perseverance

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

Missing from my collection....

I'm a book lover. It's always been that way, books to read, books to write in, books to keep, books to share. Here are a few that I currently don't own, but hope to add to my little collection some day. But that's why there are libraries and bookstores ... by the way I'm quite the bookstore junkie, ask the sister she knows all about it too ... Well every time I do hit the bookstore I usually open one of these books, grab me a coffee and take what inspiration I can.



Fingerprint: The Art of Using Handmade Elements in Graphic Design
I'm finding that the more handmade I go, the more I want to incorporate that into my graphic design. This book is beautiful in showing and inspiring you to do so.



DIY: Design It Yourself

This is like a Design for Dummies kind of book, but It's projects, ideas, and the design of it is lovely and inspiring in itself.



DIY: Design It Yourself Deck

This has the same concept behind the DIY book, but it's actually a deck of "cards" with full on instructions to execute each project.



Craft Inc. Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business

Need I say more?



Hand Job, A Catalog of Type by Michael Perry
I've blogged about this one before. Michael Perry's style of type is awesome.



Idea Index: graphic effects and typographic treatments
Once again, Need I say more?


I lack in a number of resources and I've come to terms with that, but a good book isn't worth being without. I have a hand full of design books but I honestly can't wait to build up my own personal library of books that inspire.

Collection of the week {18}

I love love love Kate Sutton. Her designs are super simple and really friendly. All her work is done in simple line drawings, something I've been eyeing a lot lately, and she's from the UK. I've seen her in multiple places already, I first saw her work on her website and since then I've kept an eye out for her work,and you know where else I found her? I found Kate Sutton on Etsy! She has a very small collection on her Etsy, but out of the few I've found a easy favorite. And it's these little buttons right here.



Ok so these buttons don't really do her work enough justice ... I just personally love buttons and I adore photography, hence a love for cameras ... but that's even more reason to check out her website, to get a real feel for her lovely art and style.

my favorite night.

So far, yesterday's entry on 3191 has been my favorite night.

1 Peter 5:7

"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you".

Bring bad design to justice

I love this site. I had a good laugh reading each of the tabs they've created and I'm so printing out a copy of these on sticky paper and cutting them up for myself.

Bad design does happen to good people ... that's why there is the Design Police.

classy little melody

Blissful Mirror

I love Jill Bliss. Hence the reason I love this pocket mirror.
It also matches my lovely little journal. I found this mirror
looking through MyfavoriteMirror.com, which has a lovely
selection of both vinage designs or designs by other great
designers like Jill Bliss. You can also design your own,
How darling.

sketchy saturdays

Saturday was a very full day. The day started out with an egg sandwich that I cooked up then it was followed up by a quick look at the day's comic strip. Tim knows I much I love Pearls Before Swine so as part of my Christmas present he got me a little Pearls before Swine day-by-day calendar. Here's what it said on saturday...



HAHA ... It funny how Sat's comic was SO in tune with my day. LOL. Later I had a lunch date with mother dearest at Panera (a forever favorite of mine), then it was followed by a little trip to The Mustard Seed. Once again we didn't have much luck there, ... but there's always next time right?





We went through Friendship Heights and I love how it is always so colorful at night. Later on me and mom headed out to church for a music committee meeting, where things got a bit sketchy.



We had a "listening party" for our Easter Cantata music and listened to the possible selections over pizza and drinks.



I brought along my Blissful little journal, which I do on a normal basis now ... that journal never leaves my side ... and while listening to potential Easter pieces I began sketching my little friend named Nikon.



I admit sketching during a meeting really isn't the smartest thing to do. But I it, and I even went and sketched my mitten on the opposite page.



My mom caught me sketching but instead of stopping me she went and asked me to draw her cell phone, so I did.



Then I went back and built up more of the tonal value on my camera sketch. It's no Mona Lisa but pretty it's decent for a spur of the moment-I'm not really paying attention when I should be- and I should so be getting in trouble for this-sketch.

I'm really trying to get back into the habit of drawing. I've been inspired by Lu Zhang, and both projects: cakies and broccoli. Also I'm trying to get more in tune with my basic artistic abilities, so that later I can come back and bring more of my hand drawn/handmade elements into my graphic design.

Lu Zhang

I was at my aunt's house and my sister passed me the
SPACES MAG: Washington DC. In it I saw this spread
on a this artist named Lu Zhang.

Lu is a fine arts graduate from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), a school I secretly dreamed about attending. Prior to college, I've only taken one graphic design class and my teacher for that class was actually a MICA alum. She tried to persuade me to attend school there and study graphic design. After high school I took a year off and never saw my teacher again. Since then I've done half of what she wanted me to do, study graphic design...

Ok... back to Lu Zhang. Lately I've been doing a lot of hand drawn sketches and when I saw the spread about Lu Zhang it showed some of her super delicate, and intricate drawings. The detail she puts into her work is insane, and truly one of a kind. I can only imagine how much patience's she must have for all of her pieces, beats my broccoli pieces by a million miles.



Lu Zhang

Handmade exchange

Funny story ... yesterday when I received my handmade cakies, Ruby in exchange received my hats for her and the girls at the same exact time. For being on opposite sides of the country our timing was pretty awesome.





