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?

I has a clothesline.

I am big on saving money, and I hate wasting extra energy if I can help it. I also happen to live in a small apartment that faces out onto an alley, and I know the owners of the building that faces my building. These serendipitous circumstances added up to me working with the owners of Venue222 to install a clothesline outside my apartment.

It was really easy, only cost me $15, and will save me $1.50 a load in dryer costs (raise your hand if you hate quarters!)

The Dents (who also gave me my kittens!) came over a few weeks ago and helped me (okay, Wade did most of the work) install. Naturally I documented the process.

Enjoy!

Dee Cee Weekend!

I love and miss my DAAP friends - even the ones that live less than 10 minutes away! With everyone so busy in the Real World with Big Girl Jobs, sometimes you just have to stop and take time out to smell the cherry blossoms.

My girl Sarah (the one who lives 10 minutes away) and I drove out to visit Corrie in Washington DC, where she's working at an awesome design firm and living the dream!

Check it out!

 

this is Cincinnati.

this is Frederick, Maryland. They look very similar.

 awesome beer bottle cuff links at Eastern Market.

ladyfriends looking all beautiful and urban.

 great ad by Zipcar - when are you coming to Cincinnati?!

 we stopped to smell the cherry blossoms.

 and had fun photoshoots in the park (what?! we're designers!)

 and ate awesome local food.

It was a really fun weekend. I love and miss my friends!

Dancin' Fool.

Just a little funny to bring a smile to your day.

(Click on the pic for my sweet moves!)


some sweet moves from the CAC Keith Haring opening a couple weeks ago. My buddy David DeWitt shot this video and edited it to showcase some happy happy kids jamming out :)

You're a hipster. I'm a hipster. Let's be geeks instead.

Maybe it was all the chatter about Grammer's closing this week, but I feel suddenly deluged by the term "hipster." Don't know where it came from or how it became such a popular, deragatory term, but I'm tired of it. Don't believe the hype. We've all got a little hipster inside us (even Disney!)... at least I know I do. I don't know when it suddenly became popular to hate and label "hipsters", or why the subject draws so much contempt.

I've embraced my hipster-ness, for the most part. I listen to obscure bands, I live in a tiny apartment downtown and ride my bike everywhere, I love design and have a unique style... yeah. I'm pretty freakin' hipster, and okay with it.

 

okay, okay, not my usual hairstyle... but look at that freakin' hipster!(from 2007)

However, there is something divisive about being a true hipster, and it's something that often grinds my gears. I think the thing that people really, truly hate about this stereotype is the arrogant attitude, the presumptiousness and sense of indifference and irony that seems to go along with the label.

I'm cooler than you because my interests are SO obscure, SO unique. It's nothing more than another way to separate and divide, to stand out, and to be kind of an asshole about it.

However, at my core, I like to think of myself as more of a geek than a hipster. The biggest difference?

Geeks get excited.

Isn't that where the term "geeking out" came from? I love learning more about the world around me and sharing it with everyone I know. My Google Reader and sites like Fast Company and BoingBoing keep me up to date on everything from the hottest new tech concepts to the next hilarious viral video sweeping across the internet.

My enthusiasm travels off-line as well. If there is a chance for me to capture the joy of a small detail or moment as I'm going through life, I'm going to take notice and share it with the world, or at least my immediate circle of friends.

So, here's my proposal. This is 2011. The reign of the hipster is over. Let's get over ourselves, our obscure bands, our "cooler-than-thou" attitudes, and embrace our inner geeks. Let's get super excited about the little things, and open up to the people around us, instead of limiting and staying in our silly cliques of ironic hipness. Let's evolve...

Be an early adopter... you can say you did it before it went mainstream.