way enough

today was the last day of teresa's & my learn to row class at lake union crew; it started june 4th & went three mornings a week for a month. i can't explain the joy that is to be on the water, rowing your ass off & working as a team. we had all kinds of weather, raining & 45 to sunny & 75 (thanks to john & maryann for driving me to work that cold, rainy day), but i made it to every class. i rode my bike (downhill) to class 2 miles & to work 3.8 (not downhill) on my rowing days & am probably in the best cardio shape of my life.

some highlights of the class: dealing with tom's sweet bitchiness, getting stuck in the lily pads, the bald eagle, dealing with tom's appropriate bitchiness & that first time we went all 8 rowing. this is such a scattered post, but the point is that rowing has been an incredible experience & i hope to stay on the water through the summer. check out more pics.

can't wait to meet her

i just got an email from michigan filled with pictures of my 8 months pregnant friend, kacey. i had to post this picture because she just looks so stunning & healthy. she's due one day before my trip back to michigan, which means i won't see kacey pregnant, but i'll get to hold the beautiful nora!

random kacey memory: it was nye 1991, i was in 5th grade & kacey was in 8th. our parents were friends and they had us babysit (actually they had kacey babysit, but told me i was helping) a couple of their mutual friends' kids while they all went out. it was the first time that i really got to know & hang out with kacey. at one point in the night, the youngest boy (a baby at the time) woke up crying. i remember going into the nursery with kacey & listening to her sing him back to sleep (she has a beautiful voice). she's going to be a great momma.

UPDATE: little miss nora riley was born this morning at 3am est. she's was 7 pounds & some odd ounces, 20 inches long. kacey was only in labor for 3 hours, that lucky lady. when i called this morning, aaron (her husband) was taking a nap with nora & kacey was filling out the birth certificate. i can't wait to get up to petosky to see the new family.

want a custom something?

in the last couple of months i've been thinking about trying to do something more with my craftiness; however, work, moving & summertime in general slowed the thought process down. i haven't quite figured out what direction i'll head in. here are some things i'm debating:

• custom cards, stationary & invites
• screen printed & embellished onesies & bibs
• screen printed & embellished domestic goods (linens, aprons, napkin rings, coasters, etc)

what i need from you is the opportunity to develop a portfolio of work. if you have any custom craft or graphic design desires, shoot me a line & i'll make you a good deal (a really good one).

*above is the t-shirt i had made for my dad who has started brewing beer in his retirement. the design is much different from what i would normally do, but i had to consider my client (wink wink).

furries on bikes

posted on boing boing, i was attracted & fearful of the video; it prefaced "furries on bikes doing stunts in the dark;" it sounds like a nightmare (i hate things dressed up as oversized things, especially if it involves a mask). but, i was intrigued & clicked the video link. the video is so good & the song even better. bat for lashes releases their album fur & gold in the us later this summer, but i wanted immediate gratification & bought it on itunes. on the second go round of the album this far, my favorites are sarah, prescilla & what's a girl to do.

plus, she likes antlers.

finally tacking

after reading this project on craft: and 2 months of wanting to do it, i finally made these great fabric cover tacks. all it took was some scrap fabric, buttons-to-cover, thumbtacks & a hot glue gun. the tutorial can be found on how about orange.

the cork board was one that i made a while back. i spent the better part of 6 years of my life waitressing & bartending & now have a crazy collection of wine corks. i made it with mounting board, a hot glue gun & you guessed it...wine corks.

i've been coddled

the director of my department walked into work last week & said, "i read an article about you." after that she hands me a fortune magazine with the cover story of "attracting the 20something worker," written by nadira a. hira, the cover contains a guy & a girl with casual outfits on, definitely not a power suit or even a briefcase. i flip through the article right away & say out loud, "you can't expect me to work for the next 30 minutes after handing me something like this." she laughs & knows i'm not joking.

i think the article is fantastic; it has weak spots, but overall a well written piece that a lot of people have been waiting for. i see a lot of myself & my friends in this article. it discusses our appearance (tattoos & piercings), our work place behavior (ipod listening, emailing, blogging habits) and our relationship with our parents (most of our worst case scenarios are moving home with mom & dad). while many interpret the article to say that we are lazy & spoiled, i see it as a statement of our place in today's workplace. we are a creative, innovative & efficient generation & while we work differently, we work just as hard. i'm not going to give too much more of an opinion in this post, i just want the visitors i have to read it.

the author is a perfect example of a gen yer, after writing this article she mentioned to her managing editor that fortune needed to better reach our generation & cover this topic...maybe a blog would be good. he agreed & put her in charge of writing it.

cal anderson flyer

this is the first time that my artwork has been published; i got the job through one of my principals involved with the cal anderson park alliance & my firm let me work on during office hours. this will be the park's new design for summer programming, you'll see it on flyers, in capitol hill times & throughout the neighborhood. it was a lot of fun designing for the organization & park. it was a simple design based on the three iconic parts of the park; the historic lampposts, the hill & the fountain. i worked in adobe illustrator & used a simple 3 color (plus black) palette, except for full color logos.