Here are my first west coast customers rocking their Ica made hats. I'm soo glad that they fit the girls nicely and I'm glad True's little dolly likes it too. YAY for gift exchanging in January and handmade crafting! PS: Picture taken by the cakies mama herself. Thanks Ruby.

Etsy.... here I come.

Cakies Rock!!!

I got mail today, and it was ohh s00 delicious.



I requested for some sample cakies from the lovely
Mrs. Rubyellen so that I could see the products first hand
and have one to work with while working on my top secret
project. LOL.

Ruby even remembered that I really liked the "rock on" cakie
and sent one my way. I've been wearing it all day and I don't
plan on ever taking it off.

I love cakies and thank you Ruby!

{Shop cakies on Etsy}

tea love

I was window shopping on etsy today and fell into Charliemotel's shop. If you know me, you'd know I have a thing for mugs, tea, and buttons ... these buttons are so me.

i want

(i seriously need to open both an etsy shop and a pay pal account)

Missing fixer

It's been a very long time since I've worked in an actual darkroom and for the first time I've actually been missing the smell of fixer, while engulfed in darkness.

Though it's a long and agitating process, no pun intended, I miss developing my own film as well. I was pretty good with film, I don't think I messed up once while developing, changing bags were my cup of tea, but in the darkroom I made my share of mistakes ... which was ultimately my favorite part (the darkroom that is, not the mistakes).

I also miss successfully transferring undeveloped film into an empty film canister to be developed. I miss the feeling of accomplishment when I'd take out perfectly developed pieces of film from a canister I'd been agitating for at least ten mins. I miss calculating f-stops, and exposure time, plus or minus a filter or two. I miss the magic of photo paper, and when I say photo paper I mean light sensitive pieces of black and white photo paper preferably in a matte finish.

I miss watching my photos come to life as I transfer them from developer into fixer. I miss prints, and the entire print process. Digital just isn't the same. I miss mounting and matting my work (properly) with awesome cutting boards, and a huge hot press. I miss setting up the studio, and I miss using insanely expensive equipment that I can only dream of having, equipment that my teacher would so willing lend to a bunch of 16 year old kids, from a collection of his own personal property.

If you can't tell ... I miss it all. I can't wait to work in a darkroom again. Maybe when I have the means, and the time too I'll borrow my sister's ever so faithful FM10, buy a roll of 200 ASA B/W Film, buy a packet of photo paper in a matte finish, then find me a darkroom fully equipped with all my photo needs and spend reckless amounts of time developing and printing my work.

Me and my familia had a girls night in and watched Where the Heart is the other night, which perpetuated this whole thing about missing the dark room ... another movie, my all time favorite movie Funny Face, makes me crazy for the darkroom again ... every single time I watch it.


NOTE: I added this b&w digital photo I took sometime last summer as merely a visual aid ... I don't have any of my actual b&w prints scanned on to my computer, But once I do scan them I'll make sure to share them.

Unfold

I love this original song by Marie Digby,
ever since my entry about her back in September I've kept
and eye out for more of her original songs, though her covers
are great as well. Here's her original song: Unfold.





I love the quirky little melody shes plucks, it's intricate and
unexpected. The song in it's entirety is perfect and lovely, and
because I'm usually the first to say that a good thing should be
left alone ... like the thousands of Part II Disney movies that
should have never been ... so should lovely songs ...

but to my surprise I've fallen madly in love with this same song,
but Accompanied by Dave Kim on Violin.

You know that “bleeding” doesn’t hurt.

After a few hours of homework, three chapters from Graphic Design Solutions to be exact, I decided to take a little break. Still wanting to keep up my design high of the day, I went online and did some inspiration hunting and found this..

I some how stumbled upon this blog and ended up having a good laugh. It's another one of those "You know you're a _ _ _ _ _ when..." lists, but for graphic designers.

Ok, so I'm no professional graphic designer just yet, I've got a lot of school to go through, but I've been making my way through the design world one thumbnail at time and slowly but surely I'm learning the ins and outs of the industry, so this list made all the sense in the world to me.

{Here are my ten favorites}


You know you're a graphic designer when...

You tell stories of exacto-knife inflicted wounds with grizzled sort of pride

You look upon a well-designed project with either:sympathy OR extreme jealousy

You are pro-facebook because 95% of the myspace accounts burn your retinas

You know that rivers are more than just water.

You know that “bleeding” doesn’t hurt.

You’ve been spending three days non-stop on a project and it still looks like {crap}.
You find yourself overcome by Deathlust.

“You know you’re a Graphic Designer when… you look at the clock and see it’s about midnight and think ‘I’ll go to bed now’… and you actually go to bed about 2-3am”.

You have a thing for chairs. You don’t know why.

Seeing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure

Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.



Happy designing.. lol

Broccoli Fever

The romanesco broccoli.

Could veggies be any cooler?
(yeah they could... it's called Veggietales)

I've been on mission: broccoli for a day and a half now
and I don't think I've ever drawn so many broccoli's.
Now I really wanna see The Pirates who don't do
anything... anyone want to come with?

