The MOST disorganized girl ever.

First of all, I'm married.









Ed and I had the BEST weekend with Moose and Brill (our dogs, for those of you who don't know me) in the woods, eating great food and being together. If you are patient and are curious to see the non-professional photos, feel free to check out The Slide Show

It's about 10 minutes of photos, and this is the (much) SHORTER version. The longer family version...well, email me if you're a glutton. We are waiting for the "pro" photos, which I'm anticipating will suck, in fact, because the photographer, while nice, was incapable of taking a candid photo to save his life. Ed did wear a suit, though, and somehow I neglected to take any photos of him in that. But the photographer didn't. I also wound up destroying my dress -- at first, on accident; then, on purpose. So it got fun.

In other news, I'm at a conference, and I'm looking around the room at beautiful Macbook Pro desktops, and it occurs to me, for the millionth time, that I think I am the most disorganized girl in the universe. I think the boy next to me is actually laughing at my desktop. My digital desktop. I consider this mostly organized, actually, because you can still see the clusters of files. And those clusters are meaningful to me. Furthermore, this is actually fairly clean for me: this is only about a month's worth of disorganization -- this desktop still has PLENTY of room to hold another 2 or 3 weeks of "stuff." You can still see the pattern in the background. Witness (you may want to click on the photo to see the real beauty of it):



At some point, I'll take all that shit and put it into a folder called "desktop 7" or something similar, and toss it into my "documents" folder. This is why I have four hard drives full of shit, probably hundreds of gigs of duplicate items. I've always been like this, ever since I touched a computer keyboard. Oh well.

I'm off to listen to the people talking at the conference. I'm actually in NYC, hoping to be inspired/develop a better creative process. There are a bunch of people wearing black here. Artists.

Hair Vines

Lately, I've been a bit obsessed with making a hair vine. I've always wanted to work with jewelry and wire, and I used to do beading back when I was a kid. My favorite woman on Etsy made me a hair vine for my wedding, back when I was having a wedding, and I wanted to make one, too. I bought a bunch of sterling silver wire, and some pretty beads and crystal beads (all from Etsy, of course). I practiced. I made four hair vines, and then hated them, and ripped them apart. Then I went to Wal Mart (I know, I know) and bought cheapo non-sterling wire that is very thin, and I made a hair vine that I am mostly very happy with, though it doesn't have much structure. I think the key is to get very very THIN sterling wire, and then not twist too hard. And make the tendrils small. Anyhow, I'll share. I call this my "spring thaw" vine, because I like the way it sort-of looks like melting ice.







I may or may not wear these for our post-elopement photo session. I can't figure out how to do pretty things with my hair since my sister Molly won't be there to fix it for me. When I put my hair atop my head (half up; half down) the way SHE did, it looks, well, like a beehive or something. A mess. I have never, ever been able to fix my hair.

Umbrellas.

Oh, blog, this isn't going to work if you're only updated once every two months. I must strive to do better. Fortunately, I am forced to update today, if only to show you this beautiful object, which I have just purchased. $70 for an umbrella? GAH! What rough marital beast crouches toward Bethlehem to be born?? Why can I not stop eying pretty things for weddings even now that we're eloping next weekend? Why is weather.com telling me, over and over, that it will rain--POUR--next Saturday, when we're having photos taken?



The umbrella (and image) is from this site.

I have had my eye on Marimekko umbrellas for a while, but then I saw the 'brellas on this site, and I couldn't deal with my desire any longer. The Marimekkos are pretty and all, but I think Pareumbrella has them beat.

Oh, yeah, by the way: we're eloping. We're spending the weekend here, where we will get massages, eat fabulous dinners and breakfasts, hike if Appalachia isn't flooded, and where we can BRING OUR DOGS. We're excited. Who doesn't love a bed and breakfast with the foresight to use Scriptina as a font on their website? I mean, practically NO ONE looks good in Scriptina! We get married on the 21st (of March) which is a Friday. Then on Saturday, we have photos taken. This way, we have an excuse to wear our already-purchased fancy clothing and accessories. We're going to do a generic courthouse ceremony, and then exchange promises and rings later on that evening, privately. I like "promises" better than vows. I never understood how vows work, so I'm happy that I can put that phrase out of my life.

