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Need to scare up some fun and easy ideas for Halloween parties and decor? Check out these links:
Photo by the fabulous photographer D Sharon Pruitt!
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One of my favorite parts of making my own jewelry is recycling cool pieces from broken or vintage jewelry. I love the polished amethyst stones from a necklace combined with the creamy pearls off a bracelet.
Supplies:
Photo by me, Chris Olson
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Yes, I know it is early, but I am listening to A Very She & Him Christmas. If anyone at my house complains about this, then I will be playing the album everyday at 5:00 a.m. for the next two months.
I first fell in love with the voice of She & Him singer Zooey Deschanel when she was the store elf-ette in the movie Elf.
Listen below to “The Christmas Waltz,” the first track from ‘A Very She & Him Christmas’!
She & Him - The Christmas Waltz by MergeRecords
Zooey Deschanel and The New Girl show
Now Zooey Deschanel has a TV show too, "The New Girl" on FOX. If you ever were suddenly single after facing a break-up, then you will definitely want to watch the trailer for that show below.
(Here's the The New Girl show YouTube Link.)
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Yesterday we had a chilly and snowy October storm. The Aspen leaves were amazing encrusted in ice and snow.
Art by me, Chris Olson
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There's a Starbucks on practically every corner, and even though it's everywhere I still love this chain because the high level of product quality is very reliable. That said, I admit whenever possible I will seek out a coffee cafe with a unique twist. My personal faves have well worn but comfy sofas, or maybe one of the impressive Clover coffee machines, and some support the community by serving java from local roasters. Often I can't pinpoint just what it takes to make it on my coffee A-list, but the factors are worth studying (or at least enjoying!). Back in college I even found an excuse to write a term paper about the charming espresso cafes in North Beach, SF.
Check out the Travel + Leisure list of where you can get the coolest cuppa joe:
(My photo collage above includes Travel + Leisure images.)
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Brrrrr! The snow is falling and even though the calendar says October it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas outside. Blame the snowflakes on my holiday craft mood. I found a sweet vintage Christmas ornament tutorial by Julia Stainton. Love the fact the project uses Studio Multi-Medium Gloss and Studio Artist Brushes by my art instructor and DIY guru Claudine Hellmuth. Check out the vintage ornament tutorial here.
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No pressure, but did you realize there's only two months (60 days!) until Christmas Eve. Now's a great time to stock up on Pink gifts and support the fight against breast cancer at the same time. Check out this list of 19 Pink gifts via Oprah.com.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For more information on breast cancer and early detection, check out National Breast Cancer Foundation and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
The The Power of Pink gift ideas:
Photos: Power of Pink via Oprah.com
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>•<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Via Mom-a-thon Tumblr, 10/22
Love these Post-It Note Watches.
Perfect little reminders for busy (and forgetful) me!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>•<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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Ingredients:
Directions:
Recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups
Photo: D Sharon Pruitt
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The nights are getting colder and colder here in Colorado. We've already had our first snow. The black bears wandering the 'hood at night are feasting on crab apples and seeds in the bird feeders before the big freeze and hibernation begins.
Here are a few images of the last colorful splash of autumn in my backyard.
Photos by me, Chris Olson
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With Manga cartoon-style tattoos running up her left arm and across her neck and chest, the new limited edition "tokidoki Barbie" with her strange cactus-covered companion named "Bastardino" will not be delivered by Santa this year according to my obviously biased poll of moms and dads. The new funky fashionista Barbie by Mattel has a bubblegum pink bob and a skull-heart sweater to match her tattoos. The only positive thing I can say about the new tramp stamp Barbie is she seems to have a more realistic cup size than the "wholesome" ballerina and princess Barbies that look like they had breast implants.
