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

The Nest: Part III

Alright, three rooms down and a few more to go...

This was our first glimpse of our bathroom :|

So Jon began stripping the floor. My nephew, Taylor helped Jon and our good friend, Brian, finished the stripping job down on the floor with a pair of needle nose pliers. (we have the best friends!)

Jon bid and won this piece from an art auction called Art & Music Saves Lives. All of the proceeds went towards Breedlove''s relief efforts in Haiti.

the tune in and tune out.

I recently proclaimed myself to be a "culturally aware" designer...
Which I now believe to be a very subjective definition in today's society. I mean, how can anyone keep up with the massive amounts of information overload??!

I make a conscious decision to cut myself off from watching any tv (except for Project Runway!) simply because there are only so many hours in the day to be productive. But recently Jon connected our basic tv line so he could watch the World Cup.

And tonight I, the "culturally aware designer" sat down to tune in.
and minutes later... I HAD TO TUNE OUT.




REALLY?!

The only comparision that I could think of was this clip from, Idiocracy, one of my favorite Mike Judge films:




Do the acts of society that we choose not to participate in make us unaware?

coloring outside the lines

As I enter a new stage of my life as a designer I am discovering new and interesting things about myself, my style and my work.

As a bright-eyed child, my sister and I occupied many of our summers exploring Harwell elementary school where my mother was a Principal. We had no choice but to entertain ourselves. So we made things out of paper: purses wallets, bags, and books. And in elementary school I made countless books that were illustrated, "type-set" and saddle stitched (well... stapled.) And as I grew up and people asked "So, What do you want to be when you grow up?" -- (after I got over the idea that I wanted to work at the same Car Wash that my aunt did) -- my answer was always "An Author!" Which then turned into the idea that I wanted to work for a fashion or travel magazine..

So -- the expression "This is what I was born to do." seems quite fitting for me in my life.

 The first time I opened Adobe PageMaker, in 1995, I fell in love.  I was an editor for my High School Yearbook, Newspaper and Literary Magazine. And when Texas Tech School of Journalism didn't seem like a good fit for me the Southwest Texas State Art Department did. And in 2007, I graduated from Texas State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design!

In college, I distinctly remember showing up for class on a critique day and when my turn to show & share my piece came, a fellow student said "Your outfit matches your poster". Meaning that I was dressing in the same colors as I was designing in. And that continued. The past 3 years, in an effort to simplify my mind and cleanse my (designers) palette - I now wear only neutral colors, mainly black.

As I set out on the wonderful path to brand and art direct another season at the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra I decided that I would really shake things up! That idea coupled with my recent and ongoing struggle to find my creativity lead me to travel through an experimental stage:

The idea was to pick a completely different color palette for the new season. And after selecting and unselecting many combinations I finally found one that I loved and I felt could carry the theme through the new season.

Upon comparing the NEW colors to the OLD colors from last season. I REALIZED, THAT I PICKED THE SAME COLORS. different tints.

Now, I am definitely not doubting the craft that "i was born to do" and I do not for one minute think that I am a One-Trick-Pony -- its more that I realize that these are the colors that speak to me. I function in these colors. I design in these colors. I live in these colors.