HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIZONA

I'd be lying if I said that I knew today was Arizona's birthday, however, thanks to Facebook and all of my knowledgable Arizonans it was brought to my attention ! 100 years is quite incredible and I am happy that I was able to take part in about 23 of those years. It's the state that holds pretty much all of my loved ones and I am so grateful that I get to visit as frequently as I can. It's a pretty hot state for being 100! (Please excuse my corny-ness).

let me make this clear, my dear... i love you

This year I had some grand plans of designing, printing, and mailing my own valentine cards to all my sweetest loved ones. Even as a single girl, I still like Valentines day because it actually makes me think of all my family and friends - the ones I truly love! However, as we all know, life gets busy and our visions and dreams seem to take back seat to the daily tasks and jobs at hand. Thank goodness for the internet so I can still send you a "handmade" card in time. Hope you have a great day filled with love from all!

Design and concept side note: got this idea of an eye chart while I was at the optometrist last weekend. I have seen other signs before too that say, "one rarely sees what is right in front of their eyes." People are so clever! Feel free to use or print out if you'd like :)

music to my heart & empty wallet

Over six months ago I decided to take a leap of faith and purchase a ticket to Coachella without knowing what bands would be performing. It's a bit of a pricey gamble, but I figured no matter what it will be one heck of an experience. The first couple months after buying the ticket I felt good about the purchase, but the past couple months while money has been a little tight I started to really second-guess my decision and was feeling that it was maybe a little irresponsible. Well, today was the day that the list became known to the public and I must say that I am a happy, happy girl! I am excited to see some of the bands that I saw at ACL once again, I am thrilled that I will finally be seeing bands such as the Black Keys live, and most of all I am ecstatic that I will have the chance to check off something on my Life Bucket List... seeing Radiohead! Cannot wait, let's just hope and pray that all things go as planned. 

the end or the beginning?

2011 is coming to an end, can you believe it? So much has conspired in my life this past year, and yet looking from the outside, my life might not seem too different. I usually don't really make New Year Resolutions, but a recent event is making me break my non-habit and make one.

I recently joined millions of others in getting a Pinterest account (username: mykmyk) for a couple of reasons. 1. I love gathering inspiration from other people's pins. 2. It's a great way to keep things that I like or want to do organized on a site that I can access from any computer with internet. 3. It's a great way to promote company's or self-promote one's art!

I can't lie, number 3 outweighs the other reasons a bit. So, yesterday I pinned something from my blog... Remember those Harry Potter posters that I had made? Well I pinned one of those to test out the whole system of pinning. So imagine how happy I got today when I saw this on my screen...

That's right, 18 likes and 70 re-pins! That means that more than 70 people saw my poster and could have possible traveled on over here to my blog. This soooo inspires me to really dive into my art. The economy is tough right now for everyone, especially all the artists in the world, but with sites like this that help spread inspirations, literature, and art things are looking to me like 2012 is going to be a new beginning! 

Long story short: new years resolution... work even harder on my side projects and art! 

Christmas Company Party

The company I currently work for, Stampington & Company, had it's Christmas Party yesterday. During lunch a Panini food truck was parked in our parking lot and we were able to place our orders and then eat and be merry with our co-workers. There was also a Tacky Christmas Sweater competition that was going on, and I was in it to win it. The night before I had rented a movie (which ended up being horrible) and decided to make my own tacky sweatshirt*. Anyways, I won 2nd place and got a nice little goodie bag. Our company photographer, Johanna, snapped some pictures of the three winners (Nichole, Me, and Cynthia) and they turned out pretty funny. We tried to do our best "awkward office photos," and I think we succeeded. I then played around with the saturation, levels, contrast, and colors a little bit in Photoshop to make it look a little dated. All-in-all, it was a nice little break from the work-day!

Did your place of work do anything fun this year?

*I bought the red sweatshirt and turtle-neck from K-Mart and then cut green triangles out of different colored green felt squares. I then combined all the triangles into a pattern to form one giant tree and tacked them on with stitching glue. Each triangle represents an employee, so I wrote everyone's name in permanent marker under the triangles (tacky enough, right?) To finish the whole thing off, I used used some puffy paint to add ornaments to the trees and to also write "Stampington and Company" at the top. Ta-da! That sounds like a lot more work than it really was, the whole thing only took my about a hour (at most). 

Newport Beach Boat Light Parade 2011

Last year I experienced my first Christmas boat light parade and decided that for as long as I live in California, this experience is a must every winter season. This being my second year, I was a little more knowledgable about where to go to get a good seat so my pictures turned out much better than last years (still not great, but I can't complain when taking pictures with my phone!) I picked up Jessica after church and we made our way down the peninsula, almost to the wedge, and sat on a wall facing Corona Del Mar. Anyways, the noisy crowds of families, the cheery music, the chilly air, the reflection of lights in the sea, and the sand below my boots really put me in a west coast Christmas mood! These pictures don't do these million-dollar-lit-yachts much justice, but hopefully you can get the picture.

Follow up: National Tie One On Day

I know that this is Christmas season, but I had forgotten all about this post, until today when I was checking out Stampington & Company's new blog. I was happily surprised to see a photo of my apron-wrapped loaf of pumpkin bread in one of their posts. If you'd like to see what my end result was, click here. I bought the apron from Ross and made a label on illustrator using a quote I found online by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I hope this brought someone some joy on their Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving quote reads:

For each new morning with its light,

For the rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

FOr everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emeron