Mental Nutrition

Photography is capturing the essence of human beings. Who we are and what we stand for in one moment in time. Today we have a different form of photography. Narayanan Krishnan shows his essence every day all day, not just for that one moment. He is one shiny person. 

"Food is one part. Love is another part. So, the food will give them physical nutrition. The love and affection which you show will give them mental nutrition... Everybody has got 5.5 liters of blood. I am just a human being. For me everybody the same. What is the ultimate purpose of life? It's to give. 

START GIVING. SEE THE JOY OF GIVING."

Smile my friends. The world is beautiful.

Jen

wednesday crafternoons with el are BACK!

hello my dear friends,

first let me apologize on part of my complete lack of dedication and creativity for this blog. i feel horribly awful (especially to my dear jenna) and i know that it shows major lack of commitment. and while the phase is over, i have yet, another craft for you all. it is a simple one, but it adds just a little bit of sparkle and cuteness to my day with its easy preparation. 

"cute-ified" make-up brushes:

I decided to take some of jace and mine's make-up brushes and cover them with cute fabric.

1. Just cut out a piece of fabric that fits around the bottom of the brush

2. Cover the area with modge podge and cover with fabric and you're done! Voila! 

keep it classy and simple

el

Tunes Thursdays

Jace: Cat Powers- The Greatest 

It's heartbreakingly beautiful.

El: Sarah Blasko- Down on Love

Sometimes its just what we need to hear, ya know? And she sings beautifully.

Jen: Matt Pond PA- Specks

Oh Matt Pond, I believe in it too. 

Kodak Moment

Always have your camera. There are moments worth capturing.

Smile my friends. The world is beautiful.

Jen

Happiness

Make your photography speak.

tunes thursday

jace: norah jones-come away with me

norah jones always brings out the best of things...which includes hot chocolate. 

thats all. 

el: the middle east-blood

possibly the most beautiful song i have ever heard. 

i'm not lying when i say that it's my favorite song and i never get sick of it. 

jen: o.a.r.-irish rose

This song never gets old. It's to lovely for that. 

go out there and do it

i thrive on creative outlets in my life to keep me sane in between the jam packed moments of my schooling. and occasionally, i feel as if my world has gone black and white and i have lost all my creativity (hence the possible reason that i don't have a craft for today....that's embarrassing). 

i found something to get me out of my creative lull. and i am going to try each and every one of these suggestions. i hope you do too. because isn't it fun to feel artsy?

Clue: Colonel Mustard..in the ballroom..with a knife!

Model Mondays

Oh hey there friends.

Let's play a game called "Guess the Color!"

It's the color of my favorite scarf that I grab when I find out it's snowing outside.

It's the color of El's pants that she wears effortlessly.

It's the long sleeve cardi that I often stole from Jen to pair with my grays/blues.

IT is the color that adds the boldness to a outfit without making it overbearing.

Look through your closet..

Look at all those dark pieces of clothing JUST waiting to share

 a beautiful love with the lovely color of..

Mustard.

xoxo,

Jace 

The Old Couple

Beautiful.

So many things about this photo are working.

It's closely cropped. And follows the rule of thirds to a T. Lets look at it a little bit closer...

Her body is on the third line on the left and his is on the third line on the right. Their faces occupy the third on the top and bleed down into the third in the middle. This is the same with the hands, they start in the middle third and bleed to the bottom. The kiss is located in the top middle box. Its central and important.

The first thing I see when I look at this picture is his kiss.

Then my eyes travel down the slant of her face to her eyes and that adorable smile. From there I see her hands holding his wrist. My eyes follow his wrist up to his hand tenderly holding her face. (Notice that wedding band? Because it's important for the story that this picture tells.) And finally I go back to the kiss. Round and round my eyes go.

But the best part about this photograph is what it says: LOVE. His kiss, her smile, the hands, the ring. This my friends, is true and pure love. This photograph tells their story, and I think gives hopes to all of us that we too can love someone forever. The photographer captured this emotion so perfectly that the fact that you don't see the mans face makes it 10x better. His kiss and her joy are enough. I believe including his whole face would take away from the meaning of the image. The point was not to take a portrait. It was to capture this love and infect the rest of us with it.

Lovely, absolutely lovely.

Smile my friends. The world is beautiful.

Jen

Photo take from www.pinterest.com. Author and origin unknown. (AKA. I did not take this and do not own it.)

tunes thursday

jace: rivers and roads-the head and the heart

The acoustics in this song is just lovely. 

I have recently been in love with this band, I just can't stop listening to them. 

