Hey folks!
Long time...it's been such a long time. School and work and life can do that to a lady!
But I'm back! With too many ideas for posts....iyiyi.
Anyway, today I thought I'd showcase one of my favorite companies. A company whose movement I would one day like to emulate!
TOMS shoes! Their One For One message is terribly inspiring.
In fact, when I was in Guatemala, I saw some of the kids were wearing TOMS! And these kids needed them. They lived in a dump - literally; their parents made a living sorting the recyclables from the trash - and ran around in their bare tootsies. These are the kinds of kids that get the other pair of shoes you buy! And now for some illustrating and actual photos of my trip to Guatemala to illustrate my point:
I'd really like to intern for their print design department in one of the coming summers!
Anyway, I picked a couple of my favorites from their website and here they are!
Blake Mycoskie (founder of TOMS) also wrote a book. I've been reading it in my sarcastically copious amounts of free time. I have been working through it though. It's a great read about the story behind TOMS and other businesses with a mission. It's a truly inspiring book with legitimate tips and pointers about the business of making the world a better place!
I hope you enjoyed my shameless plug for a company with a conviction that I believe in. :}
I just spent an entire day on my living room floor surrounded by - and covered in - paper and tape. I've been manipulating sleeve patterns. Learning how to make someone's shoulder look like a pumpkin or a peacock - win.
It's college kindergarten - cutting and pasting! Only this time there are rules....so many rules! and nobody joins in and giggles when you start eating the paste (tape in our case) - they all just shift a little farther away and quietly mention to the professor that the girl over there - yeah, at the end of the table - may need professional help.
At any rate, I really want these books! I'm going to use the pattern from one to create a paneled sleeve for a tailored wool jacket. :}
Oh and ya see that little blue sticker there - that says "Now in English!" Yay! The ones we have in the studio are completely in Japanese - makes the pages look real sleek and modern, however.....I can only hypothesize what the diagrams mean. "That means it's equidistant, right?" "Uh.....yeah, totally,"
In other news, my yoga classes are going fabulously! I've had a lot of good feedback to the Vinyasa flows that I've been teaching.
In my own practice, I've been working on my intention, bringing purpose to each of my fingertips, my shoulders, my quads, even to my chin - each and every goshdern piece; a reason for it to be exactly where it is.
I've also been focusing on my Sun Salutations and really utilizing breath throughout each movement, no matter the speed. Finding a moving meditation. OoooAaaaMmmm. :} Ooo! Ooo! If you have a flat roof or a porch, designate one yoga mat as an outside mat and take your practice to the great outdoors! The roof outside my bedroom window is flat, so after my runs, I take my mat out there and enjoy the breeze and the sunshine! Take your tree pose to the trees! - heh. heh. I'm so clever.
These last few weeks have been teaching me lessons in patience. Letting things rumble and roll at their own pace can be terribly frustrating.
~I have been moving to a new place (which is why I haven't posted in a while)- a house with two of my favorite ladies! And the new place has a utility sink....STOKED.
However, each box takes forever to pack, migrate, and unpack.. It has now been several months since I started; the back of my car is still teeming with hula hoops, a blender, towels, and massive, poorly packed boxes of random junk.
And my frankieBeast disappeared at 3o'clock in the morning as I was moving - at my old place, of coourrse {I thought that if every night I took food out to the old apartment and sat around shaking it, maybe she'd come back to me...to no avail. I do hope she's not been taken hostage by some rogue hooligan raccoons}. ........It's been a month. I think the FrankaBeez has found another home. :{{{ I hope she's safe and warm.
Ah....memory....all alone in the moonlight. CATS. sigh.
~Knitting always takes longer than I think it will and writing a pattern - as this is my first pattern, i have no idea really what I'm doing - I've gotta keep ripping stitches out and starting over.
~Also just finished a simple button up women's "boyfriend" shirt with
wild and crazy (by which i mean - TOOK FOREVER and two days) embroidery -
class project. It was one of the shirts chosen to be featured in my
school's advisory board showcase (along with my illustration portfolio
and my cotton research)!
At the advisory board
Back Panel Prior to construction
At any rate, here's some Frank Ocean.
ooooo Hey Hi there SexySexy.
