Big Magic

"By completely absorbing our attention for a short and magical spell, it can relieve us temporarily from the dreadful burden of being who we are. Best of all, at the end of your creative adventure, you have a souvenir–something that you made, something to remind you forever of your brief but transformative encounter with inspiration.

Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful priviledge. - Elizabeth Gilbert"

I loved this book. When reading, it felt like Elizabeth was just sitting with me on my couch chatting about life. It was a quick read and something that I will reference on days when my designer magic is running low.

Brain on Fire

This book was an intense read that I didn't want to put down. I just wanted to know what would happen next. In 2009, Susannah (the author) goes through a medical condition that starts with paranoid thoughts,  numbness in her limbs, a bit of manic tendencies, then seizures and all out psychotic breakdown. The doctors run countless tests and cannot figure the cause of her issues until one doctor steps in with a lifesaving diagnosis that nearly saved her life. The total cost of her treatments were over $1 million. Good thing she had insurance at the time. 

From the book...

"By the time I was a patient at NYU, Dr. Dalmau had fine-tuned his approach, designing two tests that could swiftly and accurately diagnose the disease. As soon as he received my samples, he could test the spinal fluid. If he found that I had anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis, it would make me the 217th person worldwide to be diagnosed since 2007. It just begged the question: If it took so long for one of the best hospitals in the world to get to this step, how many other people were going untreated, diagnosed with a mental illness or condemned to a life in a nursing home or a psychiatric ward?"

In May 2014, it was announced that the book is being adapted to a film staring Dakota Fanning as Cahalan with Charlize Theron producing the film. 

This book was a bit of a personal read for me. I was sick back in September of 2001. I had been into urgent care and my regular doctor several times, finding no solution. I had severe pain in my back that was so intense it would take me over forty-five minutes to just get out of my bed. I would be drenched in sweat and tears and shaking by the time I stood up. The pain was so bad, I wanted to die. My final visit to the doctor office ended with me demanding to be sent to the hospital. 

I was in the hospital for over a month. It took nearly two weeks before they knew what was wrong with me. Before the diagnosis, I had multitudes of CATscans, MRI's, X-rays, blood tests and physical therapy sessions. Then from being so still for weeks, the doctors thought they saw a pulmonary embolism in my lung on an X-ray. That is a huge red flag, they rushed me in for an angiogram. I was awake for it all. It was just like the show ER, so intense. 

This was right after 9/11, the only shows available on the hospital TVs were Sesame Street or the news about 9/11. I would lay in the bed looking out the window at the planes flying by wondering when the next one was coming, thinking that I couldn't get up to run from anything. At one point during the whole process I lost it. I was screaming at the doctor, throwing anything I could get my hands on. I was yelling that people with brain tumors go home before me, why can't they figure this out! I am in America not a third world country. That particular doctor dropped me as a patient that day. I got a new doctor the next day.

It all panned out fine. This new doctor ordered a spinal bone biopsy. Think that is scary? Yeah it is. It's terrible. You are awake, laying on your stomach then they run you through the scanner. You come back out, they start drilling into you spine a bit then back into the scanner. This process goes on about forty minutes till they hit the right spot. The area is numbed but you hear the sounds and feel the pressure. 

After all of that the bone biopsy showed nothing. However soon after, I had a blood infection. It was a terrible blood infection with a very high fever. They collected vile after vile of my blood for testing and immediately began running IV antibiotics. It was the weekend, so the tests took longer to come back. Of course, perfect timing as always. 

In the end, I had Spinal Osteomyletis caused by Salmonella in my L5 vertebrae. The bone biopsy has shaken it all lose into my system. It was in the exact spot I had indicated the very first visit at urgent care. The entire staff came in to apologize to me. Many of them had thought the whole thing was in my head, that I had just thrown my back out (at the ripe age of 24). I was placed on a high dose of many painkillers, my blood thinners for the blood clot and a permanent IV was attached to my arm. I was on IV antibiotics for several months. 

The craziest thing about my disease was that I did not have a compromised immune system. I was not very young or old. I did not have a broken bone, diabetes, tuberculosis or sickle cell. I had absolutely none of the risk factors associated with this disease. I didn't even eat meat during this time of my life. So the Salmonella had to of come from dirty vegetables or cross contamination. The particular strain of Salmonella was so strong that it must have just busted through my system and found a home in my spine. 

A year after the whole ordeal, I was pregnant with my first child. Life has a funny way of working out. Luckily, I had insurance just like Susannah. I also had a doctor that went for a crazy idea when no one was listening to me. I am designer, not a writer. I never wrote a compelling story about my month of Ostemyletis. Susannah did, and she did a great job. I am grateful for her passion to bring awareness to a disease that needed to be known. 

Maxed Out

Too often friends will say "Do you have more hours in the day than the rest of us? How do you do everything you do?" Nope, I do not have more hours than anyone else. And I have no idea how I do what I do. Most day, I feel like I am falling with style like Buzzlight Year from Toy Story. I am over-tired, behind on my kids photo books, I rarely see good movies or have date night, my home office looks like an episode of Hoarders (sans dead animals or rotting food) and I have about eight different books that I am half way through. Fake it till you make it. Laugh off the stress. A mother in motion stays in motion.

