facebook friends

An interesting thought on facebook friends from Stan James.

"Since TV was invented, critics have pointed out the dangers of watching the perfect people who seem to inhabit the screen. They are almost universally beautiful, live in interesting places, do interesting work (if they work at all), are unfailingly witty, and never have to do any cleaning. They never even need to use the toilet. It cannot be psychologically healthy to compare yourself to these phantasms.

So it’s interesting that social networks have inadvertently created the same ou effect, but using an even more powerful source. Instead of actors in Hollywood, the characters are people that you know to be real and have actually met. The editing is done not by film school graduates, but by the people themselves."

You will want to read the rest of his insightful post on "not-so-close facebook friends" here.

via:Ben Basnocha

a mother's love

I read about this book, Lift on the blog the lil bee. It is about a mother's love for her two daughter's and how it has changed her life. I went to Amazon {as I always do when I hear about a book} and read the reviews. Reading some of the excerpts from the book brought tears to my eyes. It sounds like a book that anyone who is a mother or mother to be would love.

conversation

Love this post about the rules of conversation via Scott Adams:

"A conversation, like dancing, has some rules, although I've never seen them stated anywhere. The objective of conversation is to entertain or inform the other person while not using up all of the talking time. A big part of how you entertain another person is by listening and giving your attention. Ideally, your own enjoyment from conversation comes from the other person doing his or her job of being interesting. If you are entertaining yourself at the other person's expense, you're doing it wrong.

You might think that everyone on earth understands what a conversation is and how to engage in one. My observation is that no more than a quarter of the population has that understanding. I was solidly in the conversationally clueless camp until I took the Dale Carnegie course, in which one small part of the learning dealt with the mechanics of conversation. It was a life-changing bit of knowledge.

Prior to the Dale Carnegie course I believed that conversation was a process by which I could demonstrate my cleverness, complain about what was bugging me, and argue with people in order to teach them how dumb they were. To me, listening was the same thing as being bored. I figured it was the other person's responsibility to find some entertainment in the conversation. That wasn't my job. The good news is that once I learned the rules of conversation, I was socially reborn. It turns out that active listening is more fun than talking, although sometimes you need to guide the conversation toward common interests."
via: Andrew Sullivan

mad men

Heading out to a family barbecue with my husbands cousins and then later on tonight the new season of Mad Men. I don't watch that much TV but this is my favorite show. I love seeing the 60's fashions, the inside of an advertising business and the way the great cast depicts that time period. Slate has a funny Mad Men TV club that dissects each episode. You can read it here.
image: staticblog

miracles happen

When I saw this picture the other day of my niece's first ultrasound I broke down and cried. She has been through so many trials in her life {battling 2 cancers} that seeing the first picture of her baby was almost to much to take in. I was overwhelmed with joy and happiness for her and Danny. It reminds me again that life is a mix of joy and pain and maybe that's why when joy like this comes it literally takes your breath away!

life is precious

I read about Marija a design blogger on facebook this morning via Erin. It is so sad. I had never read her blog but wish I had. I did read several of her posts today. I loved reading about her wonderful family and enjoyed her interesting writing and design thoughts. Her husband wrote a beautiful post about their life together here. It really reminds you to treasure life and our loved ones every day.

summer beach house

Ever since we moved into a smaller house I love seeing how other people decorate in a small space. A great example here, a cute colorful beach house via House Beautiful.

summer skirt

Love this skirt from stephanieteague at her Etsy store.
via: simply hue

happy 4th of july

Noah getting ready for fireworks fun! I'm on my way to the farmer's market to get some fresh fruit for this yummy salad and then we will be barbecuing carne asada to go with it later on today. Have a wonderful holiday!

noah's 2nd birthday

My daughter Brittany loves decorating for parties. For her son Noah's 2nd birthday she thought a bug themed party would be perfect since his absolute favorite thing is being outside. She made the cute decorations and I got the cake. We were really happy with the way it turned out. A few of his other loves to remember as he turns 2. Doing pat,pat, pat blast off to the Einstein video's, pushing strollers, playing in his pool, reading and learning new words, cookies and spotting planes as they fly by. I am so lucky to have him in my life as he reminds me every day of the joy and wonder all around us!