Canton Bound...

After months of saving (haha, yeah right) I am ready for the 27 year tradition of the Canton experience with the girls! This is my first year to be able to join the group of Cantonites and I couldn't be more excited to have 2 days off of work FOR SHOPPING! I am practically jumping up and down in my desk chair. I have my list of treasures I will be searching for and the matching t-shirts we will be wearing in my suitcase. I can't wait to share the zillions of pictures I will take over the weekend.

Happy weekend my lovelies :)

See last year's Canton trip told by my mom HERE!

Glitz & Grits weekend {via iphone}

Sometimes I am in love with my iphone...I love that I use it as my watch, (video)camera, calculator, bank, facebook updater, twitter-er, for heytelling, mapquesting, checking the weather, pandora-ing, looking at the tv guide, and sending emails. Not to mention any question I might have about anything at all can be answered with my intellegent little phone....but (we all knew there was going to be a but) when I don't take my camera to events because it's "too big" and say "I'll just use my iphone" I am always disappointed that I made that decision. Maybe you don't feel as passionately about photos as I do (to be honest, I don't know many that do), but things in life only happen once and I like to capture them accurately. These photos below show that Cory, Shelley, Tison, and I had a lot of fun at the Glitz & Grits 2011 event at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum on Friday night. It just shows it in a rather blurry way :) The catering was by The Cotton Boll. I had no idea they catered! The Cotton Boll Grill is one of my favorite local homestyle cookin' restaurants. The band looked like they wanted to be somewhere else, but we got out on the dance floor and did our thang.

{Artist George Rodrigue's "Blue Dogs on the Red River" were exhibited at the event, although we must have missed the secret room because we went around the whole circle that is LA St. Exhibit Museum and didn't see one blue dog painting! 40 pieces will remain up through the end of the year so I suppose I will have to make a trip back}.

{I know, I know- we are adorable...}

{cake balls = big hit}

{"doin' our thang"}

{and Shelley and I rolled away in this...}

sisters lunch in the park...

Lauren and Hudson picked me up from work today to have lunch at Julie Anne's. It was such so gorgeous outside so we decided the park was a perfect place to have a mini picnic! I love sister time.

Happy weekend dreamers!

let's hear it for the boy!

Let's give the boy a hand! {Anyone catch Modern Family last night?}

The Great Gatsby

My book club friends and I read The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald this month. We are attempting to alternate a new book with a classic book. I remember reading or at least flipping through the pages in high school. I admittedly was more excited about dressing like a 1920s flapper than actually reading the book. Time after time when I picked up The Great Gatsby and read a few pages I would be out like a light! I found that Fitzgerald has a beautiful writing style, but it is just so different than what I am used to reading. That is to say I found the plot moved sloooowly- until the last 3 chapters (which I read the night before book club). Did anyone else find Daisy to be extremely annoying? Have you ever fallen in love with the idea of a person just to find out it isn't reality? Poor Gatsby... I plan to head to the library this week to pick up the movie version because, let's be honest, Robert Redford is HOT!



Have you heard the buzz about a new version of The Great Gatsby coming out next year? It's a pretty strong cast if there is any truth to it!

Also, here's a link to the 1920s style bob I attempted from a YouTube tutorial. I found my dress at the Greenwood Flea Market a few years ago. I just love the drop waist.

You can find our last book club meet up here. Next month we will be reading Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. What are you reading? Any book club suggestions?

Netflix and...Qwikster...

I usually don't have tech talk on this blog, but this whole Netflix situation is really grinding my gears. As a Netflix user for over 2 years now, I consider myself a devoted customer. Even when the prices went up and several of my friends were dropping their accounts with Netflix I decided to stick with them... that maybe with the increase in price they might increase the selection of streaming, continue the user-friendly features of watching movies at home....instead I got an email today from the Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings. His email is below in red.

_____________________________________________________________________________


Dear Lindsey,
{It began as most do.}

I messed up. I owe you an explanation.
{at this point I am thinking- who is this? What have they done? This sounds personal.}

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.
{First of all, your "feedback" is your stock points and NOW you are explaining and apologizing? 2 months later?}

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.

{Did you know that 75% of Netflix users only use streaming, but that their Starz contract was not renewed?}

So here is what we are doing and why.

