Inspiration

INSPIRATION :: Spring/Summer ’14 from Japanese Fashion Label FRAPBOIS

In the blogging world, everything gets so narrow sometimes. The same trends and colors and patterns — and even the same images — get passed around over and over. This can be a great tool within a specific genre (blogging tends to reveal trends), but all the sameness  stifles creativity and originality. That’s why I love looking outside of the United States for inspiration. Clothing, decor, and even photography styles vary so much from culture to culture! If we want to expand our own imagination and bring something new to the creative world, it’s vitally important to explore inspiration beyond what’s currently trendy in our own circles. Plus, new inspiration is just plain fun!

These images from Japanese brand FRAPBOIS (I blogged about their Fall line last September) will have you rethinking pattern and color.

9 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
8 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
7 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
6 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
5 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
4 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
3 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
2 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
1 - Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn
Frapbois SS14 - as seen on Oaxacaborn

What about you — would you wear any of these looks?

Inspiration

INSPIRATION :: A Curated Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Sometimes, I get lost in the tyranny of the urgent. Lost in the chores and the clutter and the cooking and the cycle of washing, drying, folding. I get lost and forget that all around is beauty, even inside these four walls. We were created to know beauty, and it’s worth every bit of conscious effort to choose to see it, even in the whirlwind. The Weepies knew this when they sang“All this beauty…You can ask about it, but nobody knows the way. No bread-crumb trail to follow through your days. It takes an axe sometimes, a feather, in the sunshine and bad weather. It’s a matter of getting deeper in anyway you can…All this beauty; you might have to close your eyes and slowly open wide.”

I believe in making a beautiful home, something I learned from my mother (although I’m nowhere nearly as good at it as she is). “Anything can be made beautiful”, she always told me, “though a combination of cleaning and contentment.” And she proved this, too, over and over and over again throughout the years.

Maybe you have a mother like that too, someone who has always managed to create peacefulness and a sense of home and beauty no matter what. Or maybe you have a mom who whips up magic in the kitchen, or throws the best parties, or has endless athletic energy, or is always on top of the fashion game. (Honestly, isn’t Supermom a little bit of all that and more?)

Keeping everything a mom does in mind — and with an eye toward seeing beauty in the whirlwind — I’ve teamed up with JCPenney to bring you gift ideas for any kind of mom.

A @JCPenney #Momisms Mother's Day Gift Guide curated by the Oaxacaborn blog // #JCPHostMom #JCPFitnessMom #JCPDecorMom #JCPChefMom #JCPTrendyMom

#JCPHostMom | 1. Lantern | 2. Copper Bowl | 3. Plates | 4. Card
#JCPFitnessMom | 5. Yoga Mat | 6. Tote | 7. Hair Tie  | 8. Towel
 #JCPDecorMom | 9. Basket | 10. Rug | 11. Pillow | 12. Art |
#JCPChefMom |  13. KitchenAid | 14. Eat | 15. Cucina | 16. Tray | 17. Bowls | 18. Mortar & Pestle
 #JCPTrendyMom |  19. Lace Tee | 20. Bracelet | 21. Bag | 22. Pants
Even MORE  gift ideas | JCPenney Mother’s Day Hub

This week, I’ve also joined JCPenney in tweeting little snippets of motherly advice. Being a total rookie in the mom department, it probably comes as no surprise that my quips have been of the “Don’t suction-cup the dog”, “Don’t lick the sidewalk”, and “Don’t stick potato chips in the outlets” variety. But you can use the #momisms hashtag to tweet your own, much wiser motherly gems of wisdom — and you’ll be entered to win one of several $100 gift cards JCPenney is giving away, so YOU can buy a little something for yourself!

(Pssst…a little secret? Don’t worry if you aren’t one of the winners of the #Momisms sweepstakes, because I will host a separate $100 gift card giveaway here very soon. Sign up for Oaxacaborn email updates so you won’t miss it when it goes live!)

Leave me a comment on this post letting me know which of the items above is your favorite. Since I curated the list, I can safely say….I love them all!

Disclosure of Material Relationship: I received compensation in exchange for promoting JCPenney’s #Momisms Sweepstakes/Giveaway. I personally selected all the items displayed in this curated guide, and was not required to present any specific products as gift ideas. All the opinions and experiences shared here are in my own words and are my own honest evaluation. Please be assured, I only accept sponsorship opportunities for brands I personally use and/or would recommend to close friends and family, and I will always disclose any such relationships.

