Gatita Pelirroja

Monday Pic: Flowers

2012-02-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

Monday Pic: Dino chat

2012-02-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

Monday Pic: Dining Collage

2012-01-30T14:04:00.001-08:00

Monday Pic: Moving Day

2012-01-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

2012

2012-01-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

2012 is going to be my year. I was really building up to it in 2011, talking big talk about how good this year was going to be. And then as 2011 began to come to a close, a giant mass of things started happening all at once.

I had started back at school this fall at UNCG, taking several art classes and trying to find my niche. And then there was that "aha!" moment when I met with the Department Chair of the Interior Architecture program to figure out if it was a good fit and she let me in. Not in a "take these classes this spring and we'll see you in the fall" kind of way, but in the "go talk to Tommy about what you need to know so you'll be caught up in January" kind of way. Humbling. Overwhelming. Exciting. All at once.

And then, on the personal front, Alex and I started talking about the next few years and what they might look like. The Interior Architecture program will take four years. And his job is one of the best in the big ole state of North Cackalackey for high school history teachers. Our apartment was super small. And with a little bit of research we realized we might be able to buy a house. A few weeks into the house search, we put an offer in the week before Thanksgiving. By Christmas, we were closing in less than a week.

We rang in 2012 on an air mattress in our new Master Bedroom, exhausted from packing and moving. I spent the following week trying out paint samples, unpacking, moving over our bills, setting up our internet service, picking out a new dishwasher and taking down wallpaper.

School started two weeks ago, and I am loving it. And exhausted. And I still eat up any and all design that I can get my hands on in my spare time. All projects are now documented on my school blog, http://catherineleighdesign.blogspot.com/ with multiple posts added each week. So if I am a little slow to post here, stay with me. And check my other blog if you are wondering what it is that I'm doing.

There will be house updates and wedding updates and general life updates posted here sporadically. Here's to 2012.

merry christmas!

2011-12-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

Alex and I are enjoying the holidays and our first Christmas with a mini-break from work together. Regularly scheduled posts will be back later this week with a super awesome surprise! In the meantime, best wishes for a wonderful Christmas holiday!

monday pic: italian glass

2011-12-12T02:17:00.000-08:00

monday pic: finals week

2011-12-04T19:45:00.001-08:00

monday pic: stars

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

It's a Diaper Cake! A short tutorial..

2011-11-26T03:30:00.000-08:00

We had a little shower for my cousin Rich and his wife Felicity on Thanksgiving day. I made a diaper cake for the shower, which is one of my favorite gifts to give because it acts like a decoration but is super usable. And it is super easy to make. Cute, practical, easy to make and with a big impact? Yes please!

My first task is running to the store to collect the items I need for decoration:

-diapers (36 count, at least a size 2)

-paper plate

-tape

-scissors

-fun colored ribbon

-spoons in bright colors

-decorative items: teething butterfly, pacifiers, etc

The first step is to start rolling the diapers. The key is to get them to stand up but still be usable for baby when she is old enough. I first roll the diaper and then use a small piece of tape to keep it rolled.

After I've amassed a small pile of rolled diapers, I then place them together in a giant mass on the plate like so:

There is no set number, it all depends on the size of the plate and number of diapers you have. But once they seem to have crowded the base, take your ribbon, wrap it around the group, and tie together. This will create your first base. It should look a little something like this:

You want to repeat this process for the next two tiers of the diaper cake, adding fewer diapers to each tier so it looks stepped. I generally only add about three diapers to the top tier:

Once I have all three tiers up, I straighten the diapers so the tiers are all pretty straight. And then it is time to add the decorations!

I put the teething butterfly in the center with the pacis on top and the spoons around the bottom tiers for visual interest. These can all be personalized with the decorations and ribbon. I hope this little tutorial helps! Hooray for quick baby shower decorations!

A little Thanksgiving Baby Shower

2011-11-25T11:05:00.001-08:00

My mother's side of the family is ginormous. I used to joke that we added a new family member every year. But the in last few years, we've averaged more than one a year. And this year is no different with four of my cousins expecting, all due in the next four months. Crikey! That's a lot of baby!

My oldest cousin Rich and his wife Felicity are the next in line to welcome a new baby girl. We threw a little shower for Felicity shortly after our giant annual Thanksgiving meal in Four Oaks, NC yesterday. Alex and I had to leave right as the shower was starting, but I grabbed quite a few pics of the decorations before we left for Chapel Hill to see his grandparents.

The shower was thrown in the dining room/living room.

I dare say Grandaddy has never looked so festive. When Alex saw this portrait, he asked if he could have one like this. Definitely. Especially once we get a mantel. :)

Super cute "Congrats Felicity" sign my cousin Ashley made. I love all the different colors and patterns.

Diaper cake & the best punch ever, courtesy of Aunt Jennifer. Seriously, once I remember to get the recipe its getting posted on this blog. Stop back by tomorrow for a quick tutorial on how I made the diaper cake! :)

My cousin Ashley also baked this adorable cake for the shower to go along with the block theme. She is super talented! I wish we'd been able to stay longer so I could get a piece. I am sure it was delicious.

