Secrets Burst

A friend of mine is in a writing group called "Secrets Burst," last year she asked me to do a logo and poster for Secrets Burst's reading event at a local cafe. I had a ton of fun playing with type and making these funky letters for their wordmark. They are getting ready for their second annual reading and asked me to recreate the poster for their event.

If you are in the Lubbock, Texas area I highly recommend attending the reading. Secrets Burst is over flowing with deidication and talent & it's free to all, email me for location details.

*Thanks again to Katie & Secrets Burst, I wish I could be there!

(useful?) chaos.

This is what the inside of my brain looks like...pretty much all of the time but especially today!

*photo by yyellowbird.

Play, we did!

We rode our bikes to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden on Saturday to meet our friends. Then spent the whole afternoon in the park having a picnic, playing football, frisbee & getting perfectly sunburned. 90 degree weather saved my life!

The cherry blossoms are almost too pretty, & that's J taking photos with his I'm-more-hip-than-you manual camera with his fancy new strap!

Cheers!

These two darlings got married yesterday. I've been misty-eyed all weekend because I'm sentimental & because I've known Annie since elementary school! Two people could not be more perfect for each other. I can't wait to see what the future holds for you two—J & I wish you all the blessing in the world! xo

*photos of the happy couple taken by me, August 2005 in St. Charles, IL.

I heart bklyn

I'm going to spend the weekend outside—taking photos of spring in Brooklyn, riding my bike & going to the park! And maybe we'll make some Micheladas too!

my new TOMS

At long last, I am so thrilled about my new TOMS. & they're even more comfortable than I could have imagined! Spring, here I come!

*TOMS is doing an incredible thing for the world. Click here to read more about the TOMS Movement.

yudu // I did it!

I've been longing for a gocco printer for years. There has always been a good reason to buy one but never a good time (financially) . I have an addiction to printmaking; anything I can do to emboss, stamp, rub, press, transfer an image or type onto a surface makes me, in a sense, high. I'm constantly on the look out for anything that can help me do this. You know those rubber date stamps the librarians used in elementary school... I bought one of those on Monday. I couldn't help myself.

Ever since Amanda mentioned yudu I have been intrigued—could this be the answer to screen printing in my tiny studio apartment? Last night I finally took the plunge (we got our tax return in this weekend!). So, if I'm working on your wedding invites or if you've been thinking about talking to me about baby or graduation announcements, I will soon be able to screen print at will!

*thanks, Caroline for the yudu advise!

not quite "vacation"

The trip home was full of reunions – most people we haven't seen since the wedding since we had not been back since the big move.

However, the main reason for the trip was less light hearted. We went to see my Dad – he has cancer, again. This is the third time since I was 5 years old, and it's been on a steady 10-year cycle ever since. This time though it came with a "benign" brain tumor (tell me what kind of brain tumor is benign!) and the cancer itself was peppered though his chest, lungs & neck. Previously it was concentrated in his stomach.

We received some really great news about a week ago, the chemo has been working and the cancer has receded by at least 50% which means remission! (Such a powerful word with such a long road ahead.) Later in the week there was more news... his brain tumor (which caused a decent seizure in February before they got him on proper meds) is gone. This is a miracle in itself as they weren't sure that the chemo would even affect the tumor because it wasn't cancer.

In the coming weeks/months they will be attempting a stem cell transplant to replace his bone marrow and doing a strong dose of chemo as well.

For those that knew about all of this, thank you for keeping my Dad in your thoughts & prayers – your support has been felt in more ways than you know!

*photo from one of the doc visits last week.

I've been out.

But I'm back now! We returned to the mother-land (well, my mother-land, not J's) for a week to see family & friends.

*photos taken way out on approximately 104th & Chicago -ish... it was raining a bit.

pretending it's warm and springy outside...

It's a good thing pansies can with stand the cold 'round here... pretty sure it snowed yesterday.

*photo taken last week at my local garden center when it was warm and I was doing research for an article about gardening.

EcoFont

In an attempt to quickly & light-heartedly redeem my blog from my (depressing) last post. I bring you, EcoFont! (Yes, it is beautifully similar to the holey font on the poster from the last post!)

Why is it Eco? It has holes in it so you use 20% less ink & it's still legible! Great concept, not to mention it looks kinda neat!
Get it for free here.

*via reactions.

I don't know how to title this post.

This is the mantra of one of my best friends. I have known her for over half of my life & she never shies away from it.

**WARNING: this post is very dismal, you have been warned.

But sometimes things happen in the world (way too close to home) that are full of hate & when the most positive thing you can think is: maybe someday that 14 year old girl will be empowered & she'll change the world because she saw hate when he shot her mother in front of their home. Things don't really feel that hopeful. Then again, this is why J is teaching. We found out almost a year ago that we would be coming to NYC so J could teach inner city. Seeing what the kids go through at their age is rough. But knowing that they have teachers that are paying very close attention to all of them is beautiful. (I know that this isn't the case everywhere, but J works with some very attentive & giving young teachers.)

J's taking his kids to the Metopolitan Museum of Art today, hopefully today will be better than the last two!

*poster by the love shop

Closet Escapism!?

I spent part of the morning defending myself:

"I am not an escapist! I'm just not. There are too many things that I have to deal with on a daily basis! I don't even own a T.V.! How could I be an escapist?!"

The accusation was made because I'm a Pisces, and since I don't put much salt into astrological signs – I don't know what the "Pisces traits" are... one of them, obviously, is escapism.

Then I was flipping though one of my inspiration folders and found these shots & I immediately wanted to be in the shot, relaxing, alone with a good book or good friends, far, far away (there was also this post on Friday) ... Maybe I am, in some corner of my mind, a "closet escapist" – but isn't that an oxymoron!?

*photo inspiration from Marie Claire Maison, Architectural Digest & some unknown sources. (if you know where they are from please let me know!)

Scanwich!

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a beautiful weekend.

We went and played at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night – it was awesome! And instead of doing work yesterday (like good kids) we maybe had an afternoon beer, ate tofu dogs & ice cream instead! Yay for warm(ish) weather!

*scans via Scanwich. So rad. Make this veggie-girl hungry every time!

x.haust'd

This is where I want to be for the next 5 days or so...

I'm exhausted from the week. Photo shoots + magazine releases + wedding invites seem to have taken over my life. (Thank you God for my job, my love of design & my amazing husband who both keeps me going & makes me go to sleep! )

*photo by Nicolas Mathéus via desire to inspire.

a New York Moment

After the Jason Anderson show we were going to take a taxi home. But we didn't have any cash so we hopped back on the L train. That's when we saw this, and had an incredible I live in New York City! moment.

*so the video is pretty shoddy but bare with me! & half way through, I noticed that there was someone in the other car actually filming them so I tried to move a bit and not be so obvious! oops!

Jason Anderson // Pete's Candy Store

I have been a fan Jason Anderson's music for years. He played a show on Monday night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at Pete's Candy Store. We went, even on a Monday night (J is a teacher so we don't usually venture too far from home during the week) & we are so glad we did!

The fun, pure enjoyment & inspiration that his shows bring is both contagious & heartfelt. I'm still riding the wave of positive energy that Jason provided!

*I wanted to (& tried, fruitlessly) to load a video that I made of the show. I haven't quite figured out iMovie yet to edit the longer stuff. But you can check out some equally as uplifting videos of Jason's shows here on YouTube.