Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing some out-of-towners tomorrow! Yay!

Bagels + Amos Lee

Last night was epic. First, Dave and I had dinner at Chicago Bagel Authority. IF YOU LIVE NEAR CHICAGO GO THERE. It was so, so delicious. Steamed bagel sandwiches. Mmm.

Then we went to see Amos Lee, who is probably my favorite artist, who we have been trying to see live for two years. He is really just incredible. He sounded as good, if not better, live than in his records. It was wonderful. Epic, in fact. I wish I could do it all over again tonight.

...Instead, tonight I am printing (or attempting to print) my business cards. Wish me luck. There will need to be registration of colors. Sort of scary.

[Bagel picture is not my own, but from here. I was too busy eating to take any photos. Trust me, though, DELICIOUS.]

Surprise!

So... mystery birthday date? SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY! My friends are so thoughtful and SO good at keeping secrets! (At least this secret...) Dave took me on a scavenger hunt through the city where I met up with different friends with different surprises, culminating in a grand party. Ashley took some photos and I have a few on my camera, but I don't have those yet. For now, here are two I stole from her flickr page... (P.S. Ashley is a superb photographer. :)

a roommate photo

a couple photo

Happy Monday!

Happy Friday!

I'm still enchanted by my new font, pictured here. I decided on a swash-bedecked little "Happy Friday!" for this week and promptly left it on my home computer. So, via "sample text" and the myfonts site... here's a happy friday to you... ministry script style!

I'm off to a mystery birthday date that I CANNOT figure out. I've been given next to NO CLUES and every guess I come up with isn't it. I'll find out in t-minus thirty minutes (maybe), take some photos, and share with you later.

Happy Friday! Happy 23!

Tigers.

Ok, I think this is the cutest thing. From an article about "Take your kids to work day" in the White House:

Michelle Obama told a group of curious kids visiting the White House Thursday about her daughter Malia's most frequent question about Dad's job: What's he doing to help tigers?

Asked about her family's favorite animal, the first lady said they talk about tigers at least once a week, because Malia, 11, is concerned about what President Barack Obama is doing to save the endangered animals.

"He tells her he's working on it and there are a lot of people who are thinking about it," she said. "But I think, the Obama household, we're trying to save the tigers."

How cute is that?

The whole article (which is entertaining) is about a Q&A White House staff kids had with the First Lady. This accompanying picture cracked me up. (Is this what you see everyday at work Mom??)


Click here for the article & pictures..

New font!

Dave got me a new font for my birthday! It's one I've been eyeing for a while and I'm really excited to use it. The font is Ministry Script, which I think is a beautiful script that steers clear of being too formal and too cheesy. Yayyyy!

P.S. Happy Thursday :)

Scenes from a birthday

Rain Jacket!

Oooo, look at my cute new rain jacket on its way to me! Thanks Mom & Dad! I'm so excited! It's going to look great with my boots. :) :)

Books! (what else?!)

I like this idea of using books as part of shelves... even shoe shelves!

Oh, and happy birthday to me! :)

Jane Mount + An Ode to Books

There's something about the way books line up so beautifully on shelves advertising their subjects so blatantly from their spines. I love looking at bookshelves (as you may know). I love the color and graphic mix of them all lined up. I just love books. (Good thing I'm in the industry, right?)

I've run across Jane Mount's work several times recently in my perusal of the internet and it fits well with my love of all things books + shelves. She does paintings of people's bookshelves, portraying what's on the shelf, thereby describing who they are or where their interests lie. I looked through many of her pieces and had such a hard time choosing one to put up here. I think I settled on this one because I love the whale bookend.


See them all, and Ms. Mount's other work, here.

Side note 1: I love how the New York Times refers to people in their articles as Ms. Suchandsuch or Mr. Whosywhatsit. It's so professional and respectful. Hence I've decided to do that too... as often as I remember.

Side note 2: I found these wooden lunks of bookends at the thrift store many months ago, planning to fix them up and make them look... more awesome than their lunky-ness is right now. I noticed them a few days ago and now am taking ideas for what to paint them. So far I've thought: teal (duh), yellow, or something else bright... purple? orange?

Happy Friday!

This one's for you, Ashley. :)

I hope you have a great weekend! My plan is to... relax. And get some errands that didn't happen LAST weekend to happen THIS weekend.

Beautifully Banal

The Type Directors Club asked a group of designers to be inspired by a random classified ad and then design a poster. Here are some of my favorites:
by Gail Anderson
by Stephen Doyle
by Jeffrey Fisher

See the whole collection and find links to the designers' sites here.
[via swissmiss]

Here here!

GUYS. Look at our weather in Chicago today!! I just got back from eating out in the sunshine and the outdoors smell is lingering around me. (In a good way.) I've decided that this summer I'll pack a swimsuit and sunscreen for lunch hours. Not really, but it is sort of tempting... Here's to the sunshine!!

