I Blame Facebook

I am terrible at keeping up with my blog. I admit it. Its a New Years Resolution that never gets kept. *sighs* I see this as a two-fold problem.

1. writing and posting blogs is time consuming, and I am always busy with other work related things.

2. posting pics and albums on Facebook is so much easier, and I get to interact better with my audience.

Facebook is the monster that is eating my blog, lol. Want to know where it went?

http://www.facebook.com/wanderingbohemian
http://www.facebook.com/WanderingBohemianPhotography

Moving Day. Again!

Those of you who follow me on my personal Facebook Page know that I recently moved. Yes, again. *sighs* Through no plan of my own, it seems I am always moving! When I was younger, there was nothing I enjoyed more than the adventure of changing my surroundings and living someplace new. Now, having moved 3 times in the past 4 years, I've had about enough of it. And for some reason that only the Great God of the Move understands, it keeps happening to me during a heat wave in July. The official temperature for the day that I moved this time? 104 degrees. (it's funny in that, 'I would rather eat a live bug than haul lots of boxes today' kind of way)

On the bright side, I have combed through every single possession I own over the past few years, and gotten rid of oodles of things. So many useless items we lug from one home to another! Things we promise ourselves we will use 'when we finally have the extra time', or wear 'when we lose that 10 pounds we've been meaning to take off'. I cant tell you how many trips to the Salvation Army I have made over my last 3 moves. I got rid of ALOT of books now that I have my Kindle! That was a big help too. At one time I was literally lugging 32 boxes of books from home to home. (all boxes numbered and packed in plastic. Yes, I freely admit it. I'm a book-loving geek and proud!) :P

On the not-so-bright side, I discovered that 2 very precious (and expensive) items of mine became broken from my last move. :( I had them swathed in cocoons of bubble wrap, and then wrapped in blankets, but apparently it wasn't enough. I know its only 'stuff', but there are some things that are just irreplaceable.

So here I sit, surrounded yet again by my life packed up in boxes. I love my new place (I'm going to have to post pics!), but it represents a big change for me in many ways, both personally and professionally. I wanted this transition - have wanted it for awhile now, really. But of course, drastic life changes are always frightening. This one has been no exception. I have done it tentatively, fearfully, half assedly backing down the rabbit hole with one eye to the sun. Hoping that if all goes wrong, I can somehow find an escape hatch that will magically return my life to the way it was before. Ahhh, the comfort of the familiar - even if you know its really not the best thing for you.

I have found that the best way to get through a move and/or major life transition is to try and keep myself laughing. (Pets and laser pointers are great for this, btw) I made it a point to take a few minutes each day to find amusing videos and photos about moving to help keep me looking at the bright side. It really does help tremendously! Its hard to be anxious, or frightened, or even aggravated when you're laughing all day. I learned that during my cancer! :)

I posted an album on Facebook of all the funny pics that I found while surfing the net, but I thought I would share a few of my favorites here as well. For all you tortured souls out there lugging boxes in the heat and wishing for back rubs and pizza, these are for you :

Had to include this great clip from Family Guy, Blue Harvest! I crack up every time I watch this.



Another moving video that gave me a good laugh: (especially with how much I love Tetris)



A few favorite moving day cartoons and pics to keep the chuckles coming! ;)

       I am totally making a castle fort after all my boxes are unpacked!

Talking Retouching II

My last blog about beauty and post-work, Let's Talk Retouching, turned out to be so popular I thought it was time for round two. 

It’s no secret that most of the images we see today in magazines, online, on tv and in brand advertisements are photoshopped. (ask anyone who knows me - I'm always spouting off about it! lol) Fashion magazines claim that readers are not being deceived by their photoshopped pages, because the public has been made aware of the use of image retouching via the media. But is that what's at the forefront of your mind as you page through magazines and walk past billboards? And what about our children? What is the new generation taking away from this media onslaught of digital perfection that they are being exposed to every day?

“I don’t think women and girls know the extent to which photos are retouched. I don’t. And even if they do know, I’m not sure it penetrates.

Nutritionist, Alexis Best

If you have 6 minutes to spare, I highly recommend you watch this next video! 

Every woman and young girl should see this.

 Check out this short but powerful video from the Dove Self Esteem campaign.

How many of you caught Madonna's ad campaign for Dolce and Gabbana in the spring of 2010? The photos were everywhere. (I saw them in Italian Vogue) They stirred up quite the controversy when unretouched images from the photoshoot were leaked. Take a look at a few before and afters:

Amazing what smooth and perfect skin a woman of 52 has, isn't it!? NOT. In fact,  it is quite impossible for a woman of 52 to ever look as good as these retouched photos show. She looks like she's in her 20s! There is not a plastic surgeon in the world who could turn back the hands of time like that. Lets take a look at a few more:

Here's another image from the final, edited and retouched ad campaign. Wow.

Found this shot of Madonna posing in her infamous bunny ears for an ad campaign for luxury brand Louis Vuitton. 
And to the right, the final retouched image they used in the ads.

