London Street Photography


I love this slide show of images from a show up at the Museum of London. In fact I loved these images so much that in my mommy haze I believe I sent the same friend a link to the slide show in two separate emails, definitely a must see. My favorite image is the photo of two women in coats and cloche hats, very stylish.

evaluating

Today at church several members of the congregation spoke about a scripture verse regarding the proper use of our time. There was a specific admonition to avoid idleness which really struck me. I am quite busy each day raising two young children and yet I know that I use this as an excuse for laziness in prioritizing the things that I do. In putting out the most immediate fires each day I often neglect things that will pay dividends over time both for myself and my kids. So I'm going to set some time aside tomorrow to think about goals for myself and detailing what I need to do each day to accomplish these things. I'm certainly not expecting to implement a new system of daily activities or organization strategies at the moment but in the spirit of Bill Murray I'll start with baby steps.

Teamwork


As today was spent cleaning the house and watching the BYU vs. SDSU basketball game, I'll have to look to the game as my source of daily inspiration since the thought of even writing about cleaning makes me groan. But on to the game which was really great to watch. I was surprised to actually find myself caring about this game since I haven't really been invested in a basketball team since Adam Morrison was crying at mid-court against UCLA so many seasons ago (that one still hurts to think about). Watching so many people step up and make shots for BYU got me thinking about all of the volleyball teams that I have played for over the years and how rare it was to be on a team where everyone felt and played like an essential part of the team. That positive team energy is pretty elusive (especially when dealing with a bunch of crazy teenage girls) and so I feel really lucky to have had that with a select few teams. Most athletes pay lip service to wanting to win but it's a whole lot harder to actually put your personal wants behind what's best for the team and to have others do the same as well. Ah nothing like a little athletic nostalgia.

Sometimes you feel like a nut


As part of my continuing obsession with food as art I will be sad to miss out on the pop-up Nutropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The gallery will consist of photographs of the classic PB&J reimagined and in a move I think all museums should imitate they'll be giving out a free jar of peanut butter (all natural even!) to every visitor.

The Homeless Hut


Our garage is filled to the brim with random construction waste from building our house. What to do with half a package of roofing shingles, 2 bags of cement, boxes full of nails for the nail gun? These are the questions that continually befuddle me as I try to organize the garage in the hopes of some day housing a car there. Well this article about a guy in MA who builds tiny structures in his backyard out of random debris has inspired me to think again before trying to unload it all at a garage sale or pawn it off on relatives.

killer dress(es)

I like to kill time flipping through the new runway shows as they're uploaded to style.com and I probably spend about 30 seconds scanning each collection. These two looks from London fashion week really jumped out at me causing me to actually pause and determine that if money was coming out of my ears (a la Tyler Perry) I would love to wear these dresses. In other fashion news after a streak dating back ten years I believe (minus a few in college) I've decided to let my Vogue subscription lapse, ah the end of an era.

look 16 from Jonathan Saunders

look 1 from Marios Schwab

Oh Gloria!

The Daily Dose o'Danielle has risen from the ashes! Motivated by the never ending winter and grey sky's, I'm back to find something to inspire me each day and share, so here goes. (and apologizes for the random formatting issues from my older posts, i wanted to include them but I'm not about to spend all day resizing images)

I randomly picked up this pictorial biography of Gloria Vanderbilt as a result of arriving at the library 15 minutes before closing and spending the first 13 minutes trying to track down a potty training DVD to no avail. Who knew she was such a talented and creative woman? Actually most people may know this, but I was totally in the dark and knew her only as the name on the back of jeans from the 70's. Her interior designs were completely inspiring and over the top which I loved. The woman covered her walls, floors and ceiling in quilts and then lacquered over the floor until it became a hard flat surface, genius!