Collection of the week {17}

All of my favorite collections so far have been mainly two
dimensional like photography, or design and illustrations.

But this week I wanted to share a beautiful collection of
animated design that I can only dream of creating.

Here is Blur Studio's 2007 design reel.



(I had to watch this reel twice it was so good)

I embedded the youtube link but it's pretty pixelated
so to see the actual reel in all it's glory: watch it here

It's work like this that inspires me to keep being creative,
and makes my hunger for design become a passion.
I'm dying to take my digital video, and animation classes
because of work like this.

Blur is such a wonderful and super successful design studio,
I'll be looking out for more of their work this year.

Mustard Seed

Vintage and Parables, hand in hand



Yesterday after church the girls and I took a trip to a little boutique we've been dying to explore. The Mustard Seed lies hidden between shops in downtown Bethesda, MD looking like a house misplaced amongst city traffic.

It was a fun little exploration, but I think the 20 degree weather didn't just knock the wind right out of us, but it also knocked the shopping right out of us too. We all walked away empty handed, but knowing the Mustard Seed is there at our disposal was good enough to keep us warm as we trekked back to Em-em's car.

After awhile I got to thinking about the name of this ever so lovely boutique ... mustard seed. I don't know how or why the name was chosen and used, but I do love the fact that it makes me think about my faith.

In Matthew 17:19 & 20 it says, "[...] for truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

Rolls of fun

Saturday night was small and yummy..



And it began with sister dearest preparing dinner,







and it ended with friends killing dinner.

Dearest Super Wifey

I love you Lily Dearest
and I wish you all the best on your birthday.

Thanks for being my superhero when I need one,
my bestie on any given day, and my wifey just for laughs.
I know the Lord has wonderful things planned for your life
and I can't wait to be there on the sidelines to see it all unfold.
-Icaboodle

CMYK love

I saw this funky fresh tee in the guy section of Urban Outfitters' Early Spring catalog.

It caught my eye for two reasons, the brilliant colors, and because of school. Funny that it'd made me think of school rite? But because I've been getting reacquainted with general design lingo and even the basic elements of graphic design my eyes have been catching really random things. Take for example this CMYK dots tee. I've forgotten a lot about the printing process, like DPI, CMYK, pantone colors and stuff like that, but hopefully I'll pick it up just as quickly as I've forgotten it ... I seriously need to take a Pre-press class.

Lovely little forest

I've been meaning to blog about this little odd forest that I've grown to adore but it's only now that I've gotten the chance to. Little odd forest is an online boutique that was started by Singaporean designer, Lynda Lye. She has the quirkiest little products all of which you'll easily become infatuated with.

check out the little odd forest

Attacked by giant snowflakes

The snow fell all day long and for most of the day
I stayed dry and warm inside drinking tea.

But for a small portion of the day I decided
to face the cold and run outside with my camera.

I waited for the snow to fall a little lighter and then
headed outside. I took three steps from my door,
then BAM! I was attacked by giant snowflakes.



I did my best to try and capture these giant snowflakes falling.
But it kind of just looks like a print from a really dirty negative.

Stay warm everybody.

save me from myself

lovely.

A darling winter breakfast

I woke up fairly late today, about 10:40-ish and to my surprise I was awaken to a darling winter wonderland and breakfast in bed.

It's been snowing relentlessly since early this morning and I had no idea because I slept away most of it. Since waking up, my lovely sister gave me breakfast in bed while watching FRIENDS... a lovely treat seeing how I've never had breakfast in bed before and besides the snow, there's no celebration that called on this treat, just love and hungry.

Well me and sister dearest have been on a FRIENDS high because she got the whole series from a certain someone this Christmas. And that certain someone is my awesome homie who gives with so much love, and loves even if he's a million miles away... I love my homie!!!

Anywhos because me and sister have been on this FRIENDS high we watch a few episodes in bed this morning and all this week we've been laughing none stop. My sister's also been funnier than usual because of it. The days seem to go by faster with laughter, and with the snow that's coated the entire outside world in white, laughter's been keeping us warm inside.



It's already 2:40pm and the snow hasn't let up, maybe a little later me and sister will go out and play, maybe take a few pictures and add them to my winter wonderland collection... till then its time to get some homework done and maybe a bit of crafting.

Back to school

yups.

School Kids

It's been awhile since I've been in school,
it's been since last spring to be exact,
but by God's grace I'm going back this week.. YAY!



Though I haven't been in school lately myself,
I have been part of a wonderful little class called sunday school.



It's been an absolute joy teaching these kids.

Seeing each one of them grow in their love for the Lord,
and their knowledge of His word
is such a wonderful gift.



I'm not the greatest teacher,
but by being given the opportunity to teach these kids
I have become an even greater student.



I've relearned what it means to have a teachable heart,
and in studying God's word before sharing it to these kids
I've become the student as well.





I'm excited to see what God can do in the lives of these kids this year,
and I pray that He continues to use me
beyond my own limitations, my fears, and my frailties,
so that I may be a vessle of His love to these kids.



As for me and my school ...
I can't wait to jump right in to my classes and I hope I do my kids proud.