Recent Design: Hannah of The Homesteady

Okay I'm all for racial equality (and all sorts of equality for that matter), but thank you dear Dr. King for getting me a day off tomorrow. And for some weird reason, I also have Tuesday off. Thank you holiday forces that be for giving me this mini-vacation! Unfortunately, I'll spend it writing papers and cleaning up the mess that generally accumulates wherever I am. Nevertheless, it's a day off.

Today I want to share with y'all one of my favorite recent designs. Okay, not so recent. Hannah approached back like before Thanksgiving to do a redesign for her blog The Homesteady before she switched to self-hosted wordpress. And write at the end of the email, she wrote "P.S. I think whale sharks are cool, too." So of course, we got along just splendidly. :)

I really really love how Hannah's design turned out. We had a palette of sort of muted jewel tones and balanced a woodsy feel in the type with some watercolor motifs in the navbar hovers in a way that feels really natural. Thank you Hannah for trusting me with your lovely blog!

If you're interested in working with me on blog design, please visit my custom design page or my template page for a more affordable option. Actually, let's be honest, all design options are super affordable right now as I work to build my portfolio. I'd love to work with you!

What do you think of Hannah's redesign? 

Playlist #20: Elvis

Hi all! First off, I apologize for being a little absent around these parts the last few weeks. It's kind of odd to me how so many articles of "blog rules" say that you should never apologize for posting less than usual. And obviously rules are meant to be broken, but I really disagree with that. Obviously, no one needs to apologize with blogging if they don't feel they need to, but I feel like I do. 

As a blogger, I feel like my readers expect certain things from me. You expect a quality post, hopefully one that's interesting or useful. You expect me to answer your emails and comments. And if you're a regular reader, you've learned to plan on 3-4 posts a week. And I haven't been doing that successfully. I don't owe you anything, but I want to build a little relationship with each and every one of you, so in the spirit of community, I want to come out and say that I'm sorry. 

I've been doing lots of planning + mind maps + designing + I'm oh-so-excited about all the lovely-rad things I have planned for us in the coming weeks. So stick around! :) 

Today, I'm doing something that I haven't really done much recently (except at Christmas!): share a playlist! With my music tastes, I really go through phases. I'll have a couple weeks where I can't bear to listen to anything but acoustic or a few weeks where it's all 80s rock or opera or 20s swing or (fill in the blank). 

Lately, it's Elvis. Believe it or not, it all started at my internship last week. (Prepare yourselves, I'm about to nerd out.) I've been working with an environmental department of my county government that deals with the health of streams, rivers and lakes in my area. One day, I was with two guys installing a surveillance camera at a local creek that would basically enable us to watch the stream for flood conditions (overflowing). 

While we were doing that, there were a bunch of guys that would walk by and hang in the streets, just loitering. One guy even asked us if he could see the footage because a car had been stolen there the day before. And so I just casually made some comment about how much I love hanging out in the ghetto. In response to this, one of my coworkers, a big, burly fisherman type of guy responds with a falsetto "in the ghettoooo", just like the background singers in Elvis's song "In the Ghetto". So of course, I had the song stuck in my head the rest of the day, and now I'm on an Elvis kick.

Long story to say, I'm obsessed with Elvis at the moment. Listen away, lovelies.

Anyone else fangirl over Elvis like I do? What have you been listening to lately?

Word of the Year

If you've been hanging around here, you know that I love the whole idea of New Year's Resolutions. But in reality? I'm a little tired of them. So I thought I'd try something different. Lately, it seems like setting a "word of the year" is all the rage, so of course I had to be a part of it.

Random interjection--did you know last year's word of the year for America was 'selfie'? Selfie. Just let that sink in. Like I fully take selfies to appreciate the important events in my life like good hair days, but I certainly hope it didn't define my year or anyone else's. 

Aaaanyways.  Coming up with my word of the year was really difficult actually. I hate to say it, but I don't have any "big" changes that I feel I need to make in 2014. I mean, I need to exercise more and yell at people less, but those didn't really seem fitting. I've got to have a nice, pretty word, right? One that I can put on my wall or something. So that kind of ruled out 'treadmill' and 'tongue-biting' as candidates for word of the year. 

