Images- Happy Halloween

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Denim & Yellow

(Wayne Tippetts)

Images- Extended Touch

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Cropped Top

(Wayne Tippetts)

Journal- Steve Jobs: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

The following is the transcript of the Commencement Speech at Stanford University given by Steve Jobs (may is soul rest in PEACE):

" Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.
This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.
My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.
In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.
My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.
Thank you all, very much."

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish and may your heart be your guide all the way!

With Love,

Minou

Journal- L'Art de la Créativité

"Travail + Plaisir

Quand travail rime

avec Créativité

l'impossible n'est qu'une

Suggestion"

With Love,

Minou

Images- Training Day

Images- St. Tropez

(Wayne Tippets)

Images- Modern Grace

(Wayne Tippetts)

Images- Jump...Suit

(Wayne Tippetts)

Images- Printed

(Wayne Tippetts)

Images- Black & White Spectrum

(Wayne Tippetts)

Images- The Blues

(Wayne Tippetts)

Images- Razor Sharp

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Linen Suit

(Wayne Tippetts)

Images- White Mini

(Wayne Tippets)

Journal- PARADISE

I HAVE FOUND PARADISE

Port-Salut, Haiti

Ile-a-Vache, Haiti

Hotel Abaka Bay, Ile-a-Vache

Port-Morgan, Ile-a-Vache

For more information about hotels in the area visit:

Ile-a-Vache, Haiti

Port-Morgan Hotel at-http://www.port-morgan.com/

Abaka Bay Hotel at-http://www.abakabay.com/

Port-Salut, Haiti

Dan's Creek Hotel at- http://danscreekhotel.com/aboutdanscreek/index.html

Journal- Return to Nature

There is a REVOLUTION under way.

People are searching and yearning to RETURN TO NATURE in every aspect of their lives. From groceries to architecture the word ECO, ORGANIC, NATURAL, HYBRID have been incorporated in our daily venacular.

However, with increasing demands and a saturated market, people are getting confused on what is or isn't REALLY from nature. In an effort to live a HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE, it is often difficult to know where to begin. With terms such as Natural, Sustainable and Organic splattered on every label, in our search for NATURE, what do these terms mean?

SUSTAINABLE: This label applies when an item is produced in ways that minimize its environment impact, whether it's made in a solar-powered factory, uses renewable resources or biodegradable packaging.

NATURALLY DERIVED: It's a term used for a product whose raw materials come from a natural source, such as botanicals and fruit extracts, but have been chemically altered to make the formulation.

NATURAL: A formula that is primarily made up of natural ingredients and contains no petrochemicals,  synthetic fragrances or dyes. Any parabens or sulfates that might be in it is naturally derived.

ORGANIC: The official USDA certification is given to products made from natural ingredients that have been grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

These terms are a mere preview of the vast knowledge there is to learn about the products that emerge from the resources of the land. The need to return to nature is not a mere trend, but a cry to lead healthier and peaceful LIVES. People want to know what they are eating and be more conscious in their choices. Whether is visiting one's local fresh markets or growing a vegetable garden in one's background, the possibilities are endless and feasible.

Enjoy CREATING and let your SENSES feast!

With Love,

Minou

Journal- Letting Go

'Someone Like You'

Written by Adele Laurie Blue Adkins & Daniel Dodd Wilson

I heard
That you're settled down
That you

Found a girl

And you're

Married now

I heard
That your dreams came true.

Guess she gave you things

I didn't give to you

Old friend

Why are you so shy?

Ain't like you to hold back

Or hide from the light

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited

But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.

I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded

That for me it isn't over

Never mind

I'll find someone like you

I wish nothing but the best for you too

"Don't forget me", I begged

"I'll remember", you said

"Sometimes it lasts in love

But sometimes it hurts instead."

Sometimes it lasts in love

But sometimes it hurts instead,

Yeah.

You know how the time flies

Only yesterday

It was the time of our lives

We were born and raised

In a summer haze

Bound by the surprise

Of our glory days

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited

But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.

I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded

That for me it isn't over.

Never mind

I'll find someone like you

I wish nothing but the best for you too

"Don't forget me", I begged

"I'll remember", you said

"Sometimes it lasts in love

But sometimes it hurts instead."

Nothing compares

No worries or cares

Regrets and mistakes

They are memories made.

Who would have known

How bittersweet this would taste?

