10 things i am loving right now

1. The Lone Bellow
Get. on. this. bandwagon. So great.

Solid harmonies make me melt so I was in love in basically two seconds. The Lone Bellow is kind of like a spunkier Civil Wars (and I love me some Civil Wars).

All in unison we sing, at times, been redeemed

We are all of the beauty, that has not been seen
We are full of the color, that’s never been dreamed
Well, nothing we need ever dies

2. Crackers and Cheese

Like the snack. About two weeks ago I found myself craving crackers and cheese and it hasn't stopped since. I can't stop eating this perfect snack. I love it so much that it has graduated from snack status to lunch status in my life. Right now I am partial to whole wheat Ritz with sharp cheddar, but the possibilities are endless. 

3. Denim Shirts

People are referring to this trend as "chambray" but honestly, that just sounds like something Paris Hilton would name her dog, so I'm sticking with "denim." Anyways...I have hit a full on obsession I think. BUT they are perfect. You can dress them up or down. They look good tucked in or left open. They match everything. They come in so many different cuts and styles. You can use them as a cardigan. I sound like...not myself...but whatever. I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it! 

4. Hazelnut Coffee

We've made the switch from regular coffee to hazelnut coffee in the office and it has CHANGED OUR LIVES. It smells like heaven...which is fitting since we're located in a church. NOTHING smells more like a cozy hug than hazelnut coffee. And it tastes pretty great too. But really the scent of this liquid gold would be enough. I am a changed woman.

5. Chunky Yarn and size 17 needles

This is the perfect recipe for knitting something super fast. Unless it's a blanket, and then it will still take you forever. This is hands-down the coziest thing I've ever knitted, and since it's not for me, I am already giving myself pep-talks in preparation for having to let it go. (Based on #4 and #5 I feel like it's pretty clear than I have totally abandoned summer and embraced fall.)

6. Citizens - Citizens

 This album is so so good. I really appreciate good Christian music because it was so rare for so long. And now there's a gold-mine of awesome Christian music, but this album is particularly special. I love the message of grace in "In Tenderness." Ah so good!

 In tenderness he sought me, weary and sick with sin
And on His shoulders brought me, back to His fold again
While angels in His presence sang, until the courts of heaven rang.

He died for me while I was sinning, needy and poor and blind
He whispered to assure me: "I've found thee; thou art Mine"
I never heard a sweeter voice, it made my aching heart rejoice.

Upon His grace I'll daily ponder, and sing anew His praise
With all adoring wonder, His blessings I retrace
It seems as if eternal days, are far too short to sing His praise.

7. Dove dark chocolate squares

The women in my office got me hooked on these. I keep them in my desk drawer for those moments when I really need one (always). I don't have much of sweet tooth, but it turns out these little nuggets of perfection are my weakness. Also, all the wrappers come printed with a little message inside. A few weeks ago I had a particularly naughty bag that I'm pretty sure was trying to hit on me, but this current bag is behaving itself. Today it encouraged me to "do what feels right." Eating another chocolate square is what felt right, so I did. 

8. sending gifts

I will maybe never get over the fact that we can mail things to each other. I get how it works, but I also think a little part of me still believes that it is magic. I really, really love sending little packages to people...especially for no particular reason. I just put together a few "back to school" care packages for some special ladies in my life and it was super fun.

9. navy blue

This is the best color ever. Especially if it's a little dusty and has the tiniest hint of green. Don't worry, I haven't turned my back on gold. Nothing goes better with navy blue than a gold glitter accent. My favorite color changes quite a bit and usually revolves around what sort of project I am working on. The largest project I'm working on right now may or may not be mostly navy blue. (It is.)

