Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

I saw this on swissmiss today, but it fit so perfectly into my life right now I thought I'd re-post it. Here's hoping I'll reach chapters 4 and 5 soon...

THERE'S A HOLE IN MY SIDEWALK
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
By Portia Nelson

Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost …. I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it’s a habit … but, my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five
I walk down another street.

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters, by Portia Nelson

Pitter-Pat

 Image via oh, hello friend

Lately it seems I've been waking up to a serene rainy day. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sun, but these grey mornings may be equally as pleasing with the rain pitter-pattering on my window. The rain seems to make me more productive and focus on the work at hand, instead of longing to be outside.

Moving Day Saturday

The big moving day is almost here and I am so excited. I have been talking sofas and chairs and packing non-stop for the past couple of weeks. But mostly I'm excited to have a kitchen in order again and not be eating randomly concocted meals and finally be able to indulge in the wondrous produce of summer. These are the first three things I think I will make in my new kitchen: Stuffed Peppers, Zucchini Strand Spaghetti, and Fresh Peach Pie (must take a better photo of this guy). Yum. Maybe I'll throw these in for good measure (as a bribe to all of my co-workers who have put up with my moving-talk).

p.s. I'm offering a free Chipotle lunch to anyone who helps me move!

Collections.

I am fascinated by designer's collections. I'm not talking about fashion designer's summer clothes collection, but things that designers carry or their space. I love what Character Design Agency did for their "Cast" or biography page: a bird's eye photo of that person's desk. Check out more here.

Images via Character Design Agency via design work life.

I want to photograph my desk at work in the same manner now... and I do owe you a shot of my new cube location, so maybe soon!

Similarly, my friend Niki did had her design friends photograph what they kept in their bag, here:
It's All In The (Designer's) Bag and It's All In The (Designer's) Bag Part 2.

Well said.

My professor posted the following in his slide deck for tonight:

Find or rediscover the satisfying experience of creating something wonderful, the joy of doing good work.

Help an organization do something it couldn't otherwise do.

Serve people by giving them more value for for their dollar, a greater sense of worth for their efforts.

Going beyond what you're being asked to do, but solving the real problem at hand... love it!

Birthday Month: Wish List

Happy April and happy birth month to me! And what would a birth month be without a wish list?
1. iPhone 4: I finally want to discover what this smart phone buzz is all about... but am questioning if the iPhone is really the one to get...

2. Iowa Native Bumper Magnet: I’m not a big fan of bummer stickers... at all. But my love and pride in the great state of Iowa far surpasses my dislike for clutter on my rear (or fridges for that matter).

3. Toaster: An essential for the new apartment.

4. Goat Cheese Cheesecake: A couple of years ago I had the most delicious cheesecake: a goat cheese cheesecake. I've been dreaming of it ever since and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate my birthday, Easter, and reunion with desserts after 40-days without.
Image (and recipe) from One Bite at a Time

5. Vacuum: Another new apartment essential. It must be bagless with a clear canister, because I like to watch all the dirty spin around and get bigger while I'm vacuuming. A little obsessive/gross, no?

6. Raygun Not Flat Tee: I've had my eye on this guy for a while, I think it would be a perfect addition to my RAGBRAI evening wear. (btw, Did I mention I registered for a full week of RAGBRAI? More about that craziness later...)

7. Wheatgrass seeds: I enjoy watching things grow. I'm not necessarily planning on eating it.
Image from Sarah Goes Organic

8. Rumikub: A good friend recently reminisced about how I would bring the electronic version of Catch Phrase to college parties... so winning! And I'd like to add that I most likely had a bottle of Malibu in there as well and by "parties" I mean get togethers. So to fulfill my lifelong addiction to board games, I'd like to add a family favorite to my collection, perhaps I'll whip it out at my next game night with you!

9. Aladdin Tea Infuser Mug: I like tea.

Tough Choices

It's no secret that I will be moving out on my own soon. I have two options:
1. Buy a fancy Room & Board sofa
2. Get a kitty

The two are mutually exclusive.
I've been heavily leaning toward the first one, until I saw this:

Absolutely Cuckoo Cats from SINLOGO on Vimeo via The By and By.

Decidedly short

Remember this debate I had way back when about growing my hair out versus keeping it short? A couple of months ago I started the growing-out process, because long hair seems so luxurious and like something someone my age should have (meaning every time I get it cut short the stylist asks me if I have kids). It’s now down to my shoulders and driving me insane. INSANE I tell you. It seems like it grows an inch every week and is just plain ridiculous.

I made the cut-throat decision and called to move my haircut up a week and am probably more excited than I have ever been for a haircut... I should've had it moved to tomorrow, I don't know if I can stand three more days of this insanity.

