resolve

resolve
Originally uploaded by hedgenettle

i don't normally make new year's resolutions. i prefer to just decide i want to do something and do it whenever i decide that. certain people i know constantly put things off "until new year's" and that's dumb. this year, however, i do have some resolutions. pretty big ones, i think.

the last year has been long, arduous, complicated, strenuous, satisfying, mind-blowing, fun, and generally successful at making me be happier to be alive than not. hopefully the new year will be all of those things and more. but all the "more" things should be rad.

here are my resolutions:

general fitness goals (work out more frequently and harder, eat more veg and less everything else, eat my smoothies at least 5 days a week, drink my tonic teas, don't eat candybars on a regular basis)

quit smoking. i really don't like this one. i love smoking. i love cigarettes. i love their boxes and smoke and shape. i love taking little time outs throughout the day to smoke. i love the social aspect of smoking during breaks at school. i pretty much love everything about smoking. except that it isn't good for me, and that if i keep doing it, so will my husband, and he smokes nasty chemical cigarettes, about a pack a day. i'm quitting smoking to support my health, to be a good role model for my kids, and to support and inspire my husband to quit smoking. in the coming days, when i want to smoke, i will take 3 deep breaths. i'll take as many 3 deep breaths as necessary until i can stand not smoking just then.

make certain to compliment and/or express my gratitude and admiration to my immediate family every single day. to really notice something lovely they've said or done or been and give thanks for it.

AND

make something every day. some little tiny piece of art or writing, or prepare a specially lovely meal, or take a very intentional photograph. every day. EVERY DAY. this is because i love making things. and i get busy in school making things for school, executing homework, etc. and then i get busy at home taking care of everyone and doing chores and vegging out with netflix...and i forget to just make things for myself, just because i love it. also, because i want my house to be cleaner and less cluttered and i will use this resolution as an opportunity to use all of that stuff i save because it would be just awesome for an art project (if i EVER got around to using those things for that purpose!)
also, i am really looking forward to how this goal changes my definition of "make something", and in seeing what it produces.

happy new year, everybody. i hope you are blessed.

i am grateful for:
my dad
the adobe creative suite
flexibility
honesty
expensive, well-made shoes

oops. i forgot to say. in an effort to hold myself accountable and keep motivated, i will be posting my daily creations to flickr, and probably, through flickr, to here. i look forward to sharing them with you.

the chrstmas list

the air is getting crisp, the leaves have fallen, jubal has a cough, and the woodstove is doing constant duty. this means it is getting close to christmas and we must celebrate by eating lovely meals with our families, singing carols, and drinking lots and lots of egg nog.

that also means it's time for one of my famous wish lists. i know you love me, but if you want to show me just how much by showering me with gifts, i won't complain. especially if it's one of these awesome treasures:

the main star of my wish list this year was a classic i pod, cleverly engraved...but my friend martin gave me his old i pod, and it is soooo lovely and sports 30GB of song-saving memory, so the classic would still be nice, but i'm pretty well set. that wittily engraved message still holds my desire, though. so.

not surprisingly nobody gave me the ultra-expensive macbook pro for my birthday, so, impractically, i've added it to my christmas list. i want the 15-incher with a 500GB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. a girl can dream.

i really, really would love something from the yellow owl workshop. i am especially in love with their stamp sets, especially the city and seascape sets. oh they are so lovely. yellow owl also sports some gorgeous correspondence sets, and i am fondest of the bicycle version. it's so delicious. if one were to give me one of these beautiful stamp sets, it would be sweet of them to include an awesome pad of sturdy, but lovely paper, such as this.

as you know, i love to read. i especially love to read about design, and there is an awesome little collection put together by stefan sagmeister and daniel nettle that would bring a lot of joy to my little designer heart. it's called things i have learned in my life so far. and it is rad.

because i love books so much, physical, awesome, paper books, you might be surprised to know that i really, really, really want a kindle. i know. i never thought i would say it either. but i do. i promise to never stop reading or buying real books, but i'd like to supplement them with this. and it reads to you. HONEY!!! it reads to me, so you don't have to. please note, that i want THE latest version (with 3G), for best contrast, least eyestrain, and best voices.

and a quick breakdown of books i want. books are always, always a good thing:

made you look by stefan sagmeister.

make it bigger by paula scher.

the three incestuous sisters: an illustrated novel by audrey niffenegger.

room by emma donoghue.

lost at sea by bryan lee o'malley

the scott pilgrim comics by bryan lee o'malley

dante's divine comedy: a graphic adaptation by seymour chwast (yes! THE seymour chwast!)

black hole by charles burns.

asterios polyp by david massucchelli.

ghost world by daniel clowes.

the book of genesis illustrated by r. crumb.

fun home: a family tragicomic by alison bechdel.

the walking dead by robert kirkman +.

sandman: dream hunters by neil gaiman and illustrated by p. craig russell. also anything in the sandman comic series.

sparkle and spin: a book about words by ann and paul rand.

paul rand: conversations with students by michael kroeger.

i know a lot of things by ann and paul rand.

thoughts on design by paul rand.

bryson's dictionary for writers and editors by bill bryson. (REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WANT THIS!)

to name a few.

let it never be said that i am hard to shop for.

merry merry.

i am grateful for:

paper

tape

rodney

smiles

saddle stitch staplers

for the application portfolio

one of our portfolio pieces for the application to the second year was the problem of designing a missing cat poster that is well-designed, creative, effective, and informative. it was more challenging than it might first sound, because incorporating creativity into what needs to be fairly mundane, while still communicating effectively can be tricky. i haven't printed a proof of this yet, but i'm hoping when i do it will not reveal that my choice of typeface equals poor legibility. this poster is 11 x 17. critiques welcome. encouraged, even. (FYI my cat is NOT really missing, but he is gorgeously photogenic, and will soon be famous, i'm sure.)

