new york times artical

tim keller

my day started at 2am

brooklyn coffee

you know how your day can get off to a rough start and it's all down hill from there?
as my day progressed i reallized it is all in how we choose to view the mishaps, curves and frustrations...which for the mostpart can be small, but annoying!

my goal is always to get in bed by 12am. rarely do i meet this goal...

today i had planned to get up at 7am to move my car (street cleaning) and then meet a friend for coffee before I crammed a run in just before i dragged my tired behind to work...

instead...

i go to bed at 2am. get up at 7 and walk to the bathroom...to which i could barely make it much less sit down because of a workout 2 days prior (never underestimate a liitle thing they call a medicine ball).

i move my car far enough away from my apartment that i have to take the subway back...

to my bed, but not before i text message my friend that "no cup of coffee will cure the sleep i am needing and the pain my muscles are experiencing". i climb into bed and sleep for about a 1/2 hour till...

the door bell rings...my friend (whom i stood up) personally delivers a cup of coffee to me. I'm up!!

i quickly order a plane ticket that i have been meaning, promising, needing to do - while i drink a great cup of coffee.

commute 30min to work. read Exodus 6 - 10 ...Moses, God, gnats, flies frogs, hail, locust, darkness ...can't get much more exciting than that!

welcome wagon

welcome wagon

fast forward through work- prints, panties, design, blah blah blah...GAP is wonderful - loving it! But what's with gay guys and the word "fabulous"!?!

had a date at the Guggenheim...canceled it - didn't feel like wasting my time..."tall dark hansom" ,"french film maker" all words that sound appealing but add "atheist" to the description and the dynamic somehow changes (oh well...it gets better) keep reading.

instead i work till 7pm. Commute (read Exodus 11-13 sacrificial offerings, passover, first born death, pillars of cloud and fire - wooo hoo!) making it back to brooklyn by 7:45.

home to regroup and leave again. meet up with much better genuine friends at Perch (those of you from OH - think 1/4 the size of Northstar Cafe, minus the magazine rack and add a bar).

gig we came to see - Welcome Wagon: see Asmatic Kitty's compalation album Mews Too.
http://www.asthmatickitty.com/music.php?releaseID=38
Vito and Monique Auito who make up this duet are the PCA planters who started a church in Williamsburg/Brooklyn.

with a guitar, a xylophone, a harmonica, a vintage lace dress with black tights and boots
hymns and covers and some of their own music as well.

and Sufjan looking on with the rest of us.

i guess 5 hours of sleep, muscle pain, street cleaning, a 30minute commute, working late, possible annoying date...they can all be turned into blessings...

...into an amazing day!

into morning coffee from a friend, physical health, having a car, reading the word, a job, valuing good company.

pslm 118:24 this it the day that the lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

blogs to listening to...

"m3 online"
http://goodweatherforairstrike.blogspot.com/


"all things go"
http://all-things-go.blogspot.com/

listen

heypenny

loving

feist

Check out this linked blog for some free mp3's by Feist and Jason Collette.
Saw them last week. Second time seeing Feist, and I can't get enough!!!! Her album Let it Die is in my top 10! Also, make sure you download her Mushaboom video...also on the linked blog.

point

you know...

you're growing up when you can say "10 years ago..." and you can actually remember back (in detail) that far!

Chad Wollett

extremely and incredibly

I've been waiting for a novel to spark the reader in me again...I think i've found it.
I haven't finished it yet, but the first 73 pages were enough to finally rename the blog...maybe it's the begining of something new. lately i have been moving around in my mind a lot.

"We need much bigger pockets I thought as I lay in bed counting off the 7 minutes that it takes a normal person to fall asleep. We need enormous pockets big enough for our families and our friends and even the people who aren't on our list. People we've never met but still want to protect. We need pockets for boroughs and for cities. A pocket that can hold the universe. "

Oskar: age 9

...

fridge

top 10 things NOT to say in a church membership interview

Congtats to Lindsay for being recieved as a member at Redeemer Presbyterian Church!!
Yeah!!
She must have followed the "top 10 list" we came up with the night before!

Top 10 Things Not to Say in a Church Membership Interview
...............................................................................................

10) you mean this is a church? I thought it was a cult.

9) i like to call myself an entrepreneur and a service professional. "Dealer" just has too many negative connotations.

8) is believing in God and Jesus a requirement?

7) Holy Spirit - same thing as inner spirit isn't it?