I am spending today (Black Friday) not at a retail job for the first time since my Wake Forest days and it has been super quiet and glorious. I've got a long to-do list filled with schoolwork and general household tasks and its been so nice to stay in my sweatpants, eat pumpkin bread fresh from the oven & listen to my Gotye pandora station. I am so grateful for all this year has brought. Happy turkeyday weekend!!

and lifes a happy song :)

2011-11-22T04:36:00.000-08:00

happy thanksgiving week yall! i've been having dreams of making a pumpkin pie and eating the whole thing myself this week. best part of thanksgiving, indeed.

alex and i had a little engagement party this past weekend that was thrown by his mother at his mother's house with help from his siblings and my besties. :) we had a blast! it was so wonderful. some seriously good home cookin' and some of our favorite people all together in one place. in the spirit of warm fuzzies, i thought this would be an appropriate song of the week!

monday pic: zoom zoom

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

home is where the heart is

2011-11-19T05:30:00.000-08:00

there is a wall in our dining room that used to be filled with canvas pics of all the people i loved the most. i made a gajillion of them during my canvas on demand days and i displayed them as a canvas wall in my bedroom. it was personal and made me super happy. half of the pics were of me with different family members. as you can imagine, once i moved in with alex he was a little nonplussed about seeing my family staring at him everyday while eating his cheerios. so the canvas wall got moved to the back bedroom (that is really a half bedroom / laundry room) and i've made an effort to create a collage of art that reflects both of us. this is our dining room art wall in it's current state:

there's a picture of cleo, the piano keys from my childhood piano, a shot of downtown winston salem at night from fourth street, a "first date" themed black/white reversal from my very first art class, a giant (real) dead scorpion, a black and white picture of his tattoo, a mini pic of a small scene from guatemala when i was travelling, and two shell contour line drawings. the newest is the canvas of north carolina on the left. the closeup is below:

my plan is to add our wedding date under our initials once we have everything finalized (which should be very soon! final meetings are this week). i actually printed off a nc map from google, resized it to fit, traced it in pencil on a gesso'd canvas, and then painted everything in. the golden heart is over winston salem, our hometown and where we currently live. we will also ~~probably~~ get married here, thus adding additional significance for our couple-dom. :) here's a closer version of the art wall with our north carolina canvas:

there are still some spaces on the wall left to fill - which can only mean one thing: more wall art! i've been enjoying the slow process of building as we go. i think it is a fantastic metaphor for our relationship as well. nothing is ever complete, and it's a beautiful process. :)

and this just got published on the interwebs

2011-11-18T18:04:00.001-08:00

actual text conversation between me and mr. man:

me: reason # 45289 i'm a dork: i gave myself a nickname for my art supplies - cdub

alejo: lulz. also cdub? for supplies?

me: yea i wrote 'cdub' on my art supplies to mark them as my own

alejo: double lulz.

me: it even works with french. next year i can add to it, so it'll say 'cdub french.' hmmm, i think we should consider that as a name for our future child: "come're little cduby wuby, you have smashed peas all over your face." too far?

alejo: omg lol... way too far

and that, my friends, is why we were made for each other. :)

monday pic: squis!

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

landon pigg

2011-11-13T13:41:00.001-08:00

pardon me for the random, gushy moment. this song came on pandora earlier today, and it's been stuck in my head since. the lyrics are kinda cute and a little romantic and were making me smile. i have to admit though, before i posted it i watched the video all the way through and can i just say that it's a little creepy?? forget the weird hipster thing - i have never liked my men super scrawny with weed whacker hair - but what is the deal with stopping time, stealing shit, touching her and then pretending like you didn't do anything? not sure if this is some weird teenage fantasy (that i certainly never had), but if i found out some guy was stopping time to touch my hair there would be a law suit in like 2 seconds flat. anywhoo, enough with the rant, i think i would recommend just playing this video and walking away so you don't watch the video. or, watch it and let me know if you agree :)

teapot still life

2011-11-09T04:48:00.000-08:00

the drawing homework for this week was a value drawing in charcoal. it could still use a little fine tuning, and it is obviously still taped to my drawing board, but i think it's showing some pretty good progress from the first of the semester. here's a sneak peak!

one early october weekend...

2011-11-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

This is the first year in a very long time (since I graduated college the first time?) that I got to enjoy a fall weekend free of work. Fall is usually ushered in with the Dixie Classic Fair every year. This is perhaps my favorite thing in Winston Salem and a personal tradition. You can check out last year's trip here, where we won Cameltoe and ate lots of food and saw the pig races.

This particular weekend started with the pig races (of course!)

Here is little swifty winning the race and getting his oreo cookie:

We checked out the arena for an interesting border collie dog show. The best part I thought was when the geese were let out into the arena to be "herded":

We also had to check in on our chainsaw wood carving artist. Currently working on a project in woodshop I had a deeper appreciation for him making recognizable sculptures. Case in point- the black bear next to the stump has been carved with a chainsaw.

And here he is in action, carving a moose!!

It's not the fair without the ferris wheel lighting up the sky and the crowds of people below eating elephant ears and fried twinkie bars :)

We spent the next day hiking around Hanging Rock State Park. We first wandered down to the lake before making our steep climb. It was a perfect fall day with low 70 temps and gorgeous light!

There were quite a few others at the top enjoying the weather as well

monday pic: miss cleo

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

yo-yo ma & chris thile

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

its like all of my middle school music fantasies came true and had a love child. i am SUPER excited about this cause alex and i have tickets to see chris thile in durham next sunday. the world is indeed exploding with my joy and happiness. :)

to see the full performance on colbert, click here

interlocking & fetch me a drapery!

2011-11-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

One of the classes that I have been taking this fall at UNCG is a 3D Foundations course with Billy Lee. We have three major projects this semester and I was under the impression initially that we would be working primarily in clay and plaster. He had us work with clay the first half of the semester. This project I ended up referring to as "fetch me a ~~shrubbery~~ drapery!" after the many many hours spent trying to mold the curves of the clay into the correct feel of the drapery. Here it is in it's (mostly) final form:

It needs to be sanded down once it dries completely. The process was super simple, yet very time consuming. First we took a piece of "drapery" aka an old piece of canvas like cloth, and made it look like a drapery. By bunching it up. Then we rolled out a square slab an inch deep and started modeling the clay to look like drapery. Which, actually, turned out to be quite challenging for me. Clay is heavy and dense and is the opposite of light and airy. I have a new respect for the artists before me that could make drapery look like drapery when carving stone. Once I had my clay model done, I cast it in plaster and then cast it again in hydro cal. I'll post a final pic of all my sculpture projects at the end of the semester.

