Favorite Friday Finds 5.0

Result of my spontaneously whipping out old paintbrushes. Looks like a 5 year old's writing, and I'm okay with that.

I love doing these roundups of all my random finds to share them with you guys.

While I don't have traditional subscriptions to any particular media outlet, I essentially use my Twitter as my news source on the go. It's really thanks to Twitter that I find some of these nuggets of information, and I definitely use it more as a reader than a writer- need to get more consistent at my Twitter game, though! 

Here are the nine things that I was inspired by, learned from, and laughed and smiled at this week. Would love to hear any fun things you've read, as well! 

Inspired

1. One of the many reasons I love photography is because it speaks volumes about perspectives and truth.

Former US Marine-turned-photographer Joel Pares created an incredible project called, "Judging America," in which he takes two portrait shots of a person, displaying the dichotomy of judgement and reality.

In the first shot, he shows characters representative of the prejudices placed upon people based on their ethnicity, socio-economic status, or sexuality. Then his second shot reveals the real identities behind these snap judgements initially made. The portrayed black gangster is in actuality, a Harvard graduate. The Hispanic gardner is in reality a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. It's a visual reminder to us all to open our eyes and make us think twice before judging someone, because we all judge even if we try not to. 

2. Oscar de la Renta, the beloved and iconic fashion designer, passed away on October 20th. The fashion and art world will greatly miss his creativity, vision, and enormous contribution to what style is today. 

3. I've definitely had photography on my brain this week- I turned into a total giddy kid when I discovered that Travel + Leisure put my Instagram photo up on their Facebook page, and naturally I've been perusing their awesome hashtag feed they created, #thisisfall. I love seeing users from around the country and globe with their fall foliage photos. I'm always inspired by the way others see the world, and Instagram is the perfect medium for it. If you love fall as much as I do, check out all the wonderful user photos by clicking the hashtag above!

4. This NYT piece on What Kids Around the World Eat for Breakfast was so revealing. We are moving in a better direction, but the reality is is that many American kids are still eating processed, sugary cereals for breakfast and not getting proper nutrition in to start their day. Starting good nutritional habits early is key to establishing a healthy lifestyle- let's take note of some of these examples from around the world. These meals all have a wonderful variety of whole foods and a great balance of nutrients. 

Learned

5. I loved this article from MindBodyGreen on 5 Tips for Scaling Back Your Busy Life. More than ever, we are doing more, more, and more, and adding into our lives. While additions are good, sometimes it's just as important to cut out the unnecessary and simplify things. My favorite quote from the piece is the golden rule: "Don't prioritize your schedule- schedule your priorities."

6. This is not really so much a "learned" so much as a bookmarking for the future article- Travel + Leisure put out a roundup of America's Best Coffee Cities that may as well have been written for me. A bit surprised to see NYC so low on the list, but then again we do tend to have a lot of brands that originated elsewhere- nonetheless, we are indeed a caffeine hub, for that I am eternally grateful.

7. So I just bought this sweatshirt from Everlane (referral link), and I could practically live in it, it's so comfy. I've recently started following Everlane for the beautiful Instagram feed, and became intrigued by the company's sustainable and moral practices. First of all, my item came in a recyclable paper envelope with no wasteful plastic bags, no wasteful tags. The company also sources and creates their product through identifiable factories, to create transparency of where the product is coming from and why it costs what it does. 

The reason I bring this up, is tied into this Forbes article I read last month on how Millennials are changing consumer buying behaviors. While the article focuses mostly on food, I really identified with it and realized many of my friends and I fit into this category.

There have been a series of similar articles that express the same thought: the younger demographic is more conscientious of supporting local and quality brands over its mass-produced, more commonplace counterparts. We are willing to fork over a bit more money to buy organic and local, support sustainable farming/production practices, and small businesses. I certainly prefer to spend my money buying a fair-trade coffee from a local shop over a Starbucks, anyday. This definitely impacts the food system and the economic trends as we know it, and I'm all about that. 

Laughed and Smiled

7. Because I need two doses of caffeine in one post: this is an amazing creation, called Minipresso, that allows you to pour a fresh shot of espresso on the go. But I have a feeling my love for coffee would be kicked up to madly unhealthy levels if I possessed such a thing. I'd use this baby as a caffeine pacifier, essentially...

8. I dream of the day I have enough money to buy and storage space to store all those kitchy, frivolous seasonal kitchen accessories. My brain thinks I obviously NEED this pumpkin shaped cast-iron cocotte, then my sense kicks in and I settle for looking at it through a screen... Sigh. 

9. And always topping it off with cute animals because, hello, this is me we're talking about. Who doesn't want to see 32 cute animal smooches?! If you don't, you should leave now. Just kidding. Sort of.