for the love of Hank

Getting ready to move means collecting ideas for the new room

How cute is her workspace? I love the chair and hanging clip boards.

It's been hot

It's been crazy hot in Ohio for only being March. We've had a solid week or so of 70's and then we're getting into the 80's late this week as well. I've never seen such a weak winter, but I'm not complaining at all. Lately, I've been all-work and no-play. I've had a pretty steady schedule at work as well as a couple freelance projects and a few business meetings for potential clients. With all of this plus moving on Sunday and starting classes back up on Monday, I've had hardly any time to do anything else, but I did make a list of things to stop putting off-

1) Get my site up and going
2) Launch a portfolio site by the end of summer - the Coming Soon tagline is annoying
3) Be active on LinkdIn and Cbusr
4) Follow up with all clients or new contacts I meet
5) Get business cards
6) Keep learning

I have some really cool ideas for this blog and I am hoping to get more active within the next few weeks. Have a good evening, friends.

Hey Friends, This week has been incredibly busy- full of lots of warm weather, beach walking, good restaurants, and shopping. I bought Ryan some things for his birthday and Christmas, and am excited as ever to get home to give them to him! Speaking of, only two more days in Los Angeles before venturing back to Ohio to see snow, drink hot chocolates, and finally celebrate the holidays with all my loved ones back there- I will say though, I am going to miss this high 70's weather so much! Hopefully, I'll be back out for another visit very soon, maybe bring Ryan right along with me! Anyways, a little run down- Christmas was spend with my stepmoms family, walking the pier, and eating Chinese with some of our neighbors. Overall, I was really happy with the day. Since then, me and Precious spent some time with one of her friend, lounged around the beach with two girls from Paris in helping her on her new book, and then hung out in Hollywood Hills with another longtime friend of hers. Last night we ate Iranian food, which despite being sick, was phenomenal! And then spend the evening and this morning with a good friend Jeff, enjoying the sun as much as I can before leaving! Over the next few days, I have some really cool posts planned [things I hate about airports and a book review] as well as a guest post after the first of the year for one of my favorite blogs [I'll tell you once it's all finalized]. Anyways, I hope you all had a fabulous holiday and are looking forward to a spectacular New Years! Let me know what your plans are or any resolutions you've started planning up! 

random new years resolutions/optimistic thoughts I've had about 2012:

• 2012 is going to be different. I am going to push myself harder than ever before. I am going to prove to myself that I can and will be successful, independent, and happy. I am going to learn more than I ever have, I am going to work more than I ever have, I am going to love more than I ever have, I am going to create more than I ever have, and I will dream just as much as I always have but with goals and actions backing them up. 
• Accept that I will never be the perfect girlfriend, but do everything in my power to make me a more supportive, loving, and understanding one than I was the previous year. 
• Accept that I will never be a perfect daughter and that in no way is it possible for me to impress my parents if I’m working towards a goal I am not passionate about. Take this and turn your life in the direction towards plans that will make you happier, motivated, and excited about learning.
• Not everything you need to know in life will be learned from a school course, or at work, or while sleeping- with this being said, go out and meet new people, read books, teach yourself, travel, and don’t sleep so much. 
• You don’t need half as many clothes as you have. Take the time to sort things into Keeps, Donate, Sell, and Trash piles. Make it possible that at any point you could easily condense what you absolutely need into a small enough amount you could move across the country. start knitting more {knit a blanket + infinite scarf}
• start reading more 
• start learning more 
• but take a break from school 
• figure out what you want to do with your life 
• find an internship or a job doing design work
• grow out your hair
• take a bus to new york city 
• bake something
• don’t work more than you want to 
• spend less- a lot less 
• establish california residency 
• update your blog regularly 
• buy your own domain 
• get another tattoo
• do 10 freelance projects for web design
• save money to spend on things have on the lust list that have been there for awhile: 
• iMac
• new bedding
• a desk/chair 
• curtains 
• pink and orange foldover clutch from seevivier

photo source [tumblr]

A Tough Love Letter

One of my favorite bloggers, Becka, does this awesome series every week called "Coffee Cup Chats" that I absolutely love reading. Today I was going through them and reading some of the ones I had missed and rereading some of the really inspirational/life lesson ones and came across this:

For Everyone Not Yet Doing What They Love (Alternative title: A Tough Love Letter)

I have friends, too many friends, who are talented at something they enjoy. So talented that they could make money doing the thing they enjoy. Are they doing it? No. Have they been talking about doing it for months/years/since we've met? Yup. 

