mrs. brightside's [my beautiful mess]

crazy, but it kind of makes sense

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:46:00 +0000

This is a letter from a school superintendent here in Michigan asking Gov. Snyder if his school can become a prison - read it, it makes sense.

Dear Governor Snyder,

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.

One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future...by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.

Respectfully submitted,

Nathan Bootz, Superintendent, Ithaca Public Schools

couldn't have said it better

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:56:00 +0000

He may wear eyeliner from time to time, but he makes a good point.

clever, clever, clever

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:11:00 +0000

i love a clever ad!

cupcakes & beer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:57:00 +0000

on tuesday i turn one year older. at this point some might not exactly see it as a huge reason to celebrate. i should have more money at this age, own a home, have children, have a least one marriage under my belt.....why do birthdays, which are intended to celebrate our whole existence {yay! i'm glad you were born} tend to be more a time of reflection? it seems a perfect time to catalog all of the things we have yet to accomplish and, more importantly should have accomplished by now.

don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining about my life. i own my own business, have a wonderfully close family, utterly fantastic friends.....which leads me to my reason for blogging, my lovely friends. we had a girls night on friday, nothing crazy - a few drinks, birthday wishes & lots of laughs. carrie, our resident fabulous baker, even made me {i may have lightly hinted that she could bake something if she wanted} delicious raspberry & lemon cupcakes. we're not talking a mix from a box, these were homemade & FANTASTIC!

so the brightside to turning one year older? cupcakes & beer!

the I-75 project

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:15:00 +0000

love this. visit Norm Magnusson's site to view the markers + learn more about this fantastic project.

common sense is not so common

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 May 2011 00:44:00 +0000

so let's not dwell on my poor blogging manners, i've been busy. i know, i know, not a very good excuse but it's all i have.

so........i just spent well over an hour reading the posts on this site, clientsfromhell.net - hi-lar-i-ous! thank god i've lucked out + have never had experiences with my clients like the submissions on this site, but i can see how easily it could happen.

April 28, 2011

"What do you mean “payment”? You told me you were freelancing?"

corinne vionnet

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:20:00 +0000

artist corinne vionnet scoured the internet for snapshots of monuments taken by tourists. after collecting hundreds of photos of one monument she then compiled them into one image. i love the texture and water color effect. wish i could get out of my comfort zone to take on a project like this.

[ source ]

liu bolin

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:11:00 +0000

chinese artist who paints himself to blend into his surroundings. simply stunning.

sunday kind of love

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:03:00 +0000

simply brilliant

blah

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:43:00 +0000

i'm horrible at blogging lately. sorry. not feeling very chatty i guess. i did revamp the header......

spell check

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:06:00 +0000

saw this on a minivan a few weeks back

h a l l A w e e n.

really?

we have wood

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:33:00 +0000

Our neighbor cut down one of their trees this week and my brother-in-law [Mr. G] was practically drooling over the wood and the prospect of all the backyard fires & smores that could be had.

This tree was massive and when I stepped out the front door this morning I was greeted by this huge piece of the trunk. I have to admit, my inner 12 year old did have the urge to climb all over it but I suppressed it and took a ton of photos instead.

I tried to count the rings but lost track around 35.......

lovely

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:14:00 +0000

Mrs. N [daily partner in crime at the studio] picked this up for me, wasn't that thoughtful! I will definitely be putting this to good use once the new space is complete. I think I've got a pretty good idea of the new layout. It's a slow process, bit by bit and I just want to get in there and finish it! Good lesson in patience.

[if you're in need of a little pampering elements is the best!]

well i feel like a whiney bitch

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:38:00 +0000

[he begins playing WITH HIS FEET at 2:15]

[...a little perspective never hurt...]

tied in knots

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:34:00 +0000

The new studio space is finally coming together unfortunately it's at the expense of my neck. I used to be able to sleep no matter the amount of stress I was under but lately, while I sleep and dream, I go over all the things I need to accomplish. All this does is cause my neck to become one huge ball of tension that radiates up the back of my head. I'm dying to get into the studio and put in place all the plans I have. I am not the best at being patient. Hopefully within the next week or so I can begin to de-clutter and de-stress.
Let's just hope my neck makes it......

a yellow lab named magnum

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:26:00 +0000

As I was driving out of town this afternoon I passed a yellow lab running along the side of the road. All alone, no leash happily trotting down the 55 mph road. Normally when you see a dog offleash it's in a neighborhood and by the time you pull over the dog has taken off. But on this particular road I knew this dog wasn't supposed to be out so I drove a bit further to a driveway so I could turn around & head back toward's him. As soon as I pulled off the road he galloped over, so happy to see someone & even kissed my chin. [if my heart could have melted more for him it would have]

I checked his collar, no tags. Perfect. And the house we were in front of didn't look like anyone was home so I tried the house across the street. After the man peered at me suspiciously through the front window he told me he didn't know who the dog belonged to and shut the door. Really? Just shut the door....not maybe hang on to the dog since you're at home and I'm in my car? Nope, obviously it wasn't his problem. So my great plan was to get him back to my car and call the local police to see if anyone had reported a missing dog. At this point in the story I'm sure all my friends are expecting to hear that I took him home with me and it was looking like that was pretty probable but as we were waiting to cross the street at the end of the non-helpful guys driveway a black truck slowed as it approached & pulled into the next driveway to turn around.

