midweek inspiration 12

This week is not going my way at all. Not even a little bit. Admittedly I am a bit behind on my posting, but I am a bit preoccupied at the moment. Something that did catch my eye at the beginning of this week was a post on Green Wedding Shoes about the Cork Art from Anthropologie in honor of earth day. I wish I would have stumbled across this sooner so that I could have attended one of the workshops in Portland though! Me and Pat have been collecting corks for a long time now and I fully intend to use them for something fabulous like this!

[[ antropologie cork art. ]]

terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Yesterday was not a great day. I was grumpy and did not feel like posting.

Everything was ok until I got home and was greeted by a red light ticket that came in the mail for me. Two hundred and eighty seven dollars... I am a good driver. A safe driver. I do not speed. And I do not run red lights. The circumstance was two Sundays ago when I was trying to find my way back on to the freeway from Bridgeport so that I could get my super sick self home. I was lost in an area with no traffic whatsoever, literally no other cars, and completely thought that the light was green in my sick state of mind. Apparently, I was wrong. :( And all for a silly signed Deftones album for Pat. It was worth getting sick for, but the trickle of bad things stemming from that Friday night are starting to get larger and larger. Now I have to show up to a court date in the middle of the day an hour away from where I live at the end of next month to try and at least get that outrageous fine reduced. Sad Jenn.

I also just found out that the only house in town that we have even considered renting that we just looked at yesterday is more then likely off of the market because we did not fill out paperwork right then and someone else scooped it up right out from underneath us. We are never going to find a place to live and I am honestly completely discouraged and depressed about it at this point.

Did you ever read this book when you were little? "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Dad Day". I used to love it. Some days/weeks nothing seems to go right.

[[ a very relevant book from my childhood. ]]

hooray friday!

I am so excited it is Friday &&& not only that, but I feel ten million times better today!!! I am about to get off work, run home, finish packing real quick, and then head out the door to Portland for another fun weekend with my friends/family! Bonus, it is supposed to be sunny, and, wait for it, in the upper 60s tomorrow (for us here in Oregon, that is a BIG deal).

Tonight I am meeting up with Tiffany, Megan, and some other people to go to Smash Putt... which, I do not entirely understand the concept of. All I know is that it is describes as a traveling interactive art show that involves putt putt golfing, drinking, and an old abandoned warehouse... so, count me in! Should be a fun time, either way I am trying something completely new. Since Sunday is my dad's birthday, I am hanging out with family all day Saturday and am kinda excited about it. I love my littles. Sunday is the most exciting day of all! I get to pick up Pat from the airport!!!! He has been gone since last Friday and I have missed him so much since he has been gone!

Anyway, I am out the door. Have a fun weekend!!

[[ my borrowed tea cup. it reflected my feeling better mood today. ]]

p.s. Happy Earth Day Earth... yay planet.

uh oh shoes...

Oh man I am awful at posting lately! Maybe it is due to being sick, or just busy, but I have not been blogging as regularly as I have in the past. I almost forgot a post for tonight...

I am currently working on wedding invitations, watching my first season DVD of "That 70s Show" (disk 1), and contemplating the purchase of some new shoes from F21, (don't worry Pat! I have a gift certificate. Thank yooou Karen). I have been pretty bored with my heels lately, and wanted something a bit more fun. I definitely want some platforms for summer, tan preferably, but I have not found the right ones yet. For now, I think these grey suede wedges will do the trick. I am also sort of a sucker for these leopard ones though... uh oh. The platforms I love, but am not sure I could actually walk in, so I think I will pass on those for now. I wish that I had some of the shoes that Jackie wears on the show!! She always has the cutest boots or wedges on. I would take some of Hyde's band shirts as well!

[[ that 70s show cast. brown platforms. suede lace ups. leopard wedges. ]]

weekend adventures 27 part II - concert adventure

It was just too hard to try and fit everything into my weekend adventures for this week, so the concert gets its very own post. I know it is Wednesday, and I am supposed to do my midweek inspiration today, but to be honest, I have been, and still am sick, and just am not feeling all that inspired this week, so I am bending the rules slightly to work with me. 

