last day

Today felt like the Last-Day-of_School.
Today was the last day of my corporate job.

I still feel attached. But just as I have overcome and moved past many things. This too soon will pass.

Exciting things on the horizon.

Free to be.

My sister's dog destroyed this happy stuffed baby octopus. Yet he remained incredibly happy.


Last week, I made one the most serious decisions of my entire life. I quit my day job..
I graduated from the bartending 3 nights a week/college routine in 2007. And for the past 2 years and 9 months I have worked professionally for companies. All the while struggling to maintain my individuality, my style, my creativity, my life.

Some aspects of working the 8-5 developed as they should. I learned to wake up early, eat a good breakfast, turn on my creativity at 8 AM, detach myself personally from every piece, take criticism, and most importantly I learned to believe in myself. My capabilities.

I learned my worth, what I am made of, what I am capable of, and what I am not.


I am not a one-trick pony, a follower, a negative person, a quitter, a failure, an irritating co-worker, lazy, helpless, depressed, unhappy, detached, bidding my time, untalented, worthless, ordinary, and I am not one of "them".

I am me. And now more than ever before -- I am me.
I quit my day job -- And that night I slept better and more aware than I ever have and I woke up with an exciting sense of clarity the next morning. Everything seems to be falling into place. And although I am very scared I truly believe that I am traveling the path that was meant to be.

Officially, I own Brown Design. It is mine. I am my company. And my company is me.

"Brown Design*

* Available in all colors."

This is my family.

I started practicing yoga after my friend Tom introduced it to me. My sister taught me how to sew, and now I am hooked. I recently developed a realistic optimism towards entrepreneurship because of Jon. And I feel comfortable with life's changes after listening to my friend Kristine tell me about her path.

We tend to take on characteristics and tendencies of those we are around. And anyone who has ever been around me knows that Design is my life. I live and breath it every moment of my life (even in my sleep) :)

So, it is no shocker that while sitting at dinner with my sister, my nephew and one pen -- we all had a logo to draw on the paper table cloth!

This was Taylor's tag (logo):

My sister's Therapy logo which we collaborated on:  (She drew it spot on!)

And my Brown Design logo, that is still in development:

And we gave a final homage to JMB with the "SAMO" tag:

Man, I love my family!

oh that feeling!

My sister and I took my oldest nephew to his first concert last night.
IT was EPIC.
One of my favorite bands. I remember the first time I heard the Ghostland Observatory, and recall knowing that I would never be the same.

I stood at the concert last night, feeling the heat from bodies packed in and wide-eyed, my entire body vibrating from the physical sound of the music and that familiar and wonderful feeling rushed over me. Like being hit with a wave of music that makes me smile uncontrollably.

It has been a while since I have been to a concert and I almost forgot what it felt like.

Pure Happiness, I missed you.

taking shape

The past few weeks my mind has found itself on a particular shape. Like a leaf or a petal in rows upon rows.

I took the healthy artist approach and started sketching the shape in my sketchbook. on notepads. receipts. during meetings. everywhere.

 

I finally decided to cut the shape out of fabric and make something. 

This is where that shape is now.

  

A Happy Pillow :)

on the grid

The unfortunate fact that the sewer line in our new house had to be replace actually led to a really great opportunity.

We designed a DIY back porch for under $40!

wait.

It feels like, in life we are constantly waiting for something to happen so that something else can happen.

As in,

"I am waiting to hear if I get hired before I can quit my job."
"I am going to start working out when I start feeling better."
"We are planting a garden when the weather clears up."
"I am waiting to see if I get better before I call my doctor."

"We are waiting."
"I can't wait until..."
"I have been waiting all of my life for..."

At what point can we just accept that things do not always go according to plan? And should we, every once in a while just do something spontaneous and forget about all of the "rules"?

The Nest: Part IV

This will serve as my last post (for now) about The Nest, because as I am learning... a house is a work in progress. There are many garage sale and craigslists finds yet to be discovered!

The master bedroom has wonderful vaulted ceilings and has become a beautiful place for resting, rechargeing and dreaming.

This was the last room to be painted. I was so ready to be done with the painting so I painted this entire room (2 coats) in one day!

My affordable DIY headboard: stencil and paint directly on the wall!
(Click here to download my template)

Hypo-allergenic bedding, and some of my favorite art helped to make this room one of my favorites in the whole house :)

DIY curtains:

And one detail of this gorgeous Tord Boontje curtain:

I am still on the hunt for the perfect chair to compliment the other pieces. But for now this room is done! Ah, I feel fortunate to have such a lovely place to wake up to each morning.

You are a bird in the storm.

"There is no escape. You can't be a vagabond and an artist and still be a solid citizen, a wholesome, upstanding man. You want to get drunk, so you have to accept the hangover. You say yes to the sunlight and pure fantasies, so you have to say yes to the filth and the nausea. Everything is within you, gold and mud, happiness and pain, the laughter of childhood and the apprehension of death. Say yes to everything, shirk nothing. Don't try to lie to yourself. You are not a solid citizen. You are not a Greek. You are not harmonious, or the master of yourself. You are a bird in the storm. Let it storm! Let it drive you! How much have you lied! A thousand times, even in your poems and books, you have played the harmonious man, the wise man, the happy, the enlightened man. In the same way, men attacking in war have played heroes, while their bowels twitched. My God, what a poor ape, what a fencer in the mirror man is- particularly the artist- particularly myself!"

                                                                                        -Hermann Hesse