Never mind

I'll find someone like you

I wish nothing but the best for you

"Don't forget me", I begged

"I'll remember", you said

"Sometimes it lasts in love

But sometimes it hurts instead"

Never mind

I'll find someone like you

I wish nothing but the best for you too

"Don't forget me", I begged

"I'll remember", you said

"Sometimes it lasts in love

But sometimes it hurts instead"

"Sometimes it lasts in love

But sometimes it hurts instead"

With Love,

Minou

Images- Prints+Sneakers

(The Sartorialist)

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Rolling Skulls

(The Satorialist)

Images- Unmarked Territory

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Uncoordinated Flare

(The Sartorialist)

Music- 'Half a Chance' Kidding On The Square

Journal- A Moment of Pause...

I have been absent... I am aware
But I have grasped the opportunity to take a CHANCE on life
And plunged myself on a new ADVENTURE that is completely out of my comfort zone
I suppose I SIMPLY decided to actually LIVE my LIFE

It was important for me to do so
To take  A MOMENT OF PAUSE
To BE
SIMPLIFY
DREAM AGAIN...
Because WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, ONE CAN ACHIEVE
And my imagination and CONSCIOUS is ready to make the invisible, TANGIBLE

I have not deserted my readers

Simply continue the JOURNEY with me...


With Love,

Minou

Music- 'Cobrastyle' Robyn

Images- High Tires

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Breezy Sweater

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Market Fresh

(The Sartorialist)

Music- 'Collide' Howie Day

Images- Updo

(Tommy Ton)

Images- Fistful of Charms

(Tommy Ton)

Images- Open Collar

(Tommy Ton)

Images- Washed Out Blazer(

(Tommy Ton)

Journal- Give it Your All or Nothing

Life demands nothing less from anyone, but for each and everyone one of us to give it our All or Nothing

The Joy, Love, Success and Peace we all seek comes to those who live by TRUTH and RISK everything for what they believe deep within

You only get a chance to be this person you are at the present ONCE,

GRAB IT, HOLD ON TO IT & RIDE IT FOR ALL ITS WORTH!

Let fear, the word "No", the status quo, falling on your face be MOTIVATORS for your PERSEVERANCE to make the impossible POSSIBLE.

In our pop culture today, too often the portrayal of success is misconstrued; there is more to success than 'fame and fortune', there is a HUMAN story of unwavering FAITH and DILIGENCE.

I found this recent clip of Beyonce inspiring, although not a particular fan, I was in awe at her ability to risk it all for what she believes in and her determination to make unrealistic ideals a REALITY. I applaud anyone who seeks to learn, grow, teach and are constantly searching for truth in everything they do.

Here is a glimpse:

c

"Whatever the mind can CONCEIVE, can be ACHIEVED"

Pursue your dreams until they become an INDELIBLE part of WHO YOU ARE.

With Love,

Minou

Journal- Time

I stay up at night... and my thoughts are RACING
How TIME can sometimes COLLIDE with one's thought
I can hardly believe all that we have been through together

The Chase
The Passion
The Emotion
The Trust
The Lies
The Deceit
The Heartache
The Betrayal
The Lost
The Surgery
The Recovery
The Mending...

It is amazing what happens within a time frame
And also how often, time can come FULL CIRCLE

My thoughts are racing
The memories are OVERFLOWING
Has time truly mended all wounds?

I remember it all
The highs and the lows
From the first "I Love You"
To the Day you left me alone to bear the consequences of OUR actions
How Surreal... Was I even there?

How time has passed by!

My thoughts are racing

Am I trying to make up for time or simply EVADING the notion?

Time is but a concept that holds the stories of our own THOUGHTS
But how I know!.... our two souls are forever intertwined in timeless eternity
With all the good and the bad
We have left an INDELIBLE imprint in each others souls

Soulmate?

Time will Tell

With Love,

Minou

Music- 'Never Would Have Made It" Marvin Sapp

Images- Brown Suiting

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Summer Cool

(The Sartorialist)

Images- Unfaded

(Tommy Ton)

Music- 'Loca' Shakira ft. Dizzee Rascal

Images- White Collar

(Garance Dore)

Images- Color Blaze

(Vogue.com)

Music- 'A New Beginning' SoundCloud

A New Beginning by daliric

Images- Men and Gelato

Italian men have this unbelievable ability to be macho and have time for some GELATO

yumm...

