Things you didn't know about sleep

While using stumbleupon this morning, I found this interesting piece of information about sleep.


Via: Psychology Degree

That made me think more about sleep and dreams and what they really mean. So I headed over to the BBC Science site that is always stacked full of very interesting articles and tests relating to the human body - here is a few facts that I found very intriguing.

- We have to sleep because it is essential to maintaining normal levels of cognitive skills such as speech, memory, innovative and flexible thinking. In other words, sleep plays a significant role in brain development.

- The current world record for the longest period without sleep is 11 days, set by Randy Gardner in 1965. Four days into the research, he began hallucinating. This was followed by a delusion where he thought he was a famous footballer. Surprisingly, Randy was actually functioning quite well at the end of his research and he could still beat the scientist at pinball.

- The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.

- Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It's possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.

- REM dreams are often characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams tend to be repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery.

- During REM sleep you experience muscle paralysis to stop you acting out your dreams.

- Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analogous to watching a film.

- Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.

- Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory.

- REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies spend 75% of their time in REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term babies. Similarly, a newborn kitten, puppy, rat or hamster experiences only REM sleep, while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth) has almost no REM sleep at all.

- Blind people dream as well. Whether recognisable images appear in their dream depends on whether they where blind at birth or became blind later in life. It’s likely they still experience colour and shape. But vision is not the only sense that constitutes a dream. Sounds, tactility, and smell become hypersensitive for the blind and will be incorporated into their dreams.

Happy New Year everyone!

A new year, a new start. This concept has time and time given birth to personal renewal in people to make a positive, lasting change in their lives. Unfortunately humans, being creatures of habit, find it very hard to stick to these resolutions.
Last week a good friend of mine lend me an inspiring book called 29 Gifts. This is a story of a 33 year old woman that was diagnosed a month after her honeymoon with Multiple Sclerosis. Now as you may know, this is one scary illness with no cure. What basically happens is that your own immune system starts attacking the fatty insulating protection of your nerves and once this is damaged, your nerves start misfiring.
Now not to focus any more on the illness, this book is an inspiring story on how she followed a "prescription" given to her to give 29 gifts in 29 days to others with an open heart and without expecting anything in return. It doesn't have to be big gifts, just look past your own problems and situation to the suffering and need of those around you. She has also started a online community where you can share your daily giving to the rest of the community.
Now, I normally am against New Years resolutions (as people rarely stick to it and I don't want to doom myself to failure before I even started), instead I have a list of things that I feel work in the coming year.
First on this list is get completely out of debt. Now, I don't personally have trouble with money, I just have a problem with paying interest on money that I could have spent better somewhere else as I am considering buying my first home. Now easy steps that I'm going to follow is:
- Review what debt you have an identify the terms and interest rates you are paying (the highest interest rates are normally charged for personal loans, overdrafts, vehicle finance and credit cards)
- Make sure that you budget to be able to pay at least the minimum payment due on all accounts setting aside a little extra to be able to pay that above and beyond - even if it is just R50 - on a credit card as you will never be able to pay a credit card off if you only continue to pay the minimum payment due.
- Now to actually pay the debt off, there is a range of different ways but I personally prefer the debt snowball (Order your debts from lowest balance to highest balance, assign a certain amount of money to pay toward debts each month, pay the minimum payment on all debts except for the one with the lowest balance, throw every other cent at the debt with the lowest balance, when that debt is gone, do not alter the monthly amount used to pay debts, but throw all you can at the debt with the next-lowest balance). This does not increase your monthly disposable income, but it does get rid of your debt and fast!
Next on my list of things to do is more to do with my health - losing weight and stop smoking (both of which I've done before but with the last year filled with drama, it all just came back). Now that I will be tackling in the following ways: Slender Wonder and Allan Carr.
So what positive changes are you planning in your life for this year and what made you decide on this ?

Uncommon, unusual and just plain amazing!

Today is one of those days for me, that I want to dream of new things to make my home pretty. After my mom came back from Europe, she stopped over in Dubai and my gift was these darling persian rug coasters.

I love exceptionally unique and beautiful things like that - a few unique pieces in a room can tie a concept together and all contribute to an overall wow factor. So with that in mind, I am dedicating this post to day to some of the unusual, quirky and just plain uncommon accessories and furniture out there!

Uncommongoods.com
First up is a whole website filled to the brim with unusual pieces, here's some of my favourites!

A door mat with an ambigram that reads "Come in" the one way around and "Go away" the other way.

For the hairy wonder (no, I'm not referring to your boyfriend) in your life, you can treat them for their birthdays with a pup-pie! I know it's not a interior decorating thing, but it was just so cute!


A record turned into a clock - what an awesome plan for those vinyls just lying around!

A his and hers key holder - a key added to your bunch is the hookup!

