it's always ourselves

image via

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day) 

and maggie discovered a shell that sang 

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,

and milly befriended a stranded star 

whose rays five languid fingers were; 

and molly was chased by a horrible thing 

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and 

may came home with a smooth round stone 

as small as a world and as large as alone. 

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) 

it's always ourselves we find in the sea

{ I <3 e.e. cummings for having poetry that is also visual art }

       { and I heart poetry in general, for that matter. more on this soon. }

also.

It's a good day to have a good day

via modified by moi

I've been feeling sick for the better part of the week, so this image on Pinterest really struck a chord with me today. Who says that it has to be a bad day even if you aren't feeling 100%. The important thing to remember is to be thankful to be able to take it easy for a few days and recharge your batteries. Usually, when I get sick it's a sign that I've been running on empty for a while and I spend hours catching up on the sleep that I don't get with my 5:40 am wake-up-call. So today, although I do not feel well, I am thankful for having a fluffy purple blanket to keep me warm, a comfortable chair to support my achy body, and a profession that allows me to still have a productive day without over-extending myself physically.

What are you thankful for today?

Tissues and thank-yous, 

Color Love

beautiful contrast of warm and cool colors by the amazingly talented colorist Leonid Afremov

p.s. I want to paint this.

Webby Wednesday

My favorite photo app in the Android Market. Download it, too! (images via Android Market)

Look at me go, a whole week of themed posts! Let's see if I stick to it.

I am really excited about an app specifically for android that I discovered last week while reading an article about the best apps for 2011. As you may know, I love my Google products, but I've been insanely jealous of iPhone users as of late due to Instagram only being available on that platform. Yes, I have a *decent* digital camera (but I still SWOON). Yes, I have Photoshop and I am trained to professionally edit cool vintage effects into photos. Yes, I have downloaded almost every app in the Android market that can mimic the look of Instagram, but I still felt like a mobile photography outsider.

Enter: Lightbox. I have found myself using this app more than any other camera app that I've had in my three years as an Android owner. As a designer, I appreciate the clean, easy-to-navigate UI. As a human, I appreciate that it doesn't take 30 seconds to load the camera. Seriously.

The camera, a separate app called 'QuickSnap Camera,' has nice, intuitive features. The shutter button is large, and the settings button that allows for brightness and focal adjustments is right where your thumb rests on your phone, so it's easy to reach. In addition, the settings are within a single, organized list of radio buttons so they are easy to find on the fly. Yay, you won't miss the photo opp!

Integrated with the camera is the Lightbox Photo app itself. It comes pre-loaded with nearly 20 different photo filters that range from vintage (Lomo, Georgia) to artsy (Fisheye, Dotty) to simple (Instafix, B&W). Scroll through the filters and quickly preview your image, then crop, rotate, upload and share to various social media sites at the push of a (well-designed) button.

In addition to social media sharing, the Lightbox app also automatically uploads your photos, either privately or publicly, to the cloud. You can manage the captions and sharing for all of your photos in an easy-to-use and well-designed online web gallery. Much like Instagram, you're able to find and follow friends from other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. I am currently only following big names in the field, however, I would definitely add friends to my stream if the app gets more popular within my personal social network.

The Moral of the Story: Look forward to more fun (and beautiful) pictures of everyday things on The Art of Life now that I don't haaaate my phone's camera app. Win-win!

Pictures and pretty things,

P.S. Looking for an even more advanced way to edit photos on your Android phone? Try this or this.

Fall Color Palette

image via and via

Gasp!

is there any better use for a closet without doors? 

Can you tell that I like nooks? This creative blogger sacrificed a closet for this gorgeous space.What a great way to tuck a work space into a common room. I've recently become obsessed with DIY home remodeling projects due to the fact that we have just gutted our first floor bathroom down to the wall studs. We're ordering a super modern vanity set from IKEA- so next on the list is coming up with a clever way to style this bathroom to match the rest of our more traditionally decorated home. Having experienced first hand how much work this is- I commend the creator of this perfect little nook.

