Ugh. And ugh.

So as if I wasn't stressed out enough with all this construction, and rain (which, by the by, don't mix well. I know--who knew?), Monday morning I got completely knocked over on my butt by what looks and most definitely feels like the flu.

Fabulous.

So apologies to readers and clients alike--hopefully I'll be back to 100% brain function sooner rather than later.

Sketch it out

Originally, when going to college, I was going to be a bad-ass fine arts major. Cause that's what I did, I was an artist: I drew (a lot), and sometimes painted. I wore black. I wrote poetry and watched foreign films--because that's what artists did (right?).

Of course, I was all, forget THAT once somebody handed me a mouse (and keep in mind, we're going back a ways--this all took place when Photoshop 3.0 was out (yeah, it was rad. See below if you don't believe me). There was maybe 10 tools. Now there's stuff like this awesomeness. Nowadays I wish I had more time to draw--like really draw, draw--not just sketch something out. But I digress.




I do like to sketch things out--specifically logos (and a friend just recently recommended I sketch out websites before I design them, too. How did I not think of this on my own??!). Actually--especially in recent years--I won't even think about using a computer to design a logo until I've got a few pages worth of ideas down on paper, with pencil (pen, crayon... heck, sometimes it's marker on a napkin. Hey, I'm still an artist).

So it was with great interest and excitement that I stumbled upon Rohdesign's SXSWi sketchnotes:



Guys, you have to go check out his entire sketchbook from SXSWi--it's so awesome, so inspiring. There's notes, ideas, quotes, and--my personal favorite--fonts as shoes. Also? Guac and chips. Ladies and gentlemen, this cannot be argued with.

In all seriousness, this is so great; and in many ways, more effective than page after page of handwritten--or typed--notes.

Completely awesome, whether you're an artist or not.

(Thanks to the also-awesome Brandflakes for Breakfast for this one)

I heart you, Internet

OK, first let me say that the Internet? It's pretty awesome.

Why, you ask? Because ladies and gentlemen, I am stressed. Stressed to the max. Construction, work, lack of sleep... it's not a good combination. It's not a productive combination. It just downright sucks.

But the internet cheers me up almost instantly. OK, well maybe not the internet--but stuff on the internet. Take Ben Folds (who I think is awesome) and add ChatRoulette (which I think is kind of creepy) and you get 5 minutes of pure wait-what-just-happened-here? Then you watch it again, because, hello? Dude is on ChatRoulette while performing a concert (in Charlotte). Then you realize that the title of the video is Ode to Merton, and you're all who-the-heck-is-Merton? And come to find out it's a dude on his piano, who logs onto ChatRoulette and sings to people.

The Ben Folds version, for your viewing pleasure:



And that totally whacked-out scenario made me forget my stress for about 15 minutes. So thank you Ben Folds. Thank you Merton. And most of all, thank you Internet, for making this all possible.

Weekly wrap up

Well, well, well. Ladies and gentlemen, I am VERY pleased to announce the return of CONSTRUCTION UPDATE to the WWU! That's right--today's wrap up is going to be pretty construction heavy, because , well, it was a construction heavy week.


Day 1: The roof is coming off.


End of Day 1: No roof--but plenty of rain, wind... and as a result: a tarp.


Day 2: Builder and co. hard at work. Love them!


Day 4: Walls!


Day 5: Walls! Floors! And a tarp just in case!

So not only did we have construction excitement (!!!!!!!), but there was a bit of publishing excitement as well: THE BEST OF BUSINESS CARD DESIGN 9 CAME. Dear readers, my work has been published in a book for the SECOND TIME THIS YEAR. Mari the Studio and Glow Gluten Free both are representin' in BoBCD9.

I think I might burst with all of the excitement.

In between excitement, I did do actual work. Lots of stock illustration research for a website I'm working on, and color development for a logo. I met with the super awesome color client today, and she was thrilled with her choices. The perfect way to end the week.

With more excitement.

This weekend I think I might have to tone it down; I'd love to go skiing--God, I love me some spring skiing--but I don't think that's in the cards. We'll see, she says, with a glimmer of--what's that? Oh right--excitement in her eye.

Aprés storm

During the day this past Saturday, and into the night, our little corner of the world experienced quite a storm: torrential rains, screaming winds--it was madness. We ended up losing power for a few hours Saturday night--but we were lucky; many had lost it right through Sunday evening.

Sunday I drove around in the mist documenting some of the fallen trees--it was insane the amount of roads that were blocked. Every road I turned down there was a detour of some sort. Here's some of what I found:


A tangle of police tape, branches and wires.






I love the texture on this fallen tree trunk.






Brookside Drive, Fairfield.






A tangle of fallen wire.



The owner of this house--to add insult to injury--was having his basement pumped as I shot this one. "The lesser of the two problems," he said to me.






In all the destruction, a sign of spring.

Letterpress Love

Yesterday a friend posted this link on my Facebook wall, and then--completely unrelated--I caught Mattio watching the short movie last night (and um, he tweeted that he was completely fascinated by the letterpress machine. Sorry to get all mushy on you guys, but I just fell in love all over again! That's like me saying to him that I was fascinated by NHibernate--and even if I knew what that is, I can guarantee that I will not be fascinated by it [sorry dear]).

