

Good luck with saving money and reducing food waste, my faithful readers!

Flickr Finds: "Street Life"

As a people, we all take to the streets. We drive, we bike, we run, we walk the streets of our own cities and cities that are not our own. But we sometimes forget to see the streets for the lively colonies that they are. The photographers who contribute to today's Flickr group strive to do just that.

In Street Life you can see...

A city's fun lovers by rastabike

A city's downtrodden by Igor Berezovsky

A city's street performers by Renzsu

A city's young workers (SHOESHINE BOY 01) by Tran Duc Tai

A city's old workers by cstam

But, no matter what city, you should always see its streets. (Photo by Dom Cruz)

Introducing some friends

Can a I take a moment to introduce you to some people? These people are funny and dreamy and creative and stunning in their ability to update their blog daily, or at least often enough to make me jealous.
So I guess I should admit that I don't personally know any of the people I'm about to tell you about, but through their blogs I've gotten an idea of them, and I'd like, at the very least, to support their endeavors by asking you to take a second to look at their work.

decor8
Holly Becker is a writer and interior design consultant. Her blog was the very first blog that I discovered when I discovered the world of semi-professional blogging (by this I mean people who use their blog not to talk about every tiny thing they did that day or as a personal diary, but to share some of their expertise and experience with the world). decor8 is a blog about "fresh finds for hip spaces." For example, her Etsy Take Five Tuesday series is where she shares her discoveries of handmade objects from the people over at Etsy.

Pretty Good
Mary Swenson is a "self-taught photographer" who shares dreamy and fun photos of what she sees around her. Then she puts a message on the photo to describe it or her mood when taking that photo. I love this site because the photos are so lovely.

Smitten Kitchen
Deb is a New Yorker offering up "fearless cooking from a tiny kitchen in New York City." She's full of humor, fun recipes and gorgeous photos of food. Her's was the first food blog that I began to follow, and since then I've become slightly obsessed with the genre. My favorite recipe that I've attempted from her vast collection: Strawberry-rhubarb crumble. What I can't wait to try: Baked chicken meatballs, along with just about every recipe in her recipe index.

Flickr finds: Abandoned

I love browsing through photos uploaded on Flickr. They are great when you find your creativity drying up and you need an inspirational boost to get out there and make your own art. Recently I discovered a group on Flickr called Abandoned, which is a group for people to upload photos of "places or things that have been abandoned." Here are some recent shots that I'm in love with:

Chai a vin by Guillaume Linard

Two Worlds by cwachtel

Abandoned Fire Truck by lovelifewinepictures

Pyestock flower by Bousure

Textile-033 by JAhNoszh

Friday Finds: 20x200

Today I thought I would share a Web site I found that I enjoy. It's called 20x200. 20X200 is a Web site that aims to create "a place where almost any art lover can be an art collector." Essentially it offers 8x10 versions of unique works of art by relatively unknown artists with intriguing perspectives for only $20. Larger prints cost more, but just having a beautiful work of art, even if it is fairly small, is a lovely feeling. I haven't made a purchase myself yet, but I wouldn't mind owning one of these:

Paintings

"Can You Imagine" by Trey Speegle

This piece makes me think of my lovely former roomie and the colorful prints that she used to cover our walls with. Love ya, babe!

"Curvilinear Time" by Jessica Snow

Photography

There's just something gorgeous and intriguing about the composition of this piece:

"Engine Lathe Shelves" by Joseph O. Holmes

I love the swirls and textures in this print:

"Velodrome" by James Deavin

Contemplating light

I enjoy my new apartment. I love how close I am to many of the stores I frequent. I love that we have a balcony (which we would use if it wasn't freezing outside). I love the wood floors, and the warm ambiance they give the basic white-wall look all apartments have. What I DON'T love, in fact, what I hate is the light. Basically, there's no way for sunlight to enter the apartment. We are on the wrong side of the building. Later in the year, when the sun travels to a better part of the sky, we will still get no light because there's another building in the way.

*Sigh* This wouldn't really bother me except I love plants. I currently have a kalanchoe (that I've nursed back to health numerous times), but I think this sunless prison will be the death of my faithful, green friend. So I will soon be bringing him in to work so he can survive.

While this saves my plant, it leaves me with little green at home. So how does one still have green, but no sun? One of the blogs I frequent, Design*Sponge by Brooklyn-based Grace Bonney, has the answer: Terrariums.


She offers a tutorial on how to make your own mini-terrariums, above. But, while I love the idea, I'm not sure if I could be that creative. I might just have to buy them already made, from an Etsy dealer preferably. I did buy one for my mom, and the thing is apparently growing like a maniac. I could go with either of these:

We all know why I like the one above (too bad it probably doesn't come with the typewriter). But I think this next one is really cool, too. One question: How would you water the dang thing?

The beauty of terrariums is that not only do they not really need sunlight (they generally are made up of moss) but they are self-sufficient, requiring little watering. I think they are the perfect way to get a little spring in the middle of winter.

If I had the money...

Recently I've been quite enamored with typewriters. There's one at the office that I just want to commandeer and take home with me. I'd definitely want a working one, one that could possibly stand in the place of a guestbook at our wedding reception? *Sigh* But alas, who can justify paying so much for a vintage, working typewriter that wouldn't likely be used that much? Not me, that's for sure. Instead, I drool over finds on Etsy.

There's this classy grey machine, complete with chrome accents:

Steel Grey 1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe. $250 from "funretro."

Then there's a slick 1920's version that is pretty because it's so old:

Underwood Noiseless Portable Typewriter, $239, from OldCoot.

And finally, for a lovely pop of color, there's this beauty:

Vintage 1950s Turquoise Royal Manual Typewriter with Case, $440, from The Fancy Tail

Fun with color

I started playing with a cool thing on a bridesmaid dress Web site called the Dessy Group. They (obviously) sell bridesmaid dresses and other accessories, but they also attempt to offer you a place to do all your shopping so you can get colors that match. While I don't care for bothering to buy everything there only, they do have a cool tool that I'm using to brainstorm wedding details. It's called a styleboard. You pick various colors and then go through their images or upload your own. Then you pick what images you like and then add them to the board. It essentially makes a collage of color that you can use later as you plan your wedding. Here's the first one I made (with an ivory, hunter, yellow and apple color palette):

Just to share...

I'm just popping on for a few moments to send you towards a blog I've been reading and amazed by for a few months now. A New York Magpie's Eye is a unique view of the everyday scenes of New York. Yet, this blogger seems to discover the beautiful and magical in the mundane that many New Yorkers largely ignore. Every day it seems that something stunning can be seen on the streets and inspire a few poetic words about life in that great city. Have a look at one of yesterday's shots that that fascinated and inspired me:

From A New York Magpie's Eye

Please go there and explore.

A mandate for journalists

If you're still interested in some of my observations on journalism, go to http://beckelizabeth.wordpress.com/ to read a piece designed to get journalists to take responsibility for newspapers apparent death and for the resurrection of the industry.

Tweeting life away...

I've had a Twitter for a while, but haven't brought myself to admit it. Then I got a Blackberry and hey, you're supposed to use that for Twittering/Tweeting right? Anyway, here it is:
http://twitter.com/eabeck
I haven't really gotten the hang of saying stuff in under 140 characters, but we'll see.