I'm back! (again)

I know I've been completely M.I.A. now for about a month - sorry to kick-off 2009 on such a poor habit! The good news : I still have a job!

Even though our current lease isn't up for another 9 months (and I love living here!) I'm starting to think that with a new place could come a couple new additions / modifications to me / my style. I would LOVE a new bedroom set, but considering that I'm a perfect example of champagne taste on a beer budget, I might have to D.I.Y.-it to get what I want. Here are my thoughts... thoughts?


I'm also thinking that my living room scheme could use some tweeking... stay tuned for that :)

ps: e - I think we need something new for the blog... a new banner at the top? new color scheme? lets brainstorm :)

DIY

My friend Melissa is having a little boy soon and I am helping her do a couple things to pull the room together for his arrival.

I found this really cool wall sticker via Ferm Living and thought that it could be easily reproduced old school style with a projector. Ill let you know how it goes.

Little Black Dress.

that's me in the red, whitney in the darker red, and everyone else in black and white - i missed the memo. i want the black version of the hot pink dress (shown on elizabeth - lovely :)


the closest i've found - i think jessica mcclintock, jcrew, and bluefly.

This weekend was Whitney's engagement party (wedding to follow in January), and we headed up to Raleigh to mingle with her friends and family. It was so, so nice to see the girls, especially Whitney (and Luke).

It was cocktail attire - I ended up wearing Sara's red dress because I wasn't thrilled with anything I have / found. With an office Christmas dinner coming up, as well as the wedding in January, I've got my sights set on something really specific - I want a strapless, black taffeta dress. See the pink dress in the picture? I want that, but in black. Similar to the red one I've got on, and really similar to the examples I've found... however, I don't want it to cost me $200, and I want it to fit correctly.

Has anyone ever made something like that? Any advice? I think it might be my newest project.

flickr by color

Just saw this site on How About Orange - you can sort through images on Flickr based on a color, or several. As she said, not sure what this is actually useful for, but I think it's pretty sweet none the less. Say...if you were going for a scarlet and gray scheme? (go bucks!)

DesignForObama

This website, designforobama.org, has hundreds of posters and prints by designers from a pretty big variety of backgrounds, all showing their (nicely creative) support for Obama. I have a few favorites shown above, but this, seriously, isn't even a small fraction of those on the site. Check it out.

ps: "graphic designers for obama > you had me at the logo." -- LOVE.

Calendar Wallpaper

Yes, this is a little bit ridiculous... but can you imagine having a back-wall covered in this wallpaper in a studio or office? Keep birthdays, big meetings, deadlines, etc, all organized and in a kind of fun way? I just saw this on the dwell blog and can't decide how to feel about it..

Monday Huddle

Every Monday, if not other days, one of the partners of my firm sends a company-wide email with a link to an article / project / point of interest that's design-related on some level, and we kind of discuss them / go-over them during a weekly, company-wide 'huddle' phone call. I usually end up posting them on here, but why not make a point of sharing the wealth??

So, consider this the first (of many) official Monday Huddles. I won't take credit for this unless I actually come up with them (rare), so assume that I'm getting them from an outside source.

'Second Lives' at the Museum of Arts + Design

Roberta Smith writes: In “Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary” at the new Museum of Arts and Design, masses of plastic utensils and combs, vinyl LPs, dangling eyeglasses, syringes, ladies’ pumps, pieces of crockery and spools of thread are marshaled into works of art or design, most of them derivative and gimmicky.

PSD Actions

I downloaded a set of actions from Pioneer Woman a few weeks ago, and today, in a (brief) moment of boredom, played-around a bit with them. I love- LOVE -these actions. Here are some before and after's (some of the before images aren't the same... my organization is pretty weak and I'm having trouble finding the original files - might have accidentally deleted them, but they are all from the same 'roll').

Shiny Red Shoes

image from an open [sketch]book

I'm so in love with this design, I can barely put it into words. Suzanne (amazing) posted on her blog a design that she did for (the former) Megan Tremblay (now re-married) for a company she's started - a concierge service called Shiny Red Shoes. Having been in studio with Megan for 4(?) years straight, I know that she sported identical red shoes all the time - and pulled them off like no one else. The idea of the company is really cute - I especially like the assistance with gift-buying - so fun!