(the adventure)

So, I noticed on the Deftones website that there was talk of a special little giveaway they were doing in honor of Record Store Day (on Saturday)... basically, the first 50 people in line for the Friday night show would receive a copy of their new record, titled "Covers" which was not scheduled to be released until the following day... BUT here is the kicker, it would be SIGNED by each band member. Well, call me crazy but I love the Deftones, and thought that would be pretty cool to get my hands on, especially since Pat was unable to attend the show, and once I get an idea in my head, I tend to go through with it. Doors were scheduled to be at 7, we got to the Crystal Ballroom at 4, and there were already people waiting outside. After a quick headcount we realized that we had made it there early enough! Now, we just had to hold down our spots for three hours. 

Three hours quickly turned into 4 hours since doors opened late. As amped as we were at first to stand in the rain with our hoods on, barely noticing the cold... By the time we got inside I literally could not feel my toes (which did not warm up for over an hour no joke), or my fingers, and I was shaking uncontrollably from being frozen! Not to mention that my throat hurt, I assumed from the amounts of people smoking cigarettes continuously near by (gross). BUT the second the bouncer came outside and handed me my very own signed record it was all worth it!!! Success!!!

[[ standing in line. little red. the crystal. crowd. bored = funny faces. very cold feet. we got our records! cracked ceiling brings rain inside. deftones merch. signatures and secret messages. the stage. ]]

(the concert)

Doors opened, and record in hand we shuffled in and run up three? four? flights of stairs to the balcony to grab some seats. (If you have ever been to this venue before you know that there are hardly any seats, and that you have to get there super early to claim one). Spots saved, we headed back downstairs to the merch booth to take a look. They had some pretty cool stuff down there, expensive though. I scooped up a shirt for myself, and one for Pat (shh, its a secret, I am pretty confident he wont read through this). I can't even remember the last time I bought myself a band shirt, it has certainly been a while. This one is sweet though, I am excited to work it in to my wardrobe. We grabbed some pizza for dinner (so happy they had food there) and some drinks and took our seats. Two mediocre opening bands down and they were up! 

The show was amazing!!! They played a TON of songs in a two hour set. I was seriously amazed when they played "Passenger", which was the song that my entire Expressive Typography class was based off of. They opened with "Diamond Eyes" off their new album, and closed with "Back to School" classic. Other noteworthy songs performed were: "Elite", "Be Quiet and Drive", "Digital Bath", "Change in the House of Flies", "Minerva", "Knife Party", "Sex Tape", "You Came to See the Butcher", and "My Own Summer". Though there were more. They did a really good job varying new with the old. Oh, frontman Chino also randomly started singing "Material Girl" by Madonna during one transition. It was hilarious. They had really cool visuals playing the the background throughout the show as well, hard to describe. Oh, by the way, it was literally raining SOO much outside, that the ceiling inside was leaking water. Yea. Pretty sure that is not up to code.... Sketchy. 

I took some video, but my camera filled up really quick :( I promptly bought a much larger card the next day, but the damage was done. I did get lots of pictures though! Here are some of the good ones. 

[[ snapshots of the deftones performing. ]]

Standing outside in the rain definitely pushed my immune system over the edge and made me sick, but the reward was soooo worth it! I need to bust out my Nikon and take some better pictures of the album before I get it framed. I will surely post those on here when I get them done.

weekend adventures 27 - part I

Alright, here we go. Last weekend was an epic weekend, as promised! Though it did come with one major consequence, I am the sickest I have been all year long. Boo. So worth it though. There was a trip to the airport, some shopping, a tremendous amount of time spent standing in the rain with my partner in crime Meguenther, an amazing concert (!!!), a little bit of dancing, a birthday lunch date, a small amount of little sister bonding time, and a long drive home. Ready? (I was trying to keep everything together in one, but it is just too big! So this weekend adventures is a two parter... Concert description to follow.


friday
I took the day off to drive Pat to the airport myself so that I could spend some time with him before he boarded his plane to Canada for a work event. He had been working in Portland with our new soccer team the Timbers all week long, so I only got to see him for a few hours Wednesday and Thursday nights. I was pretty sad all morning because I absolutely hate spending time away from him. It is not that we are completely dependent on each other, it is just that I love him so much it hurts when he is gone. Cheeeeeesy. Anyway, we got to the airport early so that we could grab some lunch, but before I knew it, the time had come for his flight to board so I had to say goodbye. I cried. Like a baby. I cannot even comprehend at this point how in the hell we managed to spend our first year together in a long distance relationship! There is no way I could do it anymore! After dropping him off, I rushed home to my dads, changed for the night, and headed downtown with Megan for our crazy adventure I have been talking about.

