LIFE & LETTERS NO.2

B is for BOLD

What really sparked this thought for me was this post by Mackenzie Horan of Design Darling. While she was asking a simple question about wearing lipstick, reading through the comments made me reflect on some of my own inhibitions. Throughout this post, she talks about how she loves that others can wear bright bold lipstick colors, but she feels a little shy when wearing it herself. Comments upon comments revealed that a lot of ladies out there do the very same thing. They put it on, like how it looks, but then take it off before leaving the house. Bizarre, but can any of you relate? I know I can.

While this seemingly inconsequential debate over wearing lipstick can continue to go on, I was most drawn to the fact that what many of us were afraid to do in this situation is to be bold. If you like your bright lipstick, take it outdoors. If you're almost 6 foot tall like myself but have a penchant for high heels, run out of the house and lock your doors with them on and drive to work before you can change your mind about wearing them. What people don't realize is how much better you might feel for taking these bold steps! I know these are pretty minute examples, but this summer, working my first professional gig, I came to realize how the height of my shoe or the color of my lips would increase my happiness exponentially (along with a short line at Starbucks and some Beach Boys on my Pandora station). All these little bold moves can really start to add up to make you feel like a more you you on a daily basis.

Appart from dressing, once you get a handle of taking these small bold moves you start to get used to going after what makes you happy. You start to figure out you. Once these small steps add up, who knows what you'll be bold enough to go after! Will you write up the CEO of a company you really want to work for? Will you open your own Etsy shop and start a business that you're passionate about? Will you enter that competition, or try out for a new venture? In life, you often don't get what you don't either go after or ask for. Being bold about going after what you want and what truly makes you happy is where its at.

So I conclude this with a challenge. I challenge you to do one thing this week that kind of scares you, but is something that you'd always wanted to do. Be bold, and see how it makes you feel after. Are there any stories you have about being bold and how they made you feel later on? We'd love to hear them! Also, I hope you do come back and tell us if you completed the challenge and how it went!

Be sure to stop over at my blog to see what Life Letter Ciara talked about and illustrated today! Just follow the link on the image below!



Life & Letters covers topics for creatives and bloggers going through the alphabet one letter at a time.

lettering by kelsey

New Column: LIFE & LETTERS NO.1

Hi friends! Today is an exciting day for me, as I am starting a new collaboration with Kelsey Cronkhite of Pinegate Road. This new column, Life & Letters, will cover topics for creatives and bloggers going through the alphabet one letter at a time. I hope you like this new column and get inspired! We'll be posting on each other's blogs, so make sure to check out both of ours to see all of Life & Letters! Now take it away, Kelsey!
-Ciara


A is for AWE

Awe is one of my most favorite moods. I feel that as a designer it is so very important to experience and be able to translate awe into your work. Most of the times, it's almost forcing yourself to be in awe of the everyday items that you come in contact with. Recently I was working on a project in which I made fruit 'confetti.' I became immersed in this world of fruit, and found myself in awe over the colors, the textures, the ways in which I could slice and manipulate the fruit to create something recognizable yet new in its manipulation. I ended up loving what happened with this project, just because I ran with the feeling of awe that this subject matter gave me.

So, for today, I challenge you to get out there and become in awe of whats around you. You just never know what you might find. One of my favorite tricks—if you're stuck near a computer for the day—is to go on google earth vacations. I often times become so in awe with exploring tropical island paths in Hawaii or searching for polar bears in the Arctic (yeah, seriously — let me know if you find one!) It's all about experiencing life with an open mind and a shifted perspective that can put you smack-dab in the right place to experience awe. You never know where it might lead.

Be sure to stop over at my blog to see what Life Letter Ciara talked about and illustrated today! Just follow the link on the image below!




Lettering by Kelsey, photo found here. Download Kelsey's letter here.

Home // Closet // Tool: RACHEL BALL

Rachel Ball is a blogger and shop owner from Seattle and has great taste. Her blog, Elephantine, focuses on the things she likes to collect + share, especially fashion, accessories, housewares, and photography. She opened her jewelry shop in late 2009 as a hobby, and with a lot of hard work and a little luck, it eventually became her full-time job. In early 2012, Rachel opened a kitchen shop as a side project. She spends her free time photographing everyday life and writing short stories, and she always ends the day with dessert.



