So, in the new year, I’m going to make it a goal of mine to do at least one – minimum! – creative project a month. On top of having a crazy schedule lately, and having a creative day job which can be draining, I had stopped doing creative projects for myself. Which sucks, cuz I always am at my most creative and inspired when it’s something I’m doing for me, and I don’t have any restrictions or guidelines or branding strategies or particular colors, etc., that I have to stick to, and that is VERY REFRESHING.

So, to brighten up my kitchen, I’ve made / making a series of posters that show all my favorite recipes. They’re all 11×14, but I might vary it up a bit and make smaller prints for the recipes I’m not totally freaking obsessed with. I can’t believe the first three that I made weren’t all breakfast food, or a giant poster for scrambled eggs with ham. Regardless, these are my current favorite three, and will be updating more as I think of them.

If you’d like me to make you one, let me know.

Roasted Veggie Burritos

Black Bean Burgers

Milk Chocolate cookies...still needs a few tweaks

For the couple of readers I have (counting my mom), the slack in posting these last few days is because I was tripping up to Idaho with my friend Angie on a MUCH. NEEDED. VACAY.

I say vacay because I’m too broke to leave the country or do anything terrifically glamorous, and this seemingly bland roadtrip thru rural Nebraska / Wyoming / Utah / Idaho turned into a fantastic time where I had the chance to relax and drink and hang with an old friend and sleep in comfy hip hotels and actually kick my feet back. (Run on sentence, anyone?)

The deal was this: my friend Angie, whom I’ve known since we worked at Borders years back when it was still FUN, is pregnant and needing to move to Boise where her new husband Scott is currently residing. There was zero chance she was doing the drive alone, so I jumped on board to go with her so Scott wouldn’t have a heart attack and I could have a proper catch up. She is someone I really admire and I really hope I can half as cool as she is in my 30s. I digress.

We made the trip through Nebraska – RURAL NEBRASKA – in a day, and by the next we were hauling ass to Salt Lake, literally an hour ahead of some gigantic snow storm threatening to shut down the highway in Wyoming. We stopped in Cheyenne, which was this cool blend of country and hipster.  As we drove on, we went through this famously windy pass in South Wyoming, and I literally feared the door was going to come off – almost 70 mph winds! Nuts. We were a couple hours away from Salt Lake when we stopped for the 3,906th bathroom break, and it was daytime and sunny, and we came out no less than 15 minutes later, and it was shitty and dark and snowing. The last two hours were…intense.

We woke up with the birds and hit Ikea. HARD. I was like the Lohan in a crack shop; it was sensory overload to say the least. I know some hmm-n-haw about Ikea, but DAMN. Say what you will, I am in love. I left with 128 bones in Ikea loot, and could have spent 10 times that, if I wasn’t..well, broke.

*Also, I noticed while in Ikea the weird number of moms that were practically zygotes they were so young, all running around with 2+ kids. I mean, is it possible to have kids before you’ve hit puberty? It was weird.

Also, Salt Lake? GORGEOUS. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we needed to get the heck on the road. We made it to Boise in good time, and as soon as we got there Scott took us out for sushi downtown. From there we went to my MIND BLOWING hotel, The Modern (a renovated motor lodge, now uber-chic mecca of Danish furniture) and drank at their nifty bar. I drank way too much, so let’s just be thankful I didn’t stumble into the firepit.

The next day we hit downtown Boise, starting off at this awesome French cafe that served duck eggs and everything was cooked in butter, and all the waitresses were thin and pretty and hip. From there, we hit the Farmers Market and browsed around Boise, which is a really neat city – tons of cool shops and cafes, reminded me a lot of Wellington (without all the arty fartys). All the kids there are dressed like these hip skaters, and everyone seems laid back and there seems to be HEAPS to do. It had a great college town vibe, only not douchey and with more heavy jackets and vegan food.

Speaking of which, we went into the mountains later, and after a winding hour drive up, we were at the summit resort. It was closed, but we still had fun and got some awesome pics. I am so jealous of those who live by stuff like this – and it makes me miss New Zealand.