Colosseo: Reimagining the Roman Coliseum with type (Canon 7D) from Cameron Moll on Vimeo.

You guys, I have to have this poster. The passion that went into not only designing it, but printing it? It's priceless.

...the artwork was handcrafted character by character, totaling roughly 250 hours of work from start to finish. Characters from the Goudy Trajan and Bembo Pro typefaces form the Coliseum (or Colosseum), also known as today as Colosseo (Italian) and originally known as Amphitheatrum Flavium (Latin).

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

Let's get happy

After a week of stress, computer problems, and stressful computer problems, I needed a pick me up. Although this video came out last week (old news!) it still makes me smile--as do most of OK Go's videos.

How could this not make you just a little bit happier?



The Rube Goldberg Machine (or, as we refer to it, big game of Mousetrap) was built by Syyn Labs:

When the rock band OK Go, famous for their viral videos including the spectacular and award winning "treadmills video", wanted to feature a 4-minute long Rube Goldberg Machine in an upcoming video, they tapped Syyn Labs to build it. The requirements were that it had to be interesting, not "overbuilt" or too technology-heavy, and easy to follow. The machine also had to be built on a shoestring budget, synchronize with beats and lyrics in the music and end on time over a 3.5 minute song, play a part of the song, and be filmed in one shot. To make things more challenging still, the space chosen was divided into two floors and the machine would use both.

We had our work cut out for us; every facet of Syyn Labs' expertise was required to meet this tremendous challenge. See the results of this remarkable effort in the video embedded above.

Want more OK Go happiness? Check out the original video for This Too Shall Pass, featuring the Notre Dame marching band... and, oh yeah, filmed live.

Or, watch the video that started it all: Here it Goes Again.

Please stand by...

So you'll notice that last week there was no weekly wrap up. It you're really keen and paying attention, you'll notice there was no nothing on Friday.

After weeks of my computer acting all wonky and buggy, I finally called Mike the Mac Doc and had him come diagnose all the wonkiness and bugginess. Turns out, it was a hard drive issue; as in, I needed a new one.

24 hours and a trip to the Apple Store later, my computer came back, definitely less wonky and buggy, but still not 100% right. Reinstalling, reconfiguring, redoing... Wonky computers take up a lot of time; but once-wonky-now-fixed computers take up even more.

So, here I am, digging out from the mess of a messed up computer. Sorry for the lack of post, and hoping that my machine is finally on the mend...

Day of awesomeness, twitter and fame

Yesterday, I was famous.

Twice.

I know, right? I'm still buzzing about it.

So here's the thing: a few weeks back, I made a new Twitter friend (yep, this is another Twitter post. Sorry, haters. Well, no. Not really). Meg Robustelli, of Fairfield County Child, started following me on Twitter, and liked what I had to say enough that she asked me to be her MomCrush of the month. What's a MomCrush, you ask?

I meet so many cool, inspirational moms here in Fairfield County. Every time I meet a woman who dreams big and puts words into action, I admit it, I develop a little girlcrush. I want to know everything about her and what lead to her success. So I decided to feature one mom a month (my Momcrush) on FCC so that I can spread the word about the cool things she's doing. She might be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an inventor or someone who donates ther valuable time to the less fortunate.

My answer was along the lines of, HELL YEAH! So yesterday my MomCrush post went live on Fairfield County Child, and now I'm sort of famous.

But wait. There's more.

Yesterday I also stumbled upon this super awesome mini film from Oliver Peoples eyewear. It was so adorable, I had to share. So I blogged about it, and then came up with some clever little tweet with a link back to my blog.

You guys, OLIVER PEOPLES RETWEETED MY BLOG LINK.

So, just to recap how totally AWESOME twitter is (and, let's face it, my day yesterday):

Woman with a thriving blog devoted to Fairfield County parents sees my tweets and features me on said blog--not only that but hello? She's got a crush on me.

AND Oliver Peoples exposed my blog to 1500 people that may or may not have ever seen it, because I liked their film enough to tweet the link to my blog, where I wrote about it.

Awe. Some. Ness.

Update: Oh, right. This wouldn't be a proper Twitter post without mentioning everyone's handles: Follow Fairfield County Child, Oliver Peoples, or yours truly.

The children are bored on Sundays

My second or third "design" job out of college was laying out a trade magazine for eyewear. Like any other job, it had it's ups: high fashion photo shoots (that made me feel oh-so-important), MAJOR discounts on glasses; and it's downs: a LOT of grunt work, especially on said photo shoots. But I got some great experience, got to meet and work with some really cool people, and above all, got to see just how much the world of eyewear had to offer.

One of the more fun brands I was exposed to was Oliver Peoples. Recently, Oliver Peoples signed on Elijah Wood and Shirley Manson (of Garbage fame) as the faces of OP. Even more recently, I stumbled upon this 2 1/2 minute OP promo movie starring the two: Les Enfants S'ennuient le Dimanche (The children are bored on Sundays). Filmed by Autumn De Wilde, and set to Just You and Me, by Zee Avi, the movie is quirky, fun and adorable--a great burst of inspiration which immediately brought me right back to my days at the magazine.

Which, in turn, made me feel younger (Thank you, Oliver Peoples).