My Best Friend's Wedding

This past weekend, one of my most long-time, closest friends got married. She and I were inseparable back in the day when we were still losing our baby teeth, wearing Umbro shorts and soccer shoes to school, and got upset when we had to wear our hair down for lice checks. We went to summer camp, wrote notes to each other with sad lyrics in them about the boys that didn't 'love' us, and saw every chick flick together the week that it came out. I visited her in college with our other good friend K at the University of Michigan, and we stayed in touch often while she attended law school in Iowa. We've seen the best and worst of each other over the years.

So, with all of this history behind us, I couldn't help but get a little tear in my eye, and pride deep down in my heart to see her looking so happy and beautiful on her wedding day. She and her now husband can boast an unbelievable love story which started with her courtship of him via mutual friends back in 10th grade. They attended a dance together, sparks flew, and before we all knew it they were off to college together- showing everyone that their relationship would withstand the test of time. They graduated within a year of each other at the top of the class in both undergrad and graduate school. Now, they both have great jobs lined up in Pittsburgh- and I couldn't be more ecstatic. It's nice to grab coffee with a friend that you haven't seen in a while and feel like you were never apart- but in this case, I'm really looking forward to getting to know one of my closest friends again- and see each other on a regular basis.

Their wedding was truly one of the most beautiful events I have ever attended- and so perfect for the two of them. The ceremony was heart-felt and personal. Myself and the other bridesmaids and groomsmen were given the honor of standing around the newlyweds on the altar as they said their vows. At the end of the ceremony, the priest gave them the bible from which he read from during the service as a keepsake. The reception followed within an hour at a gorgeous venue with tall ceilings, log walls, and a gorgeous wraparound porch. The bride and her mom cashed in on the earthy feel of the venue and decorated the tables with pine cones, birch bark vases for the centerpieces, and mini twig wreaths as napkin holders. The natural feel was perfectly accented by gorgeous lighting, lush groups of white hydrangeas, and cracked crystal chargers acting as the center of focus for the perfectly arranged place settings. The couple's sweetheart table was in the center of the dance floor, and above it hung a twig wreath taller than the first floor of our house with the letters "L" and "N" hanging from the center with gorgeous blue satin ribbon. A deserving central focus to the room to remind us all why we were there.

Here are a few snapshots from my buddy's big day (J is the best because he took over photographer duty before I had arrived with the rest of the bridal party):

gorgeous trumpet lace dress with satin bow

matron of honor attending to her duties

the bride and the other stars of the show

mother of the bride getting ready to carefully place the veil 

its all about the shoes.

patiently waiting to get married in the wings of the church 

personalized wreath

seating assignments and wildflower arrangement

L + N!  Love the rustic cake stands. 

Perfect space for such a low-maintenance down-to-earth  couple.

Lovely table setting with accents of steel blue and chocolate brown

guest book and gift area

'sweetheart' table and room focal point

I am so happy that one of my best buds got to truly have the day of her dreams.  I don't think that I will ever forget how gorgeous she looked, or the look on her husband-to-be's face when he saw her walking down the aisle. The day perfectly suited them and went off without a hitch. Congrats to the new bride and groom.

Have you attended a wedding recently that perfectly suited the couple being honored? What were some of the personal touches that made this day stand out to you. 

Fairytale weddings and friendship, 

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Bring on the homemade margs and celebrate this awesomely fun made-up holiday :)

ole!

Inspiration: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 /

Spring into Summer Color Palette

via

I recently came across this image on one of my very favorite daily blog reads: Creature Comforts.  I was so intrigued by the light, airy feel of the photograph combined with the bright geometric patterns on the objects pictured.  There is something so feminine, yet modern, about the combination of bright magenta and Tiffany blue. I would love, love, love to have an office painted in this shade of turquoise and pale gray with white and pink accents.  So inspiring and creative. Enjoy the bright colors- Summer is just around the corner!

Wouldn't You Love?