I can't help but feel that here's a woman who could be a prominent representative for mature women and Real Beauty. But instead she is promoting an image for her age that is quite clearly extremely deceptive. Now, I'm no fan of Britney Spears, but I was thrilled when she helped raise awareness of this topic by releasing side-by-side photographs of her before and after retouching for a Candies ad campaign.

Let's take a minute to talk about Kelly Clerkson - who saw that September issue of Self magazine? 
The songbird graced the cover of Self's "total body confidence issue."

Now here's some candid photos of Kelly taken at one of her performances, during that same time period that she posed for the Self magazine cover:

Self magazine admits it did airbrush the singer, but they are also saying it was no more than they do for every other cover model. (uh-huh) The editor-in-chief argued, "Our picture shows her confidence and beauty." Some are saying that it seems like Self magazine doesn't have the confidence to show the singer's real body - booty and all. Many readers have expressed disappointment and outrage over the digitally slimmed Clarkson.One person who doesn't have a problem with her weight is Kelly Clarkson herself. She tells the magazine: "When people talk about my weight, I'm like, 'You seem to have a problem with it; I don't...I'm fine!' I'm never trying to lose weight – or gain it. I'm just being!" Good for you Kelly.

In September of 2009, Glamour Magazine released an unretouched photo of 20 year old plus-size model Lizzie Miller. (she's 5'11" and a size 12, btw) The photograph accompanied an article about body confidence. The image shows a beautiful, creamy-skinned, naked model . . . with a small roll of stomach fat.

It's a photo that measures all of three by three inches," said Cindi Leive, editor of US Glamour in a post on the magazine's blog, "but the letters about it started to flood my inbox literally the day Glamour hit news stands." She says that the overwhelming reaction to the tiny photo, buried on page 194 "shows that the world is hungry to see pictures of normal women." The model herself says, "pretty much every picture in a magazine or ad is airbrushed . . . I don't think the public understands how much smoke and mirrors are involved in making women look like that."

The French are trying to make the public more aware.  French parliamentarians concerned by eating disorders and body image want a warning slapped on ads and fashion photos that are digitally enhanced to make models more appealing. Parliamentarian Valerie Boyer and some 50 other legislators, have proposed a law aimed at fighting touched up images that distort reality. "Such images can lead people to believe in a reality that often does not exist," Boyer said in an explanatory statement. The proposed legislation calls for photographs of people "whose body image has been digitally manipulated to be accompanied by a statement saying 'digitally enhanced to modify a person's body image.'" I personally really wish the United States would get on board with some of that kind of thinking.

Let's look at a few more examples:

Beyonce

Naomi Watts

Jennifer Aniston, who will be 42 this year.

Julia Stiles

Avril Lavigne

 Mena Suvari

 Real Housewives' Bethenny Frankel


Check out these images of super model Mischa Barton.
The first image was a candid taken before the shoot. The second, obviously, is after hair and make up.

And a couple other tidbits I found in my on-line travels . . . .  

And we women aren't the only ones who are getting digital touch up work done these days!

Do you feel your eyes have been opened yet? I hope so! I'm going to leave with you something really funny I found while surfing before and after photos for this blog. Speaking as someone who grew up playing with Barbie and her fashion-tastic glittering world, I was always criticizing myself in the mirror for not being more . . . well . .  Barbie-like. lol It wasn't until years later that I began to understand no human woman could ever come close to matching Barbie's perfect plastic physique. Barbie was launched on March 9th, 1959. If Barbie was a real person, and we consider that her birthday, then she would have just turned 52. Here's an image that someone photo-shopped to show how she might look today at age 52 after all her glamorous living. (and menopause) HA!

In Memoriam

A lot has been happening in my life the past few months. Those of you who follow me on my Personal Facebook page know some of what's been going on. It has been a fall and winter full of changes for me, and unfortunately lots of worry and sorrow thrown into the mix.

The first thing that happened most of you already know about - that I had to move again just as fall began. When I was young I loved moving around. It was always an exciting adventure to live someplace new and have the opportunity for a fresh start. (I'm a big fan of beginnings) Now that I'm older, I'm really very tired of moving. I can't help but see it as ironic that now that I'm finally ready to put down roots, circumstances in my life have been forcing me to keep moving. *sigh* This most recent move was due to the fact that my fiance got custody of his 10 year old daughter, and all her friends and relatives are here in Bucks County. And to be honest, I have always been a Bucks County girl at heart. Any excuse to move closer to the woods and New Hope is always fine with me! :)

Moving, however, is a traumatic event no matter what the circumstances. (Especially for those of us with ocd issues and many boxes of breakable items, lol) I read once that 3 of the most traumatic events a person can through in life is: Death, Divorce and Moving. After having moved several times in the past few years, I have to say I agree. We downsized from a 4 bedroom house (this area is much more expensive than where we were living) and that in itself is hectic trying to find room to store so many items. I still have to wade my way through boxes and bins and over-stuffed closets just to find anything half the time.