Inspiration, Life in Photos, Poetry & Words, Theology

I write because

I write, sometimes, because of things I see and hear,
and other times, I write because the sound is muffled and my vision is blurred,
but mostly, I write because (the veil is still there,
the glass is still dim,
He has not yet come)
and I want to see clearly.

It's the world as best as I remember it
I write because...

“Can a man see God face to face and live?

Can I not see an eclipse better through a pinhole in a paper than without it?

We can’t so much see light as we can see things because of it. So I do not meet God in a vacuum — I meet Him in the world He has provided for me to meet Him in — in a world of events and of places, of history (time and space), in a world of lives of people and their records of their encounters.

I meet God in this world — in the world of these things…

…and this is the world as best as I can remember it.”
-Rich Mullins

Inspiration

INSPIRATION :: Spring/Summer 2014 TOAST UK Women’s Catalogue

This year so far, I’ve shared more writing and fewer visual inspiration posts. It’s just that, when wrestling with realities like this, posting pretty pictures seemed like the very last thing to do. But the truth is, beauty doesn’t go away in light of life and death’s realities — and indeed, as I’ve learned, just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean we have to stop admiring the brightness of a flower or the color of the sky. In fact, more then ever, it’s exactly in those moments when we most need to see the golden thread present in everything around us. And, when we see all beauty is a reflection of Him, we realize there’s nothing incongruous or out of place about pausing to see beauty in the midst of a wrecked and imperfect world.

11 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
10 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
8 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
6 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
5 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
9 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
4 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
3 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
2 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
1 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
7 Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14
Toast UK Catalogue Women April 14

All images above via the April 2014 TOAST UK Women’s Lookbook.

Want to see more TOAST UK round-ups? I’ve been blogging my favorite TOAST images since 2010.

Inspiration, Life in Photos

INSPIRATION :: Inside The Kinfolk Table

Inside 'The Kinfolk Table' on the Oaxacaborn blog

It’s a cookbook, yes; but more than that, it’s a story of people. It’s a story of homes from Brooklyn to Copenhagen to Portland, where people linger, laughing, over favorite meals. The Kinfolk Table is a song to warm kitchens everywhere, where the food is exquisite, where you are wholly present, and no one notices if the Christmas napkins are still in rotation (mine are). 

Inside 'The Kinfolk Table' on the Oaxacaborn blog

Inside 'The Kinfolk Table' on the Oaxacaborn blog

Inside 'The Kinfolk Table' on the Oaxacaborn blog

Inside 'The Kinfolk Table' on the Oaxacaborn blog

Inside 'The Kinfolk Table' on the Oaxacaborn blog

6 - Inside the Kinfolk Table

So, pause. Make this the year you live intentionally. Take an extra half an hour to make your favorite biscuit recipe. And then when they’re still warm, pull a book off the shelf, sit down, and breathe.

Inside 'The Kinfolk Table' on the Oaxacaborn blog

You might not have time for this.

In the end, you might have a flour-covered three-year-old, crumbs all over your shirt,  a sink full of dishes, unanswered emails, and clothes waiting in the dryer (not pictured).

But I’ll let you decide if it was worth it.

Inspiration

INSPIRATION :: Naoki Onogawa’s Paper Crane Trees

naoki onogawa's paper crane trees
naoki onogawa's paper crane trees
naoki onogawa's paper crane trees

Stunning, aren’t they? I can’t even fathom the amount of patience that must have gone into creating each one of these paper crane trees. (Scroll down on this page on Naoki Onogawa‘s website to see just how tiny they really are.)

What do you have in store for your Thursday? Aside from the normal chores and weekday routine, we have our weekly produce pick-up (organic produce has so much personality!) and I’ll probably work on Aveline’s birthday crown, too. She’s three on Sunday — and no, I won’t be decorating with hundreds of paper cranes.

She’ll understand. ;)

Inspiration

INSPIRATION :: “Every day do something that won’t compute”

Jesus Storybook Bible

“So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it. …

Ask the questions that have no answers. …

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

…Practice resurrection.”
-Wendell Berry