This week, we have a fun visual obsession from Katie!

Katie blogs about her life, thoughts and ideas over at Simply Kate. You can also find her on twitter

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Hello there readers of “Like A Bird!” I’m Katie from Simply Kate!

I’m a nearly twenty-two year old girl living in Las Vegas. I’m loving all of the new adventures I’m experiencing and more importantly, I love to share them on my blog! I write about everything and always post as many pictures as I possibly can! I never go anywhere without a camera. I’d love it if you all stopped by my blog. Relax and stay awhile!
I have a confession to make.
I’m obsessed with Photoshop.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked a random photo of myself and tweaked it to make it into something completely different.

With Photoshop, I make myself into a Zombie or a Rubber Ducky. I can take a visit under the sea and swim with the fishes.

Photoshop is my way to explore the world right from my computer desk. With a bit of image editing, I can visualize myself as anything or in any place!
I’ve always been an extremely visual person, but my drawing skills are lacking at times. It always frustrated me when I wanted an image that perfectly showcased a story I was trying to tell, or a mood I was in and I couldn’t find one. But then, one day in high school, I decided I wanted to take a Photoshop class. And the love affair started.

The possibilities were endless! I can do anything I want with Photoshop!
I can make scrapbook pages without worrying about the mess, having enough supplies or fearing I cropped a photo wrong.

When I wrote the first draft of my novel, I was able to create a cover for it! I am now able to visualize the fictional world that I created, and what’s even better, other people are able to as well!

And Photoshop is my biggest tool when it comes to my blog. Not only do I use it to edit the many photos that are all over my blog, but the design aspects were created inside this wonderful program!

I’m obsessed with Photoshop. And I’m so glad that I am!

Find me:
Simply Kate
twitter

(all images are from Katie.)

This week, we have a grand obsession from Maria!

Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education where she writes about education,online degree programs, and what it takes for adult students to succeed when studying for an online post-grad degree from home. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

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A building in Dorf Tirol

Ever since I studied abroad in Europe, I’ve been obsessed with Tirol.

Straight out of Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Tirol is a picturesque region in Western Central Europe, namely Austria and northern Italy, and was once known as the County of Tirol before the southern areas were ceded to Italy after WWI. Despite mild political tensions, it’s home to enough beauties—like Innsbruck and Trento, some of the world’s best food, and jaw-dropping landscapes—to make you forget all the cares and woes you came with.

Nestled in the foothills of the Italian Alps is a very special place called ßloss (Schloss, or Castle) Brunnenburg. Built originally in 1250, it was restored by Boris and Mary de Rachewiltz in the mid-20th century. Mary and her son Sizzo are the daughter and grandson, respectively, of American poet and expatriate Ezra Pound, whose influential work I studied under the de Rachewiltz family’s auspices in late 2007. Pound himself called the castle his home after leaving America and while writing several entries of his epic work, The Cantos. Today, the castle is also The Ezra Pound Centre for Literature (and on most days very cold to study in for hours at a time).

Most people visit the region for its ski resorts, the Hohe Tauern National Park, or the famed schnitzel, but for different reasons Tirol will always pull at my heart strings. (More like tear my heart out of my chest, but like I said, I’m obsessed.)

When there’s a cool autumn breeze, I think of the chilly September mornings I spent wandering the trails at the foot of the Alps and alleys of small, Tirolean towns. When I smell maple leaves in the wind in the Appalachian Mountains, I think of the fruits Sizzo’s wife Brigitte pulled off the trees for me at my home-stay in Brunnenburg. When I nibble on Pecorino cheese and sip a glass of red wine as we so often did while overlooking vineyards and valleys, I think of suave Sizzo—ever sporting a fedora and a half-cocked grin—going on about minds leaping like dolphins. And when I pour sugar and cream into my morning tea, I think of Mary, wrapped in a shawl and staring out of one of the castle windows.

I was only there for three months, but it screams home.

(If you want a comprehensive look at what you can do in Tirol, check out the always reliable Lonely Planet link here)

This week, we have an obsession from a fellow blogger, Heather!

Heather blogs about her year long adventures as an American au pair in Germany at New German Girl

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Okay, so… Kendra is awesome, right? Not only is she hosting a pretty sweet guest blogger series about OBSESSION but she’s letting me be a part of it. And I know myself well enough to say that I am obsessed with a lot of things but this one takes the cake. Music. I am obsessed with music. And this is my tale.

Obsessed, according to princeton.edu, is defined as a verb – to be preoccupied with something – and as an adjective – having or showing excessive or compulsive concern with something and also, my personal favorite, to be influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a strong emotion.

When it comes to music, I am obsessed. There’s really no other way to say it.

