when we think, empires fall

does anyone know why the color on all my design files is off? does the web run on rgb or something. i need to get to the bottom of this.

so the xmas season is in full swing in my house and..... ive been decorating!! this is the first year that i have been to xmas in maine since i was 18 or something.... so im really excited.... the fact that justin will be there to meet all of my family for the first time is just the icing on the cake. ive been spending all my extra money on gifts and i think i need t slow down because i am going to be tight for money the next two weeks.

i got justin to buy me the future farmers "harvest" book... which normally runs $45-50 but i shockingly found it at you work for them for $12.99. its a 184pg hardcover book!! thats crazy.

im unmotivated.

linx:
why have i never heard of this guy???
yet another amazing blog
another thing i like.

ok.bye.

things have been rough lately. ive been insanely stressed out at work.... to the point of tears, on more than one occasion. I came home the other night so worked up that i broke into sobs when i realized that i had forgotten to stop and pick up some frozen corn. its ridiculous.
anyway, im not even going to get into it.... its the weekend and im not going to get myself tense and stressed out.

in very good news, i am in such good holiday spirits. some of my xmas presents have started arriving! i love buying presents for people and this is the first year that i am doing well enough for myself to be able to splurge on everyone.

the convention is this weekend and we rolled down there last night... it was super fun. i got to reunite with some old friends, which is ALWAYS nice, and meet some new people.
Josh and Oshun might come up tonight, which would be awesome. i miss my gloucester people.

anyway... its 2pm and im still in my jammies. im going to do some yoga and clean.

a.

unfortunately i dont think this ad will ever make it to print.... if you want some cheap design work done, let me know.

a.

ha. just previewed this.... the color is all fucked up. click on the image to enlarge and see the correct color.

i took the day off work today. i went in, cleared a few things up, answered my emails, and then decided that i felt entirely too shitty to be there. i didnt sleep at all last night. it started at 7pm when i drank a can of coke. i never drink caffiene at night, and yesterday I had a starbucks and two cans of coke. no bueno.
in bed, a bug bit me, and continued to bite me for over an hour. in different places. i have no idea what kind of bug it was, or why it was taking up residence in my bed, but for the rest of the night i was paranoid. i was itchy. i was imagining bugs on my skin.

i think im going to try to focus more on digital stuff from now....or at least today. im feeling pretty inspired by the challenge of new media and design.

something weird is going on with my camera. when i attach it to my computer it imports old photos... photos i cant even look at on the lcd of the camera. wtf!?!?!?!? i dont know what to do and i am annoyed that i cant get my pictures off said camera.

i want a new camera.... and a G5. thanks.

nifty gifties

The brisk November air has motivated me to shift into homebody mode. plus, with all the running around i did last weekend and all the money ive been spending lately, it seems appropriate for me to lock myself up in my apartment, buckle down and concentrate on some crossing off some long over due things on my to-do list.

so this will be my last post before, gasp slash sob, i reformat my hard drive... and to be honest im terrified. i have everything all backed up, so hopefully by tonight ill be all fresh and clean and running CS2 on my comp.

exciting...

here are some places ill be doing some xmas shopping at this holiday season.....
pearl river

CB2

martha, martha, martha

alright. enjoy. keep your fingers crossed!!!

dog-dammit

these people are bad christians.... and they all probably sodomize eachother.

well. i was going to start the post with a cutesy little ad ive been working on, but alas, the colors are coming out all wrong. it must be because it is saved in spot colors and they must not translate to web colors...(whatever those are), my main artistic focus right now is design...(there is a crazy hmeless person screaming outside my house...nice) anyway... i like doing design because it stresses me out a lot less than regular fine art. fine art is so judge-ey. plus, design work furthers my career. fine art just gives me more crap to hang on my walls... does anyone want to buy some work?? i have a few pieces to get rid of. i hate having stuff laying around collecting dust.

so, i skipped yoga tonight. its the first night i havent gone in six weeks...aside from the first week when i had bronchitis.

i feel overwhelmed with things to do...lets see...

winterize the house.... curtains, weather stripping, putting down the storm windows.

xmas shopping... i will start early this year and avoid nasty holiday crowds.

design work... let me know if you need some freelance stuff done cheap-slash-free or for tradesies??

clean up/reformat harddrive... seeeeeriously.

finish cleaning/organizing studio



umm... i think thats it for now.

if anyone has any god links to design portflio sites/blogs pleawe forward them so i can rip them off....i mean, er, be inspired by them.

and one last thought....

i dont understand people who constantly complain/talk shit about things but absolutely refuse to do anything to try to change them. all they do is bring negative energy into my office. what can i do or say to get them to complain to someone else?

