Lewis Hine

I love the work of Lewis Hine. He was a photographer in the early 1900's to 1930's. His work depicts immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, housing and labor conditions in the U.S., and the relationship between workers and machinery. His eye opening photographs helped convince authorities to pass better housing codes, laws that prohibited child labor, and safety laws for all workers. In 1930 and 1931, Hine was commissioned to photograph the construction of the Empire State Building. That series is my favorite of his work.

Here are some of his photographs of the construction of the Empire State Building:

View of the building rising to about sixteen stories, Lewis Hine

Connecting the beams, Lewis Hine

Icarus, high up on Empire State, Lewis Hine (this is my absolute favorite)

Worker torch-cutting steel, Lewis Hine

Worker signaling below, view looking north east, Lewis Hine

Plumbing up a column, Lewis Hine

Workers guiding hoisting cable, Lewis Hine

A worker hanging on to two steel beams, Lewis Hine

A worker at the edge of a platform, looking north, Lewis Hine

Can you even imagine what it must have been like to work there in the 30's? No hard hats, no harnesses, no welding masks... And you're building the world's tallest building! And I'm pretty sure they didn't have Afflack or Worker's Comp to support their families if they were injured or killed on the job! I'm so glad that Hine's work led to stricter labor laws.

dining room

If I had a dining room (and a pile of cash waiting to be spent), I'd buy this table in a heartbeat:

Darjeeling dining table from CB2, $899.

CB2's description:

Reclaim, restore, re-train. Rare saal wood is reclaimed from old Indian railroad
ties, restored, and pieced in a natural plank mosaic dining surface of raw awe.
Supported on industrial metal square tube legs, blackened with exposed welding
marks. Legs are inset flush at the sides and notched in the top, becoming one
with the patchwork. Wood is left unfinished in its natural state. Seats up to 8.

It has excellent reviews and is definitely unique.

message to stanley

Untitled (Let's Get Lost) by Shaun Sundholm. For sale on 20x200.

be excellent to each other

Print by PantryPressInc, for sale on etsy.

I want this. I looove this. I need for this to be my motto (maybe then I'll be a better person!).

Thanks to Modern Homebody for calling my attention to this.

May Goals

1. Get hair cut. Preferably to look like Ginnifer Goodwin's hair.

2. Finish TTV camera. This has been in the works for a ridiculously long amount of time. I blame it on the fact that I already finished building it but it's not large enough to actually work. After that I was too frustrated to re do it.
3. Make dentist appointment for Stan & I.
4. Take Rebar to the vet.
5. Finish painting.
6. Put my office back together. Not necessarily clean my office... but put everything back where it was. It was chaos before but it was organized chaos. Now it's everything's-all-effed-up chaos.
7. Do workout video twice a week.
8. Go running with Stan and Rebar twice a week.

I have more goals but I think I need to stop somewhere if I want to attain any of these.

I might go start on #6 right now. I'm sewing a baby present for my boss for the work shower I'm throwing her on flipping Tuesday (and I'm not nearly finished figuring out the food/decorations!! ack!) and it would really be in my best interest to clear off my sewing table so I can sew.

Tar

Sad day. Got a text message from my mom this morning telling me that our oldest cat, Tar, was killed by dogs last night. He was 13 years old. He didn't take nothin' from nobody so it's probably not a complete shock that a fight was what did him in but still... it's very sad. He actually survived so many fights that it was hard to believe he was even capable of dying. I think I imagined that he would die of old age in his 20's. I never really thought he'd ever lose a fight. Not Tar. He was too tough.

He was the first cat our family had since we were babies. He taught us kids how to be cat owners. We used to do a lot of crazy things to that poor guy! For a while we'd bathe him... we even bought a cat harness and leash! The baths lasted longer than the harness. He used to follow us as we'd walk to elementary school in the mornings. He used to drink out of my beta's fish bowl (but never tried to get the fish). When I'd take a bath he'd come sit on the edge of the tub and I'd turn on the faucet a little and he'd sit there on the edge and drink from the faucet.

