Before and After: May 2011

Saturday, May 28, 2011

OCEAN Rx: CHILLIN' WITH THE JELLIES

JELLYFISH LAKE, PALAU from Sarosh Jacob on Vimeo.

Here's what you need to do to feel better. Swim with the stingless jellies of Palau's Jellyfish Lake.

Via Wikimedia Commons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Outdoor Lighting

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Hello! Today, I want to show you my new outside lights!!

I am really excited about this! I actually had these lights in my basement for a year or two but never have the time to install them. (Actually, we still didn’t have the time, my parents helped us!)

They were able to find these lights for about 50 cents each! Can you believe that? Yes, the are new! It was a going out of business sale! WooHoo! :)

Aren’t they pretty?

They even added lights to shine the trees! I love these! :)

I think they came in a 5 pack and we used all of them.

We also shined our Serviceberry!

Now, the walkway will be lit at night!

We even have them in the back yard and around the patio. :)

Here are some night shots!

love how it lights up the bay window.

I just love them! :)

WOW! That made a huge difference! :) We have them on a timer so we don’t have to worry about turning them on or off.

Do you outdoor lighting?

How do you like them?

Have a great day!

It's the 104th anniversary of Rachel Carson's birth. She was with us for only 56 years—not nearly long enough.

Last year I had the privilege of writing an afterword for a fine-press limited-edition book of Carson's first published work, a lyrical essay called Undersea. The publisher of this volume is Nawakum Press, the preface by environmental historian and biographer, Linda Lear, and the illustrations by author, designer, and illustrator, Dugald Stermer.

(Credit: Stefan Thiesen via Wikimedia Commons.)

I'm grateful to Nawakum Press, who have been kind enough to let me post the afterward to her beautiful Undersea here.

So, happy birthday, Rachel Carson! This is for you.

Afterward

It's impossible to read Rachel Carson's deeply insightful essay 75 years after its publication and not run afoul of a sad truth: that she is not here to enjoy the plethora of new revelations emerging from the undersea world. Since her death in 1964, scientific investigation has illuminated much of the "eternal night" of her abyss. Already, tens of thousands of species have been added to the 230,000 species of marine animals known by the close of the 20th century. Our discovery of these new "folks" is not the consequence of a handful of men leisurely sailing the blue, but of thousands of women and men exploring every corner of the World Ocean with deep-towed cameras, sonar, submarines, remotely operated underwater vehicles, free-swimming autonomous underwater vehicles—an ever-evolving host of technologies allowing us to know what no one in 1937 could have imagined...

(Cirrate, or dumbo, octopod. Credit: Michael Randall.)

This cooperative endeavor has swelled Carson's beloved catalogue of periwinkles, starfish, and crabs to include otherworldly marvels: Dumbo ocotopods who swim by flapping earlike fins; wildcat tubeworms who drill for and feed on chemicals in decomposing oil; southern elephant seals who dive a mile and a half deep in search of prey living below the cusp of perpetual darkness; shoals of fish 20 million strong, swimming in schools the size of Manhattan.

(Tubeworms, Lamellibrachia luymesi, from a cold seep 550 meters/1,800 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo: Charles Fisher via Wikimedia Commons.)

Many discoveries have emerged from abyssal ecosystems unknown to Rachel Carson. The first hydrothermal vent was discovered only in 1977. The first cold seep in 1984. Carson understood the deep was fertilized by outflows from rivers, volcanoes, meteorites, and the rain of detritus from the ocean's surface. She could not have envisioned how the gas-fueled communities of the coldest abyss could feed themselves… how extremophile lifeforms could adapt to intense pressures and a sunless world and thrive in "lifeless" conditions by harvesting chemosynthetic—not photosynthetic—energy from hydrogen sulfide and methane.

(Whale fall. Credit: NOAA.)

In Undersea, Carson marvelled at the resilience of the ear bones of whales and the teeth of shark that endured all the way to the bottom of the ocean. Imagine how she would have thrilled at the 1987 discovery of whale falls—those oases created by the sunken bodies of dead whales, each home to its own extremophile metropolis gathered to feed on the fallen bonanza of skin, muscle, bone, and blubber. Whale falls today are estimated to number some 850,000 worldwide, with many millions more in the recent past, before the age of commercial whaling reduced global whale populations by 90 percent. Each fallen whale is an island of life-support with a hundred-year-plus lifespan.

(Lobster egg. Credit: Tora Bardal, from Nikon Small World 2009.)

The underwater world we've discovered since Carson's day redefines the old superlatives. Today's finds are bigger, deeper, darker, colder, farther, older. Technology combined with a growing lineage of scientific knowledge allows us to explore the heretofore unknowable. We visit communities of life thriving in blackness 2,300 feet below Antarctic ice. We follow pairs of mated seabirds flying 44,000-mile figure-eight loops around the Pacific in the 200 days between their nesting seasons. We rediscover Jurassic shrimp "extinct" for 50 million years alive and well in the Coral Sea. We magnify ocean water and find bacterial species in excess of 10 million.

(Photo ©Julia Whitty.)

