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The Sourwood.

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:54:00 -0400

To celebrate our seventh anniversary last week, Andrew and I headed into the mountains near Asheville. If not for my curiosity, the entire trip would have been a surprise. But it was probably just as much fun knowing that we were headed to The Sourwood Inn.

This was our first stay there, and everything about it was even more wonderful than we could have expected! The Inn is just outside Asheville, but it’s five miles up a winding mountain road and by the time you get there, it feels like you’re a million miles from the rest of the world.

It was the perfect place for a getaway.

We declared a technology-free weekend, and it was fabulous! At the Inn, there’s one TV in the entire building (that I never saw on), walking trails and pups to accompany you on them, a game room with a pool table, darts and ping pong, not to mention the rooms themselves that have amazing views and wood-burning fireplaces!

The view from the bathtub. Seriously.

I took these photos right before we left, but other than that and one quick reference to Google Maps, we had a great weekend spent together without the ‘help’ of modern technology. Andrew even brought the LOMO film camera I gave him a few years ago and we took some photos with it, and I can’t wait to see how those turn out.

I want to tell everyone I know about this place, and at the same time I want to keep it to myself. We were so impressed with the service and helpfulness of the staff while we were there. Here’s just one example: I recently learned I may have an allergy to wheat, so I’ve been avoiding it where possible. When I turned down a piece of cake at dinner one night and explained why, there were gluten-free pancakes waiting for me the next morning!

Needless to say, we enjoyed our stay and would highly recommend it to others. If you’re ever in need of a getaway, The Sourwood Inn is the perfect place to do it!

“This is your world. Shape it or someone else will.” — Gary Lew

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:42:33 -0400

“This is your world. Shape it or someone else will.”

— Gary Lew

seeking shelter.

Sun, 06 May 2012 15:09:00 -0400

For months now, we’ve been looking at ways we can move closer to downtown. Every time we find a possible solution, there’s something keeping us from moving forward. Maybe it’s the timing, the price, the location. Maybe we’re being too picky. But for whatever reason, we haven’t found home yet.

Yesterday we visited art&light, our favorite gallery in Greenville. It’s been a while since we’ve been there and it was really great to see all the new work, visit the adjoining galleries and talk to Teresa, the gallery owner. We left with two beautiful woodcut pieces by local artist Kent Ambler. Other than posters and functional objects, I can’t remember the last time we bought a piece of art.

Seeking Shelter, by Kent Ambler

While I love the colors and the circular shape, the subject matter and title of this one really spoke to me. Andrew, Melanie and I are looking for home. We haven’t found it yet, and as frustrating as it is sometimes, that’s where we are right now.

The title and timing couldn’t be more appropriate.

Buying this piece feels like a turning point somehow. I don’t know if that’s just wishful thinking, but I can tell you it definitely feels good to buy art again.

Yesterday in a single photo.

Wed, 02 May 2012 17:50:43 -0400

Yesterday in a single photo.

what i long for

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 10:11:05 -0400

“…a life rich in simplicity…”
— Marjorie Taylor, Kinfolk Magazine Vol 3: 26

life is good.

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:57:36 -0400

Last week included a hike to a waterfall for an OOBE photo shoot. I really can’t remember the last time I’ve gone hiking. It was good to be reminded of the amazing beauty so close to home.

It was a busy week, but full of wonderful things, even beyond waterfalls. For the first time ever, I took time off for my birthday and spent the whole day with Andrew. It was one of the best long weekends ever — packed full of friends, lots of good food and reminders everywhere that life is good.

Things like:

meeting baby Pearl
helping friends move to Greenville
birthday shopping at Williams-Sonoma
chatting with Aunt Helen
our first visit to The Owl
bonfire (and s’mores) with friends
the Greenbrier Farms plant sale
filling up the garden again
brunch in Atlanta
the High Museum with friends

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”— Harry...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:57:28 -0400

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
— Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States

changing pace.

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:45:33 -0400

We spent last Saturday in Asheville, a town I feel like we’re just discovering. It’s a short drive from Greenville and always proves to be a really refreshing change of pace. This time, we bypassed the Gourmet Chip Company, the French Broad Chocolate Lounge and our other Asheville favorites to head up the mountain.

The last few weeks have been full of late nights working on side projects so we were headed to Asheville for a little down time. On the way up, we decided to start our day at the Grove Park Inn. We first visited Grove Park when we went to Asheville for our second anniversary and hadn’t been back since.

The view from the Inn, with Asheville’s skyline in the distance. Photo by Andrew.

We spent the morning enjoying the view and doing a lot of talking. It was really strange to realize how much has changed (how much we have changed) in the past five years, but this place seemed exactly the same.

I dug up this old photo from our visit in 2007:

And here we are now:
Apparently five years means more hair for everyone, and more reasons to smile?

It really is crazy how fast time goes. I know everyone tries to warn the next generation about this, but I don’t know if it’s possible to really comprehend what that means until you get there yourself.

On a related note, I turn twenty-nine next week.
Twenty. Nine.

I don’t understand how it’s possible that I’m almost thirty years old.

But I’m sure everyone says that.

This is happening tonight! Be sure to check it out if you can!...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:43:12 -0400

This is happening tonight! Be sure to check it out if you can! Absolutely worth $5 at the door!

greenville grok

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:02:00 -0400

Last week, I had the privilege of attending Greenville Grok — a ‘conference’ that’s a little hard to explain because it’s not really a conference. There were no guest speakers. No ‘theme’ or a single overarching topic. And no exorbitant price tag. But over 100 people from all over the country gathered here in Greenville to meet each other, pose questions and ask advice from their peers in the creative industry — mostly ten and twenty minutes at a time. To sum it up, it was a weekend of idea sharing that left everyone pretty inspired.

