The End Meets The Beginning

Yesterday I graduated college. The "for real" graduation. I've been finished since December (hence my '10 tassel) but seeing as our college is so tiny, I had to wait to walk until May. Yesterday was also my mom's birthday! I've always felt like your only child graduating college is a pretty good present, right? It was a special day indeed. Friends and family were there and I was tickled pink. I was in love with my graduation dress (which cost me a whopping $19!) and my gorgeous new shoes thanks to Blowfish. My family surprised me with a gorgeous green sapphire necklace and my beautiful friends, Elle and Bryan, brought me equally beautiful flowers! Afterwards we met Elle & Bry at Sweet CeCe's for frozen yogurt before we departed for my hometown. 

The rest of the day was filled with family, a big meal, and an early, early bedtime. It was refreshing to not have to work for the whole weekend! Today Mike and I are spending the day together. Cutesy couple things! I'll be back tomorrow to reflect on a few other things and maybe share my graduation outfit (above). Don't judge me... but I'm wearing it today, too! (Flats though!) Happy Sunday, honeybees! xo

I DID IT!

Yesterday just might have been the most stressful day ever but I did it! I graduated! I am no longer a student! I had to wake up too early, rush to school, write a 4 page paper, take an exam and try to throw together my portfolio just in the knick of time. Did I mention I also had to go set up my table and get ready?! I couldn't even do anything with my hair because I was running so behind. But at the end of the day it was such a wonderful way to end my time at O'More. The senior show went off without a hitch and I was surrounded for hours by people that I love and adore. The other three gals I was with had incredible portfolios and we had such a fantastic time. My face was hurting so incredibly bad from smiling and laughing so much. That's the best pain in the world.

I wish I had taken more photos, but I didn't. I didn't take any except these of my table from my iPhone in the poor lighting. The little chest on the upper right of the table held my coasters which we designed around our beer bottles. I should probably back up and tell you the theme. Our theme this year was Senior Select... like beers. We branded a beer bottle for each of us and chose a beer that represented ourselves. CA had a champagne beer and I chose a Root Beer since I don't drink alcohol. It was really fun! All of our bottles and designs were SO different! We designed the labels for the bottles and then the coasters which we handed out as our little business cards throughout the night! Ill have to scan mine in so you can see them. They're awesome. They turned out SO perfect! I bought a little chest and lined it with pink and brown tissue paper and had my coasters in there. Then I had 2 milk glass cups with business cards and my little KaelahBee pin sets I had made. It was so so so cool seeing so many people at the brewery last night wearing my buttons! I also wrapped twinkle lights in black tulle and draped them on my table and then hung my fabric pennant flags too! I received so many compliments on my table set up so I was tickled! (I also put some of my sharks out with my shark infographic! The awesome crochet one was made for me by Miss Susannah!)

My dad and stepmom came. Along with my half-sister and her daughter. Mike's parents and his sister Laine came, and my Mom, nana, and Robert. (They brought me the roses on my table!) It was so awesome to have people support my decision to not go into full time design work like the other 3 girls. Not to be looked down upon or degraded for not following the traditional footsteps was really awesome

It hasn't really hit me yet that I won't be returning to campus again and I am no longer an "art student". Instead, I am an O'More alum and I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts. So very crazy. I feel like I'm at that moment where I always anticipated and waited it's arrival, but now that it's here it just feels strange. To think I have been in school for 17 years... wow! Now I'm an adult. In the "Real World"... Where to go? What to do?

I have so many things up my sleeves for the future! I'm so excited to be back at my blog full time and to really pour my heart into it. If you're a new reader in the past 6 months then you'll probably not know that my blogging style is usually very different. The summer in NYC and the flood and then this final semester really threw me for a loop so I've lost a bit of the "personal" side of my blog. I'm so excited to bring that back and make it happen! I love this little blog and this blogging community so much that I couldn't stand to be away! I just have to figure out how to get all of my ideas in line so I don't do too much at once! I'm just so inspired!

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through this amazing journey! I can't wait to see what happens next!

