Reflection, meditation, Catharsism

After a rough emotional start to my Sunday I decided that I was in need of a loooooong relaxing bath. I knew I needed to relax to ease my mind of the million negative thoughts that raced through that brain of mine. It was the best Idea I have had.

As I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert in the Indian portion of her book, aka the "Pray" part, I found I wasn't doing much relaxing. Which is ironic because she was having a tough time quieting her mind as well. There were things she would say that reminded me of where I was in my life. Situations I am dealing with. Most importantly there were things I was over analyzing.

Eventually my mind found some peace. If only for a a split second. What happened next was beautiful but most people would find weird. Laying there in my purest form made me think about rawness which made me think about realness and honesty.

Looking at my wrinkly fingers made me think what a stunning image that would be. So I grabbed my phone an took this photo.

After that photo I noticed my dingy tub fixtures.

I imagined those are the original handles and spout from when my apartment was first built in the 80's. What intrigued me was that I found beauty in that dilapidated faucet. That's who I've always been. The person that sees beauty in the mundane and peculiar, The person that can tell you that the mere fact that this object being old and neglected made me ponder about bigger and deeper things that are sometimes ignored, neglected and discarded.

After snapping a few photos of in animate objects I decided to take a self portrait that turned into thetitle photo for this blog. It is not mean to be vain, nor erotic. I simply thought it was a beautiful self portrait in my purest form. I want to shatter the wall of vulnerability. What better way than exposing myself to the world this way. I share it artistically and dramatically. I hope everyone else can see that its a simple self portrait of a human in her most raw intimate way. Rene Brown, Elizabeth Gilbert and Amy Poehler all contributed to this new found courage. They inspire me to expose myself in all aspects of life.

Cleansing the body, the mind and the soul.

This last set of self new age portraits were simply for fun. But after looking at it I realized how different these filters make people look. I hope all women in the world realize that they are always most beautiful in their simple natural form, despite what social media has them believe. One is my natural self portrait...It's pretty easy to point out.

Typography Thursday: Art of Conversation

I follow this great site called Brain Pickings. They wrote this great piece about Barbara Walters. This article touched my soul in so many ways.

I have always felt that I lacked social skills, specifically in the art of conversation. I have never been one for group discussions. One on one interaction is what I excel at. I pride myself in being a great listener but sometimes I feel martyred when I am just "the listener." Barbara made a great point by saying "...when a conversation becomes a monologue, poked along with tiny cattle-prod questions, it isn't a conversation any more. It is a strained, manipulative game, tiring and perhaps even lonely."

Whoa! Barbara hit it right on the nail. At the end of certain monologues I feel extremely exhausted and all I was doing was listening! Obviously I was exhausted because I was an attentive listener and I was trying to form an opinion the whole time, only it was in my head. But Barbara is right. Those conversations are simply not conversations.

 However, they are necessary evils. Sometimes a friend just needs to vent, without judgement, without opinions. Individuals resolve problems when they speak their issues out loud. No one wants to look like the crazy person and talk to themselves. Except for myself, I talk to myself ALL the time. Especially at work. I am sure everyone thinks I am flying over the cuckoo's nest. But for those who are not as brave as I am, I will always be the person to stand next to you lending her ear. Barbara's words inspired me to make my first graphic since December 5th 2013!

This article also affected me by bringing up memories of my dad. I remember being around 8 or 9 and watching 20/20 with my dad. It's a delightful memory. I can even see us shouting out to the TV, " Hugh Downs and Barbara Walter, this is 20/20!"

I love when happy vivid memories are sparked in me.

Typography Thursday: Keiko Lynn

I have so many feelings that I just can't put to words. None of these feelings are rainbows and butterflies.

 I read a post by Keiko Lynn and she said something that I thought was bittersweet.

 She said "What the stars ignite, the sun will smother."

 This resembles me. At night I am always making these elaborate delusional plans and dreams but in the morning they all seem less possible. I changed the the quote around because the sun is a star and I thought it would be redundant.

Typography Thursday

I really loved this excerpt from Robert Louis Stevenson's poem, Good and Bad Children. Obviously I like the part about good children. I only know that kind.

Typography Thursday: Tough Times

I got a special request for Typography Thursday by one of my loyal readers. 

The subject in the picture just so happens to be my nephew and Jayden's favorite buddy. This kid is awesome. 

Well I thought the quote fit the photo and is also fitting for the times. Everyone is always going through something. Sometimes we get stuck in ruts that seem endless. That is not the case. So hold your head up and toughen up!

Typography Thursday

I know I missed Typography Thursday last week. It was either because I was too busy or too lazy. I choose the former. 

To make up for my *coughs* busyness *end cough* I have a double feature this week!

I did a "shoot" of some ladies last week and there were some good shots to make a cool graphic.

I found it interested how some people don't realize how pretty they are because they are so focused on the trivial imperfections that deem it an "ugly picture".

It is astonishing when I think someone looks great in a photo and they think otherwise. I know there are those that say "oh you look great" but they are bullshitting. Maybe people have become jaded because people do lie. 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but you should not be your worst critic. Besides a beautiful person can quickly appear hideous if they have a horrendous personality. Beauty is more than skin deep.

