elizabethramos.com

the end of an era.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0500

If you’ve read my blog much, you’re familiar with the tiny paper goods company Andrew and I started a few years ago.

Looks like chocolate but it’s really just our logo on (our favorite) French paper in Hot Fudge.

It feels like ages ago (back when we were in school actually) that we had the brilliant idea to combine Andrew’s amazing illustration skills and our knowledge of design and production to form our own line of paper goods. Our first actual products showed up at Knack Studios in November 2009.

We’ve always pursued Two Over Zero as a side project but for the last year or so, the shop has taken a back seat to all the other things on our plates.

Two Over Zero at the 2010 Indie Craft Parade. Photo by Bryan Rees.

Obviously, the more ideas we pursue, the less energy and focus we can give to each one. So we finally came to the conclusion that we need to let go of Two Over Zero to make way for new ideas and projects. We’ll be officially closing up shop at the end of February.

“My favorite to-do list app” via @wmdmark

Running Two Over Zero has been a really valuable experience for both Andrew and me. It’s taught us a lot about how we do (and don’t) work together well, shown us more of our strengths and weaknesses, and given us some great real life examples of dos and don’ts. In case it’s helpful, I’ll share a few.

Things we would do the same:
· Make products we love and want to use ourselves.
· Insist on quality. Our products were produced with traditional printing methods because we felt that was important.
· Surround ourselves with friends and family who are supportive.
· Fill holes in the market. Create products that we haven’t been able to find.

Things we would do differently:
· Take more risks. Don’t play it so safe that it’s boring.
· Plan for the best, but don’t assume it will be successful — no matter what else is on the market.
· Pay more attention to details like packaging. When budget doesn’t allow, wait and save until it does.
· Make sure there’s a bigger purpose. We saw a huge contrast between our level of passion for Two Over Zero and other projects we’re pursuing, probably because this was missing.

While it’s sad to see this wrap up, it’s also a good feeling to look back and see how much we’ve grown because of Two Over Zero.

We owe a giant thank you to our friends and family who have been so supportive of this venture from the very beginning. From helping us package up products to being our regular customers and biggest fans, there’s no way we could have done this without you. Thank you all!

a good reminder.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:32:45 -0500

“No great thing is created suddenly.”
— Epictetus, via Quotes on Design

i love trains.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:48:44 -0500

I don’t know when it started. Maybe with my brother’s model train. Or with the family Amtrak ride we took from Kansas City to St. Louis when I was a kid. But I absolutely love the sight of a train chugging down the tracks. There’s something about it that’s nostalgic and wonderful and industrial all at the same time.

There are train tracks right beside my office (the brick building), which means at least once a day we hear the whistle and rumble of the train going by.

I keep telling myself that I’ll take another ride one day.

why greenville?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:38:19 -0500

I recently created a Pinterest board full of my favorite things about Greenville, SC. It’s not a comprehensive guide to the city — or even an unbiased one. It’s just my opinion of what makes Greenville awesome.

I’ll be adding to it regularly and I hope it’s a helpful tool to start exploring the city, whether you’re planning a visit, considering a move, or already live here. Enjoy!

learning, just because.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:25:29 -0500

I have a fairly long list of skills I’d like to learn ‘one day’, and this weekend I finally made progress on one of them by taking a (free!) knitting class at the library.

My project at the end of class. Wobbly, but better than I would have done figuring it out on my own!

The sad part is that I really can’t remember how long it’s been (if ever) that I learned something in a group setting just for fun. Here, my only motivation is to learn something — not to earn a grade or be the best at it — but because I want to learn. Plus, after years of following online tutorials and trying to figure things out by myself, the experience of learning alongside others is just really fun.

“Sometimes you have to keep ideas for decades before they have any use.” — Marc English,...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:16:03 -0500

“Sometimes you have to keep ideas for decades before they have any use.”

— Marc English, via Quotes on Design

life in greenville.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:45:26 -0500

I spent part of my Saturday working on the Life In Greenville project, an idea that was first introduced to me over 2 years ago. I remember this because 1) it was also the day I met most of the (now) CoWork crew, and 2) at the time, I was the only person in the room without a Twitter account (which was remedied shortly thereafter).