The second project that is also (mostly) completed is a project in wood. We had to take the concept of "interlocking" and create a piece in wood that creatively demonstrated the concept. The parameters were 12 cubic inches and we could use only wood and glue. Working with Billy has been quite interesting. He is a very successful sculptor, but a difficult professor. There were many times throughout this semester that he sent me off in a different direction and it wasn't until much later that I understood why. Case in point, I started off with the concept of the tension between two objects before they actually interlock. Similar to a venus fly trap and it's interlocking spikes:

Billy did his normal scowl and told me to work on the idea further. Obviously thinking I knew best, I started cutting wood to create my organic hemispherical venus flytrap and immediately screwed up. My scrap pieces however, turned into a completely different project that I think more accurately conveys the concept of interlocking.

The two larger pieces actually connect together with the beam that fits into a cut out section of the cylindrical part of the sculpture. In this way they literally interlock, as seen here:

Because there is a tilt to the section held on with the beam, this interlocking mechanism actually holds the piece onto the larger, cylindrical structure. As a whole, this piece plays with the incomplete form of squares and circles, how they interlock, and in addition the diagonals created by the stepped pyramids. Here is the piece from the side again:

The last step I need to consider with this guy is the finishing. I'm still debating a stain and varnish versus paint, which would potentially add a color element that I am interested in trying. I'll try to post the final pieces by the end of this semester!

storytelling

2011-10-27T05:14:00.000-07:00

One of my friends posted this recently on facebook. Adam Wade is a storyteller - and he is excellent at invoking empathy. I have to tell you though, this totally took me back to high school and my Vincenzo's days. :)

driving tune of the week

2011-10-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

I know Adele has been exploding in popularity over the last couple months, and I think she definitely has the talent. It's been raining the last few days, and when it's cold outside and I'm driving to school and drinking coffee I've been playing her more soulful music. This cover has been on repeat a couple times this week, thus making it the driving tune of the week.

(this is the live version from youtube)

Color Game

2011-10-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

I love self-assessments. Probably stemming from my psych major days at Wake, I am a huge fan of taking random tests to find out my results. My favorites though, probably lack in validity and scientific relevancy but are just plain fun. This test is supposed to help you choose a paint color palette for the interior of your home. I found it to be fairly accurate. (Granted, I've never lived anywhere but in a rental, so the actual paint colors I've seen day in and day out have always been shades of white.) But the best part was taking the quick assessment. They are different questions with word choices, inspiration rooms, and even random questions that I had never associated with interior design involving musical selections. If you have a few minutes, please take it! Warning though, its not really work appropriate what with the musical selection page. I'd love to see how your styles are defined!

And only because I'm sure you're dying to know, my results are:

Water Beads:

Blue refreshes, soothes and induces meditation; it lends the feeling of protection to the frenzy of daily life. In loyal, darker shades, blue tempts you to sleep, while lighter, more vibrant shades stimulate creativity.

..And my secondary was Tapestry and Mosaic:

Our home is our personal theatre of self-expression, the place where we are most free to use our creativity and imagination. What inspires you the most? Often, our travel adventures create our most significant and joyous memories of people, times and places. To capture this essence of exotic living, we created our Tapestry & Mosaic Harmony Collection™. If you find yourself drawn to Tapestry & Mosaic, relax and trust your intuition. Most likely, you are a spiritual, adventurous, and open-minded soul who welcomes both color, and the undiscovered, into your world.

Not too surprising if you've been in my apartment. :)

reflections & real talk

2011-10-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

So the past few months have been totally wackadoo, and I've finally grabbed a few moments to catch my breath and catch up and reflect. I quit my day job this past summer at Clinique and signed up for student loans to go back to school. I don't think it was a secret how unhappy I was in the life of sales and retail. I enjoyed interacting with customers, but I wanted to genuinely connect with them, not shuffle through as fast as possible meeting the highest sales quota I could. Regardless of how successful I was at these past jobs, I really felt like I needed to figure out what I could do on a daily basis to feel inspired.

I signed up for art school at UNCG, which is a forty minute commute from my little life here in Winston. And I love it. Perhaps this is the most important personal discovery of the past few months. I gave up a decent paying job (and a promotion) and am now in the throes of absorbing and refining my super basic art skills. And I love every minute of it. I'm taking four classes (two of them are studios) and I spend a minimum of 8 hours a week driving back and forth to Greensboro. On Fridays I volunteer with HorsePower, which helps keep me grounded. I am still working for Clinique - on their event team - which I have found that I really enjoy, now that I get to travel and come in and focus on the clients and the goals and skip all the drama.

What is inspiring this reflection today is my current feeling of being whelmed by all that goes on in life. It is midterm week, which means two large projects for studio and the first major test in my Creativity, Art and Genius class. I am also knee deep in Classical Greek art in my art history class, which with its many names and definitions, has my poor memory taxed. Alex and I are also planning a wedding, which has begun to absorb more of my non-school focus than I am comfortable with. I say all this not to complain, but as an acknowledgment of all that is currently weighing on my mind.

On Monday, in class, my professor Billy Lee (who is an internationally acclaimed sculptor working primarily in large steel pieces) was going on one of his usual rants of how we, as undergraduate students, should take our work more seriously. As he is justifying the acquirement of skills, primarily in the wood shop and metal shop, he starts to drive home his final point of the day, which was 'how are you going to make a living in art?' Excellent question, Billy, I was wondering that myself. He mentions the going rate of kitchen renovations and how if we know the skills we could make a lot of money to support our creative habit.

There are moments in life when you get hit by the proverbial 2x4. Billy's question has been bouncing around in my head for the last few days. This morning, as I was doing the usual reading of the blogs, I found that several of my favorite interior design bloggers had posted on the passing of Steve Jobs. Among the many things that he will be remembered for, Steve Jobs also gave a graduation speech at Standford in 2005 and there are a few things that he said that have really stuck. And here is my breakthrough moment. I am so drawn to the aesthetic of a well designed space, that I seek it out and carry it around in my mind for those moments when I need a happy thought. After a long, hard day I can be found perusing Pinterest for new spaces or scrolling through my already bursting file folders of spaces that I find pleasing and inspirational.