I think many parents are asking why did Mattel make this doll? Strange as it sounds, Mattel has been testing the tattooed doll market for over a decade. I thought it was weird back in 2009 when Mattel introduced the Totally Stylin' Tattoos Barbie. Now her benign removable tattoo stickers seem tame in comparison to the new tokidoki Barbie. A decade before that in 1997 – back in the dark ages before most people had even heard of Google – Mattel was feeling hip and launched the Butterfly Art Barbie with tattoos, but it was later withdrawn from sale in the U.S. because of outraged parents.
The inked Barbie was designed by the Italian designer Simone Legno of the Janpanese-influenced pop culture design company, tokidoki. According to Mattel the doll is not aimed at kids, but designed for doll collectors. You can buy the new funky Barbie on Mattel's Barbie Collector website for $50. The doll is currently sold out, but if you are desperate she's also on eBay.
Photos: Mattel
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A few weeks ago I wrote a post about all the awesome dogs that often get overlooked at shelters because they are a less "popular" breed or have dark fur. Sadly, black dogs and dogs with unusual features often take weeks longer to get noticed and adopted in a shelter.
Just a day before Lamar was to be euthanized, Pals Forever Animal Rescue rescued the well-behaved black terrier grinning in the picture above because he is now safe and waiting to be adopted.
Although he has the best personality, many people look at his crazy grin and walk away. I wish someone would give him a second chance. He has been at an animal shelter in Colorado waiting for a forever home for months and months. He is super sweet. He loves to cuddle. He has loads of energy – the perfect walking and hiking companion. He loves other dogs, but he does not get along with some cats. He is neutered, micro-chipped and up to date on his shots. Do you have room in your heart for our sweetest friend, Lamar? You can find out how to adopt him here.
Lamar FAQ:
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In November, tune in for a live broadcast of "A Little College on the Prairie." Well, almost...
My favorite college – and my alma mater – St. Olaf College in Minnesota will be hosting the Garrison Keillor show on November 19th, 4:45 p.m. CDT. The St. Olaf Choir and the St. Olaf Orchestra will join Garrison Keillor, Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the rest of the gang for a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion from Skoglund Center Auditorium at St. Olaf College.
Continue reading "A Prairie Home Companion & Garrison Keillor at St. Olaf College" »
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I am a huge fan of Mary Engelbreit and I cried three years ago when I heard publication of her HOME COMPANION magazine was ending.
If you want to her to bring back the magazine, check out this Mary Engelbreit link. Here's the scoop from her website:
It’s still a very risky business to put a magazine out in these tough economic times, so to convince a publisher and advertisers that this would indeed be a worthy endeavor, we need you to write in and tell us why you’d like to subscribe to the magazine again. A petition, if you will. Because if we can show that a gajillion people want the Home Companion, need the Home Companion, will BUY the Home Companion– we will have a better chance of success.
Do you miss the magazine? Vote today!
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Letterpress is an art I both admire and fear as an artist. Letterpress is the oldest form of printing. Think Gutenberg printing back in 15th century. In a very general summary, this process produces a print by inking a surface with raised letters and then presses this to a printing substrate to reproduce an image in reverse.
Creating letterpress artwork takes loads of practice with more than your average amount of artistic intuition. Now a virtual letterpress version via the iTunes store is avaialable with the LetterMPress iPad app ($5.99) and a Mac version ($9.99).
Continue reading "DIY: Letterpress art you create using an iPad app" »
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House 8810 online store has loads of fun Halloween goodies. Check out two of my faves below:
Halloween towels
Halloween masks
Photos: House 8810
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Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, died yesterday at the age of 56. Back in 1984 when the first personal computer by Apple came out, I was fresh out of college and wrote my resume on my sister-in-law's Mac 128 K. (Yes, I'm that old.) I know my job search turned out better because of him. Here are some of my favorite quotes by Jobs, in no particular order.
