Tag Archives: Cara Reynolds

Free 99¢ Shelf

Sometimes we drool over the furniture on the street. Ok, correction. I drool over the furniture on the street and Mushpa tries to convince me not to bring trash into our home, and be a bit more…what shall we say, selective?

When we have more space, we will be bringing in all sorts of furniture to re-vamp and re-furbish, and potentially sell in our shop as well! This goes back to our idea of making things “from scratch”. On our 100th Blog Post we tried to explain our approach to doing things from now on. If we have the tools to be able to make it, then why not try to do it ourselves? Here is a perfect example.

reburbished furniture DIY

This is one of the pieces we found a block down from our home. We decided that if it was still there when we came back from our walk, that we would take it in.

reburbished furniture DIY

We needed storage, and we got some for free! With a few left-over spray paint cans, we painted it and now it looks fantabulous on our studio!

diy refurbisehd shelf

Thank you Mushpa for this one!

: )

-Mensa

Beautiful

To celebrate Mushpa y Mensa’s new Vimeo amazingness, which is sooo much fresher than YouTube (we said it), we are posting this fantabulous montage. It is a compilation of final shots from multitudes of films to the song, “Gathering Storm” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

It is all about jumping, moving, living, breathing. There is an amazing world out their waiting for your journey.

– Mushpa y Mensa

Here is the breakdown of the shots and what each grouping is about. So cool.

PART I: Awakening/Creation

00:02 – Tree of Life
00:13 – Vanilla Sky
00:16 – Immortals
00:18 – 12 Monkeys
00:21 – McCabe & Mrs. Miller
00:24 – Julia’s Eyes
00:33 – Solaris
00:39 – 2010: The Year We Make Contact
00:42 – THX-1138

PART II: The Natural World

00:47 – Badlands
00:51 – Up In The Air
00:56 – Samsara
01:00 – The Sea Inside

PART III: Youth

01:07 – The World According To Garp
01:11 – Billy Elliott
01:15 – This Is England
01:17 – La Dolce Vita
01:19 – Au Revoir Les Enfants
01:23 – Dead Poets Society
01:26 – A Serious Man
01:30 – L.I.E
01:34 – Gasman
01:38 – The Sweet Hereafter

PART IV: Love

01:44 – Bram Stoker’s Dracula
01:50 – Moonstruck
01:56 – Beginners
02:03 – Rushmore
02:08 – Garden State
02:14 – Rocky
02:20 – Oldboy
02:25 – Departures
02:30 – Amelie
02:33 – Tron Legacy

PART V: The Journey

02:38 – The Graduate
02:43 – Good Will Hunting
02:47 – Boys Don’t Cry
02:50 – Tron
02:55 – The Quiet Earth
02:59 – The Searchers
03:03 – Ghost
03:06 – Cube

PART VI: Triumph

03:12 – Beasts of the Southern Wild
03:19 – Chariots of Fire
03:23 – L’Auberge Espagnole
03:26 – Amadeus
03:30 – The Red Balloon
03:36 – Frida
03:39 – Adaptation

PART VII: Celebration

03:44 – My Left Foot
03:46 – Fearless
03:48 – City Of Angels
03:50 – The Breakfast Club
03:52 – Rescue Dawn
03:56 – Rudy
03:58 – The Hurricane

PART VIII: Transcendence

04:01 – The Wrestler
04:03 – Thelma & Louise
04:06 – The Right Stuff
04:08 – Love (by Angels & Airwaves)
04:12 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
04:14 – Star Trek: The Motion Picture
04:15 – Superman
04:17 – E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
04:21 – Starman
04:24 – Naqoyqatsi
04:26 – Akira
04:28 – Stargate
04:34 – 2001: A Space Odyssey
04:44 – The Last Temptation of Christ

The End of Summer

Ocean SoleWell my friends it is the end of the Summer of 2013. I hope for all it was a fantabulous one! I know for us here at Mushpa y Mensa it was inspiring and wondrous! This entry goes out to those who are looking to do something creative with their old flip-flops of summers past. Check out this video!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzHUwmrOpFE&w=560&h=315]

Thanks Ocean Sole!

– Mushpa

The 100th Post of La Mushpa y La Mensa

Jefe Helping
Jefe Helping…

Mensa and I are always talking about consuming less, needing less, getting rid of excess. Things that anchor us to one place be it literally, monetarily or mentally.

We do little things like take our worn out old clothes, wash them and then cut them into a million little pieces to stuff our Plush Pets…

Plush Rabbit
Pierre, the Lavender, Recycled Fabric, Eco-Felt Plush Pet

…or make some deeelicious seitan from scratch, while whipping up some organic, coconut oil based mayo… I personally am extremely gifted in mixing alcohol with almost any “leftover” liquids (frozen or flowing) and it tasting like nothing you’ve ever had before (in a very good way).

Drinks on Me
Cocktails Anyone?