I hope you enjoy their breathtaking voices as much as I do.

el: fire-ingrid michaelson

i am nuts over her new album. seriously.

but this one...i just love me a song with some good strings. 

jen: love and some verses-iron and wine

for the boy who loves me only. 

city of lights

i adore traveling. what i love most of all about traveling,

is finding pretty cities with beautiful night lights. 

everything is better with a light incandescent warm glow casting shadows 

and lighting up the more magnificent parts. 

i saw an idea similar to this on pinterest (the drug and inspiration to my creative world), 

and decided to give it a whirl over the weekend. 

and it was a success! little paris cityscapes (jace's choice). 

and while i didn't have enough working tealights (which is what i imagined in my head), 

the big christmas lights hanging in my room worked out just perfectly. 

(they're super easy and i figured, self-explanatory)

être audacieux

Lovely People,

Do not be afraid to mix things up a bit. 

This outfit was inspired by the one thing I love most..Paris.

All my life I've wanted to go to France.

Did I take Spanish in high school? No.

I took French.

The Culture and Fashion of Paris is a dream to me.

The people aren't afraid to be bold, which I envy.

So today I paired a mint top with a black polka-dot cardi,

the hat and red lips are the perfect finishing touch to my new favorite look.

Love it.

When I go to France, I'll be wearing this.

Yes I will.

xoxo, Jace

It's okay to cheat...well, sometimes.

The most important thing you can have as a photographer. Print one out and keep it in your camera bag. Take it everywhere with you. There is nothing wrong with cheating...well, sometimes. :)

Smile my friends. The world is beautiful.

Jen

words

being a pour college student with little resources, my craft repertoire is limited to glue gunless, cheap, non-scrapbooking ventures. this was a really easy craft that was practically free and makes my room look that much cuter

here's all you need: 

pipe cleaners, scissors, and yarn (or twine if you want)

I started with twisting two pipe cleaners together, because I wanted the word to be a little bit thicker

Next I formed the pipe cleaners to the shape of the letter I wanted. Its a lot easier for the letters to connect if they're cursive (and its cuter). 

My lovely jace loves french, so I made her a 'Oui'.

Then just start wrapping the letters with yarn (or twine).  I wrapped over the ends a few times so that it wouldn't come loose or if you aren't a poor college student like me, you can use a glue gun and glue the end to the pipe cleaner. *Tip* some of the letters I unwrapped the pipe cleaners from each other and wrapped them with the yarn because it was easier that way. 

I finished by tying the yarn in a knot at the end. voila! 

el

olive you

Well hi there.

Model Monday's are here once again and today I will be talking about my favorite color.

Olive.

The "military" colors popularity has taken a rising in interest with the fashion world.

Olive pants ( as well as many other assorted colors) have took an increase.

The plain black and blue jean combo is simply not enough.

Colors make a bold statement, especially on the pant.

Olive gives that hint of green without screaming at you.

It pairs nicely with many colors which is helpful on those rushed mornings to work/school.

Browns, stripes, plums and burnt orange are especially my favorite.

Take a chance with this color!

Start paring with different colors, you'd be surprised how well the olive compliments the other.

Have a beautiful day lovelies!

It's snowing where I live and only the BEST things happen in the snow.

xoxo, 

Jace

Film Fridays with Jen

"Of these things, in this world, there is too little."

Sam Abell

One of my favorite photographers is Sam Abell. This is what he has taught me.

Anyone can grab a camera and take a picture. In fact, you can take a thousand pictures and at least half will turn out fantastic.The act of photography is simple. Press a button and BOOM you have a picture. But there is so much more to it than that.

It requires patience. LOADS of it.

Instead of being "snap happy" take 50 pictures and make each and every single shot the best shot. Be more AWARE of what is around you. Take the time to LOOK at what your capturing.

You have to wait.

Wait for the light.

Wait for the color.

Wait for the people to come in and finish the composition.

Search less and stand more.

Smile my friends. The world is beautiful.

Jen

Photos by Sam Abell, National Geographic Photographer, taken from Google Search

Song of the Week

jace:

I first heard this song on my favorite show Gossip Girl. 

I've been addicted to it.

I'll be secretly humming it on my way to classes throughout the day.

The beat is simply perfect.

jen:

I listen to it all day yesterday and I sang it all day yesterday.

I went to bed singing it.

I sang it in my dreams.

And I woke up singing it.

el:

No explanation needed.