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.
{errrr- WHAT? Two different companies?!?}

It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.
{Qwikster- really? You couldn't come up with anything better than Qwikster?!}

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.
{The websites will not be integrated!!! So I will have two different queues - only confusing the whole process of what I am able to get instantly. If I can get it on instant streaming, why would I rent it and wait for it to come in the mail? Therefore, I will always be opening both websites to compare the two queues.}

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.
{Thanks for letting us know in advance...}

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you.
{Obviously I chose Netflix over Blockbuster, Amazon, and iTunes because of the lovely red envelope....}

I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.
{Treated or treating?}

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully Yours,
Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix

_______________________________________________________________________________

I just love that this email feels like a boyfriend's apology after a fight. It is months late and instead of just straight up saying "Sorry, please forgive me for blah blah blah," there is an undertone of something that is self-serving and selfishly promoting their new business.

Interesting articles about Netflix controversy here and here and I am sure a zillion others if you type qwikster in your search bar.

Have any of you dropped your accounts? If so, what are you using? Maybe I should start renting movies at the library.

Your intense movie lover,
Linz

ZeltaMae Magazine...

Hey dreamers!

I have been slacking in the blogging dept. lately, but not for lack of picture taking or simply sitting on my arse. About 6 months ago I was photographing the musician Marc Cogman when I met Amanda, a recent graphic design grad from Louisiana Tech. We clicked instantly and she told me about her and her mother's dream of starting a magazine in the Shreveport-Bossier area. As fate would have it, she was interested in my photography so I led her to this little ole blog. Who would have thought that I'd be the Director of Photography for a new publication due to the humble photos I have on focused Linz! It has been a bumpy road, but also an incredible ride. Honestly, it is a lifelong dream of working for a magazine turned into reality. I get to work with an incredibly creative and talented team of Southern women. All of us are working on ZeltaMae in our "free time" and I am inspired daily by everyone's dedication. Your support for this blog and my photography keep me motivated. I truly appreciate all of you.

ZeltaMae celebrates family and our southern culture. Articles include self help such as organization, relaxation, health and beauty, travel, and cooking. Over the weekend the ZeltaMae girls went down south to capture some photos and experiences for an upcoming travel article. It was not only editorial worthy, but a super-fun weekend getaway! Can't wait to share it with you all...in the meantime, check out the September issue at the ZeltaMae website. In fact, the cover of the September issue was done by me and my mom. Of course Mom did all of the cooking! It was so much fun setting up this shoot with her :) She has an exceptional eye for styling and having her by my side helped create what I consider a great cover shot!

If you have any suggestions or inquiries about ZeltaMae please email me at lindseymarie@zeltamae.com.

 



reflections on labor day weekend...

I suppose I forgot what it feels like to spend time outside since this summer has been so blisteringly hot, but Labor Day felt blissful! The day began with the typical "Where do you want to go for lunch?" question. Requirements included a patio and beer. An obvious choice was The Real Pickle. The patio only spurred on the desire to spend every minute outdoors, hence another decision was made to go straight to the park with all the lawn games we own! Frisbees, bocce, foxtail ball, a few chairs, and Sausage Bear in tow, I was even rollerblade clad!

After we had our Vitamin C fill at the park, Cory and Shelley lended their backyard grill to some corn husks and vegetable skewers. Do you remember that feeling when you were a kid after spending an entire day playing outside? Do you recall how good it felt when you laid your head on the pillow to go to sleep? Extremely exhausted and incredibly happy... that is how I felt this Labor Day.

Do you still follow the no white after Labor Day rule?

Gold & Purple Reign...

Justin T. and I met during football season five years ago. I was introduced to him as Tison, as that is what all his friends call him, and I have called him that ever since. I have tried to change it and call him Justin, but I always forget and go back to "Tison" or "Taylor" (his middle name), "T" or "Hey, you!" He has always been a die hard LSU fan (something he and his father share) and whenever I see the Tigas on tv, it makes me think of when we first met. As the weather changes into fall I can't help but recall college-turned-adult game day get-togethers with crock pot dips, a keg, and a fire. Football season is so exciting...

...The Tison's invited us to Arlington/Dallas for the LSU vs Oregon game this past weekend. When I first saw "Jerry's World" I swear I thought it was an alien ship! It is so big I can't even explain it. The surrounding grounds were a sea of purple and gold! I saw a handful of Oregon fans which were only recognizable due to the "Tiger Bait" chants as they passed tailgate after tailgate.

{There was an hour wait just to get on the waiting list at Buffalo Wild Wings, so we went to El Chicos for Tecate!}

Here we are surrounded by 87,711 fans!