the new year post

It seems like time goes by faster, the older I get. Last night at midnight we rang in the year 2012 at my house with Dick Clark, party poppers and a champagne toast. (classic) We then proceeded to stay up entirely too late, acting more and more ridiculous with each passing hour. Today is the day we spend recovering from all the drinks & goodies we consumed last night.



I do want to talk about one thing we did, which is this board game, Quelf.

Maybe I'm behind on this, but I've never heard of it before and it was nuts! 

The game has you do some crazy things.

This is my cousin Liz, after she picked a card that said any opponent who messed up her hair got to move forward two spaces.

My brother Ben, and his character Mr. Lugnut.

Rob, who had to go find a tie, knot it in a square knot, and wear it for the remainder of the game or suffer the penalties (good thing he likes ties). Luke is in the background acting like a weeping willow because Rob rolled a four, the result of a 'rule' card Luke had drawn.

Me, and Trevor. Yes, I am wrapped in toilet paper. I drew a card which said I must be a mummy until someone rolled a certain number.

All in all, it's a great game that I'd recommend to anyone. The box says 12+ but I don't think it's possible to be too old to play this game! You just can't be afraid to be crazy.

And I happen to like crazy. :)

On another note..

In honor of the year 2012, here are some desktops for you to download :)

time & fireworks

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happy party hats

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I hope you enjoyed your New Year's celebration :)

Don't forget -

LIKE!

Thanks, and happy new year!

-clare.

the big one zero zero zero

Wow. Apparently some people actually do read my blog. :) Today I managed to catch it at 1,00 0 views. Now, there's no way to be sure, but half of those could possibly be mine...

In honor of 1,000 views, I've launched a colorful clare facebook! (ok, no. I've been working on it for a week or so, it's not in honor of 1,000 views. but we can pretend) So if you glance over there to your right, you'll notice a like box. Please like me, check it out and give me your suggestions! I'd really appreciate it.

It's definitely a work in progress, but someday maybe it'll be something worthwhile. Until then, suggestions suggestions suggestions! please.

Also, I found this olllddd piano video from February 2008 on my computer. Just as a special bonus for all the views. haha. :) peace!

TUTORIAL: Elephant Glass Ornament

#5 - I've been making things :)

TUTORIAL:

Glass Elephant Ornament

What you will need:

# 1 - A cheap, clear glass ornament.

# 2 - Permanent Markers.

# 3 - Creativity!!

Step One - After I took some pictures of myself in the ornament for a while, I went on the internet and googled 'cute elephant'. Of course you could use this concept for virtually anything, but the person the ornament was for is an avid elephant fan. So anyway, I found the above image in a google search.

I traced the elephant onto my ornament with a blue sharpie, and filled it in. I had to go over the Sharpie at least two times, and I went over it three times in some areas.

After that I added the finishing details to the piece - a traced border around the elephant, some hearts and polka dots. I made sure all the spots were pretty filled in with marker, and thennn...

I decided it would look nice to fill the ornament with tissue paper :) So I did. I put the top back on and put some glitter glue around it. I wrote 'happy birthday 2011' on the back for the recipient of the ornament, wrapped it in tissue paper & gave it away. Voila!

So cheap, so easy, and so fun! I plan on making more of these for Christmas presents. Tis the season. Which reminds me of this video from my favorite movie...

autumn picnic

#4 - I've gone on dates with Trevor.


Trevor & I still like to celebrate the one month anniversaries, but when it came to our November anniversary I was at a loss for what to do. Neither of us had very much money so I thought - ah! A picnic!

I googled fall picnic ideas & found a lot of awesome websites. Here are some for you to visit!
- delish.com
- foodandwine.com
- howdoesshe.com
- the-picnic-site.com

After this, I was inspired. I went to the store and put together a gourmet picnic. I packed napkins, a blanket, and even some candles. It was chilly but not too chilly, the week right before daylight savings kicked in. (meaning the sun was still out when I got off work. Ha!)

 I got the stuff ready so that we could head straight to the park after work. I bought those Soup at Hand drinkable soups and microwaved them so we'd have something warm to drink :)

The lighting was beautiful and the temperature was definitely tolerable.

I'm all for ambience, so I brought a couple tea lights with. :D Heh, call me cheesy but I loved the way they looked.

We had chips, rice cakes with salami & provolone, deviled eggs, those soups and strawberry cheesecake for dessert. We played some music from my iPhone and watched the sunset.

Great memories <3

One tip I'd add - for any picnic in the fall/winter, BRING A BLANKET. We ended up just sitting on it but I think it really prevented us from getting cold. Although when the sun started going down more, the chill set in and we decided to leave. So I definitely recommend sunlight for picnics. :)

Your assignment:

HAVE A LIVING ROOM PICNIC!!

Show me your pictures!

ideas here :)

more fall photography

In case you haven't noticed already, a big part of my blogging is to show all the hundreds of thousands of pictures I inevitably take. Which brings me to another big thing I've been doing lately.

#3 - As usual, I've been taking & editing tons of pictures!