I'm so in love with the red + robin's egg blue combination these days, plus the white background of the site, the clean font used = a totally modern, simple, 'jcrew meets real simple' feel that works beautifully.

Love it!

24 before 25

Erin told me to read her post and do my own - seemed like an easy task until I started it. Giving myself short-term goals is easy. There's no deadline. But giving myself until August 0f 2009 is tough. Trying to come up with goals that aren't all self-critical and instead are optimistically ambitious is even more difficult.

1 Lose the weight - I mean it. I'm down the majority of it already, but I've got 15 to go. I want it gone by Christmas, and maintained all through next year.
2 Run three times each week...outside...I'm too cheap to pay for a membership to the gym these days - for some reason I have a feeling I should be saving money (coughECONOMIC CRISIScough)
3 Learn football - not just the basics, but really learn it during this season and before next year's season starts.
4 Develop a wardrobe I'll wear.
5 Send gifts on time or early - especially to family.
6 Take a trip with my frequent flyer miles to a place I've never been.
7 Make a dress.
8 Make my bed each morning.
9 Vote, and learn enough about the candidate to defend my vote.
10 Write thank-you notes for each gift I receive.
11 Eat breakfast every morning and make coffee instead of buying it.
12 Participate in at least three runs.
13 Use the library for non-work related reading.
14 Throw a baby shower for my best friend, and try not to feel sick over the thought of someone my age reproducing.
15 Try new restaurants in Charlotte.
16 Go on a gallery crawl in NoDa.
17 Go for a run through Uptown.
18 Stop buying so many clothes.......(full price)
19 Spend more time outside.
20 Work on my LEED certification.
21 Keep photo albums up to date.
22 Re-paint my red credenza.
23 Figure out where to live next - locally or not.
24 Spend some time re-learning my old 35mm SLR, AND get the film developed.

Clearly I had to use my list of resolutions, as well... It was good to look back at the list now that we're in the last leg of the race for 2008, see what I've accomplished and what I need to put more effort into. Lets see how this list goes!

Edison Chandelier

I know Design*Sponge just covered this, but I love the Edison Chandelier from Pottery Barn. I can't say I'd be willing to pay $399 for it, but it couldn't be that hard to replicate, right? I think it could be wonderful above a fancy dining table? Or in a studio? A girl can dream...

Bluejake

In a list of 30+ blogs / sites I look at in the mornings (stalling? broadening my horizons? waking up with some help from some creative people?), I looked through the photos on Bluejake - a NYC photo blog - and came across this photo of some cool graffiti... I love the graphic arrow on the wall - it's the kind of graffiti I referenced during my last semester in Iarc doing my thesis project on a downtown public art museum that used different types of graffiti / street art as wayfinding.



On another note, as much as I (gulp) dislike NYC - I'm way too self-conscious to spend very much time in a city full of beautiful, successful people with attitude - I've walked past the Apple Store on 14th a few times and never gone in. This photo makes me regret that in a pretty big way... next time I'm definitely going take a moment to stop and smell the iPods a la NYC.



And one last photo from their site - this is one of a few of the Glenwood Power Station in Yonkers. I think one of the best attributes to our generation is that we're able to look at the potential in things. I think 8 out of 10 people in our age bracket would look at this building and drop their jaw at how beautiful it is and, furthermore, could be. Appreciating the industrial, raw-edged, straight to the point and rehabilitated aspects of a building both for residential and commercial re-uses seems to be one of the trendy trademarks to our generation - something I hope to get in-on soon...

i'm back!

My apologies for the extended hiatus on posts out of Charlotte - I've been distracted by all of the right and wrong things, but that's life, right?

In checking-back in with the blogging world, I've missed a couple great weddings, in terms of photography. Just came across this one from Mary Kate McKenna- I love the details! I love the style of his suit, and the fact that it is gray, and I love that both of them have this vintage-modern appeal that is totally emphasized by the purple tie and yellow flowers! For whatever reason, the people and the clothing seem a little dated (in a good way) and the style of those yellow flowers with the pop of purple give it that great contemporary flare :) I might be way-off on this one, but I love it none the less.

* PS: check out their rings from Etsy!

On another note, Braedon posted some photos from an all-white wedding he did with Jessica Claire. Both are amazing photographers, which I think was probably pretty helpful to pull-off this kind of wedding. I guess this is one instance where it's okay to where white as a guest to the wedding :) I love it - I hope that someday I can take such an idea so simple and clean and use it in my kind of wedding. Keep the focus (from the beginning) on keeping things minimal, and just go with it. Love it!