With Love,

Minou

Fashion- Unique Sunglasses

I strongly believe that the eyes are the windows to one's soul... but on occasions like the summertime a pair of sunglasses is what stands between one's soul and strong summer rays.

Sunglasses, like a hat are can be use as a reflection of one's personality. I often like to research unique pieces that are more than a mere purchase, but whose production and creator are has creative and interesting as the final product.

One of the  interesting shops I have discovered is Silver Lining, where you won’t see current designer frames, at least since Luxottica bought them. Sure, you’ll find vintage Persols back from when they were independently held (including some original folding frames from the Arabic market designed by Ratti, who was to Persol what Pininfarina was to Ferrari), and the Ray-Bans you’ll find were made in upstate New York by Bausch & Lomb. Silver and Sacher source the vintage finds from former distributors, every piece you’ll find in the store are completely unworn, a rarity in the vintage eyeglass game.

Sitting next to the cases of vintage glasses are dozens of modern pieces from brands like RBS, BI strongly believe that the eyes are the windows to one's soul... but on occasions like the summertime a pair of sunglasses is what stands between one's soul and strong summer rays.

Sunglasses, like a hat are can be use as a reflection of one's personality. I often like to research unique pieces that are more than a mere purchase, but whose production and creator are has creative and interesting as the final product.

One of the  interesting shops I have discovered is Silver Lining, where you won’t see current designer frames, at least since Luxottica bought them. Sure, you’ll find vintage Persols back from when they were independently held (including some original folding frames from the Arabic market designed by Ratti, who was to Persol what Pininfarina was to Ferrari), and the Ray-Bans you’ll find were made in upstate New York by Bausch & Lomb. Silver and Sacher source the vintage finds from former distributors, every piece you’ll find in the store are completely unworn, a rarity in the vintage eyeglass game.

Sitting next to the cases of vintage glasses are dozens of modern pieces from brands like RBS, Barton Perreira and VUE DC, all of which are completely independent from Luxottica and manufactured without any licensing at all. Silver and Sacher have also launched their own line of independently crafted frames inspired by some of the classics, that all are handmade in Germany.

Owners Jordan Silver and Erik Sacher

Other independent sunglasses producer include SUPER,  By RetroSuperFuture®, Ignited The Phenomenon Of Acetate Sunglasses. They Are Made In Multiple Color Graduations, Which Has Generated A Big Trend Starting In 2007. Super  Is On Of The 1Rst Brand To Produce A Complete Range Of Colorful Fashion Sunglasses Combining These Characteristics Together With A Very High Quality Manufacturing Process. Super Sunglasses Are Made To The Highest Possible Standards, Hand Made In Italy By The Best Manufacturers And With The Best Materials. For This Reason, Super Also Decided To Adopt Zeiss Lenses, Which Guarantee An Extremely High Level Of Protection To The Eyes In All Conditions.arton Perreira and VUE DC, all of which are completely independent from Luxottica and manufactured without any licensing at all. Silver and Sacher have also launched their own line of independently crafted frames inspired by some of the classics, that all are handmade in Germany.

Other independent sunglasses producer include SUPER,  By RetroSuperFuture® has ignited a revolution for quality acetate sunglasses. Daniel and Simon Beckerman are the creators of SUPER and are also publishers of PIG Magazine and PIG Radio based in Italy. The business strategy, if there was one, became to give people something that was the best quality product at the most reasonable price.Their multiple color graduations has generated a big trend starting In 2007.  SUPER sunglasses are handmade in Italy by high standard manufacturers and produced with high standard materials. For this reason, SUPER also decided to adopt Zeiss Lenses, which guarantee an extremely high level of protection to the eyes in all condition.



Offcially launched in spring 2007, SUPER is today currently distributed in over 350 SHOPS worldwide. You can find them in some of the most infuential trend leaders STORES such as Colette in Paris, Barneys New York, 10 Corso Como in Milan, Bodega in Boston, Fred Segal in Los Angeles, Steven Alan, Paris Texas in Denmark, Caliroots in Sweden and many others.

For more information about Silver Lining Optician go to- http://silverliningopticians.com/
Address: 92 Thompson Street New York, NY 10012

Super Sunglasses

For more information visit- http://store.retrosuperfuture.com/

Enjoy the Summer and keep these BEAUTIFUL gates to your SOUL protected!

With Love,

Minou