Video Roundup

Here's some videos that are inspiring, or hilarious, or ridiculous, or all of the above. I like them, and you like me. You'll like em too!


My cat LadyBird... she's a talker.


short film "Chocolate Bunny" by Lernert & Sander that I saw at OFFFCincy last week. Simultaneously unique and terrifying.


The Marmoset Song. I've listened to this probably 50 times in the last week and a half. Sometimes Constantly I get stuck on silly songs or videos and overdose on them.

City Mouse, Country Mouse

my hump, my hump my hump my hump

I got around to decorating the cast of my backside my friend Kara made as a sample for her senior sculpture project last year. In an effort to make it not so obviously butt-like (if that's even possible) - I got out my magazines (okay, I printed pictures from Flickr) and my Modge Podge and got to decoupaging.

It's representative of my life and personality - half of me is cool and confident in the big* city, the other half of me longs for the quiet and the stars out in the farmland of Indiana, from whence I came. It's been six years since I moved to Cincinnati, but there are parts of me that are still very much Country Mouse.

Naturally there's a lot of text, sayings I find inspiring, and it serves as a reminder of where I've been, where I'm going, and who I am.

Despite its camoflauged appearance, it was still a little disconcerting to have a crowd of people at the housewarming party in September standing around contemplating the art. Apparently there are some puns that were unintentional at the time...

Ah well. Check it out!

*yes, I'm aware that Cincinnati is not really a big city. It's in the top 25 metros... It's all relative.

There's no place like Home.

I'm finally home!

It's been a little minute, chickens. I've gone through some changes in my life- good things. First and foremost - I moved! Not far - just around the corner - but it's definitely a move up. There's central heating and air, among other things.

It's a lovely place, and I'm sharing it with a lovely friend from high school... and the kittens, of course. Finally the things I've acquired are starting to match and become an aesthetic all their own. Does having a decorating style mean I'm starting to become a grown up?

I have a record player, and a dishwasher, and a view to wake up to in the mornings that is both green and urban landscape. It's not much, but I finally feel settled. The boxes are unpacked, the pictures are framed, it's clean and spacious and peaceful.



Best of all I'm still smack dab in the middle of my favorite neighborhood, surrounded on all sides (literally) by friends and neighbors that I'm getting to know better. It feels like home.

I'm who and where I want to be. No change of heart - a change in me.

CycleSEXY!

You know I love riding my bike to work. Rain or shine, snow or sun - I'm hopping on Laverne because I'm too lazy to walk in heels for the exercise and joy of it. Yes, even in sub zero temperatures, with a scarf wrapped around my face, I've derived a great deal of joy from riding to work. My commute is shorter now than it was in December, but I'm still scooting around - I love riding down east using the trail the City has been working on, out to Lunken Airport and down by the river. I love going to Covington, Bellevue and Newport across the river. I'm still a pretty big weenie about hills, but it's a little at a time.

And in case you were wondering... yes. It's really not that hard to ride a bike in heels! I wouldn't do it for 20 miles, but to get to work, just use the balls of your feet (not the heel part) on the pedal, make sure your skirt keeps you modest (no one wants to see unmentionables flying about due to a short skirt!) and get out and ride.

I'm submitting one of the pictures that the AMAZING Nick Thomas took for me this past weekend to the "What Women Want" photo contest and survey - hopefully it will win me a new set of ergonomic pedals! Check out all the pics below, and let me know which one is your favorite. The crowd seems to be indicating #7 is the way to go.

What I did on my summer vacation.

Within 20 minutes of my arrival, I was covered head to toe in creamy peanut butter. The stuff caked my pigtails and was smeared on my shirt. It was a voluntary ambush; a salty-sweet welcome to my late arrival as a counselor at summer camp. I showed up right in the middle of Yuck Night - a free for all cabin-bonding activity where peanut butter, oatmeal, jello and other foodstuffs are thrown about in various relay races.

 

This past week I spent 6 days and 5 nights in northern Indiana. It was mostly cold, rainy, and filled with 5th and 6th graders. There was a beach, but I didn't get much sun. It may not be many people's idea of a fabulous getaway, but I couldn't have asked for anything more.

