{ Guatemalan Architecture }

Swoon - worthy doesn't even begin to describe this dream house! Corallo House by PAZ Arquitectos is everything a south american villa should be even with a live tree growing through the house and all! and ohhh the use of materials, especially the concrete (board formed of course), and check out the second image with the conduits and other electrical/plumbing/mechanical nonsense spanning the concrete and exposed.... makes me wish I lived somewhere that had stupidly cheap labor. But I really must commend PAZ for a brilliant use of the Guatemalan terrain. As a first generation American, with basically all my family living in Guatemala, I still visit the 'motherland' regularly, now I just need to see if I can get an meeting with the owner to tour this home next time! {via}

{ Olympics 2012: Deconstructing an Icon }

Now, I'm not the biggest Olympics fan... but really I guess I don't get 'into' too many sports, unless it's South American Futbol, aka soccer. But the nationalism, spectacle, and tradition of the Olympics usually wins me over enough to enjoy a few games. This year, I think I might be watching for another reason, the fashion! Stella McCartney (yes, the last name is familiar cause she is Paul McCartney's daughter) is one of my FAVORITE fashion designers, and as of late I've been on a project runway / sewing my lil'  butt off kick, so McCartney's collection for Team Great Britain was something for me to really get excited over! Primarily made up of a deconstructed icon, the Union Jack, was a fun, new, modern way to re-interrupt the team uniform. Made by Adidas, the kit supplies over 900 British athletes with a total of approximately 175,000 items of clothing during London 2012, talk about a big deal! 

Adidas UK Marketing Director Nick Craggs said: ‘All eyes will be on the British athletes when they take the stage at the Games, so we wanted to ensure that they would be the best equipped team through a combination of leading technologies including PowerWEB and Climacool and a unified and striking team identity.’ {via}

{ Type Hype: Handmade Type }

transformation of A to a

Yay for a well deserved Type Hype post! It's been a while since I've crushed on a type/font, but luckily Colossal is dishing out the eye candy today! I've always had a soft spot for process and transformation, and Tien Mao-Lien does not disappoint with her Handmade Type: a typography experiment. I mean, just look at all those .gif's! Love 'em!
Lien drew shapes with ink on one or both of my hands, manipulating my gestures into the corresponding shape to signify an upper-case letter. Then, using the same shape on my hands, I manipulated my gesture or changed the perspective through which the shape is viewed in orderto transform the upper-case letter to a lower-case of the same letter. Removingor redrawing the darkened shape on my hands is not allowed in the experiment. The only way to make the model transform from an upper-case to a lower-case (orvice versa) is changing the gestures or the perspectives. {via}

{ Brutalism Love }

Buzludzha Monument

It's no secret I'm a fan of Brutalism. Maybe it was the time I spent studying at the A+A building at University of Tennessee, or because my curriculum was heavy handed with masters like Louis Kahn or Le Corbusier (notre hero)... but the Buzludzha Monument is a Brutalist's dream! Looking like 3D model from a film, the now abandoned building is preserved only through memories and photographs. Timothy Allen trekked to the top of Bulgaria to visit the now weathered Communist's monument. I'm pretty sad this building is in disarray, but according to Allen this is why...

In September 2011, the Bulgarian cabinet transferred ownership of the monument to the Bulgarian Socialist party.Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov declared, “We shall let them take care of it because here it also holds true that a party which does not respect its past and its symbols has no future”. They have still not come to an agreement about what to do with it. To date, every year at the end of July, 30-40,000 Bulgarian Socialists still congregate at Buzludzha to mark the founding of the Bulgarian Social-Democratic Party. 

Either way, what a spetacular building! Below are a few of my favorite pictures and be sure to check it out on googlemaps too... so surreal. {via}

approaching the monument

look how high up it is!

back in it's glory days...

{ An Adventure of Experiments through Food }

A series by: Erin Gray

I would like to preface my first entry by saying that as of late I have started using my usual sources (foodnetwork.com, most frequently) to find new and exciting recipes. If not already made as such, I have adjusted each recipe to make it more health conscious in an effort to stay within the parameters of my diet I have been on for the past year. For those interested I'll veer off my path just to say thanks to a discovery in the world of apps I have stuck to a plan much like Weight Watcher's, only without the stress of having to be a physicist just to figure out if I'm allowed that glass of wine at dinner or not. Let's face it .. I was an art major, math is not my strong suit! That said, I want everyone to share these recipes and not think of them as guidelines but the building blocks to tweak and use your own creativity to make them yours as I have already done for myself. Enjoy!

Dinner week 1: Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Mexican Lasagna

Mexican Lasagna:

12 wheat tortillas

12 oz shredded cheese (i used kroger hispanic blend)

30.5 oz sweet corn (2 cans of green giant corn)

7 oz diced green chiles

30 oz canned black beans

29 oz canned diced tomatoes

1 T ketchup

garlic salt (to taste, you can also do minced garlic and 1 tsp sea salt)

1 can sliced black olives

1 med. yellow onion

1 lb thin sliced chicken breast

1 jalepeno diced

4 sprigs cilantro, chopped

brown the chicken with just salt and pepper to season. in a sauce pan i cooked the tomatoes, oninon, chilis, garlic salt, ketchup, cilantro and onion for about 10-15 min on medium heat. In a separate bowl mix black beans, olives, corn, and browned chicken. layer as follows : 4 tortillas, half of corn/bean mix, 1/3 of cheese, 4 tortillas last of corn/bean mix, 1/3 of cheese, tomato sauce, rest of cheese. bake on 400 for 30-40 min.. also spray pan with cooking spray so bottom tortillas do not stick.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts:

1 package frozen brussels sprouts, thawed. (or use fresh if you prefer)

2 T olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

**for this meal I added chili lime powder to the brussels sprouts, I thought for something Italian adding parmesan cheese might also be a great addition.

drizzle the olive oil over sprouts. season as desired. back at 400 for 30-40 minutes.

{ Now that's a candidate I can get behind }

Hank is in fact a cat. Yes, you heard me correct, a house cat, and he is running for Senate. After being overwhelmingly bombarded with incompotent candidates, Hank sort of makes sense... I mean why not? He's cute enough, and with the state politics are in, at least you  know what you are getting with Hank! Unfortunately Hank is not in my district, let alone my state, but I still enjoy looking at his kitty face.

Hank is a refreshing candidate - energetic, inspiring, and real. Unlike so many others, he wasn’t born with a “silver spoon” - but rather earned his success and his name through hard work. He knows what it’s like to have very little, and knows that with hard work and dedication anyone can seize the opportunities that this great nation presents all of us. {via}

{ The Age Old Question: Cheese or Font? }

Cheese or font does just want you think it would... it tests your knowledge of cheese and font names! So far, I'm doing alright... give it a try and let me know how you faired? {via}

{ Ol' Wild Bill Shell }

Probably the oldest (now retired) architecture professor at the University of Tennessee while I was attending, Bill Shell always had some crazy story going around about him. Some were too crazy to believe, like how his wife was a ballerina he left for a student of his, while others I later found out were true, like he was, in fact, building his dream home, by himself... basically with his bare hands. Oh yeah, and it is an entirely glass house. Then of course, I can't forget to mention he was a student of Mies van der Rohe, ya know, the less is more guy... Well yesterday, another interesting nod to ol' bill shell showed up on the interwebz... something I'm sure Shell isn't familiar with. Archdaily, posted Postcards from the Architect, a series done by Jody (a former UT grad - 1992 I think... and writer of Coffee with an Architect) and low and be hold, the first postcard was addressed to Bill Shell. I love the simple and yet snarky commentary on the picture. Enjoy! {via}