train tracks

Corvallis is a town of many train tracks and many trains passing through at all hours of the day/night. We are lucky enough right now to live in a place that is not directly next to the tracks, though it has been a different story in the past. We used to have tracks running right below to our bedroom window which was not only extremely noisy, but would shake the entire apartment as well. I also remember being really late to a final one time because I got stopped behind the longest train known to man!

But, I digress... Trains are pretty cool. I love all of their vibrant colors and graffiti! They make excellent backdrops for portraits as well. Unfortunately when this train blew by on campus I only had my phone, but I still managed to get some pretty good shots.

[[ a train on campus. ]]

glitter banner diy

(Sorry for the lack of original content so far this week, hopefully this post will make up for it).

While Pat was away on a business trip I decided to make a little banner to hang above our bed with some left over glitter from Halloween. I used a "phrase" that is very special to me and Pat for a nice surprise. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out and I didn't have to spend any money at all since I had most of the materials laying around! If you would like to make one, follow the instructions below. Sorry that I do not have better in process pictures, I sort of spaced it at the time.

[[ my completed glitter banner hanging above our bed. ]]

items needed

- card stock paper
- access to a printer
- scissors
- Elmers glue
- a hot glue gun
- glitter (any color of your choosing)
- string/ribbon
- setting spray (optional)
- a vacuum (glitter is messy!)

how i made my custom glitter banner

- Pick a simple font, type out your phrase in all caps, and print. (I wanted my banner to be fairly large, so I made the sizing as big as I could keeping one letter to a page).

- Carefully cut out each of the letters.

- Next take your Elmers glue and a sponge brush, and adhere a generous amount of the glue to your first letter, followed by a heavy dusting of glitter. (Make sure you lay down a newspaper or magazine or something for the mess the excess glitter will make).

- Shake the excess glitter free from the letter and touch up any sparse areas.

- Follow these steps with each letter form and then allow them to dry on a flat surface for at least half an hour. (I let mine sit for about an hour to make sure the card stock had time to harden since the glue has softened it).  At this point you may also wish to spray each letter with setting spray to keep the glitter on even better. I did not think about this step until I had already started hanging mine, so it is definitely not necessary.

- Next move to a large flat area like a floor and spread out each of your letters face down in a mirrored order. Make sure to space them out properly before you begin. (Remember, when you turn the banner over they will display correctly).

- Take your hot glue gun and use a dab or two on each letter to attach your string or ribbon.

- Turn your banner over, hang it up, and admire its sparkly beauty!

[[ a few glimpses into my creation process. ]]

flashes of light

Killer. Migraine. = No post. This is what it looks like when my eyes are closed. Bedtime. 

[[ fuzz. ]]

draw free

Most. Addicting. iPhone. Game. Ever.

I have been playing this non stop since I downloaded it last weekend. I even have a game going with my dad! Check out some of my awesome illustrations so far! They are ridiculous.

For the record, its really hard to draw on your phone let alone write!

[[ koopa. griffin. tentacle. wizard. dougie. luke. venom. jordan. kirby. monopoly. aladdin. pluto. ]] 

accidentally excited for the hunger games ... shh, don't tell

Ok, so I may have accidentally gotten a little more into The Hunger Games then I originally intended to...

I swear I will stop posting about these silly books soon! Probably just one more after I actually see the movie, so bare with me.

[[ poster compilation from imdb. ]]

Upon beginning the series I put up this post with my initial reactions and comparisons which I concluded were pretty spot on once I completed the series and posted a second time. I thoroughly enjoyed the books but decided not to pay too much attention to all of the film hysteria. However, my attempts were a little bit trumped by my lingering curiosity and maybe a little bit of excitement. I could not help but purchase the special editions of Entertainment Weekly and People magazine when I came across their covers glaring at me while picking up my groceries. I similarly could not help but look up some early film reviews to ease my worry of this turning in to a teen franchise with no actual claim as a quality adaptation. So fine Hunger Games, I surrender. After reading a few reviews I am finding myself pleasantly surprised and actually more eager to see the film.

The most important review of not only the film but the book as well is this article by Greg Garrett. He goes into detail about the story itself comparing and contrasting it with our current society which is exactly what I was thinking the entire time. He even agrees with my early review comparing aspects of the story to "A Brave New World". I knew I was on to something...