am i really complaining about people complaining??? hilarious.

have a safe happy halloween. i will post pictures of my exciting weekend soon.

so its been a slightly stressful/hectic week... speaking of.... im going to pour myself a glass of wine....

okay. im back.

on a side note... let me just say that i dont drink wine because i think its classy. i drink wine because i enjoy being drunk. tonight i drink my blush wine out of a chinese coffee cup with ice in it. there are SO many things wrong with that sentence from a wine drinking perspective...but i really dont care.

tonight i am drinking pink truck which is apparently "a pink wine you'd be proud to drink" because drinking other pink wine is just embarrassing...but will probably get you drunk. i bought it solely because i enjoyed the bottle.

anyway....i digress.

so i had some drama this week, but everything is fine. im a little bummed about my apartment. my landlord sucks really bad and has a major drinking problem...and now my ceiling is leaking....and since i got into a screaming match with him earlier in the week i now need to document everything that goes wrong with the place and put everything in writting. its really lame, but i have to protect myself and my rights. and you should too

these people prey on the fact that they rent primarily to young naive students who are unfamiliar with their rights, and we allow them to, so its our own damn fault.

breathe.
yoga helps. its changed my outlook on life SO dramatically in just six weeks. my forms are improving too which is super exciting. we added a few new postures to our routine which is very exciting and challenging.
now we are doing downward dog - plank - upward dog - downward dog
versus
downward - modified cobra - downward.
exciting.
Urdvha Mukha Svanasana (upward facing dog) one of my fav poses.

i dont even remember how i metpepe, or even how long ive know him. but i know hes super nice and he makes AMAZING art. i always get insanely excited and giddy when i see people i know making inspiring work.

umm... i know we are all irritated with the weather... especially those of us with little ones. but we need to keep in mind that the rain is vital to us and it is a great blessing from the earth. its kind of funny that we walk around...these giant fluid-filled, flesh-bags, but we hate to get wet.

someone puked on robinson outside of helens last night....luckily the rain washed most of it away....another reason to be greatful!

justin (my friend....not my boyfriend) and i are going on a fabulous trip tomorrow. i am very excited to take a day trip. even if it is just gloucester and hampton.

ok.ko.
im done here.

a.

i am absolutely bonkers over Miranda July, so much so, that she gets her name capitalized.

As of late, I am completely motivated. There is something about having a busy schedule, that makes you realize yu can always do more.

Last week I was a complete and utter bitch. Mercury went into retrograde and things got a little nuts. Luckily, I stayed level headed, managed to avoid any major decision making situations, and things seemed to settle down.

Justin has tattooed me twice in the past two days and my sleeve is getting closer and closer to completion. The one I got tonight may have replaced all others on my favs list.
FYI... the ditch and the elbow hurt as much as everyone says....and the arm pit.

look what i can do!
unfortunately...or fortunately...I cant decide.... I do a limited amount of "real" design...which makes it a whole lot more fun when I get to churn out cheap-o signs for crabcakes.

anyway... justin just got home. i want to take a bath and watch the office on DVD. ill update more tomorrow.

I am on a quest to re-own all the Richard Scarry books I owned as a child. I am dying for this one....busy, busy, world.... however, it goes for over $40 and I just cant justify shelling that out. I settled for "busy, busy, town" and "what do people do all day" each were a few sheckles a piece.
If you come across busy, busy, world or any of the brick books....(the covers are illustrated bricks) I will buy them off you.
awesome.

Anyway, things have been hectic since I started my new job....and after spending 9 hours staring at the computer my eyes and brain need a break....therefore, i havent been getting online as much....resulting in a lack of blog posts.

My new job is pretty amazing. It was initially quite intimidating, but im slowly becoming absorbed into the flow of things.
Yoga is STILL amazing. im getting a lot better which is really exciting. i am ACTUALLY progressing. i definitely didnt think i would catch on so quickly, but i have absolutely fallen in love with it and really push myself in class. Im thinking once my six weeks is up Im going to join another class too....so ill be practicing twice a week!!!
IM STILL NOT SMOKING!!!!!
anyway....
today justin (the other one...not my bf) and i had brunch at helens and went thrifting...the weather is absolutely AMAZING!
i heart jeans and sweaters!

ok. check out my flickr.... new pictures.......

oh yeah.... go out and buy the new miranda july book. its worth the read.