No plan of action has yet been made. But I think that after this week, I will give myself permission to follow my heart and intuition. I am sharing this in hope that you will do the same.

follow your heart & intuition

2011-10-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.“

-Steve Jobs

kimbra - settle down

2011-09-28T04:29:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning with this song by Kimbra in my head. I wish she'd release her album in the states! I totally can not afford the international fee. :) The video is muy excellente as well.

driving tune of the week

2011-09-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

awesome beat. awesome guitar. excellent for the drive :)

thoughts on marriage & relationships from oh joy

2011-09-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

As we've been working on the first stages of wedding planning, I've been spending some time researching and thinking about what makes a solid, working relationship, or a "partnership", as Alex and I like to call it. I ran across this article today by Joy from the blog Oh Joy! and thought it was very insightful and honest. Something I definitely want to keep and pass along. Here it is below:

thoughts on marriage & relationships...

As I approach 5 years of marriage and 15 years together in total with Bob, it's made me think about marriage and relationships and all the things I didn't know when I embarked on this journey but have learned ever since. I'm happy to be able to say that I love my husband more now than ever, and I continue to love him more in different ways as we go through life and come across new and unexpected joys and challenges together. We're at an age where some of our friends are separating or divorced, and it makes me value our strengths and our ability to communicate with each other even when we don't always agree on everything. So, I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes a relationship work..or at least what gives it a good shot at making it work. And I've come to these 10 thoughts. I'm by no means an expert nor do we have a totally perfect marriage, but wanted to share what I've learned along the way...

1. You have to believe that you're awesome. It's clichéd but so true. You can't be in a healthy, loving relationship if you don't think you're good enough, smart enough, thin enough, or pretty enough to be in one. That doesn't mean you have to be cocky or delusional or think you're perfect. But no one can think you're the bees knees if you don't feel that way about yourself first.

2. Love isn't the only thing that matters. While love is certainly important, you must have respect for your significant other and truly be their #1 fan. Because in those moments when their annoying habits or personality traits really get to you, it's the respect and admiration for each other that will get you through those minor annoyances.

3. Aspire for greatness together. Just as you should surround yourself with friends who inspire you, you have to be with someone who has similar goals in life. You don't have to do the same thing or have similar careers or make the same amount of money, but if you're driven and set your goals high, your partner must have the same hopes and dreams for his or her career and life as well. Not only do you want to inspire and push each other to be better and better at whatever you do, but you should want to see that person succeed in their wildest dreams.

4. People don't really change. Sure, we learn to compromise with our partners, and we try and adjust the way we think for the good of the relationship, but the root of who we are does not and will not change. I will always be Type A, and Bob will always leave his dirty socks on the floor. So whatever annoys you about your partner now, will still be around 10 and 20 years from now. Make sure those qualities are things that you can deal with and won't affect you and your relationship in the long run.

5. Live together beforehand if you see potential in a relationship. If your religious or personal morals or parents allow you to, moving in together before marriage can be a super insightful way of knowing if this person is someone you really can be with forever. A lot of it has to do with stupid things like chores and space issues. But it also forces you to see how much time you spend together once you have all the time in the world to spend together. Do you hole up in your apartment and never see your own friends? Does one of you need alone time to decompress after work? That being said, you should never move in together out of the sake of convenience or to save on rent if you don't see this person potentially being the ONE. Many dating relationships go on far longer than they should because moving out once you've moved in together is hard, and it draws out an inevitable break-up for way longer.

6. Have your own friends. While many consider marriage the joining of two people together into one, you're still your own person with your own dreams, career, hobbies, interests, and friends. You should always continue to be your own person separate from your partner. Because at the end of the day, a couple is made stronger by the strength of the individuals within it.

7. Discuss money, religion, and politics. The things that most people don't like to talk about are the things you HAVE to talk about before getting married. Who's a saver, who's a spender? Who will keep track of bills? Will you have joint or separate bank accounts or both? If you're different religions, which one will you practice and what religion will your children be? What languages will your kids speak and who do you think the next President should be? These things are all best discussed early on before kids, in-laws, and more life responsibilities are involved.

8. Marriage is never going to be easy. It's a constant work-in-progress as you evolve, change, and grow both as individuals and as a couple. Every healthy couple argues and disagrees with each other from time-to-time. It's what you do during those moments of disagreement that show the strength of your relationship. Do you listen to each other? Do you consider the other person's feelings and do your best to resolve what's bothering them the best you can? It's okay to ask for help if you can't resolve issues on your own. But things like therapy have to be a two-way street, and you both have to want to get help to make the relationship work if anything is going to be resolved or a relationship saved.

9. Honesty and trust makes the world (and a relationship) go round. You must trust your partner completely and vice versa. If you don't trust what he'll do during a weekend in Vegas with the guys, or he doesn't trust you with the joint credit card to go shopping, there's something wrong. Knowing each other's weaknesses from the beginning (his drinking or your shopping habits), help to make for an open and honest relationship in the long run. Your partner doesn't need to know about every moment or every minute you experience without them, but there should not be any purposely-kept secrets between you.

10. Have fun together. The best part of marriage is when you enjoy each others company doing the things you love most—enjoying great meals, laughing at your dorky inside jokes, and of course, sexy times. As we're together longer, sometimes we forget about spending time together and having fun because life, work, kids, or other things take priority. So schedule in the fun if that's the only way to remind yourself to make time for it. Date night, alone time, whatever it is...always remind yourself what made you fall in love with your partner in the first place.
— Joy

driving tune of the week

2011-09-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

I am currently spending about 2 hours in my car five days a week, and with this increased drive time I've been craving lots of new music to listen to. My current favorite this week is from Gotye:

This song has been perfect for all the rainy day driving. Enjoy!

