It's Aloha Friday...

Okay, it's Thursday. But it's sort of Friday because tomorrow is a holiday! Wooooo! Three. Day. Weekend. Even better is that I get to see friends who are home from all over the world for the holidays. E.g. home from Bangladesh and Moldova. As well as far flung states. Reunion!

I found this column about adjusting to winter in the NYT today and thought it was spot on. I can totally relate. Enjoy!

P.S. It's my mama's birthday today.  
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

Songs in my head

I have had three songs stuck in my head for the last five days.

Mariah Carey's classic "All I Want for Christmas is You"

"Happy Birthday Jesus" - in the voices of the children's choir at church last Sunday

Jimmy Fallon/Neil Young + Bruce Springsteen's "Whip My Hair"

I guess it's better than the Lady Gaga epidemic I was plagued with all summer... But I'm still ready for something new to get stuck. Auld Lang Syne maybe?

Good things

Reunions and beach days and trips to the North Shore. I love Hawaii in Christmas-time.

If I don't end up with a tan...

This is why. Rain, rain go away!

Check it out

Two years!

Today is Dave and my second anniversary! 

requisite anniversary photo

Because we aren't in the same state (or even on the same continent) at the moment, we celebrated earlier this week with an asian fusion dinner and dessert at Hot Chocolate - a really great restaurant in Wicker Park. (We had some decadent hot chocolate and peanut butter dessert. Mmmm.)

Cookie illustrations

I love Christoph Niemann's posts for the New York Times. Whenever they pop up in my morning news perusal I come close to squealing in delight. Today you too can have the pleasure of reading "Let It Dough!" Go read it! It will make you happy.

Future home?

I'm loving this makeover featured on design*sponge today. The 1915 home belongs to and was redone by Percy. I love the dreamy, contrasty bathroom (although it seems a bit non-functional with no mirror), woodsy bedroom wall, and the brick installation. Elements of my future home perhaps?

Lunch time creativity

How cute and fun is this?

"Lunchtime for Rob Kimmel’s son is the start of a creative adventure. Aside from the chicken nuggets and apple, the young boy finds a sticky note pinned to the inside of his lunch box (and has since kindergarten).

On that paper from his dad is a half-completed drawing and a half-written story. It’s up to him to finish it how he sees fit. The fun really starts when Kimmel picks up his son from school, and the stories unfold, revealing the plight of the sumo rat, secret potions and pirate antics. Kimmel started tracking the fun on WanderMonster."

{found and quoted via HOW}

Check it out, check it out

It rained and snowed like crazy this weekend. Look at us braving the elements. I got a new coat which is my new favorite thing. It is S.O. W.A.R.M. Seriously, it might change my life. It was -10 this morning and only my face was cold.

If you click here you'll see that my first bookcover is now listed in the UCP online catalog!

Friday was the day where I thought I was almost finished with everything. Saturday and Sunday were days full of Christmas and anniversary celebrations. Today is the day where I realize that I have lots more to do. Not imminently, but it's coming. The next few months will be carazy. (Yes, ca-razy).

Now back to work.

I love Adobe

Why? Let me nerd out for a little here. I love Adobe because they created this little feature called "content-aware fill" that is changing my life. Seriously. No longer am I spending hours painstakingly pixel-painting the bleed onto old, ugly covers. Nope. Now I just click a few buttons and BAM, the computer does it for me - BETTER than me. (Which makes me tangentially wonder if I should be afraid of robot computers taking over the world.) Several hours of work just became 7 minutes. I love you, Adobe.

P.S. I've had the hiccups almost all afternoon. Loud ones. Sorry officemates!

Wood Type Alphabet!

Check out this free desktop background! I've already downloaded it and saved it as mine. We can be twins! It's a scan of a wood type print from the Hamilton Wood Type Museum (which I've mentioned here before because it's pretty awesome). Click here to download in different sizes.

P.S. Happy Friday!

Color of 2011

Pantone announced its color of the year... Honeysuckle! Otherwise known as pink. I'm not sure how I feel about it... I mean it's pretty. But it's no teal, gray, or yellow... Ha.

{via HOW}

Bridge Shots

In my last post I mentioned that Dave and I take a picture on this bridge every time we're in Greenville. I collected the photos from the four times I've visited his family and figured I'd post a retrospective. A two year retrospective. Fitting, I suppose, since this month is our two year anniversary! I think we look a lot different in each one. Maybe it's the hair changes?

December 2008

August 2009

May 2010

November 2010

Thanksgiving snapshots

My Thanksgiving highlights were... eating, sleeping, couch-ing, playing games, and so much more. Unfortunately, I do not have photos capturing any of those moments. I was enjoying them waaay too much. But trust me, it was relaxing and so much fun. And if anyone tells you that I lost most of the games I played, don't believe them! (Okay, so it might be true but shhh...).

One afternoon we raked many, many leaves. I took a photo of our results, simply because I couldn't believe how many leaves there were!

 

Our last night, we walked around downtown Greenville and took our traditional snapshot on the bridge. Look how gorgeous the colors are!

In sum, it was a wonderful holiday. I really needed the time away and it was so good! I have so much to be thankful for. :)

Oh dear.

We had a beautiful and warm fall in Chi-town and then BAM. It's cold. Seriously. It's wicked cold. I told Dave tonight that I don't remember it being this cold. He laughed. But you know what? Winter will have the last laugh. And it will be an evil one, for sure.

Cute factor: 10

Out of 10, of course. I can't get over how adorable this puppy is.

Yes, it's a french bulldog. Yes, Dave sent me this video as part of his ugly-dog-propaganda push. If only they stayed this cute forever...

But seriously, omigosh. This guy is adorable.