I. love. camp.


Summer camp, at Tippecanoe Baptist Camp in North Webster, Indiana, was a tradition I participated from 1997-2007. From age 9 to 19, I trekked the three hours north from my home town to spend anywhere from a week as a camper or counselor to a whole summer as a lifeguard immersed at this modest summer retreat. The American Baptist Association of Indiana and Kentucky has rallied around this little camp for years - despite the distance, I chose to go here because my father and his family attended years ago.

From singing the camp song (Eye-I-kee-I-kus, nobody like us, we are the kids from the baptist camp!) to gathering around the campfire in the evenings, yelling at reminding campers to walk, not run down, the hill, and everything in between, so much of what I remember and cherish about this place is the same. Having counseled and even worked for several summers, it really warmed my heart to see that despite not having been there for several years, my presence and influence still lingered - in the music left on the chapel laptop, and even an old photograph from the camp I counseled in 2007 pinned to the bulletin board in the dining hall.

I know it sounds cheesy, but this place changed my life. I made friends, experienced leadership opportunities, and grew in my faith. Due to circumstances with school, I've missed out on camp for the last four years, but after a friend reached out needing female counselors, I grabbed my three vacation days and headed out. It was definitely a wake up call, as kids I watched over years ago were now employed at camp as lifeguards, or even volunteering alongside me as a fellow cabin leader. I felt so old!

Some elements have changed, but most are the same. There's something comforting about the cinderblock cabins, the seaweedy lake, and the quiet chapel, surrounded by woods, dappled with sunlight, inhabited with kids singing at the top of their lungs.

Enjoy the pictures from this week :)

an ode to typography.

I love words. since the time I started "reading" (memorizing) Doctor Seuss books, up to now with my incessant habit of analyzing and collecting fonts for my personal use, typography - the shape and influence and sheer art of letters - has been an influence in my life and style.

Every piece of artwork I own is typographic in nature. my senior thesis project revolved around the positive and negative and in between space of language and letters. I can't get over the power of letters, combined into the perfect words, to communicate exactly what I mean.


The weight and context of the written language - the ability to exactly convey emotions, and thoughts- is the most precious gift.

It is art.

I am innately drawn towards art through words. the shapes and forms the letters in their different styles take - an f is an f is an f is an f - so many ways to make it depending on its font.

So many ways to paint a word depending on its size, slants, curves, negative and positive space.

 

Words! We are so lucky to have language with which to communicate! EXCLAMATION POINT! and so many of them.

Words are so important. They carry weight. emotion.

I love you.


you're fired.


I'm sorry.

Writing them down fixes them in space. Makes them important and memorable. Keeps them forever.

Even typing on this screen seems less permanent.

Typography takes the beauty of language and makes it visual art.

_____________________________________________________________

They say a picture's worth a thousand words.


I say the perfect word paints a thousand pictures.

New Shoes

For a variety of reasons, I've given myself particularly heavy boots about life in general lately. And for a variety of reasons, I was recently reminded that I need to change my perspective.

Or perhaps, just my shoes...

So in the spirit of Paolo Nutini's fantastic song "New Shoes", I'm trading in my boots for something lighter - a small list of things that are currently making my heart really happy.

My twinkle toes, if you will.

* How excited my cats are to see me when I come home
* Perfectly cooked meat - shrimp, fish, salmon, chicken
* Caramelized sweet potatoes
* Getting to know some girlfriends a lot better
* Meeting my neighbors
* Riding my bike... in heels
* Sunsets over the skyline
* The ice machine at work (we have an ice machine! it's awesome!!)
* Singing and doing dishes
* The flowers in Melindy Park, around the corner from my house
* The fact the two plants I bought over a month ago aren't dead yet
* My shoe collection - I have pretty fantastic shoes.
* Nicole at Incredible Creations who makes my nails look pretty for a super affordable price
* Sitting in the courtyard at Neon's and knowing more or less everyone I see
* Sitting on my fire escape enjoying the weather
* Getting a great parking spot and not moving my car for two weeks
* Every time I see the Schwartz's
* great yoga classes at You do Yoga and the Yoga Bar
* the four minute bike ride from home to work
* seeing live concerts around town
* making delicious food for friends where it's so good, there's no leftovers
* grocery shopping at Findlay Market, Aldi, and Mayberry Foodstuffs
* my new bike lock that lives on my bike
* hearing from old friends out of the blue
* planning trips and adventures
* little flowers that are probably weeds but look like flowers to me anyway
* overhearing or seeing people be sweet to each other when they think no one is looking or listening


What gives you twinkle toes?