Short hair will be glorious, for so many reasons:
1. Less time spent in the morning “styling” my hair (if you can even call it that, I only know one trick: Blow dry. Straighten. Which is part of the my problem with longer-ish hair).
2. I’ll feel much, much sassier and more confident with short hair. (And can forgo the expensive red high-lights I was planning for added sass)
3. I look better with shorter hair. It’s a fact. More than 5 people have told me that in the past couple of months alone.
4. I will once again live up to my Blogger profile image.

So it’s settled. I will forever be a short-haired lady. And kudos to all of the women who have hair past their shoulders, I just don’t know how you do it.

Maybe bangs?

My new diggs

As promised (a looooooong time ago) here's a pic of my new day-time diggs. Very similar accessories as my old office, as seen here and here, but much cooler because look at the window! Right there, I can look out it with just a turn of the neck!

I took this picture in early January and things have already changed around a bit, but it's close enough... I may even be moving cubes soon, so there may be a part deux.

Next Chapter: Staples Promotional Products

So, what's the next step for me? I've accepted an Art Director position at Staples Promotional Products and start next Monday. I'm super excited about this opportunity for my career, I'll get a breadth of print design, web design, package design, product design, etc. not only for Staples Promotional Products, but I'll also get to work with some big name clients.

I'm excited to see where the next chapter takes me!

But right now, I'm enjoying my week of unemployment. It will be filled with lots of food, cooking, baking, crafting, shopping, freelance projects, homework and working out (if time permits).

A love letter & a goodbye.

Dear Hallmark,

Today is a bittersweet day for me. Today is the last day that I can call myself a Hallmarker. Today is the day I say goodbye to a great company, great friends and start a new chapter in my life.

Thank you for the wonderful opportunities I've be given for the past three and a half years (plus an awesome internship). I've worked on some really great projects in my department and had the opportunity to work on some amazing projects within the company. I can't imagine a more creative environment to spend my first couple years out of college. I'm going to miss so many of the "perks" of the job: The creative library. The trends department. The supply shop. The Rice Center (an in-house workshop and print center). The laser-cutter. The archives. The lettering studio. Workshops. Union Hill Photography studio. Mentors and Generational Buddies. And most of all, creative people around every corner.

I have been fortunate to work with so many amazingly creative people, words cannot express how grateful I am for the friendships developed and the support I have been given over the years. I have learned so much and grown so much.

So goodbye Hallmark, perhaps we will meet again later in my career. You will always be held fondly in my heart and I look for big things from you. Let the world see the amazing talent within those walls.

With love,
Stephanie



Listed below are some of the people who have had an impact on me while at Hallmark. Thank you.
Mike. Leo. Suba. Jae. Lee. Sal. Dayle. Clint. Brandon. Ray. Neil. Sheryl. Megan. Lindsay. Alyssa. Saundra. Lauren. Anissa. Scott. Michelle. Aphro. Suzanne. Bernard. Pamela. Jeff. David. John. Adam. Jim. Rob. Scott. Doug. Bryan. Tom. Ashley. Janice. John. Hector. Brian. Steve. Lindsay. Alfred. Colleen. Kim. Cheryl. Joel. Brian. Cindy. Anita. Debbie. Mary. Megan. Max. Jeff. Eric. Bob. Daryl. Casey. Amy. Jill. Darren. Ashley. Jon. Ninette. Paula. Terri. Terry. Nancy. Yolanda. Jim. Mike. John. Tom. David. Carrie. Carly. Em. Katie. Stephanie. Morgan. Kathleen. Erin. Julie. Andrew. Erin. Kate. Nicole. Ashley. Donald. Kevin. Andrew. Robbie. Daniel. Kevin. Tina. Kerry. Becky. Megan. Jim. Trish. Bess. Aaron. Dan. Scott. Marita. Ashlee. Aimee. Angel. Richard. Chris. (Sorry if I forgot you!)

Wallpaper Wednesday | 025

Recently we're been talking about failure in one of my grad classes and not being afraid of failure, but learning from it. This is best shown in how I learned to cook.

I've always loved cooking, it's such a creative and satisfactory experience for me.
There are two things that inspired me to start:
1. I was a hungry child (still am, I like to eat, what more can I say?)
2. My dad was famous for "concoctions" in my household growing up.

My dad would throw in any number of ingredients to make something delightful... or inedible. I seem to remember the later more distinctly (note: I'm not necessarily saying the later was more often). My dad can be a great chef, if you're looking for an omelet prepared exactly to your liking, a delicious bowl of hearty chili, or a "cookout" burger, he's your man. In fact, I got a lot of my skillz from my pops... by sitting through those sometimes-terrible concoctions and being a hungry child and all, I decided to learn to cook myself. I was never afraid of throwing in some of this, or a little of that, because it couldn't be worse than the macaroni 'n cheese/ground beef/ketchup concoction my father had attempted the night before.