Perfection

2011-06-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

It's been about seven months since my last post, and it's not for a lack of internet addiction. I definitely have a design blog obsession that requires a daily dose of google reader to catch up with my favorites. My old Wake Forest laptop finally gave the old heave-ho, and I've been slowly increasing my favorite design pics in folders on Alex's computer. I'm trying to hang on until I get my super fabulous Mac for school this fall so I can actually edit photos again. Just a few months more! In the meantime, I'm hoping to get into some sort of routine about posting more frequently, even if I don't have my own pics to share. I came across this quote earlier today during my daily blog perusal:

"Perfection is not always the best result." - Newell Turner, Editor-in-Chief of House Beautiful

So here we are folks. I am going to do my best to just post and say to heck with my perfectionist streak. Being as I currently have one follower (thanks Brittany!), I don't think I'll be disappointing the masses with my less than perfect blog, life, etc. Which is quite refreshing. :)

a little survey :)

2010-11-19T07:24:00.000-08:00

a quick little survey tagged from miss Britbrit!

1) The best investment you ever made:

My own apartment :)

2) If you could’ve written any book, directed any movie, and composed any song, which three would you pick:

Eat, Pray, Love - I wish I could be able to convey such an awesome personal journey in such an entertaining and thoughtful way. Amelie - I love love love the cinematography and the story telling! Pachabel's Canon - triplet, triplet, triplet...

3) Weirdest quirk:

My concentration face - yall know what I'm talking about - apparently it looks like a smile mixed with an evil intense grimace, and it stops the second I think about it and can't be summoned on command.

4) One wish immediately granted:

happy, healthy, peaceful & safe

5) Most expensive hobby:

welding

6) An inexhaustible gift-card at which store:

target!! i don't care if that makes me boring and predictable - i could be set for life

7) In another lifetime, you’d be:

a dolphin :) ...just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

8) The most famous/interesting member of your family tree:

John Alden - he came over on the Mayflower, following a redhead named Priscilla, saved the Mayflower from sinking in a terrible storm by shoving a printing press into the hole, and then proceeded to hate Quakers and Baptists and held witch trials.

9) What would you say to your teenage self?

one day you will live on your own, and it really will be as awesome as you dream

10) Which celebrity would you most want to look like?

Rachel McAdams circa red hair

11) What would your last meal be?

mac n cheese!

12) What is your favorite outdoor activity?

biking!

its fall!

2010-11-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

the fall has been dubbed "boyfriend weather" this year, and it certainly has seemed to be quite true. since moving in together, we've been slowly negotiating our way into what i hope feels like home. i spent the first month back in winston unpacking and arranging the apartment, getting used to my new job at clinique, and reconnecting face to face with all my friends in this area. i hate to admit it, but i'm happy back in old winston salem - it feels like home. we threw a happy birthday alex bash around the first of october and i think scared the neighbors with the amount of people we had over :)

a few weeks later we went to the dixie classic fair, where alex and i acted like appropriate old people and shunned the rides, ate fair food, looked at art and watched the pig races.

oh! and we won a fish! we originally named it picard (after star trek) but alex deemed it too wussy to 'have such an awesome name' so it got demoted to "cameltoe", my nickname for diana of troy (also from star trek), who walks all through the series in a skin tight suit and cameltoe. meet our super nerdy fish:

we've done some hiking as well - first to stone mountain:

and then all around the arboretum in asheville (including an unfortunate side detour through the pisgah national forest onto the blue ridge parkway). it was the perfect fall leaves day!

we saw rocky horror live for the first time while we were in asheville, which inspired our halloween costumes the following weekend. fun fact about alex - he knows the entire movie - including the dance moves and lyrics! so it was only appropriate to scare all of our friend's acquaintances at the three dinner parties as such:

happy halloween and happy fall!!

doormat

2010-09-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

whilst shopping at target today for the various and sundry items, i came upon their doormats, which were all super boring. since that obviously wont do, i bought a plain one and decided id just personalize it. fast forward a few hours and me and mr. man were trying to decide on a name for our place. he got stuck on "explosion" (our place does look like one right now) which immediately transformed into "cock explosion". knowing that my parents will one day grace our doorstep, i decided to keep it rated 'pg'. :) here's the completed doormat below starring mr. man, cleo & myself.:)

jenna lee gets an assistant

2010-09-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

Several months ago my friend Jenna asked if I would tag along and shoot second for her at a wedding. Jenna is an awesome photographer, whose site you should totally check out here. I haven't shot at an official wedding event for several years, since I worked for the Snyder's back in high school/early college. Anyhoodle, today's post is all about some pictures.

I always love the little details that go into a big day:

Logan's dress and bouquet:

the boys hung around and played frisbee

while the girls got ready

and then it was time!

for sweet words, verses and vows

mr & mrs!!

a little dancing..

& lots of celebration!! congratulations :)

2010-09-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

This summer has been an interesting one, full of many new surprises and adventures. I love how awesome life is! So much has happened that it will have to be spread out in several blog posts, mostly of pictures (hooray!), since I have zero motivation to share everything in only words. And pictures are much prettier than this silly standard font.

My cousin Rich ~~finally~~ asked his girlfriend, Felicity, marry him last fall and they had a gorgeous destination wedding in Hawaii. Weddings in my family are a pretty big deal, and require a giant party for post-wedding congratulatory-ness so the new couple can receive the appropriate reception (and fine china) from the extended family. This time, Aunt June hit me up for pics. I also had an official invitation to bring along Mr. Man so he could meet the fam.

Here are the new Mr. & Mrs. Adorable, no? I love Felicity rocking out with the Lei :)

Each table had its own theme - a new country complete with pictures of the couple's travels & a representative floral arrangement.

There was a receiving line for guests as they entered the room. You were greeted by Rich, Felicity, and their parents. Once through the line, guests visited.

Grandaddy and his brother surveyed the scene...

And then it was time for dinner, some toasting, and cake!

The happy hosts, Aunt June & Uncle Don:

Rich's sister Jenny, and her husband Chris came down from CANADA for the event! It is so great to have them around :)

Felicity's sister also flew in - she's halarious! Here she is with their "second mother":

What a great day! Congrats to Rich and Felicity! May you have many years of happiness and love. :)

One final shot, taken by Ashley while playing with my camera. Here's to me and Mr. Man:

in which an apartment kitchen gets a splash of color

2010-03-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that apartment kitchens are small. Usually of the shotgun variety, the amount of counterspace, let alone wallspace, is scarce when existent. And of course, if you're lucky enough to live in an apartment built within this past decade, you are undoubtedly quite familiar with the many shades of white and beige that have become so standard.