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

It's down to the wire. I have one paper left to turn in and one "exam" to take (both next Thursday) and that's it! I have a senior presentation review next Wednesday (in front of a bunch of faculty, professors, professionals, etc) and I'm a bit nervous (doesn't help that I volunteered myself to go first so I could make it to my tattoo appointment), and then next Thursday night is our senior art show! I'm excited about it, but also ready to just get it over with. I'll hopefully be seeing some family that I haven't seen in far too long and that will be nice. (Hopefully). 

But I'm always being asked to show some more of my work so I figured I'd post what I've spent the entire morning working on. It's a shark illustrated infographic. The concept is for it to be in biology classrooms and the bedrooms of kids who are fascinated by sharks like I am. It's also an aim at shark conservation. I'm tickled to have a 100% shark piece in my portfolio.

You can see a few more of my pieces by visiting our senior website here: OmoreSelect.com (yea, there's only 4 of us graduating!). I'll share larger images of those pieces later once I start printing them for my portfolio. You'll also notice that 99% of my stuff is vector-based illustrations. What can I say? I love to illustrate. I do wish I had more photographic pieces but oh well! 

(click to view larger)

I'll be back with my Monday mixtape shortly! xo

ETA: I *think* I've found and fixed all of the typos and missing words, etc, but don't hesitate to comment if you find something! (I haven't updated the picture because it takes years to export, but the bottom Megalodon has been fixed and so has the random not-capitalized words! Whoops!)

Senioritis vs. the If/When Syndrome...

Senioritis, from the word senior plus the suffix -itis (which refers to inflammation but in colloquial speech is assumed to mean an illness), is a colloquial term used in the United States and Canada to describe the decreased motivationtoward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their high school, college and graduate school careers.

Here I am... six weeks shy of my last day of college. 18 school days, if I counted correctly. That's right... just eighteen. You think I'd be enthralled by the idea of never having to wake up and go to class again... and well, I guess you'd be right to a certain degree. I am so very excited to be through with college. I most certainly am. But I'm also catching myself lack in motivation. Maybe it's because I've spent the last 4 and a half years getting a degree that I'm not planning on using (I say that lightly, as I will use the degree, just not in it's intended purpose). I mean, I didn't know that for the longest.. in fact, I didn't know that until this summer/semester. But I'm not the type of person that powers through something for so long and quits just before the finish line.

It's hard to take things seriously like my portfolio or portfolio website when I doubt I'll be showing it to anyone. At least not for several years (if my passion to work in graphic design returns)... so everything will change. I'm blabbering on about nothing really... but it's been getting to me pretty hard the past two months. I don't want to just do something for the sake of getting it done. I want to be proud of it... why is that so hard for me right now?

Is it a serious case of Senioritis, or is it the If/When Syndrome? I constantly find myself saying "I'll be happy when I graduate." "When I graduate, then I'll be excited about designing." "If I can start up my business plan for my store, then I'll be happy".... This is such an unhealthy mentality! Yes.... I WILL be happy when I do those things... but what is making it so hard to be happy NOW?!

I have a difficult time going to a couple of my classes simply because there is someone in there who makes it seem like her life goal is to just spread negativity. She complains about things that have nothing to do with her, and I instantly feel my morale go down. I also have this problem at my job... it may only be 10 hours a week and it may be excellent pay... but I just feel miserable at times! 

It's hard to look at something you see as a future goal and know that you won't be there for a while... I keep having to remind myself that I need to enjoy the present so that I may enjoy the future.

Life is about the journey, not the destination.

I only have 18 days of school left... granted there's a whole heck of a lot of work that will go into those 18 days (this is where my procrastination becomes a serious problem), but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. But is there a light at the end of this mentality, too? Will my If/When syndrome go away once I graduate? Or will I find myself sitting in my studio day after day saying "I will be so happy if/when I get my store going... etc etc etc"

I dealt with Senioritis my senior year of high school.... I don't know how I did it, but I still managed to make all A's and graduate with Honors. I suppose I can't truly be blamed for feeling this way, as I have spent the past forever in this school, it seems. Not to mention I've spent the last 17 and a half years going to some sort of educational institution... If I had graduated on time (this past May), maybe I wouldn't have felt this way... and maybe I'm a little burnt out because I want to use the degree I started with (Fashion Design) and not necessarily the one I finished with (Graphic Design)...

