The heart on my sleeve.

I'm 28 years old and have two tattoos, both of which were impulsive moments (and adrenaline rushes) I stressed about and don't regret at all.

When I was 18, I'd just graduated from high school, was a week or two away from moving to another state where I knew just about nobody for college, and in some way knew things were about to change. I was heavily overweight, fairly aggressive, and needed a change of pace.  On my 18th birthday I went and got a TINY blue star tattooed on my left hip.  Would I choose it today?  Probably not.  Did I feel totally empowered, independent and in control when I got it?  Yes.  I forget it's there all the time, and very few people have ever seen it.  The blue is fading, it's fairly cliche, and now that color is one of my least favorites, but I still wouldn't change anything.

Last fall, about 10 years later, actually, I decided I wanted something on my wrist.  My mom has always drawn hearts in place of signing things like "Love, Mom" on cards, notes, etc.  They kind of look like a cross between a boomerang and a fortune cookie, but they're her signature and we all imitate it now.  I got out every card and note I'd ever saved from my mom (about 15 of them), picked my favorite version of her "heart," and took it to a tattoo shop.  Within about three hours I'd decided I wanted to do this, chosen the heart, and had it inked on my right wrist.  The things you do with an afternoon off of work... I love that you can't really tell what it is, that it looks like I took a sharpie and scribbled on myself, that it's black and goes with everything, that I can cover it with a sleeve or watch if I so-choose, etc.  Every time I look at it, I love it even more.

In my really preppy days in college I second-guessed getting the star, and in my totally professional days in Chicago I questioned whether the heart on my wrist would impose certain opinions and first impressions on me that I didn't want from others.

In the end, though, life is too short to worry about regretting something like that.  I'm a designer and I love all things creative, pretty, and self-expressive.  Both of these represent me, my style (at one point or another) and make me feel more whole / more like myself when I look at them.

SpeakEasy, Post 1

Be sure to pop over and check-out the post I wrote for my firm's blog for more sketching and more rambling about my life :)

happy feet?

Having finally started to feel settled-in, on one level or another, to an entirely different routine, I feel like the creative juices might have started moving again, too.

I've been working on graphics, games, and cupcake flags for my twin sister's baby shower, some fun graphics for a bachelorette party, a couple blog posts for work, trying to get used to drawing with a stylus on the iPad (at the rate these kids release new technology, it's a sink or swim kind of world!), and some actual billable work.

Last night, once the dust settled and snuggled-up in my bed, I took some time to sketch penguin babies - what every 28 year old graphic designer thinks of when she lets her mind wander...

Cheers to spring weather and upcoming outdoor sketches!

2ttf

Last night I used the last bit of a giftcard to buy 2ttf, an iPad app that allows you to turn your handwriting into a fully functional typeface!

Skeptically I went through the motions, attempting to use my finger to "write" each character as I would with my perfect felt-tip pens, and at the end of the whole charade (glyphs and all!) I was amazed.  For those of you that know me / my chicken-scratch, you'll understand just how close this is.  You can adjust kerning and whatnot for those of you who write with forms so close together they might as well be the new-age cursive, and can easily send the ttf to friends to use.

Pretty sweet.

Should I Eat This Shit?

If you're looking for a swift dose of tough love and help making a decision based on nutritional info that soars over your head, you should check out this sweet little website :)  It is literally the easiest opinion to obtain about what you think you're about to eat.  In the words of the developer, it "promises to fulfill the dreams of New Years Resolutionaries across the world." and promises "frequent use of the word 'Shit'" as a unique feature.

Enjoy, friends!

ps: kudos to matt + jamie for making it work :)

Southern Comfort Zone

The other day I was in the car and heard a cheesy country song (because yes, after growing-up in Cleveland living in Chicago for almost 4 years, I'm still a huge fan of country music) about the South.  What else, right?  These guys sing about anything and everything so long as it either speaks to a tractor, sweet tea, cut-off jeans, or camping.  Well, just when I was about to roll my eyes (and keep listening, potentially Shazam'ing for future downloading..) I thought about how much I've missed certain things about living down South and how excited I am to get back to them.

Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of things (aka, attitudes) that "burn my biscuits" as some friends would say, but there are a lot of things I'm excited to come home to :)

So long, windy city :)

Not sure that I've even mentioned this, which feels strange in that it's taken-over my life in the last month or so, but as of Sunday I'll no longer call myself a Chicagoan and will be making my way back down to NC.  I think it'll be a long time before I realize how much I've loved living here, and the stress of leaving a great job in hopes of another one has been a solid test to my sanity, but as my ever-calm boyfriend tells me, "everything is going to be fine." :)   Any bit of anxiety is filled with high hopes of a fun team, a great job, pillow forts + lazy weekends.  More than Cleveland, Greensboro or Chicago, Charlotte always felt like home, and it's about time to reunite with the folks I love that I've spent thousands of dollars visiting over the past 4 years.