So what to do what to do if you prefer to live in a crayon box? Having shunned the idea of a "favorite color" as a small child, I have fully embraced the endless possibilities of several fun colors playing together to counteract the shades of white in the world of modern renting. And what better way to explain than with pretty pictures!

Here is the view of my kitchen from the entrance way:

If you'll notice, I'm already showing love to lime green, red, orange and blue. Taste the rainbow! I absolutely love the cute little teapot which was a random find in the sale aisle of the Wilmington Marshall's. Love it! And of course, every great chef needs a giant apron to keep all spills away.

And now for a close-up of the stove, where my favorite painting can be purchased on Etsy here

Another view of the cute teapot! There is my old soda bottle collection up top, and my absolute FAVORITE piece, my Sunny Hills painting, that I love looking at every morning while waiting for my coffee to finish brewing.

On the opposite side of my shotgun kitchen, is what I think is being called a "Breakfast Nook" nowadays. It is indeed quite small, which I think is the definition of nook, and luckily feels less claustrophobic thanks to the giant windows that you can see here:

Now all this beige and white-on-white can get quite depressing, you see, so what better way to banish the blues than with the help of your friends? Perhaps my favorite mini project from this holdiay season past, is the picture magnet collage on my fridge!

Printed on my home printer on bright white non-photo photo paper, encased in Scotch Self-Sealing Laminating Pouches, with a small magnet on the back, the brilliant colors of my favorite memories bring warmth to the beigeyness of it all.

So alas, Dear Reader, for further questions on creating your own magnetic collage refrigerator explosion or on how to acquire fun Cat Art, please do not hesitate to ask away.

Polite Society (Inc)

2010-03-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

This winter has been particularly fun as it never seems to want to end. Living in North Carolina, I never thought I would be tired of seeing snow. But alas, today the sun was shining for the third day in a row (enough to maybe think about banishing the snow clouds for good?) and the weather was warm enough to allow me to take off the standard third layer sweater. In this new euphoria I also began to shed my yearly winter depression and did a few things out of character. How about a list, shall we?

1. Finished my morning cup of joe BEFORE work.
2. Ate lunch away from my cubicle with a few of the Production ladies.
3. Bought not only Margarita mix, but Watermellon! (which I promptly ate once home)
4. Finally got an Etsy site up and running.

That's right, folks. Today, not only did I impulse purchase Watermellon and Margarita Mix, but I started an Etsy store (perhaps to finance my summer grocery list?) with my fabulous friend Jenna. Of course, the question always is, what does one sell? I've decided to use this opportunity to showcase my art. And since most of my art is either on display in my home or has been given to close friends over the years, it can be nothing but a perfect melding of my interests. But, I can't continue without a big shoutout to Jenna, whose professional photography company freakin rocks, and of course her blog is worth a daily read. Her photography skillz leave me floored. :)

So anyhoodle, what better way to start this off right but than give you a small taste of today's art for sale, which you can purchase here.

Inspiration

2010-02-25T15:41:00.000-08:00

Hello Bloggerland!

Awhile it has been, indeed. Life in the past few months has been a little, shall we say, crazy? Let's recap! First there was the move to the new giant beautiful apartment in Durham with the new awesome beautiful friend Elizabeth. And once we got everything unpacked my dear friend Elizabeth got her dream job in New Bern running the place for a news network. Great job, new city, aaaaand a new apartment for her. So I pulled on the big girl panties, took a long hard look at my finances, and decided to stay within the complex and grab a cute little one bedroom for myself and Miss Cleo. Finally! A place to myself! That is conveniently located between work and the boy. :) But before I could move there was Christmas at Canvas on Demand (of which it's enormity should be it's own post). And then shortly after moving surprise suprise I got sick and ended up with a couple weeks of doctor's visits and paid time off. And so here I am healthy (again), settled, and without major life stressors hanging over my head. What's a girl to do?

Blog, of course! Now, Dear Readers, I fully realize that my posts are... random, at best. Posted without any predictability, and most importantly, without any commonality. So I've been ruminating on this. And then one day it hit me! I need a theme! If for no other reason than to make myself to post more frequently and cohesively. But perhaps, Dear Reader, it would also help you want to keep reading.

So I took to the streets of Bloggerland. And read different blogs. And spoke to my friends. And wrote out ideas on different post-it notes. Perhaps I could discuss photography! But I crop pictures all day. Or maybe I could write about Durham! Eh, it's too cold out to wander aimlessly. And besides, I need to feel some passion for a subject I hope to discuss more than just once a month. (No offense, Bull City, I luffas you.) And then, finally, today I had inspiration! My favorite blogs are about photography and interior design. I obsessively cut out pictures from design magazines of pretty rooms I like and put them in my Dream Book. And when I'm really feeling the need to splurge I buy floorplan books and mentally walk around the designs arranging furniture and deciding if I like the "feel" of the place. But the icing on the cake, Dear Reader, was the discovery of my new favorite blog by Bryn Alexandra. I love love loved how she turned such an awful, boring space into such dynamic, classy rooms! who was featured today on Design*Sponge.

See? Ugly Before:

Pretty After!!

But most importantly, the style of her blog is so awesome; her design ideas and projects with a little personal life stuff thrown in. Which means that now that I am fully inspired I need to start working on actual posts! I have a good feeling I'm about to be great friends with the office scanner on my lunch break. Hoorah!

when life gives you lemons...

2009-11-17T04:46:00.000-08:00

make lemonade!

huzzah!

signs that you are getting old...

2009-10-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

[a collaboration w/ izzy pop]

Oh dear...10:30pm...must go to bed.

Man! My diploma is a great pretentious wall decoration!

My new BFF is a mini coffee maker.