I’m very excited about this project, partially because of the way it’s taken place. The idea itself: Use our talents to create a good looking website for Greenville. One whose design more accurately represents the city we live in than the existing ‘official’ Greenville sites. In short, help outsiders realize how great Greenville is.

Fantastic site design by Jeremy of Headlamp Creative in progress

Because everyone stays busy with their own projects and jobs, nothing usually comes of ideas like this — no matter how great they are. But CoWork planned a hack-a-thon/design-a-thon for this weekend to make sure the idea didn’t get neglected. Organizational meetings, content writing, design, illustration, development, and everything else it takes to build a website was done by a team of about 2 dozen people working off and on over a few days. The entire project was built by people who love Greenville.

CoWork Greenville headquarters

There will, of course, be bugs and improvements to be made after the fact, but if you know anything about website building, you know how amazing it is to create a full site from scratch in such a short amount of time — not to mention a responsive site that looks amazing on any device. It shows what amazing talent exists in the Greenville web community.

The developers writing their various languages and doing what they do.

I did a tiny bit of content writing and a some design support — helping select and resize images to fit the amazing site design. It’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but I feel privileged to be part of this project even in a small way.

The site launches later today, so check out LifeinGreenville.com to see the final product!

All photos courtesy of Life in Greenville.

If you’re thinking about making resolutions for the new...

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:01:41 -0500

If you’re thinking about making resolutions for the new year, I’d like to suggest this approach instead. Not only does it seem more effective, it sounds like a fun way to try new things and actually reach personal goals. Just imagine what could be accomplished in 30 dedicated days!

Ideas for my 2012 goals include: 30 days of

· making the bed
· not eating dinner in front of the tv
· sketching something every day — like I had to for drawing class
· reading (besides facebook and twitter)
· going to the gym

I first saw this video several months ago and loved the idea, but looking toward a new year seems like a great time to give it a try!

a collaborative effort.

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:04:39 -0500

Something I’m learning to appreciate more and more is good collaboration. I think some of the best products out there are a result of people with different strengths and passions coming together to create an end product that each party couldn’t have accomplished alone.

Since Andrew and I are both designers, we always want to design and produce our own Christmas cards. But for the first time in six years, we decided to look outside of our own capabilities and resources to produce something truly amazing.

We came up with our concept, inspired by our love for letterpress and these business cards. Our goal was to create something simple that highlighted the message but would also make people think about how it was created. We contacted Concrete Lace, an Atlanta-based letterpress printer who we met at Indie Craft Parade this year. Katie was great to work with, and was kind enough to send a few photos of the process over so I can share. Our card has a blind embossed (letterpressed) message on a beautiful heavyweight cotton stock. We then dip-dyed each card to add color and interest.

Below are a few photos of the process — from letterpress to dyeing.

Concrete Lace Studio, photo courtesy of Katie Daniels

Letterpressed! photo courtesy of Katie Daniels

Testing the dipping process/mixing colors

Dipped cards drying

The final product

Although I love print design, I’m fascinated by the thought this card doesn’t use ink at all!

on expectations.

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:30:48 -0500

“When a lot is expected of you, it’s very easy to let the pressure of meeting those expectations get to you. In fact, it can be paralyzing, and that’s not good.

What is good is that if you succeed and you meet those expectations, the cumulative impact is exponential. That’s because expectations are just leftover praise. You’ve earned them by doing something great.

So, the next time you feel overwhelmed by expectations, just remember that if you weren’t capable of meeting them, they wouldn’t exist.”

— Words of wisdom (part 1) from Chris Shifflet at Brooklyn Beta 2011

o christmas tree.

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:19:06 -0500

The prospect of not having an actual Christmas tree for a second year running was a gloomy one, so after looking at several different tree options, we finally settled on a small live tree. I’m so glad we did! It was fun unpacking all the ornaments that we never pulled out last year and remembering the ones we’ve purchased or been given. Here are a few of my favorite additions this year:

Crochet snowflakes purchased on Etsy last year.

Delicate tin icicles from Tinworks.

Porcelain pears from Crave Studio.

Now to finish choosing what will go under the tree!

good memories.

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:04:07 -0500

Tying these shoes on this morning made me think of my Grandma Jumara. She had feet even smaller than mine and they often wore shoes like this.