At church on Sunday, I wasn't even looking for a word. Not even really thinking about it. But somewhere in the service (I think it was just a word in a song), I heard the word 'open'. And it clicked. I immediately knew that was my word. 

I truly believe that in a sense, the word 'open' chose me. I mean, when I realized that I had found my word, I was a little disappointed. Open?! That sounds so boring. It's not even a pretty word. Why couldn't I have gotten something cool like "bloom" or something? But nevertheless, I'm confident in my choice.

When I got to thinking about it, 'open' is the perfect word for me in the coming year. As I've just briefly mentioned, I'll be moving to a new state in August. I tend to get anxious when I'm alone in new places. I don't make new friends well because I tend to not let this crazy personality show if I'm trying to make someone like me, but then I'm just awkward. So I want to be open to change, open to new friends and new places and open and unashamed with others about myself. 

And healthy or not (not), I also tend to keep a lot of secrets. This blog is one of them from most people in my life. It's not tha I'm lying, I just tend not to mention things that I'm passionate about around other people if I feel they won't understand. As part of being 'open' in 2014, I'm coming out of the blogger closet. In the fall, once I move, I plan on printing calling cards with my blog address on them that I can share with friends. Why should I keep my favorite hobby a secret?

In 2014, I want to go with the flow, taking all of the changes in even strides. I want to learn to take genuine pride in my uniqueness. I want to be honest, I want to be genuine, I want to be real. 

I want to be open. 

*this art was made with a Nikko G nib and Higgins permanent black ink.
**Linked up with the Creative Collective at The Nectar Collective

Weekly Wishes #23

Oh man, I hate to say it but I am not looking forward to today. After a long Christmas break, it's back to classes. I have to say, I really don't like starting off a day on a bad note or without anything to look forward to, but to be honest, I'm not looking forward to anything about today before I go to bed. Oh well.

But anyways, it's, of course, Monday, so I'm sharing my weekly wishes! Before that, let me recap last week's wishes. I made two wishes: give H a random compliment everyday and dance with him at the wedding we were going to last weekend. 

H and I liked to be silly-sweet with each other so giving random compliments wasn't hard, I just had to be intentional about it. But the other one, dancing at the wedding, was going to be super hard for me. Luckily for me though, there actually wasn't even any dancing at the wedding at all, so I didn't achieve my goal but I didn't exactly fail. I will admit, I'm just a teensy bit disappointed since I had really gotten myself mentally ready for looking like an idiot, but I think I can deal. 

This week, like I mentioned, school starts back up. And while I usually love most of my classes, I'm just not feeling it this week. So #1 I want to make a smooth transition into classes. I'll be working hard to stay away from procrastination so that I can get things done without stress or enormous amounts of gummy bears (which I sometimes adopt as my coping mechanism of choice). 

My #2 goal for the week is to stick with my new checklist system. I made this big checklist just yesterday to help me keep track of various good habits in my life, from flossing to exercising to sleeping early. So my goal for this week is to not worry about checking off every box, but mostly just remember to keep the checklist accurate and updated. If the system works for me, I'll be sharing it with you in the next few weeks! Sorry if this project sounds super vague so but just know that I'm super excited to see how it'll work!

What are your wishes for the week?

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Start Here: Cooking My Way Through Paris / Rolling Through the Italian Countryside / This Week as a Violist

Printable: Plan a Productive 2014!

I'll admit it: I really, really love the New Year. As someone who loves making goals and plans, the new year presents all these exciting new things that don't seem possible in the middle of the year. So of course, embracing all things New Year related, I almost always make New Year's resolutions, and I have for as long as I can remember.

But this year, I've decided not to. For some reason, I've grown sort of disillusioned with the whole idea of the resolutions. Sometimes I think we put so much thought into making up these supposedly meaningful goals that we expect to last for a whole year that we feel like we've achieved our goal just in making them up. And I think New Year's resolutions set us up for failure because we have a deadline to come up with these goals (January 1!) and in our rush, they may not even be valuable or realistic goals. So all that to explain why it's mid-January and I'm still talking about the new year and will continue to for another month or so. 

