Mistakes happen....

I tried to upload a single page to my website so I could use the URL's to post pictures on the new Spiritual Networks site which is limiting it's storage space. Instead the whole new website got uploaded and replaced my old one. Which really wasn't that old, but it has over 150 pages to it and even I got lost with over 200 necklaces for sale. I need to stay small and controlled. THIS is the new site. I still have a lot of work to do.

Always fun working small --

Not a big tattoo or anything, but I can appreciate how cool Bobby is gonna look in a v-neck.

Yet another scammy spammy email from the Beverly Hills Times

I get these types of emails from the "Beverly Hills Times Magazine" every once in a while.  They seem spammy or scammy in some way and I thought, rather than suffer alone, maybe I should share.  So here goes:

Dear Professor,
The Beverly Hills Times Magazine is considering running an article on experiments proposed at MIT and a few hypotheses. We are seeking background information on the topics related to these experiments and hypotheses. We are asking for your assistance because your extensive expertise has been brought to the attention of the Beverly Hills Times Magazine. The article deals with neuroscience, biophysics, theoretical physics, philosophy, religious studies, ethics, and particle physics.
As background information on the Beverly Hills Times Magazine, my name is Stephen Takowsky, and I am the publisher of Beverly Hills Times Magazine. The Beverly Hills Times is a free magazine that goes to the residences and businesses in Beverly Hills, California. We have several prestigious contributors including: Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich. We maintain close contacts with other media, and our articles have been featured on several media platforms.
For more information on our magazine, you can view our website at bhtmag.com, or you can Google us by searching for Beverly Hills Times.
Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Our main goal at this point is to determine whether there is any established scientific evidence that tends either to support or invalidate the hypotheses. We would also consider publishing one of your own articles as trade for your contribution. We are interested in opinions from multiple fields of expertise. If you do not have time please feel free to forward this to a colleague or students that may be interested in providing feedback.
Please let us know. We would greatly appreciate your feedback. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Here is the url to the hypotheses and experiments: (OfGrandeur.com)
If you are interested, we would appreciate having your comments by September 1, 2011.
Thank you for your time.
Stephen Takowsky
Publisher, Beverly Hills Times Magazine
bhtmag.com
Publisher@bhtmag.com

Others have written about how this seems to be a scam in some way:

• How the Beverly Hills Times Magazine tried to scam me « Bradley ...

If anyone knows more detail out there about this "magazine" please post them.  

Guest Post: Ashley of I Believe in Unicorns

Hello, I'm Ashley from i believe in unicorns. 

I just about died when Danielle asked me to guest post. 

Is she not the most adorable person, and nice to boot?!

Over on my blog I love to do a feature called {Top Five} on Friday. 

I list my 'whatever i feel like' favorites, and then I ask for my readers input.

It's a great way to share ideas and get to know everyone a little better. 

So I'd love to hear some of your ideas as well!

Without further ado, my

{Top Five} Date Ideas on a Budget:

Learning the Argentine Tango with my German friends, Christian.

 1. Learn to Dance.

In almost every city there are places that teach partner dancing lessons. 

Decide if you'd like Latin, Swing, or Ballroom and try out a class. 

They're usually only about $5-7 a person. 

It's a great way to have fun, be active, and observe patience and perseverance skills ;)

2. Movie At Home, But Make It A Little More Interesting.

Hit up your local movie store, redbox, or netflix, pop some popcorn, build a fort, and snuggle up while you watch your favorite flick. (This is fun to do with kids as well!)

Total cost around $5.

source

3. Get a Couples Massage.

Go to a massage school sometimes they have 2 for $20 deals!

Or perhaps give each other massages for free :)

4. Paint!

Stop in at your favorite art supplier a pick up some super cheap canvases, paints and brushes. 

Turn on some good tunes and paint what you feel. You can learn all sorts of things on this date.

(I had no idea my husband, Marcus, was artistic until we did this.)

Total cost around $20.

5. Watch Planes come in at the Tarmac.

Get some deliciously refreshing glass bottle sodas, borrow a friends truck (if you don't have one), fill the back up with pads and pillows and enjoy your time watching the planes come in and talking.

I hope you got some fun ideas. 

Now let's hear some of your favorite dates!

