Awesome Easter Egg Decorations!

So, this Easter I had to work :( I was really upset because I wanted to decorate Easter eggs with my nephews and couldn't. So to make up for it, I found some of the coolest Easter egg decorations out there! This is definitely going to have to be something I'll try for next Easter.
Check em out!

April 2011

My boyfriend lives in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. Every time I'm there, I usually take pictures of something exciting we see or do. I'm posting some awesome pictures that I've taken the last couple times I was there that show some beautiful places in Minnesota. Minus the cold weather in the winters, it really is a beautiful place!

This picture was taken at the Minehaha waterfalls. It was such a beautiful waterfall, and the snow and ice made it even more gorgeous!

Minehaha Waterfall

Baseball stadium where the Twins play!

Gorgeous bridge

The poor Minnesota Viking's collapsed stadium :( This picture was taken in the Guthrie Theater. This specific room in the theater was called the "Yellow Room." (That is why the picture is yellow)

March 2011

Today in Visual Literacy class a discussion was brought up concerning how visuals can make someone feel "spiritual." Some people thought that visuals can have an emotional affect on someone, but not a spiritual affect. They believed that visuals can not possibly give a "spiritual" meaning, because the word spiritual does not have a definition. Other people disagreed with this statement and said that visuals could definitely have a spiritual affect on people. They explained that emotional and spiritual can be very similar, but there is a difference between the two. They also explained that the people who tend to have spiritual emotions, are very religious people, or people that have had a spiritual or emotional background or something that happened to led them to believe this. I personally do think that a visual can affect a person spiritually. I am not an extremely religious person, but if I do see something spiritual that I like, I feel different than seeing a funny movie that I like. I actually have a cross tattoo, and every time I look at down at it, I could definitely say it has a spiritual affect on me. I've included a couple pictures that were defined as "spiritual" in class.

The Effects of Make-up

Today I was flipping through an old magazine of mine and came across an article about celebrities and what they really look like without all the make-up they wear and without their stylists doing their hair. It was so visually interesting to see this because people do not portray these well known celebrities to look this way! I've included some of the most interesting pictures. Check these out....

Mariah Carey

Kim Kardashian

   





 



Renee Zellweger





This pictures were shocking to me, yet I'm glad that they are out there for the public to see. I feel as though some girls try their hardest to look just like celebrities and sometimes they may not feel pretty enough and feel down because they don't look like how they feel society is portraying them to look. We discussed this a lot when we watched "Killing Us Softly." I think looking at these pictures is a perfect example of why women should in NO way feel as though they do not look good enough, or look like society wants them to, because clearly society is not showing the whole picture.                               

Amistad

I have never watched such a sad movie until yesterday when I watched Amistad. That is visually so emotional and I've never cried so much in one movie!! The director captures scenes that will always stick in my mind now which I think is a very positive aspect on his directing skills. Amistad tells a story about slavery in the past and the struggles that slaves encountered. There are certain scenes that are so graphic and violent, but I believe this is a positive aspect of the movie so that people who may not be as educated in what took place in the past can get a detailed understanding. I also think the film was so emotional because it is true. This stuff really happened in the past which makes it even more heartbreaking to watch. It had such a great story, and actually had a couple of humerous scenes but overall it was one of the saddest movies I've ever seen!

He was such a great actor! photo from http://www.timeinc.net/

Killing Us Softly

Week 3, February 7, 2011

Wow! So this week I viewed many different visually emotional films. Let's start with the video I watched in class titled "Killing Us Softly." I had many different thoughts and opinions on this video. It wasn't the first time I have viewed this video, yet each time I view it, I notice different things in it each time. This time, I noticed all of the "fine print" in each ad that was shown. Some of the magazine ads or commercials were RIDICULOUS! Ridiculous in a way that they were just downright degrading to women. Almost each ad portrayed a woman to be seen as a sex object or less than a human being. Women of color were objectified as animals and men were seen only in positive ads. The only concern I had with some of these ads is what was going through the women's minds when they posed for these ads or acted in these commercials. Did they not realize they were be objectified? Were they okay with this? They had to know in their contracts what was going to be displayed, and clearly they were perfectly okay with it. Which makes me wonder why I was making such a fuss about it, if they were fine with it?

This is one of the ads from the film. Crazy.
http://www.dipity.com/

Week of January 31

So, I'm obsessed with this game that you can play on your iPhone. It is called Angry Birds. The reason why I think this is visually blog worthy, is the type of visuals seen in this game and how awesome they are when it's simply a game just for a phone. Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finland-based Rovio Mobile, in which players use a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed on or within various structures, with the intent of destroying all the pigs. It was inspired by a sketch of wingless birds and in my opinion has became so addicting to many people.

This is a photo of the sketches of the different types of birds used in this awesome game!

http://www.angrybirdsrio.org/

I'm pretty positive if you ask anyone with an iPhone if they have played angry birds, they will definitely say they have...at least once.



This photo is what the game looks like on the phone.

Because this game is so visually amazing, I'm going to include a video from youtube.com to show this :)

January 26th, 2011

My all time favorite movie scene is from The Notebook. First of all, this is my favorite movie. It is the greatest love story and makes me cry every time I watch it even though I've memorized every single word to the movie. This scene visually shows so much love and passion, hurt and regret, happiness and fright. It's an amazing scene and Rachel and Ryan did a wonderful job playing Allie and Noah!

Blog Post 1 The Affect of Visual Symbols

Visual symbols and the affect they have on our lives is something we tend to not focus much on unless it is brought to our attention. Some of us, (myself included) don't realize just how important visual symbols are in life. For example, from the minute I wake up to the first ten minutes of being awake, I already encounter so many visual symbols it's unreal. I wake up to my alarm clock and check the time to make sure I haven't overslept. I am able to choose which clothes to wear, and I am able to look outside and see what the weather looks like to base my clothing choices off of my visuals. Without visual symbols, life would be completely different. For me, some visual symbols (such as being able to see cars when walking to class) are a necessity in my everyday life. They are such important aspects that are unfortunately not thought about all the time. A visual symbol/s I appreciate are black and white photographs. I absolutely love black and white romantic photography. I've included one of my favorite pictures.