If you want to read a well written review that is simply about the movie the following article by Jenny Block was quite satisfactory, though be aware that there are SPOILERS in this one if you are not familiar with the books.

I will undoubtably be adding my own little review upon seeing the movie, but who knows when that will be. No, I did not go see it at midnight last night, nor do I intend to see it today, or anytime this weekend. I live in a town with only two theaters and a large import of 18 year olds on top of the standard amounts of high schoolers for a city this size, so that sounds like a nightmare. Plus, I am not positive I will be able to convince Pat to see it with me so I will have to enlist the help of someone else. I do feel a little bit silly for being so interested in this super mainstream story especially with as popular as it is among high schoolers, but, what can I say, sometimes it happens. Case and point, Harry Potter. So bring it on. I am hoping for a well made trio of movies.

snow on spring break

For those of us in Oregon, this week marks the beginning of Spring Break, which would normally bring to mind sunshine and tropical adventures to far away lands. What do we get? Snow... lots of snow...

It literally snowed the entire day yesterday. No exaggeration. When I woke up it was dumping heavy snow, and it never stopped until sometime while I was sleeping. (The power also went out around 3am, not sure what that was all about since we had it this morning). After I got ready for work I went outside with my camera to shoot a few pictures and see just how much snow we got. According to my ruler, a full seven inches, and around here that is quite a lot for one day.

Is it so wrong that I was really hoping for a snow day? Sometimes being a "grownup" is rough. By now the sun is surely out starting to melt through the layers, and by tonight there will most likely be an icy slushy mess to contend with. My biggest wonder is am I going to have to do a Flooding in Corvallis part two post after all the water flows in to the rivers? I guess we will find out.

Now then, onto the pretty pictures, because fresh untouched snow is undoubtably lovely.

[[ snow in corvallis from my iphone. yesterday & today. ]]

[[ the snow this morning at my house. ]]

midweek inspiration 38

This is sort of relevant to my week as I sit here working on design projects and listening to the sweet sounds of Mass Effect 3, which Pat is currently (and every chance he gets) playing. If you need more background for a connection, the game takes place in space.

Now then... 
I stumbled across this series of astronomical drawings by E. L. Trouvelot from a study made between the late 1860s and early 1880s. Aren't they beautiful!? I love the style as well, very evident of the time period. These immediately make me think of the Words Fairs of the late 18 to early 19 hundreds.
I want all of these hanging on my wall, science can be so pretty.

[[ star cluster in hurcules. aurora borealis. the planet saturn. total eclipse of the sun. the planet mars. the planet jupiter. ]]

st. patty's day adventures

As promised here are the rest of the pictures me and Megan took of our St. Patty's Day adventures. Most of the images are from Block 15 where we held down a booth for several hours of festivities. I got our super awesome props from the Dollar Tree and they provided lots of entertainment as well... but that could be partially due to the green beer. :)

[[ st. patty's day adventures in corvallis. ]]

weekend adventures 53 :: st. patty's weekend

St. Patty's Day according to my iPhone. 
(I will post the photos from my camera tomorrow).


friday
Friday night I went to the last home gymnastics meet to watch the OSU girls dominate the two other teams. By the time me and Pat got home from that Tony and Megan were over so we went over to Murphey's for a bit before ending up back at our place with some of the staff for the rest of the night.


saturday - st. patty's day
We were all super tired from staying up late the night before, so we didn't get going for a while. After me and Megan got ready in our green outfits we decided to make breakfast, green eggs and spam! We also made some green hash browns! It was surprisingly pretty good. And to finish it off some coffee with Bailey's Irish Cream was in order. I think Pat might have even had a breakfast Guinness... He was excited.

[[ green eggs and spam. ]]

After breakfast we dropped the boys off downtown so that they could great Rory at the finish line of his St. Patty's Day race with a beer. Me and Megan had to run some errands and then decided to go to the local antique stores to browse for a little bit. The most interesting find of the day was a VHS tape of "A Mid Summer Nights Dream" in Korean. I only know what it was because I texted my Korean friend Sam and asked as a joke, but to my surprise he answered right away. Not really sure how this is an antique... but, interesting all the same.