Forgotten Necklaces

Looking through some old boxes of necklaces I picked out a few to make new photos of. The first one is called Enchanted Forest. The beads are red Agate and New Jade.

 The next necklace is called Sweet Dreams Necklace. Again I am using red and green Agate. There is also Moss Agate and black Obsidian beads.

 Below is a necklace I named "My Blessings". If I count the things that are good about my life instead of concentrating on the negative I am much happier. The nuggets are Fancy Jasper.

I love taking walks in the woods. I admit that I talk to trees. It puts me in touch with Mother Nature. This necklace below is called Fantasy Forest. A great deal of inspiration comes from the trees I talk to. And no, they don't talk back. At least not in audible words. The yellowish clear beads are Citrine. Citrine is called "the stone of the mind"

Below is my necklace called "Wild Flowers". Green and red Agate, wood, Unakite, Amethyst, Aventurine and Citrine. Very colorful and wild.

The last necklace here is called "Letting Go Necklace". For me it represents letting go of control and letting things happen as they are meant to. Trusting God.

Well, that's a lot of work for one post. I am ready to make a new necklace. I will be back when it's finished.

Happy Blogiversary To Me! A Re-Post Celebration

Today marks Tattoosday's fourth anniversary, when we first started off here on BillyBlog as a once a week feature, before spinning off into a stand-alone site little over a month later.

To celebrate, I'll be sharing favorite posts from the past four years throughout the day. Just a little celebratory break before we resume our normally-scheduled programming.

I also encourage readers to comment below or email me (tattoosday@gmail.com) and I will attempt to re-post reader favorites throughout the day.

Thanks to all of my readers for supporting me throughout the years! Here's to at least four more years!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Anniversary Re-Post - Julie's Crazy Tattoo

As part of our fourth anniversary, we are re-posting some of our favorite Tattoosday moments. This post is one of my all-time favorites, from June 15, 2010:

Inkspotting can be impulsive, but I also like to approach each volunteer after some consideration.

Rather than rush up on someone and barrage them with questions, I like to make sure the tattoo(s) in question are not only interesting to me, but will be interesting to others.

When I spotted Julie's back in Penn Station, for example, I hesitated:

It wasn't initially clear what her tattoo said and I was struck by its uniqueness. A huge fan of word and type tattoos, I couldn't recall ever seeing anything quite like it.

So my curiosity got the best of me and I introduced myself to Julie.

The tattoo "Loufoque," which is a slang term in butcher jargon for "crazy person". Julie explained that she apprenticed with a butcher shop for six months and it was a word she often heard tossed about by the staff, occasionally used when referring to a customer who might be difficult or, let's say, insane.

The term Loufuque derived from 19th Century butcher slang and it became part of the vernacular. Julie thought that this tattoo would be a great way to commemorate her experience.

The tattoo was done by Ryoko at Brooklyn Tattoo. I asked the artist where she came up with the letter design and she kindly gave me a little more perspective:

"I recall Julie requesting the letters themselves to express lunacy. The final design in the photo is my own interpretation of what she had asked for and I think my intention here was to make the phrase look chaotic and disorderly, yet somewhat maintaining it's legibility. It's what I was able to put together by trying to depict what she might have been imagining in her head at the time."

So, this post was written and prepped and I was online doing some final research when I stumbled upon this tidbit of information from "Of Meat and Men" by Rachel Kramer Bussel over on The Daily Beast:

Her goodbye present from the Fleisher’s staff is a set of knives inscribed with her name and “Loufoque,” French-butcher Pig Latin for “Crazy Lady,” a term she now has permanently tattooed across her back. Yet Powell now sounds much surer of herself than the lost woman whom we find in the early pages of Cleaving. Next up is a stab at a novel: “I’ve written quite enough memoirs for a 36-year-old.”

Was this coincidence? Or were we talking about the same person?

Scrolling back in the article, I discovered that the Powell here and the Julie that I met in Penn Station were one and the same person.

The same person who crafted The Julie/Julia Project, in which the author blogged her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which became a book, which in turn became the film Julie and Julia. All of this Julie never once mentioned. Then again, I never asked. And it is all about the tattoo, after all.

That being said, thanks to Ryoko for sharing her thoughts about creating this tattoo, and a hearty thanks to Julie Powell for sharing this interesting tattoo. I'm glad my curiosity got the better of me!

