About a year and a half ago, I bought my fiancé a birthday present that I (and he... because I spilled the beans before I even bought it) thought sounded super fun. It was a build your own mechanical clock kit from Abong. Having expressed some interest in woodworking at the time, I thought this would be a nice introduction for him. Some relevant back story: he has a habit of declaring newfound interests and hobbies that he never actually pursues... I didn't realize this at the time. So I presented the idea of this mechanical clock kit to him and he seemed enthusiastic until the gift arrived and he had trouble getting around to opening it. Being pretty handy myself, I offered to help build it. Some time passed, his birthday rolled around again, and the clock was still unfinished... mostly because I only visited on weekends and, if we're being honest here, I was the only one working on it. We joked that gifting the kit was one birthday present and building it was the following year's, but it was pretty ridiculous how long it sat in the box partially assembled. So I resolved to finish it by his birthday this year and I did... except hanging it turned out to be unexpectedly complicated so now here we are 6 months post second birthday and, after creating more holes than I'd like to admit, it made it onto a wall just in time for daylight savings. Both the concept and the physical clock are just as cool as I initially thought. The kit comes with laser cut gears and dowels and a lengthy instruction manual. Assembling it is 90% of the fun and the result is a kinetic sculpture that happens to tell time. TBD on if it tells time accurately. In my opinion, if it moves we've done our job.  Whether it's functional or not, it still looks awesome. My biggest concern going forward is that Wallace will decide the swinging pendulum is a toy because... he's a cat... and knock the whole structure to the ground shattering it. Time will tell... get it? I'm sorry... I'll just go.

If you've been keeping up with things, you might have noticed that I haven't had many traditional DIYs lately. One reason for this is outlined in my previous post, the other is related to my last DIY and a particular piece of highly symbolic jewelry. Because I accepted the ring, I'm now required to plan a big party for all my friends and family (I've heard there's some sort of public declaration of love and commitment involved as well). Apparently, the planning process will be eating up a good chunk of my free time for the better part of the following year so I figured I could chart my journey here. Who knows, there might even be a few wedding related DIYs to share. Today, I am featuring the venue we booked a couple weeks ago.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is the country's oldest art museum and school. It houses an impressive collection of American art ranging from colonial to contemporary, the bulk of which is displayed within their Historic Landmark Building. Constructed in 1876, the ornate Victorian Gothic structure was designed by Frank Furness and features "fanciful floral motifs... richly tiled floors... [and] gothic arches carrying gold rosette-studded walls". It really is a beautifully designed building plopped among the towering concrete structures of center city. I could spend days studying the building itself before even glancing at the collection inside. I know this because I did, PAFA also happens to be my alma mater and former employer. I had countless opportunities to get to know the intricacies of the museum and I still feel like I notice something new every time I visit.

I was never one for planning my hypothetical future wedding at a young age, but I do remember fulfilling that stereotype once when I stumbled upon PAFA's events page at around age 16. I then quickly reminded myself that you have to actually date someone in order to have a wedding and that didn't happen for me until a couple years later so I tabled the idea. I did not considered it again until I actually had a reason to this past summer. My fiancé and I both wanted to get married in the Philadelphia area since it is close to our families, but also because the city itself has special significance to our relationship. After touring a few venues, it didn't take much consideration to land where we did. Despite being a somewhat untraditional venue, the decorative architectural elements along with my personal regard for the arts and our association with Philadelphia make the space feel sacred to us. Step one was a pretty easy decision for us, but I've heard horror stories about wedding planning so stay tuned to witness the slow deterioration of my sanity as this process continues. Should be fun!

It's that time of year again, the time when I disregard all responsibilities in favor of twisting and tying intricate series of knots until they resemble clothing. Yup, knitting season is in full swing and I'm building up quite the inventory of cozy accessories including hats, ear warmers, infinity scarves, and boot cuffs. I have versions of each of these for myself, but still need an activity to curb my tendency to fidget. Knitting season is a perfect opportunity to occupy my restless hands and add some items to the Etsy shop. My goal is to use up the remaining yarn stash in time to be replenished during the Christmas holiday so... family, take note. You can find patterns I've already reported on here and here if you have any interest in attempting them yourself and keep an eye out for others in the near future. I have enough rotating items to keep myself interested, but am always looking for new patterns to throw in the mix so if you have any simple but stylish ideas send them my way! And be sure to check out the shop throughout the chillier months, I will add listings as items become available (as fast as my hands can knit) or contact me if you're interested in a custom order.