Sister, wouldn't you love to have a bike like this?  I'm not so sure that my name would quite work out. There are simply not enough ascenders in 'Vanessa' for an appropriately-positioned seat.  View more Write a Bikes here.

image via

Color and Gender

via

Over the past few years, I have done my fair share of color research.  Color theory and preference based upon the market that I am designing for is the driving force behind my beginning stages of research and sketching at the start of every new project. It is very important to be aware of the colors that appeal to a company's target audience. It is also important to understand the various emotions that are evoked in your viewers by the colors that you have chosen for a design.  Red is an emotionally intense color and viewing it can actually increase a person's metabolism and respiration rate. On the contrary, blue symbolizes depth and stability, and has the ability to suppress a person's appetite, so it should not be used when promoting food or cooking.

An aspect of color theory that I have never researched before, however, is color preference of males vs. females.  This morning I stumbled across an interesting info-graphic regarding this concept on How About Orange. Although I found all of the data very interesting, the most intriguing part, at least for me, was the research on color naming for men vs. women.  What men perceive as the color "purple" women would name as any of the following six different colors: maroon, plum, eggplant, grape, orchid and lavender. As for the rest of the findings?  Cleveland, it looks like you are out of luck.  For more than 50% of both men and women, orange and brown were perceived as the 'least favorite' and 'cheapest-looking' colors in the entire spectrium.

Check out the info-graphic here.

What's your favorite color?  What is your least favorite color?  What was the name of your favorite crayon?  Honestly, who doesn't love cerulean?  :)

Aquamarine and apricot, 

Stormy Wednesday

Yesterday was a day full of unusually wild weather here in Pittsburgh. Hail, high winds, a tornado! I left downtown just in time to prevent golf ball size hail from pelting my car. There was hail all over the ground on the road that is only five minutes from our house. Somehow, I managed to miss it in both places. The paint on my only-2-years-old car is thankful for that.

When I left work yesterday it was 65 degrees.  When I left for work this morning, there was snow on the ground. Oh, Pittsburgh. One of my favorite parts about violent storms, however, is the way that the sky clears so beautifully afterwards. I snapped some pictures of the water droplets that had gathered on the western-facing window of our house as the sun was setting yesterday. Here is my favorite of the bunch:

Love, love, love.

I absolutely love David Emery's ETSY shop.  It is clear that he has such an appreciation of, and eye for, good typography. David also creates an amazing housewarming/wedding/birthday/etc... gift in which he turns the geographic coordinates of 'your special place' (wherever that may be) into a piece of art.  Why didn't I think of that?!

Bokeh City Lights

I was searching for an interesting new wallpaper for my phone and I began thinking about what kind of photography I have been drawn to lately.  I always like to have a wallpaper that is colorful, without being too overwhelming so that I am still able to easily navigate through my home screens.  I began by searching 'abstract backgrounds' which eventually lead me to thinking about cities at night, and how a well-composed and well-exposed photo of a city becomes a piece of artwork almost instantly.  Add the 'bokeh' photography technique into the mix, and well, I'm sold.

For those of you who might not know, bokeh is a Japanese term that refers to a style of photography in which a composition is created out of unfocused points of light. 'Bokeh is not how far something is out-of-focus, bokeh is the character of whatever blur is there.' [via]  Bokeh photography can be shot at any time of day, but personally I am partial to the photos taken at night.  Just check out the results from my Google search 'bokeh city lights,' below.  There is just something so surreal and romantic about all of these photos.  Plus, who couldn't love the vivid color schemes?

source

Colors and creativity,

NY Wedding Invitations

Last night I began working on a custom-designed wedding invitation suite for my long time friend Kaira of Kair-ied Away.  She and her fiancée have an amazing sense of style, and they are doing so many unique things with their wedding (that is just a few short months away in Brooklyn, NY- yay!).  From a design perspective, I am really excited to have this opportunity to work with them, because the concept is so different from any wedding invitation that I have done before.  I am so proud of Kaira for taking chances, and making sure that the wedding reflects their personalities.  I won't share a single detail about her amazing idea until I get to show her the finished product, so in the meantime, take a sneak peek at the fun color palette that I'm using, and then head over to her blog to see some other reflections of Kaira's fabulous personal style!

ps... Honeysuckle is the color of 2011 :) eep!