Hiiiiii again.

Work + wedding planning + eating on budget = soul eaten. big surprise.

Wedding planning summary:

Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens for the ceremony + reception. We're heading up next week to talk to someone in person, and probably nail down the details (like the date - late August/early September, a Sunday afternoon). May try to poke our heads in at some of the catering possibilities too.

Shower is going to be a casual party probably at a state park or something. Have decorating plans. Also have decorating plans and some ideas to play with for the wedding. Invitations have been narrowed down, will most likely get them from Invited Ink on Etsy - though I still have a few other contenders. Started looking at photographers this week.. and good god it's a lil overwhelming. I have a good handful of ones I like, buuutttt whether I can afford them is an issue. (Still, I know it's something I should make work - hearing too many regrets from people who didn't splurge on photos!)

Dress, clueless. (Was scouting around here for design ideas, and kept trying to focus on dresses.. and still pretty clueless.) Cake, haven't even started looking at. But I know what I'm doing for guestbooks!!! lmao. I'm so ridiculous.

Honeymoon is Tom's planning area. Good lord the hotels all look stunning. We're looking at ryokans - a more traditional Japanese style. (Quick example - this site was Tom's jumping-off point for awhile, and Ugenta was a front-runner at one point. He's been doing so much research it's insane.) Which reminds me, I should plow through another Japanese lesson today. I can say "the cat is sleeping" and "the woman drinks tea" and "the moon is white". uhm. still have a ways to go!

But! I sat down in Photoshop today for the first time in aaages, and churned out the notecard design that's been bouncing around in my head for about a month now. Will probably be my thank you cards for the shower/wedding. (I can do the printing at work for cheap, hooray!) That basic design, light aqua and black&white damask, will be the running theme of the decorations. (Probably with less of the distressed look... but I couldn't help it! it's been so long since I had an excuse to do it!) Water bottle labels (I have label paper, can print at work, wrap it in packing tape and it's waterproofed!), menu signs, whatever all else.



We'll see how the color situation goes. More of a bright turquoise for the shower, a lighter aqua shade for the wedding. But mixing similar shades throughout, to keep myself sane. ;)

Labels: art, photoshop, wedding

 


Vintage photo from The Graphics Fairy (where I recently had a good ol' fashioned image-binge), some photos from my own mixed in there, and a good dose of photoshop textures. Mainly, I just couldn't leave that photo alone. It needed to find a way to my desktop. (Phistos have been invading the back of my brain again lately. Re-reading Dorian is not exactly pushing them away.)



In trying to find a certain layer, I turned off the one with the main image in it - and was happily surprised by this! I like it. I suspect it will make an awesome base for other things, as well as being nice just on its own.

Labels: art, photoshop, wallpaper

 
Because I do not trust facebook to not decimate the quality and sharpness etc. of my awesome, awesome birthday drawing for Mel:



Love you kiddo. ;) Happy birthday. Your REAL birthday present is currently stretched out on my blocking mats - are you visiting soon, or should I mail?

Labels: art, family, photoshop, silliness

 


Bwahahaha I have noooooo idea how much of this teeny-tiny detailing is going to print, and I'm just praying the text will be readable. Probably not. Oh well. I LIKE IT. A freaking lot.

(Obviously the reduced-size jpg that you internet viewers get to see is not as sharp, and certainly not really legible. But you get the general idea of it. I'm so in love.)

Labels: art, crochet, photos, photoshop

 
Yes I signed up for Twitter.

Mainly because I wanted to try and snap up a Phat Fiber sampler box (which I did! successfully! barely! holy CRAP they sell out in under a minute!), and I thought there might be notes on their twitter feed. (There weren't. But they were on-time with the sale, as per their email list.)

Also because Mary Beth Temple, of Getting Loopy podcast fame, is always talking about the conversations the crochet people are having on twitter, and I felt nosy.

We shall see. I'll play for awhile. I suspect it will be my doom come NaNoNovember again.


...meanwhile, I am playing in Photoshop. I've been toying with the idea of making some kind of record of my crochet projects. 1) I want to show off what I've made, which I might do via flickr. 2) It's hard enough to give things away, I need to have pictures of everything. 3) I've made enough stuff now that I'm going to stop being able to keep all the info in my head (where the pattern is from, what yarn I used - which is probably most important so I know what I can machine-wash and what I can't!).

But taking photos and uploading them is seriously, seriously boring. And I realized 95% of my digital creative output this year has been in CorelDraw, at work. Which I've grown to love, I admit, but... I feel like I've been neglecting Photoshop. Which is my onetrueluv!1!.

So I am playing, and it is looking seriously awesome. Plan is to print it out on the nice sharp color copier at work one of these days, and get a scrapbook/binder another one of these days. Playing with paper and glue is very fun, but, so is doing it without the mess.

Labels: art, being social, crochet, photoshop, technology