seven things

I've been tagged!

Garret has tagged me on the Orange Element blog. What that means is that I am to share 7 things about myself that I think you should know and then choose 7 people to do the same!

So here goes...

1.) I have a blog. Most people don’t know this about me, that’s why Garret linked to my design site. I have never advertised the fact that I have a blog because I have never been great about posting consistently. I figured I would share this information with everyone though, in hopes that I will be better about updating it!

2.) Everyone in my family was born in a different country. My dad was born in Scotland, my mom was born in Kenya, my brother was born in Ireland, and I was born in England. We moved to America about 19 years ago when I was 2 and half and have lived in Baltimore since! All my relatives live overseas, so when it comes to the holidays in the states things are pretty low key (which can be kind of nice, but I do miss not being able to see them).

3.) I am a designer, but would love to be a teacher as well. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about being a designer (it's part of who I am), but part of me feels like I need to be a teacher at some point in my life. I really enjoy helping people and love working with kids. I've had some great teachers in my past and I would love to have the same positive impact on young minds as they had on me. I am lucky to have had some experience substituting at my old elementary school, mainly working in the classroom (with the teacher) helping kids with special needs. Somehow I will find a way to do both design and teaching!

4.) When I was in elementary school, my mom MADE me join the Girl Scouts. I was such a tomboy and only had friends that were boys, so she made me join in hopes I would make some girlfriends. Let's just say, I was not a happy camper.

5.) I have a fear of deer, the Baltimore aquarium, and spiders.

6.) My favorite foods are fish & chips, cheesesteaks, ribs, and crabs! The best fish & chips obviously come from Britain, you have to order a fish supper and get it with salt, vinegar and brown sauce. The best cheesesteaks around town (in my opinion) come from Strapasta in Jacksonville. The best ribs are from The Cornerstable in Timonium. And last, but not least, the best crabs come from Baltimore, Maryland!

7.) I have some plans in the works for a Eurotrip Summer 2009, which I'm praying will work out! I would seriously drop everything to go and I know if I don't do it soon (like this summer) I might never get to go. Life is so unpredictable though, it's hard for me to commit! I have faith things will work out, and if for some reason it's not this summer, I WILL find another time to go!


The seven people I would like to hear about are:
Aaron Moore
Caroline Moore
Andy Bonner
Scott Zero
Sam Rider
Joe Wagner
Jessie Harte

things that make me happy

My two new purchases this week :)

The first one is a "Life is Beautiful" print by Nate Williams purchased from Urban Outfitters.

The second one is from Good Shape Design for only $35!

beautiful type

Beautiful type done by Yulia Brodskaya, designer and illustrator from Russia. (Click the image to make it larger)

I can't believe it was all done with paper! I don't think I would have the patience...

Found on swissmiss.

FALL! FALL! FALL!

Boots and scarves and cute jackets!

I already painted my nails brown :)

"track it anywhere"

Ogilvy & Mather, Beijing, did this guerilla advertisement for DHL. The vans were meant to get the word out about DHL's Online Tracking. I like that they actually constructed an arrow and attached it to the van, opposed to just creating a sticker. The 3D-ness definitely gives it a better, more realistic effect. Watch a video of the van in action here.

Found the article at Ads of the World.

flea market find

I found these vintage (from 1988) I Ski glasses at the Lutherville Flea Market on Sunday for $1! I'm obsessed.

package design

 Turner Duckworth probably does some of my favorite package design. I love this design they did for Waitrose honey, it is conceptual, clean, and simple- just the way I like it :)

Another favorite of mine is the frying pans they did for Homebase cookware. Such a simple and clever idea for their non-stick pans.

philly adventures

I had a wonderful time exploring philly this weekend! 

adventures included: sitting outside as much as possible, Buddakan, hoegaarden, people watching, spruce street, the papery, spanish festival, apples & amish cheddar

design museum shop

Fun things at the Design Museum Shop in London.

(Items featured above: matchstick garden, jumper key ring, 100 years of fashion illustration, instant labeling tape, toilets of the world, and egg pants)

ikea trip

Today I went to ikea with my parents to get some finishing touches for my newly redecorated room. (pics coming soon)

on the list:
bedside table
shelves
large picture frame
hooks
a not so noisy computer chair

I would say, all in all, it was a very successful trip, the only thing on the list we didn't get was a new chair.

That place seriously makes me want to take up interior decorating as a career- or maybe I would be happy just to buy a boatload of houses and decorate them all completely with ikea furniture and their fabulous knicknacks with some sort of infinite money supply. Besides the fact that I wanted to buy everything in the store, there were these little vases that I thought were just wonderful. I love the different textures they come in, especially when they are all together! (Only $1.99 each)

favorite fortune

Yesterday, I had a fortune cookie that read "You will step on the soil of many countries."

By far my favorite fortune I've ever gotten, especially the timing- considering all I have been talking about for the last week is how I NEED to leave the country as soon as possible!

Anyone have a favorite fortune of their own?

Stockholm Metro Art

Today, I caught a snippet of the tv show Samantha Brown Passport to Europe and she was in Stockholm, Sweden. She was using their metro, called the T-bana, and they were showing off all the lovely art in the stations. Stockholm's metro stations are beautifully decorated/painted and also apparently very clean and efficient! I might have to add Stockholm as a stop for eurotrip summer 2009.

I looked on the internet to see if I could find more images of the stations and came across this cool article Metro Arts and Architecture. The site has the 50 most beautiful subway systems in the world, with a 3 star ranking system (3 stars meaning "worth a journey", 2 stars means "worth a detour", and 1 star is for "interesting"). The article rates Stockholm with 3 stars and says that artwork can be found at 90 of the 100 stations, with 140 artists contributing so far.

