anti-labor day

Now before anybody gets riled up about me hating a national holiday, let me explain.

"I" am not anti-labor day. I just find it ironic that a holiday named "labor" day actually consists of most people being off work, and generally not "laboring." so in practice Labor Day is actually an anti-labor day.

So now for my "anti-labor day" story.

I graduated a few weeks ago (for more on that, click here). I moved into a new apartment with my best friend and another girl I know from school last week. Which means I am officially a degree holding, bill paying adult. I also got a dog.

All of this means that I should probably have a job about now.

It's not that I didn't look for a job. I did. I saw all sorts of openings for things that I probably could have gotten hired for based on my ridiculous customer service experience working 2 years as a cashier/head cashier/customer service/return desk at Lowe's. But they were all jobs that I looked at and thought about applying for with dread.

So after a conversation with a friend who just started his own printing business I decided that i didn't want to do something that would make me miserable just to pay the bills. I wanted to do something that would let me pursue my dreams of doing photography and other art stuff (design, painting, etc) for a living.

In light of that, I'm going to get a job as a hostess or a waitress at a restaurant (hopefully at the Melting Pot...mmmmm) to pay the bills and give me some flexibility in my hours so I can build my portfolio and take on some artistic projects.

I was going to go to the Melting Pot today to try and apply...but in honor of anti-labor day I decided to sit around, read blogs, and hang up pictures and organize my new room instead.

very anti-labor indeed. :-D


Tomorrow I shall find a job. Tomorrow I shall go and and get a membership at the YMCA. Tomorrow I shall labor.

Creative Chaos: the Wedding edition!

So i haven't really been doing lots of creative things while putting the finishing touches on my Thesis (I hate formatting/editing word documents and inserting images into them. HATE. and I refuse to count it as creative work.)...but there is one thing I've been working on and getting really excited about.

My best friend's wedding!!

She's asked me to design the invitations for it, so I've gone through about 10 different color combinations and ideas on how they should look. Of course she's changed her mind about 10 different times too...but she gets to! she's the bride! lol

But it's really exciting to try to merge what I hear her saying about what she wants the wedding to be like with other things I know about her (like her love of irish things like claddagh rings) to design something she looks at and goes "oooooh! I love it!"

Then there's the challenge of figuring out how to make the image I've photoshopped together into a paper, ink, and wax seal reality. I think yesterday we figured out most of the seal part, that she actually wants a wax seal on the invites instead of just foil stickers. I gave her a website with a lot of different options to look at and choose one from. I also suggested that she get two of them, and not put the date on them so that she and her fiance would have them to use forever. She really liked that idea.

So right now I have like 7 photoshop images where I've tried out this idea or the other to show her, and a definite excitement about a claddagh wax seal. Because I want everybody to ooh and aah over her invites when we send them out I am not going to put any pictures up of the ideas we're working on, but that's pretty much all the creative work I've done this week.

This weekend we're going to michigan to visit part of my mom's side of the family, and I'm bound and determined to put my new point-and-shoot camera to use and take beautiful pictures of people I love. And maybe document the awesome 12 hour drive mom and I shall embark on by ourselves.

That was my week in creativity. How was yours?

More thesis imagery

Here's some more images from my thesis show (three more & an explanation of the premise of the thesis and the exhibit are in the post below)! I had the reception for it last night, and about 15 people came by to check it out. I had a good time with everybody, just chatting and snacking and suck. I have my oral defense tomorrow. Hopefully it goes well.

picture of a painting taken by a cell phone...so not the greatest

another picture of a painting taken by a cell phone

What's your latest creative venture?