i swear this isnt a porn blog. Masuimi Max is just too cute. She looks kind of like a bobble head.
iamtrouble

so i have been in super-mega-bitch mode as of late. I really need to write some apology notes. I mean, I'm exhausted, thats all. I started my new job this week and its been completely hectic. Basically, I've spent most of my time fixing the last guys mistakes, so new incoming work has been piling up and I've been working late every night. I'm really into it tho... just not yet acclimated to having so many people be so dependent on me. Its a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibilty, I just dont want to let anyone down.
I went out and bought a new Illustrator book for CS3. I'm actually still using CS2 at work, but after looking at some of the new features that CS3 has I think I'm going to try to push for an upgrade. (The panels operate out of a collapsible dock, and you can customize and save your work space.)
Anyway..... between the work stress and having house guests, I guess I've been kind of grumpy....and after working an 11 hour day I really don't feel like coming home and finding an over flowing trash can. nuf said.
I finally recieved my natascha merritt book I had ordered off amazon. I was pretty annoyed to find that it was completely busted. The description said "Like new, slight shelf wear". Bullshit. It was not "like new" it was "like old" it was all busted and had a bunch of weird shit underlined and noted written in it.
Lame. I should report her.
I was going to go spend my west elm gift certificate, but it was too damn hot to be running around outside. I think I'd be better off to wait until payday anyway, as $100 doesn't get you far at the Elm.

alright.
Im out.
Hopefully this weekend will go a little smoother and ill be able to get in some mid-week blogging. i have lots of links and new pics to post.

a.

ps. watch the office and 30 rock on thursdays....both those shows are AMAZING!

i have no idea who did this photo...if you know, message me and i'll post it.

lots of new photos in my flickr and i posted a new link to my del.icio.us....

ENJOY!

in.turd.net

i wish i could tell you where this piece came from...its been so damn long since ive been anywhere near my computer, and my desktop is covered with nameless images.

Its weird using my computer again. I mean, its WAY cuter, and more comfortable, but Justins computer is a lot nicer. His screen is probably twice as big as mine...(i actually had to go get my glasses, because my comp was hurting my eyes!)
Its really hot. Far hotter than it should be this close to October. The afternoon's are the worst time for cravings. I always want to smoke in the afternoons.

Anyway...Im going to Lowes for new succulent soil....a couple of my plants have want I believe to be mealy bugs, and in order to get rid of them I have to dig up the plant, wash it off, and replant it in a new pot with new soil. What a pain.

Now that I have my computer back there should be lots of good link/pic updates.

a.

Oh bother. I can't upload a photo....I won't have this problem when I get the internet TOMORROW!!!!
How stoked am I?
(answer: VERY)

I decided not to return back to my crappy job. One of my co-workers sent me a completely inappropriate/unprofessional text message, which acted as a blatant reminder that I was only working there as a favor to them. So why bother?

I swear I am like a catch-all for shitty people. I give way too many chances and make too many excuses for people... and then when they hurt my feelings I can only be mad at myself. These are not new behaviors. I just want to save everyone. heh.

Don't get the wrong impression here. I'm really not sad....just recognizing the fact that every couple of years you need to clean house a little bit.

I LOVE buying things on the internet. Well, not really, I am more of a validation shopper. When I spend money I want something new and shiny at that moment...I have no interest in waiting three to five business days for my presents to arrive.
However, I DO absolutely LOVE coming home and finding presents on my door step.

So far I have recieved....
"No one belongs here more than you" by Miranda July
"St Lucys Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell
and...
An a book of John Currins work... AMAZING!

bye for now.

a.

today has definitely been my worst day as far as not smoking goes. I would've thought that the earlier days would have been worse, but apparently my withdrawals have kicked into overdrive. I haven't been sleeping. My sleep cycle is all messed up from being sick and sleeping all the time, so instead of falling asleep at eleven, I haven't been able to crash before 4am. It's been completely miserable. Top that with the stress of not smoking, and the anxiety I have about giving my notice a mere month after taking a job, and the results are one big frazzled mess. Time to start drinking?
My studio is finally 80% complete. At least I can work in there now. I have some ideas for projects and I've been attempting to get work done...to no avail. Oh, yeah, and I overdrew my bank account. Well, not technically, but I'm sure Wachovia will charge me anyway. They will charge you overdrafts for pending charges, even if there are pending deposits. Its lame. I really need to find a new bank. Any suggestions?

Also, in attempt to regain a little bit of a social life, I think I'm going to start having a movie night at my house....girls only maybe? Anyone interested?

....pray for me.... I'm really trying to stay strong through this whole not smoking ordeal.......it's insanely hard though, and any kind words/pats on the back would be greatly appreciated.

a.

reap the benefits of all my luck....a special little gift to keep you entertained....
TONS of links....

matte stephens matte does super cute Richard Scarey-esque paintings. He also loves good furniture....and I like that.

lena corwin has an amazing collection of vintage coffee mugs.

jeana sohn is sickly-cute, talented, and has great taste in furniture.

mark dean veca the stuff wet dreams are made of.

pretty girls...

i LOVE this place

im kind of scared to blog. my internet connection that i "share" with my surrounding neighbors has been completely non-existent as of late. At least my beloved blogger has an automatic save feature.