A huge thank you to my dear friend, Rachel, for modeling my yarn stuffs better than I ever could so I can minimize the number of cringey self-portraits I have to put on the internet 😬

My goal with the intermediate students was to show them ways in which graphic design can be applied to a career. Most of our projects had some real world application to them, this usually required that the students collaborate with each other as well as across departments to get their work out of the classroom and off their laptops. Their assignments required more thought and effort than the intro class, but were also way more fun (at least from my perspective). Because they already had some foundational knowledge, I allowed the intermediate students to play a more active role in the types of projects we did. I was writing the curriculum as the year went along so if a student had a idea they were passionate about all they had to do was present their concept to me and I could usually find a way to make it work. One of these assignments was to create a coloring book by illustrating the pages using Photoshop's drawing tools. This assignment was the result of a student bringing her coloring book to class and letting me play with it. 

I first asked them to brainstorm and select a theme for their coloring book; one class chose endangered species and the other chose places around the world (I stupidly forgot to transfer some of the pieces from my work laptop before I returned it so unfortunately the only examples I have below are the endangered species). After helping them set up the format of their workspace, the students used a combination of freehand drawing and scanning and digital pattern making in Photoshop to complete their illustrations. ​It wasn't the most seamless approach to the assignment, but the experience inspired me to buy some Wacom tablets for the classroom and boy are they game changers. I don't have one for personal use yet, but I do have a birthday in the not so distant future... ahem. Ultimately, the intention was to get them professionally printed and sell them in the school store. If you've followed my journey a little you know that unfortunately I moved away before this came to fruition, but it would have been a wonderful way to introduce the students to the business end of turning your creative pursuits into a career. ​

​Shout out to my lovely students, I still have my copy and yes I use it.

People often conflate being a visual artist with having beautiful handwriting. Unfortunately, despite years of rigorous catholic schooling it is a skill I never developed. So when I was appointed the role of car decorator for my soon-to-be family's weddings I was a little apprehensive. I've done two so far and after realizing this is now my official job, I did some research the second time around. I came across ThePostmansKnock.com and it appears to be a one stop shop for all things calligraphy and hand lettering (a non-cursive form of decorative writing). Ideally, you would use a dip pen to create the varying line weights within your calligraphy strokes, but there are certain surfaces for which a dip pen just isn't practical... a car window is one of them. Thanks to TPK, I was able to achieve the look of dip pen calligraphy with a chisel tipped window marker by using a technique called faux calligraphy.

The first step is to write your chosen word or phrase in whatever cursive font you like. Make sure to leave enough space between each letter so you can add to the line weight later.

Next, draw a line parallel to each downstroke. A downstroke is just what it sounds like, any place you have drawn your pen down the page while writing. It can be helpful to retrace your motions in the air just above the page to determine where your downstrokes begin and end.

The final step is to fill in the spaces on your downstrokes, however you can also stop after the second step for a more stylized look.

That's it! Three very simple steps. The tricky part is developing your muscle memory. The more fluid your hand motion, the better your writing will look. I still have to look back and forth between a sample and my own page so you can clearly see where my hand stopped or hesitated. This technique (and any form of calligraphy really) seems to be a craft in which practice is essential. I'm just starting out so let's see how long it takes me to develop that beautiful curvy handwriting everyone already assumes I possess. If you're interested at all in practicing the art of  calligraphy, I highly recommend this Beginner's Guide to Modern Calligraphy. It's what I will be using in my attempt to finally make the educators of St. Margaret's School proud.

After the drawing and selection tools, the third major Photoshop tool group I focused on with my first year graphic designers were the retouching tools (patch, healing brush, spot healing brush, clone stamp, content-aware delete). The retouching tools are always my favorite to work with and teach since they perform the magic that everyone associates with Photoshop. I love showing students how to use them because there's a literal "ta-da!" moment that is so fun to watch. We completed a brief introductory exercise together and once everyone had a handle on the tools we moved into the final project. The students selected genres from a hat and visited that section of the library to gather photographs from cover art and illustrations. Once back in the classroom, we discussed examples of strong compositions in famous works of art. They then used the selection tools to isolate parts of their images and collage them onto one half of their workspace in Photoshop. Students were required to assemble either a diagonal, triangular, or S-shaped composition. Once their collage was completed they merged the layers, copied the collage, and moved the copy to the other half of their workspace. From here they used the retouching tools to complete the following list of alterations:

• Remove 3 elements
• Swap an element with another
• Repeat an element 3 times
• Hide 3 elements
  • Wallace (because yes, of course my students were familiar with the prince)
  • A Panda (our school mascot)
  • Yourself
• Change the color of 3 elements

Once their pieces were finished, students traded collages and solved each other's puzzles.
Can you spot the differences?

