Dastardly Design Distractions

Tomorrow I have my very first Geology test. So, naturally I decided now would be an excellent time for me to find some design inspiration. Even though I have nothing to design at the moment. And the test will definitely be happening tomorrow.

Some fun things I found/aspire to:

1.From Eggpress. If you can’t tell already from previous posts, I have a minor obsession for this Portland company.

2. This is awesome on so many levels. I would love to design something like this. You can download the actual file here.

3. Let’s be honest. I’m just obsessed with anything that involves bikes. And all of the designs from Coquette Paper and Press’ etsy shop are just clean and beautiful.

4. And these from Color Me Katie are photos, but aren’t their vision just beautiful? I want to do that.

I cut myself off from the search before I lost all of my studying time, but do you guys have any design sites you love? Also, do any of you know if upgrading to the CS5 Design Suite is worth it?

*Lingering Still by She & Him has been lingering in my mind today.

Just Keep Swimming

Today was my wonderful roommate Sam’s last home swim meet of her college career. Isn’t she cute?

My other roomies and sister went to support her. I’ve been to a lot of her meets over the past four years, and they’re always a ton of fun.

We also took a little Jamba trip on Amber’s magic money card.

Overall, a lovely day. The weather was even nice, leading me to decide that I would be REALLY ok with it being spring now…

*Also, I am in love with the song Swim Until You Can’t See Land by Frightened Rabbit, and I feel like it works really well with this post. Because it mentions swimming. So I’ll give you a link.

Competing Cards

So, the Department of Communications had a Christmas card competition and I decided to submit something just for kicks. I’m always looking for an excuse to design something since I don’t get to use InDesign for any of my classes any more. I miss InDesign.

It was just something simple, but it was totally worth it because they ended up giving everyone who entered a gift card. It was also fun because they put all of them on display in the HFAC (above) until last week, so I got to pretend like I was a cool artsy person.

Here’s a pic (from my cell ‘cuz apparently I lost the others) of the card in case you have any desire to see it. It had to incorporate the theme “I am a light come unto the world” from John 12:46.

*Also, since I know you’ve been wondering, Train Song by Feist and Ben Gibbard has been stuck in my head the past few days. It is wonderful.

Best House Guest Ever

So my old roommate Christy the Witt came up from San Diego and stayed at my apartment for the past few days, and she decided that she needed to pay for her room with records! (!!!!) She’s actually the one who convinced me I needed to get a record player of my own.

Now my collection is about 110% more awesome than it was before. She gave me:

• Gloria Gaynor’s “Love Tracks” – with I Will Survive. It is awesome and needs to be blasted at all times. Seriously, I’m doing it right now.
• Toto’s “IV” – with Africa. Which really makes me happy largely because of Sam & Macrae’s 80’s Prom last year. Bless the rains.
• Tim Curry’s “Simplicity” – This makes me laugh so much. It also rounds out my Psych American Duos episode collection. He totally played the main judge on the show.
• Huey Lewis and the News’ “Fore” – with Hip to Be Square. I already have this song on my iPod, and it’s even more awesome on record. I also love them for another reason that will become more clear two bullet points down.
• The Dave Brubek Quartet – with Take Five. Christy said this is essential for any cultured person, and I totally believe her. It has wonderful, wonderful jazz. Little does Christy know, in elementary school KKJZ was my favorite radio station. They played all jazz all the time. Ya, I’m kind of a nerd.
• The BACK TO THE FUTURE SOUNDTRACK -- My absolute favorite (although there are many extremely close seconds), as this is one of my favorite movies of all time. For some reason when I got my record player I totally imagined playing Johnny B. Goode on it, and it’s definitely on the record. It even says Johnny B. Goode, performed by Marty McFly with the Starlighters. It’s perfect. I can recreate the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in my room.
• And a B.o.B single is arriving from her tomorrow! She said she wanted make sure I had some modern stuff too haha.

Christy’s staying here really required no effort on my part since she slept in Sam’s bed because Sam was out of town for a swim meet. But I am definitely keeping the records anyways… She’s way too nice to me.

(In case you wanted a visual)

Sister Shopping Spree

Today was possibly the most successful shopping trip ever. There were seriously the best sales in Salt Lake. Combined, I’m pretty sure my sister and I spent under $100, and we bought lots of stuff from Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Gap, Wet Seal, American Eagle, Victoria Secret and Graywhale. For example, I bought two shirts for $2.25 each. My mom definitely raised us to be bargain shoppers. We pretty much grew up in Ross.

Pictures of our success:

Also, there was a nice view of the city on the way from lunch at The Pie to the mall, so we immediately stopped the car on the side of the road and took these:

Also, best vinyl find of the day? Tears for Fears. I couldn’t stop laughing. Mostly because of this. (You really, really, really need to watch the whole episode. I couldn’t find the best clip on youtube, but this one is definitely sufficient because they’re holding the exact record I bought in it!) The record was even in pristine condition, like no one had touched it since 1985. I think the guy at the store was amused by how excited I was for it.

Please watch the whole thing. You so won’t regret it. Psych Season 2, Episode 1 American Duos.

Also, while I’m talking about psych, they’re having a competition on their web page to have a shout out for the college who gets the most points, and last I checked BYU was totally winning. So please help make it happen! You have no idea how happy that would make me. It’s pretty much my favorite show ever, as evidenced by my psych poster, mug and sweatshirt. Ok, I’m done now. Definitely didn’t mean to write that long about it at all. I just love it far too much.

