mary.

This is mary.  She is a student on one of the schools we run called a'Discipleship Training School'.  Hers in particular is called a Compassion DTS. 

Mary has a pretty great collection of tattoos and we figured she had some stories for them, so me and Christina took a few photos and asked some questions.
 

Mary is from Michigan and is 20 years old.

The first tattoo we'll talk about is this one behind her ear.  It's the first two letters of the word 'Christ' in latin.  At one point, it was used by Catholics to identify their faith.

This tattoo is the one that caught our eye the most.  It's colorful and the artwork is bright and fun.  The story of this one starts with a boy.  A little while ago, Mary was dating someone. This someone turned out to not be the right guy for her.  When they broke up, God spoke to her about how she was made for a life of adventure, and the guy she just broke up with was not adventurous.  She got this tattoo as a symbol of the adventurous life she's going to live with God.  Considering she's living in Australia right now, headed to Latvia and Russia to do prostitute ministry, and is passionate about reaching the hard core music scene, I'd say she's living a pretty interesting, adventurous life. 

This is a close up of her adventure tattoo.

She has a storm cloud on the back of one ankle and a sun on the back of her other. This is to signify praising God through the good times and the bad.  

 

This tattoo commemerates her love of her home state, Michigan.  She says many people in her church have this one.  She loves her state a lot.  I've noticed a lot of people from Michigan do.

You can also the anchor that is behind her other ear.  It's a symbol of hope, which pairs with the symbol for Christ behind her other ear.  So hope in Christ.

This tattoo is her favorite.  She loves what is says, the script, how simple it is, and how you can usually see it. 

This one is a work in progress.  She started out with the outline of a heart, and then later filled in the color.  It was supposed to say 'We only have one heart' but before she went to get the color filled in, she had a dream that it was meant to say 'This is only the beginning'. So that's what she got.  Again, considering the adventure that is starting in her life, this is pretty true.  

She has a few other tattoos planned, but she's not sure when she'll get them done.  She has a friend who tattoos, and she wants to get them done by her. 


Thanks so much Mary for letting us take a look at your artwork and for telling us your stories!

the other f word

I just came across this trailer for a documentary. it's about guys from some welll known bands who are now dads (members from NOFX, Blink 182, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc), and the questions parenthood raises about anarchy and submission and rules, all while they're just trying to be good parents. It looks pretty great. 

Pray the devil back to hell

ALOHA

I just watched this incredible documentary.

 

I highly recommend it, its powerful as. I give a little more detail here and there is the trailer. i figure to stop me writing reviews and showing a ton of youtube videos this summer i made a little other section titled the summer review 

r.i.p.f.b.

as a part of my 'no consuming november' 

I deactivated my facebook. 

I will return to facebook, or I may not.

(this is a big deal)

facebook doesnt take you on adventures like this one, does it!

This beautiful girl is my friend’s daughter, Sophia. When I first met this precious little girl I knew right away I wanted to be her friend. Her huge brown eyes are perfectly set against her strawberry hair and you cannot deny she’s stunning. 

Being around my new friends, many of them are mothers, has brought out a new side of me I was unaware of. I definitely see why children are so wonderful.

Sophia is quite shy, and I am new, but I made it my mission to be her friend. A little while ago I let her use my camera and taught her how to take a picture, she loved it, and I think that was the moment she decided to be my friend. She speaks with almost a sweet english accent, and I had not seen her for a while until yesterday. We were excited to see one another and she gave me a great hug and shared her balloon with me. It is already easy to see the way she loves others in the way she cares for her little brother and she’s best friends with her cousin. 

I’m lucky to have found friendship in their family. 

(this photo was taken by her mother)

LEGEND.

To counteract Christina's numerous posts about dogs smiling. and wearing clothes. and running in slow motion- here's a commercial from New Zealand about drunk driving. We don't know much about the Kiwi accent in the states, so if you're American, you should definitely watch it. This ad is classic and maybe you'll find yourself quoting 'you know I can't have any of your ghost chups bru'. I don't know if it will make your day more than dogs smiling, but it's worth a shot.




shown to me by brooke robinson:)

is your life missing something?

is your life missing something?

maybe its dogs in slow motion, 

enjoy.

summer 2011

Coming Soon

A post about how much I long for summer with every ounce of my being.

And a small list of things I hope for those 3 months.

A glimpse of last summer.

I went to the North Island of New Zealand. (This may still have been spring,  hmm)

To spend a precious amount of time with this incredible woman!

And spent boxing day with these doves.
friends are like the best.

confessions

I have a 2000 word essay due on monday. 

Its 3:13 am and i have just spent the last hour and a half reading internet comics and searching for pictures of smiling dogs.

after each successful find, laugh out loud and giddy happy feeling, i have told myself.. 

