Procrastinating with Poladroid!

I may not be on the twitter bandwagon but I can't pretend not to love this! I've heard the buzz for awhile now and resisted it for a time... secretly knowing that it would just be a matter of time before I crossed over.

My Polaroid is in Mississippi at J's parent's house (I think?) left from the wedding... What's your excuse?




*the best part? All of my poorly lit, out of focus photos are suddenly fabulous instead of crap!

6 months ago, today.

It's taken me this long but I think I'm finally getting to the point where going through wedding photos doesn't make me start hyperventilating. (not because of the hitched thing... but because it was a very stressful time. so maybe I'll post some more in the future?)

Thank you, Justin for being a better husband than I could have imagined!


*all photos by my very talented friend, Hillary, except the last one...taken at dinner tonight.

last call 2008!

on a whim I've decided to write a very quick reflection of the past year of my life. here 'goes.

In the past year ...
- I got engaged (which was the biggest surprise I've ever had in my life! and has brought me the most joy!)
- my paternal Grandmother passed away.
- my maternal Grandfather passed away.
- I worked side by side with Amanda on a pretty intense literary/art journal...about 80 pages if my memory is correct. for free. Certainly my biggest publication to date that I was so very involved in.
- my Mother remarried.
- I smoked a pipe.
- I planned a wedding 3 states away.
- my baby sister went to Iraq (is still there, but not for long).
- I witnessed one of my oldest & best friends grow a beautiful baby in her tummy...which is, indeed a crazy & miraculous thing to witness!
- I made 200 (or so) of my own wedding invitations almost entirely by hand.
- We purged ourselves of our possessions, probably by 60%, via yard sales, craig's list & goodwill.
- I packed J's house, and put him on a plane to NYC for 5 weeks of training (for Teach for America) the 5 weeks before the wedding!
- I spent July 4th alone in a sweltering apartment (the neighbor across the street even brought me a beer, I think she felt sorry for me!)
- packed all of our possessions into a giant locker, and put it on a truck bound for NYC!
- sold my Isuzu Rodeo.
- packed J's Volvo with the rest of my life and headed to Mississippi for the wedding. J got there at about 2 am the morning before the wedding day.
- married my best friend, in the rain, under beautiful pine trees in front of (most) of our dearest friends & family!
- watched all of our friends go through huge life changes of every kind.
- got on an airplane to New York City the next morning, spent the following week living with people I had never met (they are now good friends)...while J had one more week to finish his job training, living in a dorm.
- started a blog.
- I saw my designs completely cover a bus.
- moved into a 4th floor walk up...in August (which almost landed us in the hospital from exhaustion!).
- spent 2.5 months unemployed living in Brooklyn.
- was in the wedding of a dear friend.
- spent 2.5 months working at a bakery.
- I pretended that I had a mustache.
- I celebrated the election or our nation's first African American President.
- I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, twice.
- I saw a fashion show where everything was made of chocolate.
- spent Christmas in Boston.
- I ate sledgie. (which I do not know how to spell, but I do not recommend.)
- I started my own business!

This year has certainly had some rough spots for us & it's been a whirlwind for sure. But I can't think of a time that we've felt more supported & blessed in every area of our lives.

2008 will go down in the books for us but to 2009 we say, "bring it on!"

Missed friends & a poem.

A dearest friend may have written a poem – not about, but with some references to us. (click here to be lead to the poem)

I've been reading her poems for years & find them quite lovely...sometimes all-to-real pieces of memory.

enjoy.

*photo taken in Hattiesburg, MS, on the eve of our wedding. The author of the poem & her betrothed are pictured on the far right (literally a few minutes after their first meeting in a year!) Other dearly missed friends, Mark & Kirk, much love to you all!

Head First...

Okay, Jonathan told me to do this months ago & I've been toying with the idea since then. In the past week or so I have had a growing sense of conviction...I feel like I have a responsibility to share.

As many of you know, we got married, had the big move from Texas to Brooklyn (the next day)...then I was jobless...and searching...and searching. Then the economy buried itself in a hole. Then I got a job (yay!).

Many people I know are recent graduates & are either yet to land that first "real" job or are in a transition phase – some by choice taking a leap of faith, other's because of company downsizing. Still others have made (or are about to make) a cross-country move to be with their partners, and a few are looking for a supplementary income of some kind. As I write this I can only think of 2 or 3 of my friends that are sitting nicely at their jobs with out fear and with out searching for something else. I know that this has a lot to do with the demographic I'm looking at but these people are living in all areas of the country with completely different professional backgrounds (ie: not all designers or creatives).