10. "40 Days of Dating"

A friend told me about this a week or two ago, but honestly I have no idea how I hadn't heard of this sooner since so many of my design favorites are involved and it is totally up my alley. Basically two designers in New York have decided to date each other for 40 days using a strict set of rules. They are good friends with opposite relationship issues and they were both at a point when they were exhausted of dating. I love experiments (particularly of the social persuasion) and I am fascinated by the way people relate to one another. I'm also a design nerd. So really this is perfect. (Small warning: some of the content could be deemed inappropriate. I don't want anyone to start reading and be offended that I recommended this to them :))

I also sometimes feel like I am reading about myself when I read Jessie's stuff. We are SO SIMILAR in so many ways...and in others not so much. Also, she currently has the bangs I have been talking about getting for a year and half now.

They've involved a bunch of designer friends along the way to create illustrations for the site which is super fun. Also, from time to time they make little videos and they are so quirky and great. This one is my favorite: http://vimeo.com/72207777

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Now that summer is ending, I am excited to start getting some more guest posts on here, so stay tuned! This week the students move back, and next week starts the campus madness. I can't wait!

falling in love: a testimony of my rocky relationship with design

In 1994 I became obsessed with a show called "Pappyland." At this point in my life, I am convinced that I am the only child who ever knew this show existed. If you're too afraid to click the link, let me explain...it was a show about art. Pappy would draw something and you would draw along with him. My dad's office is still wallpapered with my Pappyland creations. Fast forward, I am a senior in high school and I'm pretty much obsessed with art. I was a good student in general, but this was the turning point where I dropped Statistics so I could have extra studio time. I created some stereotypical "high school" things and won a few awards and got a scholarship and got into art school...and then I went to Kent State. (Which I was initially bummed about, but it turned out to be the absolute best thing.) Between painting still-lifes and sketching nude models, I somehow stumbled upon Visual Communication Design (VCD). My childhood dream (besides being an all out R&B diva) was to illustrate books and VCD had illustration classes. So despite my lack of interest in graphic design, I made the switch.

VCD was (mostly) wonderful and I spent the next few years being completely sucked into the world of typefaces and color swatches and compositions. I had stumbled into one of the best design schools in the country and they were teaching me well. I learned that I would present approximately 300 terrible ideas before I landed on the good one and that even then it would take hours of tweaking to finally land on something worth using. You should never be so married to an idea that you can't let it go and Comic Sans is the equivalent of he-who-shall-not-be-named. It was fun, it was hard, I made a few friends, and I cried a lot (I'm chalking this up to too much caffeine, not enough sleep, and countless dollars wasted spent at Kinkos).

My senior year rolled around and the last thing I wanted to do was look for a design job. Or even put together a website. Looking back I believe I felt this way for a few reasons.

1. I was sucked up in other things that I thought were meaningful, but weren't, and I wasn't "all there" while I was creating. I wasted a lot of time and a lot of potential. (Don't worry, it bit me in the butt hard and I learned my lesson.)
2. Comparing myself to others + a disappointing set back led to a lack of confidence in my abilities.
3. I worked for a company that was world's away from what I wanted to be as a designer. It was a temporary position and when I left I was completely drained. (It was not a bad company in any way, and I am grateful for the opportunities I had while working there. I learned alot about an area of the industry I knew very little about...and so much about myself! It was definitely not time wasted.)

May 2012 I was completely burnt out on design. It felt like a chore and I remember thinking often, "If this is what being a designer is going to feel like, then I want nothing to do with it."

It is now a little over a year later, I have a design job that I love, freelance projects that excite me, and a brand new, shiny website in the works. What happened?

I fell in love.

Taking a year off allowed me to stop trying to push creativity out of myself just to please others.  I worked on very few projects bigger than doodling verses and quotes in my journal. And the more I did projects just for me, the more I started to develop a real style. I found designers and illustrators who are real and creating meaningful work today. And I didn't love them just because my design history book told me I should. (Saul Bass, you are still the man.) I collected inspiration and made note of work that I loved. I pored through issues of Communications Arts realizing that everyone featured was once a brand-new designer lacking direction like me...and then they got their crap majorly together. I read articles and books on design thinking (just for fun!) and was reminded that design isn't just about making someone's stuff look pretty. Designers are the ultimate storytellers (I could be biased...)