If you've received a "save the date" card in the mail, well, I'm sorry. You'll be receiving a "cancel the date" pocket folder (because what use do I have for 58 chocolate brown pocket folders, really?) after we get our photos taken. I'll think of something better than "cancel the date," but that will be the general idea. I assure you that you're probably not more disappointed than my parents are, and that we were going to be much more awkward during the more formal planned wedding than we will be in our Friday clothes, alone, at the courthouse + fabulous bed and breakfast. Seriously, though, our parents have been great about the whole thing.

Happy Friday!

Happy 2008!

Wow. It has been a while. And how embarrassing that my toothbrush was at the top of a blog for a month. I mean, I still like the toothbrush, but...it's time to move on. In Emily-land, the following things have recently happened:

1. 2008. The year in which the marriage will occur. In, um, 5 months.

2. I become interested in mindfulness and meditation. The purchase of a beautiful aquaduct-based fountain is made, along with the discovery of the beauty of shakuhachi flutes and tibetan singing bowls. Passive voice becomes a problem.

3. I UPDATED MY ETSY STORE. Finally. I'm really into birds this week. We now have bird invitations and owl invitations and swallow invitations for weddings and other events, like anniversaries, and showers, and all sorts of fun things. I've got some really pretty things there, now. And, unfortunately, on account of a very busy job and some wedding planning, I am suspending complicated/in-depth custom orders for a time. This makes me sad, but I'm going to have to come to terms with the fact that the wedding must be planned. (Return to passive voice. It feels less dangerous.) Anyhow -- see the new designs on the right? Here are a few of my new favorites:










4. I am nearly finished laying out the very big alumni magazine that I have been working on for some time. I think it's beautiful, but I'm biased. Photos to come (once I'm done changing 10,000 hidden images from RGB to CMYK).

5. Ed and I addressed our "save-the-date" cards! I learned that I don't care about the difference between "Ms." and "Mrs." We plan to send them...sometime. When we put the stamps on them, probably.

6. I neglected to send Allison her Christmas present for the second year in a row. So I have two years of wrapped gifts for Allison. Thankfully, she is reading in the wedding, so she will get her gifts this year, one way or another.

7. I have been very bad at keeping in touch with people. Please forgive me.

8. I'm really into the color chartreuse. Those receiving things "wedding" will soon learn this.

Happy New Year everyone!

The latest object of my affection

This is my most appreciated recent acquisition:



It's the Oral B Sonic Complete S-200 electric toothbrush. Wow, this guy on The Bachelor really needs to take the MMPI. This may be the very first season ever featuring a man with any sort of interesting undiagnosed psychological and/or personality disorder. Anyhow. Totally distracted just now, but back to the vibrating tooth brush. It's really cool. That's mostly all I have to say about it (the toothbrush; not the Bachelor. He sucks.). The only thing about that brush is that it vibrates after 30 sections for each quadrant of your mouth. That feels sort-of weird, and it makes me drool a bit. But, whew, what a clean mouth!

Well, damn, all I can focus on right now is the Bachelor. Someone should come steal my TV. I'm embarrassed even to admit it. I've got to go now.

Happy November.

I've really enjoyed working with people on invitations. Invitations and announcements of all sorts. I think that the places I've mentioned that I do invitations are such cool spots, that the "client base" I've got is the best ever. People have such cool ideas. Anyhow. It's fun. And it gives me something creative to do in the evenings.

I tried using actual paints the other day. I have a lot of learning to do, that's for sure. I feel like a three year-old holding a pencil when I have any sort of traditional art device in my hand. It's ridiculous. And so I develop a semi-phobia about it. The bottom line is that while I can do colors and typography and geometry and layout and even digital illustrations that are pretty darn good ON THE COMPUTER, I'm fairly useless when it comes to sketching anything out by hand. It really frustrates me. I wonder if drawing/painting really CAN be learned. Because I look at everyone's work on Etsy, and I'm just completely amazed and impressed that people can make those awkward paint brushes actually DO things. Here, a tribute to my very favorite things on Etsy lately (with the few things I've bought as gifts for Ed left OUT because I don't want him peeking):

This is my very favorite color of blue, and if I could buy all this person's stuff, I would:
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=6282255

This is even more beautiful in person. I love the subtleties and the way that nature and humans are sort-of "one" in this piece...plus it's fun, and it tells a story. I like "layered" art:
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=6238018

This woman's art is just simply amazing. THIS is what I wish I could do with a paint brush:
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=6212961

OMG gorgeous:
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=6123541

My favorite Gocco artist:
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=5604693

And then, NOT from Etsy, but I've already bought two of this woman's pieces...one for my mother for Christmas, and one for me. I promised not to buy any pretty objects online for the month of November but, sigh, it has been an impossible goal, and I have, in fact, spent all my extra money buying stuff. But...it's all art/homemade stuff, which I feel fairly okay about. Anyhow, to this amazing paper artist:

http://alittlehut.com/store/store/listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=68
(if you want any of HER stuff, snatch it up quickly, because it goes fast. I bought the red + white piece of the little-red-riding-hood-ish girl for myself, and I cannot wait until it gets here. I have been drooling over it for months.

That's all for today. I love how many people google the word "object" and get here. "Big object," "pretty object," "strange object," "unknown object." In general, I love the word "object."

P.S. I know soon it will be holiday gift-buying season (okay, for me, the season is nearly over because I just CANNOT WAIT to buy things for people...), but it has occurred to me this year that it really is nice to buy people homemade stuff. I can't say enough about Etsy.com -- I think it's the best website of the last five years or so, and I'm shocked and amazed every single day at the talent I see there. Now I have to just STOP browsing Etsy. I've only posted links to painted stuff, too -- the craftsmanship of jewelry and all sorts of other wearable and other things is amazing, too.

Good Morning, Universe

Wedding planning is wedding planning is wedding planning. Enough about that. When I get to work today, I'm going to share the fabulous and completely insanely, um, colorful folder I am making for work. I'm actually getting to use a florescent Pantone ink! And not just once, but a DOUBLE STRIKE of bright, glowing, neon yellow. I'm so ridiculously excited. You'll have to give me your opinions of these folders, but I think you're going to like them. I'm just checking in to say good morning, and to congratulate Ms. Elizabeth AND Jessica, too, for their giant accomplishments this weekend. Wheee. And also to thank everyone who has been supporting my Etsy store. I'm having so, so much fun making DIY invitations for pocket folders, or for whatever else. I wish I had the time to assemble them, too, but with the full-time job, that just wouldn't work.

I'll be back in an hour or so with my folder design for work. Yay.

Okay, here it is. Now the name of the college, at the top, will be in BRIGHT florescent yellow/orange. It will be very exciting. I'm not 100% sold on the baubles on the tree. They do look more "integrated" with the printed gradient (they look a bit harsh on screen), but still...any suggestions on that?

New Invitation Designs

Horrah, an outlet for my pressing obsessions with both nature-y designs and inviations! Behold, a few of my favorite things I've made in the last couple days, all shown, of course, at the Etsy shop:












I think I found part of that vine somewhere online. In fact, some of this is modified from stock art, but the fabulous thing is that I can support the stock art artists, too, by buying the piece over and over again whenever someone wants to use it on a design. That way, actually, the CLIENT is buying the art (for very cheap), and everyone is happy. There's just some beautiful botanical, nature-inspired stock art online right now, and until I have a spare week to do more of my own, I really want to make the most of it for beautiful invitations.

