RolyPoly Easter

Ever since I can remember I have always been infatuated with the Armadillidiiae, a.k.a. the RolyPoly. And by infatuated, I mean they're the only bug I wasn't grossed out to pick up. This is why when I saw one on Easter I immediately went for it, only to see that my 2 year old niece, who is insanely grossed out by bugs, wanted in on the action too.

My first reaction was to say "stop" and "be careful!" but soon after I realized, he has a shell for a reason, and if he needs protecting he'll let you know. People aren't quite the same, but really they are. We all hide when we need to, but when we're ready we'll open up to the world and show them how great (and sometimes creepy crawl-y) we can be.

Hands

These hands have made a lot, and destroyed a lot (on accident of course, always). These hands have held, carried, and molded a future for my life. These hands are the life of my passion, the love of my craft, and a driving force in solidifying my virtue.

These hands carry the 4 words that drive me to a better life, motivate me to live to the fullest, and help me realize that things will be good, bad, and ugly, but as long as I work hard and have faith it will work out the way it is supposed to.

These hands have their hurt. These hands have their love. These hands have held sorrow and pain, life and joy, creativity and desire. They are nothing short of a miracle. A link to the world we will never understand.

These hands are holding me together. Keeping my sanity close, easy to reach, but far enough away to keep things interesting.

Meet Petri.

I just upgraded Adobe Lightroom on my computer from 3 to 4, finally! While I was looking for a photo to edit, so I could see if there were different features, I found these photos I took a month or so ago of my old film camera! My good ol' Petri Penta...

Darkroom Photography

This semester one of my classes I'm taking is to learn how to develop black and white film. I'll be honest, I was horrified at first... The thing that scared me the most are the chemicals, which smell awful.   Actually, to be honest, rolling my film scared me the most. You have to be in a pitch black room, where you can't even see your hand in front of your face. I thought she was kidding about this when she told us the first day... She's not.

I went and bought a 60's Petri Penta (right), which looks AMAZING. I love the weight of it and the fact that the shutter release is in the front, not on the top! That aside I had (and still have) no idea how to work it... There's no meter, I can barely figure out how to work the shutter speed, and it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to put the film in. That last one is mostly due to not putting film in a camera for over 10 years though....

The camera on the left is my aunt's Pentax. It saved my life. It's got a meter and automatic film rolling (to put it back in the container). This was the camera I used to get photos to be developed in class today. They turned out really well! I need to stop taking photos of plants, but overall I'm so excited about how well they turned out! Monday we start printing, which I'm nervous again, but it shouldn't be too bad! I just wish I knew how to develop color photos now!

Personality Types

I was reading Swash + A Sprinkle and they had this awesome link up to Pentagram's What type are you? I realize that they posted the link almost 2 years ago, but the fonts are timeless and beautiful.

When you visit the site you go through and answer a few questions and they will use your answers to determine your personality "type". It seems, for me personally, to be pretty accurate... My personality "type" is Archer Hairline. Emotional, Understated, Progressive, and Disciplined.

I'm particularly fond of the thin forms, and more importantly the mix of serifs and "dots" on the type.

Although I didn't get it, Baskerville (and the italic, as shown) will always be one of my favorite fonts. It's classic, and beautiful!

Sick as a Hog

If you're wondering where I got the title from, please refer to my favorite "I can't think of a good idea" website: Urban Dictionary. Like Wikipedia, for slang....

Also, extremely awesome. Mostly because I've been waiting for people to notice my freaking moonwalking skills. It's about time assholes.

 Anyway. Week one of class just ended. The first few days went really well! Aside from the girl in my Art and Culture class that I would rather punch in the face than to have to listen to ever again. This girl can't close her mouth. Maybe that thought process is why Karma is not on my side right now. Here is how my life started going about halfway through this week:

• Wednesday 9-5pm: Great!
• Wednesday 6pm: Going down fast....
• Wednesday 8pm until Thursday 8am: I passed out, never to be heard from again.
• Thursday 9am: cranky, sore throat. Chelsea comes in and asks LOUDLY if I'm okay. Everyone looks at me, by this point I'm not, but I'm embarrassed cause she thinks I'm pissed, so I say yes.
• Thursday 12:30: I'm too tired and sore to care that the girl mentioned above is talking over the teacher, while simultaneously getting her "answers" wrong. This girl also informed us that she wrote a research paper over Stonehenge, and, well, from the professors response to her answers, I'd say she did no better than a D. Rude, but true. 
• Thursday 8pm: No appetite. But I got invited to go bowling, so I did. It was fun, and I felt better! Yay healing!
• Friday (today) at 10am: I feel AWFUL! I went into work, then left exactly 30 minutes later. 
• Friday 2pm: I am informed that I have a Bronchial infection (aka bronchitis). 
• Friday 4pm: My computer crashes and I lose all of my research for school, 2 projects, and a file I was working on for a client at work. 
• Friday 11:50 p.m. (now): I'm on my second cup of tea, and I feel like I'm going to die. 