Photo by Mike Meyer, sign created by Marco Suarez

Somehow our industry (or at least this corner of it) has moved away from the highly competitive norm, and things like Brooklyn Beta and Grok are sprouting up for the purpose of helping each other learn and grow. Independent designers definitely seem to be the majority in this world. My theory: independent designers — much more than their agency and in-house counterparts — have embraced collaboration (perhaps out of necessity) and found that it’s a much more effective way to get things done.

You can see some really great photos of the event by Ismael Burciaga here.

I thought the Grok format was really refreshing. We were broken into four random groups for each session, so each set of topics was able to draw on a different combination of minds. It sounded like there were a lot of really fascinating talks happening simultaneously, but here are a few I was able to be part of:

Don’t lose the joy of creating. — Marco Suarez
Complete projects are energizing, so if your days are full of long-term or never-really-ending projects, be sure you also pursue side projects that have an end. Create things that bring yourself joy and that process will recharge your batteries.

Consume data in a more responsible way. — Rob Wright
This was a great reminder to be careful what we believe and endorse online. Everyone has the ability to ‘publish’ and yet it may not all be accurate. Value first-hand accounts more highly than others and take time to digest the information you’re receiving before pushing it back out there in a retweet or link.

The ethics of technology. — Katie Stewart
The big question “Does knowing about something make you responsible?” Is there an ethical way to use and own technology or is our consumerism in the technology realm creating harmful situations for people on the other side of the world? One of my big takeaways from this discussion is that we need to reconsider the permanence of objects — aka how often do we treat non-disposable things as disposable?

Content Ownership — Cameron Koczon
Reminding us how much content we have strewn all over the web and asking aloud if the keepers of our information will be good stewards of it. We give up a lot of our rights on the web without a second thought, but it’s an issue we need to start thinking about because we’ve given a lot of people a lot of our content (facebook, twitter, pinterest, path, etc, etc.). Also, what happens to our information if that company goes under?

Other things to ponder:
· A fascinating look at John’s phone: a great date night phone?

· “Technology should help us be more productive, not less productive.”
— David Stevens in relation to email.

· Giving the Inbox Zero method a try.

· Some great suggestions for making Indie Craft Parade more profitable.

· Take a closer look at our current ‘team building’ events. Are they all competitive by nature or are they collaborative and actually encouraging teamwork?

· I really need to read more.

food for thought.

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:32:33 -0400

“Design has become the cover for unnecessary consumption.”
— Peter Saville, via Quotes on Design

bringing creativity back.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:02:34 -0500

Around Christmas time, Andrew and I were discussing how (in spite of us both being designers) our everyday lives don’t seem to allow for much creativity. One small way we decided to combat this is by adding a small chalkboard wall to our kitchen. We’re hoping that this will give us a good place to make art that’s intentionally temporary and help us remember to have fun creating things.

I remembered that Barb of Knack Studios did this a while ago, and she kindly gave me a few tips. The most important: Don’t skip the conditioning step. Even though you won’t want to mess up your beautiful wall, you need to do it.

There are all kinds of varying reports online about whether or not this step is necessary, so her advice was really helpful. I would definitely have been tempted to skip it since that eliminates most of the process. Here’s what we did:

Step 1: paint the wall
For such a small area, I was really pleased with how quickly this went. I did three coats for this wall. It was really tempting to stop here because it looks finished!

Step 2: condition the wall
This is the part where you use up half a box of chalk by covering the entire wall with chalk. Using the chalk on its side makes it go fairly quick though.

Step 3: erase
Although it makes you wonder if the wall will ever look good, these conditioning steps make sure your wall erases better down the road.

Step 4: clean
Use a wet cloth or sponge to wipe down the wall. Surprisingly, it returned to the beautiful rich black it started out! You’ll also want to clean up your floor here as well since steps 2 & 3 leave a fine coat of chalk dust next to the wall.

After our one-weekend project, we can now draw fun things on our wall any time we feel like it! It’s been really nice to have a place to practice hand-lettering and be creative without the aid of a computer!

Andrew drew this for Melanie the day she came back for school.

We’ve also used the wall to keep track of weekly menus, welcome friends when they come over or just to leave each other notes.

I tend to be a perfectionist at heart, which means this wall has been a good exercise for me — making myself draw and write and not worry so much about how it looks. I can always erase and start over.

Note: I was worried about a chalkboard wall in a kitchen because of the mess, but the wall is small and away from where we prepare food so it hasn’t been an issue at all.

life lately.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:44:22 -0500

in no particular order:

good food
andrew learning to cook and loving it
jamie oliver videos
food with friends at home
eating good meals on a budget

indie craft parade
sponsor hunting
website redesign with Andrew
planning

house
pinning pretty images
imagining life downtown
saving up

work
usually between the hours of 8-5
looking forward to inspiration at Grok
photoshoot season

other things
occasionally scheming new business ideas
a shopping trip with Erin this weekend

new math.

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:49:06 -0500

It’s a great day to share a little nerdy humor from More New Math. I run across this site every once in a while and it’s such a fun way to look at the world! There are plenty more where these came from, so check out the site for yourself.

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