6) my boyfriend and i have only been living together for the past 3 years but i think he's gonna propose any day now.

5) i want to be a member of this church, but i don't think organized religion is for everyone...people need to do what feels good for them.

4) how attached are you to these 10 commandments?

3) trinity? you mean like Lord of the Rings??

2) heaven? i mean i'm basically a good person...i've never killed anybody!

1) i think as long as you follow your heart it will never let you down.


(anything to add?? feel free to comment!)

monday, tuesday, thursday...

sally

i've been working on graphics for "days of the week underpants" since monday...and this particular scene in When Harry Met Sally keeps coming to mind :)

Sally: Well, if you must know, it was because he was very jealous, and I had these days of the week underpants.
Harry: Ehhhh. I'm sorry. I need the judges ruling on this. "Days of the weeks underpants"?
Sally: Yes. They had the days of the week on them, and I thought they were sort of funny. And then one day Sheldon says to me, "You never wear Sunday." It was all suspicious. Where was Sunday? Where had I left Sunday? And I told him, and he didn't believe me.
Harry: What?
Sally: They don't make Sunday.
Harry: Why not?
Sally: Because of God.

what i love about nichole

nikki

what i love about Nichole:

i love that when she speaks she gives me (and probably everyone else) a sense of calm.

i love that she makes the most intricate and intense projects (late night portfolio pages, senior collection, drafting and sewing entire wedding dresses along with all the bridesmaid dresses, knitting baby sweaters with skulls and cross bones sending 6 page hand-written letters) seem effortless.

i love that she never speaks negatively about anyone.

i love her sensitivity, and her surprising sense of humor.

i love that she is sometimes silly

i love that she has individuality. she is her own person. she is never someone she is not.

i love that she is patient. that it beams out of her and it inspires me to relax a little and remember to be patient too.

i love that she married her soul mate and their love gives me hope!

i love that she has always been there for me -through some of the worst... listening to me rant, laugh, cry, rejoice and complain.

i love her meek and humble spirit, never boastful or self righteous.

i love that she is to nice to tell someone that they have hurt her.


**i'm sorry i have not been all these things for you. you have mail coming your way :)

**ps: girls (and y'all know who you are) - i love how we as women really never grow out of somethings.


...

lighter shade of green

tom green

i have been catching tom green on the tonight show (as a correspondent for the winter olympics). i was never a fan in the past, but have found myself laughing out loud in the wee hours of the morning. i linked the title to Tom's blog, but you can also catch his segments at:

http://www.tv.com/tracking/viewer.html&ref_id=38568&tid=87964&ref_type=104
click video and then correspondents.

enjoy!

love thy neighbor

i've begun to grow a giant callus on my heart for the constant begging and scary characters i meet on my commute. when katy's and her sister suzy came to visit, suzy said something that has stuck with me - "that person is a child of God. God made that person in His image, and He loves him."

to continue that thought - this quote was in P.S.P.C.'s sunday bulletin...

"we do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows even that is bounty enough. we want something else which can hardly be put into words-to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it."

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare... there are no ordinary people. you have never talked to a mere mortal. nations, cultures, arts, civilization - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. but it is immortals that we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors...next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses."

C.S. Lewis, Transposition and Other Addresses, 1949

not so secret crush

travis barker

tattoos, mohawk, drummer, ahhhh

molly and cait's secret crush...

not so secret any more i guess!?

*just a crush*

supernatural love

(listen and/or read)

My Love is a Fever

my love is a fever

my love is a fable
my love is jazz licks
improvised by toddlers
bold Ulysses by nursery rhyme
and firelight

my love is a metamorphosis
reason cold logic
intuitively speaking
my love is syncopated
spoon-fed ignorant
well-read

my love is singular
my love is commonplace
as a gravedigger's own birthplace
my love is a medicine
feeds the sick heals the poor
turns up the volume on the blind

my word it's a trip
like a migraine
on a moving train
it parachutes aeroplanes
watch it fly

eyes soar hands clap
ears ring it's a sand trap
hair raising amazing
grey city transformations
as lips sink stomachs ache
monkeys shine fire flies
foxes trot hobs knob
porches swing brains storm
hearts attack and air supplies
heads light tails spin
steeples chase you along your chin
rock slides

out of the woods now
a virgin in buckskin
moccasins tall thin
she plays your mandolin
so maudlin you begin to spin
out of the woods now

(Over the Rhine)

bff

aruba

miss u
love u
mwahh!

