Jesus wants you to straighten up around here

A Jesus hanger to keep you organized. Oh those Swedish designers.

In black, too.

Speaking of Jesus on Sunday......what if Starbucks was really a church?

Datum Erratum

One of the great job assignments I have is to lead a terrific team in preparing our organization's annual report. We strive to be creative yet responsible to our mission and I am always on the lookout for new ideas. Here's an amazing one.

Nicholas Feltron is a designer in NYC and for the past 3 years has produced his own personal annual report. It's a very clever collection of everyday information collected in his life and then presented in an amazing format. The 2008 edition has tables and graphs on transportation modes used, dining and drinking (love the 1 Thanksgiving tequila shot and the disclaimer) and great timelines and maps. And I just love the 2008 color presentation.

Here's what his year in transortation included: 366 days of walking, 545 subway trips, 107 taxis, 12 flights, 19 buses, 38 chairlifts, 20 days of driving, 46 trips with other drivers, 64 visitis to the gym, three pools, an ocean, one hayride and 62 hours of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Feltron (perfect name) has developed a personal data collection application that is in private beta testing now. In case you want to track your own doings. I signed up for an invitation.

Here's what I predict my annual report would look like.

This chart is titled "Where did the money go?"

Feeling Lucky?

I probably should have waited to post this on March 17th. But I couldn't wait to share. I found this great site Luck Happens that "scours the web for the very best in current giveaways and then organizes each giveaway by its deadline."

The reason I am excited about it is not so I can win anything. I never win (Well, there was that bingo tournament last year!). I am excited because just the other day I was thinking about how to get more traffic on my blog (Note to self: post more regularly and maybe not so self-indulgent all the time?) and then thought about doing some give-aways again. This site might be perfect for that.

Take a look, take a chance.

Best of luck to you!

Eye to I

Ever been up close and personal eyeball to eyeball with a whale? Me neither. This is about as close as I have ever been. As far as I know anyway.

Here is a wonderful site that gives you a great perspective on what a real life whale would look like in an up close and personal encounter. Stare into the whale's eye. Wow. And the background sounds are interesting, too. Then try to close the site and read the message.

I love Natsumi's watercolor of a whale, inspired by the above site. Check out her other little watercolors, too. So simple and pure and lovely.

My Treasure:His Trash

The Mr. just doesn't get my design sense sometimes. Years ago I fell in love with Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic style and thrifted, painted, and chipped my romantic pink and green heart out. All over the house. I saw the potential of shabby chic everywhere. I got the concept of shabby chic. The Mr.? He got the shabby part but never the chic part. "Why in the world are you dragging that home?" "Ugh, it's soooo old and used" "My grandmother had one of those and threw it in the trash when it looked like that".

Fast forward and all the shabby chic has been gifted or re-thrifted. Clean modern mid-century lines now. One of my favorite pieces is a wonderful Noguchi lamp. It is graceful and delicate and sits all alone on our black Calvin dresser. When it arrived at our house, the Mr. agreed it was "neat" but really thought it would be so much better if you "could take that red sticker and name off the bottom". Ummmm, that's the artist's signature.

Face Time

OK I admit it...isnt that the first step in recovery? Like a bizillion others, I'm addicted to Facebook. Are you on Facebook, too?

What I did on New Year's Eve---23 years ago

Rewind to December 31, 1985 at 10:51 in the morning. While most of the world was getting ready to party, I delivered a little tax break. Well, not so little. 11lbs. 10 ozs. 26 inches.


Fast forward to NYE 2008: A beautiful daughter in a gorgeous black lace dress ready to hit the town so the whole world can celebrate her birthday. Hope you had a happy birthday sweetheart!