Home // Kitchen
Whether it's trying out a new recipe, making one that I know by heart, or hunting through the fridge for a late-night snack, the kitchen is one of my favorite places to be.



Closet // Scarf from Paris
One of the only souvenirs I brought back from my trip to Paris last year was this light, lovely scarf. I already own far too many scarves, but I couldn't resist one more.



Tool // Canon A-1
Ever since I started getting into film photography, this has been my favorite camera. It's a real pleasure to shoot with it.

blog // jewelry shop // kitchen shop // twitter


photos by rachel

Home // Closet // Tool: CASSIE MARIE DIAS

Cassandra Marie is the owner of the beautiful online shop, Oh Leander, and can also be found over at her personal blog, Moon Face. Hailing from sunny Southern California, she enjoys spending her free time traveling to and exploring new places, eating, taking photos, and visiting with friends. This Home // Closet // Tool post gives us a little peek into her world!



Home // Dining Room
This little area in our apartment is a favorite of mine. It gets the best natural light, and I love to spend lazy mornings eating breakfast and mentally preparing for my day here.



Closet // Flea Market Dress
This little number is one of my favorite second hand finds! It was displayed on a mannequin at the Fairfax Flea Market, and I had to have it! I snagged it for just $10 (score!).



Tool // Crochet Hook & Yarn
A couple items I couldn't live without. Not only are they essential tools for creating some of the products in my shop, but they also allow me to the pass time doing something I find greatly relaxing and enjoyable...crocheting.


personal blog // shop

Home // Closet // Tool: ELIZABETH STEVENS MORRIS

Elizabeth Stevens Morris is an author the blog Eighteenth Century Agrarian Business with her friend, Jessica Lord. She's studied architecture, urban design, and historic preservation, and she works in architecture. Elizabeth lives with her husband in a little house in Kirkwood, Atlanta, where she bakes, eats, and frequently redecorates said house.



Home // Petticoat Bar
This is going to frame me as a lush, but I love the bar in our house. My grandpa knew I loved this petticoat table, and he gave it to me only about a year before he died. The table came from my grandmother's family in Mississippi. She loved old furniture, and my grandpa always cheerfully griped that he spent half his life repairing old furniture for her. I love antiques, too, and I'm grateful my grandmother had her furniture fetish.

I also love the bar because we and our guests enjoy it so much. I make tonic syrup for G&T's, which has ruined me and my friends on store-bought tonic forever. So friends come over here and expect a good drink.



Closet // Bike Pannier
I made this pannier to fit my old MacBook and hang on the rear rack of my bike. I'm not an amazing seamstress, and it might have made more sense to just buy a saddlebag, but it's nice to have a custom-made utility piece like this. It looks good on my bike, and I use it as a shoulder bag, too.



Tool // Cast Iron Cookware
I cook and bake a lot. My favorite tools are heavy copper and cast-iron pots and pans. A few of the cast-iron pieces, like the giant Dutch oven and the 12" skillet, were given to me by grandparents on either side of my family. They're great pans, they're beautiful to look at, and someday maybe I'll pass them down, too.

Check out more from Elizabeth on her blog!

TAKE A BREAK

As this year is coming to an end and this holiday season is approaching quickly, I am slowing down. This has been a long, wonderful, busy year and I am ready for my well deserved break. Everyone does.

For bloggers and non bloggers alike (those of you who have other hobbies) we fill so much of our time to the fullest capacity. I wake myself up in the morning by checking emails and twitter and go to sleep making sure I don't have any more notifications. We are on a constant drive to document life and now this is the time for rest and reflection.

This year at some points both dragged on and slipped by. I did so many more things this year than I did in the last three years combined. I'm sure that Tim took me to at least 40 shows and I enjoyed them all. I spent a lot of time with new friends, new restaurants, and new tunes. This was a wild success. Don't forget that I met Tim earlier this year, which has completely changed everything for me - in a good way. I am so grateful for him.

