this was a good week

Here are the things that added light to my week:

•  We had snow day here in Houston!  Where by "snow," I mean "drizzly weather that really didn't amount to anything," but the weathercasters did a great job of scaring everybody in Houston enough that businesses and schools were closed.  We spent the day together at home with a fire roaring and it was lovely.

•  Morgana Wingard is one of my favourite photographers: we met when I went to Kenya and she worked in-house as the official photographer for ONE; now she lives in Liberia and freelances.  I love this piece she wrote about how she immerses herself in the various cultures she photographs, and her experience is the opposite of what we tend to see on the news.

•  This weekend -- tomorrow, in fact -- I'll be speaking at the TEDxSanAntonio salon on Transcending Negative Body Image and Gender Stereotypes.  It looks pretty amazing, and I'm so honoured to be a part of it.  If you're in San Antonio, I'd love to see you there.

•  Also tomorrow, I'll be doing a book signing for The Beauty of Different at Twig Bookstore in San Antonio, from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.  It'd be lovely to see you there, too.

•  "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender."  If I could figure out a way to stencil Pete Seeger's words onto my camera, I totally would.

•  1005 faces by Sarah Brooke Lyons.  Fantastic.

•  The awesome Rivet & Sway released a new collection of funky, colourful glasses.  Clearly, I needed to buy the Pantsuit in Purple Haze.  ('Scuse me while I kiss the sky.) (Also, if you're in the market for prescription glasses -- or, now, sunglasses! -- enter KARENSWAYS!, including the exclamation point, to get 10% off of your order.  Booyah.)

•  My friend Angela over at Fluid Pudding has started writing and sketching one sentence journal entries.  You know how I love a journal, so this is making me very happy.

•  Incidentally, the internet is a teenager.

•  I'm not a huge football fan, but this video of deaf NFL fullback Derreck Coleman surprising two of his biggest fans, who also happen to be hearing impaired, might just be all I need to get me to watch the Superbowl.

•  And finally, the beachscapes of Andres Amador are positively breathtaking -- and I love that these intricate images only last until the next high tide.  Take a look at this video to see his beautiful work.

And on that decidedly peaceful note, have a great weekend, friends (hope to see some of you in San Antonio!).