SPUR and FiDO

Fairytales & Princesses

2011-03-28T12:38:00.000-05:00

Because it's Monday & I deserve to dream of princess land....
Get ready to use your princess movie trivia.

Hermes Spring 2010 Ads

Annie Leibovitz for Disney

Gisele Bundchen / Mikhail B. / Tina Fey (she's Tink)

J Lo. / Marc Anthony

Julianne Moore / Michael Phelps

Julie Andrews / Abigail Breslin

Jeff Bridges / Penelope Cruz

Rachel Weisz

Scarlett Johansson

And in perfect Disney fashion, a happily ever after with...

Zac Efron / Vanessa Hudgens

Printastic!

2011-03-11T14:55:00.000-06:00

I have a reading assignment at work. All about what it means to be "left brained" or "right brained". It's boring. Kinda. But what I discovered related to it is not!

I found these on this website. They archive awesome print media (and digital jazz too).
* PS - It would be helpful to know, I'm the print buyer at my job hence the extra excitement over people who produce awesome print marketing vs the other lame stuff. *

Here are some other note worthy print ads that caught my fancy.

Creative. / Beautiful.

Creative. / Relevant.

Creative. / Hysterical.

Temple Grandin

2011-03-03T16:25:00.000-06:00

If you haven't seen the movie Temple Grandin, you need to rent it. Tomorrow.
It is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time with an unbelievable storyline. I was telling a co-worker about it this morning and said "at one point I caught myself just smiling at the television". I don't think I can say that about many movies.

For those of you who haven't heard about Temple here's your catch up. She is autistic. She didn't speak until age four. She was predicted to never function in normal society. She now has a bachelors degree in psychology - masters degree in animal science - doctoral degree in animal science & is a professor at Colorado State. (among all the published reports, books and movies of course)

She impacted the world of cattle farming like no other, designing corrals that reduced the stress level cows felt thereby making the entire process much more effective. (that might sound like a strange topic to be interested in but I'm telling you, watch the movie)

Oh yeah, and she was named one of Time Magazines 100 most influential people in the world. (so really, watch the movie!)

Dancers Among Us : Jordan Matter

2011-02-09T11:50:00.000-06:00

Hold Up! Photographer Jordan Matter captures professional dancers around NYC doing everyday things in 'dramatic fashion'...and I love it! (see all the details & pic gallery here)
He's also the photographer behind the book Uncovered. I'll let you go see the concept but the book sits in my Amazon wish list now. I'm not typically attracted to things that are "too liberal" but that one I like! Here are some of my favorite Dancers Among Us images.

Speaking Of Weddings...

2011-01-14T22:18:00.001-06:00

Lookie at what I did! I got a chance to play "behind the scenes assistant photog in training chick" the day my lovely bride-to-be friend / co-worker (& blogger too) KB had her bridal portraits taken. Another talented co-worker of ours did the real photography and didn't mind letting me lurk in the background. Plus I held the light a couple times too! Since there's like a 1 in a trillion chance someone important would see these pics here and spoil a surprise KB gave me the go ahead to post now!

This was my first "shoot" experience with a DSLR. And my first time to edit raw images. I have a lot to learn! One day I hope to be pretty good at all this junk :) Until then, I'll take what I can get! There are little things about all these shots that I would change but for the most part I was pretty pumped about how they turned out. And since this is a very amateur forecast of what the real deal will look like ... you can only imagine! Thanks for letting me play KB!

We started at Moss Rock Preserve in Hoover, AL

Isn't that jacket awesome! She couldn't have picked a better one.

Then we moved to a studio downtown with this fabulous brick wall.

I'm a sucker for studio shots so I got most of my pics here.

I wish I had moved to the left for this one, but it still made my favs list.

The stuff you can accomplish with a little light is pretty darn amazing, not gonna lie.

Again, wish I had adjusted the angle and some stuff here but

I love how she's sitting in this pic.

She's pretty easy on a lens, can you tell yet :)

There are many things to love about her dress,

but the wrinkle factor is high on the list.

I tried true grayscale with this one.

And this is my grand finale. I LOVE this one. A lot.

If the light wasn't touching her head I may not have found anything to complain about :)

Never the less, this won my vote for myself for the day.

Visions Of White

2011-01-12T07:00:00.002-06:00

Unless you've been under a rock, you're aware ... Kate Middleton gets married April 29th at Westminster Abbey in probably the wedding of the century! (w/ the help of Prince whatshisname of course) ;)
While I could gush about many things in that one little statement, this is all about the buzz surrounding the ~~threads~~ dress Ms Middleton may don on the big day.