It's just great and I just like it.

wednesday crafternoon with elsa

i love bows. mainly, its bow ties that i specifically love the most, but since i have yet to see bow ties in fashion for women, i must settle for bows myself.  and it seems as if not matter how hard i try, tying a ribbon into a bow just never seems to turn out perfect. until i found the cutest way to have my perfect bow with felt! so i thought i'd share:

all you need is felt, scissors, and a glue gun

start with a strip of felt about 2 inches wide and 9 inches long.

meet the ends in the middle and glue down.

pinch in the middle and form the way you want, putting little dabs of glue to in between them.

then cut another piece an inch wide and 2 inches long and wrap it around the center

i prefer to glue the band together and not to the back of the bow, 

so that way i can fit bobbypins through it

voila! super cute right? and if you want you can add little ends to it. 

i think its cute :)

el

not just your regular trashy celebs

This post is inspired by one girl's harry potter overload induced dream and followed by the musings of one girl's love for a quirky actress, and another's yearning for the rare beauty of a british icon.

el:

yes, it is true. after reading in my 600 page harry potter behind the scenes book i had the most amazing dream, in which, i was best friends with emma. she came over for dinner and chatted with my mom and afterwards we gossiped about dan's crush on me while we drove in the car and listened to bon iver. 

if there is any actress that i look up to the most, it is a one miss emma watson.

i'd like to think that, given the chance, we'd be good friends. 

good friends that go to target for fun, watch the same embarrassing tv shows, 

and shop at burberry on the weekends. 

and while she clearly exudes class in style and fashion (i mean, she ROCKS that pixie cut), 

she also emanates class with the way she conducts herself and lives, even in the bright spotlight. 

I couldn't say it better than her:

"i try to be myself and make choices that i believe in-and if people think thats worth looking up to, then thats very flattering. but first and foremost, i have to be true to myself or its not authentic."

jace:

Zooey Deschanel. 

Oh this woman, I'm pretty sure I've always envied her. I believe it started though when she was the cute blonde with a smooth voice on Elf and/or the stylish music teacher from Bridge to Terabithia.

Whenever it started, the influence she has had on me never weakened. 

Her music (She&Him) has always inspired the singer in me whenever I had doubt in my voice or in myself. 

She just never seems to care what anyone thinks, which I love.

This last week at the 2012 Golden Globes she wore this long emerald green dress. Some might think that it was a little much but she totally nailed it (with full confidence).

Today (January 17) was her birthday, so of course I wrote happy birthday on her FB wall

 (along with a hundred other fans).

I like to think we're dear friends who sing together with our uke's. 

I would go over to her house and she'd give me advice about my future. It's great.

My favorite movie being (500) Days of Summer and my favorite TV show being New Girl,

I've realized the Zooey trend I have going in my life ("Zooey Trend"..blog post idea?)

Whatever it is, it's people like her that inspire me whether it be with writing, music, or fashion.

I'm a fan sista! Keep up the good work!

xoxo, Jace

jen (who's artsy brain doesn't have much to say):

Oh Kiera Knightley, you are the definition of class and beauty. How I wish I could be you for a day. Golly she sure is purty.

Model Monday's With Jace

Hipster? Or Classy Hipster?

This is the question.

Bonjour Lovlies,

As my first blog post I would like to make a statement of the fashion that I follow.

Some may disagree with me and that is completely fine, believe me I do not mean to judge or make fun.

Sometimes when people refer to the term "hipster" (which seems to be all the rage these days)

 the clothing that follows this term can sometimes get a little out of control.

Some photos pictured with the typical "hipster" look leave me puzzled.

Take these two photos for instance.

I randomly typed "hipster" into Google and Pinterest and these were the pictures I found.

Sometimes I just don't get it! 

Does the very term mean, cover your eyes and grab whatever shirt and pant your fingers touch first?

Warning: just because it's old doesn't make it fashionable 

(pointed towards the model in what looks like her dad's old flannel...sugar no.)

Selecting an outfit is very crucial. It should take much thought.

I know when I select an outfit for anyone I carefully look at what I'm dealing with and go from there.

Simply start with picking a color that suits your mood and pair nicely, never harshly.

I feel as though you should always try to look your best.

A quote in which I love and live by is this:

"I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing

herself up a little-if only out of politeness.

And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny. 

And it's very best to be as pretty as possible for destiny."

Coco Chanel

Today El and I put on selective outfits (made by yours truly)

I decided to wear the American Eagle jean shirt I bought years ago.

I paired it with a black jean (attention: a jean shirt with a plain jean does NOT work)

and finished it off with my new favorite cardigan (burnt orange!)

Continuing with the jean look, I paired Elsa with black jeggings and a deep plum cardigan.

The scarf was a nice touch with the colors and her newly dyed GINGER hair.

