Object Typography

Holy shit I've never been so busy! I am halfway through my first semester/quarter of FIU and Miami Ad School. At any given moment, I am in the middle of 3-4 (mainly group) projects. But I am LOVING it. Besides the sleep deprivation, it's super fun and creative and great. The classes I am taking right now are Creative Strategy and Research Methods (at FIU) and Thinking Strategically and Type Journey (at Miami Ad School). I'll be sharing a lot of the work I do at school here!

This is a project I did in my Type Journey class. We were supposed to create 6 frames featuring words out of objects. I decided to take items that were collected in the '90s and use them to form '90s slang words. 

 

Beauty is Embarassing

Beauty is Embarrassing was ALLLL kinds of amazing. If you have Netflix, you should probably stop reading right now and go watch it. Wayne White's career is so vast and enviable. He's made puppets, paintings, sets, sculptures. I wasn't familiar (or so I thought) with Wayne White's work before watching, until I found out that Wayne was one of the founding creative guys of PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE, of which I own every season on DVD. The movie poster shows a puppet head of Lyndon B. Johnson he made for fun with his son. Wayne, please teach me your ways

Interweb Link Love

 My exact plans for this weekend.

Really refreshing article about what a father wants for his daughter.

Cartoons voiced by celebrities.

Super interesting insight into chemo as a cancer drug.

This is a swamp booger. Please also look at this.

Colbert's best segment ever.

Glad to see I wasn't the only one annoyed by this.

A weight loss consultant's apology. (Best thing I've read in a while.)

Some weird ass Coca-Cola advertising.

Awesome body image and feminism blog.

Hilda is my new favorite pin-up girl!

What I want to eat versus what I eat

 

Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who eats to live. Who sees food as fuel for the body. But no. I live to eat. I love the taste of food. Good food is one of life's pleasures that I embrace with gusto. And let's be honest, the tastiest food is usually the worst food for you. Pizza, fries, Taco Bell. Not the best. (Is Taco Bell legally allowed to be called "food" anymore? It's mainly chemicals). I know what you may be thinking, all of those things can be good for you! In moderation. Let me stop you right there. I will never be able to eat just one slice of pizza, as is recommended. IT'S NOT ENOUGH PIZZA.

I have done the healthy eating route, the "lifestyle" change. I lost weight and felt great! But that lifestyle is hard as hell to maintain. Eating is such a social experience. For date night, we go out to a restaurant. Meeting up with friends, we grab a bite to eat. Going to the movies, we have to bring our apple slices, or worse, raw carrots so we're not tempted by the large tub of popcorn that our boyfriend has to get EVERY. TIME. I felt like I was missing out on life with the constantly healthy lifestyle. So I slowly reverted to eating whatever I wanted, and gained the weight back. It sucks, but I prefer fully partaking in life. And for me, eating is a big part of life!

My problem is finding the balancing between enjoyment and overindulgence. Full disclosure, last weekend I ate a fried item every day (fried pickles, onion rings, fries) and for dinner one night I had a soft pretzel (with mustard SO GOOD) and cookies n' cream Dippin Dots. Seriously. That is not a meal, people! And, surprise surprise, I felt awful afterwards. Eat crap and feel like crap. The two seconds that we're eating it, it's awesome. But after that, it's over. And we're left with how our bodies feel. When I eat clean, I feel light and energized. Eating processed, greasy food I feel heavy and bloated.

So now, I'm trying to find balance. I want to enjoy everything that life has to offer because it's short and I'd rather be a little chubby than sit in the corner crying and eating celery (aka the worst food ever). My goals are to make more healthy choices when I can, so I can enjoy the unhealthy choices, too.

Books on books on books

I love reading. I also love buying books. I used to love libraries, but that has changed since moving to Miami. The libraries here never have new release, or even semi new release books available. How long ago did Eat, Pray, Love come out? And there is still a wait list for it. I'm not about to wait a month to read a book!

But you know what's better than a free, borrowed book? A 50 cent book you can keep! The four books above were all collectively about $2, purchased at thrift stores. I highly recommend scouring your local thrift stores for books if you have the time. And you really have to have the time, because there is usually no order to a thrift store book rack.

