I want to thank a really swell guy (you know who you are) for giving me his old iPhone when I stupidly lost my own 3 month old 3G. I felt like I'd lost a limb, and he came to my rescue! Upon receiving said iPhone, I ran into some problems, however.

I opened the package, took out my new gently used iPhone, which he had wiped, as he should have. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it past the pink "Sync with iTunes" screen. It wasn't responding like it should have. After much searching I found that I needed to reinstall the original firmware. After having done that, I was able to sync with iTunes and download the new 3.0 firmware.

Ok, so I'm all excited about having an iPhone again so I started downloading a TON of apps all at once. It didn't like that. At all. All the icons were there but greyed out and saying "loading". The phone stayed that way for a few hours while I waited patiently for SOMETHING to happen. Obviously it was locked. To fix this little issue, I synced with iTunes and looked for "Available Downloads" in my iTunes account. All of the apps I was trying to download were listed there. I manually started the download on each, re-synced with my iPhone and viola! It took a little fussing with, but I managed to get everything working again.

Whew! Now to find an app that will let me find my iPhone should I lose it again...

I've been going through alot of changes lately. 11 years of a previous life that brought me my beautiful children is coming to a close. It's not been easy at all, and I've made my share of mistakes, but I feel at peace with my descision to start a new chapter. Hopefully I can be a better mother and a more confident woman. I think I am already.

I've moved into a little house and trying to fit all my junk in here is a challenge. I'll post some pictures soon. Once I finally get it cleaned up, that is. I'm also keeping an eye out for a bigger place, but for now my budget likes this place.

I started a job at Fusion Creative Marketing as part of their web and creative development team. I'm really enjoying it, and I'm really appreciating the fact that they understand what I'm going through and are willing to allow time for appointments and such. Feels like a good place to be.

I started a new job working at a print shop. Today was my first day.

It went well, but I'm not used to being tied down to a place since I've worked from home for the last 8 years. That's going to be a challange to get used to, in addition to having to learn all the quirky methods they seem to use to get things to work the way they want them to. Every piece of equipment has some different process to prepare things to print. I'm actually honestly trying not to think about it too much because I could get easily overwhelmed. Hell, it took me half the day to get used to using a normal mouse since I've been using a trackball for so long! However, I did learn today what work-and-turn and work-and-tumble mean. I'm not gonna tell you.

Neener.

Ok, i don't have a whole lot to twitter about, but make me feel popular. Follow me on twitter!

I'm designing some t-shirts and having a hard time figuring out how to create text that will knockout the object below without rendering the text to outlines. Anyone have ideas that will solve this problem?

Edit: Figured out this it wasn't that time consuming to copy text to preserve the original and then convert to outlines > create clipping mask. I just hoped there would be a solution that wouldn't require that many steps. Oh well.

Labels: art, Illustrator, Photoshop

A lovely book called "Flora's Lexicon" from the mid 1800's that Stephanie gave me as a birthday gift this year. I've posted more photos of it on Flickr.

The inscription on the back page reads "If this book should chance to roam, box its ears and send it home".

It's become one of my favorite things!

Labels: art, Books, family, Found

I definitely need more funky in my life! I love these clocks. And really everything else I see at Design*Sponge.

I painted these about a year ago (maybe longer) and I've just now hung them up in Luke's room. He really likes them. I kinda like 'em too. Here's a closeup (pops).

This image was my first real attempt at colorizing from Black & White. I managed to get it done, then later found a tutorial about it.


My method was pretty much the same as described in the tutorial, except I used color burn in addition to multiply in a few places. The effect is much more intense contrast than multiply. I used the paintbrush to add color to his cheeks and a few other highlights elsewhere. I rarely ever use the paintbrush to dotouch-ups, but I found using it in multiply or color burn mode was pretty hard to screw up. This was alot of fun to do.

Get the original and try for yourself! (pops)

Labels: art, Design, fark, Photoshop

They called it "initiation", but Whiskers was beginning to think they were just plain mean.


kinda proud of this one. original here (pops).

anther FarkPS. it's ADDICTING! anyway, i forgot to fix the red-eye on Hilary, so it kinda ended up looking like a Clinton/Obama android.

the original can be found here. (pops)

working as a creative person, it's always a challenge to stay inspired. sometimes the pressure of having to produce something when i'm not feeling it is really tough . working from my home office, i don't get a chance to hang out with other creative people very often and i'm learning that i have to seek out inspiration.

just recently i joined design:related, a creative community site where you can look for other members close to you, join networks (somewhat like facebook), post your portfiolio, your personal inspirations... it's really become part of my daily routine. i'd encourage you to join, or at least lurk. it's worth it. here's my profile thingy.

holla

Labels: art, Design, Photoshop

Another Fark PS entry. Not crazy about it. The original image can be found here. (pops)

Labels: art, fark, Kid Art, photography

My first evar Fark Photoshop entry! Yee-haw!

The original can be found here. (pops)

Labels: fark, Kid Art, photography

I'm constantly coming across cool, useful stuff but I have so many resource bookmarks that it's kinda all become a pile of semi-useful sludge. Here is my attempt to list the Top Ten (or so) websites that I visit for practical help or inspiration when I'm working on a project.

O alistapart.com: A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

O w3schools.com/css: Fairly basic CSS reference.

O lipsum.com: Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. This is useful for filling in content when there is no content available to work on your project.

