mini wrapping party

Christmas presents beginning to get wrapped. Everything made it to New York that I need before heading to the south this weekend. Most of the wrapping paper that I made will be in my suitcase since I can't wrap and carry on large boxes, especially since my mom's gift is over three fee tall. 

First present wrapped to go under the tree --- Merry Christmas to the Willett's! Happy Wrapping!

what i love at christmas time

Baby, it's cold outside! Well, except in New York, its nearly 60 degrees today!

Yummy noggin time! My family makes granny's (my great grandmother) eggnog every year on the eve of Christmas Eve. I pour in the cream and Mickey pours in the half and half and we all watch to see if Dad can split the egg yoke and whites on over a dozen eggs without messing up (pretty much my favorite part of the evening). 

My two favorite Christmas movies! 

wrapping paper

I haven't blogged in a few days due to my duty as an elf, and a resourceful elf at that. I have been designing a web site for a client which has taken up most of my time, but after I finished the first round of design concepts I needed to chill out a bit. This past June I bought a roll of butcher paper to make envelopes for invitations to my sister's bachelorette party. I only used about three or four feet but I had to buy the whole roll. So to repurpose the rest of the roll, I've been creating my own wrapping paper for Christmas. Below are a couple things I have done so far, but there are more designs in the works. 

Thought I would give you guys a sneak peek. Hope your weekend has been as enjoyable as mine has. Nothing beats Christmas movies and painting. Cheers! 

The first and third images are not this bright, and I personally like it better in real life rather than digitized. 

love is in the mittens

Last year I fell in love with these...

Which Santa kindly placed in my stocking...

And this year, I've fallen head over heels with these...

 

Hey Santa, can ya hear me? 

bible nights

Have you read the chapter Jeremiah? This month I'm reading/studying Jeremiah and today reincorporated what my parents told me (and my bro-in-law wrote in calligraphy in my sketch book) --

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you home and a future." -- Jeremiah 29:11

Words of wisdom from Him.

christmas time

T-minus 8 days, it will be CHRISTMAS TIME! I love Christmas time. Wearing coats, bustling around the city with packages and sharing as much Christmas cheer as possible, ah, love.

Since I moved to New York, plane tickets are (lets say "inflated") higher around the holidays, I tried to compromise and only go home for Thanksgiving every other year. So technically, this year is my year to stay in the city, but then my sister chimes in. "What about my tree? You have to come home because you have to decorate my Christmas tree." Five years ago this would have annoyed the hell out of me, but now, it's the only real holiday decorating I get to do. 

So... as much as my sister loves to watch me put all the ornaments and whatnots on her tree, it actually is one of my favorite things we do together all year. Cory, Mickey and I go pick out a tree then Cory attempts to put lights on it (he'll get better as the year goes by), then Mickey unpacks each ornament and has stories with most of them, which she of course tells every year. And then I (add more lights) and decorate the tree. My treat in the end... Mickey gets me cheese dip. Don't call me the fat kid, I haven't lived anywhere in the past seven years that has queso EVERYWHERE! Just another reason I come back and visit Arkansas. 

It takes me about 15 minutes to decorate my apartment. A strand of colored Christmas lights around my window and three ceramic trees are my decor and I switch to my Christmas kitchen towels. Under 200 square feet doesn't give a lot of room for Christmas decor. 

But this year, I've made it a mission to make Mickey's tree better than last year. And (not to toot my own horn, but) last years was FAB! Cheers to making this years tree better than the last!

Do these two ornaments say Mickey and Cory or what? 

unexpected findings

Between unexpected friends in the city, meeting new friends, finding amazing books and taking far to many cab rides, last week had many fantastic twists and turns. Two exciting friends to see were Hunter and Erin Riley. They were in town for the ING NYC Marathon last Sunday and stayed for some work as well as some fun. Being a West sider I was near the finish line watching and although the siblings finished together, I only saw Hunter. We concluded it was because Erin was standing east of Hunter.

After a very successful business meeting last Thursday I ventured to Brooklyn to meet up with a group of fellow Arkansans as well a Panamanian and Honduran. One of whom is "Juan in a million."

Clearly we decided to take a new photo for Rhea Drug Store since our parents work together. I haven't seen Hunter in a long time and since Erin has been living in China, er, I mean Japan for the past two years, it was a fantastic pharmacy reunion. P.S. we expect to see this picture on Marilyn's side of the printer when we are all home for Thanksgiving.