EPIC

More pics here

After a chill night in with Angie and Scott, I came back to my hotel and had a drink, ALONE, at the bar. That’s probably the new “I can go to a movie alone”, except sadder and harder to pull off without looking pitiful. I’m not sure I managed to.

I caught my flight home the next day, and was sad to go. I need more vacation in my life – this confirmed it. It’s been more than a year since I took a plane anywhere, and I miss the days when I lived on an island so exotic where driving one hour in any direction would mean you could be on some retardedly beautiful coastline or a mountain or a volcanic lake. NEW ZEALAND, YOU’VE RUINED ME.

Anyway, it’s inspired me – and relaxed me. Work has become way more stressful than I think most graphic designer jobs usually are, mainly because I work in an environment where very few understand what I do, how I do it, and just how long it takes. And I’m high-strung, so you do the math.

Places I’d like to go in 2010:

1. Toronto
2. Northwest (Portland / Seattle / Canada)
3. Boston
4. Denver
5. I’d say Europe, but I’d like to do that properly, like over 6 months and with a backpack and little debt. So I’ll say Chicago – hello, Ikea!

Favorite Color. Period. Look how freaking fantastic it looks.

via mintdesign

(via)

iphone interface

by fedra malara

Geez. Today has sucked. Bad end to nutty week, full of all the frustrating details you usually spare the readers of something like this. Just to be sure, it is Friday today, right?

Not lame? These:

Current state

My Google Reader is stressing me OUT. It’s currently well over 1000+ items, and as petty as it sounds, I want to read ALL OF IT. I just can’t bring myself to click “Mark All As Read” because I just KNOW there will be a ton of stuff I don’t get to look at and THEN I will potentially miss that 839th article on how to refurbish an antique mirror!! And all that print art, gone unseen! And all those recipes and weird ass belts and daily outfits, GONE UNSEEN. Can the internet just stop updating for one week? Just while I finish the trillions of hours of work I need to put in to finish company newsletters this week? FFFound and Design Sponge, I’m looking at you.

Damn you OMG Posters / FFFound for constantly feeding into my print art addiction! This would look so fantastic in my living room, if I ever got around to putting up some art on those big white walls.

So yeah, it’s Wednesday, but let’s talk about this past weekend anyway. It’s tradition that I’m always a bit late with things anyway, so in keeping with tradition, let’s get to talking about one of the BEST WEEKENDS EVER.

Friday night: Long-ass bike ride in the cold! But it was so fun. Mike, Meagan and I decided at the last sec to do Critical Mass, as last years’ Halloween ride was amazing. We ended up in the West Bottoms, AGAIN, drinking and hanging out near the Edge of Hell and Meagan ended up getting into a theological debate with the Jesus peeps. After biking up the gigantic hill that is Kansas City, drank at Gilhoulys, and rolled around in the leaves. Good times.

stopped for no reason in the worst part of town

Saturday night: HALLOWEEN. Obviously. I retardedly had to work at the coffee shop, but managed to get off at a decent hour and race home and change into my Amelia Earhardt costume. I scored the MOST AMAZING BOMBER JACKET EVER at ATC, that even had an emblazoned A on it. I loved the whole outfit and had such a blast wearing it.

amelia! with long hair and at first glance, no pants

Meagan (Margot Tenenbaum), Mike (Billy Mays) and Chris (Mayan God) and I headed over to this AMAZING house party in Brookside. We drank well into the night, caught up with people who hadn’t seen me since my UBER NERDY middle school days and partied with all our buddies and had such a fantastic time. I feel like I still reek like a bonfire. Regardless, for various reasons, one of the best Halloweens yet. See pics here.

margot & amelia, together at last

mike and hutch, together at last

Urban Outfitters, what happened to you. You have gone from being my go-to favorite shop to this baggy-ass hipster shop that sells torn up shirts, unattractive clothes from the late 80s and crap that doesn’t fit right. I will keep coming back to you, of course, as you still sell awesome jeans and a few other gems, but I don’t understand your obsession with velvet, acid denim, or things that only look fashionable on Japanese teenagers.

Also, these fugs:

uh, what?

Or maybe I’m just getting old. Maybe that’s why I can’t wear things like this anymore.