It started when I was 11 years old, after I discovered that all of the girls in my fifth grade class had a favorite band. I didn’t and I felt left out. So, I went home and I picked one out. Hanson. They seemed safe. My mom had been playing them non-stop in the car the season before so at least I already knew the music. Yeah. Hanson. Good choice.

Now, thirteen years later, I’m still a Hanson fan (I even have a tattoo of their music!) but the strong emotion that I feel for music, that obsessed love that has influenced and controlled my life and my heart ever since, has surpassed every expectation that I ever had for myself back then.

Hanson may have created in me a love and appreciation for music but, in all honesty, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I can’t imagine that a modern day, first world person can escape the influence of music in some way or another. It’s prolific. Naturally, I started gravitating toward other bands and different sounds. In junior high I was a pretty typical adolescent girl of the new millennium in that I primarily listened to 98 Degrees, Brandy, Christina Aguilera, NSYNC, and the Backstreet Boys. In high school, I discovered punk pop – Newfound Glory, Something Corporate, Good Charlotte, Yellowcard, The Get Up Kids. But then, during my junior year, I fell in love with The OC and that TV show introduced me to a whole new world of music.

It’s all been downhill from there. Like… downhill on a metal toboggan over ice packed snow that’s been slicked with oil. I am so in love with music. And I like to think that I owe the people who were in charge of compiling the soundtrack for The OC episodes a big hug because they introduced to me to music that opened a lot of doors which initiated some really great aural relationships that have yet to let me down.

I’m not obsessed with music to the point that I drown out the real world and hide inside of my headphones. But music has a huge influence on my life, my personality, and it defines a huge part of who I am. I can’t play music to save my life but Lord knows, I can listen to it. And I can love it and I can share it. I love sharing music. I know, technically that’s illegal but whatever. In fact, I’m kind of known for it. “Oh, you want new music? Call Heather. She’s probably got something you haven’t heard of.” Most of my friends from college will recount all of the mixes that I made them over the years with fond nostalgia. In fact, my best friend let me do the music for her wedding last fall. That was a huge honor and it made me feel like I’m doing something right in loving music the way that I do.

I possess a strong emotion (love, adoration, respect, appreciation, so on and so forth) when it comes to music and, to a certain extent, those emotions influence and control me. Music is the answer for everything. If I’m feeling upset and I need to identify my anger or my hurt, I put on music. There is a song for every emotion, for every feeling, even every non-feeling, and I love that music can do that for me.

Music is nostalgic, it brings me back to places that I’d forgotten about, times in my life that are worth remembering. Every phase of my life is attached to music – be it the collection of indie rock songs that I used to drown out my horrible roommate freshmen year, the self-loathing emo songs of that difficult summer when life was really, really hard to live, or the summer that I worked in the backwoods of eastern Pennsylvania and listened to country music incessantly during every day off. When I hear the songs that defined those moments of my life, it’s like a time machine. I’m right back in that moment and I remember every detail.

There isn’t a man in the world, or a friend in my life, who can understand and identify with me the way that music does. And it goes the same way in reverse. Sometimes the music just makes more sense. It’s an eternal relationship and it is one that I am not afraid to obsess about because it will never tell me to stop talking, to back off or to change. It’s always there. Always. And that is a comfort, in and of itself.
And for your listening pleasure, I’ll leave you with a 26-song playlist that samples all of my favorites – the songs and artists that I listen to obsessively and can’t get enough of. Now please, enjoy and feel free to obsess all you want.

“If you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit all your friends.”
– Penny Lane, Almost Famous

This week, we have a yummy obsession from Gina!

Gina blogs over at Fantasy Casting about books and movies, but mostly about books being turned into movies. Follow her blog or twitter

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Hi, my name is Gina and I’m a cake decoratoraholic.

They say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Well, I don’t want to head for recovery. I *love* having a problem with cake decorating!

It all started a few years ago when my sister and I started a catering company. After the first few calls came in, we realized people expected us to be able to make cakes and cupcakes for parties as well as the food.
We both decided to take some classes, just to get the basics under our belts.

And an obsession was born.

I began making cakes that nobody ordered, just so I could practice. I would give them away, or worse, throw them away after my family would fail to eat them before they turned stale.

I started by making my kids’ birthday cakes. You know, a cartoon character here, a teddy bear there. But, before I knew it, I was piping daisies and violets for no good reason at all!

I made a three tier chocolate cake with over 100 roses attached to it for my mother’s birthday. Which doesn’t seem so outlandish, until you hear that there were only going to be about 10 people at the party.

I’ve practiced making cartoon characters out of fondant, just to see if I could. Then, of course, they turn to rocks and I have to throw them out and start all over again.