"only one more"

this has repeatedly failed.

I suspect that this is because the joy and happiness comics and smiling dogs bring trumps the tedious brain numbing feeling of writing a paper.

de canard, it is french for duck.

The day I am able to understand this, will be a magnificent day

Hawaiian Polariods

Once I lived in th Hawaii and drank coffee under banyan trees

                                                                                                                            

 

 played a lot of board games

But we spent a lot of time in the beautiful outdoors aswell

This was my default best friend. he wasnt bad.

This was one of my room mates, she truly was my joy

there were simple amusements and easy laughs

including basement shannigans that went on into the early morn

                       

we stopped in quiet places to hear His voice and proclaim our love

                                                    

we made the most amazing friends and were introduced to cultures and personalities that we never knew existed and we are better people for it. and by we are, I meant... I am

2010 was the most enjoyable year of my life so far.

bring it back.

crochet ties. 

Actually, i don't think they were ever in, but a few years ago, I crocheted a tie for one of my friends. After seeing this picture recently on a blog, I thought, why have I only made one of these? 

driving.

drivng through b.c. eating b.c. cherries.  From this summer, hanging out with my DTS roommate, driving back from Tessa and Live's wedding.

lately.

We haven't been posting a lot lately, but in the meantime, here are some more pretty pictures.  we'll get up some more informative posts soon. 

thinking about...

feather tattoos.  I might add this to the list of tattoos i would get if they were guaranteed to erase roughly around the age of 30 (making the total 2).  I think a I'd want a feather to be around a little while longer than the swallow though. Maybe till 37.  

i almost didn't post this because this isn't the healthiest image---she's a bit thin, but maybe it's just how she's built.

I still wouldn't actually get a tattoo.

I know we have posted about op-shopping before.

But there really is great joy found in finding love for someone else's old things.

Natalie and I spent our Monday wandering through people's tossed items.

share.

‎

"If I'm not sharing my faith, maybe I need to first ask myself if I have any."

(stolen from a friends facebook status)

Kez Dawg.

why i am friends with her? she is sweet, smart, creative a little crazy and has a wonderful sense of adventure

She is easy to be around, easy to open up to,  she is deep and wants all the goodness of God.

She is fun, I dont necessarily have to be in a mood to hang with her.. she is always up for easy going fun, unplanned adventures and lots of laughs! coffee, books, art, music.. goodness

Her friendship is amazing, She is so loyal, So committed, She has so much grace and forgiveness for even the jerkiest of people, she gives with out the need to receive. she is soft to others and cares furiously for the justice, hope and happiness of other...
i love her and i love her friendship.

She contributes to this blog occasionally as well. 

if you're going to have children...

 

you should make them look this cool.  i took this from the sartorialist. 

side note: it's weird that i'm posting this because in general I do not like blond haired children.

life in a day

This is killing me.  Both of the recent trailers I've posted recently are playing in Cleveland, at the Cleveland Museum of Art, in the month of November.  You can see this 'Life in a Day' on I think November 4th, and the Elmo documentary on November 18-20.  It's killing me because i was following both of these at home before they got near me and now I'm in Australiaaaaaaaaaaah!  Someone in Cleveland---please go see these. 


now, onto this trailer.  A little while ago, YouTube put out the request for people to film a day of their life and then submit the footage.  They got a ridiculous amount of footage that they edited into a full length movie.  I think i will cry when I get to watch this.  This and the Elmo one.  

welcome to my next 6 weeks.

elmo is voiced by someone who wanted to be a puppeteer his whole life.

I'm so excited.  The library near me is really small but it has a pretty big shelf of biographies.  Before I racked up a $40 fee in late fines, I was reading a lot of books out of that section. A few years ago i read elmos biography, written by the man who voices him. I was pretty surprised to find out that elmo is voiced by a 40 something year-old black man who dreamed of being a puppeteer his whole life.  He sees elmos as a platform to teach kids life lessons, and through sesame street, has done that all over the world.  well, someone just made a movie out of it!  watch the preview---it's so heartwarming.  

buckleys

our good friends evan and zoe got married a few weeks ago. I was still in the United States when it happened, but I came back to one of my most favorite wedding invitations I've seen in my mailbox. Zoe drew it and I love it because it's so personal.

side 1

side 2

the lovely couple on their wedding day

the 10th of October.

Rose at the public garden, i used to borrow the dying flowers to decorate my room. i must start doing that again, 86 the aphids though

I went to the Darby street fair and picked up these goodies.roasted almonds, chocolate from the new chocolate shop on darby and a really awesome postcard. that i've sent to someone great

I took a lot of photos that day. and the clouds were the main feature of them all.