O colourlovers.com: Ultimate HTML Color HEX Code List: I am in love with this site in general but this post is especially handy.

O stylegala.com: Style Gala's Bullet Madness Project: A list of 200 bullets, arrows, and icons.

O designmeltdown.com: Design Melt Down always seems to find sites that are the best of the best and categorizes them by style, genre, and technique. It also has some basic design reference.

O smashingmagazine.com: Superclean, blog style site full of design & tech resources. Check out their toolbox section. This website is a gem that I'd completely forgotten about! It simply got lost in my link pile! =D

O iStockphoto.com: Best community supported stock image website I've found so far.

O photoshoplab.com: Plenty of tutorials and ideas for working with photoshop for the web and more.

O MapleStory.com: Ok, ok, has nothing to do with design, but hey, what better way to unwind than to ks a n00b at chronos with your lvl50 Priest. I mean, really? And no, I'm not explaining.

Resources by Category:

Code, Technique & Useability: A List Apart, Colour Lovers' Hex Chart, CSS Beauty, Max Design's Floatutorial, W3Schools, Lightbox, Nifty Corners, KiLL3R C55, OpenCube, Smashing

Images & Icons: Yellow Icon, Icon Base, Bullet Madness, iStockphoto, BigStock Photo, Found Magazine, Library of Congress on Flickr, stock.xchng, Smashing, Squidfingers' patterns

Design Inspiration: Design Meltdown, Cool Home Pages, Smashing, Style Gala

I'm sure I'll think of more later but for now I'm spent. Peace.

Labels: CSS, Design, Photoshop

free enneagram test

I am lazy.
I am self-centered.
I am hard-headed.
I am apathetic.
I am loving.
I am caring to a fault.
I am sensitive.
I am intelligent.
I am creative.
I am funny, dammit.
I am optimistic.
I am lonely.
I am lost.
I am hopeful.

I am learning about me, and hoping that I can live with what I find out.

Some of our photos are up on Flickr now! I've made albums based on custom tags and will be adding more photos as I can.

I have commenting fixed now. Yay!

I've been saying for a long time that I would start displaying the "art" that my boys bring home from preschool. It's going to take a while but I'll be adding them to Flickr as I have time. Here's what I have posted so far.

Labels: family, Kid Art

Gabe took this picture of Tyler and Luke in the moment of a rare peace while they were playing out in the pool. July 2007

Labels: family, photography, summer

Recently I was on my way home, a storm was coming through and the sky was filled with clouds. The sun was beginning to set and I saw the most beautiful transformation as the clouds turned orange, pink, then the most amazing shade of red. It was a color I couldn't even describe; it felt alive. I had to pull over just to watch it, not wanting to miss anything. I could've kicked myself for not having a camera with me.

The sky has always filled me with a sense of wonder. I loved to lay in the grass as a kid and watch the clouds change shapes and disappear, and I always looked forward to visiting my grandparents in the summer just for the chance to fly and watch the clouds from above. I'm older now, but that sense of wonder has stayed with me.

The Cloud Appreciation Society has an amazing gallery of photos, from lenticular and mammatus clouds to sunsets and lightning. Enjoy!

Labels: Found, Science

I'm currently re-reading:

Middlesex
by Jeffrey Eugenides

I've just finished reading:

Eye Contact
by Cammie McGovern
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
by J.K. Rowling
The Dark Tower (7 volumes)
by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

I think next I may re-read all of the books by David Eddings

Labels: Books

I saw this on Found Magazine. Makes complete and total sense, I'd just never heard anyone argue the finer points of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

---

Labels: Found

Prettiest Girl In The Room - Watch more free videos

I love this clip from their self-titled HBO series "Flight of the Conchords", but their best stuff, IMHO, is live (pops).

Labels: TimeSuck, Video

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Find it on Amazon.com

Labels: Books

I've begun to drink. Yes, I know, what took me so long? Specifically I've begun to drink wine. I've ALWAYS HATED wine. The taste was horrible. You could give me a very expensive, delicious wine and I would make the "yuck" face.

On the urging of a now good friend, I began to really try to drink it. I found a wine that, albeit cheap, was not so terrible. This is my base wine. I keep a bottle in the fridge and about once a week I will buy and try a new wine. I'm still a newbie so they're all white (every once in a while I'll accidently buy a red).

I'm going to try to keep a list of the wines I have tried and the ones that I want to try. wine.about.com, vino.com are going to be the resources for my wine list.

I'm not sure whose fault it was. I'm not sure if it was anybody's fault. Just shitty luck.

I was turning onto a busy road while another car was turning onto my road. It was a mutual turn. I didn't see the car behind it though. Was it following too close? Was I being impulsive? "This is my first wreck" is all I remember thinking milliseconds before she hit me. Not even milliseconds. Nanoseconds. It didn't hurt me (too much). Her nose is broken.

Thank God for all the things that went right in a thing that went wrong.

We're thinking my Jeep is totalled. The driver's side is bashed in from the hood to the hatch. Everything is shifted. Diet Dr. Pepper on the console.

I had a wreck today. Actually about an hour ago. Everyone's fine. Scariest thing I've ever been through. Gonna go lay down.

I didn't really realise just how many people blog now. It's pretty overwhelming to sit and watch the updated blog list scroll through. Makes me wonder what I have to say that anyone will want to read.