Our sorrow at the absence of Rachel Carson in this expansive world is mitigated by another sad truth. The same alarming developments that compelled her to sound the clarion call of Silent Spring only a quarter century after the lyrical Undersea are evolving dangerously today. Delving deeper, we find the depths suffering from overfishing, pollution, dead zones, acidification. Scrambling to uncover new species, we find them disappearing faster than we can reach them, with more than a third of scientifically assessed species now in danger of extinction. Since Carson's hand helped guide the helm, the ship of science has shifted course to sail head-on into a typhoon of human excesses: habitat destruction, biological invasions, global-warming, overpopulation. The world Rachel Carson loved and defended grows more silent spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

(Robert Hines and Rachel Carson. Credit: USFWS.)

In the course of her all too short life, Carson had opportunity for only one brief dive below the surface, donning an old-fashioned diving helmet to stand upright in a hard current in bad visibility. Perhaps we could indulge a small literary license and take her underwater with us now—with modern equipment in excellent conditions. If she is tentative, as many novice divers are, we can offer her our hand to hold and descend together, taking the time to clear our ears, adjust our buoyancy. Somewhere along the free fall to the bottom, perhaps as the sea fans and anemones and shoals of fish begin to come into focus, she will let go our hand. Imagine the moment: the slim figure gently kicking her fins to hover over a reef and inspect a familiar tube worm. Worries about scuba tanks and regulators now forgotten, she wafts weightless through shafts of sunlight, afloat in blue wonder, Rachel Carson home at last.

(Credit: slattery.matt at Flickr.)

Canopy bed designs for beach bedrooms and more!!

Summer is here and all of us are looking for ways to make the best of sunshine and open skies. Here are some bedroom design ideas just perfect for the weather! Beautiful flowing sheer white drapes are so summery, romantic and elegant. Its an easy option for those who would like to create a lovely romantic bedroom, and also perfect for a beach theme.

It might seem like a costly choice, but canopy is an easy and affordable accent for any bedroom. There are lots of ideas here for you to get inspired. You might even undertake a project to make a simple canopy yourself. Canopy bed designs are perfect for open airy beach bedrooms and also for the simple yet elegant romantic bedrooms.

This is a perfect design for open country style beach cottage. The simple furniture and wooden flooring is offset by the willowy sheer white canopy. Love the rattan chairs and the beautiful sunlight!

Wooden detailing, the lovely roof and the rustic elegance just perfect! This effect can be recreated in your own bedroom. Pick neutrals and earthy colors, and add the lovely canopy bed, simple yet stylish!

The color combination in this bedroom is so unique. Turquoise blue and white is a great combination. Add them to neutral background, and you have a perfect beach bedroom. Love the vaulted ceiling!

Another design to inspire, the whole setting is spartan with very little accent. However it looks decorated and completely done with just the canopy bed! It adds richness to the entire room. Pretty!

Love!! This is my favourite simply because I love blue so much! The cool colors and beautiful exotic feel. Its a simple canopy, yet it is the focal point. Add a little sheer for a super stylish bed.

Tropical bedroom with the perfect drape of fabric! For those who love simple, minimal and spacious places this is just the perfect decor. The pop of green and yellow is specially pleasing.

This is a designer interpretation of a canopy bed. Very interesting, and unique bed poles that makes it a piece of art for everyday use. Think out of the box sometimes to add the little extra to any design.

These two designs of canopy bed is special because each is unique. The first one is simply a swag of lovely cotton fabric draped to look like a canopy. This would even fit into a student's budget!

Boho eastern influence, the shimmering teal is so inviting. Its like having an Arabian Night right in your own home. Try to create a really special decor with lovely colored drapes for a daring beautiful look.

Canopy beds are so stylish, and such an interesting addition to any bedroom. Try to create one for your bedroom, it will be a whole new world! Get inspired, get daring :)

How to Organize Crafts

Welcome to my series called, “Organize Your Life”! This is the 13th week! Are you feeling organized yet? I know I am! :) I love having a weekly challenge to keep my going!!

HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR CRAFTS

Hello everyone! We just finished organizing our papers and now we are moving on to the fun part, organizing our THINGS!!! Oh, yes! We all have way too many things, don’t we? Well, let’s go through them, sort, toss, donate and organize them! Woo Hoo, how does that sound? I am excited too! I could always use a little motivation to simplify!

This week, we are organizing our CRAFTS!!! Some of you only have a little and for others, craft supplies might be taking over! I think our collection keeps growing, ha! As the kids get older, they like to try new things out which I love! I just need a place to keep it all!

I actually posted this last year but I have to be honest, it still looks the same except I added a little to the bottom cabinet. I also replaced a couple of things that we used up. I keep everything in labeled, clear bins. Everything has a spot, so basically, THERE IS NO ROOM FOR SHOVING! I have caught my husband standing there trying to find a place to shove something and he can’t. He spent more time trying to squeeze crafts in the wrong place rather than just reading the label and putting it away, lol!

After, I fit everything in how I wanted to, I made labels for each bin. I used address labels and love how it turned out!

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I love that the kids can see through the bins!

Now everything has a spot and I can just take out one bin at a time.

I even saved a spot for easy access to some books, coloring books and color wonder/explosion books.

This is the lower cabinet. On the top shelf, I have a bin for each child with their own school/activity books. They love having their own bin. At the beginning of the day, I just have to bring out 2 bins and the kids always know where keep their stuff.