Monday

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!

Thursday

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 :)



Saturday

inspirations

i want to have a house so i can try to make it as beautiful a place to live in as these:

plants <3

beach, also <3
contrast! loveeee the colors
a hanging chair? are you serious?

spacious, airy kitchen





Jamin's Crazy Chalk Drawing #2 - Where The Wild Things Are

liiiikeeee

Friday

new sounds

Fidelity by xclare

Adam's song by xclare

If you're going to listen to one over the other, listen to the first one. It's my personal favorite :)


fidelity - regina spektor
adam's song - blink 182

Tuesday

happy anniversary

Last Tuesday was mine & Trevor's one year anniversary. :) So I thought I'd take some time to look back on our relationship and tell your our love story. Hee hee.


Trevor & I met when I was in college at LMC. I was in two classes with his best friend, Craig. (He's on the left) So Craig & I became friends, and one day Craig was like, "Hey, want to hang out with my friend Trevor?" And I was like, "Sure!" And the rest was history. Although we were dating other people at the time, there was something about Trevor that always stood out to me; we had some sort of connection that I can't explain. Sooner or later we became best friends. We talked every day and hung out almost every day. I came to him with all my problems and he always made me feel better. We could talk about ANYTHING, he knew more about me than my best friend and my boyfriend both. Because he never judged me, and telling him my problems actually made me feel better instead of worse, which was the case with a lot of my friends. I had this huge crush on him that I lied to myself and everyone else about, because he was dating somebody else and so was I. I was content to just be his best friend. (But I did admit that he was reaaaaally cute) We promised we'd never stop talking, even though I had plans to move away.


We were still at the point where we were just best friends. We'd hardly hung out alone before, but now we started to. We did cute things that we tried to pass off as just 'friend' things, like going on picnics and to the movies and park together. One night we went to the beach at dark, and swam in the lake. I caught myself on more than one occassion staring at Trevor and thinking about how my life could be if he were a bigger part of it. But I thought - "Pfft, Clare, get a hold of yourself. Trevor doesn't like you like that, you're just friends. Don't fall in too deep." But there was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I loved Trevor more than just a best friend kind of love. But since I didn't think he liked me back, I couldn't give in to that feeling; I'd been through enough heartache in the past few months to last me a while.

One day last year, August 2nd, Trevor invited me to hang out with him at his grandparents' house. They had a pool and they would be gone all day working, so we could hang out there for a while and swim. Of course I agreed. It was a great day in the sun, his grandparents have a beautiful backyard and we spent a lot of time in the pool or hanging out on the deck, or walking around by the flowers. I did a lot of thinking. All the sudden something came to me, like I got smacked right in the middle of the forehead. "I'm in love with Trevor." I realized. "And he's in love with me!" It was like everything changed from this point on. I knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that everything I had felt and ignored previously was true. That Trevor & I could be together, and could have an amazing, happy, blissful relationship. I stopped lying to myself. And I stopped lying to Trevor, too.

Later that night we were together, just hanging out and listening to some music. There came that point in the beginning of every relationship, where you stare at each other awkwardly for a while. Another one of my convictions with this relationship was that I would NOT say I love you before I really, truly, 100% for sure meant it. But earlier that day I realized that without a shadow of a doubt, I loved Trevor. So as we stared at eachother, somehow I managed to get the words out. "I love you." came out, barely above a whisper. "Clare," he said to me, "I've loved you for a long time."


Trevor & I didn't have an official start to our relationship, there was never that point where he asked "Will you be my girlfriend?" We started going on dates way before we called them dates, so when we looked back on our relationship wondering when our anniversary would be, the day everything became clear between us seemed like the best choice. :)

It's been a whole year since that day, and each day has been better than the last. Trevor is the best boyfriend I could ever ask for, and our relationship makes me a better, stronger, and happier person. Sure, we disagree sometimes, but the important thing is that we always come to a compromise. We put the other person ahead of ourselves, we put their happiness first. I love him more every single day.

So, Trevor, if you're reading this. Thank you for being so nice to me. Thank you for always being there for me, thank you for always listening and caring. Thank you for giving me the motivation to be the best me I possibly can be. Thank you for making me so happy, every day of my life. Thank you for being my best friend!

Happy anniversary. <3 I love you!

Sunday

Friday Night - a photo journal

Friday night was my brothers Rob & Ben's music camp concert. First up was Ben in choir:


 (click any picture for a bigger version)


After that came concert band, in which my cousin Christopher played percussion:



And after that was orchestra, Rob's last concert at music camp. I love strings :)





Last but not least, musical theatre!

 
Ben had a solo :) The highlight of the performance, to be sure.


(again, click any picture for the bigger version)


A great way to spend a Friday night, I'm so proud of my brothers. And music always makes me so happy! I love my family.


My cousins, Alex & Melanie with signs they made when my cousin Lizzie was in another performance of Bye, Bye, Birdie. Haha :)


Ben's shoes. :) In this blog post I finally figured out how to get my pictures to cooperate with me! Hallelujah. That was the one downside of Blogspot until now.

Hope you liked my photo journal! Au revoir!


Tuesday

more creative cards :D

dulcie's 21st birthday card. she loves dinosaurs :)

my co-worker nikki.




:D today is trevor & my one year anniversary ! he hasn't seen this card yet so hopefully he doesn't read this blog post til tonight, after i give it to him. hah :)

ta ta for now.