He was a really good cat. I'll really, really miss him.

Pretty pretty jewelry

Oh boy, I love etsy so much! If I was a rich lady I would shop for all my jewelry on etsy only. I love how talented people are!

You should definitely treat yourself to one of these (or treat me for that matter! I won't mind):

Sterling Silver Addie Earrings by thepebblecollection. $20 (pretty affordable!).

Cultured pearl Edythe Ring by thepebblecollection. $21. She makes it to your ring size too. This would be a neat non-traditional engagement ring.

Sterling silver and grey quartz Edythe Ring by thepebbledcollection. $21. Also custom sized.Lillians Treasures Sunlight Necklace by twochickstoo. $33. I like necklaces with charms.

Sterling silver Gummy Bear Necklace by livewire. $56. Cast from a mini gummy bear!

OK I saved the best for last. These handmade rings are titanium bands with a stone tension set into between the two ends. I love almost all of ShadeJewelry's rings in this series but these are my favorites:

Titanium Super Shiny Band Tension Set 1/2 Carat Blue Diamond Ring. I think the color of the blue diamond (conflict-free) is GORGEOUS! He makes these rings in whatever size you want. Get ready for the price tag... deep breath... $1,500. Now, I know this is totally worth it and is in fact a lot cheaper than most engagement rings (not mine though), but still... this is definitely out of my reach!

IF I won a million dollars I'd have a hard time deciding between the ring above and the one below. The one below is a saphire which is what my engagement ring is. I'm a sucker for saphires (something about the deep blue color pulls me in) so I might just go with the one below.

Titanium Tension Set Twist of Fate Band 1/2 Carat Round Blue Sapphire Ring. Isn't that saphire BEAUTIFUL??? I could just stare at it for hours. I think something about that color hypnotizes me a little. This one is closer to my price range (ha!) at $750... not gonna happen in this lifetime. :-/

Twilight love

Alright, allow me to indulge my inner teen girl for a second... look at the Twilight-related pretty things I can buy on the internet! (yay internet)

Bella's leather bag in the movie. It's the exact bag too because the prop people bought it from the seller when they were filming Twilight. She has a cute little story about it on the item listing. I love it. It's attractive, it looks sturdy, and I like the teal feather. Plus, as I was watching Twilight, I kept thinking to myself "that's a really cute bag!" It's really expensive though. Too bad I already got my (expensive) birthday present. Looks like I'll just have to drool over this for awhile.

Our potential house?

We're really loving this house plan: http://www.dreamhomesource.com/country_house-plans_DHSW36087.hwx It may end up being the one!

We'd like to put on a metal roof (grey/silver not green). White siding. Dark blue shutters and front door. Paint the ceiling over the front porch a light blue.

Turn the hobby room into my darkroom. Turn the dining room into our office. Bedroom two becomes a craft room/exercise room. Bedrooms three and four are guest bedrooms.

I've always wanted a darkroom and I love that this house plan has a space we can convert to one pretty easily (without having to remove a bathroom)!

Art I'm in love with

I would love to own these:

Icebreaker, Emperor penguin, Southern O., Antarctica by Stuart Klipper (buy print here)


Swell, Southern Ocean – near 50° S, Antarctica by Stuart Klipper (buy print here)

The Constellation of the Elephant by Alexander Beeching (buy print here)

http://www.20x200.com/ is a great place to find limited edition art starting at $20!

Our future home?

We might be building a house on this:


11.83 acres outside of Livingston, TX! Equal distance from Stan's work (Humble) and mine (Huntsville). It is technically 12 acres, but the county built E. Capps Road on part of that 12 acres. So it's 11.83 usable acres.

We've already been dreaming about what we'd put on our property if we do this (baseball fields, walking trail, stocked pond, gardens, pool) and what our dream house would look like (holy cow there are a lot of house plans on the internet!).

Fun stuff. Keep your fingers crossed!

Astros 2009 season!

The offseason is FINALLY over! Tonight is the first game of the season. Astros vs. Cubs, 6:05 PM. Go Stros!