I feel like you may think I'm over exaggerating this, but I am going to die. I feel like someone has been rubbing my throat all day with sandpaper. Plus I've not been hungry the last 2 days or eaten hardly anything, not that I would really want to with my throat on fire. And finally, I feel like a baby elephant has been sitting on my neck all day.

Now I try not to complain, but this is ridiculous. I've not felt so awful in a long time, and there's nothing I can do but wait it out with antibiotics and sip on more tea till I feel better. This isn't going to end on a good note....

Because I ran out of my good tea.

What I Wore: Friday, Aug 17

Lately I've been trying to "grow up" my style, my wardrobe especially. I've got some really old gems in my closet, most of which I forget I have on a regular basis. So, this morning when I woke up I wanted to wear something I haven't worn in a long time. Partly because I now, for the first time in my life, have no washer and dryer where I reside *shudder*, and mostly because I just did laundry yesterday and just got finished hanging everything up. 

I pulled out of the very far reaches of my closet my yellow and grey striped skirt. I've had this skirt for 2+ years and have only worn it once. I also got {this} skirt, same thing in dark colors! They were both on clearance out at Old Navy for 6 bucks each, a steal. 

And then if that wasn't enough, I saw my "bow belt" as I call it. I've had it for about 5 years, have never ever worn it. It came with a button up shirt and was not flattering on where it sat on me. Then I gained a shit ton of weight and couldn't fit into it. 

I will never claim to be great at dressing myself. I love how this turned out though, and apparently so did about 7 customers and a co-worker. One lady was even bold enough to reach over the counter and feel the fabric. 

String Typography

Did I ever tell you about the time I did string typography?! No, I doubt I did, so let me go ahead now.

Last semester I had just started my "Design Research Assistant" job. My first assignment was to create an identity for a transformative learning conference we were having at school, called Transformative Learning Conference 2012. Clever, I know...

Their whole idea behind the conference is to show connection between students, teachers, learning, participating in on campus activities, etc. I was really excited about this, really excited. It was about the time that 'String Typography' was taking off and I really wanted to do something with it. Plus, it fit within the parameters of showing connection. What better thing to use than to show a network of connections that with string typography!

Jump to 5 hours later, 30 dollars in supplies, and some pissed off neighbors I had basically given up. The tutorials I had seen said to "hammer the shape of the letter into plywood". Well at 1 A.M. in an apartment complex with thin walls this is a horrible idea. I plan B'ed it and used some extra foam board I had on hand. It worked a lot better with putting the nails in, but if you look in the photo below the letters got all cattywumpus and sad.

Needless to say, I got pretty far before taking a break for the night. I showed my professor the next day, and while we both liked the idea it's not super legible.  I still want to do something with string typography, but obviously this isn't it.

Design Fail. Lesson Learned.

Catching up

As I sit here, I am just about 5 days from leaving for New York! It's been kind of a crazy, busy semester and I've done a lot in the last few months. Since I've not been blogging (at all) this semester I decided to pull a few photos of my life the last few months! 

1. I got rid of over half of my clothes I didn't ever wear....

2. We went on a day trip to Dallas, specifically for In-and-Out burger and DQ! 

So worth it...

3. For Tyler's birthday we went to a Thunder game! It was amazing!

4. I cooked my first organic dinner from (mostly) scratch

Caribbean Jerk Chicken and Roasted Asparagus.

So good... It was my first edible meal that wasn't from a bag...

5. I created a super colorful Dunkin' Doughnuts ad, and it was beautiful....

6. I finished my magazine for class and fell in love with magazines even more than before....

which was a lot to begin with.

7. I'm becoming a pro at doing wedding invitation orders, but I still have yet to 

convince a bride to get the craft paper Vera Wang invite.

It's so lovely. 

8. I have a pet squirrel... he's super soft. 

9. I taught this little girl how to take a photo. And by "taught" I mean I tried but she

just looked at the screen and didn't take any.

 

10. I seriously debated going blonde... I'm still on the edge, and I think I may 

after I get back from New York!

11. I've already been to the pool and gotten a nice base tan! 

Also, swimming laps and drinking wine oddly go well together, 

as long as you're smart about it! 

12. Through all of this, 2 jobs and a minimal social life, I managed to maintain a pretty

nice grade average!!!

Needless to say, hopefully summer will be a little bit more relaxing. 

Ack.

I'm having one of those moments where I have a project due in a week and I still have no idea what I'm doing for it. Sheisty.

Ad design and me are not friends this semester, which is a shame, because I had really like it last fall.