I saw the film adaptation of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly years ago. It was incredible. I have since wanted to read the book but somehow never got my hands on it, until I saw it today at the Bargain Barn. Super excited to read it! I also stumbled upon The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, which seemed like a steal at 50 cents, so I snatched it up.

I found the two short story collections at the Wynwood Salvation Army. I got hooked on short stories in college, where I had to read them by the dozen. They are great for discovering authors you've never read before.

So now I have about 15+ books on my bookshelf waiting to be read. There are worse things.

Happy World Cat Day!

As you may or may not know, I am a cat mama. I have two cat sons, Alfie (4) and Percival (3). They shadow me all day when I'm home. In honor of World Cat Day, here are some pics of my sons!

One of Alfie's favorite spots is next to on top of my keyboard. I will slide him off of it at least 20 times a day, and he slowly creeps right back on top of it. He loves to enable "caret browsing" (no one uses this) by pressing the F7 key. Or to exit Firefox by pressing F5. We have fun.

 

Alfie needed to be near me while I was cooking, so he posted up on top of this old pizza box.

Percival's choice seat on my desk while I organized.

Interweb Link Love

The above picture was taken on a beach in Maui. Reminiscing about our awesome family trip there after I graduated from college in 2011. And now, please enjoy this collection of internet gems.

This guy knows how to move.

Hermit crabs with sweet digs.

BIG DOGS.

Going to Hawaii? This looks like SO much fun.

Jennifer Lawrence is awesome.

Good article on the (occasional) need for buffer phrases, like the dreaded "Just e-mailing to touch base."

Oatmeal fan? This one looks heavenly. And this one.

How Taco Bell Cinnamon Twists are made. MIND BLOWN.

Realllly need to see Before Midnight already. Have you seen it?

Sketchbook: Beauty Fades

  

 Recent sketchbook page 

The phrase "beauty fades" has been around probably forever. It is written in the Bible. Judge Judy wrote a book about it.

Yet, it's not true. 

Yes. We will get wrinkly. We will probably get fat(ter). But, that absolutely doesn't mean we aren't beautiful. Most people see beauty as it appears on the surface. Whatever their society's standard of beauty is. From birth, we are ingrained with what this typical beauty is supposed to be. I think it's bullshit. So few people fit into this standard, typical beauty. How, then, can it be true beauty?

Beauty doesn't fade unless you let it to. I think truly beautiful people are those that are happy. Those that refuse to enjoy life because they've gotten wrinkles or fatter or whatever the case may be, they aren't allowing themselves to be beautiful. Age is beautiful. With it comes wisdom of years, and a greater idea of what life is about. If you're unhappy about it, get Botox, get a facelift. Who the hell cares?! Just make yourself happy. If you still hate the way you look after doing the things you thought would help, you may need therapy. 

Some may argue that it's impossible to live our lives as beautiful because we don't fit into the societal standards of beauty. That because people wherever we live in the world don't see you as beautiful, it can't be true. To that I say, ignore society! JUST LIVE YOUR LIFE. Learn to love yourself for who you are. Guess what? I'm never going to be a weight deemed appropriate by society. I've tried, and my body didn't like it. So, I simply don't care anymore. I am striving to be healthier, body and mind, and that is really all that matters. 

What I Wore

I have always loved the What I Wore Today Flickr group started by the amazing Gemma Correll, but I have never participated! Here's my first go at it. It looks a lot better in the drawing than in reality. I had day (or 2) old hair, a no make-up face, and my shirt was wrinkly. But that's life.

Word Nerd

As a collector of words and lover of lettering, I will be bringing you some uncommon, antiquated, or just fun words.

Today's word is...

de·lec·ta·tion /ˌdēlekˈtāSHən/
 n. 1. Delight. 2. Enjoyment; pleasure.
From the verb delectate meaning to please; charm; delight.
In a sentence: She took much delectation in sampling every wine.

I always hear delectable, but never delectation. It's such a delectating word, too!

Pinky lady

Whenever I sit down to paint with watercolors lately, I just want to paint faces and get lost in small details. I really wish I had this lady's hair and necklace. They're all kinds of awesome.