Since Hunter had to split early that evening due to an early meeting Friday morning, Erin became my unexpected house guest. When I know people are coming, my apartment is pretty much spotless, but on the account that I have four trash bags of clothes for Goodwill and my mothers ginormous Christmas present, together taking up a minimum of ten square feet, it was quite a cozy evening to say the least. Thankfully Erin only compared my apartment to a "slightly larger dorm room" once, I let it slide and she was allowed to stay.

Friday we made our way to The Strand. Basically the best book store south of 14th street. After grabbing every book we liked in sight and then realized we didn't have unlimited funds we settled on few classics and a couple eye turning art books. My favorite book purchase... a first edition, mint condition 1937 copy of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

Clearly I was excited... but not as speechless as I was when we went to the third floor. If I ever track down a first edition or even a great condition early copy of my favorite book in the world, Catcher and the Rye, I wouldn't think twice about maxing out my credit card. Hopefully, whenever I find it maxing out anything will not be the case. Friday, finding this very early edition was up there with priceless. This particular edition is well known for the full back cover photo of J.D. Salinger. This would have been an immediate, no-questions-asked, purchase but the jacket had a very unfortunate tear in the top right corner. The back, being in very good quality was hard to put down, but the cover was a deal breaker.

Needless to say my three purchases were the following. A first edition copy of Of Mice and Men, a copy of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, which was only issued to the members of The Heritage Club in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1967. The third book is Lyn Davies' A is for Ox. Along our 36 hour adventure, we found great public art. From graffiti owls to hand-painted brownstone doors, Erin and I took pictures accordingly. 

With these images I'll leave you with a quote we found along the way:

"All the lives we could live, all the people we will never know, never will be, they are everywhere. That is what the world is."

-Aleksander Herman, The Lazarus Project

frequently asked questions

Over the past few years I have been asked several questions countless times. Whereas these questions will inevitably continue to come, I'm going to start here...

The number one most asked question (besides: who are you dating) --

1. When are you going to move back to Arkansas?
I don't know where I'll be in 10 years much less tomorrow, but as long as I have the opportunity to continue living and working in Manhattan, then I'm staying settled. Whatever is in God's plan is where I'll be. Until further notice, I'm stayin' on the island.

2. You subscribe to more magazines than anyone else I know. Do you read each one? 
Sort of. Some magazines I get for recipes, some for fashion, home design, stories, etc. Most of the magazines I subscribe to are for design inspiration. From financial to fashion, all magazines have different niche design elements that are relevant to my industry. Therefore it is justifiable.

3. What do you do with your magazines? 

Most of the time, I tab, tear, and file. This past post "if you ever call me a hoarder..." explains that process. I clearly don't file an entire magazine. GQ and Esquire, Dwell and Domino (which is no longer in print), for example, I cannot bring myself to tear up any of them. I have all 2009-2011 issues of the first three are all in my apartment. Issues prior are in plastic and dressers in a storage unit in Arkansas. Please note, I do not have a storage unit for magazines. The unit was purchased to house the overflowing furniture from my college apartment and house. This is turn makes it a convenient location to house my magazine surplus. 

I also roll extra/left over magazine pages like this for future DIY projects. Image borrowed from Recyclart

4. What do you do? 

I am a freelance graphic and web designer. I have several clients within in the city as well as others scattered around the country, including Kansas City and Atlanta. I recently gained a new client in Manhattan who I will be working on several projects with. So to clear up any confusion, I WORK.

5. Why don't you add links to ideas or pictures in your blog? 

I do. Unless I take the pictures my self. Any purple link or comment under a picture that says something to the effect of "image borrowed from..." is a link to that image/project/blog or web site mentioned. As seen below above image. 

Feel free to request any more questions. Hope a few things were answered. Thanks for reading! 

snowtober

Snowtober is correct. As if I needed an excuse to stay in my pj's, drink hot tea, watch football and eat scones on this snowy October Saturday. 

Yes. It is still October. Have I mentioned, I love cold weather? It's my favorite time of year! 

this will make you like halloween

I might lose readers by admitting this, but I really am not a big fan of halloween. There is something about wearing a costume in the city while taking public transportation. But I am a fan of Halloween treats and I don't mean mini Snickers or 3 Musketeers. Hello Betty Crocker!

Image borrowed from Cute Hoots

And these adorable chocolate dipped marshmallows that were on Live! With Regis and Kelly this morning.

