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:

If you are brave enough to say "goodbye," then life will reward you with a new "hello."

{ paulo coelho }

Homemade Donuts

A few not-so-lazy Saturday mornings ago, I broke out yet another one of the many, many small appliances that we received as wedding gifts: Cuisinart's mini professional deep fryer. After reading the manual three times because frying oil scares the living daylights out of me (read: grease fire) I decided to venture into the world of home-made donuts. (Yes, I am aware that this is my second post about donuts. For the record, I am totally okay with that because they are delicious.  Everything in moderation, right?)  This was not a random pick out of my mini-fryer cookbook, however.  Making homemade donuts was quite a big deal for my family when I was growing up.  We would all go over to my grandpa's house and gather around in the kitchen while my mom or uncle stationed themselves at the fryer.  My job would always be to sugar the donuts after they were browned to perfection.  Everyone else's job was to eat them as fast as they possibly could.  Check and check.

Friday Finds

photo by yours truly from June of 2010

This week's Friday Finds are an eclectic collection of things I have stumbled across during brief periods of web-perusing within my busy week. I am excited to say that this week brought the final version of Kaira and Tom's wedding invites, and I hope to be able to share a new post about them at the beginning of next week (with Kaira's permission, of course!)  In addition to that, I am planning on getting some more of my art photographed this weekend to add to my web gallery.  I am anticipating nice, relaxing days in order to catch up on some sleep since I will be out of town next weekend with friends for the Wine on the Lake festival in Erie, PA.  Enjoy the Friday Finds and have a great weekend!

• The wide open space in the background of this print by maechevrette on ETSY reminds me of an Edward Hopper painting.  Also, the colors in this piece are so great. 
• I spent more than an hour this week trying to beat my high score on this game over at I Love Typography. Normally, I am not a game person, but a game about fonts? Yes, please!  What is your highest score?
• Speaking of fonts, this website is helpful because it identifies fonts used in branding within the real world:  Fonts in Use.  Did you know that 15 of the 20 most common brands use Helvetica?
• This bag on Endless makes me super excited for summer to get here. Do you know about Endless?  You should. 
• Adorable St. Patrick's Day photo collage on Erin Ever After- one of my new blog faves!  Loving the mini Guinness.  Also on Erin Ever After: sigh.
• I am such a fan of this springtime post on Scrapblog. Which image is your favorite?  Here's mine.
• Hubs got the new HTC Thunderbolt yesterday.  Its really awesome.  I mean out-of-control fast, and even more awesome.  I definitely am jealous, and the huge nerd in me definitely recommends that you go buy one, then download this, this, this and this.

fonts and fridays,