The Post In Which I Announce a Method by Which I Can Perhaps Pay For Some of My Already Purchased Pretty Objects

INTRODUCING!

My new Etsy.com shop: http://manchmal2.etsy.com

It's sort-of probably an awful name, but I've called it 'DIOurself Invitation Design' because that's pretty-much the concept. Lately, because I've become obsessed with fun wedding projects and invitations and decorations, people have been asking me to do their invites. I've done them for free, because it has been fun and because everyone on this website, Indiebride, has basically been responsible for my sanity over the past four months. In fact, it was "their" idea to create an Etsy store. It was a good idea.

I have no after-work time that I shouldn't be spending trying to earn money. Because Iceland is expensive, and because I want a house someday, and because I have to pay off these credit cards that purchased things like cashmere sweaters and paintings and miscellaneous other things, and because I really actually love doing this...because of all these things, I'm opening an online shop in which I sell invitation designs.

I don't have time, with my full-time job, to deal with the printing aspect, but it has come to my attention that lots of people online are using simple line art or stock art from istock or similar and making lots and lots of money selling invitations to people who have big wedding budgets. I don't intend to make a lot of money, but I do figure that if a DIY-type person wants to have his/her invites printed, and wants to pick out and even purchase vector line art, I don't see why they shouldn't be able to pay a reasonable price for me to do the technical and aesthetic legwork. And a lot of my OWN designs lately lend themselves really well to pretty invitations. I'm into the organic, nature-y, sketched, vine/flower/simple look. So most of what's up on my Etsy store now is my own work.

But making nice invites shouldn't cost a fortune...it's the printing and trimming that takes a designer forever to do. If I can send someone a high-resolution file and let them do that part, and turn their invites into fun cards or pocketfolders, like mine, or anything they want...that would work. Right?

So y'all go to my fun site and tell me if you like it, and if things are too expensive or too cheap, and if you have any other ideas. Or if you can come up with a better name for my shop.

Is this a silly idea? I'm going to give it a try. Ed tells me I should stop doing things for free, so I'm going to charge enough to be able to afford maybe a few tanks of gas in Iceland.

I really like these

I really like these Mondrianian (what a fun word to type...AND say out loud) leaves that I made for a spec basic notecard/stationery for our Dean's office. The problem is they really don't go with the "look" of this university. Still, I like them. I like the colors and I like the symbolism of the little piece of the puzzle that is our college within the university of leaves. Ha. This morning I am amusing myself. Anyhow. The whole mis-en-scene of this college is an acronym pertaining
to trees, and I fear these don't pertain enough to trees (or the distinctive logo, which I did not create, that you will see in the pieces below -- that reversed out tree with dots on it that I have added in attempt to make it more "hipster") to really fly it as a concept piece. Nevertheless, I really LIKE it. So, here, in two versions...feel free to tell me your preference, or to suggest another color scheme. If I could work a dark green into this, it would be nice:






Edit: I've inspired myself. So, green version:

Happy September

Wow, I haven't contributed anything here since mid August! I've been working, but working on things for work, which probably won't interest very many people who read this. But, eh, why not...here are the things that, for work, I have finished or am still in the process of working on. Some of it is spec work (the tree piece), and the rest of it has actually gone to press. I believe it is all copyrighted to OU. Can anyone say "Emily is obsessed with yellow/orange this season"?

Here we are:












Wheeeeeee.

Hummers. (BIRDS, that is. Wee, sweet, humming BIRDS)

Ed and I have spent much of the summer adoring these hummingbirds that feed on the tree next to our front porch. We have always loved hummers, and have been intrigued by them, so we thought maybe we'd incorporate them into Wedding Things. So. I found this incredibly sweet youngster on Etsy.com, my new favorite place. Okay, so it's an old favorite place, but I always find such fabulous stuff there!