This entry is ©2010, 2011 Tattoosday.


If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

SOUL SUNDAY

The Mad Lads were an American 1960s doo
wop group from Memphis, Tennessee.
Featuring the tenor of John Gary Williams, the
group were still in high school when they were
signed to Stax in late 1964. In the mid-1960s,
they enjoyed solid R&B hits with "Don't Have to
Shop Around," "I Want Someone," and "I Want
a Girl," although they never would cross over to
the pop audience. Williams and fellow Mad Lad
William Brown were drafted in 1966, and their
recording career was suspended while they
were in the service (although they carried on
live with replacements). After their discharge,
Williams and Brown were told by fellow original
members Julius Green and Robert Philips that
they did not want Brown in the group; Brown
and Stax co-owner Jim Stewart forced them to
reinstate Williams, but their subsequent efforts
were more in the Stax soul/funk formula, and
not as their more atypical mid-1960s singles.
They did return to the Top 30 in the US Billboard
R&B chart in 1968, with "Whatever Hurts You."
The song "Pass the Word (Love's the Word)" was
sampled by the Australian hip-hop group Hilltop
Hoods on their song "Chase That Feeling." The
guitar and horn samples from "Make This Young
Lady Mine" were used extensively in De La
Soul's "Eye Know".

Papa Said V.7

photo graciously provided via Jess

This week's Papa Said is coming from another one of my fave online pals, Jess!  Jess writes the blog TART, which is full of her and her husband's day to day adventures, living in Hawaii and raising their gorgeous daughter Rowan.  If you're a regular reader, you'll even notice that the Papa Said image up there has been Jess' hubby Derek (and Rowan) all along!  When they agreed to participate in this series I was ecstatic- their family is so cute and I was excited to see what Derek would send over. I really love what he said too- especially number two. And be sure to stop by TART- it's one of my daily reads and Jess does such a great job of documenting Rowan's life and all of the fun they have. Rowan is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen, and another one of those doe-eyed beauties that makes me want to have a little girl, stat!  

Thank you guys, for being a part of Papa Said!

You play drums then change a diaper, work on your vintage cars then kiss a boo boo, put on your leopard high tops then rock a BabyBjorn. Happy Father's Day to the sweetest and coolest papa in the world. You're everything to me and Rowan and we couldn't be luckier. (editor's note: Jess originally sent this over on Father's Day!)

And now here's 3 pieces of advice from Derek:
 

1) Part of taking care of your kid is taking care of your marriage. Parenting flows better if your general home life does. Happy wife, happy life! 

2) Having a kid is a 24/7 job for both parents. I may be working all day but so is Jess, taking care of Rowan. So when I come home from work we break even and equally take care of her. I don't expect to be pampered and for Jess to continue all the "work"- she needs a break too. You should want to share that work anyway!

3) Don't buy a bunch of toys. They just end up wanting water bottles and cardboard boxes.

 

Guest Post: Erin from Happy Owl

Hi there! I've been lucky enough to know Danielle a couple years now and you might have seen me in a guest post here and there. My name is Erin from Happy Owl and I have two beautiful sons Noah and Logan and an amazing husband named Mike. We live in Juneau, Alaska and love to explore all that our town has to offer.

My family spent 10 days in Maui a couple of weeks ago and the funniest of things happened. While we were enjoying our first night in paradise, playing in the pool, my iphone fell in the water. Ahhh! My 2 month old phone, still shiny and new, wet and broken! Who would have thought that something like this would have sparked an eye-opening discussion with my husband and a new outlook on self for me. So here goes. My embarrassing, yet real reality I had to face. By far the best gift I got from our vacation.

The first thing I thought when I realized my poor pitiful phone was not coming back on was pure sadness. How am I going to connect; take pictures, read emails, update my blog and facebook? I told Mike immediately, we need to get some rice, soak up the moisture, get my phone back working!! That's when my sweet husband looked at me and in his nicest way said, "Erin, you are addicted to social networking."

Of course at first I said, "no, ME?!! I don't blog everyday, and barely use twitter. I mainly use it for pictures!!"

Mike just laughed and said, "sure..." and that was the end of that discussion. However, it left me thinking. I took a little walk with Logan and really dug deep down and thought about what Mike had said. Too much social networking, for me, could it be true? Come to find out my husband, as most husbands are, was spot on.

