New Site is ALIVE!

Close-up of some of the art you will see on the new site.

Head over to RandiMinerva.com and look around the new site!

XOXO,

Randi

Happy Dia de los Muertos!

Today is the Mexican Day of the Dead. Technically, this observance goes from midnight October 31st to the night of November 2nd. The fist day honors children who have passed on and is called Dia de los Inocentes. The second day, Dia de los Muertos honors the adults who have passed.

Dia de los Muertos is a mixture of the ancient Aztec celebration for the goddess Mictecacihuatl, the Lady of the Dead, and Catholic holy days, All Souls Day and All Saints Day.

Read more about it here.

Here‘s a really beautiful gallery of Dia de los Muertos photographs. (It’s the really fast-loading, easy to flip through kind, not the reload a new page for every image kind. Because I love you.)

Maybe you’d like to incorporate this holiday into your life?

You can light a candle and pour a shot of liquor for your relative/ancestor/hero to enjoy. Leave both on the windowsill overnight for any wandering souls to enjoy. I like to pour a shot of tequila for Frida Kahlo. If the person you choose to honor didn’t drink alcohol, you could leave an offering of coffee, tobacco, perfume or candy. Traditionally, spirits tend to like those things.

You could also build an altar or decorate a mantle for the dead. Like this one for Frida:

Or, go to the cemetery where your ancestor is buried, light candles and place flowers on their grave:

Baking is another component of Dia de los Muertos celebrations. Pain de los Muertos is baked and sugar skulls are sculpted out of marzipan or fondant:

Happy Birthday Frida

Frida Kahlo would have been 105 years old today. She is alive and well in the hearts of her devotees. I love her more than words can say. Light a candle and leave a shot of tequila on the window sill tonight.

Links…

I’m dreaming of autumn in this summer heat…

Aloha Readers!

Here are some amaaazing things I’ve been reading and watching and being:

FINALLY a Frida Kahlo hair tutorial! Where has this been all my life?

Another post from Justina’s blog in which she makes an awesome Moroccan style fort in her living room. I’m in unrequited blog-love with Justina.

Portraits of girls and their bedrooms. Reminds me of my teenage days. My Mom let me paint toucans and stars and flowers all over my bedroom walls because she’s awesome.

Have you read the Chaos Muppet/Order Muppet article yet? It answers the all-important life question: what kind of muppet are you?

Rookie Mag is one of my favourite place on the interwebs. This article about the correlation between teenage girls’ budding sexuality and witchcraft in pop culture is super fascinating.

Ever wonder what different religions believe about the afterlife? Now you know.

Witchy things to do with dirt you find around town.

Salvador Dali’s zodiac paintings.

Who Needs Feminism? is an amazing blog where women send in captions photos explaining why feminism is important to them.

Think crystal healing is a bunch of bullshit? This article explains how and why they can heal in a relatable, easy to understand language.

Voila! Links to keep you busy all the day and night!

Don’t forget to visit the Shop, follow me on Twitter or check out any of the other links over there on sidebar —->

Links…

I want to live here...

This week, I live-tweeted Season 1 of Dawson’s Creek (Highlight: I’m just going to say what we’re all thinking. Pacey has a unibrow.) I also donated a little cash to the World Wildlife Fund because I’m ashamed to be in the same genetic category as Donald Trump and his evil poacher sons. They should have their human cards revoked.

Onward to happier things:

What’s Making Me Happy This Week

Bebe

Bebe Buell is one of my heros. She was the inspiration for Penny Lane in Almost Famous and she’s Liv Tyler’s mama. Here’s a great interview with her and Cameron Crowe. My favourite part:

It was the guys that made the fuss. They wanted to have the relationships. I would have been perfectly happy just loving the music.

This blog is really great. This quote is amazing.

By now, you know that I’m obsessed with Hawaiian culture. Here’s a little bit about Ho’oponopono:

Hoʻoponopono (ho-o-pono-pono) is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Also, I’m reading Scott Cunningham’s book on Hawaiian spirituality. Here’s a bit about Huna, a Hawaiian New Agey spiritual path,  if you’re interested.

A post about happiness.

A NY Times article from 1990 about the rising popularity of Frida Kahlo. It was written by Hayden Herrera, who wrote the definitive biography.

This is a very interesting post about defining your “brand.” I think it could also apply to defining what kind of person you want to be.

I enjoyed looking at this while Dawson’s Creek played in the background.

FINALLY someone got around to making a margarita scented room spray. It freaking took them long enough!

 

Links…

Tulip trees are BEYOND beautiful.

This is late (on account of it being my blog-aversary this past Thursday, my birthday on Saturday and my anniversary today because everything in my life happens in March.) Also, I totally forgot it was my anniversary until two seconds ago, at which point I yelled “Hey Dude! Happy anniversary!” at Fiancé from across the apartment.

Yes, I call Fiancé “dude” and I forgot our anniversary. Stop judging me.

Here’s What’s Making Me Happy:

This blog is Pisces porn. Gorgeous pictures of waves, water and surfers.

Diego Rivera sealed Frida’s bathroom and closets after her death. They weren’t allowed to be opened for 50 years. Here are some of the photographs that were found.

If you want to learn more about the opening of the rooms and what was found inside, this book is AMAZING. It has photos of every item the historians found, in the locations they were found. All of Frida’s clothes are documented, along with medicine bottles, prosthetics and art.

Speaking of art, look at the masterpiece I created:

P.S. This was taken like 2 seconds after Fiancé proposed. The one on the right is me. Look how awesome my hair was! P.P.S. I have no respect the "special" moments of my relationship.

In unrelated news, Irregular Choice is the weirdest brand ever and I LOVE it, especially the shoes. I want these and these and these and these.

