Rebranding America.

About this piece: Andy Spade co-founded both Kate Spade and Jack Spade, and recently launched a branding studio and store, Partners & Spade with Anthony Sperduti who has worked as an art director in New York City for many years.



"Our thinking behind the assignment's solution is that by offering a simple apology, we acknowledge our mistakes with the hopes of restarting our relationship with the rest of the world."


Recently, Paper Mag brought together "15 of the country's best visual communicators to redefine our image". I really was infinitely inspired by these artists eclectic takes on what they believe our new image should be as projected to our fellow human beings worldwide.

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

Dear President Obama,

I'm certain that you are all aware of the book that has been created using children's letters to Obama entitled Thanks, and Have Fun Running the Country. I've just spent the last ten minutes or so reading a few of the excerpts from it. It has filled my heart with joy from all of the adorable wonderings of the child's mind that it sheds light on.

My favorite:
Dear Barack Obama,

Congrats on becoming the president of the United States and slaughtering John McCain. I think that, unlike W., you should dodge other countries and not shoes. You should not be so quick to go to war and negotiate with terrorists. I like what you said about bringing the troops home from Iraq.

If you like my letter, know that it's from

D'andre "the King" Legrand, age 12
Brooklyn

THAT kid is funny! He must be a real clown.

Anyway, if you like what you see, be sure to buy the book!

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

My Favorite Famous Couples; Dedication 2.

James Earl Carter Jr.and Rosalynn Smith Carter are more commonly known as Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter; former 39th president and first lady of the United States.

"What?" You ask? "Why do you admire them?" "His Presidency was one of the least memorable in American history!" "Rosalynn wasn't exactly glamorous, a la Nancy Reagan, either." Well, I say to you, there are so many more important things, and much more admirable endeavors than taking it upon oneself to redecorate the White House or jumping from movie stardom to politics.

Okay, I readily admit that, with the inflation, and lines at the gas pumps so common in the 1970s, coupled with the fact that President Carter did not lead us out of a depression or guide us through a major war, and he was not a "great orator" per se; history has not been exactly kind to this honest and decent man who hails from a small town in south Georgia.

Rosalynn Smith & Jimmy Carter grew up in very close proximity to one another in Plains, Georgia; having been neighbors for a short period of time until Rosalynn was two and Jimmy five. Ruth Carter, Jimmy's younger sister, and Rosalynn were best friends as girls therefore allowing more opportunity for these two future patriots to bump into one another. However, with Jimmy being three years ahead of the girls, he did not pay much attention to his sister or his sister's best friend. Then, one summer evening in 1945, Jimmy and a friend were cruising the streets in search of dates to take to the movies. They stopped outside of the Methodist church where Rosalynn was loitering with a group of young people after a youth meeting. They asked her to go along and by the end of the evening, Jimmy and Rosalynn were sitting side by side in the rumble seat of the car.

The pair were married on July 7th, 1946 in a small ceremony attended by family and a few close fiends, a month after Jimmy graduated from Annapolis. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s while travelling cross country with the Navy, the pair had three children, John William, James Earl Carter IV, and Donnell Jeffery.

In 1962, he entered Georgia state politics and in 1970, he was elected Governor of Georgia, in 1967; their daughter, Amy Lynn was born, and in December 1974 he announced his bid for the presidency and proceeded to launch a two year campaign that involved his entire family. Carter beat out incumbent president, Gerald R. Ford with 297 electoral votes to Ford's 241. In early 1980, by the end of his presidency, Carter could count among his successes the overseeing of the Camp David accords of 1978 which brought amity between Egypt and Israel and he was instrumental in the ratification of the Panama Canal treaties. Another memorable achievement brought on by Carter's hard negotiations and persistence was Iran's release of 52 American hostages on the same day that President Carter left office in 1980.

Returning home in low spirits and virtually broke, the pair immediately started in on their memoirs. (I've read First Lady from Plains and, its one of my all-time favorite autobiographies.) One evening, President Carter awoke with a monumental idea. He decided to head the creation of an organization that would assist in the spread of democracy worldwide. Thus, The Carter Center was founded byb Jimmy and Rosalynn in 1982. Throughout its 27 years of service, the Carter Center has been an advocate for worldwide democracy by overseeing democratic elections in such countries as Ghana and Ecuador. This organization also fights worldwide disease by distributing innoculations for third world epidemics including guinea worm , whose transmission was halted in 2007 in Togo, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia; and river blindness.