*note to self... add more links to posts! i feel guilty for not being a more responsible linker. my image file on my desktop is overflowing and my bookmarks are getting a little overwhelming. There are just SO many amazing blogs popping up all over the internet. Very exciting stuff.
Also, I'm going to try to be more conscious of my writing....make things a little more cohesive and fluid.

so yeah...

So many things happened this week, and all with out leaving the comfort of my bed. (Not so much comfort actually, my bed is too small, I've officially decided.)
It was my birthday on Wednesday... how lucky am I to share the same b-day week as so many amazing people...(Rosser, Tesser, and lots of others that I cant recall at the moment.) However, I became really sick on Monday afternoon and remained in bed until yesterday....bronchitis and laryngitis. nice. It was pretty crappy, but I did get to watch lots of episodes of The Office and 30 Rock.

Oh yeah.... I QUIT SMOKING! Its only been 5 days, so don't get too amped, but I'm trying really hard. I even went out and dropped $50 bucks on the damn patch. I don't really like it though. Its itchy and makes me a little nauseous. It also freaks me out a little. It comes with a damn bible on how to use it, and has really specific rules on how discard the used product and such. Its like anthrax or something. It makes me paranoid.

So back to whats important....presents. This year I was so sickly spoiled, I got way more than I ever deserved. Some of the highlights...

gift cards to amazon, target, and west elm

terry cloth short shorts from american apparel

and...

a million things from urban outfitters...lamp,owl bank, etc...(oh, and by the way...I'm not giving them anymore of my money. They are stealers and biters and haters....but thats a rant for another blog

OH YEAH! most importantly I got a new awesome job....without even looking! I sent out a million resumes and went on about a half a million interviews before I moved up here, but unfortunately the summer is the worst time to try to get a print job. Its the slow season as far as all that goes...I have yet to discover why.
So, I finally sucked it up and took a job working for the company I had been employed at before I left. I took a better position with more pay, so it all worked out. Well, since I accepted the position, I have received interview requests nearly every week, which I politely declined. However, I had interviewed at one place that I really wanted to work at and I never heard back....until this week!!! Its a HUGE promotion. I will be doing ALL the art/design/pre-press for a company that specializes in screen printing and product marking. I'll have my own office. A decent raise in pay and a lot better benefits.

Now i just need to tell my old job..... I'm really not stoked about this...but I'm hoping to make the situation a little better by helping them find my replacement.

So yeah...things are really amazing right now. I never would've thought that they could've gotten any better. Now I just need to finish my damn apartment....(yes, it is still not complete!)

you have no idea how excited i am to see this movie.

*edit.... im hearing that this is actually a fake movie poster.... too bad. its freaking adorable.

ugh. why cant i add an image??? things have been good. work has been insanely stressful, but i started yoga on wed. and that was lovely. i never realized how completely atrocious my spelling is. its kind of embarrassing. (blogger now highlights misspelled words)
i also rode my bike for the first time in over a year. it was pretty nerve-wracking. im so weak. i rode all the way to justins work, and then made him give me a ride home...hilarious. i was going to do it again today, but its raining out. sad. maybe tomorrow. im hoping to work around the house (as usual) tomorrow. i'd really like to get it done so we could have a little "welcome to richmond" housewarming....but im starting to get the distinct impression that the house is going to be quiet lived in by the time i get around to it.

speaking of. i think im going to try to get some cleaning done tonight, so i can focus on organizing tomorrow....versus, laundry, dishes, etc...that seem to take up a good part of the free time i have for getting settled.

its my birthday next wed. but the presents have already started coming. justin bought me a limited edition pink CHI.... (ceramic hairstyling iron) even the damn box is pink.... and hilariously foreign/generic looking, which is kind of shocking considering the price.

a.

first off...Lee Bul is AMAZING!

second....why the ef is it so hot? its freaking september! i just ate the most ridculous brownie for dinner, and washed it down with sierra mist. there is something seriously wrong with me. it was a brownie topped with peanut butter, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and a little peanut butter cup! kroger has seriously stepped up the dessert case. i bought justin a piece of cheesecake topped with strawberries....he's going to be a very happy boy when he gets home.

today was crazy at work. then i had to drive around in my unair-conditioned car, carry groceries upstairs, and walk the dogs. im beat.

hopefully tomorrow will be slow at work. its pay day...its friday....and hopefully it will cool off.

a.