Wait...your mortgage is only $200 more than my rent? FML.

"Sleeping-in" = 9am...yay!

Sweats: no longer appropriate clothing...in public at least...

"He's just not that into you"...duh...I don't know where HE is

I REALLY have nothing to wear...to work.

I wonder if they have gel inserts for my 4-inch spike stilettos?

Seeing friends requires a lot of planning...and sometimes air fare...

Hey Destiny's Child...can YOU pay my bills?

Four drinks didn't USED to make me drunk...

I now understand and appreciate lumbar support.

The wedding bells are ringing in my ears and giving me a migraine! Why is everyone
engaged/married/preggers?!

i like to move it, move it

2009-10-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

hooray for moving. (and for broken fans in laptops.)

to those who know me, organization is not my forte. (what? really? why yes.) the last several moves i had the help of all my friends packing up all my shit and relocating it within 24 hours. there was the time i vacated my apartment and moved within the same complex a week after getting back from spain. show up, pack up the cars, unload across the street, go back, fill up the cars, unload across the street. and then the one-day move to wilmington with five friends in tow and a 24 foot uhaul van. hardest part of that move? driving the truck! last year around this time i moved from wilmington to raleigh in the midst of my first big-girl-fulltime-job, which meant kel and i paid someone to move us. brilliant!

so here i am, one year later, with a new fabulous roommate and a new fabulous apartment in a new fabulous(?) city. but i can't lift my shit. and i definitely fail majorly at packing. so what's a girl to do? friend bribery!! funtime pizza and beer time. and man does that work. especially with younger siblings who are still in college. so the weekend before the move, kasee and kelly (home recuperating from her guatemalan mishap) came over and were packing fiends. seriously. in eight hours, they packed the kitchen, living room, closet, and my bedroom. i packed my bathroom. and then, a few days later after work on a wednesday, i rented another oversized uhaul, and with the help of eight of my friends/co-workers/sibling, we moved me completely out of my old apartment and into my new apartment in six hours. faaaantastic!

of course the new roomz and i (the fabulous izzy pop) decided what better way to christen the new apartment than with a big housewarming party. and parties are always better with a theme. so we threw a "come dressed as your favorite youtube video" party. and my friends from the dash totally represented. it was amazing! we had "i'm on a boat," the "yes dance," "everyone has more sex than me," "shoes," "charlie bit me," "bon qui qui," and of course, beyonce's "single ladies." there are pics, but ya gotta check facebook. :)

so in conclusion, i fail at packing, my friends rock, and the new roomz and i know how to throw great parties. oh, and i figured out how to change my fan in my laptop so it runs again. (yay!) now to find my camera cord in some of those boxes shoved in the back of my closet so i can get some picture updates...

<3!

scrubs

2009-08-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

dear fellas

please do not slow your roll to stare at me out your car window. and please do not continue with your slow roll to wave at me and holla out your car window. do you think i'm going to start running after you? cause i love to chase boys down the street, it's definitely my favorite pasttime.

are you afraid of my guatemalaness?

2009-08-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

early in january my wifemate, kelly, left for the peace corps in guatemala. when she left i sent an emergency $20, a stack of photos, a few mp3s, and a promise to come visit her. so naturally, come the summer, i convinced both kasee and brittany to join me in my pursuit all things travel, latina, & kelly. i took a few days off work for an extended weekend excursion, bought a travel book that i never read until the plane ride down, and emailed a few times with kel over basic itenerary. and then we were off!

here we are chilling in the airport at what brittany referred to as "ohmygod" in the morning. nice and naive-like:

-- WEDNESDAY --

wednesday was travel day. my cubemate & friend since 6th grade ryan drove us to the rdu airport at 5am. we successfully navigated security, found the plane, flew on the tincan plane to houston, found the international gate in houston, got on the larger more powerful international plane and landed in guatemala city, guatemala. easy breezy. then came the task of locating a taxi and getting to antigua, which we also managed quite easily in our short-on-sleep holy crap we-aren't-speaking-the-english-anymore state of minds. until it came time to pay. $60 american does not a taxi cost. in case you ever take one to antigua. we did find our hostel, the black cat, which brittany fell in love with immediately. they served me food and beer and had hot travelling internationals, so i found it quite pleasing as well. the one thing we could not locate was kelly, who was stuck in huehuetenango (aka way way faraway) giving her bossman a tour of her site. she did however bestow upon us a fellow peace corps member named morgan who showed us how to get guatemalan money (quetzales) and how to properly travel via chickenbus.

chickenbus (a schoolbus from my elementary school years repainted bright colors and driven at breakneck speeds around steep winding roads with three to four grown guatemalans packed into each tiny seat):

morgan led us like sheep to kelly's first home in guatemala where we met her padre and sat in a sauna and got swedish massages. i stayed in the sauna for about two hours pre-massage. talk about fabulous. we then navigated by ourselves the chickenbus back to antigua with a small detour of another outside town with a big festival, ate a giant burrito at the hostel, and enthusiastically greeted kelly late that night upon her arrival.

-- THURSDAY --

thursday morning we awoke and caught up over a huge hostel breakfast. we meandered some around antigua, went to visit the museum of music, and then came back for lunch with kelly's second host madre, rosa. rosa was one of the first genuinely awesome people we met in antigua. here we are post-lunch with rosa:

we then caught the chickenbus to guate (guatemala city), took a cab to the nice bus station, and hopped on an old tour bus to cabon, the third largest city in guatemala, where we met up with a whole heap of peace corps peeps who had taken over a hostel for birthday party festivities. there we ate cheese fondue and drank beer and boasted our americaness with awesome dance skills. oh yea, and we brought the party.

