Today was the first day back at the advertising agency after being out for a two week vacation. My mind felt a little blurry as I tried to get reorganized. I was sitting at my desk today and I thought it might be kind of fun to share my little home away from home with my new readers. I always love to see what other people have done with their spaces, especially small spaces where you have to get creative. Sorry, the images were taken with my iPhone, so the quality isn’t all that great.

image left: a view of some of the stuff I have pinned to my wall. Yes that is a joke from a piece of bazooka gum. top right: my Dean & Deluca mug I got from my dear friend Miss Jane. bottom right: my little hamburger eraser and a calendar to start the new year.

top left: hello kitty stamp and a cupcake I made at a ceramic painting shop. bottom left: one of the famous doodles from my creative director Doug. image right: a recent letterpress print and cowboy boots. (my boots came in the mail today. What a nice way to start the day. Thanks Hautelook)

image top: a close up view of one of my silkscreen prints. Print is titled “Eat your vegetables” and I love the irony in the image. Print was the work of a classmate in college, Shannon. image bottom: a close up view of one of my own silkscreen prints. I have a thing with typography.

image left: stacks of resource magazine and an original drawing from one of my best friends. (John over at adesignmafia) top right: yup, that’s twitter! bottom left: a print that was given to me by John while he was visiting Portland.

I try to fill my space with small things that bring back a lot of memories. I also try to fill my workspace with lots of color and things that I can hang rather than set on my desk. I hope you enjoy a little peak into my second home. Agency life can be stressful and fast-paced. Keeping yourself surrounded by people you adore and things you love makes everything worth while.

I’m curious what other people’s work spaces look like. Feel free to share. If you have a to-die-for space I’d love to feature you on my blog.

The boy and I decided to travel home to St. Louis a few days before we had to return to work so we could get things reorganized and relax before we are thrown back into the real world. The last two days of vacation were bittersweet and it was hard not to count down the remaining few hours. The time away from work came at a time when we were both feeling worn thin and the two weeks we had to recover were a real blessing. We were lucky this year that we both could take the same amount of time away from work and that made traveling that much more worth it. For a peaceful retreat, Carmel hotels nestled in the heart of California’s coastal beauty offer a perfect escape from the daily grind. If you still haven’t taken your yearly vacation yet, you can try exploring the things to do in austin and other tourist spots of your choice.

Nothing all that exciting happened this weekend. We went to the grocery and stocked up on a bunch of healthy goodies. I was very pleased with myself by not purchasing a single sweet treat. (if you know me…this is a HUGE accomplishment) We came home and made tortilla soup I got to use my new Giada knives I got for Christmas. I caught up on laundry, rearranged the items in my cabinets to make room for new Tupperware, and vacuumed. Well I tried to vacuum. This is what happened. MY VACUUM BURST INTO A LARGE PUFF OF SMOKE AND TURNED OFF WHILE MAKING THIS AWFUL DEATHLY SOUND!!! Though, I expect one day it will fail because I’ve been using it for so long but not to the point where it makes those deadly noises and smoke… And for my next shopping planned, I will consider robot vaccums and see how they differ from my old vacuum cleaner.

Dear Little Green Vacuum,
You’ve done your job well. You’ve sucked up lots of gray fur and lots of blond fur. You were super lightweight and easy to get along with. The best part is that on the day you decided to die, our clothes matched. (see picture above)

After all the domestic things were done, the boy and I laid low, television on in the background and our eyes glued to our computers. He sketched and I blogged.

Tomorrow will be a rough day. Getting back into the grove of things is always a challenge. Wish us luck!

To all my new readers,
I’ve launched myself into the blogging world less than a month ago and I’ve fallen in love. Over the past 2+ years I’ve had the opportunity to document all things design on the blog adesignmafia, but this year starts a whole new kind of blogging. I look forward to sharing my world with you on a more personal level and hope everyone finds the things I post fun to read and come back for more.