I recently finished one book, in under a week! Maxed Out : American Moms on the Brink (thus the title of this post). Originally I had attempted to place a request at my local library but the wait list for the book was nearly 100+. HELLO, red flag pending mothers! I decided not to wait and ordered the book immediately. (Rachel if you are reading this, I am bringing you this book tomorrow).

I also recently read Lean In. Both of these books hit on the struggles that mothers and women face in the workplace and at home. The fact that I finished both of these books says something. I have had it. Something needs to change in a big way. I know I cannot keep on the pace for another 12 years (that's when my youngest will graduate). There has to be a better way.

So if you are treading in my realm, just order this book and read up.

"Katrina Alcorn was a 37-year-old mother with a happy marriage and a thriving career when one day, on the way to Target to buy diapers, she had a breakdown. Her carefully built career shuddered to a halt, and her journey through depression, anxiety, and insomnia—followed by medication, meditation, and therapy—began.

Alcorn wondered how a woman like herself, with a loving husband, a supportive boss, three healthy kids, and a good income, was unable to manage the demands of having a career and a family. Over time, she realized that she wasn’t alone. As she questioned other working moms, she realized that many women were struggling to do it all, crashing, and feeling as if they were somehow failing as a result.

Mothers are the breadwinners in two-thirds of American families, yet the American workplace is uniquely hostile to the needs of parents. Weaving in surprising research about the dysfunction between the careers and home lives of working mothers, as well as the consequences to women’s health, Alcorn tells a deeply personal story about “having it all,” failing miserably, and what comes after. Ultimately, she offers readers a vision for a healthier, happier, and more productive way to live and work."

battle hymn of the tiger mother

Of course I was interested in reading this book because my mom is 75% Chinese and 25% Irish. She most definitely was a "tiger mother". Two things she always said stick out in my mind "if you can't do it right, don't do it at all" and "do on to other's as you'd have done to you". My mom expected a lot from us at a young age. She didn't take excuses or whining. By the time I was eight years old, I was cooking the entire family dinner once a week. She taught Chinese cooking school out of our home a couple times a week. I had to clean up the house and set up the materials for her cooking school each time. My mother's father was also very strict. My sister and I would quietly sit at the family dinner table and wait for him to acknowledge us in order to be excused from the table. There was to be no fidgeting, goofing around or elbows on the table. One look from him and you knew if you were heading in the wrong direction.

I would say this book is intense for those who know little of the Asian culture. It can be a bit shocking. I enjoyed it because it reminded me of bits of my own childhood. And no my mom never made me practice a piano for hours on end.

{amazon.com}

"Chua (Day of Empire) imparts the secret behind the stereotypical Asian child's phenomenal success: the Chinese mother. Chua promotes what has traditionally worked very well in raising children: strict, Old World, uncompromising values--and the parents don't have to be Chinese. What they are, however, are different from what she sees as indulgent and permissive Western parents: stressing academic performance above all, never accepting a mediocre grade, insisting on drilling and practice, and instilling respect for authority. Chua and her Jewish husband (both are professors at Yale Law) raised two girls, and her account of their formative years achieving amazing success in school and music performance proves both a model and a cautionary tale. Sophia, the eldest, was dutiful and diligent, leapfrogging over her peers in academics and as a Suzuki piano student; Lulu was also gifted, but defiant, who excelled at the violin but eventually balked at her mother's pushing. Chua's efforts "not to raise a soft, entitled child" will strike American readers as a little scary--removing her children from school for extra practice, public shaming and insults, equating Western parenting with failure--but the results, she claims somewhat glibly in this frank, unapologetic report card, "were hard to quarrel with."

article on nytimes.com

article about chinese moms on time.com

Hong Kong Apothecary

I just bought this book online. I LOVE IT. 200 pages of vintage Chinese Medicine packaging. I personally think it is a must have in your designer library.

{amazon.com}

"Hong Kong Apothecary transports us to the exotic world of Eastern medicine, a world of oils, powders, pills, and cures for every known ailment from impotency to opium addiction. As peculiar as "pink pills for pale people" are the packages containing these medicaments. Author Simon Go has combed manufacturers , shops, and home medicine cabinets for years collecting the most compelling examples. the result is a visual cabinet of curiosities, a graphical pharmacopoeia. Divided by type – such as ointments, herbal teas, infused oils – Hong Kong Apothecary presents the fascinating graphics and tantalizing descriptions of hundreds of medicines and gives us an insight into Chinese customs afforded only by examining the artifacts and customs of everyday life. many of these medicines are no longer produced, making Hong Kong Apothecary a memoir of a quickly disappearing culture. This lavishly illustrated book is of interest as much for designers seeking inspiration in the unknown vernacular of commercial graphics as for anyone interested in Eastern medicine."

like water for chocolate

{amazon.com}

From Publisher's weekly:

Each chapter of screenwriter Esquivel's utterly charming interpretation of life in turn-of-the-century Mexico begins with a recipe--not surprisingly, since so much of the action of this exquisite first novel (a bestseller in Mexico) centers around the kitchen, the heart and soul of a traditional Mexican family. The youngest daughter of a well-born rancher, Tita has always known her destiny: to remain single and care for her aging mother. When she falls in love, her mother quickly scotches the liaison and tyrannically dictates that Tita's sister Rosaura must marry the luckless suitor, Pedro, in her place. But Tita has one weapon left--her cooking. Esquivel mischievously appropriates the techniques of magical realism to make Tita's contact with food sensual, instinctual and often explosive. Forced to make the cake for her sister's wedding, Tita pours her emotions into the task; each guest who samples a piece bursts into tears. Esquivel does a splendid job of describing the frustration, love and hope expressed through the most domestic and feminine of arts, family cooking, suggesting by implication the limited options available to Mexican women of this period. Tita's unrequited love for Pedro survives the Mexican Revolution the births of Rosaura and Pedro's children, even a proposal of marriage from an eligible doctor. In a poignant conclusion, Tita manages to break the bonds of tradition, if not for herself, then for future generations.

{imdb.com}
The movie of this book is just as good, which is a rare experience. Add it to your netflix list!

the help : by kathryn stockett

{imdb.com}
I finished this book in three sittings. I just could not stop reading it. Of course it will be a major motion picture this summer. It is suppose to release in August starring Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Alison Janney, Sissy Spacek and many others. So that leaves you plenty of time to read the book before the movie.

{borders.com}

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Helpis a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

water for elephants

{imdb.com} I loved this book. I read it back in 2008 and I am so excited that it will be a movie next spring! The movie is set to premiere April 15th 2011 and starring Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz.

from {barnesandnoble.com}

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

Reading Rainbow

{youtube.com} Come on if you were a kid in the 8o's you heard this at least once. If you watch it, be careful. . you will sing in over and over in your head


{youtube.com} remake.

iggy peck architect

{youtube.com} story time. . . My kids loved this book and so did I.

Meet Iggy Peck - creative, independent, and not afraid to express himself! Iggy has one passion: building. His parents are proud of his fabulous creations, though they're sometimes surprised by his materials - who could forget the tower he built of dirty diapers? When his second-grade teacher declares her dislike of architecture, Iggy faces a challenge. He loves building too much to give it up! With Andrea Beaty's irresistible rhyming text and David Roberts's puckish illustrations, this book will charm creative kids everywhere, and amuse their sometimes bewildered parents.

Cloth bound books

Coralie Bickford-Smith is a senior cover designer at Penguin Books, where she has created several series designs. She studied typography at Reading university and has recently been sharing her experience with
students at London College of Communication encouraging a sense of play in the process of design.

I want all of her books. So beautiful.
{cb-smith.com} to buy {amazon.com}

F my life

Don't judge my book selection quite yet. Stick with me. Somedays, when the my day has gone off track and is not what I wanted or expected. . . I just need to hear about something worse to pull me out of my funk. Well here is a whole book of that. Brilliant!









{amazon.com}

orbiting the giant hairball

This is my favorite inspirational book. It is full of funny doodles and smart thinking. When I am lacking creative genius, this book puts my mind back on track. Really go get it! You will entertained and delighted with your purchase.

Fast Company Decemeber 1997:

Gordon MacKenzie has a peculiar prescription for succeeding in the corporate world: "Orbit the giant hairball." It's a message that's easier to swallow when you consider his 30-year career as a creative revolutionary at Hallmark, the $3.6 billion company known for its creativity.

And it's one he's broadcasting beyond the cardmaker's Kansas City campus: he self-published his book, Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace, in 1996, and Viking will republish it in April. MacKenzie describes the work as "a liberation manual for the chronically entangled and the relentlessly oppressed." It's also an apt description of his career at Hallmark.

So, why do you compare a company to a giant hairball?

A hairball is an entangled pattern of behavior. It's bureaucracy, which doesn't allow much space for original thinking and creativity. It's the corporate tendency to rely on past policies, decisions, and processes as a formula for future success.

All of this creates a Gordian knot of corporate normalcy -- an entanglement that grows over time. As its mass increases, so does its gravitational pull. And what does gravity do? It drags things down. But hairballs can be effective. They provide a necessary stability. It's not the job of the hairball to be vibrant, alive, and creative.

What is the biggest obstacle to creativity?

Attachment to outcome. As soon as you become attached to a specific outcome, you feel compelled to control and manipulate what you're doing. And in the process you shut yourself off to other possibilities.

I got a call from someone who wanted me to lead a workshop on creativity. He needed to tell his management exactly what tools people would come away with. I told him I didn't know. I couldn't give him a promise, because then I'd become attached to an outcome -- which would defeat the purpose of any creative workshop.

It's hard for corporations to understand that creativity is not just about succeeding. It's about experimenting and discovering.

for more of this story click here

buy the book "orbiting the giant hairball"