So then what is the hold up? The hold up is that they always have a reason why they aren't doing that thing yet. They aren't ready. They need to do more work on it first. This isn't the right time. Maybe next fall... 

Believe me, I totally get it. I'm the biggest perfectionist you'll ever meet. I want full creative control over every aspect of my life at all times and I hate putting something out there before I feel that it's 100% how I want it. But in life, you've got to sometimes roll with it. And that means sacrificing your perceived ideas of perfection in order to GET SOMETHING OUT THERE. Just start. For the love of God, put something together and start. Make it happen. 

.....you can finish reading it here, and I strongly suggest that you do! It has changed my way of thinking and acting for my life, and I can only see it going up from here. 

And, for anyone wondering, I am still enjoying the beautiful city of Los Angeles. I never would have guessed I would be able to sit by my pool posting in short sleeves comfortably, on Christmas Eve, but I am. 

{no image source}

currently wanting

This beautiful quilt for only $19.99 right now at Urban Outfitters, and these lovely curtains for $24 as UO at well. And, can we also talk about how perfect those white wood floors are? I would love to have a bedroom with these white walls and lovely flooring like that. It's almost sad to think that even with this quilt and curtains, they'll just look mediocre in our apartment with dingy walls and as-is cream colored carpet. 

And speaking of white, interior design, and all the things I wish I could do to our apartment...how cool would this be in your homeoffice/work space? 

This Idea Paint found here is white, dry erase paint. I always thought chalkboard paint was neat, but this is 10 times better, and even grown up. One of the first things on my list when I finally get some creative freedom with our living spaces. 

Finally, here is a photo I found from Bri's blog. I just love the thin table, because me and Ryan have a few problems in this house it would solve

1. Where to put all of our camera. I have my Canon DSLR, 2 point and shoots, a Polaroid Land, and another Polaroid camera. Ryan has a point and shoot and a Polaroid of his own. They are such nice decoration, but we have nowhere to put them- this would solve that problem! 
2. Ryan has tons of records and this is nice for storage 
3. Our apartment is small, so we have little room for decorating or storage, but this small amount of space manages to do both! 
4. Hanging the poster above it is lovely. We have a decent amount of 'art' hung, but it's all in the studio room above Ryan's music equipment. Not to sound needy or anything, but I'd kind of like some decoration in a room where I actually enjoy being.

The workspace on the right was unsourced (wehearit) but how beautiful is that workspace? I would get so much done in there. 

** and on a totally different note, today is Ryan's 21st birthday and I am nowhere near him ): Being in LA seems to have it's perks (though they are few and far between these days), but I would much rather be in the dreary, freezing, disgusting, rainy Columbus Ohio if it meant being in our apartment with Ryan, opening gifts, drinking, and celebrating his birthday together...just the two of us. As much as I want him to have a fun birthday, the selfish part of me wishes he wasn't...just because I hate the thought of him being out and his friends being able to do all the fun things while in the girlfriend 3,000 miles away, wanting to just postpone his birthday a couple weeks. But since that's not the case, I am taking this time to say, on my blog, Happy Birthday Ryan. Thank you for being one of the most loving and supportive people in my life. I hope this birthday bring you joy and contentment with life, and tons of amazing memories {that I hope to be included in}. I promise that as soon as I return, I will do everything I can to make a day super special and we'll recelebrate the entire day! I love you, happy 21st!