Peace, love and Mel

Melissa and Ryan are getting married TOMORROW!! I cannot wait. I freaking love this girl and am so happy for them!

A night out in Shanghai, China (2007)

But... what I have been waiting for is to share her wedding invitations on the blog because they are the most gorgeous things to have ever graced my mailbox.

Note the peace signs in both photos and the wedding invitation.

If you want to read more about the designer and how these invitations Mel & Ryan picked are eco-friendly (yay!), check out the Mink Letterpress blog.

Why "Zits" is a great comic

Copyright 2011 ZITS Partnership. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Note the last aka top hat. UNC is always on top.

Artsplosure!

Saturday was Artsplosure again in downtown Raleigh. I love seeing artists from North Carolina (and other areas in the South) with their booths set up all around Moore Square.

When I walked through the center of Moore Square, I saw a collection of painted trash cans. I immediately recognized the one that was done by artist Keith Norval. I have been a fan of his for probably as long as I have lived in Raleigh and first saw his work in Artspace. His characters are fun animals with bright colors, which is right up my alley.

Keith Norval's can-vas

Anyways, I found out more about this movement in Wake County and it's called 86 it: Respect the can. Many artists (86, actually, I think) painted cans and they're going to be distributed around Raleigh. It's supposed to attract people (aka litterers) to the cans. I really hope they put one on Hargett Street by the bars near my building. You cannot imagine how many cigarette butts I see on the ground every day.

Respect the can.

After seeing Norval's work, we decided to walk to his studio in Artspace. Outside, is the (temporary - they paint over them every couple months) mural he painted. Enjoy!

Keith Norval's mural

Raleigh in the spotlight for the NHL All-Star Weekend

Raleigh was taken over by hockey the past few days. For months I've stared at a huge banner advertising the NHL All-Star Weekend (and advertising some Carolina Hurricanes players) hanging from one of the downtown high rises. I'll kind of miss that banner now that it's over, but at the same time I'm kind of happy I'll be able to take pretty sunrise photos without it getting in every shot.

So I didn't go to the All-Star game Sunday, but I did watch it from the comfort of my own home. It's funny how hockey players are pretty much the only guys in the world who can be missing a tooth and still be attractive. I'm looking at you, Alexander Ovechkin (right). 

I was bummed that Team Staal (Eric Staal from the Canes) lost 11-10 but was still glad the attention was on Raleigh last weekend. 


Because hockey fans were visiting for the game, we made friends Saturday night with a group of guys trying to find someone from Canada to buy a drink for. They asked me because I was holding a can of Labatt Blue (a Canadian beer... the only one I drink when I'm at Hurricanes games, by the way), but my friend actually is! So my girls and I won that game. Bonus!

On Friday night at the free concert downtown, I snapped this photo of fireworks behind the City of Oaks light mural on the back of the Civic Center. It's about the only time I like to see it red (for the Hurricanes! I'm referring to N.C. State red versus Carolina blue.). I just think it looks so good, especially at night. And what is it about fireworks that makes everyone stop what they're doing and stare into the sky? They're really a powerful thing!

Oscar Wilde Thursday

For a couple of months (ish) on Thursdays, I've been posting Oscar Wilde quotes on my Twitter account. I don't know why I started doing this. Maybe it's because he has a whole lot of quotes to his name, and I find most of them to be really funny and/or thought provoking. 


Or it may be because I was researching e-readers for Christmas (and I got one - thanks, Dad!) which brought me to Amazon to look at the Kindle which brought me to the way-too-expensive Kate Spade canvas covers which brought me to her The Importance of Being Earnest cover:

Isn't it gorgeous?


Anyways, I have loved the play The Importance of Being Earnest ever since I helped created part of the set in high school. My mom was the props master at The Arts Center on Hilton Head Island (I know it's since been renamed, but I don't know what it is now... Coastal Carolina Performing Arts Center or something), and I helped stuff newspaper in chicken wire to create a hedge that was painted green. So I had that connection with the play before I even saw it, but seriously, it is one of the funniest shows. I love playing with words, and it's total wordplay! If you haven't seen this play (or even if you have), you should rent the movie version with Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon. Or grab a copy and read it!


So after the longest tangent ever, I think I am going to continue with my Oscar Wilde quotes on this blog. Twitter is fun (I got on it for work, actually, and then easily got swept up in its 140-character updates), but I'd rather flesh out my reasons for some of the quotes I'm feeling that week.


I'm going to start off with my absolute favorite quote from him: 
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night

Okay, so the quote is a little cynical. But it's kind of nice, right? Because it gives you the chance to choose to be the "some of us." If we're all in the gutter, are you the one face down in sludge and the dark? Or are you keeping your face up towards the sky, open to the light that will surely come in the morning and all the possibilities that light may bring?