-- FRIDAY--

friday was designated white water rafting day. along with several other peace corps peeps, we piled into a minivan (5 to a seat!) and took a paved road to a dirt road to another side dirt road to a teeny tiny village without electricity or running water where oliver was stationed. we signed a waiver and hauled boat via pickup truck to the edge of the river. most of us in our raft had never paddled before, myself included, but we were assured that the four and five level rapids would be a-okay. there was about two hours of paddling before our lunch break, in which we learned to paddle together and how to get back into the raft after jumping out for a swim. here is the view of paradise from one of the dirt roads where the river we went a-paddling on was below in the valley:

what follows was one of the scariest moments of the trip (life?). we successfully navigated down the first level-5 rapid without anyone in our raft falling out. (although brittany did fall in, lol.) we got to the second big ass rapid and started paddling like crazy. i looked up and kelly had fallen out. at the top. we couldn't stop paddling or else the rest of us were screwed, but i disctinctly remember looking up when she started screaming to see her face gushing blood. she couldn't stand on her right leg, her lip was split, and her front tooth was chipped. oliver and the raft guides grabbed one raft and fought the rapids to get back to her where they made a lifejacket/paddle makeshift carrier. we sat on the riverbank for a short while attempting to assess the seriousness of the situation. oliver was calling the peace corps nurse and we had others running to get bottled water and pain meds. one peace corps girl told oliver we needed to get kelly ice to reduce the swelling in her leg and he looked at her with disdain and asked "how the hell are we supposed to have ice in 75 degree weather with no running water and no electricity?". good point.

we then travelled to a small village that was back on the paved road where there was a nurse. we went by pickup truck, which i believe was the only mode of transportation in oliver's site. i was kelly's human legbrace and oliver, kasee and brittany attempted to not fall out the back. we got to the nurse where they wrapped the knee and sent her on back to coban, the city we were in the night before. we were turned away at the first private hospital because it was late on a friday and the xray machine was at a different location. (oh, hello third world country, with your travelling xray machines...) so we went to the general hospital. where they allow in the patient and one family member/friend/gopher. kasee and i sat outside in the "waiting area" that had one small makeshift bench and doubled as the ambulance ramp. guatemalans lining the wall, people carried in on stretchers through the middle. we ended up calling the hostel we were at the night before, and boy did that end up being a gift from god. our hostel owner took kasee and i back with all our stuff where she and i grabbed some soup and took showers. he then went back to negotiate kelly's release and to get brittany out of the cold. he some how managed to rent crutches at 11:30 at night and fill kelly's pain med prescription. (once again, the hospital does not issue crutches. they are a luxury item that you must rent.)

-- SATURDAY --

the next morning we awoke and climbed the eleventy bazillion stairs up the edge of the hostel where we grabbed some coffee and toast and discussed the game plan. our awesome hostel host again drove us to the bus station where he dropped us off so we could head back to guate to the real hospital to have kelly's leg properly xrayed (the general hospital didn't seem to think there was a break, but had no idea what was wrong) and she could get mobilized. i personally felt like i had the flu and spent the day on a various concoction of over the counter meds. the drug concoction completely knocked me out and somehow managed to spend the entire 6 hour bus ride asleep on the hot, winding bus. we got to the hospital where they stitched up kelly's lip, took more xrays, and kasee swooned over a hot oral surgeon. one of kelly's awesome peace corps friends used his powers of persuasion to book us two private rooms in a fairly cheap hotel in antigua and we spent the rest of the evening recuperating.

-- SUNDAY --

feeling significantly less like death, i awoke on my last morning in guatemala ready to take on antigua once more. we navigated the cobblestone streets (which are not ideal for crutches) to an awesome crepe restaurant where we had a huge breakfast. afterwards, we forced kelly to rest while we went to the mercado and bargained our little hearts out in spanish with the locals. feeling accomplished we then booked a tour through the hostel we stayed at the very first night to climb volcan pacaya, one of the nearby active volcanoes. what what! get ready for some seriously awesome pictures. here i am about three-quarters of the way up the volcano with the climbing stick an awesome brittish boy let me borrow:

and then, after about a two and half hour vertical climb in which i consistently cursed low oxygen levels, my laziness from a year of working at a desk job and never going to the gym, and the crazy european travellers who were not only ahead of me in the climb but stopping for cigarette breaks every 30 minutes, i finally made it to the top! yay for lava!

... and then we roasted colored marshmallows at the top and made smores. and the europeans were jealous. heh.

we then made the descent in the dark. and i made a brittish friend who told me all about his love life, lol. and i tried not to think about the animals that were in the jungle with us.

-- MONDAY (...& TUESDAY) --

monday was fly back to america day. we had an early afternoon flight out, which left plenty of time for one last guatemalan breakfast. there i had huevos rancheros that were so good i've been craving them everyday since then. we caught the chicken bus back to guate (where i had a minor collision that was made all the better with scooby doo bandaids), hailed a cab to the airport and lost a few souveniers in customs. oh, and got a free upgrade to first class!!! all three of us, too! and let me tell ya, there is a big difference. the seat is comfortable, the beverages are free, and the three course meal is actually delicious. customs back in america? not so much. our hour lay-over was completely filled with the long line to get back into america. so we ended up in houston overnight at a hotel that not only seemed extravagant after our last few days of travel, but still managed to cost a quarter of what i spent in guatemala. oh america, how i missed you.

jerkin them tears

2009-08-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

i work at a company called canvas on demand, where i've been for the last year. an awesome company; they take photographs and print them onto canvas. the company has been growing exponentially in the past couple years, and with it joe & tom (co-owners & bffs) have started expanding into other canvas-related, non-profitted endeavors. my favorite has to be "on the road with mom," where joe's real, honest to goodness mother takes off in her bright, multicolored, flower power van to deliver canvases to military spouses. check out the video and grab a box of kleenex. you're gonna need it.

on the road again

2009-08-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

blank page, first post.

nothing like a fresh blog to make life seem daunting.

after discovering the joy of google reader and observing the world of blogging from the outside, i have decided to jump on in. making no promises for deep insight or witty comments on the world around me, i am hoping to merely have an avenue for expression, daily musings, random photos and travel posts. perhaps i will find some direction in this little road called life. or, perhaps i will keep on my random winding off-road trek adventure. life is so much more fun with adventure.

:)