In short, the adventure was me standing in line for four hours for a hefty reward. The long version will be posted tomorrow, along with a full description of the concert! It is just too much to fit in here. The concert in one word was amazing. More on that tomorrow as well. If it seems like I am being sneaky and non descriptive on purpose, it is because I am! I think the tale of the Deftones show is a pretty epic one and it deserves a bit of build up.

[[ sneak peak. ]]

friday night (post concert)
Tiff had already gone home for the night because she was not feeling great. So with our concert buzz, me and Megan went over to the East side to meet up with Colleen, Sam, Morgan, and Hunter. We did not realize, however, that they were at an actual dance place, and we were way over dressed, so it was freaking hot in there! The place was kinda chill though. It was definitely a dive, but they played funky dance music, actual funk, from the 60/70s, it was way nicer to dance to then the other crap they play in clubs. We stayed there until closing but when everyone split up we decided to head home. At this point I was not feeling very good at all. My sore throat from earlier was killing me now and no amount of water could help it.

[[ kids dancing at the good foot on the eastside pdx. ]]

saturday
I slept in and then met up with Megan for some shopping. We avoided the mall, but I had no idea that Nordstrom Rack would get me into trouble, well, I might have had an inkling. I ended up finding some over the knee boots though on super sale, so it was a win. We also went to Target, which I love but never get to go to, and I found a cute new purse/bag to carry my laptop around in! Then we headed to Adorn, a piercing place in Beaverton where we have gotten like everything done at since high school. I wanted to find some new gages, but sadly, nothing was the right size. Megan decided to get a new piercing on her ear though. I pretended to be texting but was totally taking pictures of her funny facial expressions. Saturday night we were supposed to get back together after I met my parents for dinner, but I was starting to really feel crappy, so I stayed in at my dads and went to bed early.

[[ me sneaking pictures, she makes some great facial expressions when in pain. ]]

sunday
Breakfast with the parents. A trip to the craft store with the little sister. Failed attempts at making brownies. Seeing baby Landon for the first time. And a pretty terrible movie. That was my afternoon. It was impossible to get a hold of Ms. Tiffany, who I was supposed to meet up with for birthday lunch. So we ended up meeting around dinner time instead. I was not feeling good at all though, so it was a really short visit. Hopefully, I can actually hang out with her for a bit longer this coming weekend. I should be over the plague by then. After a quick stop at American Apparel I had a long drive home, and then passed out almost immediately once I hit my bed, only to wake up the next morning feeling like death.

[[ tabi's baby boy landon. dest and jayden being silly little girls. ps, mcdonalds = yuck, no thank you. ]]

Tomorrow the rest of the concert info will be posted. 

sick as a dog

I am sick. Boo. Apparently standing outside for 4+ hours in the rain and cold is not necessarily a good idea for your immune system, but it was worth it. I will explain the background on that one later, it was me and Megan's crazy adventure. Needless to say I actually missed my first work day in almost a year when I called in this morning. We will see if I can make it out the door tomorrow... I hope so, but do not have high hopes based on how I feel right now.

Driving home yesterday was not very fun, but I did get home in time to capture the beautiful sunset.

[[ fuzzy sunset pictures. ]]

happy birthday laaaaaaaaaaady !!!

Today is one of my bestest friends in the worlds birthday!! Ms. Tiffany Williams!!!!! (yes, I know you are married and your last name is now Peterson, BUT, you will always be TiffWill to me) I love you, and hope you are having a fantastic birthday! I am going to do everything I can to see you tonight! Or at least this weekend!! (I'm not a jerk I promise, I am at a concert that I bought tickets to a while ago by the way to anyone reading this... Though, I kinda feel like one for not being at your party).

[[ look its coopy! ]]

deftones! deftones! deftones!

So tomorrow night the Deftones will be in Portland and I am going to their show in the Crystal Ballroom!!

I am so excited about it! They are one of my favorite bands by far and the only time I saw them before was back in 2006 at the Taste of Chaos with a ton of other bands, this should be a lot different. The only bummer is that Pat's work is sending him to Canada tomorrow afternoon and he will be gone for a whole week, therefore just barely missing the show. :( <--- Extra sad face. Literally not even five minutes after I bought us both tickets he found out. I know that he is extremely bummed out about it, and I am too! Music is such a big part of our relationship and I LOVE going to concerts together. They tend to tour quite a bit though, so I think we will get our chance. Me and Megan are also doing something kinda crazy tomorrow and lining up real early... but more on that later.