awake my soul

The image of God invisible, the first born of all life
Before and within, he holds it all in
One name, one faith, one Christ

No one is good enough, to save himself
Awake my soul tonight, to boast nothing else

I trust no other source or name, nowhere else can I hide
This grace gives me fear, and this grace draws me near
And all that it asks it provides

No seam in this garment, all my rags to hide
No less than your love, for Jesus is mine

When I stand on the edges of Jordan
With the saints and the angels beside
When my body is healed, and the glory revealed
Still I can boast only Christ

No one is good enough, to save himself
Awake my soul tonight, to boast nothing else

To boast nothing else
To boast nothing else
To boast nothing else

-caedmen's call

yes it's snowing......a lot!

8th and 8th

here are some pictures for you (taken this morning and this afternoon).

our block

baptist church

sunday afternoon

sunday morning

sunday 9:00am

last night

v-day

A friend and I were walking to the subway to get home last night and found ourselves in the middle of a "smack down" between city kids and the cops. the kids were young, maybe freshmen in high school. we were instantantly aware of what we had walked into, and though we were in no harm really...it's always good to be "aware".

needless to say we got to the subway just fine, but i said to Cally...we could have been those kids. the only difference between us really is that we were raised in homes and churchs that not only discouraged behavior like that, but that encouraged respect and love and peace. God is sovereign and we could have been born into a different family.

now don't get me wrong. i'm not trying to proclaim self righteousness when it comes to me and my family and dublin OH (of all towns). and i will forever consider myself sheltered and naive for the most part - but, i can praise God for the things he has blessed me with, and these things my family (blood and in Christ) have made me me.

with that said, i need to take these blessings and use them. my prayer is that i will in fact do something - not just blog and work but foster, support, spend time, encourage, break at least one cycle.

i got home last night and found a package in my mailbox from my sister and my father...chocolate chip cookies, M.A.C. makeup and the card above. only a few things, but they reminded me that this family i have knows ME, cares about me and shows me the love that comes from someone EVERLASTING.

new like

magnet

new band

an angle

sorta kinda like bright eyes...

at the Knitting Factory on the 21st.

point

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

C.S. Lewis

if i were a vegetable

beets

Those of you who know me well, know these things about me:

1)I love color. I've been blessed to find a career where i am surrounded by it every day.
2)I love cooking. I like whole foods and healthy foods. I like junk food just as much.
3)And at times i show it more than others, but I love God - my Father and my Creator - in all His majesty and wonder.

this weekend i made a discovery. Beets!
Beets have changed my life...well, enriched it maybe. i knew that they are red and some people don't like them very much, but i recently had them on a salad and they tasted pretty good, so i decided to buy them at the grocery store and try them out for myself.

i peeled and cut the first one in the bunch and i was overwhelmed with the rich red color that bled out of this vegetable and stained my fingers. there was so much chroma in the tiny little root (of all things). like cimson ink and it almost made me cry.

now i know that sounds weird, BUT...i stand firm to the 3 points i mentioned earlier-color, food, and God. i cant imagine (especially as an artist) a world without color. there's even color in dirt and as i continued to cut up the rest of the beets, i thought of the nutrience they provide and the taste they contained, and the Artist who created them. by human nature, i am always looking for more ways to prove that God exists (as if i need more reasons).

if you are in doubt of God and His presence here on earth, do yourself a favor...

buy some beets!

moving me

reading

an author whom i get...

(interesting bit of trivia - Foster is Quaker)

love

love

prayer

posting this for someone in mind...she knows who she is ;)

"I don't fully understand the reason for the wilderness of God's absence. This I do know: while the wilderness is necessary, it is never meant to be permanent. In God's time and in God's way, the desert will give way to a land flowing with milk and honey, and as we wait for that promised land of the soul, we can echo the prayer of Bernard of Clairaux, 'Oh my God, deep calls unto deep (pslm 42:7) the deep of my profound misery calls to the deep of Your infinite mercy. "

Richard J. Foster
Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home


here's to a day when our land will be flowing with calorie-less macchiatos and caramel!!!

3rd time's a charm

j.f.

me + contact with jimmy fallon = mental retardation

wide awake and it's moning

chad is rad!

4:00am
after-after party at nest

force flex trashwear

force flex

katy brings a new meaning and a new use to the new product force flex trash bags (by glad)

*after her sister comments that they should make force flex jeans!*

what ever ever ever ever ever...ps:ever mr chips!

mr chips

steve imatating me and katy...

ugh!