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.