Joy the Baker is hilarious. This is her recipe index. The first category is”booze.” Enough said.

NPR is doing a 3-minute fiction competition. Enter here. Winners will be read on air.

Camels and Chocolate is a great travel blog.

If you ever wanted to learn about Hoodoo, this is the place.

Writers and Kitties is one of my favourite Tumblrs.

I’m addicted to Charlie Rose. The interviews with actors and director are the best. I could watch George Clooney be charming all damn day.

Lastly, this photo made me ridiculously happy:

Kristen Wiig as Frida Kahlo (from W Magazine)

I hope your Monday is extraordinary, just like you!

Happy International Women’s Day

How should you celebrate International Women’s Day?

1. Call your mother, sister, daughter, mentor, hero or friend.

2. Donate to V-Day and end violence against women and girls.

3. Read amazing literature written by women. I suggest Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath and Hayden Herrera (who wrote the biography of Frida Kahlo.)

4. Look at photos of your feminist heroes. Be inspired. Example:

The young man standing on the far left in the suit is Frida Kahlo. She liked to wear mens clothes sometimes. Pretty brave for a 20 year-old Mexican woman in the early 1930's.

5. Break up with your shitty boyfriend.

6. Wear a dress. Feel grateful that you’re wearing it by choice. Some women’s aren’t so lucky.

7. Stand up for what you believe in. Don’t want to have babies? Don’t believe in marriage? Support LGBT rights? Say it. Out loud. To other people.

8. Masturbate

9. Rent a movie with a strong female lead. Feel angry that there are only like 5 of them.

10. Look into gender politics in your area. Find out about your abortion, sexual health and birth control rights. These things matter.

11. Look into the rights of women in other countries. The Congo is a good place to start. Read Nicholas Kristof’s articles. Here’s a good one on reproductive rights in Texas. Excerpt:

“The state of Texas is waging war on women and their families,” Dr. Boyd added. “The new law is demeaning and disrespectful to the women of Texas, and insulting to the doctors and nurses who care for them.”

12. Get mad. Get PISSED. Then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Donate. Write a blog post. Petition your local government. Volunteer at a women’s shelter. Mentor a girl. Stop watching reality TV. Take off your makeup. Refuse to be silent.

13. Be kind. Be brave. Be strong.

Magazine Articles to Read Online

via weheartit.com

This is one of the best pieces of magazine writing I’ve ever come across. It inspired the movie Blue Crush and it’s a fantastic look at Hawaiian surf culture and the girls who are raised in it.

This is an interesting article on Frida Kahlo from a feminist website.

This is a National Geographic article on the book/film Into the Wild, about the travels and untimely death of Christopher McCandless. Into the Wild is one of my favourite books EVER.

Links…

This week, I organized my real and virtual lives.

Well… I tried to.

It didn’t go particularly well. There was a lot of “GGGAAAAAAH! F*CKING PIECE OF SH*T!!!!!!!!” followed by a string of even more colourful curses. But things are good now. Problem solved. Mostly.

Soooo… without further ado…

What’s Making Me Happy This Week:

THIS VIDEO IS THE CUTEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN! It makes me giggle, and I DO NOT giggle. I’m going to marry Kristen Bell and have her babies. Also, if you brought a sloth to my party, I would react this way too:

Have you seen The Oatmeal’s horrible Valentine’s Day cards??? Here’s a preview:

I’m taking Goddess Leonie’s business e-course and it rocks! If you’re in the market for a self-help course or e-book of some kind, you can join her Goddess Circle and get all of her courses and access to the forums for $99. It’s a reeeaaaallly good deal. She’s not even paying me to say that. Here’s some of her free stuff, if you feel called to check her out.

This NPR article on the Danish concept of hygge, roughly translated as “coziness,” is very interesting.

If you live anywhere even remotely close to the Tucson Museum of Art, you should attend their exhibit “Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Murray.” Nicholas and Frida were lovers for many years and his portraits of her are exceptionally beautiful. The museum is also offering a children’s program to teach kids about Frida’s art and fashion. They also get to make Frida dolls! You need to go ASAP, because everyone should love Frida as much as I do.

And if you don’t live in Arizona, maybe you could attend this!!!!!! Toronto is less than an hour away form me and my year has officially been MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My eyes have been welling up with tears of happiness ever since I heard:

FRIDA IS COMING TO TORONTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope your weekend is as happy as mine,

Links…

Fiancé just gifted me a Cinnamon Dolche latte from Starbucks and I’m writing this in bed, still wearing yesterday’s makeup. Week 2 of my 4-month long temp job was completed with slightly less waterworks than Week 1, so I consider that a success. The past week was full of snow, Twinings Ultra-Spice Chai and many, many podcasts.

So, What’s Making Me Happy?

On the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron,” comedian Tom Glass came out of the closet (to the general public anyways) and the discussion that followed was honest and very intelligent. Go listen NOW. Find it on iTunes. excerpt:

“Leave everybody the fuck alone… let people do what they want.”

The Descendants won Golden Globes!

I cleaned the apartment. Trust me, this is a HUGE triumph.

Gala Darling affirms everything I’ve been saying about celebrating every day.

Weird winter weather in Ontario. On any given day this week I was snowed, rained and shined upon. I wore mittens and ballet flats. I love it.

I purchased a Hello Kitty blanket and have been wearing it cape-style for the last 3 days.

L’Oréal Colour Riche Balm is sooooo good. If you’re looking for an everyday lip balm with a bit of colour, this is it.

This Frida Kahlo coloring book is adorable.

This article on recognizing your inner critic is enlightening.

Sometimes, parents rock.