A couple of my friends have asked me to teach them how to cook, the answer? Don't be afraid of failure and just try.

That being said, I'm trying to implement those words of advice into the rest of my life. Learning to not sweat the small stuff and learning from my missteps. I'll let you know how it goes.

Going Green

Hallmark is going green... or at least in the process. Today I attended a meeting at work outlining a new "zero-waste" program that will be implemented and tested on one of the floors I work on. I was ridiculously (and nerdily) excited about this. One area of Hallmark's campus has been in the zero-waste business since the beginning of the year, now it's time to start implementing it throughout the rest of the company. Basically waste is broken down into several components: 1) Paper recycling 2) Aluminum can & plastic bottle recycling 3) Composting 4) Burning (with state of the are filtration systems) 5) Trash

Clearly, my area already participates in the first two recycling initiatives, but I'm super excited about the possibility of the composting and creating burned waste into energy for the company. The composting program is awesome, it is not your regular residential composting, but a industrial-level compositing. Meaning they accept all food waste, including meat bones, chewing gum, wax paper, frozen dinner boxes, etc. Because it's industrial grade composting the heat is much greater and you can compost things like meat bones, where I can't do that in my balcony bin. The cafeteria has been using this system for at least three years behind the scenes, reducing our landfill contributions immensely.

Do you know what's even cooler? The city of San Fran, (side note: Neil this is an abbrev for San Francisco) now requires all of their residents to compost their food waste, otherwise they will be fined! It's a curbside composting program, just like recycling. Amazing!


p.s. I bought myself some craspedia the other day at the wholesale florist on my way to work... it smells funny... like Fall and wet leaves... with bugs in them.

smt

It's Tuesday!

That means sometime in the late hours of the night, I should be getting a delightful little ditty delivered straight to my inbox! At the beginning of the year one of co-workers took pitty on my horrible taste in music and lack of musical knowledge and breadth and decided to instigate, Sparky Music Tuesday, otherwise known as smt. He claimed that he has "great taste and that is more than enough reason to bestow upon you my wonderful selections on a weekly basis." (and I agree)

Now 27 Tuesdays into the year, I have 27 songs on my "Sparky Music Tuesday" playlist (and it is a frequently played playlist). It includes artists ranging from Casey Dienel, A Fine Frenzy, Camera Obscura, Adele, Yael Naim, and Pomplamoose.

Even more splendid? Sparky is my office-neighbor, meaning he gets the pleasure of seeing all of my moods throughout the day (and believe me, there are a lot). From elated and giddy to annoyed and angry. Sparky does an incredible job of matching my smt treat to my mood, whether it's an angry jam or a calming coo, he's got me covered. It's better than Pandora!

So thank you, Sparky, for expanding my musical vocabulary. I can't wait to get the other 25 songs this year!

My List

To follow up yesterday's post, I found my list as I was working on some projects this weekend:
1. Run a ½ marathon
2. Join a relief effort/volunteer vacation
3. Build my own piece of furniture
4. Skydive
5. Swim with sea creatures
6. Eat something really weird of cultural significance
7. Scuba dive
8. Participate in RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa)
9. Take a glass blowing class
10. Sell a piece of artwork

I’m not putting a timeline on these things, for fear of not accomplishing them! But hopefully by the time I’m 30 most of these will be crossed off.

Happy 25th Johnny!

Today marks the 25th year of life for my dear friend, John. He has been one of my best friends since the days of bucket calves and braces. John is one of the most amazing men that I know. In the past couple years he has juggled a very responsible job where he puts in much more than the standard 40 hours, has been pursing his masters in engineering, was chairman of Cedar Rapids Jaycees during time of rebuilding and growth in the community after very damaging floods (he also just happened to be the youngest chairman in history) and stepped into a state leadership position with the Jaycees this past year. He does all of this with great success, all while keeping up with silly e-mails from me filled with boy drama and other nonsense. I honestly don’t know how he does it all. He is truly inspirational.

As his previously mentioned commitments wind down, he has decided he needed another challenge in his life. I suggested, he take a break like any other 25 year old would do… but John was is deciding to start another chapter in his life, a blog! His blog will be a "25 Bucket List": 25 things things to do while he’s 25.

Happy Birthday and best of luck, John!

Garage Sale or Bust

Well... I guess it was more of bust. I convinced a couple friends into having a garage sale on Saturday and getting rid of some of the *cool stuff we've accumulated through the years.

Being my optimistic self, I was determined we would have a successful garage sale, selling lots of our goods and bringing in some decent monies in exchange. Instead, we spent countless hours gathering, pricing, and then hanging out in the 100+ heat index for nearly 9 hours... and I only made a lousy $55. I think this man is correct... garage sales aren't worth the time.