What a web I have spun myself. 

I guess the moral of the story is: I'm excited/ready to graduate, and I hope that I can make it through these last few weeks. But I also hope that I can change my mentality for the better. I have so many exciting things written in my Little Book of Ideas... from handmade goods, blog tutorials, an entire blog redesign, and daily goals/to-do lists.... I'll have to share some of those soon.

Sorry for rambling on... this was such a text-heavy post and all I really did was clear my chest of things that have been bothering me. Maybe you can relate though. If so- Do you have any suggestions/tips on how to be productive with school work when it's the last thing I want to look at?

Either way, thanks for being amazing readers and following my little journey through life! Your comments and emails make everything seem so much easier. It's nice to know I have people who I can relate to, even if we may have never met.

With that being said, if you have something heavy on your heart or you just want to talk/introduce yourself, feel free to email me... I'm always willing to listen! kaelahbee (at) gmail (dot) com.


Also- I feel like I should end this by saying that I most likely will NOT have a "day job" (full time job) once I graduate. I have no real desire to find something like that... I may find a part-time job at a florist/bakery/independent shop of some sort, just to get my hands a bit dirty (and keep me from going crazy from cabin fever)... but I will most likely have my Mon-Fri free and only work 10 hours a week at the bar. This will allow me to fully see through my goals (I hope)... but it's still weird to me..

Outfit Post : Wednesday, October 6th + My Day

Just a couple quick outfit shots and then I have to dart off to meet Merissa in Grassland to go tour GS&F (a design agency in Green Hills). Then we have to rush back to O'More so we can get to the Student Government meeting (as she's the President and I'm the Membership Coordinator). Sounds fancy, but it's really not. Still! We have to get back to discuss important matters and we will undoubtedly be late. I wish we didn't go on "field trips" on the first Wednesday of the month! Our class runs right into, and through/over, our SGA meetings.  (Of course by the time you read this I will already be in the meeting! It's only 9:30am now... love the queue!)

dress: target ($26), tights: target ($12), flats: kmart ($13)

I bought this dress some random time last year and never wore it. Not once. Until these pictures were taken. I have the sister dress which is coral instead of blue (but the top is coral, not the "belt"). Either way, I've only worn that one once! Luckily they were cheap finds at Target. Still, they're cute so I should show them the light of day a bit more. 

Last night I surprised Mike when he got home at 10pm with a big candlelit dinner for our anniversary (just 10 months. Isn't that crazy?!). We had some yummy yummy Italian and watched Modern Family/Raising Hope. So romantic haha We have a busy couple of weeks coming up! I just realized I'm getting tattooed next Wednesday and I'm not the least bit prepared. Oh man. I need to get my act together! Off I go!

Outfit Post : Thursday, August 12

Last night Mike made a deeeeelish pasta dish [I'll share the recipe later tonight!] and I spent time in my studio a bit. Then we hit the hay. I had to get up at a crazy time of 7:30am [okay, thats probably late for some of you... but I like to sleep until 8:30 or 9.. c'mon!] and I rushed to get ready [didn't wash my hair... it needs it after that pool yesterday!] and Mike rushed out the door with me to take some outfit photos at the abandoned house down the road. I only have 3 decent [and by decent I really mean just 1 picture with very slight differences] photos so I'll only post 2 [one would just be lonely!].

{Outfit Details o8.12.1o}

{Dress: Urban Outfitters $68}

{Tights: c/o We Love Colors}

{Flats: Kmart $13}

At this very moment I am sitting in my first class of the semester [of my last semester of art school EVER!]. And by first class I mean Business for VisCom and there's only 5 of us in here. THIS is why I love O'More! The teacher is rad and I've enjoyed his teaching style in the past so I'm sure great things will result from here. I have a break after this class [which is supposed to end at 10:40am] until I have Literature at 1pm [I'm not looking forward to that... well, I adore the teacher, but I'm not a big lit-reader. Maybe that'll change!] Then I have a Skype date with the lovely ladies that I'm doing a Zine with! I hope you guys will snag one up when we launch it! More about that later!

