Pakayla Biehn

I was completely blown away by Pakayla Biehn‘s paintings derived from double exposure photography. The San Francisco-based artist collaborates with several photographers, produces double exposure photographs as inspiration, and then paints the images using oil on canvas in the most realistic, detailed, and ethereal way. Honestly impressive and incredibly beautiful . . .

Mary D inspired

My friend Mary wears bikers shorts, which are really just leggings cut off. Well at least for me that's what it is. Anyway she is a cutie I love her and because of her I too have been bikeshorting it up. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I will be posting some pictures I shot soon of that. Time to go to the Mouton family Christmas. Hope they dont think I am too weird and instead just embrace it. I did have so much fun yesterday talking with my sister in laws Bess and Emily and soon to be sister in law Sarah.
Also my husbands cousin Isabelle. It was fun times as always in the Chambers house.
*my son just drop kicked a ball into my head twice!... I swear he is too cordinated for his own good.

Wrapping up

Just getting things squared away. I reused these flags I made for Henry's birthday for tags on gifts:)  I used some swine and wrapped it several times around then with craft thread I wove in the first letter of the receiver. Also first atempt at making carmels:FAIL. That is just my luck when I think I know better than the recipe.

The Fix

The holidays are in high gear and it's likely you've got leftover treats hanging around your kitchen already. Keep your nibbling in check by starting the day with a high-protein breakfast.

Research found that people who did so ate fewer calories all day. Try this creamy smoothie with yogurt and almond butter! YUM

Enjoy a high-protein breakfast: People who did so ate fewer calories all day, research from the University of Kansas at Kansas City shows. Protein ups levels of satiety hormones, so you'll be less likely to snack. Sip this smoothie: Blend 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt with 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree, 1 banana, 2 tsp almond butter, 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk, 1/4 tsp pumpkin-pie spice and 5 ice cubes.

The Skinny 399 calories per serving, 9 g fat (1 g saturated), 54 g carbs, 9 g fiber, 30 g protein

Knitwear designs graph the success of Etsy's online marketplace

This is an article I found on coolhunting.

This girl Natalie Rachel has produced a pair of handmade scarves that use the company's data as inspiration for the patterns. As the basis for her Data Scarves, Rachel collected figures related new members, items sold and the apportionment of vintage, handmade and supply goods. She later graphed the resulting data and—with a bit of ingenuity and an eye for fashion—put together a selection of wearables that plot the company's profile.


In the world of online retailers, Etsy is synonymous with handmade goods. Constantly inspired by the creativity of sellers, Rachel used her talents for design and craft to create a final project for her Data Representation class at NYU's ITP. Each design is one-of-a-kind, though we're hoping to see more knit visualizations from her before the seasons change.


In addition to selling the two scarves, Rachel has included prints of her elegant graphs. One is a pie graph detailing the types of items listed and corresponding to the infinite scarf, the other a comparative study of the growth of new members and the number of items sold over time. Both the graphs and the scarves are available through Rachel's Etsy shop.

I hope I can jump start my Etsy..and get organized and share all my lovely things with you all. That is the goal anyway.

B

swingin free

Why is it that everyone around me chooses to poke fun or despise these pants. I have some and loooove them. But chose to switch to something else when my husband made fun of me. He said,'oh crotchedy' I was like they are suppose to be like that and they taper and look awesome with my roper boots. I also said, they are so soft and comfy its like wearing sweatpants, then he replied, 'exactly'. *longsigh*
What do you guys think???
or people call them my m.c.hammer pants...come on people! they are awesome!

So case in point...the amazing Jenny Lopez this is her off duty at FP..wearing FP pants. I have been enjoying looking at her blog. I mean seriously, so easy, tshirt, slip on boots and comfy pants, who wouldnt want to. You can look awesome when you barely have to try.

your name eludes me

Derek Sivers posted an article that I thought was a good and fun exercise and wanted to share it with you all. He wrote down all the friends he's ever had from memory, no address book-no phone and no facebook. He is awesome, I recently read a book of his, Anything You Want. It was great quick read and helped get my head straight on some questions I had about running your own business....whhhaa?! I know what you are wondering but I am not ready to reveal it yet, you better keep checking this blog for more on that in the next month or so! YAY
Thanks Derek for giving me some peace of mind about how I want to go about doing this. Trusting myself and my ideas. I want it to be as natural and easy as possible, not to do it for the money but for the experience... for the joy I get for helping people find what is perfect for them. I want it to flow nicely with my current life. I know that owning your own business can and probably is all consuming but I want it to be a comfortable, homie, unique experience as if you just discovered the Amber Room, the eighth wonder of the world. Ha, ok it might not be that awesome, but in my head it kind of is;) I have never been so excited about something, I am constantly thinking of all the possibilities and how I want to really be involved in the community and give back. Our town and the people in it are amazing in overcoming and regrouping and just coming together to help others in the travesty that hit Joplin this last spring. I want to get people creative minds flowing with blog posts and to have a location, a business in Joplin like the one I am wanting to build because there isn't one like it here. Maybe it will get other people inspired to do the same thing.
Anyway.....

Oh I envy people with good memory. I just sit at my Grandma Pat's feet and gaze up at her in awe when she is telling me stories from when she was in first grade, like they were yesterday...she can remember lessons, every teacher...first and last names. Anyway his post reminded me of her. I started recording her this summer FINALLY. On various things like old folk songs she always sings, unique names in our families, stories of my dad and two brothers. I would love to get with my sister in law (Kelsey) and write a book or collective memories from her life.

My list would be all broken up like, only a first name, sometimes both or it would be...'that British stylist who colored my hair in Schaumburg, IL'(actually her name is Sue Cooper, but you know what I mean)
I dont have time right now to post them but would love to try. But those of you who do, should..and I will soon I promise. What I will do is be thinking about it this week and write down names that I think of put it in my journal and then post them all so I am not just sitting a the computer and tempted to just look at FB:)

Hope everyone is having a great day! Also I am so happy hearing about so so many of my friends making gifts this year for their families. Its fun listening to all of their ideas and it means so much more I feel. I did half this year..making some, bought others. My husband is making awesome gifts for the guys in the family, turning trash into something usable for everyday. I will show you those soon! My husband is so talented, I love it when he gets creative...last night we were driving home from a work party and we had borrowed his mom's van to car pool with the other music store employees and there was a CD of some of his basement tapes tracks and OOHH how I missed them. He is such a great songwriter and musician, I wish he had more time for that. He recorded most of them on a four track cassette recorder. One of the guys in the van, Nick said, "when did you record this?" and Eli was like, "ohh I was 15 or 16 in my parents basement."
Anyway Nick was really impressed, cause we were talking about how the quality was really good and sounded current. Later that night when it was just Eli and I, we heard a Jars of Clay song on the radio and were laughing cause it literally sounded like we were listening to a cassette tape the sound was so rough and foggy;)

Ok here is a journal that I made for my other niece Sophia. I used a book I bought at the DAV and had already used the pages for making flags at my son's second birthday, so...just felt like I should use all of it.

I also feel like I should say sorry, cause my thoughts are all kind of jumbled;)