(plus she loves bows so why not put one in her hair?)

At the end of the day we came up with a better term for "hipster."

Classy Hipster

Which means- one who enjoys the look of old vintage clothing yes, BUT enjoys

 looking put together and classy.

I tend to never leave the house until I am fully satisfied with the way I look.

I want to feel confident, bold, romantic, classic.

There is no shame in feeling beautiful all you must do is be passionate about what you're wearing.

That's all it really comes down to.

xoxo, Jace 

The Photographer

Well, Hello!

I'm Jenna, but my friends call me Jen (and sometimes Jude). This is my first blog. I've always been afraid to make a blog. You see I'm not the writer of the bunch. My mind doesn't think in words. Instead it thinks in pictures, colors, and textures. So if I misspell a word and decide not to use spell check or have terrible grammar or flat out make up a word, don't make fun, just laugh. That's what I do. :) Because, sometimes I am convinced the Lord replaced my brain with paint.

Ps- you can blame the grammar on the fact that I was raised in the south

So here's a little bit about me... El and I have been friends since we were five. Thats 15 LONG years. Hehe :) I am a Art Education major and possibly minoring in photography. I am also the one who moved away. I just recently transferred to BYU in Provo, Utah. Making me 4 long hours away from my wonderful friends.

I am the photographer. You see those cute pictures of Els and Jace? Well, most of them are from me :) I don't know what it is about photography that makes me love it so. Maybe it's the gratification of having a work of art almost instantly instead of the long many hour process involved in painting and drawing. Or maybe it's because I see the world differently when my camera is glued in front of my eye. Colors are more vivid. Shapes are more profound. Textures are more soft or sharp or rough..whatever they were designed to be, but better. Its almost a spiritual experience. Or maybe its the ability to capture the beauty that constantly takes my breath away. Maybe its all these things combine. Who knows. Point is: I LOVE IT.

Smile my friends. The world is beautiful.

Jen

The Fashionista

Salut Darlings! 

I'm Jace, my full name being Jacelyn (Jace-lyn). I've learned to just go by my "shortened name" because my full name seems to be just too hard for some to handle.

Aside from the sassy remarks on my name, I'm the fashionista of the three. I guess you could say that's WHY I'm so sassy but the fact is I have fallen in love with fashion. I have fallen into a deep lovely hole filled with wonders of delightfully classy buttons and bows (darn that adorable rabbit with his crisp trousers, bow tie and impeccable taste in pocket watches). 

I'm inspired by the delicious style this world has to offer. The thing is, I think I've always been inspired. 

Maybe it had to do with my weekly watchings of Gossip Girl

 (a rousing applause for the stylist Lauren Scruggs).

Or maybe it was the fact that I collect ELLE magazine and thoroughly read each page. 

Whatever it is I am glad I have finally found something I'm passionate about.

(although sometimes I do envy the daring Jen with her photos and the lovely El with her art).

This is me in all my entirety.

I'm just a wanderlust romantic trying to find my place in this beautiful world.

xoxo, Jace.

the crafter

this is me. my name is elsa--not elise, not allison, and not eliza, like the rest of the world seems to think.   i'm often referred to as el by my lovely jace & jen. and like my name, i am a bit different as well. but also, like my name, i love it. 

 

the secrets of my life, in a few lines: 

1. anything that can be created with my hands is my passion.  i call it crafting. my father calls it the mess on the kitchen table.

2. i look just like my mother. southern woman often mistake us for twins. 

3. i am LDS. i love my religion. 

4. i'm absolutely terrified of birds. you think i'm joking. i'm not. 

5. i love to travel and not know a blessed soul in a new country. it appeals to my introverted side. 

6. Ask anyone that knows me well what my favorite thing is, and they'll tell you that its Harry Potter. 

7. when its really late at night, i talk in my southern accent. 

8. current aspiration in life: photojournalist for national geographic. it will make the college degree much more worth it.

9. i judge a man's attractiveness by his shoes.  

10. i'm obsessed with bow ties. since i'm a girl, it translates to bows.

bonjour

we are the oxford crew. 

we are so, because of the creative self-entitlement of three shoe-loving, clothes adorning college friends with a passion for decorating the world with tasteful art, independent music, and classic clothing. coupled with this passion comes our desire to convert the world to a less trendy and more timeless lifestyle including creativity's finest: crafts, photography, clothing, and the occasional sassy remarks. 

This is a blog of raw creativity coupled with our many secrets to our unique world 

and accompanied by the story of the three friends. 

Newly separated by a four hour drive, this blog is one of our few remaining ties. 

So enjoy. 

Love,