Luckily it was Magnum's owner [who introduced himself but with my notoriously bad memory I've forgotten his name] who had been looking for him for over an hour & was very appreciative that I stopped. And to Magnum's owners credit he did have a tag with his info, it was secured to his collar not hanging off an 'O' ring like typical tags so it isn't as likely to fall off.

So good deed done for the day, Magnum is safe & sound and hopefully I have a little good karma for me as well.

fall love

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:14:00 +0000

happy birthday mrs. h

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 01:30:00 +0000

Mrs. H [my sister] has a pretty big birthday this week so instead of giving her some random gift we spent the afternoon in one of my favorite places, Royal Oak. So many cute shops & good restaurants, so little time......

When I'm down that way I never miss stopping by Shine. The owner, Kelly [see another small business owner named Kelly] always welcomes every customer as if you were old friends. She is just the nicest and has the some great pieces. I picked up an item for a friend but it's a gift so I'll show you guys later. I love these kissing white elephants, so adorable!

Next was lunch at Pronto, hummus [my ultimate fav!] and fried pickles, the best around. We had a couple girly summer drinks over lots of chit chat & gossip [the way only sisters can].

After lunch we stopped into several other stores but it was this last shop, Paris was the name I think, where we found a couple great peices. Mrs. H picked up a cute gray dress, I'll post pics when she wears it and I found a gorgeous chandelier for the new studio space! I was so excited when I saw it I forgot to take a photo so I'll post some later. I can't wait to see it in our new space, it's just perfect. This shop was a nice mix of old & new. Before I spotted the chandelier I noticed these slightly creepy dolls just hanging out in an arm chair and this super cute vintage purse that would make a great sewing basket.

It was a great afternoon and so nice to just hang with Mrs. H, it doesn't happen as often as I'd like, we definitely need to do this more often! Happy Birthday!

a quick project for the studio

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 16:55:00 +0000

In between the massive downloads I've been doing at the studio I've been trying to take care of some projects for our new studio space................I picked up this cute little round table from Le Fluer Decor . The owners name is kelly and lately I keep running into independent business owners who are either named Kelly or Nicole. 'my Nicoles' [kalil & kilpatrick] & I joke that if we ever formed a band we should be called 'kel leigh & the nicoles'. not that any of us can sing or play an instrument but at least we have the name taken care of.]

Ok, back to the table........so I loved it & knew immediately where I was going to put it in the new studio space, but it happened to be bright grape bubblegum purple & the top had a couple gouges at the edge. A little sanding, couple coats of paint & primer in one [i am in love with this new paint & primer in one-it's wonderful!] and the table is reborn. But it felt like it needed a little something more so I scavenged through my piles of fabric and came across this lovely green and rose number. The pink in the fabric was a perfect match and I've been wanting to use this fabric again, I also have it in a square black frame above the bed.

[if you attempt this let me give you a couple suggestions....1.trace the shape you're cutting out on the back side of the fabric with chalk, i used some sidewalk chalk i had around. why i had sidewalk chalk i'm not sure but it came in pretty handy. 2.when you go to put the fabric on leave one side flipped back on itself while smoothing & removing bubbles from the middle out, then move on to the side you had flipped up, smoothing from the middle again. 3.embrace that your fabric will not be perfect & un-frayed. i actually like the ends a bit frayed and uneven.]

.......all finished! This was the first time I've covered a table with fabric & I'm pretty happy with the results. {thanks nicole for letting me borrow your floor. can't wait for the studio to be done!!}

can we pretend it's yesterday?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:49:00 +0000

That way I wouldn't have forgotten my sister & brother-in-laws anniversary. So it's really September 9th and 4 years ago TODAY my sister {Mrs. H} married a wonderful guy {Mr. G} I am so proud to call my brother!

To try to make up for my forgetfulness I went to their house this morning after I knew they were both at work and made a little art project out of their front door with some post-it notes & a sharpie.

They are a great couple........at their wedding during my toast as the maid of honor I told them how proud I was of them & that no matter how hard things may seem they always find their way back to one another, because like John & Paul said......'all you need is love'.

in·de·ci·sive/ˌindiˈsīsiv/

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:23:00 +0000

Adjective

1. Not settling an issue: "an indecisive battle".
2. (of a person) Not having or showing the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively.

I literally just spent over an hour changing the blog. What? You don't see the changes? Well that's because all I did was divide the sidebar items at the bottom and changed the colors a bit. That is after I tried it with about 10 different backgrounds........just white looks too plain but with a pattern or wallpaper it's too busy. I moved the links and sidebar to the left and then the right. I played around with the fonts and spent most of my time trying to figure out how to adjust the html code of the new blogger templates compared to the older versions. Good god, glass of wine and bed for me!

for the love of advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:54:00 +0000

I l.o.v.e. creative unique print ads like these from aveda. A little wierd? Yes. But who can't use a little weird?

a complete waste of time

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:31:00 +0000

but it's kind of fun...........

try it

the perfect summer dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:41:00 +0000

change is good

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:08:00 +0000

Have you ever desperately wanted, no needed things to change? I love change. The anticipation, the wondering how it will all play out, but as much as I love it I don't always handle it very well. I'm a planner, a list maker, and as long as I have a list and know I'm working toward a specific direction I'm good. But change doesn't unfold how we'd prefer, and this I'm having a bit of an issue with.

I'm good at starting over. Trying something out to the point of knowing it'd be successful and suddenly discovering something else that peeks my interest and moving on. Listen I get it, I protect myself from investing too much and getting seriously hurt, let's psychoanalyze later and just try to embrace change.