Now when it comes to next year, I am looking forward to planning out more specifically the direction I want to go. There are a bunch of things I want to accomplish and set out to do. More design, original concepts, develop more of my personal style, and start collaborating with other designers. Also, I want to write down some new traditions or goals for me and my loved ones in the new year.

I will still be posting here through the end of the year, but maybe not on the every day basis as before. There is now family in town and I want to indulge in the memory making that is about to go on. And you should too! So here's a toast to everyone taking a sweet rest, getting in the spirit of Christmas, and living life to its fullest.

(and this is where I give you a hug... if I could)

Oh yeah! While you are settling down, why don't you check out Kate Miss' Best Of playlist. It's a good one!



photo here

CARGO TIME

Let's talk about Cargo Collective. "Cargo is a creative publishing platform where everything, from the ever-changing visual appearance of people’s personal websites to the user interface, is built around the work shared by its members. Cargo’s goal is to dramatically increase the accessibility and exposure of creative individuals on the Internet, while aspiring to build a networked context that will contribute to the culture as a whole."

Every Cargo site I've come across belongs to a creative genius. Yesterday on twitter I expressed my desire for a site, but more like shared my goal, you know? And then Mike Germon, one of the artists who runs MINT Gallery sent me an invite. Totally awesome! So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, Thanks, Mike!

(But don't think I'm going to share that link with you just yet! My portfolio/site is kinda bare right now!)

p.s. art by m. c. escher

WEEKEND PART ONE

So Blogshop was on Thursday, so it wasn't really the weekend, but it sure did feel like it. Here are some of the Smilebooth photos from my fun time with Blogshop. The last few pictures were from the mini Smilebooth set up at HD1, a hot dog restaurant where everyone met up after class. Tim stopped by for a minute and we got a few pictures together. I hope you enjoy these really silly photos. haha


I'll have more of a weekend update later on today. Stay tuned!

BLOGSHOP, YES

Hey there folks! If you follow me on instagram, you know that I was at Blogshop yesterday. I heard that a few of you wanted to hear about it, so listen in!

First off, I was not a student of the class and did not attend the entire length of the course. This specific course was three days and geared towards photographers. The first two days consisted of photo training, tips, and a photo shoot. I came for the third day when Angela and Bri arrived and taught the students how to use Photoshop to edit their photos. I was an assistant and helped the students when they had questions during the class.

I have been following Bri's blog, designlovefest for about a year now and that's how I found out about Blogshop. I like her energy and her design style and liked the ideas behind teaching others how to blog and use photoshop. I wanted to make sure that my growing appreciation and support for Blogshop was well deserved. So I invested myself into it and found that it is, truly, a wonderful thing. Now's here's the best part - my experience at Blogshop, even though it was only one day, was more fullfilling than I ever expected. Being around all those photographers and seeing their passion for design and creativity was the most inspiring. I had a wonderful time getting to know the students and meeting the ladies and the photographers running the course.

So all in all, it was a success and I really enjoyed myself. I am so glad that Atlanta is getting on the map for creative things. Next up, Creative Mornings here on December 9th for round 3 with Tina Roth Eisenberg in attendance! Yay!

BLOGSHOP IN ATLANTA

Hi friends and family - this is for you. You might have heard me talk about a 2 day internship and you were probably wondering why it might be so short or what it is. The video above was taken in New York of a Photoshop course for bloggers, appropriately called Blogshop. Two lovely ladies, Bri Emery and Angela Kohler started the course in LA and have traveled all over (even Europe!) with Blogshop. It is an intense bootcamp for people who want to improve their websites and design skillz. This week they're here in Atlanta and I'm helping them out. I'm super excited and I'm so glad I have your support and love. Can't wait to tell you all about it!

tonight is the night.

So just as a heads up, I'm working on a new header for the blog, as well as some other design elements. I really do love the one I have, and it has a deep place in my heart, but I've come a long way from there now. Moving on up! I can't tell you when it'll be live, but I am working on it!

In other news, tonight is the opening night of the art show I helped curate and showing a piece in. This is the first time I have shown a piece in Atlanta, so I'm nervous and excited about it. I spent last night hanging some of the art pieces. It was so exciting seeing it all come together and see my piece hanging there.