 While cruising around the Internet the other day, this party game caught my eye… probably due to my recent dabbling in the world of paint chip crafts. It appears to be a cross between apples to apples and magnetic poetry for the visually inclined. The rules are pretty straightforward: “Players draw handfuls of paint chips and a prompt card, then rearrange the chips to create spontaneous poems out of the color names.” The results are said to “range from profound to hilarious” and are extremely visually striking I’m sure. I’m actually surprised this product didn’t exist sooner since paint color names generally lean towards nonsensical or absurd. Anyone who has ever browsed the paint department of their local Home Depot has undoubtedly wondered how the colors get names such as Skipping School, Hamster Cuddles, Spirit Whisper, Grandma’s Refrigerator, and Stanky Bean (you can thank an AI for coming up with that one). Regardless, they definitely lend themselves to the world of word games. I considered creating a set of my own, but despite appearances my life does require that I leave my house... sometimes.

The ring is beautiful and I have no qualms about wearing it, but because I love it so much I want to protect it. I've seen some ring holding necklaces around the internet, but none that fit the form and function I was looking for. Necklaces with an easy clip in design usually feature the not so cute lobster claw clasp and necklaces with an attractive minimalist design have a more complicated attachment mechanism. So I decided to look into making my own. After researching jewelry suppliers, I settled on RioGrande.com. You're required to create an account to purchase any of their products because, "The U.S. Patriot Act requires all suppliers of precious metals to maintain full contact information for all of its customers." (Um...it does?!), but they were the only supplier that sold all necessary components to complete this project. Once I received the goods, the construction of this necklace was incredibly simple. Here's how it's done:

Now that I've settled into my new digs, I've finally begun to explore the neighborhood a bit. One of my favorite places is a jewelry boutique called Catbird and no it's not solely due to the name... though that doesn't hurt. Located in the heart of Williamsburg, Catbird is one of those shops you find yourself returning to again and again for no obvious reason. Their cases are filled with the kind of tiny sparkly things, beauty products, and home trinkets you just want to spend time around. A while back, I did find myself there for a specific purpose (upon which I will elaborate later), but since then I've returned just because the atmosphere makes me happy. Maybe all these good vibes have something to do with the fact that they employ local artists to create their Catbird jewelry line with ethically sourced materials and conflict free stones, sell cruelty free beauty products, and donate 1% of all sales proceeds to organizations aligned with their core beliefs. Whatever it is, it's got me coming back. Keep it up, Catbird.

In my constant pursuit of the Hotel Tivoli aesthetic, I decided to use this glass top coffee table as an opportunity to infuse my living space with, you guessed it, more color. After some brainstorming to determine how to create a color blocked design, I landed on this paint chip technique. I like to keep these types of projects reversible if possible that way if I change my mind (likely) all is not lost. I know paint chip crafts are so 2012, but I never got to take advantage of the trend while it was hot so... humor me. I entered Home Depot under the guise of repainting... something and it got me thinking: How often do employees need to replenish the paint chip stock? Has there been a noticeable uptick since the invention of this low budget craft trend? How does it effect the paint department's budget? Can anyone provide some insight on this? Apologies for the digression, but I'm actually very curious. Moving on! Basically I just waltzed into the paint department and took an entire row of sequential paint chips and  would figure out the design later. I know ombré is also a passé design trend, but paint chips are already organized that way so what can you do? Here's how it's done:

Materials

• Paint Chips
• Glue
• Clear Contact Paper
• Scissors

First choose your composition, laying out your paint chips will help you determine if it requires any of them to be cut or glued.

Next,  cut a piece of clear contact paper to the size of your glass pane. Remove the paper backing and attach your paint chips color side up. Make sure to keep them evenly spaced, once they're stuck it is difficult to readjust them.

Lay your glass bottom side up, align, and stick your contact paper. Smooth down, a credit card works well for this.

Lay your glass in place and you're done! In case you haven't noticed, teal is my favorite color... I recently decided that some variety needs to be worked into the space because things were getting too Under The Sea, but clearly I had a mental lapse when choosing my color palette for this project because... surprise, it's teal. It must have been the intense pressure and guilt of robbing Home Depot of their precious paint chips. Going forward, I will make a more conscious effort to avoid turning my apartment into a beach side cottage. Regardless, this project is a super cheap and reversible way to add a pop of color to any room!