Some bigger things are Mensa creating an amazing backpack out of an old bag, after her million year old bag disintegrated right before our very eyes. The very backpack we packed with soy milk (something we have talked about learning how to make since we consume so much of it…stay tuned) and such this weekend after working in the co-op (don’t ask). We biked over 8 miles and this revitalized beauty made it through like a champion!

The Bag
The Bag That Rocks

We also made our fantastical Mushpa y Mensa cloth sign out of old pillow cases and fabric pieces. See below…

Mushpa y Mensa Sign
Mushpa y Mensa – Arts Not Crafts!

We are making it happen more and more every day, but we need a challenge….something to keep our momentum soaring towards our destiny. What we came up with is…well let’s start slow, why don’t you get to know us first…see what we mean when we say “from scratch”.

From the Inside
La Mensa’s Robot Girl With a Twist

We are here for a reason, all of us. Let’s make some stuff together, see what we think, then figure something out. Let’s connect as they say, in a good way.

This is our 100th blog post and the start of something gargantuous! :] Life, as La Mensa would say is, “pretty bad-ass.”

– La Mushpa

More Name Cards!

At the Mushpa y Mensa studio making more name cards!

image

We are still making them by hand and each one will be unique like the other. This time we are making the process much more efficient so we can spend less hours making them (at least five hours each set before) and spend more time, as Mushpa would say, crafting other amazing art!

With love,

Mensa

Health Care 101… The New Obama Care Explained

Recently I’ve been looking into insurance, and understanding this new health care reform. Not being insured by a workplace, being self-employed and having one more year to be covered under my parent’s insurance, it is time that we get this new “Obama Care” straight.

Positives? We actually might have some sort of resemblance to decent (or almost barely there) health coverage in the Untied States. We are not to Canada’s or European standards, but we have to admit that for the country where we live in, where $$$ is power, this is a breath of fresh air.

Here is a small video that shows in 4 minutes how this new Affordable Health Care Act, will function.

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZkk6ueZt-U]

 

 

Negatives? YES! It is still not UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE, by the people for the people. We will still run insurance through these huge corporations, and they will still be making profits on human health, and lives. The basis for all this system is STILL profit. Insurance companies will be able to control the market place, “The Exchange”, just like all other market places, are operated by economic incentives, and insurance companies will raise premiums if they find that they are not making business. 31 million new covered?…by insurance companies.

I am still a little fuzzy about this reform, but why should it be clear? It does not seem to be straight forward, and it is only a bandage to the sickness that health coverage is in this country. It is like trying to fight cancer with cough medicine and aspirin. It might get rid of the pain for an hour or two, but the sickness still grows.

Let’s hope that 2014 brings on positive results, and more awareness on what actually needs to be done….FIND A REAL CURE!

Here’s another video that explains further this new law.

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmdbllWOOzs&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLBfqBziFkXIfmUHxQ0teDRppDa-VctX7c]

 

 

Frustrated but always caring,

Mensa

Reverie

Michelle O’Sullivan reads ‘The Orchard’ from her first collection The Blue End of Stars.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqGkfkv1V3U&w=420&h=315]

Yesterday I decided to clean out my e-mails, including my drafts and in doing so I came across this poem, “Reverie” my friend Michelle O’Sullivan, an amazing poet, wrote. This poem says so much to me as an artist. It inspires me. It’s beauty undefined.

Reverie

The muse doesn’t tempt or ask,
she whispers lightly as she opens
the door, touches your earlobe,
the soft curve of your neck.

She doesn’t beckon or whinge
but takes your hand in hers,
sings low at the side of your face.
Everything, she says, bring everything.

– Michelle O’Sullivan

Michelle was one of the first people I ever let in my life for real, and we may live on other ends of the world now, I in New York City and her on the west coast of Ireland, but I have never lost my connection to her. She is my soul sister, before this life and in this life to the next. I am so proud of her publishing her poems in her new book, The Blue End of Stars, but not surprised.

I love you my friend, through thick and thin, always.

– Mushpa aka Cara

stevie_christine“When you grow up as a girl, the world tells you the things that you are supposed to be: emotional, loving, beautiful, wanted. And then when you are those things, the world tells you they are inferior: illogical, weak, vain, empty. The world teaches you that the way you exist in it is disgusting — you watch boys cringe backward in your dorm room when you talk about your period, blue water pretending to be blood in a maxi pad commercial. It is little things, and it is constant. In a food court in a mall, after you go to the gynecologist for the first time, you and your friend talk about how much it hurts, and over her shoulder you watch two boys your age turn to look at you and wrinkle their noses: the reality of your life is impolite to talk about. The world says that you don’t have a right to the space you occupy, any place with men in it is not yours, you and your body exist only as far as what men want to do with it. At fifteen, you find fifteen-year-old boys you have never met somehow believe you should bend your body to their will. At almost thirty, you find fifteen-year-old boys you have never met still somehow believe you should bend your body to their will. They are children. They are children.

Stevie Nicks

A little Stevie knowledge never hurt anyone.

— Mushpa