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!

and so it is Wednesday...

i feel so BLAH because i dont have any photos to bring to the table for this entry. text only? boring! oh well. i'll do it anyway. i allowed myself to sleep in until 10:30am this morning as i turned off my alarm at 9. thats what i do! luckily i dont have class on mondays or wednesdays until 1pm so it was no big deal. but i got up, got ready, and got to campus at noon. i had to organize things to show my portfolio professor so we could choose 6-7 projects for me to work on through the semester. print design 2 started at 1pm and we talked about our first project... a how-to book. keeping with normal tradition, i love to design with an overload of femininity. lace, pinks, blues, browns and cremes. bring it on! i was thinking about designing a book about vegan baking or maybe crafty things... but i dont know. suggestions, anyone?! class concluded fairly early and my portfolio review wasnt until 3pm so i sat around, talked with elle and ashlea and merissa, and finally made my way into jeff's office. i was in there for half an hour and we had a fairly easy time choosing what all i'd redo. lets just say my portfolio is going to very... diverse. :) i'll share my progress.

after that i headed out and went to grab something to eat. it was 3:45 by the time i got out of school and i hadn't eaten a bite. i ran by kroger to get some staples like soup and OJ for the sickly beau back home, grabbed some chips & salsa from our favorite mexcian restaurant, Garcia's, and saw our oh-so-super-sweet and very favorite waitress, Alma. she's SUCH a doll! you jsut don't even understand. she greeted me with a big big hug and the most inviting smile! ah i just love her! we talked for about 10 minutes or so and i promised to bring her one of my tulle & lace bows next time because she was admiring it :D i headed home and lazed around with mike for the better part of the night. [here it is 10:30pm and we havent done much... it still feels like break!] i dont have class at all tomorrow luckily so i'm going to laze around a bit more, try to do some tutorial videos and finally go get my keys to my new PO Box.

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BY THE WAY.... [please read! super important to me!]

thats another thing i wanted to share with you guys... and open you up to... in my Print 2 class we have to make a designer coffee table book. well... if we really like what we design, we have the opportunity to actually print/publish it ourselves. i'd really love to make this happen because it'd really REALLY be awesome to take on portfolio reviews. well the whole theme [i still dont have a name for it] is "THINGS THAT MAKE YOUR HEART FLUTTER"... so it could be a polaroid of a place or person you adore, a picture of you as a child, you and your family, a drawing that your little cousin did for you, or maybe a picture of something you've created, built, or written. maybe a note from an exboyfriend or current boyfriend, or a birthday card that means a lot to you! anything at all! but along with it you will hand write on a white piece of paper your name, your age, your location [city, state] and WHY THIS MAKES YOUR HEART FLUTTER. feel free to include your blog link or your website if you wish. free publicity! but i also need a signature stating that you are OKAY with this being published! [the book probably will not be mass produced or anything.. i mean.. hey, i'd be okay with it! but this is really just a project i'd love to do for fun].

you can either send it in an envelope addressed to my new PO BOX or you can do a Hi-Resolution Scan [AT LEAST 300 dpi] and burn it on a disc and mail it to me [or you can attempt to email it, too.. though that tends to not be the best method]. i understand if you dont want to part with a legitimate photo or polaroid or note, etc. so i DO accept scans! i dotn know how many pages the book will be yet, but i'd really really reallyyyyyyyyy love it to be AT LEAST 50 pages! so please please please help spread the word! i'm going to design a flier so if you'd be willing to post it on your blogs, myspaces, etc, i'd be eternally grateful!

i'll post back tomorrow with my PO Box address and we can go from there! i'd really love to hear if any of you are willing to participate! :D

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tonight we laid up in bed after cooking vegan banana waffles [SO GOOD!] and watched a few episodes of GLEE [so love that show!]. now we're just gonna kick it for a bit and that'll be that! yay! happy wednesday!

xo