Silly Photoshop-age

Let me preface this post by declaring how difficult it is to get anything done on the computer with a cat on your lap. I apologize in advance for any spelling errors. Luckily, Huey did not join me until the end of my work on this wonderful Friday night.

I found this great jpg on ffffound a long while ago, that showed all the United States Presidents, but only the outline of their haircut. This was quite hilarious, especially some of the earliest presidents. I had an idea long. long ago to photoshop my roommates faces into those haircuts in an attempt to put some more art on our walls. Well, I finally did just that tonight. While the roommates have not yet seen these (neither have the few extra friends I added), but I intend on printing and framing them for our house. Yes, they are silly, but also so fun.

Have a great weekend, and happy 11.11.11 !!

Building a Design Portfolio

Ahh, it's nice to get back to digital design work. In attempts to build a design portfolio, I've jumped on a new idea, to rebrand the Twin Cities. I live to believe that everyone deserves good design, whether they can afford it or not. This idea was sparked by Nicole Meyer, who's doing a "Branding 10,000 Lakes" project, where each day she designs one logo per Minnesota lake. Neat, right?

I'm doing something similar, but for the small businesses in the Cities. My first is the City Coin laundromats scattered around Minneapolis. I wish I understood why I am so drawn to it (I shot the lackluster building for a photography class), but there's just something about them! So they are my guinea pig of this idea. I don't think I'll be able to do one each day, but one a week would be ideal. It builds on my knowledge of the Adobe Suites, and is a fun challenge.

We'll see where this project takes me (my ambitions are out of control). If you have a love for a local place that could use a little design work, I could use suggestions!

Polaroids

So last year for Christmas, I asked for an instant camera. They still make them today, some that produce photos as small as a credit card. But ask my dad, who collects old cameras, well he had a few old Polaroid cameras of his own in his collection. He gave me this gem, a Super Shooter Plus.

Luckily, Fuji Film still makes film for this beast. I wanted to use up my B&W film to make way for more color film for fall. I decided to use the film to take pictures on my 5.5 mile bike ride to campus. Thank goodness for the beautiful October weather we had!

T-Shirt Contest

This year for the first time Freedom By Design, the student organization I'm a part of, is having t-shirts. This is very exciting, since we've never had them before. The submissions are being taken until November 3, but I want no other competition, since the two winning designs get them for free! Here is my submission. The color is still up in the air, any other suggestions?

Beginning Knitting

Several Christmases ago I asked for knitting stuff. Probably because I love learning and making new things and knitting sounded like fun. Well, I never learned. Never taught myself. Got lazy. Pick an excuse. Either way, I have all these yarns sitting around and haven't done anything with them! Then I found out about this killer place called Sewtropolis, that offers classes on sewing, knitting, crafting, and crocheting. This is my kinda place. I signed up for a Beginning Knitting class (sacrificing a Friday night), and BAM. Learned to knit.

Our project covered the very basics, but now I have the motivation to continue with it. We worked with an awesome super bulky yarn, and made a Cowl/Neckwarmer.

My yarn ran out before the cowl got long enough, but no worries, I've already hit up Joann's for more yarn. I found some awesome purpley-gray yarn from Martha Stewart's collection, and I am so so excited to make a scarf and hat for this winter season. I hope this class will push me to learn new techniques so I can start getting more "wild" with knitting. Woo!

Hopefully I can start pumping these out fast enough to get some Christmas presents under my belt! We will see..

Watercolor for Henry

This last Thursday I also got some watercolor in. I recently bought a watercolor techniques book in hopes that it will encourage me to paint more often and more professionally, so to speak. I really just love the way it looks and love feeling accomplished.

Today I broke out my watercolors for my nephew Henry. He was born just over a month ago on September 12, 2011 and it is my first time being an auntie! I am so very proud, he's a great addition to our family.

My sister has unfortunately moved back up to Morris, which is quite a hike from the cities, but I wanted to paint something cute for his bedroom. I was perusing through all sorts of animal pictures, and have been stuck on giraffes. I found a really cute photo of a mom and baby giraffe nuzzling, and started that one. I then did a more cartoon-y watercolor that is whimsical and cute. I'm not sure which one I'll give her, maybe both. I have to finish the realistic one first. Either way, I very much enjoyed painting! I need to push myself to do this more often. It's such a fun and relaxing thing to do.

One of Many Upcoming Postings

So I realize the last time I posted was back in June, but this isn't to say that I haven't been doing design work. It just means I've gotten lazy with posting. While you should fully expect one large "things I did this summer" post, I'm going to post about the projects I completed just this last week (there were several).

Thursdays are my day off. I have two part-time jobs, one M-W and the other F-Sun. Thursdays are for me. Thursdays are for design. This Thursday, I was finally fed up with not having anywhere to put my earrings. I generally toss them in one of my candles so that my naughty cat won't bat them around and lose them. What I really needed was an earring holder, to keep them all in one place.

I located a picture frame in my house, and using some lace and hot glue gun, voila! Beautiful, functional, awesome earring holder.

It's not perfect, but it does exactly what I need it to do. I'm very pleased with my crafty-ness today. Stay tuned for more projects!