“Your time is limited,” Jobs added. ”So don’t waste it living someone else’s life. … Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
via Steve Jobs' Stanford University Commencement address (2005)
"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
via Steve Jobs' Stanford University Commencement address (2005)
Picasso had a saying: "Good artists copy, great artists steal." We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.
via ABC News
"There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will."
via ABC News
"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."
via BusinessWeek, 1998
"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. ... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. ... They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."
via ABC News
"My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people."
via The Exception Magazine
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."
via Steve Jobs' Stanford University Commencement address (2005)
"I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building."
via Apple Confidential 2.0, 2004, ABC News
"That's been one of my mantras -- focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains."
via BusinessWeek, 1998
"Picasso had a saying. He said 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. ... I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."
via"Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires," 1996, ABC News
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” via WSJ, May 25, 1993
More memorable Steve Jobs's quotes via
Art by me, Chris Olson
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"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
"Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking."
~ From Steve Jobs's commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005
More tributes:
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Love and its delusions are a huge part of teenage life. Allison Pearson's second novel, I Think I Love You, is a delightful story about a teenage girl named Petra who's living in Wales in 1974 and falls head over heels in love with David Cassidy – the teen idol who played Keith in The Partridge Family.
Why David Cassidy? According to an interview on NPR, Pearson talks about her teenage obsession:
"I was 13 in 1974 and he bestrode my teenage world like a Colossus in a white jumpsuit with silver embroidery," Pearson says. "Girls slightly younger tended to be Donny Osmond girls or Michael Jackson girls but for my generation, it tended to be David Cassidy."
Pearson's book explores the feelings and fears many teenage girls have about how to dress right, how to fit in with the "right" crowd, and even how to kiss right. Fear of doing things wrong is a big issue in the minds of teenagers (and adults). Daughters and their mothers down through the ages have had to deal with these fears.
Reading the book takes you into the mind of a teenager and all the teen drama that may seem like nothing now to you as an adult – but I doubt few of us would want to repeat the teen years. Pearson obviously remembers plenty of details from her childhood and she has a teenage daughter of her own.
Allison Pearson also wrote the best-selling novel about middle-class working mothers called I Don't Know How She Does It that became a movie this year starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Pearson is a staff writer for the Daily Telegraph. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children.
Click on the audio link above to hear Pearson's interview on NPR .
You can read an excerpt of the book here.
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Are you making a living wage? You probably know about minimum wage, but did you know it is not the same as a living wage? A minimum wage is a standard set by law, but it does NOT guarantee the worker will be able to afford basic needs such as food, utilities, health care and housing.
Many women working full-time jobs in America live in poverty because they do not make a living wage. How many minimum wage jobs must a mom work just to afford basic needs such as food, housing, and health care? Depends on where you live.
The living wage for each community is unique and is determined by the costs in that area. You can find out the living wage in your community or region using the Living Wage Calculator.
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Giving has become an integral part in the business model of many new companies. You may have heard of TOMS Shoes, also affectionately known as Tomorrow's Shoes because the shoe company helps people in need. TOM's One for One model is simple: when you buy a pair of his shoes, a second pair is given to a poor child somewhere in the world. With help from charities and and other groups, last year TOMS giveaways passed the million-pair mark. In 2011, TOMS launched TOMS Eyeware and every pair purchased helps give sight to a person in need by providing medical treatment, prescription glasses, or sight-saving surgery.
The guy behind it all is Blake Mycoskie, the chief shoe giver. His new book Start Something That Matters also follows the One for One principal--for each book purchased one is given to someone in need. His book has gotten rave reviews including:
"Toms has discovered what religious movements have known for centuries: people yearn to do meaningful work. Any organization scratching that itch will attract adherents. The human desire to give and to help others is nothing new. But attaching it to a shoe company is," WSJ.com.
You can follow Blake Mycoskie on Twitter. Get the book Start Something That Matters on Kindle, $11.99. Or hardcover at Amazon, $12.98.
Photo: Start Something That Matters
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Selecting images for a banner is always fun. Halloween makes this a great month for design ideas. Here's my new banner.
If you would like to order a custom blog banner, send me an email at chriscocomedia at mac dot com. Or go to my design website for contact and design information.
Thanks!
Chris Olson
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