a post that makes no sense

Oh hey there, blog. It's been so long. I'm sorry it's taken [yet another] snowy day to bring us back together for the first time since Halloween.

This post is about getting your shit together and doing what you want to do in life. Accomplish what you want to accomplish! Don't let your day job get in the way of what you really strive to achieve. Hell, maybe even try to combine your goals into your day job, if possible. I know it's possible for me. Some people, however, those financial consultants that really dream of being golf pros, maybe this isn't as attainable.

But if you're working at a boutique small business that is already basically a design firm/store in itself, why not try to merge your graphic design talents in there as well? Shake things up a bit. Everyone will benefit from a rebranding strategy. You will get to do graphics work, and the business will look better. Win win, right?

Maybe. Let's explore.

First, a sketch. One that reminds me to keep sketching, because I can. This is one of a series of 30 from a garden at school. It was the bomb. I have vowed to sketch one page per day. Maybe this will help me determine my priorities.

Let's start with where my greatest interests lie. Interior design? Not really. Though it should be top on my list seeing as I spent about 6 years studying the science of interior design... This is not my greatest interest. I've managed to twist and turn it into more of a hobby and past time. Ironically enough it's what I spend my days doing (in peoples' homes, though, and not commercial or public spaces - which I've found to be more rewarding anyway as you develop a personal relationship with these people). I could spend hours on home styling blogs and pin boards and yadda and yadda. I spend the better half of my time on Pinterest looking through home images to get ideas for my new home in the end of the summer. Maybe it's a girl thing. We nest. We gather. We make homes.

Gotta make your loved ones cozy! Duh.

But I'm not sitting here 24/7 in Revit putting together a building with HVAC and doing all the boring stuff. And for that, I am glad. I remember in studio critiques when my professors would ask me what a particular aspect of my design would be made out of. "What material do you think this is?" they would say. Hell if I know. I just know what I want it to look like.

For that reason, maybe I wasn't the best interior design student. But I did know one thing - I had an eye for graphic quality. My other professors noticed this early on, and I probably knew that back in the day when I had a website in middle school (to this day I cannot remember what was actually on there, but I remember making it pretty). 

Unfortunately, I realized this about halfway through my degree. No backing out now. So what did I do? Turned all of my projects into a graphic project. I challenged myself to present it in a way that no one else was presenting. To turn an interior project into a graphic project. But still having enough "interior design" qualities to make it okay with my professors. It lacked some technicalities, but in the end I think they know what I was trying to do and who I was trying to be.

Let's stop rambling and start getting to the point. My top interests are:

1. graphic design

2. food/baking

3. interiors

Yes, food and baking wins out interiors. After work, I come home, window shop online, pin design pins, and most of all - read cookbooks. I typically fall asleep reading a cookbook. I think about food most of the time. I watch food network any time that I'm home. Every night before leaving work, I find a recipe to make. Must be a given talent that I have to be able to read a recipe, because apparently this hard for some people... I would like to help those people. How sad it would be to not know how to read a recipe. And for those of you wondering - yes, reading a recipe is different than reading reading.

Graphics & food... Graphics & food... Sounds like Spoon Fork Bacon to me, but also sounds like an opportunity to blog more. And that I will. Maybe I'll even start photographing some food after I cook it for my honey. That is, if he doesn't eat all of it instantly. Also if we ever make dinner before 830 PM on a weeknight when the sun is still up.

Likeliness: Zero.

are we seeing a trend here?

Welp, here I am on the last day of the month. I am counting this as my October post. I've noticed that my blog posting has been entirely too sporadic for my liking (once a month!). As I've slowly started to show this secret little world to close ones, strangers, and dreamers alike, it's become apparent that maybe I should try a little harder to keep it up.

To that I say "bring it on" but I also know that next week I'm going to be like ehhhh sleepinginsoundsgood and to that I would also say there is no point in forcing inspiration. Cause that's just dumb. When you're inspired, you're inspired. If you're not, you ain't. Ya know?

I'd rather post when I mean it as opposed to just spewing posts onto this blog for the sake of having posts. Quality over quantity, y'all.

This brings me to my October post. Since working at the most colorful, fun, lively, and adorable shop in the DC area, I've noticed a little change in my precious home board. Lawd knows I barely have time to pin anymore, but when I do, I notice some trends to my liking. These make me want to paint things and buy pretty things. But let's be real, I'm broke, ain't got time, etc etc.

A girl can dream though? 

These colorful, lively spaces are unique, exciting, everything I could ever dream to have, yaddayadda. You may be saying to yourself, "is this girl planning to live alone forever? Ain't no way a male body would live in such a home." Well, friend, that just makes it obvious that your home lacks any and all personality. Color is color, whether feminine or masculine. A well-styled home is a cozy home, and one that you are welcome to come home to. Plus, some men are colorblind... So there's that.

I am well aware that most husbands have some sort of complex which makes them shy away from "cute" and "pretty" homes created by their wives. They need man caves. They need big TV's and ugly dark furniture. I will never understand this.

Wouldn't you much rather live in a place that's rich in texture, pattern, and color? Something you are proud to call your own? Let's be real. This formula for "texture, pattern, color" can go wrong entirely too easily, and I have seen it happen. But when you truly pick things that speak to who you are and what you love, you can't go wrong.

The main problem is that people buy huge homes with nothing to put in them. Then, they get frantic and start cramming shit in there. Stuff that's "affordable" and cheap, that will be sufficient enough to sustain the beginning of their life in their new home.

... Let's look at this for a second. We're spending a lot of money on furniture we don't actually love, that we plan on getting rid of anyway when we have a little bit more money for nicer things? I'd rather sit on fold-up chairs than spend real money on bad furniture. Why don't we just wait until we have money for the things that we will love for a long time, and that will also last as long? This is ironically turning into my perspective on dating. Awkward.

Point is: buy what you love. Don't buy what you need. My Aunt Jeanne (who is probably reading this) has this mentality when she shops. She knows exactly what she wants, and gets it then and there. No doting, no dwelling, no calculating. And guess what? Her home is my favorite of all time. Of all time, y'all. That's big!

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whimsical patterns

One thing I must say I'm good at (among everything, obviously) is making patterns. Though these are not mine (I wish), they are entirely representative of who I am as a designer. The cute, adorable shapes and colors that just make you all warm and fuzzy inside. No joke, I would have the two on the right as wallpaper in a heartbeat. Maybe not that intense, but I would definitely think about it.

I designed some carpet for corridors in apartment buildings when I was at my interior design internship. It was something completely new and different than what I had been doing in school. Keeping in mind where doors were going to be placed, making sure the corridor was telling a story down the hall... I was all, whaaa? Typically I think carpets such as these (similar to ones in newer hotels) are way overkill in a space, but it was fun to play with pattern. My boss even commended me on my pattern making skills using some shapes found in a Charley Harper book. Boom.

Speaking of wallpaper... Some favs:

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