It seemed like a good day to wear the pearl she gave me.

Spreading the word, via Indie Craft Parade Download a hi-res...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:28:18 -0500

Spreading the word, via Indie Craft Parade

Download a hi-res version of this graphic or a desktop background at their site!

the story of our city.

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:19:42 -0500

One of my favorite things about Greenville is that we have people who know how to make things happen. Whether it’s Greenville Forward and their community-sourced idea generator What If Greenville, the folks at CoWork (more on them later), or one of the many small businesses and restaurants, Greenvillians are definitely not sitting still.

CityStory is one of the latest and greatest things happening in our town. Instead of talking about the fact that Greenville should have a coffee table book that shows off our city — these folks went out and made it. Not only that, it looks like they’ve done it well — a crucial factor in the success of any venture.

This team of writers, artists, and photographers set out to share the story of Greenville, South Carolina through words and photography. The final product is a beautiful monochromatic hard-bound book. You can see a sneak peek on their site, or check out a few of the spreads below.

Preview spreads from the book, Greenville — Imprints of a City

This project not only capitalizes on our city pride, it tells the story behind the buildings we see every day. CityStory has also produced some really beautiful videos using imagery from the book and interviews from locals. Even though I’ve spent hours digging through old pictures of Greenville online and reading about its past, I can’t wait to pick up this book and learn more about the city I already love.

If you want to check it out in person, the official book launch party is this Friday at art & light. Details are below!

CityStory Greenville Launch Party
Friday, December 2, 2012
art & light gallery, from 6-9pm
Pendleton St. in West Greenville

winning.

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:38:18 -0500

If you’re a business owner or an artist, don’t miss this opportunity! Indie Craft Parade is giving away two ad spaces on the blog for the month of December. It’s very easy to enter and winners will be chosen next Friday the 25th!

Find out more info here.

roasted tomatoes with shrimp and feta.

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:49:30 -0500

photo via Real Simple

I haven’t shared any recipes in a while, but I had to post this one! It’s one of the best new dishes I’ve tried in a long time. And so simple. We had it for dinner last night and I am very much looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch!

Roasted tomatoes. With a little shrimp, herbs from the garden, and feta cheese. I splurged on a garlic and herb feta, because you can never have too much garlic. Other than that, follow the recipe and it will not disappoint. We paired it with some Rosemary Sourdough bread from Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery. Amazing.

two-day sale.

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:05:09 -0500

Over the past few months, I’ve been talking with Belle Chic — a deal site for handmade goods — about Two Over Zero, the line of paper goods Andrew and I started a few years back. This is really exciting because that front has been quiet for a while, due to Indie Craft Parade planning, etc.

Beginning this morning at 11 am (our time) you’ll be able to purchase some of our Two Over Zero products at a discounted price through their site. The Belle Chic offer includes all our Christmas cards and gift tags as well as my favorite flat thank you cards. Visit and shop the sale here.

I am so excited about working with this company. There are a few other deal sites for handmade goods out there, but none quite so well varied and curated as Belle Chic. (Check out the sale coming up after ours…bakers confections!)

While I realize that for handcrafted goods, deep discounts like this aren’t always the best option, for us and our Two Over Zero goods, it’s a perfect fit!

So if you’re like me and love a good deal, and Christmas is on your mind, check out the sale, going on for two days only!

keep it local.

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:21:06 -0400

A few weeks ago some friends and I headed up the road to Asheville, NC. The main reason for our trip was to meet Grace of D*S at her book signing there. We had so much fun exploring the city and checking out the shops, galleries and restaurants before we headed over to the bookstore. (If you want to see where all we went, look for more photos at Erin’s blog.)

Asheville has always had a strong ‘buy local’ movement (see examples of their campaigns below), but I was excited to see a new ‘Local is the new Black’ promotion around town. Beautiful silver screenprinted posters stand out against shop windows all over town.

Various Asheville Grown Business Alliance (AGBA) Campaigns as seen around town. Photo credits clockwise from top right: alicia.pimental / briface / ello lovey / Ron Gunzburger

It’s a great reminder as we head into the holidays. Every city has independent retailers struggling to make ends meet, and we can choose to support them and our local economy with our purchases.

