Pure Simplicity Designs

Today is an exciting day!! Drew and I are officially launching our combined web and graphic design business, P.S. Designs! We are no longer operating as The Computer Doctor or Love, Cake Designs. We found it easier to just combine into one business since we were always working together anyway. We’ve been working to get P.S. Designs together for several months now, and it is finally ready! (it took me forever and about a million designs to be able to decide on a logo!) But here it is:

Be sure to check out our new website as well!

This also means that #5 on my 20 Before Twenty list is done as well:

5. launch Drew and I’s combined design business (We’ve been working on it and I’m excited about it!)

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RSS & Google Reader

Hey y’all,

I just wanted to let you know that my blog is compatible for use in Google Reader, if you use a blog reader to view your favorite blogs. It isn’t overly obvious, so I thought I’d just let you know. The link for my RSS feed is at the bottom of the page, as shown below:

Let me know if you experience any problems with it. 🙂

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Tulane Newcomb Art Student Association

As of the week before last, I’m officially co-chair of the Tulane Newcomb Art Student Association (T/NASA). It has been an organization for like 2o something years at Tulane, but last year or the year before, all the officers graduated and the adviser quit, so it all fell apart. So, I have no idea how the old club was run, but we are hoping to revitalize it and get it back and better than ever. For a nice start, I made a logo for the club to put on all of our flyers and such.

We have a lot of great ideas for the club, so if you go to Tulane, you should join!

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Aesthetics

Today has been stressful. This week has been stressful. The remainder of this week will be twice as stressful as the first half of it was. I just have too much to do. But regardless of that, this post is a break from the stressful. Let’s talk about aesthetics.

Aesthetics: a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, taste, and the creation of and appreciation of beauty–reflections on art, culture and nature.

What a pretty definition. I think it pretty much sums up all my favorite things. Art, Cooking, Decorating, Design, Crafts, Nature, etc…

I heard someone today talking about aesthetics. They said that when you are engaged in aesthetic thinking, your senses are at their peak. Another big part of aesthetics is that “you are present in the current moment.”

I think that is a very important part of life, remembering to actually be present in the current moment. It is one thing that is hard to do sometimes. Especially when all day long you are sitting in a classroom, or doing homework, or working, or whatever it is that passes most of your time. Before you realize it, the day is over, the week is over, the year is over. Time flies so fast and we look back wondering where all the time went.

That is one of my joys in blogging. It has helped me to pay more attention to the little things and be present in the current moment. It also allows me to be able to look back and see where all my time went. Plus I mostly talk about aesthetics, so my senses are apparently at their peak. I also find that it helps relieve my stress. As if writing down my thoughts somehow takes the weight of them off my back.

So anyway, now that I’ve left you with that thought, I must go finish my painting homework.

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My First Painting (in class that is)

I was on a roll lately with blogging more often and this week I’ve been slacking a little. It has been a crazy, busy week, partly because we went home last weekend to celebrate Kelsey’s 16th birthday and it seems like all week since then I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep and on work I didn’t get done over the weekend. But I don’t have class on Fridays, so it is the weekend for me. (that would be a relief, except that I think I have more work to do this weekend than I have all year!)

Anyway, this week we turned in our first paintings in my painting class. Mine is no where near perfect, but I’m still pretty pleased with the outcome. It looks pretty simple, but it was a little bit of a challenge for me, figuring out how to mix paint to get the right value and all that. I think it is also the first painting that I’ve ever done in only black and white and I think maybe my first painted still life as well. 🙂

Oil Can and Small Bowling Pin

I took the picture with my phone right before I turned it in, so sorry for the lower quality image. Also forgive the waviness of the paper, it wasn’t laying flat.