I'm LOVING watercolor. I previously thought that I didn't really know how to paint with watercolors. My knowledge stopped at those Crayola watercolor sets, where if you mixed any of the colors together, you would just end up with brown. Watercolor easily gives depth, dimension, and interest to the painting. You also get a lot of bang for your buck with watercolor paints. I only have a few colors - black, white, red, yellow, blue, sienna, and emerald green. With those, I'm able to mix them together to get so many more colors.

Cheesy Gorditos

Before anything else, I must fully recognize that a "Cheesy Gordito Crunchwrap Supreme" does not currently exist at Taco Bell (but it does sound pretty good, albeit super extreme). Cheesy Gordita Crunch, yes. And Crunchwrap Supreme, yes. 

One of Kyle's many many nicknames for the cats is Cheesy Gordito Crunchwrap Supremes. Gordito in Spanish affectionately means "chubby." We have two fat cats, so gordito is pretty normal. Cheesy Gordito Crunchwrap Supreme takes it to another level.

At the Movies: Somm

Kyle and I recently went on a fun date to O Cinema for a wine tasting and viewing of a new wine documentary, Somm (2013). We love wine and movies, so when I saw this event pop up in my inbox, I knew we had to go.

Somm (2013) follows the crazy hard journey of four sommeliers as they study for the Master Sommelier Exam. If you're not familiar with the work of a sommelier, they are basically wine nerds. They study and aspire to know everything about wine, like the different grape varieties, wine regions, and wine pairings. At a fancy restaurant, a sommelier might come to our table to help us pick a wine that would go well with our meal. That was the extent of my knowledge before seeing Somm.

The Master Sommelier Exam shocked me! I had no idea this level of wine knowledge existed. There are four levels of Sommeliers - Introductory, Certified, Advanced, and Master. The nearly impossible Master Sommelier exam was created by the Court of Master Sommeliers in 1977 and since that time only 202 people IN THE WORLD have reached that level. The exam covers a blind tasting where the applicant has to name every conceivable aspect of a wine, theory of wine such as specific international wine laws, and wine service where the applicant has to service a mock restaurant table.

The guys followed in the film, Brian, Dustin, Ian, and DLynn "bro-out" over wine tastings. Staying up late studying together, getting drunk off tastings (when they aren't using the spitoon), and supporting each other every step of the way. Ian goes days without sleeping, studying thousands of index cards. They are remarkably dedicated to something most people passively enjoy.

I think I'll just stick to drinking it.

Accidental Photobomb

I have a feeling this meme will get old pretty quickly, but I just discovered it in all it's glory. This poor guy, now known as In The Way Guy, accidentally ruined enhanced this couple's proposal shot. The proposee (this isn't a word, but I think we can all agree that it should be), Redditor SpnkyHappy, posted this pic on Reddit and with some Photoshop magic, people have been taking it to the next level.

{Found via: My Modern Met}

The first

I've tried many attempts at blogging, journaling, and the like and it never sticks. Lack of things to say? Hell no! I have a lot to say. So why then? Because I've been too timid to just post whatever I wanted. What a silly thing! This is my blog, my words, my life.

I've been toying with a new life philosophy of just doing whatever the hell I want to do. I want to wear bright orange lipstick and a weird flowy shirt? I'm going to do it. I want to cross-stitch and watch 4 movies in a row? That's my plan then. Obviously, I still have to do life things that suck like laundry and cleaning, but those things make me happier after the fact, so there is a place for that too. This life philosophy is more about doing the things that make ME happy and not worrying about what any one else thinks about it. To embrace that I don't have to be normal, I just have to be me. Because who is normal anyway? What is normal? If there is a normal, it's probably super boring.

The painting I did above (her name is Sassy Lady) perfectly exemplifies this new philosophy. Many times while drawing or painting previously, I thought about what other people would think about it. Would they think its good? Bad? With Sassy Lady, I just did whatever I wanted to do. I told myself it didn't have to go anywhere, it didn't have to be pretty. It just had to be fun. And it was SO much fun! It's so liberating when we stop caring about what others may think. I think that when we stop caring what others think, confidence and happiness come flooding into our lives.