 

When I was in my second year of the design program in college we had to take Expressive Typography, and the basis of the entire term was around dissecting and translating music into, well, typography. Initially we were only told to pick a song, and knew nothing of the projects. I picked "Passenger" by the Deftones because it is so sexy to me and it has always really stood out. We began by doing a series of collages based off of the music itself, so i used a lot of layering and texture.

Next we were told to consider the emotions and feelings associated with our chosen song and translate that into a video utilizing visuals and minimal type to create a short. The song feels very sexual and a little bit naughty and dangerous even. I sort of think of it as if you have stumbled across something that you know you shouldn't be looking at, but can't look away. For my video I played off of the concept of embracing trust in regards to a new relationship and what that felt like for me personally at the time. While typography provides the main 'conversation' throughout, the figure in the background, sounds, and image treatment grant a sense of vulnerability. It was my intention to show the specific moment when I personally embraced the concept of trust and peeled away my layers. (I will load the actual short on here later on when I have access to it).

Finally we created an event poster for a hypothetical concert using the ideas that we had come up with thus far. I focused on the amount of energy evoked from the music, and my poster became more about a bursting sensation of light/sound/energy with a bit of grit to it, than simply an expression of tempo and layering, as represented in the two preliminary scan explorations.

[[ undergraduate studies from expressive typography. ]]

midweek inspiration 11

Hello. I am so off my internal calendar this week, I completely thought it was Thursday and started writing out my post accordingly almost completely skipping my Midweek Inspiration (gasp). Now that I am back on track things can proceed as normal. Warning, this is a long long visually heavy one...


There are many blogs that I frequent each week as time allows, one being Design Sponge, as I have mentioned before. I was looking through some of their recent posts and discovered a "Living In" on the movie "The Secret Garden" which used to be one of my favorites! Curiosity triggered, I thought that I would browse through some of the other titles to see what stood out to me, and I found lots. Thus, my inspiration this week are the "Living In" posts at Design Sponge. (Notably, one of my other favorite blogs Green Wedding Shoes, stages photoshoots based off of movies from time to time, I will have to do a separate post on some of those soon because they are amazing!)

The concept for these is basically Amy Merrick, one of the editors, takes films and creates a collage of items, clothing/furniture that correspond. I can think of many many many more films that I would like to live in, or books that need to become films, but here were some of my favorites included in her posts. (On a side note, I have some long lost movies to find asap...)




The Secret Garden ( A childhood favorite that I am now dying to watch again. I think this film cemented my love for skeleton keys and slightly destroyed looking homes/furniture/antiques... )

Amelie ( One of my favorites for its complete oddness and color palettes. )

Frida ( Because not only did I do a project on this movie in college, but Frida Kahlo was a fantastically original and talented artist, and finally I have a deep love for the Day of The Dead concept and decorations. Picado banners and Sugar Skulls, yes please. )

Dazed and Confused ( I would have done awesome in the 60/70s. Imagine the concerts I could have gone to! Great soundtrack, great movie. )

Romeo and Juliet ( I loved this movie so much! It is incredibly visual, the colors and interior design are fantastic. It is a really unique take on the classic play, and since it came out in '96 when I was a little one, I loooooved Leo like every other young girl. )

Edward Scissorhands ( Tim Burton is a visual genius. Enough said. )

Ferris Bueller's Day Off ( Classic. But I can't believe they didn't include Sloans white leather jacket in the collage!! )

The Big Ledowski ( "It's The Dude, man." )

[[ all images from design sponge. ]]

attempts at a healthier me

I would say that I have a love hate relationship with working out and dieting... but in reality, I just hate it entirely! I am better at maintaining a diet for a long time, but not necessarily in a healthy way. I think that the problem with dieting is that you can get in your head too much and start analyzing every little thing you eat to the point where you do not really want to eat anything at all. Scary thought, but I have certainly been there a time or two. On the reverse, if we do not pay enough attention to what we are eating then most of your food is probably not even nutritionally relevant.

The quickly approaching bathing suit season aside, I want to live a healthier lifestyle... the urge has been creeping up on me for some time, I have just been writing it off or thinking of excuses. I have maintained a good relationship with the gym in the past, but find that after a long day of work virtually anything tempts me away from my routine. My brief stint with running daily was just a joke, I am sure it is great for you, but I just hate it and would rather get my cardio via machine with some weight lifting thrown in for good measure.