Beginning with her tenure as first lady,Rosalynn Carter has been perhaps America's, nee, the world's most recognizable advocate in the fight for equal rights and treatment for those of us coping with mental illness and disorders. She has lobbied to congress countless times, occassionally alongside friend former first lady, Betty Ford , for better government aide for mental health programs in the U.S. Most recently, Mrs. Carter testified before congress in 2007 during a hearing concerning mental health parity , and due to her actions and those of others such as House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Pete V. Domenici , Republican from New Mexico whose daughter suffers from schizophrenia, who was the main sponsor of the mental health parity bill; said bill was passed in early March, 2008. The bill states that mental illness is equal to physical illnesses therefore, requiring nearly all group health plans to "provide more generous coverage for treatment of mental illnesses, comparable to what they provide for physical illnesses."


Mrs. Carter's testimony before Congress' subcommitee on health in 2007.
Notice how this sweet woman literally tears up in the middle of her testimony.

In 1987, The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving was founded on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University in honor of the former first lady who is an alumni of the college. The institute' mission is as follows:

The Rosalynn Carter Institute establishes local, state and national partnerships committed to building quality long-term, home and community- based services. We believe this begins with providing caregivers with effective supports and making investments that promote caregiver health, skills and resilience. We also believe strongly in the need to provide greater recognition and support for professional and family caregivers. Our focus includes supporting individuals and caregivers coping with chronic illness and disability across the lifespan as well as limitations due to aging.

And so, I admire these two great Americans, patriots, and citizens of the world because of there genuine care and concern for the well being of their fellow man. I admire this husband and wife because they have joined forces, using all of their celebrity and connections not to live extravagantly or provide a lavish lifestyle available only to those in their tight knit circle but, these two gracious, loving individuals have used their name and a lot of the benefits that come with that name to better the lives of millions of human beings worldwide who, without their assistance, whether it be through the way that The Carter Center oversees peaceful transitions to Democracy, or their 25 year association with Habitat for Humanity , personally setting aside a week every year and joining volunteers in many nations, (2009 being in the Mekong River region )to take up hammers, screwdrivers, and many loads of lumber to build decent homes for families who otherwise would be homeless or living in shacks of some kind.

Say what you will about the Carter presidency but, there is no denying that these two lovely human beings have made the world a much better place and, for that, I, along with millions of others, will be forever thankful.

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

In Celebration of a NEW AMERICA!

Our First Family!

I was too overwhelmed yesterday to post so, here I am today; celebrating the dawn of a new chapter in American history!

44 Facts About our 44th President.

1.)He won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Spoken Word Recording. It was for the audio version of his book Dreams From My Father .

2.)As a teen, he worked at Baskin-Robbins and therefore, does not like ice cream.

3.)He enjoys a good game of Scrabble.

4.)He is a smoker.

5.)He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but went to live in Indonesia with his mother when the parents divorced. There he was introduced to dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper.

6.)His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili.

7.)He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed.

8.)While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead.

9.)He can bench press 200lbs.

10.) His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

11.)His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy.

12.)His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

13.)He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol.

14.)He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician.

15.)He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal.

16.)He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300.

17.)He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers.

18.)He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds.

19.)His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso.

20.)He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life.

21.) He cooks up a mean pot of chilli.

22.)Michelle says that he is very romantic.

23.)His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini.

24.) He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.

25.)He was born on August 4th, 1961.

26.)In 1988, Barack Obama began his studies at Harvard Law School. He became the editor of the Harvard Law Review and was eventually elected president of that legal journal. He graduated with honors in 1991.

27.) He later sponsored a law that monitored racial profiling for civil rights purposes, and eventually made Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.

28.)In 2005, he traveled to Russia with Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ill.) to renew anti-proliferation efforts (i.e., finding and securing nuclear weapons that have spread around the world.)