I'm working on a project called supermacro, which is exactly what it sounds like - supermacro pictures, closeups of anything and everything i can find to photograph. Here are some I've taken so far -

Things look so much different when you really stop and look at the details :)

Other photo project ideas I have are:

- take a picture of my accessories every day

- take a picture of a bunch of people's face, and then their choice in footwear

a while ago, I started a photo project called Pieces of Me. Again, the general concept is pretty obvious :) I'd like to add more to it, eventually. If only I had more time on my hands... or maybe I should be saying, "If only I used my time more wisely."

Let me ponder that for a while...

In the meantime, please give me some other photo project suggestions! Or even supermacro ideas. 

Please +1 if you liked this post!

freelance

when i was 14, in the golden age of the internet, and instant messenging, i started making little graphics like avatars & icons for instant messenger, desktop wallpapers. it progressed until i got an opportunity to create the cover for a book my mom was putting out, and a logo for my dad's new business. from there i went crazy on graphics, learning especially how to edit photos and make whatever kind of graphic was necessary for the situation (and a few websites in the process). ANYWAY the point is, from the time i was 14 or 15 i knew i wanted to be a graphic designer. which brings me to the point.

#2 - I've been doing some freelance graphic stuff.

This is a program for the pageant that I was asked to do. It was rushed, because the chairman of the pageant, Yvonne, found me very last minute. I spent about four days staying up until the wee hours to finish this 40 some page program, which mostly consisted of ads. In the end, it came down to my mom helping me scan the ads in, my sisters double checking to make sure i included them all, and trevor helping me to enter all the ads in the first place. teamwork! love it. that was on sunday afternoon / evening, the program needed to be done by monday!

 

these are posters i did for Holy Family Radio, 1140 AM in Grand Rapids. My dad is really involved with the station and they were in need of some graphic work, so i volunteered :) I made them a bumper sticker, and about four posters overall. The bumper sticker is the white cross in the poster above. (that one's my favorite poster too)

I've also been doing a lot of photo editing, but I think that's a category on its own, which I should save for another blog post. So, ta ta for now.!

because in order to blog, you need to do something worth blogging about.

so it's an understatement to say i haven't posted much lately. what have i been doing, you ask?

well, in these next few posts i will show you. :D

#1 - I've been working on my music.

(to be continued.)

kodak moments

So this weekend my friend Dulcie & I tried to take some fall photos, and though we didn't get nearly as many good ones as we would have liked to, there were still some worth showing you here. :) 

dance like it's the last night of your life

ok truthfully, this one isn't from fall, but i just edited it yesterday and looks awesome so i had to post it. heh.

autumn | death has never been so beautiful

took a photo of a tree which wasn't so exciting; i thought it might look better in technicolor

i had just gotten to my grammy's house, when i got out of my car the sun was so perfect i had to snap a shot.

the bumpiest road you ever did drive on

lincoln township beach

tweaked the colors a bit. purple trees & peach sky <3

country in abundance near my house. this is after they harvested the corn, beautiful sunrise on my way to work.

check out dulcie's pictures here :)

thanks for looking. please +1 if you enjoyed this post!

advertising

Hello, everyone. It's been a while. I've been caught up in the world of freelance graphic design lately, quite busy with a few side projects. So since that is where my brain is at the moment, I thought it would be quite perfect for a blog post.

Often when I am in the car with Trevor, I comment on billboards we pass. He usually gives me 'the look' - you know, the one where he has no idea what I'm talking about but is pretending like he cares. (note: this is a different look than the 'when are we going to leaaaave' look) Earlier today we had a conversation about how I always notice these things, advertisement and marketing and such. Subconsciously I guess I'm always getting ideas, always critiquing and thinking about the impact of things like that.

source

I have recently seen the billboards to the left around Saint Joseph. If you're unfamiliar with the symbol it's called a QR code (I've seen these before but I must admit Trevor just told me what they were called the other day). If you have a smart phone you can download an app on your phone which will scan the code and then direct you to a website. A lot of people are putting these codes on magazines, ads, and business cards.

So that brings us to the question - why the hell is this on a billboard? Texting while driving is illegal and extremely dangerous, so how is this any better? I don't disagree with the concept of QR codes but seriously, billboards are definitely NOT the best application here. But I will say one thing about the billboard, it's ambiguity is great for peaking interest.

It definitely peaked mine (although as previously stated, billboards tend intrigue me often), and so tonight I set out to google the billboard, as I am not stupid enough to scan it while driving. Lo and behold, this billboard is for Bridgman Family Dental Care. Yes, dental care. A quote from the WNDU article on the billboard -

"many residents say they don’t know how to use to codes or don’t have the equipment needed to read them. “I don't have an iPhone or a phone where I can scan it so I will never really know what it is,” said resident Catherine Cleary-Sanford."

Clearly, Berrien County is not yet the place for such a billboard. All in all I would say this is  not the best marketing strategy; although it is a great idea it's simply an idea used in the wrong place in the wrong way. At least that's my opinion.


Now for some truly bizarre advertisements.

Uhh...what?

If the best thing they can think of to advertise is the fact that they don't sell bodies, I think something is seriously wrong here.

 Smoking ads...crazy stuff.

Please read the caption. Double you tee eff.

Time for bed everyone. Bon nuit :)