I see this year bringing a bundle of new and exciting things and I’m sure my little bubble will be turned upside down a few times. (that’s always fun right?) I’m relatively new to the “real world” as far as my professional career goes ( art director at an advertising agency) and I guarantee there will be lots of things learned and lots to be shared. I can also guarantee that our puppy will get into more trouble, my relationship with the boy will constantly be evolving, and I’m determined to experience everything that is thrown at me.

As I leave you to start the new year I ask for your help.
(1) I would love to hear how everyone got started in blogging and how their blog has evolved.
(2) I’m researching the best ways to get word out that my blog exists and that I have content worth sharing.
(3) Would also love to hear what kind of content you are drawn to or what kind of content you enjoy posting about?
(4) Is there anything missing from the current structure of my blog that would make navigation more seamless?

If you have any other helpful tid bits about the realities of being a blogger, I’d love to hear them.

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This is just a fabulous piece thrifted from the hole-in-the-wall Goodwill in the Central West End while searching for a Halloween costume in 2009. I walked past it, stared at it, and then kept walking, telling myself that I didn’t NEED it. I was there to find items for a Halloween costume and not for the purpose of adding something else to my accessory collection. Needless to say, I couldn’t leave without it; the kelly green Liz Claiborne purse from the ’80s was mine, and it was less than 10 dollars. The funny thing is that I ended up tailoring my whole Halloween costume around that purse, and if you’re ever in need of inspiration, places like this are perfect for piecing together creative, sexy costumes. I just love finding something amazing when it was unexpected.

Coming home for the holidays usually means making a run to downtown Fort Wayne to scope out what has been piling up in the antique stores around town.

Every time I visit the little shops there are always new items lining the Mills Shelving, all new things to look at. Perusing the local antique stores is one of my favorite things to do and I’ve found some pretty amazing items over the years. With the holidays approaching, I tried not to spend a lot of money and only bought a couple things, a pretty tin container, some letterpress letters and some Christmas ornaments that were almost free. I’ve got my eye out for some extra large metal letters, so if you see anything let me know.

Just a few snapshots of the little hole in the wall shops. Store information below.

This little colorful gem is now mine. Can you believe I got this for $7.00!

Stores:
Nature’s Corner Antique Mall- 2307 Spy Run Avenue, Fort Wayne Indiana
Candlelight Antiques- 3205 Broadway, Fort Wayne Indiana

This is for all my readers who are sitting at home enjoying the day and dreaming what they are going to do with their homes during the new year. I’ve been gathering images of inspiration for some time now and at one point in my life I considered a career in Interior Design. I thought it would be amazing to pick out color swatches and match those colors with pretty patterns and furniture pieces. I thought about it long and hard and came to the conclusion that I only like to decorate MY rooms with colors that I love and furniture pieces that I want. I think decorating other people’s personal spaces could be difficult and I’d always want to add a little “me” to the rooms. To ensure that such rooms are clean, services like the Austin maid service can be utilized.

Currently, I’m living in a rental loft space that has its limitations of what I can alter and modify, so I’m kind of stuck changing out art on my walls and throw pillows. Here are More hints about end of lease cleaning. I would also recommend you to look at this site for some tips to appoint good firm for end of lease cleaning. You can go here to know about end of lease cleaning. One day soon, I will own a space that I can attack with my decorator’s spirit. I’ve got a pretty nice collection of pieces I love that just need a more permanent home. The rooms below are rooms that make my jaw drop open and my knees weak. These are all sources of inspiration for my one day home.

I’d love to hear how people personalize their rental spaces. I’m always searching for fun ways to make my little space in the city a little bit more “me”.

Enjoy your Christmas day with your families!

Happy holidays to all of my new readers. I hope everyone has a great Christmas eve and merry Christmas day with their families.  For my family, Christmas is a time where snacking all day is allowed and welcomed. Here is a great snuggle on the couch kind of chili that you can snack on all day and it never gets old. Actually it’s a recipe I got from a friend at work  and it even won second place in the chili cook off. Go Emily!

I’ll be somewhat checking out for the remainder of the day, but hope to see everyone in a few days.  Please share how you plan to spend your evening!