This year, I'm trying a couple different methods to set goals. Instead of just writing down vague goals on a sheet of paper and instantly feeling like an accomplished person, I'm trying to make my goals into specific and mostly "one-time" goals, like 'read this book' versus 'read everyday'. 

So to guide me in the goal-setting process, I created this printable, which you are welcome to use. Post it in a visible place so you can be reminded of your plans for the year!

(Click to download. Prints best at 600 dpi and at a half-page size.)

In 2014, I will...
+break this habit: sleeping in late on Saturdays.
+make this habit: eating healthy snacks like veggies/cheese/yogurt before chips!
+read this book: Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
+watch this movie: Blackfish--the killer whale documentary!
+learn to code! (and continue learning calligraphy)
+visit: Sequoia National Forest + Big Sur in June!
+remind myself that: as I transition to a totally new home (remember...I'm moving in August!), people come in + go out of our lives for a reason and it will be okay. 

Do you like setting New Year's resolutions? How do you achieve success in your goals?

6 Weeks of Wellbeing Project Recap

I did not expect this project to be hard. I honestly thought it'd be about spending more me time. More time blogging, resting, reading, with the boyfriend. And I did just about all of those things. But I found out most of all that cultivating a lifestyle of wellbeing is more than just doing things to make you feel good. It's more than that. 

I don't pretend to know all about how to love a happy-healthy life, but I'd like to think that I'm learning. And the hardest things I've learned is that the things that really make me feel good don't make me feel good. By that, I mean that the most fulfilling, worthwhile things that I can do with my time bring happiness over time or at a later date. 

Let's take volunteering for example. I'll be brutally honest and say that I don't actually enjoy volunteering a lot of the time. I work with snotty kids and change a lot of diapers (okay, I love them, but you know I'm right). But when I focus on the value in what I'm doing, it brings me happiness in the long haul and confidence in myself as a person. 

The second thing I learned I sort of already knew. Taking time for wellbeing doesn't have to take long. I know you know this but let me just park on this for a sec and give you some ideas for upping your wellbeing. 

Do good to you. 

: eat clean, drink water, exercise. 

: go to sleep earlier, get up earlier. 

: spend time outside

: take time off of technology, even if it's turning your phone off while you sleep or for an hour. 

: forgive yourself. For whatever you need to. 

: stretch or meditate

: clean up that area where you always put stuff when you don't want to actually put it away. 

Do good to others. 

: find a place to volunteer. Commit yourself to volunteering at least once every month. Choose an organization that you can build a relationship with and support over time. 

: say thank you. To your mailman, the lady who served your lunch, your children, anyone that you usually forget. 

: give a random compliment. 

: call your grandparents. 

: write a far-away-friend a letter

I'm sure you can come up with lots more because you're certainly an intelligent human being. So as I end my official project on wellbeing, I'm going to do my best to make sure I don't forget my well being. And I challenge you to do the same by valuing your relationships with others and yourself. 

Six Weeks of Wellbeing: Weeks 4 and 5 Recap

First off, the obligatory happy New Year! I hope your 2014 will be lovely + bright. Don't worry though, I love New Year's Day and will be celebrating it for weeks on the blog. I'll be sharing some of my goals + plans for the year in the coming weeks! 

Today I'm recapping the last two weeks of the Six Weeks of Wellbeing project because last week was Christmas + I was too busy stuffing my face with pfeffernusse (a family fave) to write out this post. #sorrynotsorry.

My sort of game plan last time I checked in with y'all was to do good things that are hard. Meaning those things that aren't fun to do, but are good for you or pay off later. I practiced doing things right away--laundry, thank you notes, even replying to texts. I practiced making time for things I need to do but don't enjoy, like cleaning out my desk + room. I found that oftentimes the dread of doing something unpleasant is often a lot worse than the actual activity. I realized that I usually put off doing laundry for days, when I could just get it over with in a few hours. As a smallish goal for 2014, I want to focus on not putting off unpleasant chores or activities.

This coming week, the very last week of the project, I want to focus on learning way to make wellbeing a sustainable lifestyle. I'll be using a lot of the actions I shared in a previous post (Get Happy in 10 Minutes or Less) like writing random thank you cards, going outside, and stretching. Leave me a comment with suggestions on how you take time to do good for yourself!