If you’re not sure where to start, there’s a growing movement that can help. The 3/50 Project has been very instrumental for me in demonstrating exactly what kind of impact buying local can have. From their website:

“For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that money in a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home.”

The basic idea behind their project is to encourage consumers to pick 3 local businesses whose doors they would be sad to see close, and commit to spend $50 (total) each month at these stores. This is a great campaign with a very worthy mission.

I’ve seen a sign online that says “If you really want to occupy Wall Street, do your holiday shopping at a small independent merchant.” While I don’t know if that’s the entire answer, it’s definitely a good start! Support your local businesses this holiday season — whether that’s an artist or a restaurant or shop owner in your city. Think of creative ways to give gifts that support others in your community.

a taste of New York.

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:45:45 -0400

One of my favorite parts about visiting New York is the wonderful shops and restaurants on every block. We had great success with food on this trip, probably because most of the places we went were recommended to us by friends who live there.

The first morning we hit up 5 Leaves, where we devoured our food before I ever thought of taking a photo of it. So we took one of ourselves instead, happy to have just eaten such amazing food and already loving our vacation.

Some of the other meals we had (some pictured, some not): gouda mac & cheese, meatballs from The Meatball Shop, cannoli and gelato at Fortunato Brothers, a burger and amazing macaroni & cheese at Brinkley’s, The Best Chocolate Cake in the World (quite possibly true), and Grimaldi’s Pizza.

We also made our way out to Brook Farm General Store, a beautifully curated collection of goods that we discovered online last year. It was a must-see on our list, and well worth the walk!

One of my favorite stops was By Brooklyn, just a few blocks from our hotel. This shop was handmade heaven. Everything in it — from chocolates and food to jewelry and skin care — was made by Brooklyn-ers. I absolutely love the concept of this uber-local store, complete with regular classes and tastings. If you’re ever in Brooklyn, and want a taste of what’s local, make sure you find your way to this shop!

more Brooklyn Beta.

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:25:20 -0400

The sign outside the front door was handpainted. Not the first clue it was going to be awesome.

While the conference days were really laid back and the schedule was flexible, the event was extremely well-planned and executed. You could tell the organizers worked hard to make everything special and comfortable for us. Well, as comfortable as you can feel in a room full of people you don’t know. I did my best to be social, but it was also nice to retreat back to the Greenville crew now and again.

Greenville has a really talented web community (many of whom are part of CoWork, where Andrew works). In spite of the small size of the conference (there were about 250 attendees), there were a good number of Greenville designers and developers there. Serious kudos to these (and others) who are putting Greenville on the map when it comes to quality web.

Speaking of quality, check out these pillows in the hang out area.

Our friends Mark and Paul gave a demo of their project Coursebook.

Andrew wearing his name badge. Us being somewhat anti-social.

A couple things I really really loved about this conference:

· Each attendee was given a name badge that had a custom bio written by the organizers. I have no idea how long it took Chris and Cameron to research and write these, but you can’t make things much more personalized than that!

· The speakers weren’t announced beforehand, which might have been a drawback for any other conference. But considering the rave reviews from last year and the quality of everything else, I didn’t think twice about it. It was actually really refreshing to sit down, not knowing what was coming next. I hope to share more about the content of the presentations and discussions, but for now I’m still processing everything.

· This conference was all about bringing the social media connections into the real world. Which means there wasn’t free internet. From the event email:

“Like last year, we will not be providing Internet access at the conference. We see this as a feature, not a bug. You’re of course welcome to use your fancy phones and other devices that can talk to the Internet without our help.”

People still used their phones and computers to access the internet, but in a crowd of heavy Twitter users, I thought it was relatively rare. Real conversations were taking place and most people were engaged during the presentations, not surfing the internet or busy tweeting profound tidbits.

· Both lunch and dinner were provided for us on all three days of the conference. What I loved most about this is that we were introduced to even more great local Brooklyn food without even leaving the building. Personally, my favorites were the sweets. Pies from One Girl Cookie and unbelievable cookies from FattyCakes.

After this, the bar for conferences has definitely been set high. I took notes, and left inspired to make my corner of the world a better place.