[[ antique store explorations. ]]

Once we were satisfied we headed over to a bar on first street called Cloud & Kelly's (which used to be Cloud 9, but very recently converted permanently to an Irish pub). It looked so different it was insane. Pretty sweet though. The place was already packed and there was live music and lots of drink specials. Pat had a couple black and tans and of course, the green beer (Killians). I had a drink called the Lucky Leprechaun, and Megan's was Guy Macgillycuddy. We stayed for a few hours before making our way to Block 15 for dinner and to meet up with everyone else. Slowly Brad/Alia, Nate/Alicia, and Rory trickled in and me and Megan busted out our special St. Patty's Day accessories I picked up from the Dollar Tree. We made little crowns, which took longer than expected, and I had some light up necklaces and silly glasses as well. We were there for a long time before getting a ride home and going next door to Murphey's for last call. (No drinking and driving).  Then it was back to our place, where a few more people showed up for another late night.

[[ cloud & kelly's. block 15. home. ]]

sunday
St. Patty's Day won, and I did not have a fun Sunday. I did a lot of sleeping, and me and Megan laid in my bed and watched Midnight In Paris (again) while the boys played video games. Eventually Tone and Megan took off and me and Pat took it easy for the duration of the day. It was worth it, we had a LOT of fun with everyone Saturday!

excited for st. patty's

I am super excited for tomorrow! Some friends are coming down from Portland and we are definitely getting in to some festivities. This is the first time I have actually been able to celebrate St. Patty's Day for a long time (due to school/work/etc). There will be a beer garden downtown tomorrow that should be a lot of fun. I just hope that the rain can hold out. Extra points for sunshine.

Guinness, check. Cheesy clover paraphernalia, check. Assorted green clothing, check. We are ready for action around here.

[[ ready for action. ]]

blustery day

Man oh man is it nasty outside! I hope it doesn't start flooding again... because last time was pretty gnarly. Yes, I just used the word gnarly.

This is exactly what I think of on days like this. :)

[[ source. ]]

Now I have silly Winnie the Pooh songs stuck in my head. My little sister loved this movie when she was little so we would always watch it. I liked the Heffalumps and Woozles part the most, and am not ashamed to admit that I have this movie now and still watch it from time to time. 

Hope you are staying dry fellow Oregonians! 

midweek inspiration 37

I had stumbled across Kelli Murray's blog once a long time ago, but came back to it today when I saw one of her illustrations up on Pinterest. She makes fantastically adorable baby shower invitations, as well as many original illustrations and paintings that I love, including the self portrait fashion illustrations she puts up on her blog. Check them out. They are adorable. I want someone to draw me like this... luckily, according to her Etsy shop I can literally purchase that someday if I am so inclined. :)

Some of her works for sale on Etsy:

[[ stay close. fox girl. fancy living. just imagine. hello dear. ]] 

Fashion Illustrations:

[[ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. ]]

((( click on links at the top for her blog/shop. click on numbers to see her outfit posts. )))

b & a wedding invites

Right now I am working on the wedding invitations for me and Pat's friend Brad's upcoming wedding. These are not quite as involved as coming up with the concept for the invitations I did last summer since they are more interested in combining fonts and I am working off of two style examples given to me by the bride Alia. Hopefully I can wrap these up this week. I am still playing around with color a lot, theirs are variations of the blue and orange you see below.

[[ works in progress. bw & color tests. ]]

midnight in paris

Tonight me and Pat sat down to watch Midnight in Paris with no expectations, and I absolutely loved it! Neither of us had any idea what it was about, other than the fact that it was set in Paris, by Woody Allen, and were under the assumption that it would be some sort of romantic comedy. We were certainly wrong.

The film takes you back in time as the main character meets all of his inspirations in the height of their careers and falls in love with Paris in a new light. (I will not say more so as not to spoil anything, I think part of the intrigue for me and Pat was not knowing who was going to show up next). The set design and costumes are incredible! And the story itself kept me intrigued the entire time. I want to live in that movie and all of its parties! If possible my love for the 1920s has now grown exponentially and nothing has ever made me want to go to Paris more than the imagery in this movie. True story.

[[ stills from the movie. images via: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. ]]

If you have not seen the film yet I would recommend changing that asap.

For more information on the characters in the movie I would recommend checking out either of these articles: "Decoding Woody Allen's 'Midnight In Paris'" - the ny times / or / "Midnight In Paris: A beginners Guide to Modernism" - the guardian.


P.S. Adrien Brody and his looks will continue to baffle me. No one has ever pulled off gangly better and he somehow manages to be a good looking man... What is that?!

Favorite quote: "...I see, a rhinoceros."