Lovely and Beautiful

I stumbled upon this gorgeous set of photos on Flickr today, by artist Bethann Shannon.

Bethann Shannon compares the experience in the photo booth to communion:
"The photo booth was an impromptu sanctuary in the midst of a chaotic world. It was private, quiet and reminded me of a church confessional…I closed the little curtains, put a dollar in the slot and started to pray. I remember feeling deep despair that day. I needed help. I needed God to be real."

She began to pull strangers into the photo booth with her to pray and document the moment. At the end of four months, she prayed with 100 strangers in Times Square.

The result is fascinating and lovely and spiritual and kitschy.

Please refer back when you feel like you need a little prayer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartangel/sets/72157617687754324/

Frugal Chic: Family vacation on the cheap

So, this post is long overdue, but forgive me...I have been traveling and working and living life.

We take an annual family trip with the kids but last year, our family financial situation was not looking super bright. We decided to investigate a vacation that we could enjoy with the family while not breaking the bank.

Last summer, the kids and I were at The Pacific Science Center at a special exhibit on "Speed." One of the displays was on sand boarding. We love to skateboard and snowboard, so this sport intrigued us. I went home and did a little walk through the inter webs to see what I could find on this.

My investigations led me to a sand board rental business in Florence, Oregon. Upon further research, I found a State Park, with sand dunes and all, right outside of Florence…the best part of this campground? YURTS!

Ahh! The frugal wheels never turned faster. Two tanks of gas, $28/night in the yurt, daily sand board rentals of $20 each...and POW! We have ourselves a 5 day vacation for four in Oregon for under $500, including meals.

The tricky part was securing the yurt. They are one of the most popular abodes to reside in at the state parks. And no wonder: ours had a bunk bed (double on the bottom), a futon that opened to a queen-sized bed, electricity, and (get this!) a heater. Now, I love to tent camp, but this was so easy and comfortable (and warm!) Anyhoo, in order to make a reservation on the yurt, I had to have my online forms filled out and ready to go by 7:58am nine months to the day that we wanted to go. As soon as the website was accepting reservations at 8:00am, I was ready with my cursor hovering over the "reserve" button, click-click-clicking away until I received a confirmation. Apparently, the yurts, cabins and tee-pees are all claimed by 8:02am on any given day, so you definitely have to be very ready and planned out in order to get one.

I know the suspense is killing you, so I'll cut to the chase: click through success! Yurt secured, we were ready to go forth with our summer plans. We invited another family with kids the same age as ours to come join us on our yurting adventure. They were able to reserve a campsite just around the corner from our yurt, so the fun was set in motion.

Flash forward nine months later: the trip was amazing and beautiful and everyone had a great time. We sand boarded two days, spent two afternoons at the amazing beach, only a short drive away, rented paddles boats on the lake in I could write a short story on the actual trip itself, but I really want to share the links with you so you can have an amazing Frugal Chic vacation.

Oregon State Parks: http://www.oregonstateparks.org/
We stayed at Jesse M. Honeyman, a lovely campground with two fresh water lakes, the aforementioned sand dunes, beautiful lodge and picnic shelters built by the CCC in the 1930’s, and free (!) hot showers.
Many states offer affordable yurts, cabins and tee pees for rentals, so if Oregon is too far away for your gas tank, do a search on your state or one nearby.

Sand board rentals: http://www.sandmasterpark.com/

Florence, Oregon information: www.florenceoregon.net

Fall Harvest Feast

T$ and I had a few friends over for a Fall Harvest Feast and costume party. The menu revolved around what is fresh from the harvest and boy, was it yummy! I thought I'd share the menu and a few of the recipes. The dishes were all home runs, and will definitely be made again in this house.

We started out with baked polenta rounds, topped with red pesto (thanks, B!) and yummy cocktails of ginger vodka mixed with Aranciata-flavored San Pellegrino.

For our main dish, Mathew brought an amazing pumpkin curry, a perfect, cozy, vegetarian comfort food (don't have the recipe, but maybe Mathew will supply. hint, hint!).

Our sides were wild rice with butternut squash, leeks and corn: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Wild-Rice-with-Butternut-Squash-Leeks-and-Corn-350425

Brussels sprout slaw with mustard dressing and maple-glazed pecans: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Brussels-Sprout-Slaw-with-Mustard-Dressing-and-Maple-Glazed-Pecans-355785

and chard and sausage (substituted soy sausage) stuffing: http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/holidays-occasions/thanksgiving-side-dish-recipes-00400000056366/page14.html

Yummy breads that tasted like cinammon & spices from Great Harvest Bakery were consumed along with the meal (thanks, Lani!).

And for dessert, we ate fancy bat and pumpkin-shaped cookies (Lani) and mini coconut creme pies form Dahlia Bakery (B & Mathew). http://www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/dahlia-bakery

Adults and kids alike wore costumes and we even had a family disco and hoola hooping party after the meal!

omg Death Star Pumpkin carving!

Apartment Therapy is one of my favorite blogs for awesome house decorating ideas.

Check out these amazing pumpkin ideas, including my fave, the DEATH STAR!!!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/inspiration/pumpkin-carving-inspiration-from-martha-plus-the-death-star-099782?image_id=842960

This is insane...

Portable record player:















http://www.pyottdesign.com/linos/


oh, those clever industrial designers!

I love love love...

...this photographer. I wish I lived in these times. I love the fashion. I love the Kodachrome. Except I want that time to be magically placed in our time and we have technology and that fashion and that Kodachrome.

Slim Aarons. love.

http://www.photographersgallery.com/by_artist.asp?id=2

Speedy Stranger Photos

About a year ago, I joined the 100 Strangers Project group on Flickr. I love the idea of forcing oneself out of the normal comfort zone to ask people you don't know if you can take their portrait.

One evening, while at the street music festival with my husband and another friend, Tony, we decided to power through the strangers project, seeing as I had only taken 2 Stranger photos in 9 months.

I didn't get most of their names and I didn't spend any time with them, hence not really following the guidelines of the original project. This was still super fun, but I realized that I was making a NEW project, which could in turn become a new group: the Speed Strangers group was born.

The challenge I am creating for Speed Strangers: take as many quick one-person stranger portraits as fast as you can. If you randomly end up with their name or any other personal info, get it quick and move on. See how many random strangers you can photograph. The caveat: please try to take at least a little time to create nice portraits. The Strangers must know you are shooting them. NO random street strangers. Please ask people to take their portrait, snap it and go forth, por favor.


As a nod to the inspiration for this group, please see the rules for "100 Strangers:"


"The challenge : Take 100 photographs of at least 100 people you don't know. Approach a person or group of people and ask for permission to both take a photo of them and to post it to this group. Get to know your subjects. Who are they? What is their life like?
Try to tell a small story with each photo you take. This may be a story about the person or how you felt approaching that particular individual. You may have, for example, tried a new approach or used a new photographic technique. Try to learn something from every encounter you make."


http://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
thank you, "100 Strangers, " for the spin off idea!


Now, for a few random strangers and a link to my flickr set! I don't want to set a number yet for how many you should take. 100 will go really fast, so for now, the group is set as "speed strangers." numeral TBD at a later date.



enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/speedstrangers/