29.)Obama is known for refusing contributions from lobbyists and political action committees (PACs). According to DNC Chairman Howard Dean: "The American people's priorities will set the agenda in an Obama Administration, not the special interests."

30.)A July 2008 poll by Newsweek found that 12 percent of voters wrongfully believed that Obama is a Muslim, and some thought he was raised in a Muslim home. Barack Obama is a Christian. He was the son of an atheist father who thought religion was "mumbo jumbo," according to Barack. His mother was interested in all the world's religions but was an agnostic [again according to Barack].

31.)Obama is distantly related to Vice President Dick Cheney. He is also eligible for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution; one of his maternal great-great-great grandfathers was a decorated Union soldier.

32.)Some of Barack Obama’s maternal ancestors were slave owners.

33.)Obama's mother died in 1995 of ovarian and uterine cancer. Obama and his sister, Maya, spread her ashes in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii. On December 23, 2008, Obama spread his grandmother’s ashes in the same spot.

34.)Following 9/11, Obama was an early opponent of President George W. Bush’s plan to go to war with Iraq.

35.)Obama was the first to raise the threat of avian flu on the Senate floor.

36.)Neil Young mentions Barack Obama in the lyric to his 2006 song Lookin’ for a Leader.

37.)Obama once said the three men he admired the most were Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

38.)He is portrayed by Fred Armisen on Saturday Night Live!, and even made an appearance on the show.

39.)His second daughter, Sasha, whom is 7, will be the youngest resident of the White House since John Kennedy's son, John Jr. and Caroline.

40.)Do The Right Thing was the movie Barack and his future wife Michelle Obama saw on their first date.

41.)Barack Obama served on the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and the Foreign Relations Committee.

42.)As a boy, Barack's nickname was Barry.

43.)Barack is 6'1".

44.)owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali.





All I can say is I am filled with hope, optimism, and expectation beyond measure.

Americans... still believe in an America where anything's possible - they just don't think their leaders do.

So, I beg of you President Obama, prove us wrong!

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

In Honor:

In rememberance of Martin Luther King, Jr ; I have gathered together a few things to share which I found to be of interest.

Washington, D.C., circa 1916. "Slaves reunion. Lewis Martin, age 100; Martha Elizabeth Banks, age 104; Amy Ware, age 103; Rev. Simon P. Drew, born free."

I cannot help but wonder, taking into consideration what advanced ages the first three individuals in the above photograph reached, if perhaps Mr. Drew lived long enough for his heart to swell with joy and hope as human beings of every age, color, and nationality were brought together by the activism, charisma, and wise words of this man:



Join with me in enjoying the entire I Have a Dream Speech, The March on Washington; August 26th, 1963:


As you watch this, keep in mind tomorrow's inauguration and the possibility that perhaps, finally, America as a nation is realizing the great satisfaction in the words; Liberty and Justice FOR ALL.


first image courtesy of Shorpy

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

VOTE!

I am about to go and exercise a right that millions of men and women across the country have given there lives to keep intact.



Regardless of your political affiliations, I hope that today, you too, choose to have your voice heard.

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

Reason #1 Why I Love Betty White.

Tell it like it is, Betty!
"If Barack Obama needs more experience, I can give it to him!"

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista

Had I meant it this way, she would be the lipstick..

Best part from Obama's appearance on Letterman last night:



Oink, Oink!

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista.

Beauty in the face of hardship.

Jennine, of The Coveted, recently posted this about an exhibit currently being shown at the City Hall library in Paris, which she recently viewed on a trip. The photographs included are shot in color film which, in and of itself is a rarity for the era.

Shot by André Zucca for a Nazi propoganda writing entitled The Signal.

Jennine gives her thoughts on how a lot of women today are living in much the same detatched state as is shown in this photo essay of Parisian ladies in 1940s wartime.

A short post but, it does force me to reflect on how I, too, have seperated myself from today's reality and how it is time for me to do anything within my power to change the state of affairs in my country even by the simple act of voting against the current administration and anyone who wishes to continue on with a simiar agenda.

I, for one, am eager for us, as a country, to battle our way back into the light of economical prosperity, justice, and charity toward our fellow human beings.

I'm ready for change.

Sunny Side Up!,
Krista