Not long after we moved, my kitty of 10 years, Figaro, was hit by a car and killed. I felt awful. I still feel awful. Most of my kitties have always been indoor cats, for many reasons of safety and health. Figaro, however, was a kitty I rescued from the streets of Philadelphia. She was already accustomed to being outside and hunting, and though I had her spayed immediately, she never lost the urge to go out. When I lived in Morrisville for 4 years, we had a big back yard and lived far back from the road. Figaro went out all the time and was super happy there. She brought me home all kinds of prizes from birds to garden snakes to baby mice. I can still remember how proud she would be showing off her mighty huntress skills for mommy. :_) There were times when I was forced to keep her indoors 24/7 due to where we lived, but she was always miserable and cried at the doors and windows often.

Here in Yardley it is very woodsy, and the house affords a little property for a kitty to run and call her own. I hadn't seen her so happy in years. She loved it here. The bad part is that on one side of the house there's a road. I bought her a reflective collar and tag, brought her in every night, and hoped that her street smarts from her days in Phili wouldn't desert her. Sadly, it wasn't enough. There was a thunderstorm and it was pouring rain with bad visibility. I couldn't find her to bring her in before the storm, though I searched and called. We found her after the storm in the road. She had been hit by a car. It was obvious that it had been quick, thank god, but that is scant comfort. I don't think the person that hit her even bothered to stop. :(

  

During the summer and fall of 2010 my father was having a lot of trouble with his health. This is not uncommon for him, as he had been plagued by health problems for many years. Everything from prostate cancer, to diabetes, to heart attacks and high cholesterol. It was rare that he let anything stop him though, he just kept chugging along. After he had a double bypass operation 2 years ago, he and my mother decided to sell their properties in Philadelphia and move to North Carolina. They bought a cute little house in the foothills of the mountains, about 30 minutes outside of Asheville. I know he loved it and was super happy there. But his health never bounced back as it always had in the past. He became plagued by fluid build up in his limbs and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. In early December his kidneys began to fail and the Dr.'s had no choice but to put him on dialysis twice a week. This was too much of a strain on his heart, and he passed away at 8pm on December 22, 2010. (the night of the Winter Solstice and the Lunar Eclipse)

It took me this long to be able to talk about it enough to post this blog. I am still working through my grief and a lifetime of feelings. I was my father's only child and our relationship was often a complicated one. The first thing people always ask when a relative dies is, "Were you close?" I'm never sure how to answer that question where my father is concerned. There were times when we were close. And then there were also lots of time when we weren't. :/ We never really understood one another, we often butted heads and hurt each others' feelings. (I'm alot like my mother and I think that drove him nuts) Things were for the most part patched up between us for the last several years, and amends were made on both sides. I knew his health was deteriorating, I knew it was coming. Yet it still hit me like a ton of bricks. I am learning that no matter the relationship, the death of a parent is a huge big deal.

In Memory of : Frank Cutillo

Born - Feb 29, 1944   Died - Dec 22, 2010

 

Yup, that's my parents. :) They were married on Valentine's Day.

and that worried looking little poop-head is me! lol

me and my dad years later . . . . I think this was Thanksgiving.

my father as granpop with my daugher Casey, back when she was just a little rugrat.

(she's 18 now!)

A few months after my father's death, Dr.'s found a tumor in my mother's bladder. It was cancer. Already trying to wrap my head around my father's passing, (and everything else that had been going on) I now had a new crisis to deal with. My daughter, her boyfriend, my cousin and myself made a trip to North Carolina to be there for her while she had the surgery to remove the tumor. I had actually already been planning a trip to see my mom to help her go through and pack up my father's things, and so that I could pick up his ashes.She was very sick afterwards. We are still not sure if it was a reaction to the chemo or some of the medication they gave her. But I am happy to report some good news for a change! Further tests (and a biopsy of the tumor) have revealed that the cancer was in the very early stages, and they got it all. Her prognosis is excellent and she's doing much better now. THANK GOODNESS. My mom and I have always been close. She is the glue that holds my world together. The one I always run to when I'm upset or have a problem that seems insurmountable. My font of motherly wisdom and humor born of a lifetime of experiences and struggle. I would be lost without her.

There have been various other trials and tribulations that went on this winter that I won't go into. Suffice it to say it's been a rough few months, and I'm really looking forward to spring and better days! Sadly however, there was one more death to come. Though my mother was saved, we lost our kitty Jax shortly after. :_( Jax was my fiance's cat. He received Jax as a gift for his 10th birthday and the 2 of them have been best buddies ever since. Their relationship was very special, and it has been super hard for Troy to lose him. Jax was always a healthy and happy cat up until his very last day. He died in our bedroom with Troy holding him. He became sick very suddenly, and by the time the vet arrived it was too late. He had organ failure due to old age and died March 7, 2011 at the age of 21. We still miss him everyday.

Well, I think that pretty much brings everyone up to speed. I'm continuing to work my way through editing that got backed up while all of this stuff has been going on in my life. I love my work, so it actually helps me tremendously to have quiet hours to get lost in photoshop and practice my art for my brides. Though it can be tedious, for the most part I find photo editing to be quite soothing. In the way that my father used to come home and plop down in front of the tv to forget his problems, I escape into my art to forget mine.

So stay tuned! I will have lots and lots of new photos to post in the next few weeks. And a great, big, heartfelt thank you to all my friends, clients, and fans who have been so understanding and supportive during this time. :_)