Also, we went to the Highland Games this summer. Killer.
The coolest man on earth says hello.
Oh! Yeah, and my half marathon is 3 weeks away. My training schedule has lost all semblance of consistency since school started. I was up to 9 miles last weekend but a lovely little sicky bug attacked me this week. I've been inundating my system with echinacea, vitamin C, and Honey Nut Cheerios (you know, for my cholesterol). Crossing my fingers that I can get back at it this weekend!
about a nice lil' 5.5 miles of packing in
about 1,260 feet in elevation gain (pretty much all in the first couple miles. killer switchbacks!)
about 120 degree pools of natural rocky luxury
Fueled by Tenacious D, Mitch Hedburg, CAKE, mexican food (what?!), and pure adrenaline we drove and drove to the trail head and began our pack-laden ascent to...
STANLEY HOT SPRINGS!
This past week was exactly what I needed. I met incredible people, played with goats, learned to forage wild ginger, read and read, had wild singalongs all day every day, wrote, and buuurrrrnnned myself to a little crisp.
so many bugs.
singing these constantly
In terms of what to pack in for food, it's best to stick with light weight things you can add boiling water to...such as freeze dried couscous or oatmeal. Gorp and Glop are backpacking essentials. Although they sound like bizarre cartoon characters, these are titles aptly given (by whom? no idea.) to glorified trail mix (EVERYTHING - almonds, chocolate, pumpkin seeds, raisins, cherries, cereal, walnuts, banana chips, anything the heart desires and that serves as hardcore fuel) and the aforementioned freeze dried stuff to which you add boiling water.... These can usually be found in the bulk sections of grocery store and health food stores and range from black beans and rice to indian spiced soup.
Other things not to forget:
-Tabasco. Always pack in tabasco. I even put it in my granola sometimes to give it some kick!
-A way to purify your water - a hand pump charcoal filter or those new fancy Steripens are perfect
-Rope; adventurers can never have enough rope!
-A little cook stove to quickly heat water.
-A foldy saw and some firewood know-how
-Beneficial to pick up a little backpacking handbook and maybe a guide to the area you're camping, if you are so inclined
-Cheezits. in the car. for when you make it back down, cast off your hiking boots, and sit in the parking lot in your disgusting clothes and scarf something cheesy.
Make friends with other mountain folk! Some of them have goats, may teach you to forage wild plants, and join you for a wonderful forest feast complete with a chocolate thimble berry campfire souffle!
Reading Traveling with Pomegranates, I thought much of my mother and the relationship that we have forged through the years. She is an incredible woman...and I see whispers and melodies of her in me all the time. She and my father took me backpacking often when I was younger and I have never seen them more at ease than when surrounded by endless trees (heh, that rhymed).
While in the forest, I wrote quite a bit. Much of it turned into nonsense but, for some reason, it was what was flowing through me at the time - it made me feel calm and close to my family, close to versions of them that I have never met and close to the versions of them that are a part of me.
Despite the men and the mental states that shatter my vibrating soul, my family, friends, and the natural and real world of the mountains are always there to help it mend. :}
So, get outside; meet the wild!
Also, I've decided I'm gonna get an angora rabbit, name it Sparkle, and spin me some yarn!
I've determined that part of my weekly posting will be a profile of someone in our world that I find terribly inspiring...whether it be an artist, an entrepreneur, an athlete, or a character from a children's book. We learn from what we observe in others. Let's draw some sort of something positive from these wildly interesting people!
As the 2012 Summer Olympics are upon us - Sanya Richards-Ross is this week's INSPIRATIONAL FOLK!
An American sprinter born in Jamaica, she holds the world indoor record in the 400 meter dash. In 2006, she ran a blazing 48.70!! And check that Power Booty!
The woman is incredible. It takes such drive and dedication to be a professional athlete - especially a professional runner; it's a sport of the mind as much as of the body. I remember my days of 400m running - you just have to decide to do it.
Look for her in the 4x400 meter relay and the 400 meter dash in this year's London Olympics - opening on, I believe, July 27!
This video is definitely not in English. :}
On a quick note: Here's my makeshift exposure set up for my screens! More to come on all this.
Hope you're having a fabulous weekend. Catch ya'll later! :}