The above are some of my favorite images for a slide show Womens Wear Daily put together after asking several designers for suggestions of their visions for the bride to be. - watch here -
We can only guess who could be ever so lucky to actually get the gig!

It's Great To Be...

2011-01-11T22:04:00.001-06:00

An Auburn Tiger! (if you were in 'chant' mode just then, you get extra points!)
An ode' to the newest, biggest and baddest National Champs. :)

Fun fact bout' the blogger: if I ever dyed my hair this is the pic I'd take to the salon

Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy

The World Spins Madly On

2011-01-03T20:25:00.000-06:00

Into 2011 that is.
And with that comes my first post in SOME time.
But I'm back.

So, here's your first pretty of the year.

Enter, Ryan Woodward. A guy who says, "this project, an exhibition of figurative works and experimental animation, leaves behind my traditional artistic preferences of the narrative and enters the realm of individual interpretation." about his 2-D short animation. Please, lose yourself for three minutes and five seconds on me.
You're welcome in advance.
WATCH HERE (<--scroll down just a bit when you get there)

The second video gives you a behind the scenes glimpse and it's worth the watch too!

Click around the whole site and read about it ... it's just cool. Hope you enjoy!

It Don't Matter If You're Black Or White

2010-07-07T21:26:00.000-05:00

Veggies, Rain Boots, that Skirt & A 'Could Be' DIY Headboard ...

2 Chairs / 2 Owls ...

Wrap Around Wall Stripes on The "One Day" To-Do List & A Beautiful Lady ...

Either of Which I Would Love to Call My Own ...

And Because You Will Forever Inspire RIP King Of Pop ...

God Bless The USA

2010-07-03T19:42:00.000-05:00

{Better Homes & Garden} - {Country Living} - {Martha Stewart}

I Love Books

2010-07-01T21:25:00.018-05:00

Place me in here ... just replace those red & white shoes with orange & blue!
{credit for the southern football cliche please} ;)

Which do we prefer ... Belts & Buckles or Ribbon & Sparkle

Below is an illustration from Jane Mount. Here's what she says about painting portraits of people's bookshelves. "...because you can learn a lot by their grouped covers. Recently I've been painting "Ideal Bookshelves": a collection of someone's favorites, often around a particular subject matter."
I'm not gonna lie, I put an imaginary face & story w/ each image she has posted. I picked this one to post, what's that say???

Yummy x Two ...

And then there's FiDOs love for books ...

The Carrie Diaries & The Girl Who Played With Fire ... his choices say ... Ha!

Flower Power

2010-06-29T21:10:00.000-05:00

I recently had a chance to hone in on my florist skills, delivering a little birthday happiness to a friend. Have a look at a lil' bit of flower power.

A Real Simple Review

2010-06-19T20:36:00.000-05:00

As my mom would say, "I take Real Simple." The magazine is one of the constants in my life that I know will always spur some type of idea. In Julys' issue, inspiration bits came in the form of lists. Unbeknownst to big wig editors, I happen to love lists & I recently started blogging to document all my findings sooooo it fit just right. Don't you love when things work out that way!

List #1 : a playlist

Have you heard of SongVote.com. I had not. Free to sign up. The objective is, you enter a playlist w/ a category (i.e. dinner party) and allow others to vote on their favorite songs from your list. Most votes = Best songs. Or, like me, you could just use it as a place to research possible missing gems for your own ipod. Here is a sneak peek at two of the playlist I viewed.

Road Trip:

Free Fallin' - Tom Petty

Up On Cripple Creek - The Band

Proud Mary - Ike & Tina Turner

Driving Song - Widespread Panic

Pool Party:

Soak Up The Sun - Sheryl Crow

One Love - Bob Marley

Return Of The Mack - Mark Morrison

The Boys Of The Summer - Don Henley

Any missing gems for you???

List #2 : a happy list

Author (and psychologist) Paul Bloom appears in Julys' issue with his article "10 Ways To Find More Pleasure." While this list may not be new inspiration, it's the kind you can use over and over and over...

I've combined #5 & #10 for some time now, unaware they were 'list contenders', and I can vouch for both that it works! Maybe I'll draft my own list of 'happys' and see if they pop up later in life somewhere else!

Silver Mirror

2010-06-17T23:18:00.021-05:00

Yes Please...

{mental picture here}

The Girl Behind The Blog, Awestruck & Forever In Love, Standing In Front Of Her Dream Job In NYC Last Year

So Complimentary...

Animal Skin Meets Slick Silver...

FiDOs' Debut Apperance...

Follow The Silver Mirror Road...