Not having my phone made me realize how much I relied on it and the instant gratification and response I could get from it. I was constantly posting pictures on instagram, checking my emails, and reading other blogs, etc. The funny thing was is that I was not spending hours upon hours on the web. But my problem WAS is that I was constantly checking my social networking sites. I thought a couple weeks that I was taking a step back and deleted twitter off my phone. That way I wouldn't check it. But haha! Right about then twitter added a new feature where you are emailed every time someone @ you. So I still found myself responding to people here and there. So really I was just the same.

Now I know so many of you whether you like to admit it or not are doing the same thing. And don't worry, I am NOT calling any of you bad people. There are many good people out there that blog/tweet/facebook daily and I think you still are all fabulous. But all that I want you to think about is would you be able to live without it? Even for a day, week, dare I say month? Taking a step back for me was the best thing that could have happened. I realized that for me, and my family there is so much more than updating status', instagram and facebook. So here is the dare I give to you. Take a day, a whole day away from your smartphones and see how it makes you feel. If there is even a smidge of discomfort then yeah!! Maybe then you'll see how much you relied on the instant joys of social networking. Maybe then, you go on a hike, a campout, even go to the swap meet for a day without updating the world on where you've been, what you ate and what you bought. :) I know for me it's been amazing. Time to get back to making phone calls, writing letters, sending postcards and disconnecting just a bit and enjoying the sweet life. One quiet hour at a time; just as our parents and grandparents still do...

Now I leave you with this commercial I saw the other night. So, so fitting, so funny, so true.




Thanks for listening....erin

Mother Earth

It would be easy for me to slip into a depression when I look at the way people are rushing about, the traffic, folks buying things they can't afford, frowning, quick to flip me off. I have to separate myself. I back off and let the speeding train go by. I look at the trees and pray for peace of mind. It works most of the time. I have my beading room. AC on and a fan, cold glass of lemon tea. Red Rose. I get to pick out the beads to make a new necklace. I become lost in a dream like world as I look at all the beautiful polished rocks that came from the Earth and the Sea. I thank the Great Spirit for this gift. As the rest of life speeds by.

CANDY N CHROME

Moon Princess Necklace

This was a custom order necklace for a teenage girl. I hope she likes it.

Fun with Google Books - Old Books on Bacteria

After discovering a copy of this great 100 year old book on "Bacteria in relation to Country Life" on Google Books I decided to snoop around for other old books on bacteria: Microbiology of the Built Environment – as of ~ 100 years ago: Bacteria in relation to country life

The Bacteria by Antoine Magnin in 1880

Bacteria: especially as they are related to the economy of nature by Sir George Newman

Bacteria: their relation to modern medicine, the arts and industries by Frank Bardwell 1891

Bacteria: what they are, what they do, and how they are cultivated by CHarles Marshall 1896

Bacteria: a lecture delivered at the Oamaru Athenæum and ...

Bacteria: or the general study of germs - by Edward McWeeney

Lectures on bacteria - Page 1 - by Anton Bary 1887

If you expand the search to "microbes" you get some other interesting ones

Microbes and the microbe killer

Microbes, ferments and moulds - Page 119

I am sure there are many others that are fascinating there. It is always interesting to me to see what people were thinking about in terms of microbes in the past. And Google Books is one heck of a convenient way to do this.

SEVENTY DEEP

Here is a preview of our line up at the Convention Center to support our good friend and Loyal tattoo client Sam Torres and his Family Affair Car Show int the heart of Los Angeles..
Stay tuned for more images of the show. Thanks to our boy Willie T @goodtimesmedia
for the images.
Lifestyle C.C. 35 yrs Strong!

Guest Post: Moorea from Moorea Seal

Hi everyone!  My name is Moorea and I blog over at Moorea-Seal.com.  I am a jewelry designer, an illustrator focusing in portraiture, a blogger, and a blog designer with Freckled Nest Designs.  Being a 25 year old, running my own businesses, I try to be very cautious with my money and I feel pretty guilty if I ever go on big shopping sprees.  Most of my money goes towards bills, feeding myself, and investing back into my businesses.  I've never been into collecting knick knacks of any kind, I buy almost all of my furniture second hand, and I prefer my spaces to be clean and minimal.  But, as it seems true for everyone, I do have my one guilty pleasure.  SHOES!