eat local!

homework for my digital imaging class. critiques welcome. ignore the artifacting (that's the sort of blurry look around the text, etc.) i cannot figure out how to upload stuff without getting that. the colors are flat. (click on image to see full-sized).

the birthday list

yes, it's that time again. i shall be 31 soon, and to celebrate, please feel free to buy me stuff.

it's been a long, hard year, but i'm feeling good, if tired. i'm rounding the bend and will be done with my first year of school soon. my eldest turned twelve, my middle turned nine, and the wee little man is now three years old. i have a few more wrinkles (which should always be referred to as SMILE LINES in my presence) and some additional grey hairs, but not many. i'm happy to have circled the sun for yet another year--i learned a lot, grew a lot, and stretched a lot...and now i'd like to relax. preferable with all this loot by my side.

the official list, in no particular order (except the insanely expensive, unrealistic ones are first):

1. a macbook pro. i love my imac so much that i want a portable version. plus, you know, i'll need one later anyways to present to clients, so...(i want the 15-inch with 500 GB of RAM).

2. a dishwasher. any dishwasher. but this rad one is my ideal.

3. scott mcCloud's understanding comics would be awesome and useful.

4. black francis has a new album out, which i want severely. as in, really, REALLY want. ahem.

5. i need, and want, some new shoes, and i'd like to buy them from footwise. so, you know, a gift certificate would be rad. i'd love enough to get some dressy shoes, but would also be happy with some simples.

6. fancy dinner. you know i love fancy dinner. this year i'd like to eat at the rabbit, or adam's sustainable table. yum.

7. a saddle stitch stapler. yeah, i want the fancy one i highlighted, but here are some cheaper ones, too.

8. anything to do with paper crafts. ginormous rolls of brown kraft paper, for instance. or a screen-printing kit. ah, how i love paper. also, i've been pleasure-reading about book binding and can't wait to try it out again (it's been a few years since i did it regularly.)

9. this should probably be near the top, due to the price and completely unnecessary nature of it, but damn how i want it! it's an instant camera that prints credit card sized photos...like polaroid's little brother! so awesome.

10. anything from etsy. a gift certificate to etsy. or, this specific "un-paper" towel dispenser and a set of towels from, you guessed it, etsy.

also, your undying love and devotion, best wishes, and all that type priceless stuff.

happy upcoming birthday to me!

i am grateful for:

1. persistance

2. rodney coming to his damn senses.

3. good food.

4. my muscles.

5. my instructors.

project three for my digital design tools class. click on the images to see them full-sized.

i don't know how to do this anymore.

i used to sit down at this screen regularly and everything would flow. i'd hit "publish post" and it'd be out in the world, good, bad, or ugly. i generally have good writing skills, so more often than not it was relatively good.

i don't know how to do this anymore.

when i sit here, nothing flows and i don't know what to say.

i have things i want to talk about, but not the time or energy to go into them in depth.

things i want to talk about:

design

art

paul rand

the fact that my husband came back home

making sweet potato pies for haiti, and how weird and liberal it feels to be doing that (drinking beer for haiti!) (there's a benefit event today at the axe and fiddle to raise money, prayers, love, etc. for the haiti relief cause--which is awesome, don't get me wrong, but also weird.)

and inspired by that:

how the hell DO you help faraway people in distress?

the global world we live in that allows us to even know about earthquakes in haiti. or anywhere else.

the use of fame to forward a cause

the use of art to forward a cause

also:

photography

digital design tools (read: the adobe creative suite)

the fact that my dad wrote a novel and my process of trying to design it

the fact that i lost 55 pounds and what that's like (i just this morning discovered buried jeans in my dresser. i haven't worn JEANS in years. they fit.)

what it's like to allow my husband to come back and how our lives are vastly different than the way they were, while still mind-blowingly familiar and strangely wonderful

and inspired by that:

how the hell do you navigate the re-marriage process--where to do it, who to witness, same date or new date, do you throw a party, etc.?

the fear of the prospect of re-marrying someone who betrayed the family and caused us all so much heartache and pain

the value of having gratitude for all of one's experiences, learning from them, and letting go of the attached pain and resentment because it doesn't serve you

and:

music

the meat purveyors, the decemberists' "hazards of love" album, buying digital files and the resulting loss of disc art and liner notes, the new mix tape

cooking and compromise

how junky can something convenient be before i won't feed it to my kids, the fact that i now eat "fast food" on a semi-regular basis and how weird and shameful that is, missing the slow food movement in my house

love

spring cleaning

sewing

creation

books and how i miss them

to name just a few.

so, now i have a list and maybe i'll consult it and the flow will return.

and a quick life update: rodney came home at the beginning of the year. we let him. it's going well. the garden has miraculously been started (peas and radishes). school is awesome and hard; i'm an A student with a GPA of 3.95; i recently got an A on the first official essay i've ever written (yes, ever!); i'm studying digital design (in-design, photoshop, illustrator), typography, the history of graphic design, and writing (composition and argument type stuff). i've returned to the gym, usually going with rodney, something we enjoy doing together. i'm sore. i still haven't painted the house, but i swear i'm going to this summer! i am in love with my life.

comments are welcome if anyone read one of those topics and wants it to be first.

i am grateful for:

my oven

butter

peace

my family

recovery

mechanical pencils

erasers

tracing paper

good teachers

love

beer

money

my muscles, organs, tendons, skin, and bones

poppy-triptych

poppy-triptych
Originally uploaded by hedgenettle

homework=post this on flickr and a blog. done.

an unimaginative ad for orbitz....the posting of which constitutes a portion of my digital design tools homework.