This time I am going to try something a little bit different... A morning workout routine. I am sure this sounds completely pathetic, but I planning on starting out with three to four times per week, most likely from Tuesday on. I figure if I get out of bed at 6:15, I can be at the gym by 6:30, workout until 7:25 or so, and still have more then enough time to get ready for work at 8:30. Wish me luck! Tomorrow is day 1 (after a little mishap with my access card this morning, I got up early and everything!) 

[[ delicious snack! ]]

In terms of food, I am not going on a diet. I am going to continue trying to eat balanced meals with lots of veggies. It is my snacking I need to work on getting progressively more healthy. Since Pat is gone this week I have more of a clean slate to work with, as in, he cannot coerce me back into bed with cuddling, or tempt me by ordering a pizza. A two week trial basically. Almonds, string cheese, apples... those sort of things need to be my snacks. That being said, I am not going to freak out if I eat a girl scout cookie or some pirates booty. I am only human, and there is no denying their deliciousness.

If I really get into it maybe someday in the near future I can get Pat to pick up on this too?

weekend adventures 26

This was a stay at home weekend, but it was sunny out almost the whole time, and we got a lot of work done, so I can't complain.


friday
It was sunny and fairly warm all day long so I was 1) Excited enough about the prospect of warm to bust out my jean shorts (and tights). 2) Dying to get outside! When I got home Pat deemed it the perfect time to wash my poor poor filthy Subaru that had been completely covered in red dust from all of our trips over the pass. After that it was a yummy dinner and some movie watching, "The Big Lebowski" (it was a cult classic kind of weekend).

[[ yay sunshine! ]]

saturday
I actually finished my taxes and sent them off, and me and Pat, (mostly Pat, 98%) waxed the car. Thanks babe! Reluctantly I had to do my last chore of switching out the tires on the car, which meant buying new ones (wah!) so expensive. I also had no idea what to do, so I made the guy working there talk to Pat and I am pretty sure he assumed I was a clueless college Freshmen having my daddy buy me tires. Awkward. As a reward we went to, where else, Block 15 for a beer, or two and some delicious dinner. I got a salad, but their fries are way too good there, so I had to order some of those as well. So much for healthy. I also had a black raspberry wheat and it was amazing!!! They make the BEST fruit beers there I have ever had. We were also celebrating some really good news! Pat got a raise!!! YAY!

People came over for a bit at night but Pat was definitely more jolly then the rest of the party, so when people went out to the bars we stayed behind. I caught up on some Weeds.

[[ black raspberry wheat. puppy play time. robot james. pong. homemade skittles vodka. bracelets. ]]

sunday
Sunday was a lazy day for all of the boys due to their festivities from the night before, except for Rory, who ran the Corvallis half marathon in the morning. I made chocolate chip/cocoa pancakes... they were edible. I really need to get better at cooking. I also caught the puppies cuddling on Loki's bed, so cute. We also made some cornbread and watched "Pulp Fiction", another cult classic that I hadn't seen in a really long time. I need to do a movie post because I have been watching a lot lately.......

[[ puppy cuddles. pancakes. ]]

I am super excited for this next weekend, I am going to Portland and should have some much more exciting adventures!

surprise visit

So, yesterday after I got off work I headed to Magenta to grab a drink with Cassie and talk about her wedding invitations, after sending some preliminary designs home with her last week. While I was at the meeting my phone started going crazy... Sam would text me, then Colleen would text me... several missed calls and voicemails later I was finally able to see what was going on since me and Cassie were concluding our meeting. For some reason Colleen, Sam, and Morgan decided to drive down to Corvallis together and were posted up at Bombs Away Cafe having some drinks! It was like old times being back in town with them, made me miss Senior year! I wish everyone would come around every once in a while, or that it was a quicker trip to Portland to see everyone. That is one major problem about remaining here, I do not get to see my best friends as often as I would like to. Tiff's birthday is coming up next weekend so a reunion is in order once again!

Kind of random...
I bought a fancy camera from Urban Outfitters for Tiff's bachelorette party that prints silly things over the top of the pictures (which we kinda forgot to use so it was finished up at the wedding). Sadly I totally got a defective camera and most of the pictures did not turn out, and the ones that did show up are real over saturated, but there were a few keepers I have not thrown up here yet. Check it out.

[[ the urban camera pictures that actually turned out. ]]