Saving Lives

My dear friend Erin Trieb is a photojournalist, though photojournalism is not the only area of photography that she excels in.  Just recently she spent quite a few weeks over in Afghanistan documenting life in a US army trauma center out there.  Her story Headlined on MSNBC a few weeks ago, but I thought I would continue to share it.  Note: There are some graphic pictures...it's on a trauma center.

Here is the story.

Here is her blog from the Afghan adventure.

Necklaces - 2

Just the other weeks I posted several necklaces that made me slightly more than a little greedy.  In my perusing of the world wide web to locate gifts for people I've come across another set of lovely necklaces worthy of sharing.

From the Etsy shop Irregular Expressions.  This necklace is hand crocheted with beads integrated into the necklace.  These lovely creations are from Istanbul, Turkey and all the items are crocheted or knitted.

From the Etsy shop Love and Dream.  Interestingly enough, this is another Istanbul located shop.  There are all kinds of items within, but I particularly like these simple necklaces with simple beads and vintage lace.

  

Now we move onto recycled and repurposed items.  This is from the Etsy shop Seven Ply where all the items are partially made of recycled skateboards!  Combining jewelry and skateboards, what could be better?  This one is my favorite because of the bit of humor included in the necklace.

  

Here are some necklaces from the Etsy shop Luxe Deluxe.  Some of the items have lovely vintage parts, from chains to pendant pieces, and almost all of them made with an asymmetrical appeal.

  

Finally more necklaces!  This Etsy shop, Etcetrix, is bursting with vintage repurposing and recycling, mixing new with old, and old with old.  Lots of lovely finds.

Beards

I think facial hair is hilarious and fun.  But since I am a woman with normal amounts of hormones I cannot grow facial hair of my own.  This is were Erin Dollar comes in with her cute, handmade, felt beards.

She sells them on her Etsy.com shop (I Made You a Beard) and she has the above Santa beard on sale at Fred Flare. 

Her blog is also insanely great with links to artists all over who create beards of all sorts weather they be drawings or paintings or objects.  Take a look!

Location! Location! Location!

One way to make sweet looking music videos is finding great locations.  A few weeks ago my friend Mel pointed out the Empire of the Sun music videos to me.  We both commented on the amazing locations that they had found, but we also couldn't get enough of everything else from the costumes to the eccentric performances, not to mention the great music.  I can't tell if they take themselves totally serious or if they're just having a great time.  I had heard them a few times before on Pandora, but now I am obsessed.  I can watch them over and over and over without tiring of them.  I don't quite understand the story that ties all the videos together, but the costumes and tone branch from one to the next, as if they are vignettes meant to be strung together.

Take a look at Walking on a Dream (the title track of their debut album).

Crazy...but I love it!

Here's a sample from We Are The People:

But it only gets better.  Today I found out that there is an iPhone game based on all the Empire of the Sun goodness.   The levels in the game are based on scenes from the music videos. 

I got the game, but only had a chance to get the first few levels before going to work.  

Let's just say, I was able to play it (which is incredible since I don't know how to play video games),

and it was the strangest game I have ever played. Yay!

Necklaces...

Our Mimi always lets us go through all her drawers of jewelry picking out any costume jewelry we wish to wear.  She only wears simple things now.  Maybe all that rummaging for years, not to mention all the thrift store shopping I do, has given me an appetite for unique pieces of jewelry.  I only have a very small collection now, but I am starting to invest in interesting pieces.  While I don't have much money, it's always fun to look.  I thought I'd share some of the enticing necklaces I have found lately.

From the Etsy shop Flora Bond, which contains other unusual handmade floral necklaces.

From the Etsy store White Owl, which has many other amazing lace creations.

From the Etsy store Bionic Unicorn.  They have a great steampunk collection, this pendant necklace is one of the simpler items they have.  

From the Etsy shop A Alicia's Handmade Accessories, a few other bib necklaces and other textile items are featured there.

From the Etsy shop Cosmic Firefly, which contains more interesting Steampunk/Neo-Victorian style items.

Looking at all the fun necklaces makes me want to start creating things of my own...

The mobile blog

I have slacked on writing lately. Perhaps that is because I just spent a month slaving away on a film set in the sand dunes of North Carolina.







I was so tired at night that I hardly ever opened my computer. Had I gotten the iPhone app that allowed me to blog perhaps I would have written during my wee lunch breaks. But of course I didn't make that purchase until today.

Long story short, this is a test post to see if I like posting from my phone. So long spell check.