As with most things, I try to only buy things when they are on sale.  I love my shoes, a lot, but I don't want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on them.  There are lots of ways to get high quality things without paying full price.  Having been a shoe addict since I was little, I've come to find that the best place to get really high quality shoes that will last for years and years AND are really affordable is Nordstrom Rack.  I've gotten shoes that were originally priced in the hundreds marked down to just $20 before.  I think I bought the tall boots in center of the image below for about $30 marked down
from $180 at Nordstrom Rack at least 7 years ago and they are still in great shape and still stylish.  So worth it!

As you can tell, I definitely have a certain style that I stick to.  I prefer neutral colors, leather, sometimes I'm a little bit earthy/woodsy and sometimes I'm a little bit edgy with tall tall heels.  I don't wear shoes that will kill my feet, so I am picky about the heels I pick out.  And honestly, heels are much more comfortable for me than flats because I have a super high arch.

I think that shoes are the most important part of any outfit I put together.  Accessories are my favorite (obviously, since I'm a jewelry designer, haha) and shoes are a favorite accessory of mine.  They make me feel comfortable while I'm on the go and each shoe style reflects my varying moods perfectly.

After taking these photos of my shoes stacked on my living room shelves I definitely took a step back and said, well, I probably don't need to buy any more shoes ever again!  I've got all my bases covered for styles that I like.  I've collected these shoes over a very very long period of time, years and years.  And I'm glad I almost never pay full price because I'd feel awful if I looked at these shoes everyday and thought about the amount of money I'd spent on them.  So, I doubt I'll be buying any shoes anytime soon.

Do you have any guilty pleasures or vices?  What do you do to make sure you don't go crazy with it?  I am thankfully at a point, looking at my shoes, where I can say.  Alright, I don't need any more at all unless I sell some or donate some.  I also have spending limits so I'm not just buying every shoe I see as I walk down the street.  How do you keep yourself in check?

The Quotable Tom Ford

As a new season of Project Runway premiered last night, I thought I'd share a fashion-related tattoo. Working on "Fashion Avenue," I see a lot of ink on people in the industry. Here's one from Megan:

This is a quote by the fashion designer Tom Ford:

"Beauty is an illusion/It is here only for a moment/Then it fades/But in the brief moment of existence/It has forever/impacted the world"

Megan read these words in one of Ford's books, in a section about evening wear.

"I love Tom Ford," she told me, "and I think he's a very smart man."

The tattoo was done about 2-3 years ago at Ink Candy in Hollywood by an artist named Angel.

Thanks to Megan for sharing this inspirational quote with us here on Tattoosday!

Blue Sky Jasper Necklace

Here is a necklace I made for a friend. He really liked the Blue Sky Jasper bead he picked out. I used Amber, Apatite and wood. I think it turned out nice.

Guest Post: Kristine of Kristine or Polly

Hello Sometimes Sweet readers! My name is Kristine and I run a personal style blog called Kristine or Polly.

Mostly, my blog is about my personal style, but today, I'd like to share with you a bit about where I live!

My husband and I moved from America to Japan in April to teach English. It has been such an eye opening experience for us both, and we absolutely love it! Here are a few of my favorite things about living in Japan:

1. The history.

Living in a place with such rich history is absolutely incredible. I grew up in a place where it seems nothing is older than thirty years, so it's such a treat to be able to visit places that have been long-standing for hundreds of years!

2. The architecture 

I love seeing how differently the houses and buildings are designed here. There is also a very interesting juxtaposition of traditional Japan and modern Japan, which I love. 

3. The food.

Japanese food is delicious, and best of all, it's generally healthy! Most of the staple meals here are very light and very well-balanced. Japanese people are known to have high quality standards, so they always use fresh ingredients. 

4. The beauty in every day.
Coming from Arizona, it's just so wonderful to wake up in a place that is so green and lush. Walking outside of my neighborhood, there are such amazing mountains and fields to gawk at. Sometimes, it really feels like I live in a movie or a completely different world. I hope I never become numb to the beauty that Japan offers!

If you'd like to read more about me and my personal style, come on over to Kristine or Polly! Thanks Danielle for letting me guest post today!