Here are some stations from the list that I thought looked worth checking out...

Shanghai


Moscow


Munich

new purchase: greenroom eco

I just bought this set of journals at Target today. They are made by a company called greenroom eco, who create environmentally friendly paper products made from recycled paper and non-toxic soy ink. They are well designed and affordable, which makes me a fan!

Then again... not much of a surprise because I love pretty much anything from Target.

a fresh start

...I hope!

I am hoping that this new "toy" will help me get back into blogging more often. I just got this camera today as a graduation present!! And I am oh, so very excited about it!! I never had a small digital camera in college because I was always scared that I would lose/break it if I took it out to parties with me (and of course financial reasons always came into play). I'm looking forward to being able to carry it around with me and capture moments (esp bloggable moments)!

(Thanks Mom and Dad)

The fresh start also comes with the new and improved white blog background. Very fresh.

ohhh typography

Found this on sfgirlbybay and it made me laugh.

sewing project: #1

Today, with a lot of help from my fabulous mother, I finished my first sewing project! The fabrics that I used are a black and white floral pattern with a solid beige and solid black cheesecloth type fabric. All purchased from the lovely JoAnn Fabrics. I proposed to my mom that we go into business together and start our own little shop on Etsy :)

my new hairdo

Just Kidding.

But I wanted to see what I might look like with bangs, so I did a little photoshopping with Reese Witherspoon's pic on the red carpet.

Bembo's Zoo

Bembo's Zoo is such a fun website. You click on the letter of the alphabet and it will transform the letters into an animal beginning with that letter and each one has sound to it. Bill, my teacher, showed us this website in class the other day.

attention to detail

I feel as though I might have failed a little bit as a designer the other day, when I realized that for however many years I never noticed what is screamingly obvious about the FedEx logo. I like to think that I pay close attention to detail, but this makes me wonder what else I'm not seeing! It's one of those things though, that after you see it once you can never look at it the same again. How did I not see it!? I almost didn't want to admit that I didn't see the arrow, but I'm assuming (or hoping) that there will be someone else out there that sees this post and realizes it for the first time :)

Thanks to johnson banks thought for the week for bringing this to my attention.

fontifier

Fontifier is a website that let's you create a font out of your own handwriting for only $9. You print out the template, write in all the letters, scan it back onto your computer, and upload it onto their site. They even let you preview it before you buy! I like the idea of Fontifer, although I think I still want to invest in a tablet in the near future.

I found Fontifier on How About Orange

woolrich weekend

I went to Woolrich, PA this weekend, which is where my dad works and lives during the week. My dad is a textile designer at Woolrich. We got a chance to take a tour of Woolrich (the woolen mill) and see the whole process of turning wool into yarn and then weaving it into fabric. It was A LOT to take it, but it was all very interesting.

new purchase: sewing book

I am really excited about my new purchase, Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects. I can't wait for it to arrive! I really want to dive into a handmade/sewing project to start off the semester. I am going to need to find a good place to go and get some fabric. On another note, my wish list on amazon has been growing very rapidly lately... it's about time I start building up my library! (funds permitting, of course).

Wish List + Olive Jade Flower Necklace

I found this necklace posted on Print & Pattern and had to check out Pebble Jewellery on Etsy. AND! they are from England, which makes it that much cooler- it totally reminds me of something you would find at portobello market.

vday inspired

Daily Candy Illustrations

I am loving these illustrations on Daily Candy.

Tortoise Shell Flatware

I'm obsessed with tortoise shell. I found these on a blog that I just recently discovered call Dose of Design and the flatware is from Carloyne Roehm.

First day of internship = snow day

Why I missed my first day of my internship...

Boulder, Colorado

I just took a trip to Boulder, Colorado with Susan and Colleen to visit our friend Jen who goes to school at CU. We went saki bombing, explored the mountains, saw Boulder falls (which was frozen), saw CU campus, had kitchen dance parties, went on a brewery tour and tasted lots of really good Boulder beer. Basically to sum up the trip, I am in love with my friends and I am in love with Boulder. It was one of the best weeks of my life, it had been about two years since we had all been reunited.

While I was there I also got to visit another love of my life, tda advertising & design. Tda was my first choice for an internship this winter, but unfortunately it wasn't able to work out because they already have 4 long term interns (there's only about a dozen people that work there anyways). It was one big (but not huge) open room where everyone had their desks, with a dog running around and a massage chair from one of their clients. I met with the senior designer Matt Ebbing and the junior designer Sylvia Suh. Sylvia had actually just graduated from MICA last year and started working for tda this past summer. It was nice to talk to her considering she had just recently come from my position (being a senior at college about to graduate and enter the "real world"). She also said she would help me out with some Baltimore connections, considering all the teachers at Delaware aren't big on the Baltimore scene I could use a little help if thats where I might want to end up. I got a glimpse of what it might be like to work in a small agency, which I think I liked. While Matt and Sylvia had a conference call, I got to bother some of the "interns." They had all graduated in the past year or two from CU. They were really nice and easy to talk to. I checked out a couple of books they had lying around and hung out some more. I was surprised that for how small of a company they are (doing both advertising and design) that it was relatively split up and separate from each other. After a lot of their one on one attention, it was time for them to actually do some work so I said my goodbyes and thank yous and left! I totally could have seen myself interning there for a month or anywhere in Boulder because I liked it so much! Maybe after graduation!??