Here is the link to her store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=15200

And I hope she won't mind my posting these photos, which are copyrighted to HER, but I am so proud of these little nests, which will serve as "ring pillow," or, rather, "ring nests," that I have to share:

Study of a table + trees

Here's today's artistic contribution:



And, a detail:

B-List Photos

Lots of images didn't "make it" to my formal portfolio, but I've been wandering around my old files lately, and I found some photos that I really sort-of like. There are fewer designs that fall into the category of "I love you, but I'm not IN LOVE with you" than there are photos, mostly, I guess, because I'm a designer more than a photographer. Anyhow, here are some of the "B-List" photos. Many of them were shot on film, and most of them aren't touched up or color-corrected. I'm only linking to a few of them here. There are about 25 total at this URL.



The skyline we saw while dog mushing in the tundra of Karasjok, Norway. It really was this color.



People marching.



This kid, who was brought along to an election night celebration.




A girl with her lamb, at the county fair.



A series of abstract windows in Rome.




A barber in Rome.




A photo of my sweet Ed, gardening fiercely.




A low-key wedding.




Walking in Siena.

Absurd. Need skin tone opinions.

Hello smarter-than-I people. I want to figure out how to do pretty makeup. Can someone please tell me if my skin tone is "warm" or "cool" from a photo? Please? (No laughing at me...)

Two photos were taken outside. The last one was inside, so the flash may affect it. You can tell which one was taken in humid hair-terrifying August (post hot-hair-roller debacle, too), and which one was taken after my fabulous hair girl fixed my hair...

(edited to remove 3 of 4 photos, because I don't want 45 photos of myself up here forever)

Flowers for the end of July

As promised, here's something I made. It's not very great, but given my inability to concentrate on anything lately, I consider it useful, at the very least. :) I couldn't decide which I liked best, so here are two:

(edited, because I decided I really hated the second one)

Further Hijacking of my Website with Wedding Crap that is A Long Time Away

You can go ahead and think I'm insane, because I probably am, but my focus of my pretty object fetish has, lately, been pretty wedding crap. I know this wedding is a long time away, and I'm not the sort of person who has had in mind a "perfect day" since she was a little girl. In fact, I expect this event to be extremely imperfect and strange, and I'm totally okay with that. Nevertheless, I'm a planner. That said, you could also go ahead and make fun of me because I bought another dress. Yes, I should have gone and just tried dresses on, but the thought of that sounded beyond awful to me.

The first dress was cute because it was very simple, and because I liked the lace-up back and the very simple lines. I even liked the red. But. In the first place, it is about 7 inches too long for me, and it has that weird double hem (one layer in white; one in red). The boobs were about 3 inches too big. In other words, it would have required fairly intensive alterations. I was anticipating this, because I have a big belly and its size means that a. dresses look hideous on me and b. the top size is way different than the bottom size. I don't ever, ever look good in dresses. I also liked the structure of the first dress. It sucked everything in. But. As a result, it weighed 13 damn pounds! I do not feel like I will want to carry around an extra 13 pounds in hot Ohio June weather. I could have bought another thing to wear to the outside reception, but that would have meant searching for a regular dress, which I would look awful in. I have yet to find a department store dress I don't look bad in. My stomach sticks out in everything.

SO. I bought another dress. Online. THIS TIME, I was able to send the people my exact measurements. I guess some place in China will make the dress from my specifications. I even got to sort-of design the way I want the hem to be. I have no idea how this will turn out, and I really hope I don't look like a giant sausage in this dress. On the plus side, I have seen photos of an actual bride-like girl (okay, a bride) WEARING this dress and while she is thinner than I am and has smaller boobs, it looks REALLY good actually on a person. The photos I'm about to share are...well, not as flattering as it looked on her. At the very least, I think this dress will have less fabric, and be lighter-weight, and easier to move around in. And my mom won't have to live with hating the one that I initially bought (remember, she didn't like the red). Here's the new dress. If anyone can figure out what the hell is going on with the back of it, I'd love to hear it. I think it may be one of those "bustle" things. In any case, I told the designer that I want it to JUST BARELY touch the floor, in a balloon hem. I don't want anything dragging. So it will be a bit different from this, which I bought in IVORY, not white:

The front:



The top part:



The weird back part:



The super cool Vera Wang dress that I like that I sent to the designer/sewer so she can see what type of hem I want. I almost went with that full "mermaid" shape, but I think what I will wind up with will be some weird hybrid between the A-line skirt that will doubtless look good with my belly and the more fabulous "mermaid" shape that I wish I had a good enough body to pull off:



(Photo credits to http://www.juliusbridal.com except for the last photo, which will have to remain uncredited, as I have no idea where I found it.) Even after all this wedding dress purchasing, I only spent $650, and that's for TWO dresses. I'm hoping to sell one of 'em.

Now. I promise, promise, promise that the next entry will be SOMETHING I DESIGNED, rather than something I freakin' bought.

Necklace!

I am in love with a necklace. Furthermore, the bastards who sneaked into our house when we were HOME and stole Ed's wallet did NOT get my laptop on account of this pretty necklace. In order to show it to Ed, who was in bed, I brought my computer to bed, too. So the $72 saved me about $2.5k, which makes me even happier about the lovely object. Seriously, I am in love with it:






It came from a very fabulous woman in Georgia. She has a store on Etsy, right here.

She also has a fun website here.

Ask me if I was able to restrain myself and not purchase earrings, too.

Well. Fascinators. Hats.

I hesitate here, because I've not received this object yet, and it could be absolutely hideous, but I've been wavering a bit on the whole veil ordeal. I like the birdcage ones, that go halfway over your head, but it seems like the success of those veils would hinge very seriously on how well the hair was done, and I'm not sure if I'm going to have to do my own hair or not. I'm hoping my superfabulous hair girl (well, she's not MINE) Lisa will be here in town and willing to fix hair at 8am, but that's asking a lot. So anyhow, I bought this hat-like object with a mesh-y veil-like component. It could be hideous. I'm telling you. I may be selling it on ebay in 3 days. I may ask Lisa and she may say "omigod, no way." I have backup plans that involve silk orchids or something comparable. But I thought I'd share, for fun. Here we are, My First Fascinator.






Yes, I know this wedding thing isn't for a year, but what is a girl to do when she is so into pretty objects, and weddings allow for so MANY pretty objects? The preparing will be fun. I think it will be more fun than the wedding itself. Not more fun than the "being married" part, but I'm really enjoying all the design opportunities wedding planning brings. I just don't want to deal with picking out the food or hiring caterers or grillers or whatever. Or erecting tents. Mostly I just want to design things and find pretty stuff.

Seriously.

Seriously, I know this is WAAAAY in advance, like WAY in advance, but someone asked me about this on one of my crafty forums, and I started thinking, and then I started getting into an Emilyesque OCD (in a good way) mode, and I decided to play with wedding invitation ideas. So I stopped in at my favorite stock site, opened up Illustrator, adjusted, played, recolored, repositioned, grabbed some of my own designs, and so on, and so forth, and made some mock-ups. They are by no means...um...anywhere near final, nor do they say what they probably will say in the end (I've not studied how wording goes, and have noticed since I was messing around that I have a glaring grammatical disturbance in there). Moreover, I've not even showed them to Ed, and he's a better artist than I am. So, I guess I'm just sharing some potential sketches. With all that said, I think I'll just link to them, so if you're curious you can go and tell me which ones you love and which ones you hate.

I'm usually a good editor, but when it comes to my own stuff, I stink. But give me an excuse to play with solid earthy and warm colors + reversed out designs, and I'm THERE, man.

EDIT. I decided. On my invites. I still haven't figured out if I am going to do some sort of monogrammed seal on the front. But I can share what I DID figure out. So, here, here,here, and here for the fun ribbon