I’ve begun “selling” my work, but without actually making a profit. I made a wedding cake for a dear friend (I love her and would do this again) and charged her only $500. For a cake that ended up feeding 600 guests. The cake eventually would be over four feet tall, with five different flavors (if you included the groom’s cake and the “extra” top tier for their anniversary). Once I deducted the cost of my ingredients, I made about $210 making that cake. Divide that up by the number of hours I spent measuring, baking, torting, icing, filling, covering, decorating and stacking, I made approximately $4 an hour. To make a wedding cake.

Of course, there is the sense of pride I feel when I succeed, though it’s not always about me. There are times when my cheap labor really benefits others. For instance, I made a wedding cake for a woman in our church. She was going to get a plain cake from the grocery store’s ready-made cake counter. I made her dream cake, complete with a spray of shimmering lavender roses for less than she was going to pay for the disgusting grocery store cake. She had a real wedding cake, one that she couldn’t have afforded had I not been willing to give away my services.

Between January and April, two of my sons have their birthdays, and seven of their friends do as well. I’ve already made four birthday cakes for preschoolers thisyear and I could not be more thrilled about it! From now till the middle of April, I’m booked solid, with a cake either being made or mapped out every single week

After that, I don’t know what I will do with myself…

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“I’m Obsessed!” is a weekly series where one blogger (or artist, blog reader, crafter, etsian, etc) will share what they are currently obsessed with and why. If you’re interesting in writing a post for the “I’m Obsessed!” series please email me kendra[at]likeabirdblog[dot]com

This week, in honor of Outdoors Week, we have an awesome post from Hayley!

“Hi friends! I’m Hayley, over at see.hay.fly, a blog about an young American girl living in Germany for a year as an au pair. I love where I am in my life and where I have been, but there is still a lot for me to see and do because I am most definitely obsessed with, The World.”

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Cannon Beach, Oregon

I am most definitely obsessed with, The World.

That sounds nerdy, huh? Well good, because I am a nerd, and I also like to travel, a lot. A lot in the sense that I scour travel blogs and websites daily, I search through Google images for far off foreign places i must see, my favorite books are Anthropological Ethnographies, and I plan my future around my worldly dreams. I also have a thing for maps, and my favorite word is wanderlust.

Prague

My love affair with the world started as a young girl. I was lucky enough to have a family that loved to travel. Small trips down to Yosemite, long drives up to Oregon, a plane ride here or there, I loved it all. My obsession only grew when I began to learn about the rest of the world, during elementary school. As I got older, I was taught about the history and culture of these exciting places and I never looked back. When I started taking classes in college, my favorite ones were anything involving anthropology and/or geography. Now I can say that when I come home from Germany this summer, I will be officially majoring in International Studies with a Middle Eastern Concentration, and I couldn’t be happier.

Budapest

I really have been so fortunate to have seen so many great places in such a short time. In 2007, I traveled to Europe as a graduation trip with about 80 students. We went through Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Paris, and London, with some quick stops in Bratislava and Dresden. It was an incredible experience and left me wanting more. In December 2009, I decided that I would spend the next year as an au pair abroad, and began that process. I left California in July, and here I am. Surprisingly, I haven’t been to too many U.S states. I have seen almost all of California and Oregon, and some of my other favorite American cities are Seattle, Chicago, Nashville, Maui (is that a city?) but Portland being my absolute favorite. I would love to take a cross country road trip sometime, and I also dream of seeing the Aurora Borealis in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Pisa

Since being here in Europe as an au pair, I have seen a lot more of Germany that I hadn’t been previously exposed too and took a two week holiday in Italy with my host family. I also have a trip to Scotland coming up in 2 weeks. But, my new favorite European city has got to be Amsterdam. You really must go, it is beautiful, lively, and full of culture old and new. My dream trip would include Greece, Croatia, the Middle East, Egypt, Thailand, and Indonesia. A girl can dream, right?!

Amsterdam

The best part about traveling and experiencing the world is exposing yourself to the unknown. There is adventure everywhere, and you can find it through new languages, food, ways of life, traditions, customs, and gorgeous destinations. Also, traveling the world is easier than it sounds. There are a number of ways to do it, and resources to get you started. You could be an au pair, or find another job over seas, there are also many working travel programs for those who go at it alone, or with volunteer organizations. One thing I plan on doing is either studying or interning abroad in the Middle East advocating for women and children, and I really can’t wait.

Germany

Life is one great big adventure, and you only get to do it once, so if you are thinking about pursuing your own love affair with the world and all of it’s different people and places to see, or maybe you just have a travel itch, go for it. Traveling the world is a high that is actually beneficial if followed, so go do it!

Find Hayley at see.hay.fly

(All images in the post were taken by Hayley on her travels.)