Springtime

Spring is here!
Dreary winter windows turn into bursting pictures of green!
Family, remember those annoying plants we used to hack in our backyard that turned out to be really valuable if sold to hotels? Dave & I went to the conservatory and I FOUND ONE! Brother David, remember that time Mom told you to trim it and you literally cut ALL of the limbs off? Hahaha.
Dave blended into the flora. (So it turns out that fauna of "flora & fauna" means animals. Put it on the list of things everyone else knows but me. I thought it meant flowers. Ridiculous.)
After taking this picture, I inquired as to if I looked "normal" or "funny." To which Dave resisted the urge to tell me they were the same thing. Haha.
Those that have known me long enough know that I LOVE THE GAME OF LIFE. The roommates and I played on Sunday and here are our cars in all their happiness. My name is Cassie and I'm driving in style in my yellow minivan with husband Noa and children Clark, Jackson, Rockwell, & Addison in tow. (Recognize any Chicago streets anyone??) Highlight of that evening might have been meeting Little Paige - Big Paige's companion that you'll notice riding along with her. There were many other names and "Oh, I just won the lottery!"s that night. I love that game.

I love spring.

Travel with words

Cool Penguin Books ads
[via casual optimist]

Happy Friday!

TGIF!

Things I do on Fridays:
- sing in the shower (today it was something like "Crown him with many CROWNS! ba ba ba ba ba baaa")
- Sing while I make my lunch (today it was the black eyed peas)
- Drink something sugary and wonderful from Starbucks (usually a white mocha)
- Celebrate Friday with my train friend, my co-workers, my conductors, and anyone else who will listen to me.
- Buy a (ridiculously overpriced but hey it's Friday) grilled cheese with avocado from the cafe downstairs.
- Catch an early train (only 5 minutes early, but hey, it's something)

Also, this morning my bus driver stopped right before getting on the entrance to the highway in order to let this guy running across the median to get on the bus. It's always so heart-warming when bus drivers are nice like that.

Happy Friday!!

In Miniature

I love miniature things. I have a dollhouse that I built with my dad and endlessly decorated many years ago. I remember spending twenty dollars (a WHOLE twenty dollars! all at once!) on a miniature bathroom set that included a bathtub, toilet, and sink. I was pretty excited about this purchase. And don't get me started on my Half-Penny family that included parents Paul & Maureen (yes, as in Misty of Chincoteague), the twins Sandy & Andy, and baby Nina. Then there was Allison, the adopted teenager who came from a girl lego-esque set, and Jonathan, the adopted baby who I sculpted out of Sculpy (remember Sculpy??!). He even had this cute little red pacifier. The Royal Half-Penny family along with a set of grandparents lived there, too, but I digress.

The NYT did a story about the new modern miniature movement and, holy cow, I am so blown away by what these people create. Check out these photos included in the article and read the story for more information. Crazy, huh??





P.S. Happy Thursday :)

How to write a Nicholas Sparks movie/book

This just made me laugh. Disclaimer: A Walk to Remember is one of my favorite movies of all time. [originally here] click on the image to see it bigger.


thanks amy! :)

Spring!

Tulips are blooming outside my office! (not so hot image courtesy of my phone...)

Pink Glove Dance

Grammy just sent me this video and it made my morning! It was made in order to raise awareness and funds for the fight against breast cancer. I just love how much fun everyone is having. And that janitor dancing away with his mop... Too cute.


Oh shoot, it's getting cut off. I don't know how to make the whole thing show, but you can go to this link to watch it all.

Paper cuts

I think this is really cute. By madebyjulene.

[via TDP]

Good Friday

It's WARM and SUNNY here. I ate lunch outside today and when I closed my eyes it (almost) felt like I was at the beach. I think it was the warm breeze and the sunshine. In any event, I'm here to report that my legs are seeing the light of day for the first time in.... I don't know... and they are a wee bit blinding. I hope you are enjoying sunshine as well.

It doesn't seem appropriate to wish you a "happy" Friday today as I traditionally do in light of today's historical, religious, traditional significance. It's Good Friday and that means we commemorate the death of Jesus. In continuing with the Maundy Thursday post yesterday, I thought I'd post the other two stations I designed for my church's Stations of the Cross tonight.

"Jesus carries the cross"


"Jesus is crucified"

I wish you all a blessed Good Friday. Here's to Sunday!

I could look at photos of dogs all day...

But I won't, for productivity's sake.

If you need a little puppy joy in your life (or maybe just some baby animal joy?) check out photographer Susan Montrose. She's an animal photographer and I'm SO impressed by her ability to capture these living, wriggling little guys. Here are a few of her dog photos... It was hard to choose just a few! Also, she has an etsy shop where she sells prints of baby animals - like this giraffe one. Check out her website if you want to see more photos!

On a lighter note...

There's lots of foolin' going on on the internet in honor of April Fool's day. ABC has some new shows on the docket... This one is my favorite.

"How can you not watch?" hilarious. And so true.

Maundy Thursday

Dear (5) Faithful readers,

I do apologize for having gone almost a week with no comments on the weather (did you know it's 80 here right now??), no comments on anything teal, and no sweet/nerdy book or graphic design related item to show you. Please forgive me.

Since this is Holy Week and today is Maundy Thursday, I thought I'd share with you a project I have been working on over the last few weeks. A group of artists at church (including myself) have been collaborating on creating the Stations of the Cross. I was put in charge of three, including Jesus in agony in the garden of Gethsemane. I'll post that one for you today in honor of Maundy Thursday. Tomorrow I'll post the other two in commemoration of what cannot be called a "happy friday" but rather, a "good friday."

I hope you are well and enjoying sunshine as I am!

Love,
Ashley


Jesus in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane