amara

amara, a photo by cristina ione on Flickr.

Moving this blog to : http://celestialrealms.blogspot.com/

i am moving my blog to : http://celestialrealms.blogspot.com/

i hope youll all follow me there. xo

Giving Back

* click on the photos for sources

Get involved, Support a cause, Donate a dollar, Unplug your outlets, Go Vegan/Vegetarian for one day, Plant a garden - or just a pot, Ride your bike or take public transportation once or twice a week, Pick up litter, Recycle, Educate yourself, Educate someone else

The goal is to take care of nature, your environment. The world is more beautiful when you bless it and take care of it. Give back.

Links/Sources

Ecorazzi - i love this site, its like a "gossip" site for green living. addicting

Care2 - Immense informative health/green lifestyle/news/everything else you can think of you can also find petitions here and be environmentally proactive

Green is Sexy - Rachel Addams and her two friends created this amazing website that is the equivalent of Elle magazine for living green.

The Kind Life - lovely Alicia Silverstone became a vegan a few years ago and it has literally changed her life, her blog is incredibly inspirational and perfect for vegetarian/vegan sources and animal lovers. She also has a book, The Kind Diet

Wilde Things - Activist/Actress/Vegan, Olivia Wilde also has a website for all things pro-active, her experiences in the humanitarian field, and of course veganism

shopOrganic - This is an amazing website for finding natural & organic food for all diets (gluten free, raw, etc) , products ranging from beauty, household, babies, pets, etc!

Humanitaire - Shop fair-trade and ethically

Josie Maran Cosmetics - The model/environmentalist's beauty line has been up and running since 2006, creating natural and earth-friendly products, some of which donate to a charity when bought.

Plant my Phone - If you have old phones lying around your house, donate them and get a tree planted! ! This organization will send you mailers, and you mail them back with your old phone.

Matter of Trust - "The mission of Matter of Trust is to Link ideas, spark action and materialize flourishing systems. We like to mimick how Mother Nature integrates enduring cycles and provides access to necessities in abundance. We concentrate on manmade surplus, natural surplus and eco-educational programs. The results are worthwhile, common sensical and often enchanting."

Environmental Defense Fund - Reduce your carbon footprints

Francesca Lia Block

Francesca Lia Block

Photograph by Andrea Marouk

If someone were to ask me, “Who was your first muse?, Who has left the most meaningful imprint in you life, mind, as an artist?”, the name Francesca Lia Block would roll off my tongue.

When I first read a book by Francesca Lia Block, it was as if, I discovered a secret language, my language. No one wrote like her, or captured that magical, lush, and raw essence. Wicked and lyrical celebration of the senses, myths, and dreams in prose. I learned how to see the world, how to love- not just the light, but embrace darkness as well. That witches and fairies live among us, dancing on pancakes, to explore the deepest parts of our hearts, and cities, to love everyone but firstly - yourself. That fairytale and paradise are not just limited to stories and lore, but can be brought into our own lives as long as we create it ourselves, from our roots and psyches.

Photograph by Nicholas Sage

The Frenzy coming out in September

excerpts from Weetzie Bat

Francesca’s first novel Weetzie Bat follows Weetzie into the magical LA world of genies, love, punk shows, surfer ducks and pink champagne; of a secret lovechild, lanka witches, sexual orientation, pain, and loss. It came out in 1989 and the novel evokes the time and mood of the 80’s. Weetzie Bat is one of Block’s most well-known, and beloved books and has recently been adapted into a screenplay, as well as a graphic novel in the works. This is awe-inspiring for me!, to have one of my favorite books finally see the light of a cinematic future!

Everyone should read a Francesca Lia Block book. While they all sparkle with beauty and myth, they also deal with conflicts and issues that everyone, any age, any gender can relate and identify with. They sometimes haunt you afterward in an inspiring way. In person, (I have had luck and fortune to have met the beautiful author) she is radiant and full of energy and light, because of Francesca’s books, I have come across and met like-minded, magical souls and creatures. It is like a tribe or kinship of beautiful beings come together where we all share the same love and devotion to her ethereal craft.

Follow Francesca here!
Website
Her blog
Twitter
Amazon Page

Related Links
Space Mermaid
FLB Shrine
Dancing Mermaid
WildFox
Book Soup

We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams. — Gypsy proverb.

summer is coming to a close, for some of us, classes begin soon
no more lazy indulgent days, at least for awhilebut there is nothing still about autumn.
lets enjoy the reimaning weeks of summer!

journaling

taken from free people's blog and succulent wild woman,

some days when things aren't going exactly as you'd like, journaling (&/art) is the most therapeutic activity at hand. to express, to expose, to face. to create something beautiful

*click on the photos for sources*

'you were here, don't look back'

“the closer you get to real matter, rock air fire and wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is.”- jack kerouac, the dharma bums

“We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.”

*click on the photos to go to their sources

Papusza Couture

Photo by Bethany Antijankin.

"Kaytee believes in a world made out of poetry and color, a language formulated on our bodies by the clothes we wear, by a universe made up of dreams, where only the surreal is concrete."

When I think of Papusza Couture, I think of wardrobe that's stepped out of surreal dreams, evoke fairy-tales, ocean floors and rain forests. You know, clothes I wish were worn on a day to day basis, because I am that kind of girl.

Her collections truly are ahead of its time, - her being the creator Kaytee Papusza, who takes from nature using "shells, seagull wings, bird bones and feathers." and incorporates it onto her designs as well. Birds are an important and evident part to Papusza, for they are an intense inspiration to the young artist, I asked Kaytee a simple (though thought provoking question all the same) of what are her top 5 inspirations and she responded with this:

"1. birds, feathers, hollow bones, flight, the ethereal, sky

2. people who have chosen the path of honoring the earth and their tribes in their way of being/life; romani (gypsies), inuits, north american indians, aztecs, so many more, I cannot possibly name them all.

3. the sea, sand, shells, sun on water, sky in salt water hair, the pacific, the coast, coney island, carnival, beachy dream

4. arctic landscapes; glaciers, icebergs, the northern and southern poles, midnight sun, polar night, aurora borealis, greenland, iceland, antarctica

5. love, bliss, happiness, dreams, believing, cycles, life, death, morbidity and healing, life and the planet we live on being a better place."

And as much as she takes from nature and creates beautiful ethereal pieces, she also takes from what most would call unusual and unexpected (tarot, skeletons, blood, taxidermy, to name a few) While these themes are not common and usually avoided, Kaytee is on the opposite spectrum. Whereas a dress can be simply, just a "pretty dress", Kaytee is an artist and utilizes not just her dreams, but her emotions, her thoughts, secrets, and fears as well. That is why her pieces are not just "clothes" but works of art, symbolic and provoking.

Photo 1: Photo by Kat Bret.

Photo 2:Photo by Kat + Duck (www.katandduck.com)

Photo 3: Photo by Bogdan Tiflinsky

Photo 2: Photographer Mikey Pozarik

Photo 3:Photo by Kristin Ezell. See article athttp://theclothescoach.com/2009/02/18/williamsburg-fashion-week/.

photo 1: Photo by Bethany Antijankin

Along with fashion designer, inspiration, juggernaut, and artist, Kaytee is also a gypsy, born in the Northwest, flocking to the East and venturing to parts of Europe - she's never really sure of where she will be but knows no matter where she resides, creating is something she will always have at hand.

For more of Papusza Couture please check out:

http://www.papuszacouture.com/

http://www.smashingdarling.com/store/papuszacouture

http://papuszainbirdland.blogspot.com/

summer loving

2 photographs i've taken recently.

I am in love with Courtney Brooke's flickr