Camille’s Magic

Just got back from studying while Camille practiced the piano. We haven’t done it for awhile, and I am SO ridiculously happy we’ve started it up again. I can’t even describe how wonderful it is. I sprawl out on the cushy chairs in the Madsen with my notebook, Camille works her magic on the piano. And I just feel so much peace and clarity. I get more done, do better quality work and feel great when I leave. Without fail. It’s one of my favorite things in the world. Definitely the way I would prefer to study every time if I could. I’ve tried to replicate it with recordings, but nothing even comes close.

I took the picture above at Camille’s last recital in the Madsen. I love her so much; she’s one of my favorite people in the world. So glad I got to grow up with her and end up at the same college.

I Found a Wallet

My wallet is bulging, and it’s not because it is full of money -- it’s full of treasures. In order to answer a money question for my mom I had to dive into the depths of my wallet, and along the way I found trove a lot of fun stuff. I think I have a habit of putting a few too many things in there… Annie and Sam (and my mom and sister and a ton of other people) can vouch for the fact that probably one out of every four times I get something out of my wallet I end up dropping all of my receipts on the floor in front of the cash register. People in line just love me. You’d think I’d learn my lesson, but all of my prizes do provide great entertainment when I’m bored! I may not always have a book on hand, but I do have my wallet full of memories.

Here are the highlights of the excursion. (Sorry the pictures are awful. I blame the night.)

The random collection. I feel like if you went through my whole wallet you could learn a ton about what I like and where I’ve been. And I’m discovering they’re mostly food places.

And movies. Plus some other entertainment!

Even some of the receipts were fun. Oh hey look, more food.

My favorite is this one from Good Stuff because you can see everything on it until the Milky Way shake, at which point the actual Milky Way shake covers up the rest.

P.S. Here’s a wallet song to accompany this post. Thanks for putting up with my crazy ramblings. I swear my wallet is cooler in person.

Retro Tunes

I’ve been saving up rewards from my credit card for months, and it finally paid off. Yesterday my awesome new record player arrived in the mail.

My desire to own a record player began in earnest sophomore year when my then roommate Christy Witt entered my life. See below. She’s the gorgeous one on the far right.

She’s a sound recording technology major, and she had a beautiful record record player that sat on our kitchen table with endless stacks of records. I know I can play music on my computer or iPod, but this was different. It was a conversation piece, it was interactive, it was classic. And I wanted one of my own.

It’s a bigger purchase then I can usually justify, but with all of the gift cards I got from my credit card company it wasn’t bad at all. It’s at this point that I’m really wishing I bought more of those records I walked past all of the time in London, though. They were all over the place -- at markets and in music stores of all sizes. But I was paranoid they would break in my suitcase, and at the time the only thing I had to play them on was my parent’s old record player at home in Portland. So I just bought one for my dad for Christmas and left the rest sitting on the shelf. I guess I’ll just have to go back… somehow I am very ok with that idea. I’m always looking for excuses.

Right now I only have three records though, and they have absolutely nothing in common with each other: The Shins, Rick Springfield, and the Dark Knight Soundtrack. I’m sure I need to go to the store. One album I really want is this old Air Supply record below because we had some quality times with it in my old apartment. Let me know if you see it anywhere!

Here’s a glimpse of some of the excitement of opening my package up while I was “doing my homework,” because I know you are all just absolutely riveted by this blog post.

Just so you know, listening to the Dark Knight soundtrack while doing family finance homework makes it way more intense.

A couple more pictures because I’m a nerd and I can.

I can already tell we have some good times ahead of us.

A Capitol Fourth

Let me just say that the Fourth of July in DC is incredible.

I took so many pictures it took a capitol fifth and sixth to get them edited so I could post them. So please look at this album to see what our entire fourth of July was like in DC! I promise there is some good stuff in there. At least I think it’s good stuff, but I could be biased so I’ll leave the final verdict up to all of you.

View Full Album

Now for the narrative.

We started the day out with the parade (well, after church of course. Where David Archuleta happened to be sitting a couple of rows behind us), then had a makeshift barbecue (with a George Forman grill) in the Barlow where we live before heading to the capitol to stake out a spot for the A Capitol Fourth show (on PBS) and fireworks. We actually went to the dress rehearsal for A Capitol Fourth the night before, so we already knew what was going to happen but it was definitely worth going back for the real thing. It was the 30th anniversary of the show, and performers included Gladys Knight, David Archuleta, Reba, John Schneider, the Marine Band, Lang Lang, the National Symphony Orchestra (they played songs like the 1812 Overture with the fireworks)… Fantastic. We got there at 4 (the program didn’t start until 8) and it was ridiculously hot but I would do it again. We got the perfect spot sitting on the steps of the Capitol building near the top. I could see the stage and even better the Washington Monument, where they set off the fireworks. Luckily we had enough people that we could take shifts of who could take refuge in the shade so we didn’t all die before it started.

Here are some choice pictures from the parade and waiting:

Parade. (My mom requested I post more pictures I’m actually in)

Tasty Barlow BBQ complete with flag cake

90% of the gang. They weren’t all paying attention… Not my fault.

The view.

I had to try to take a picture of this balloon. It was required.

Assorted.

And the whole thing just looked perfect in the sunset. Look at this lighting! I didn’t even edit it. SO beautiful. I might be a little obsessed with the way the world looked at this moment. You could take a picture of anything and it would look good. See?

I could seriously put a million fireworks pictures on here. Way too much fun. I’ll limit myself to posting like… twenty. What is really fun is flipping through them really fast on my computer, because then it looks like the show is going on again. It was seriously so beautiful. Hopefully I captured at least a little bit of it for you to see. I didn’t even play with the colors or lighting or anything in Photoshop. I apologize for any shakiness. My tripod is conveniently in storage in Utah. Wasn’t quite able to get to it for this weekend…