Birthday bracelet

I started this one (plus a failed third one) before I even finished my first bracelet in order to give it to a classmate of mine for her birthday.

First Peyote Stitch Bracelet

So rather than trying to make fitness/gym resolutions I knew I wouldn't keep I decided to take on jewelry making. After going on Etsy.com for some inspiration I settled on learning peyote stitch (thanks to Carol Dean Sharpe's beautiful jewelry). Here is my first project. It was a bit more than I had planned. It took me two hours just to stitch one inch of this bracelet. I've put it down for now so that I can work on another bracelet (which will be given as a birthday present). But I plan to get back to this one soon.

Spotting Music

I've been hearing a lot about Spotify lately. I haven't given it a try, but according to their website, "Spotify is a new way of listening to music. Think of Spotify as your new music collection. Your library. Only this time your collection is vast: over 15 million tracks and counting. Spotify comes in all shapes and size, available for your PC, Mac, home audio system and cell phone. Wherever you go, your music follows you. And because the music plays live, there’s no need to wait for downloads and no big dent in your hard drive." It doesn't sound so revolutionary to me, but I'll give it a try. After all, some tech gurus are claiming that Spotify will be the demise of Pandora, which I really like, so if I go by their logic, I should absolutely love Spotify. We'll see...

Two Interesting Travel Apps

I'm always looking for great travel and photography apps for my iPad and/or Android phone. I have just about all the lonely planet apps, but they're really nothing visually inspiring. So I was very happy to find two sets of apps that use photography to make their points.

The first set of apps is called Cool Cities and is available for the iPhone and iPad. teNeue Digital Media GmbH created these travel guides with great images that don't suffer when scaled up for the iPad. The descriptions are brief and to the point. Currently, Cool Cities' inventory includes Berlin, London, New York, Paris, and Rome apps. The regular price is $1.99, although you can find them for free from time to time. Check 'em out!


Another great set of apps is the Fotopedia series and is only available for the iPhone and iPad. There are seven in total - Above France, Dreams of Burma (new and free at the moment), Heritage, Memory of Colors, National Parks, North Korea, and Paris. The images in each app are stunning! I found the North Korea to be interesting since you get to see that propaganda machine at work during everyday scenes. The makers of Fotopedia have gotten a lot of flack for only showing the "positive" side of life in North Korea, but honestly, I think that is a bit unfair, considering how controlling the government is there. I doubt they would have let the photographer leave with any images showing them in a bad light. Seeing as how it is very unlikely that I will ever go to North Korea, I appreciated the images captured in this app. I have posted some of the images below for you all to take a look at.

Daytripping in southern MA

I spent part of the weekend in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts going to various open (art) studios. There was some interesting stuff. I particularly enjoyed Sarah Benham (no website yet), Libby Manchester Gilpatric, and Kelly Milukas. Not to be outdone by the artists I made some time to take pictures while driving around. Here's my favorite shot of the day.

Three Years And Nothing! So How About A New Start?

I started this blog back in 2008 with the intention of posting stories, poetry, and other creative literary works. I have written a number of things, but I have felt too insecure most of the time to post anything. So instead of a prolific number of posts I have had three years of zilch. But I really, really, really want to change that. So this time, I plan on going about things a little differently. Rather than focusing on one thing (i.e., writing), I plan on using this space to post things about food and cooking, travel and culture, technology, photography, writing, and any other miscellaneous things that interest me. Some of the post will be regarding my experiences or creations, while other posts will be about places, people, or things that relate back to the previously mentioned interests.

In order to build some sort of structure I plan on keeping the following posting schedule:
Mondays - Photography
Tuesdays - Travel and/or Culture
Wednesdays - Technology
Thursdays - Food and cooking
Fridays - Writing

Weekend - Miscellaneous (as needed)

Things might change every once in a while, but I will try to keep to the schedule. I hope you keep following, and please provide and feedback or suggestions. Thanks!