Off to be a good student! Au revoir! 

xoxo

An Upfront Apology...

Here's to let you all know that this week may be kind of slow here at KaelahBee.com. It's finals week, as I've said probably countless times before (woe is me!) and while I have no actual classes left, I do have to present my Sweet Cheeks Bakery stuff tomorrow at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, print, photograph, trim, and pack my portfolio to drop off by 1pm on Thursday, and then cram for my final Art History exam EVER on Friday morning. Not to mention throwing in a few hours of getting my leg tattooed tomorrow night... Neither convenient on the time, nor money, front... but it has to be done so it shall! I'll be making flash cards to study for art history while I get tattooed. I'm a nerd... It's cool.

I don't mean to leave y'all hanging but I'm sure you understand! I bet more than a fair share of you are experiencing the same stressed out feeling of finals just like myself. And to think, just ONE more semester! I shall be a college graduate! Oh joy!

A lot of you have said you wish I would show my design work more so here you go. A logo and menu for my vegan bakery, Sweet Cheeks.

This is the logo for Sweet Cheeks. It still needs some tweaks but I'm much to physically & mentally exhausted to even think about dealing with it now. So it shall stay. Hmph.

The menu is a folding menu with a curved photo on the inside/end. A magnet falls down from the third panel. The top row is the inside of the menu, while the bottom row is the outside of the menu. All laid flat (obviously haha). (Click the image to view it larger)

Anywhoo, It's 11:30pm, I just dragged myself from school. I'm going to put on my jammies and settle into bed. Waking up bright and early so Mike can go to work and I can prepare for both my presentation and my tattoo appointment. Maybe I can churn out these flash cards tonight. Wish me luck!

xoxo

This is Thursday.

Wednesday was a very very hectic day. This entire week has been. It's felt like finals for all of us here at O'More and I'll be happy when it's gone! My poor roommate, Kayla, sliced off part of her finger and ended up in the ER for 6 stitches. Most all of us have been there (last year I sliced off a hefty portion of my thumb at school). Phew.

I woke up pretty early on Wednesday.... and this is what I found in my floor...



I guess she had gotten so hot in the night she just passed out underneath the ceiling fan. hahaha She didn't even move as I got up to take her picture. HOW ADORABLE! Anywho...

My presentation of my book went really well on Wednesday. It was such a long presentation and only 4 of us went! I got a call from my new tattoo artist saying I could come in an hour early for my appointment. But between Mike picking me up at school, us grabbing lunch and then getting to the shop, we started tattooing around 3:45pm.

It was pretty excruciating at some points. Not going to lie. I was making faces and trying to entertain myself with trashy celebrity tabloid magazines. It worked for about the first two hours but the last hour was a lot harder. I started to get very very restless, and my leg started to tire. My elbows and shoulders were sore from resting my weight on them and shifting every now and again. My butt muscles were twitching randomly. I couldn't even start my last magazine. Instead I wrestled around and threw my face down on the table and just tried to lay there. I closed my eyes and tried to go to my happy place (Okay, it wasn't THAT bad, but I'm not looking forward to the other session, or the other leg for that matter). But I'm very very happy with how it came out so... cool.

Here it is after I washed it off. It wept pretty bad for the first little while, but it's stayed completely clean today.


Mike drove me home and upon arriving, he lead me to the shed in the backyard and opened up the doors. Sitting in front of me was a huge and gorgeous new Tommy Bahama hammock! I had told him I wanted a hammock and we were thinking of maybe buying one this weekend, but I was so excited that he went out, bought it, brought it home and assembled it while I was in class! SO AWESOME! We laid in it last night and it is just SO dreamy with the twinklelights turned on!