Fauna Rose Clevell

Craft project!! I was in a bit of a crafty mood yesterday and after getting a little inspiration from the artist in Austin I decided to enlist my little cousin Audrey in spreading the crafty disease.

2 weekends ago Audrey came over and we had a date at Chuy's. while we were there, Audrey drew this rad unicorn on the back of her menu. I decided to make a zany stuffed animal modeled after Audrey's drawing. As seen above.

So armed with my sewing machine, a little ribbon, some felt and googly eyes I headed over to the Taylor household ready to make this unicorn. Audrey redrew the body and head on felt before i cut it out. she even gave the horns ribs... pretty cute.

Audrey dubbed the goofy looking unicorn: Fauna Rose Clevell. If you attemp to try something like this be wary of the very skinny time consuming legs! my reccomendation is to make them shorter. :)

it's wedding season!

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while... besides being preoccupied with this that and the other, it's wedding season and I've been totally absorbed in all of the great photography to be seen from it.

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending one of our sorority sister's weddings in Winston-Salem. It was really cute- a Catholic wedding in a really adorable little church, followed by a reception in an art center, I think. It was a very-much pink + orange color scheme and the reception hall was beautifully decorated- the linens, flowers, accents, and decorations all around matched so well. All of these paper lanterns / lights were apparently hung the night before by a few people, including the mother of the bride who has a broken ankle or something! Such a trooper...



I've pretty-much decided that the second I get engaged I'm calling Mary Kate and scheduling my wedding around her availability... you know I stalk these photographer's blogs, but her photos tug at my heart like no other. Hopefully she'll be doing weddings for a long time because I haven't even found someone to marry, but I would have a wedding just to have her photograph it!

lovely color palettes

I read Style Me Pretty almost everyday (thanks to Kelley) . And although I am VERY far from getting married myself I love to read it because it is a style blog after all.

One of my favorite features is the inspiration boards/color palettes and Abby happens to have a contest going on right now for reader inspiration boards. The idea is to take a photo and make an inspiration board for your wedding (event) from it. This one is by far my favorite. Inspiration photo above/ style board below. We'll see if it changes as more entries pop up.

lovely outdoor living

In the summer I will use any excuse to be outside. I found this image and idea from A Merry Mishap. She threw a party with her sister and recreated an outdoor living room. I think I will need to come up with a party idea to utilize this idea in my rarely used side yard.... or maybe I will just drag my chairs out there for some reading.

merchandising-england

In england I saw such the display of visual merchandising. My favorite was the Burberry window with the white balloons (mostly b/c the main color scheme for this season is black and white) our color theme for the season. Then there was Habitat... despite all of its bad ideas not to ship to the US..... it is and has been, since i lived there, my favorite British Home store. I LOVE IT. So the first two pictures are from there. Groovy staircase and ultra cool twiggy chandelier.

HP TouchSmart

As much as I hate publicizing anything non-Mac, this one is pretty impressive and I have yet to see Steve Jobs pull this one out of his hat.

The HP TouchSmart is a desktop all-in-one PC that has a touch-screen monitor! I hate to say it, but starting at something like $1300, this is pretty cool. I'm sure there are kinks to work-out and problems to come, but I like the way this is going.

I bet Apple is just around the corner with something similar... and 10x as pretty :)

snowshow '04

I'm looking around for photos / examples of text carved into paving for a project we're working on and some reference imagery, and I keep thinking back to the project from the 2004 snowshow exhibit in kemi, finland- "pure mix" by john roloff + diller & scofidio.

these were squares carved out of the gulf of bothnia (an inlet of the baltic sea) and filled with a strip of LED lights + a brand of purified water. then the respective logos were carved into each square + lit from beneath- it was awesome. you can tell from the earlier progress photo that all of the lights were the same hue when they were originally placed, but as they reacted to the extreme cold they kind of "aged" differently- it was just another part of the installation... made it even more impressive.

that's one of those things I will never forget- sitting ON the baltic sea with other volunteers from all around the world, looking at those lit from within, watching the sunset and pretty-much forgetting about the sub-zero temperatures of a winter ON the arctic circle.

photo credits: the snow show