Nothing like a new accessory

It's Monday and let's just say that it was a double cappuccino kinda morning. Mondays aren't my favorite days but these tights certainly helped me make it through.

Our Thanksgiving Desserts!

By popular demand, here's the desserts from our Thanksgiving Feast. The best part of the meal in my opinion! Our original goal was one per person, but in reality seven desserts filled us to the brim.

Our Thanksgiving Feast

Our food spread was incredible this year! I couldn't believe all the different foods we had so I put together this collage to document the occasion. Two turkeys, lots of friends and tons of fun.

This week's good stuff

It's been awhile since I wrote my weekly good stuff post and I'd really like to get back into the routine and what better way to start a routine than to just do it.

Don't use black for shadows. Chris Coyier writes a good article about making shadows a darker tone of the item they fall on. For example, if a person's shadow falls across concrete don't just automatically made that shadow black but rather make it a darker tone of the concrete. While Chris' example is written for web design, it really falls across all design, painting and illustration.

Here's 40 trendy business card designs... always good for inspiration.

Invoicing is a necessary evil of being a freelance designer. Here's 15 good tips to make sure you keep on top of your billings. Stop scribbling your invoice notes on little pieces of paper that end up on the floor of your office and organize yourself with some software. It will save you time and earn you more money in the long run because you'll look more professional.

And if invoicing doesn't prove to you that being a freelance designer is a tough career choice then maybe you should read this article about whether or not freelancing is for you. If you'd rather stay in bed all day or don't necessarily like people then don't quit your day job.

This last item, via Frau Lipstick, is for the knitter and designer in me. It's a hilarious video produced by a sweater mill in Scotland that makes "700 billion cardigans a day." Watch it even if you're not a knitter, you'll still love it.

This week's good stuff

I love the internet and the internet loves me. I read all sorts of things and these are my favorite finds from this week.

This week's selection of the internet is video only. And first I start with this amazing man, Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic savant who loves to draw.



Next we move on to this hilarious wedding video, it starts slow but it's worth the wait. And I'd also like to say that this guy can move!



High five to Nathaniel Kassel for making this funny video. (via Laughing Squid)



And finally, this video is of my nephews and their friends doing basketball trick shots. I could watch it all day, it makes me laugh and smile. But the funniest part is that I can peruse my sister's pantry as if I were there looking for a snack.

This week's good stuff

I love the internet and the internet loves me. I read all sorts of things and these are my favorite finds from this week.

It's been about a month since I did my last "good stuff" post so I thought I'd better put some attention back on this poor blog. The people that invented Facebook and Twitter should really be sent to a concentration camp so they can concentrate on how much time I waste because of them. However, I am ghost-tweeting for a client of mine now so that means I'm getting paid to waste time, er, I mean, market a product on Twitter. And it's actually doing really well, and this article by Chris Coyier was really helpful.

But back to my blog and back to the wonderful things the internets have provided to me this week.

I absolutely love this post about Maya Lin's original Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition submission. It is not only beautiful in it's composition but it keeps reminding me that design is not only about the finished product, it's about the process of getting to the finished product. As a designer I sometimes leap past a few steps of the creative process and this drawings makes me want to slow down, get out some pastels and let my mind wander.

I've been wanting to put my creative process to work on a pet project of my own -- I want to incorporate my portfolio into my regular website. This of course takes more energy than is humanly imaginable simply because I am my worst client, well besides my dad... and my uncle but that's another story for another time, because I want it perfect and perfect can mean a wide range of different things depending on the day or the hour or the minute, etc. So my process starts by spending hours looking at how other designers display their portfolios, and I've been doing that with the help of this great post by noupe.com. It breaks down a new portfolio design into a 12 step process and shows good examples of each tip.

But outside of my office it's getting chillier. Our nights have hit 49˚F! What? I know. That is too cold for humans. But what if we warm up with some of this awesome white chili from my friend Pretty Ditty. Autumn is here. Which means we're one day closer to Halloween and I think this is the perfect trick-and-treat.

I grew up in a college town, and one Halloween our doorbell rang and we opened the door expecting to see trickortreater—but what was in front of our open door—was another door! Like, a full-on wooden door, that had a sign that said “Please knock.” So we did, and the door swung open to reveal a bunch of college dudes dressed as really old grandmothers, curlers in their hair, etc, who proceeded to coo over our “costumes” and tell us we were “such cute trick or treaters!” One even pinched my cheek. Then THEY gave US candy, closed their door, picked it up and walked to the next house.

This week's good stuff

I love the internet and the internet loves me. I read all sorts of things and these are my favorite finds from this week.

Branding 101:



via Consumerist.

This is a "news" video about a black bear roaming behind a neighborhood in Ohio. I used the term "news" very, very lightly when it comes to this video because how many reporters have you seen wearing a rabbit head costume ON THE NEWS? Yeah, that's what I thought. Watch the video. From my friend Susie.

Here's a very cool art installation by the MIT Media Lab. It creates a "data portrait" of your name's online identity. If you are a social butterfly then your name will probably work, if not it's still fun to watch. Here's me:



Wow, this makes my brain hurt. New poll finds that 39 percent of Americans want government to ‘stay out of Medicare.’ via Think Progress.

And, finally it's time for happy hour. A study finds that regular beer drinking helps women have a better bone density than those who don't drink it. Cheers!

This week's good stuff

I love the internet and the internet loves me. I read all sorts of things and these are my favorite finds from this week.



The accurate pie chart by Laszlo Thoth is absolutely brilliant.

This blog The Impossible Cool. Simple, understated and awesome.

This article about a man who was injured at an anti-health care rally -- he has recently been laid off and has no health insurance -- but now he is taking donations to pay for the medical coverage he received after he was hurt at the rally.

5 things you don't know about IKEA.

Wine bottle tiki torch tutorial. I'm trying to figure out where I can hang these!