After I had already made this, I read a great quote from Paulo Coelho :

"Arrogance attracts hatred and envy. Elegance arouses respect and Love."

Another thing I noticed (you can call me the Casual Observer) was the people now a days are so concerned about what everyone is doing or posting on facebook. Enjoy the moment without having to compare it to someone else's moment or worry about what people are thinking.

Typography Thursday!

It took me forever to decide what I would dedicate Thursday to. As my title suggests, I chose Typography. I am not a trained graphic designer but I am very intrigued by it. I read a graphic on Pinterest that said Typography is just like a game of  Tetris.

 I have made a couple of "graphics" already and I really enjoyed it.

So far I used my favorite Chuck Palaniuk quote from Fight Club.

I recreated a saying from some canvas art to update my Facebook and remind myself about Carpe Diem.

I played around with some quotes and saying about boys.

One of my earlier attempt was using one of my favorite quote about boys.

I know I am far from being an expert in the subject. I am teaching myself this art through trial and error. I study the graphics that catch my eye and try to decipher why I like about them. 

This and photography are one of the few ways I can be artistic. I can't draw or paint. I am a pretty good sketcher though. At the moment it takes quite a long time to get these "graphics" done. I have used Publisher & Corel PaintShop Photo Pro. Predominately I use PicMonkey.com. It is very user friendly for novices like me.

So to kick off the first official TYPOGRAPHY THURSDAY. Here's a photo I took of my son at a park. I turned it into a painting in Corel and then finished editing it on PicMonkey. The poem is from one of our favorite books which is actually in Spanish. 

You can go to my tumbler and view the one I made in spanish. 

The photo editing is different. http://dreamerchabela.tumblr.com/

I just realized that I obtained the inspiration for this graphic because a while back I checked out Caroline Kennedy's A Family of Poems and Poems to Learn by Heart from the library. All the paintings were done by John J. Muth who also wrote what I call the "Buddhist Panda" books. We I had also checked out on a previous occasion. Well I LOVE John J Muth's watercolors. 

There was a different Robert Louis Stevenson poem in one of Caroline Kennedy's book which is also in The Baby Einstein book we own. Talk about 6 degrees of separation! 

A Moment of Perfection.

As cliche as it may seem ... the book is always better than the movie. In the case of Fight Club, I thought the movie made the book justice. 

The movie was almost perfect. The only thing missing from the movie was the way that the unnamed protagonist meets Tyler Durden. The book version was amazing! 

The words at the end of chapter three resonated with me. Sometimes a dwell on the thought that I spent countless hours and days working on a project for a mere moment of satisfaction. That minute of perfection IS worth the effort. 

 I wonder why the Edward Norton's character didn't meet Tyler at the nudist beach. Brad Pitt, Nude, building a giant hand shadow....would have been cinematic gold! 

Here's to your words Chuck Palahniuk!

Today is the Day!

"Congratulations! Today is your day!" is the first line in Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. Everyone should read this book when they come across some kind of change in their life: Be it good or bad.

I feel that for the past 3 years I have been stuck in the infamous "WAITING PLACE"....."a most useless place, the waiting place, for people just waiting." That's exactly how I describe my last 3 years. But I will no longer be in the horrendous waiting place. Dr. Seuss said it, "somehow you escape that place, all that waiting and staying." I choose to wait no more. I will dedicate myself to the things and people I love.

I came across this cute canvas art at Joss & Main. I absolutely love all their stuff! Well the saying on the canvas inspired me to make a graphic using Picmonkey.com. I have been meaning to change my facebook cover for a while. I wanted something inspiring and unique. So instead of just google-ling it, I decided to make it myself!

I searched online and found out that the facebook cover dimensions are 851 pixels by 315 pixels. Then I went crazy choosing the fonts and adding overlays. After my computer turning off 3 times, and one miscalculation on the placement of the profile picture, I came up with this:

I am quite satisfied with it! I am going to try and make a different one every week!

Boys Boys Boys

Sugar & spice and everything nice... I will never experience this. With 5 boys in my hubby's side of the family (only 2 are mine!) it's all about...

I played around with some edits on the same photo.

One thing is for sure, one day these little boys will be men.

Boys to Men

Getting all pumped up for the first day of school got me all motherly. Once again I can't just live in the moment. I started thinking about the kind of men my boys will grow up to be: More specifically their occupations.

Do you think that Barrack Obama's mom looked at him when he was baby and said "I just know you will be president some day"?

I know that certain children are born into affluentual families and are destined to continue in the family business. Some take their place willingly others go in fighting and screaming. Then there are the few that want to make their own mark in the world unobstructed by nepotism. When I become a rich entrepreneur (took me a while to figure out how to spell that: Don't judge me!) I would hope my sons would carry on the family business but I would not force them into it. I guess that choice becomes harder with 3rd generation family corporations. 

I try to tell my sons everyday that it doesn't matter what they chose as a career as long as they are happy with their choice. I can't wait to see the type of men they will become. The opportunities are endless.