Image borrowed from Live! With Regis and Kelly

if only i had more space

I would immediately commission furniture designer and maker, Anthony Hartley, to create a custom sideboard similar to the one featured in his first furniture collection. Very much a modern, colorful, one-of-a-kind, hand crafted piece of furniture. I'm adding this to my dream apartment/house decor list. 

The fabulosity of Anthony Hartley was brought to my attention by 

Living Etc. magazine's blog. 

Another storage solution (and more fitting for my pocketbook) is this awesome recycled file cabinet. It reminds me of teachers mailboxes from high school. From my post yesterday, this thrifty find would be a great way to store my "magazine mountain." Isn't this a creative trash to treasure idea? 

Pictures and project idea borrowed from the quippy blog, Crap I've Made. 

if you ever called me a hoarder...

According to dictionary.com --
Hoard
noun
1.  a supply or accumulation that is hidden or carefully guarded for preservation, future use, etc.
verb (used with object)
2. to accumulate for preservation, future, use, etc., in a hiddenor carefully guarded place.

Then by definition, I could sort of be considered a hoarder, but only in one sense --- preservation. The picture to the left is only a quarter, maybe a fifth of the magazines I have in my apartment. Not to mention I have 2 years worth of Esquire and GQ in a storage unit in Arkansas.


I know I have mentioned this ordeal countless times, but I've started to get a hold of things. For several of my subscriptions, as I read them I tab my favorite layouts, typography, or product images. Then  after about six months I go through each and cut out, yes, cut not tear, the tabbed pages of each magazine and carefully put them into plastic page covers which assemble into large black binders.

Between covers, feature stories, mastheads, unique department pages, and the rest of each magazine, at least I am able to slim down the mass somewhat? Currently, I have tagged, cut, and filed two years worth of Women's Health, Runner's World, Allure, Southern Living, Women's Day, Outside, Details, Better Homes & Garden and Redbook. I like to think I've at least made a dent in my vast collection of publications. (Please note I do recycle all unused pages).

Magazines that will not be cut up, filed, or recycled --- any magazine that includes my photos and/or designs, GQ, Esquire, old issues of Domino and Dwell. All in all, I could be considered a hoarder of magazines, but for probable cause... it is my industry, my livelihood, my passion. That is justification for keeping some magazines, right?  Other than that I have to figure out what to do with the multiple fashion magazines I have. Mostly, I read fashion magazines for pleasure but am occasionally surprised by the designs. So, should I just suck it up and cut up the massive stack of fashion magazines in my apartment? File them and recycle the rest?

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

small gesture, big impact

When I moved to New York 28 months ago, my mother threw an impromptu "going away" shindig. It was very nice and I received several precious gifts from close family and friends. One of which, I keep on my bathroom counter and look at multiple times a day. Not only is it a beautiful hand blown glass heart by James Hayes, but with it came the perfect message. 

"Follow your heart but never forget where home is --"

This token of love reminds me daily that while I am following my dreams, home is always within reach. As I embark on another trip home for two out of town weddings, I found this picture on my computer and remembered I have been wanting to post this picture for some time now, but I think today is perfect.

I can't help but smile each time I see this treasure. Thanks Ms. Cindy!

you can take the girl out of college...

But you can't take college out of the girl. I get several emails a week from my alma mater and more specifically, RJI (Reynolds Journalism Institute). The J-school is always on the edge of technology and moving forward before anyone else, but today is something really special. RJI is holding a Reality Symposium and streaming it live. Four graduates of Mizzou's world known Journalism School are speaking and discussing about the use of their journalism background that has so heavily impacted their career's now. 

The panel includes:

• Jon Murray, a television producer and Co-Creator of MTV's The Real World, Road Rules, and the Oxygen Network's The Bad Girls Club. 
• Linda Bell Blue, Executive Producer of Entertainment Tonight (currently in her 13th year).
• Lance Heflin, former Executive Producer of America's Most Wanted, and has since created his own production company, Heflin Filmworks.
• Jim Berger (pictured below from live stream), co-founder of High Noon Entertainment, has been and is the Executive Producer and/or Co-Creator to several television shows, including HGTV's HGTV'd and My First Place, TLC's Cake Boss, Next Great Baker, as well as Food Network's Unwrapped, Ultimate Recipe Showdown.

I have been watching/listening to the live stream of discussions, Q&A's from students, professors and professionals. Each panel member has brought up so many taxing points and realizations of today's news and social society. Just because we study one thing in school and want to do something so narrow, we must be able to adapt and make ourselves more versatile with our skills and goals in order to obtain success. Linda Bell Blue said you have to put yourself out there, adapt to new technologies and strategies to get where you want to go. "The competition is fierce and you have to push through to get what you want." 