Maybe most importantly, I let go of being perfect...not every idea is great, but sometimes the most important thing is not how perfect the work is but just that you got it done. This is a job after all and I can guarantee that few people are judging your work as harshly as you are. I had been crippled by my own need for perfection.

It has been easy for me to look back with disappointment on how I treated some of my years in design school, but now that I am working everyday as a designer I can see so clearly how much I actually learned during my years at Kent. It turns out that no time was wasted...I just took a crazy roundabout way of getting here. Wherever "here" is.

I am now in a place where I am completely head-over-heels in love with design and I am really excited to find out what that means for my future. I do not want to limit myself to titles such as "designer" or "illustrator" ... I am those things, but when the ultimate Creator formed me, he made me to be a creator, a maker...I want to fully embrace that. I am often happiest and most myself when I have ideas stirring around my head and crazy projects I am working on.

Right now I am pretty much working the two best jobs ever (for me, right now, where I am) and I know this, because rarely does it feel like work. Just another cheesy idea that turned out to be totally true. I actually had that thought in the car the other day...Life is cheesy and we just need to deal with it. 

And as a final thought, after all these years, I am still not sure if the plural of still-life is "still-lifes" or "still-lives."

Coming soon: a new 10 things post! It's been awhile.

ALSO...I just signed the lease for a house that has an EVEN BETTER porch than the one I have now. Oh yeah baby.

things I love: real front porches

I am currently sitting on the front porch of my home for the month of August. (I would fill you in on my housing adventures, but I think I'll just wait until the TBD conclusion.) It is a real front porch with stairs and wood slats and pillars and room for chairs. I LOVE having a real front porch.

You could say it's always been a dream of mine to have a porch to hang out on. The house I lived in for the first 15 years of my life only had steps leading up to the door. And then we moved. And that house only had steps leading up to the door. And let's not even talk about my first apartment which didn't even have steps.

When I was really young I was so obsessed with porches that I would create Sims houses that were basically only porches. Like I'm talking wraparound decks on every single story. I was also 100% sure that i was going to live in a large house near the Target in Stow solely because it had a wraparound porch. It is now a fairly successful winery/restaurant and I doubt they are willing to sell. (Prime location though...they just built a Taco Bell next door.)

There are a few reasons for this life-long porch obsession.

1. I like nature, but I don't always want to be all up in its business. Sitting on a porch seems like a happy medium between never leaving your home and full on jungle exploration.

2. I am a bookworm and prime reading locations are vital to my existence. A prime reading location must be three things:

1. adorable

2. comfortable

3. within walking distance of a kitchen/coffee pot. And by "walking distance" I mean it should take me no more than 30 seconds to get there.

3. I'm nosy and what better way to spy on your neighbors than to sit in the front yard all day? Kidding (kind of)...but seriously, I like to know my neighbors and I sometimes I have romantic dreams about the "old days" when everyone just lived on their porches drinking lemonade and being best friends.

Also, porch swings. Sign me up.

I am pleased to say that having a front porch is living up to everything I ever dreamed it to be. Prior to this I was reading some Tim Keller that I can tell you very little about because my retention ability is nonexistent. But I do remember he said very wise things (typical) and I was enjoying it. And as I was reading, I was able to spy on approximately 7.5 new neighbors.

I am also being realistic though...I know that the future is uncertain and that this may be the only real front porch I ever get in my whole life. Which is why I plan to live on it for the next 25 days. Address your letters to me Harry Potter style. Caitlin Elmore, The Front Porch, 439 ....etc.

And to those of you who tell me  should blog more often...do you see now why I don't? My life is fairly uneventful and I have very few profound thoughts.Example: I just rambled about porches for a half hour. But, your wish is my command :)

Also, how many more times can I say "front porch?" Front porch. Front porch. Front porch.  

Up next week: an essay on how I feel about Anthropologie mugs. 

Not really. But I wouldn't be too surprised.