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Evie, The Artist

I know I haven’t posted many blog posts lately with pictures in them. Sorry, I’ve been sort-of in a thoughtful/writing mood lately, it seems. This post however is all about pictures. Pictures that is, that my niece draws for me. Evie is five and she loves lots of things, drawing being one of them. I like encouraging her to draw her own pictures, rather than those in coloring books, because I think it allows her to be more creative and use her imagination, rather than just focus on coloring inside the lines of the pictures on coloring book pages. The drawing imagination of this five-year-old girl is similar to that of most other girls her age–butterflies, rainbows, flowers, hearts and pretty things.  Who doesn’t like to draw those things?

Anyway, these are just a couple of the pictures that Evie has drawn for me that I happen to currently have in my dorm room. They are not for sale, although I’m sure if you inquired about commissioning the artist, she would be more than happy to come up with a lovely artwork for you. 🙂

This one she did a couple years ago because it has been sitting on my dresser the whole time I've been in college. I love that she drew us both together. She also went through a phase then where she signed her name as just, EV. (I mean you get the same idea as Evie, I guess the 'ie' in her name really doesn't add much to the sound. That is pretty smart thinking for a three-year-old)
Here is a close-up of that one 🙂 I do slightly look like a dog or someone with a black eye, but then again, she has a red clown nose. 🙂
My diet must be working. I look pretty skinny in this one. I think I might need to start brushing my teeth a little more often though. They are looking a little crusty. But I guess when you only have three fingers on each hand, mega eyelashes and are walking among giant flowers, no one really notices your teeth. 🙂
I'm really liking my dress in this one, sort-of a Marie Antoinette look. I still only have three fingers and it looks like I've put on a little weight since last time. 🙂
This is the latest one she made for me this past weekend. 🙂

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The Little Weasel

Okay so I promise, this is my last post for today. I had been meaning to link to Drew’s blog a couple days ago and just hadn’t gotten around to doing it. Over the weekend, he re-designed it and it looks pretty awesome. You should definitely check it out. The Sweet Spot can be found here. There is a pretty interesting post about him weaseling his way around our “diet” that he just posted here. 🙂

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My Life List :)

So I’m sure everyone has one, if not in list form, then in ideas that flow through their heads–a list of things that you would like to accomplish in your lifetime, dreams, goals, etc… I’m sure everyone already knows my dreams of getting married, raising kids, having a happy home, gardening and being creative in my own lovely decorated house somewhere on the Wallace family homestead. I write about that, or at least think about it all the time. But aside from those dreams and the typical dreams of wanting to finish school and figure out exactly what I’m meant to do in life and to work and to travel and to see the world, I have a list of mostly creative objectives that are things that I would like to do before I die. I’m sure that this list will continually change, but as for now, here are some of the things on my life list:

*create my own fabric line

*write and illustrate a children’s book (or books)

*design my own font (or fonts)

*start my own group of creative friends that can meet often to socialize and do crafts, etc… (maybe the Golden Roses?– this is inspired my the Metal Tulips, my fiance’s mom’s crafting group. It is eight women, all best friends, who get together every Wednesday to eat and chat and talk about their latest creative endeavors. They mostly do quilting and embroidery, so they all help each other with ideas and whatnot. Their name was inspired by Steel Magnolias.) I think it is a great thing and I would love to have my own similar group.

*publish a book of my creative non-fiction short stories (following in my grandpa’s footsteps)

*open an “Icing on the Cake” boutique selling handmade things

*learn how to letterpress

*design stationary and wedding invitations

*explore poetry (it is the form of writing that before last semester I was the least familiar with and I am very intrigued by it and I would like to continue to try my hand out at it)

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Paintings by Patty Baker


Pink Blossoms and Spring Meadow II

I really like this painting! I’m thinking about commissioning the artist, Patty Baker, to paint an original one for me. You can check out her website, here. I really love her landscapes! She also sells work on Etsy and you can buy commissioned paintings from her there as well. Here are a few of her other works:

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Trang’s Contact Cards

Here are Trang’s contact cards! I posted the digital file on here right after I made them, but here is a photo of them printed. I love seeing things the things I create in their final form, it is so rewarding! Let me know if you or someone you know needs business cards or contact cards!

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