But it does feel good to clean out the closets a bit and it's a good evaluation for future purchases.

*crap

Good Gifts

I'm hard to shop for. I know this. So I was a bit baffled, offended almost, when someone recently called me “easy to shop for.” I was surprised for two reasons:

1. My preferences are ever-changing and the one thing that I’m pining over today (currently a Kitchen Aid stand mixer) will be forgotten as soon as I'm introduced to the next "it" item. As a designer my tastes are fickle, today's orange, is tomorrow's navy.

2. This someone was suggesting that all it would take to make me happy is buying me some sort of an expensive chair. Again, not true and one of my best friends confirmed it... my friend agreed that yes, buying a gift for me takes great thought and consideration, but at the same time I am rather “easy to shop for” because I don't require expensive things. Like my birthday for example, I was absolutely delighted to received bean soup mix and chocolate peanut butter chip mix from said friend in the mail. He put great thought into it, he knows I love cooking, I love beans, and I love PB. He carefully prepared and packaged the delectable mixes himself, making them even more appreciated.

This same friend noted that I am ridiculously hard to buy flowers for because there are too many rules... but there's only three:

1. No red roses (really, limit roses in general)

2. No pink

3. No baby's breath

Although, flowers are always appreciated more by who’s sending them than what they actually are. Half the time I would prefer just to get a handful of flowers from the side of the road… Anyway below are some flowers that my roommate recently received that would fit my (current) preferences perfectly... green & white lilies, mums, hydrangea, queen anne's lace. Splendid!

Another no-no: stuffed animals. Honestly, what girl over the age of 12 wants a stuffed animal? (Although I do love the stuffed kitten a co-worker gave me...)

So I know I'm picky and it takes more than just spending lots of money on designer chairs to impress me... so don't tell me that I'm easy to shop for. Seriously!

Of course, if you found 4 Henry Bertoia wire chairs for say, $22 each at an estate sale and you purchased them for me, I’d gladly accept!

Lessons Learned: Estate Sales

This weekend was my first time at an estate sale, something that I've wanted to do for a while just to check it out and see if I could find a diamond in the rough... but it's not what I expected. When my grandparents downsized, I vauglely remember my parents and their siblings going through everything they had collected through the years, hauling it to an auction site and then having a bidding auction. Maybe that's how they do things in smaller towns, but apparently not in a city (which is a good thing, I don't think I'd be very successful bidding on items).

An estate sale in KC is pretty much a glorified garage sale, where you walk through the home and everything has a price on it. Furniture, sheets, toys, canned goods, spices, etc. It's a little weird. Somehow I feel bad about it, this is where a person lived and now there's a crowd of bargain shoppers looking to score a sweet deal. Weird.

Here are some lesson's I learned:
1. Get there early.

2. Prices are as marked on Friday, Saturday most things go for half price.
3. Try to haggle (especially on the 2nd day and at the end of the day)
4. Don't buy a cloth item from a stinky house. I bought a cute clutch from a house that smelled terrible and now I'm having a terrible time getting that funk out. Any suggestions?
5. It's the thrill of the hunt, sometimes you leave with a couple great finds, other times nothing. Don't buy just because you haven't found something you loved.

Also, I've realized sometimes a new piece of furniture or artwork is all it takes to make the world right again. I have a great living situation, a great roommate, a great apartment complex, great apartment facilities, and a great shared rent price. But I've still been itching to get out on my own. I've never lived on my own and now would be the time to get that experience. I've done cost analysis and created spreadsheets all to prove to myself living with a roommate and staying put is a good financial decision, but it still doesn't fulfill that desire to be on my own.

It really all comes down to the fact that I want to design and decorate my own space, with my own personal flair and style. With my new china hutch in place, I feel like our living room is much more put together, much more me, much more adult... it just feels better. Also, with the shelving unit in my bedroom, I now have space for the letterpress posters that I've wanted to hang, but didn't have the space for previously. It's crazy how this one piece (turned into two) can completely change my outlook on my living situation into something I love again. Although, I would love to see the new china hutch in front of a bright navy wall...

Dear 2010,

You didn't start out so well. Minutes before you began, my boyfriend and I split ways, you've been chock full of unpleasant weather for many (at least that's what other Kansas Citians say, being from IA, I don't really think it's that bad), work has been extremely stressful and busy, because of that I fell behind in grad classes and freelance projects. Terribly unlike me.

But, 2010, you completely redeemed yourself on Saturday. I think I was destined to find that beaut of a retro china hutch. Who could have asked for more? Oh wait, there was more, my family was here to help me move it, I got it for 35% of it's original sell price, and it came with a "bookcase." Absolutely delightful.

2010, I think we just might get along after-all. Now we just need to work on that weather thing, could you get a little warmer a little faster?

Your new fan,
Stephanie