After the show we're seeing Youth Lagoon. Please, I'm begging you, if you haven't heard Youth Lagoon yet, please do it. Go on Spotify or Grooveshark or whatever you have, just listen. He will romance your ears.

Have a great weekend, lovelies. I hope it is relaxing and pleasant and full of memory making.

old brand new.

If these photos don't look familiar, head on over to OLD BRAND NEW and get familiar with Dabito! He lives in LA in the most beautiful home, right? Every time he posts new pictures, I kinda freak out. So much inspiration. AND SO MUCH YELLOW!

susie homemaker/02

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I've been soaking in all the home decorating inspiration I can. I even went to Barnes N'Nobles last night to check out Holly Becker and Joanna Copestick's new book, Decorate. So meanwhile, in all the hype of season 2 of Secrets From A Stylist, I realized that Joy had her living room redone by the host of the show, Emily Henderson. Joy then redid her bedroom, which also looks amazing! Don't you love that wallpaper? Joy designed it herself, which makes it all the sweeter for her to have it in her own home. I'm just loving so much about her place: the colors, the arrangement of frames, the chevrons in her bedroom and those amazing Dwell Studio sheets. (I'm pretty obsessed with those sheets right now.) I love the modern couch and mid century coffee table too. Oh goodness, I could keep going on and on.

I've been thinking about the colors I want to use in the new apartment. Most of the furniture is going to be a medium wood color and I think I'm going to accent in reddish coral, yellow and maybe a cool blue. Because of course I'm already using white, black and gray. You should know that about me already...well I hope so.

The yellow dresser is a piece I came across on Etsy. It's not something I plan on purchasing, but I love the horizontal dresser look. My dresser is a vertical stack, but these horizontal ones are warming up to me. Now the media console is from Urban Outfitters. I am completely drooling and lusting over this piece. It is so beautiful! And it has the same legs that I want to put on my sofa. drool drool drool. I even love the little puggy puppy figurine on top.

I'm loving all the inspiration around me. I try and take note of color schemes that work and think of what I like best in interior design. And not all my inspiration is coming from homes either, but just everything around me.

weekend: animal collective.

A bunch of us saw Animal Collective on Friday night. So exciting! It was even the birthday of one of my friends, Jessie, so it was even more enjoyable. The concert was nice, though most of the audience seemed to be MGMT fans - or people willing to go half naked to a show in neon body paint while rolling on molly. It was at a mega amphitheater, which resulted in a $8 blue moon. ugh. But we all enjoyed ourselves.

Come Saturday, we watched Groundhog's Day. Yay! Gotta love them 80's movies. And the rest of the weekend was pretty relaxful. Tim framed some of his posters from Methane Studios and they look amazing. I also am participating in The Concrete Catwalk's scarf swap so I mailed my vintage scarf out to Rachel Smith of The Classy Turtle. Yay! Can't wait to get mine! Can't handle the suspense. I'll let you know how it goes!

face time.

Day Nineteen:
art crush.
Did I ever tell you of my internship with Burnaway.org? Well it is an incredible Atlanta-based online magazine on contemporary art. They have this column called Art Crush and I've always loved it. Mostly, because I have art crushes too. So here's my most recent art crush: Jason Travis a.k.a. J Trav. Here's the Burnaway interview with him. So what's so rad about J Trav? He takes these really awesome dyptiches of local people and the contents of their bags. Pictured above is my friend Victor (who I call names like Victrolium, etc).

So definitely check out the Burnaway article about J Trav! And while you're at it, look at more of his series, Persona


{please note that these photos are not the only kinds of photography that jason does. check out the rest of his flickr and blog for other examples.}

online stamp.

Day Fifteen:
fav blogs.
Well, you should have seen this one coming. I sound like such an obsessive adict, but honestly, you just asked the right question. I've mentioned Angela Hardison before, and yeah, I'd have to say she's on my list of top blogs for sure.
I also really love Design*Sponge, Strangely Beautiful Things, and But Does It Float" also. Check them out!

shh! don't tell! i stole angela's photo from angela!