After getting home, we needed to run out and do some errands so we went back to his car and much to our dismay, it wouldn't start. We don't know what is wrong with it but hopefully it's an easy fix. Sadly we were supposed to get Toby today or tomorrow, and with me having a tiny two seater convertible, it wasn't looking possible. Luckily, an 11pm phone call to my parents provided helpful. They've got 4 vehicles so lending us one wasn't a problem. The only problem was Mike having to drive an hour and a half down there to get it, and then an hour and a half home. We slept and said we'd deal with it in the morning.

This morning came and I needed to write a ridiculously long paper over Andy Warhol (due at 10am tomorrow) so I didn't go to Portfolio class. I need to email Jeff my progress though. We grabbed lunch at Panera and he brought me back home so he could drive to Hohenwald. This is my car with the two of us in it... Oh my stars, no room!


I stayed at home and worked on my Art History paper for the 4 hours he was gone. I took both blankets and 2 big pillows and climbed into the hammock and didn't get out until well after he returned home. I put on a big cozy hoodie and snuggled up with some Wikipedia.

Today was the TOMS One Day Without Shoes as most of you are aware, I'm sure. Mike and I both took part and here are a couple little pictures.



This was my cozy hammock workspace!


Baby G just hung out with me all day and chewed on stuff. Adorable as ever.




Tonight ended up being a little more dramatic than I had hoped (not with Mike and I, don't worry!) but I'm happy to report that all systems are a GO! and hopefully we will be seeing little Toby tomorrow :D

Tomorrow is my birthday picnic in Pinkerton so if you're around, come by! Pink and white balloons will lead the way!

That's all I really have for you today. No "Things I Love Thursday" post simply because I'm at a loss of time but maybe I'll catch up this weekend! I have some blog designs to work on for some people so I'll probably be keeping myself busy!

I hope you all have a marvelous Friday!

Busy Bee.

I wasn't lying when I said I'd be going full throttle this week. So far, I've thrown out a book concept, come up with another one (on Monday morning), started designing it, laid out a dummy book and labeled every single page while planning, wrote the full text/copy, took photos, then took photos OF photos, laid them out, manually paginated all 168 pages, printed, trimmed, comped, hand-bound the book, padded a cover, upholstered the cover, drilled holes through the whole thing and then attached it all with bolts. I did all of that within 36 hours. How I managed to create and design 168 pages.... I'll never know. But I did. it's done. 6 hours at Kinko's and I have a 99% finished book (I say 99% because in reality, I'd have to switch out some of the photos for other ones but I didnt get them developed in time. oh film!)

I was giddy last night when I left Kinkos right before midnight. GIDDY! So giddy that I allowed myself to come home and watch 2 episodes of Dexter with Mike. Eep! Presentations are today at 1pm. I have to head over to school early though because I have a Student Government meeting. After class we're heading to Nashville to get my calf tattooed. I'm nervous as balls but hopefully all goes well.

Yesterday while trying to lay out the rest of my book and come up with copy, we took Georgia to the puppy park. She has fun and is distracted and I get to sit on the bench and be productive. She had so much fun. However, one mean dog was rolling her on the ground and biting her. G's tongue was bleeding at one point but she didn't care. She's so unphased by that stuff. She just ran and ran and ran, and then swam some and then rolled in the dirt. She LOVES the puppy park and I love to take her. I feel like a good Momma. One lady kept getting angry at her dog for getting wet/dirty... uh hello... this is a puppy park. With other puppies. That play. and get muddy. Dogs will be dogs. By the time we got G to the car, she was covered head to toe in mud. I love that little stinker.

Oh speaking of G.... She's having her eye surgery on Friday! It was scheduled with a dental clean on May 3rd but we called and had it bumped up to April 9th! SO EXCITED!

Here's some silly pictures of her yesterday while she slept on my fabric while I was trying to make my book cover.



We used a drill to drill through the book and apply the bolts. This was the dummy mockup that I did so I could make sure every single page was laid out correctly and so that when I paginated it by hand, I did so correctly. It was time consuming to make this dummy book but SO worth it in the end. It saved my butt so many times these past 2 days.