Frank Gehry
This is one of the more exceptional pieces of furniture I've seen in a long time - and it's been around almost forever! Frank Gehry designed this chair from corrugated cardboard in the 1972's. The wiggle chair (as it is known) is manufactured from a lot of layers of corrugated cardboard glued together in a crisscross pattern to make it stronger. What a guy!

Last but definitely not least:

Straight Line Designs
Judson Beaumont and his staff turned boring every day furniture into playful works of art, that can most definitely be a centre of the attraction in your house. Stuff like this must be every kid's dream as it can turn a room into a wonderland of shapes and ideas.


What I'd give to have a whole house full of exceptional pieces like these!

Colour, saturation and cropping

So today's post is going to deal a bit more with photography.

Photoshop or any kind of editing tool is a formidable weapon in post production cleanup for a photographer. Not only are you able to edit or airbrush out unwanted blemishes but simple adjustments like saturation, colour balances and cropping can add a lot more drama and character to a shot.

Let me illustrate with a few examples that I recently took at Boschendal Estate:
Before:
The shot composition overall isn't too bad but the big amount of sky and trees at the top is kind of distracting.

After:
Taking a bit off the top and playing with the saturation and colour balance gave me this - a little bit more drama, definition and awesome perspective.


Before:
The extra bits around the edges are once again distracting the eye of the viewer and the colours looks a bit washed out because of the glass, but not to fear!

After:
Using the frame of the panel to frame the photo and adjusting the colour balance and contrast gave me this.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is, make a backup of the original image and then play around with the different settings. That way you can always go back to what it was if you don't like the mess you've made. Further more, be brave! The most important thing to remember is that some of the most exceptional shots does not follow the rule of thirds or conform to any of the rules out there - it's a good guideline but it's not set in stone.

Prettying up the place

As I got the excuse to redecorate my house recently (nothing like kicking out a dead-beat boyfriend to make you want to decorate :P), I am busy pondering the following:
- Finally get my print framed that was a birthday gift - It's a deviantart print of Gwarf that one of my friends gave me
- Get a striking decal .... found an awesome site selling decals, just a bit pricey for a South African. Pretty none the less. Here's a few of my favourites:

I've always had a bit of a weak spot for flowery swirlies, there's something elegantly feminine about it ...

I think part of the impact of this decal is the exceptional chair that makes a big impression.

Don't you think a decal like this would look stunning in the same room as my "Leaving home" print ?

Once again this will fit in nicely with the dandelion theme ...

What do you guys think ?

In with the new, out with the old

Wow! I can't believe that I left blogging on the way side for so long! I admit that I'm bad with remembering to do a little bit every day, but I didn't think it would take me 7 months to write a second post!
Well, to do a quick catch-up, the boyfriend is out of the picture and that has given me the time to focus on my wedding photography ideas more sharply. As I have to take photos for my friend and neighbour, Chantel Matthews in April, I thought getting a bit of practice in beforehand might be a good idea. I am busy organising with a group of my friends, with someone supplying wedding dresses, at a wedding venue with a make up artist and my personal hairdresser to make them all pretty!
This will most probably only happen in January but it's all just so very exciting! My good friend, Natasha Storm(http://www.natashastorm.co.za/), also offered to do my photography company's branding ... I can't wait to see what she'll come up with.
After staying away for so long, I will be sure to post more regularly and definitely on more interesting subjects!

Hiya!

So I suppose an introduction is in order! Hi, my name is Inarie and I love all kinds of creative things, so I'm going to be blogging about all of them! Cooking, photography, reading - you'll find bits and bops of all kinds of things here!

Sharing my life with me is Daryll, my live-in-boyfriend and our 3 furry (Lulu, Ninja and Velcro and =/- 250 slimy kids (There's too many of them so they're not going to get names).

Here's Lulu being all Curious George - she's a mix between a Australian Cattle dog and a long-legged Jack Russell, quite an awesome mix!
She is one part love and 3 parts excitement mixed together in a body far too small to house such a lot of energy.





Here's a pic of Ninja and Velcro when they were still babies - they've grown quite a lot since then. Ninja (on the right) is a big bully of a cat, playing quite rough with Lulu. Velcro (on the left) is our little lady that likes quiet corners to lounge in. She's definitely still of the "Cats are Royalty" school of thinking as you do not approach her for petting, she comes to you when she wants it!




A bit more about myself ? Well, I'm a Java Programmer that moved into the field of Business Analysis. I also keep myself busy with freelance web design and development otherwise my brain might rot from pure boredom! When I have the time, I love taking photos - I recently became the proud owner of a Nikon D300 dSLR and I'm in the process of upskilling myself from a mediocre photographer into an awesome one. My long term goal is to move into Freelance Photography focussing on Wedding Photography as I live in the perfect place to exercise such a skill - smack bang in the middle of South Africa's winelands!
Nice to meet you!