Jodhpur: The Blue City of India

Jodhpur is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is also referred as the Blue City due to the blue-painted houses around the Mehrangarh Fort.

Why the population of the fortress city – the Blue City as it is universally known – took to painting their houses in various shades of blue is not completely certain. Yet most believe it is to do with the prevailing caste system in India.

It is thought that Brahmins – members of the priestly class – first took to coloring their houses blue (yet perhaps it should really be called indigo) to signify their domicile and to set them apart from the rest of the population. Soon, however, the rest of the population followed suit. History does not tell us which brave non-Brahmin was the first to do it, yet it happened and since that day the people of Jodhpur have steadfastly maintained this tradition.

The Shocking Numbers Behind Cell Phone Usage (Infographic)

200,000,000,000,000 (two hundred trillion) text messages are received in America every single day, which is more than an entire year’s worth of regular mail that’s received in America. 3339 is average number of texts sent by an American teen each month.

More Infographics.

Click to Enlarge.

Source: onlineitdegree

Loving + A Giveaway!

The gorgeous new pieces from The Vamoose...

and her jaw-dropping stunning inspiration (post found via Jen)

This crazy cute children's book from Bobo Choses (via Smaller).

DwellStudio's new rug perfection (and the styling...always the styling). image via d*s

Dear Darling's lovely calligraphy...the calligraphy I aspire to in my dreams (via 100 layer cake).

Darryl Carter's perfectly restrained and timeless room. I think this room will still look amazing in 20 years...yes? (via Anne)

Lisa Renz's beautiful paintings...

This insanely awesome fireplace (via Martha)

Abbey's genius cookies...

and her seven-feet of wooden spoons. Jealous...



And last but not least, Earth & Sky, Lynn's fantastic collaboration with Stone&Honey...

And Lynn has kindly offered up one of her excellent new necklaces to one of my readers as a giveaway.

Just leave a comment on this post by Monday February 7th at midnight CT telling me what you're loving this week, and I'll draw a winner and announce on next Tuesday's loving list!

Photography by Glen Erler

Glen Erler is London-based American photographer applies a lingering and nostalgic eye to his editorial work.

Creative Black and White Photography by Rodney Smith

Many of you know the name of Rodney Smith. Not surprisingly, such kind of photographers must be famous. His pictures are always easily identified thanks to a special style of Rodney. His photo is like special moment of someone’s life. Looking at them, it seems that a man could do the impossible things, he able to stop time. Besides, his stories lure the viewer as something magical, fantastic. It’s similar to very realistic dream.




Celebrated photographer Rodney Smith graduated from the University of Virginia in 1970 and earned a Master of Divinity in Theology from Yale University in 1973. While at Yale, he also studied photography under Walker Evans.

In 1975, Smith received a Jerusalem Foundation Fellowship which enabled him to travel to Jerusalem for three months. The photos taken there resulted in his first book “In the Land of Light” which was published in 1983.