So... If you see Santa wandering around with an Eames chair with my name on it, send him back down South.

I think this is the first time I've ever drawn a vein.

Sharing is caring :)

I told myself I'd try to get better at sharing doodles + drawings.  Well, most of these are just doodles - as mentioned previously, this is MY form of therapy / relaxation / giving-up the fight against the lyrics stuck in my head.  C'est la vie.

Type + Doodles

Recently someone gave me this book for my birthday, and someone ELSE gave me a couple new moleskines (lucky girl this year, right?)... all of a sudden my doodles have turned to words / lyrics / random thoughts.  Anything that involves ink + a sketchbook seems productive, so I'll take it :)

I've Gone Crazy...

Sometimes we have slow days at work.  In a deadline-driven industry, even one that might not have fared so well through the Great Recession, you learn to take it in stride.  There are weeks where I feel like I can't catch my breath, let alone eat 3 meals a day and remember to brush my teeth twice.... and then there are weeks like this one, where you finally organized the folder of 1400 images into your image bank, file expense reports from weeks before, work your way through a to-do list you started in January, and sketch lyrics to a song stuck in your head.  Sometimes it feels like a rollercoaster, but the lulls can be really nice :)

ps: "The Stable Song" by Gregory Alan Isakov.

Olympic Spirit!

As someone who may have had more than her fair share of patriotism in the old days, part of me still melts every four years as the best of the best from each country come together in a non-fatal, Hunger Games-style showing of performance enhancing drugs, national athletic prodigies and pure dedication.  One of the only times it's politically okay to say "we are better than you," the Games spark national spirit and draw attention to sports like Curling.  It also provokes people from alllll countries to convene in these massive arenas to cheer-on their teams, giving anyone watching a brief glimpse into how said citizens represent.  The Americans always put on a good show, of course, and this year with the games being back in the old country won't be any exception.

Sure, we might have a higher obesity rate, and maybe our overall image isn't quite as "polished" and "refined" as some of the Brits, but damnit we are nothing if not Patriotic.  So stand back everyone else, because whether the Games are in Chicago, London or Beijing, and whether our athletes could actually spell "manifest destiny" or not, America is coming full-force to show you why we're the most bad-ass, freedom-fighting, home-of-the-brave, stars and stripes-wearing nation in all the land.

Urban Sketchers

I highly encourage anyone interested in sketching to venture over to Urban Sketchers... as a preview, here's their manifesto :

1.  We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
2.  Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.
3.  Our drawings are a record of time and place.
4.  We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
5.  We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
6.  We support each other and draw together.
7.  We share our drawings online.
8.  We show the world, one drawing at a time.

They are my heroes.

Fuck it.

I ran out of room.  Fuck it.

Let's have a breakthrough.

This makes me want to sketch.

“Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow. Let’s scratch our heads and give up and wake up and try it again. Let’s fail at digging the well the first three times to get it right the fourth. Let’s build faster horses, and then strap rocket ships onto them. Let’s start a company, let’s watch it fail, and then let’s start another one.

Let’s be the boss. Let’s take the boss down. Let’s order too much of something just to see where our limits are. Let’s take a chance precisely because it might fail. Let’s take the hard way out. Let’s go to the moon. Fuck it; let’s go to the moon again. Let’s quit our jobs. Let’s work at being better at what we do by fucking up faster, not less. Let’s fuck up really fast. Let’s wrestle sharks, fight monsters, and disagree with the board. Let’s borrow so much money it becomes someone else’s problem. Let’s start a 10-hour drive by announcing “I’m not into you anymore.” Let’s dump everything out of the garage onto the sidewalk and build something really cool in that space. Let’s start out to build a better mousetrap, and halfway there let’s decide to jump on the mice’s team. Let’s bet on a longshot. Let’s buy her a drink. Let’s start baking bread in our cubicle. Let’s try bringing fresh water to distant villages precisely because we have no idea how to do it. Let’s pool our money. Let’s take their money. Let’s solve that hard problem. You know that one that keeps you up at night? Let’s tackle that bastard. Let it kick our ass a few times, and then finally get it right. Let’s find out what’s at the bottom of the ocean. Let’s tame the Kraken. Let’s just fucking tell people we’ve read Infinite Jest and move on. Let’s forgive our parents. Let’s do something with the goddamned planet. Let’s rent an electric generator and open a food cart that sells nothing but frosted PopTarts, but makes a lot of fucking noise. Let’s have a breakthrough. Let’s have a breakdown. Let’s agree that bruises fade, bones heal, hearts mend, and that tomorrow we’re right back on that horse and that this time, THIS TIME! we’ve at least got a rocket strapped to its back.”

From Mike Monteiro, Mule Design