What I'm trying to say is – I'm going to do a series of posts sharing my knowledge about the job hunt, how to market yourself & what I've learned along the way. I may even invite a few friends to share their stories of how they got where they are. I'm far from being an expert but I think I've found a few things along the way that some other people could benefit from.

While most of my knowledge is in the design/creative realm, I have some information that will cross platforms. If any of you have something specific that you would like to see, if you have a piece of advice that you would like to share...a story or resources please feel free to e-mail me, I would love to hear about it & share in turn.

2 months ago...

This morning I woke up to a beautifully damp-drizzly day. Much like the one we had 2 months ago today...happy 2 month anniversary sweet boy!

photos by Hillary.

HA-ha-larious!

One of my best friends just sent this over...

In case you missed it. Here is the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational, which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are my favs:

Cashtration: n. The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

Beelzebug: (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out. [ahh! I've had problems with these lately!]

coffee: n. the person upon whom one coughs.

esplanade: v. to attempt an explanation while drunk.

oyster: n. a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

Frisbeetarianism: n. the belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

*thanks Abbey, banana bread coming soon! i promise!
**photo from our wedding, by Hillary Anne Photography

Bklyn Bride // Bklyn Pillow

After doing our wedding and spending countless hours researching I found most of my inspiration in the blogosphere. I know some of my dearest friends are currently planning a wedding (some more publicly than others, wink, wink!) So I've mentioned and showcased a few of my wedding vendor friends and inspirations. I would like to also direct your attention to these fabulous handmade ring pillows by wedding blogger, Vane. Her blog is chock full of inspirations and great vendors if you're in NYC.

my favorite is pictured above, can you tell I'm getting psyched for fall!?

photo from Bklyn Pillow.

Thoughts on Sunday...

So, I've been at this blog for about a month now. It was slow going at first but I had only been married a few days & was living in a city I had never been to that I now call home. I'm getting used to the city...well, not so much the city as my neighborhood. (Brooklyn is big you see and New York City is bigger. I'm really loving it, by the way.)

I have made it a goal to post once a day (except weekends) for the past week or so, I've succeeded...somedays I even posted twice. I feel that things have been sort of random and sparatic so I'm going to try to write out some goals and a more focused posting schedule, saavy? (I do better with goals when I share them with people, it helps hold me accountable...aren't you lucky!) If you have any thoughts/suggestions/words of wisdom/requests please let me know via comment or email: kd.mcnamara85@gmail.com let me know what you want to see more of and what you're not really into.

thank you for sticking with me this far my lovilies, I hope to be making more improvments soon. thank you in advance for your feedback!

ps. sorry about the photo, we aren't exactly the cutest couple in the world! this was taken July 7th, 2007, just after our dear friends Whitney and Mark got hitched! (we miss and love you guys! xo)

Our invites

I thought it would be appropriate to post images of the invites I labored over since I posted the guest book yesterday...and they just match so nicely.


In case any of you are wondering...the fabric is screen printed by hand with a pattern I based off of the etched glass on the lanterns that the bridesmaids carried. (These lanterns also doubled as center pieces on the the wrought iron tables out on the lawn.) I had a rubber stamp made with our initials and the pine tree that I drew. I used block printing inks rather than a regular ink pad with the stamp 1. because it gave me more control over the color & 2. to give it a little more texture and definition than you would get from a stamp pad. Then, I sewed them to the cards that I had printed digitally at my local printer. The cards are actually a natural color, not bright white, it's a little difficult to tell in the photos. The fantastic yellow envelopes matched the screen printed fabric perfectly, are A-4 size, 30% recycled paper, and I found a great deal on them here.

Even though these little guys were quite labor intensive...I have to admit, being your own client on something like this is a graphic designer's dream!

designer profile: paper-lust

I would like to introduce a friend of mine. Amanda is a fellow Texas Tech University School of Art grad, and the creative genius behind paper-lust designs. We worked together on a project this past spring, a book of visual art, poetry & prose by TTU students – it was quite the undertaking but it was great to work side-by-side with such a talented designer.

She is now running a thriving etsy shop where she specializes in personalized guest books. As a wedding gift, Amanda used some paper and fabric that I screen printed to put together a beautiful book for our wedding. Check out Amanda's other work on her blog or in her etsy shop.

photos by Amanda Sneed

pretties!

I'm SO excited! Hillary (our fantastic wedding photographer & a great friend of mine) just posted some of our wedding pics on her blog.

thanks Hillary, you're amazing!

for friends & family who may want to order prints, go to Hillary's "client access" section, the password is my phone number.

photo by Hillary Wysong, of Hillary Anne Photography.

if you are really into Polaroids, I suggest checking out Jen Gotch, if you haven't already. Her work is so quiet & beautiful.