Here's some rough photos of my book. This is the cover (it's padded) and it's bound with 2 bolts. The 1 inch on the left side stays flat and the rest of the book is scored to bend and open easily.


This is an interior spread. Each "day" has an assignment, paired with a photo (this one doesn't relate), and then the next spread is a page for you to journal about what you did, and then a page for you to attach a photo that you took to represent that day. (The kit also comes with photo corners that are black so that you can put any size photo in there, be it a polaroid or 4x6 etc)


Apparently Mello Yello did a redesign?! IDK but I love it. I hate mello yello but I bought it just because of the packaging. Yes, I'm a packaging nerd.



xo

PS: I've been asked a few times what my calf tattoos were going to be and I'm not sure I ever mentioned so here you go... the one I'm getting today is on my right calf and it's a traditional piece with roses, swallow, a banner that reads "Nana" and a vintage sewing machine/spool of thread/needle because my Nana was a seamstress all her life. The one on my left calf (to come later) is the same idea, but with the masonic symbol and stonemason tools because my Papa was a stonemason :) so there you have it :) *(I just told my artist what I was thinking... I said "traditional pieces, flowers and a vintage sewing machine with the words in a banner saying Nana" and she came up with a really great sketch that I went to see yesterday. Oddly enough, it's very reminiscent of the adorable Silje's calf tattoos, but don't worry, I didn't copy her or steal her design or anything. But if you haven't read her blog, go check it out HERE. She did a wonderful watercolor painting of Bert for me! She's adorable!)*

PPS: To clear up any confusion with the last photo post... NO, Mike and I are NOT engaged! haha! I realize I'm sporting a big rock on that left ring finger but I can assure you that it's a $12.99 Target special! I wear it while I'm at work/the bar so when drunk fellas come calling, I can flash it and say "I'm taken". It really really gets old in the bar. Mike and I both hope that one day that time will come for us, and I will be very excited for it so I'll probably blog immediately :P As much as I'd love to get engaged right now, I feel like an engagement puts pressure on you to start planning the wedding immediately (and even though I've been planning it my whole life, I don't want to rush to the altar just yet!) Rest assured, I will let you know if and when!

The Most Exhausting Weekend... Ever.

This weekend has been NON STOP! Man do I mean it! Yesterday morning I had a ridiculous Art History exam, followed by a nice little power nap that was totally my saving grace. I headed up to Hermitage at 3 to pick up Toby from Sarah by 4. Mike was busy moving things out of his house because it's closing on Wednesday. We pulled into the driveway at the same time (great timing!). We ran some errands and ate dinner at Panera before coming home so I could go to work.

Work last night was ... bleh. It was dead most of the time. I really need that to NOT be the case tonight haha I strolled into the house at 3am and crashed in bed. Toby decided to wake up at 7am. gah! kids! haha Mike got up with him and they played and yelled and what not. I woke up several times but finally just got up at 10. I got ready and showered, etc etc etc. Had to get ready to go to the TOMS Style Your Sole party that my friend Merissa had organized on campus today. I showed up at about 11:30am to help set up. Things went smoothly and we had a great crowd. Mike brought Toby and he was a total hit. Everyone loved him. Finally after taking everything down, a group of us went to Sweet CeCe's at about 5pm. Mike and Toby woke up from their nap to join us. Toby loved the Pomegranate Raspberry Sorbet. After all of that was done, we went to Target to get him new pacifiers and I bought him a sweet stuffed lamb. Then we went to Garcia's for dinner. He's been such a doll this whole time.

Now I'm at home, about to leave for work yet again in 10 minutes and I'd kill for a nap. I'm so so so exhausted. Having a toddler who wakes up at 7am when I get home from work after 3am... it's something haha but I LOVE having him here. It's so much fun.

Tomorrow we're driving down to my parents' house and they're so excited to meet him. It'll be a nice little day trip.

Sorry there are no pictures in this entry... I'm running low on time!

I promise I'll have some soon!

Happy Weekend, everyone!

xo