Great Friday and break from regular TV. Go to http://rjionline.org/live to watch and participate in this riveting panel of professionals. The symposium concludes today at 3:00p.m. central time. 

*Panel info borrowed from Wikipedia, EntertainmentCareers.net, RJI online, and High Noon Entertainment

new reading obsession

As I mentioned in August, the new book on my reading list included The Hunger Games. After the busiest month of the year, I was only able to reread The Help on a flight and Faulkner's Light in August during the evenings. 

Everything I had read or heard about The Hunger Games included words like, addicting, exciting, entertaining. More than anything, I was told that I would not want to put the book down. Since August got away from me and last Wednesday I was summoned to jury duty, I decided it was the right time to download the book and get started. Last Wednesday, September 14, I started and finished the first of the trilogy. The following day I was assigned to a trial so I didn't have as much time to read but I started the second book, Catching Fire. 

So basically with over a thousand pages to read between three novels, I can clearly use this as an excuse to explain my lack of blogging, well that, and I've been on jury duty. But I served on a trial, came to a verdict, and finished yesterday. That is all I can say about that. 

This past weekend I was dog sitting, enjoying the 35th Annual Columbus Avenue Festival. I didn't find as much fabulous handmade jewelry as I would have liked, but I did stock up on veggies at the farmer's market. In the mean time I started the third book, Mockingjay. Beginning was a little slow, but each book did have a couple slow parts, but the anticipation to get past the slow part was enough to pull me through. 

Instead of an old, new, and re-read for the month, I'm finishing The Hunger Games Trilogy and working my way through a new CSS web design book that came out. I know, not so interesting to most, but just because I'm not in school anymore doesn't mean I don't need to keep my skill level high. So between books for knowledge and books for pleasure, I've actually been flying through this month's book list. 

PS -- I have totally surpassed my New Year's resolution to read more than seven books. Maybe next year I'll triple that goal. 

scratch it off the bucket list

Last Friday, I had the amazing opportunity to go to the US Open. Being an avid tennis player and fan since I was about five-years-old, I've always wanted to see a real match (not an exhibition match). I have always been obsessed with Sampras, Agassi, even before my time -- Connors and Borg. When I started playing competitively in my early tween years, I became very fond of Andy Roddick.

Guess who I saw win at the US Open last week? Andy Roddick. I also had the pleasure of seeing Christina McHale (USA) play Maria Kirilenko (RUS) play. Unfortunately McHale, who I was rooting for did not win, it was still a great match! It's always been a dream of mine to go to the US Open, especially since, ya know, I LIVE IN NYC, and thanks a good friend, Lynn, I made it this year! Thanks for taking me Lynn. It was an awesome experience. Unforgettable!

Anna and I completely stoked to be at the Open! 

She really was excited, despite the smirk on her face

Roddick after his victory

McHale trying to come back and win, but unfortunately, our cheers weren't enough. 

post wedding

Well, I can honestly say it will be a wedding that no one will ever forget. From all the parties leading up to the big day, to the last minute video slideshows, speech preparations, water bottle labeling, and the 25+ trips to the country club for final details. Everything came together and turned out beautifully. I think I've exhausted the subject of Mickey's wedding over the past 9 months, so here is an overview of the weekend soiree's via photography. 

Kicking off the wedding weekend with the wedding party and entire family. 

Thanks for a great bbq!

Friday morning we started with the Bridesmaids Luncheon at Brave New Restaurant.

 Thank you to the fabulous group of hostesses! It was a major success. 

The Bride and her Bridesmaids. Such a wonderful day with absolutely beautiful weather! 

The great yellow chevron table runners and bright gerber daisies. 

The Bride and Mother of the Bride. Pretty in Pink!

Rehearsal Dinner - BEST date ever. 

Thank you for all your help and AV skills James David! 

Thanks for staying by my side all weekend. 

The last picture of "the four of us."

  

 Mickey and Cory, now known as Mr. and Mrs. Willett at their rehearsal dinner. 

Great job Cory, the evening was wonderful.

The Bride and her Bridesmaids at the end of the night. Ready for Wedding Day! 

The limo bus taking the wedding party to the reception. My camera didn't make it back out of my purse the rest of the night, but at least I got a picture of that FABULOUS bouquet!