WTF: Sign Handwriting

Sign handwriting is a free download on dafont.com or on fontscafe.com (after liking their facebook page). I'm really loving the handwritten font trend and this one is no exception. The double lines and curlicue details make this one I'll probably be using a lot.
xo,
Kristen

War is Helvetica

Have you ever explored Kickstarter? It's an awesome website where people who are starting a project of some sort can reach out to people for funding often in return for some sort of reward. 

I recently found an awesome typography project entitled "War is Helvetica." It will be a short film by Dan Schreiner about a battle between the Arial Squad and the  Helveterans. Due to my typography obsession, I needed to fund this project. (Fingers crossed it does get funded.) Whether or not you decide to back this project (but why wouldn't you?) the video and photos of Dan's designs for this project are awesome and I suggest you check it out. 

What do think about Dan Schreiner's designs? Or any other  Kickstarter projects for that matter? Let me know in the comments.


Update: Here is the animatic for the project.

xo,

Kristen
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image source

Wordless Wednesday

Jamie over at Subjectively Simple is starting a Wordless Wednesday blog hop. I think it's a great idea and I'm participating and you should too! Here are my photo(s) for this week! Head over to Jamie's blog to grab one of these bitchin' buttons and to participate in the blog hop.






xo,
Kristen

Vacation: Around the Ship

So being on a cruise is awesome because it's basically like a moving hotel with a kickass view. Everything is so elegant and there are a bunch of fun little details that make cruises an awesome vacation option. I hope you're enjoying these snippets of my vacation; I'm certainly enjoying writing about it.

xo,
Kristen

It's all in the details.

I am a firm believer that the little things make life exciting. I find that the photos I take (I'm trying to take even more!) are of random things that I see. These little details make my life exciting and I'm excited to start sharing them with you in my "It's all in the details" series. 


I went to the beach with my family last Thursday and it was a great time. I went swimming and caught up on some guilty pleasure reading. I can't help it! Cosmo is just perfect for the beach... Anyways, the beach was beautiful. I couldn't help but include this silly photo of me and my nana. She hates having her picture taken because she says they come out so bad. Most of the time, it is her fault considering she's moving or talking. Either way I thought this picture was super cute. I found this crab shell in the sand. It was pretty but looked kind of gross so I took a picture instead of picking it up.


My eleven year old Golden Retriever, Penny, makes the most adorable faces. I swear she has no idea that she's a dog and responds to what you say to her. Penny is sick and has the early stages of kidney disease. This means that she takes a ton of pills every day and doesn't want to eat or drink. I've been cooking chicken and rice or ground beef and rice for her and giving her at home IV's to keep her healthy. I've been trying to be the best puppy-mama I can and have been wrestling her to eat and take her medicine. It's a challenge, considering how uncooperative she is but she's definitely more energetic after she's eaten.


In the middle of working two jobs and doing a summer internship I finally had time to spend with some friends from high school. Erin, Kristen (yes there's another one!, Lily and I got dinner and ice cream and hung out for a few hours. While waiting for Erin to get out of work, the rest of us found some awesome graffiti in a random alley way. I'm loving the ram's head with bows and hearts. 


xo,
Kristen

Vacation: View from the Boat

Traveling by boat offers some beautiful views. While standing on the top deck, I got awesome pictures of the ocean and of the places I visited (Nassau and Coco Cay, Bahamas and Key West and Miami, Florida). There's not really much more to say except to scrolling down and enjoy the view!

Thanks for reading about my vacation!
  xo,
Kristen

WTF: Carousel

Carousel is downloadable at fontsquirrel.com.

xo, Kristen

[[inspired by]] Alphonse Mucha

A lphonse Mucha is one of my favorite artists. His work is so gorgeous and as a graphic designer, his advertisements are a big inspiration to me. His illustrations and incredible details are the pinnacle of amazing design. The products which were advertised with Mucha's posters often were top sellers as the designs were so beautiful. Mucha began a tradition of association of the female body and the sense of joy with products that continues into modern advertising. Artnoveauposters.biz has a great page about Mucha, which features more of his works and information about the artist and the art nouveau movement. 

 

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works featured starting from top left, going clockwise: Dusk, Job and Cognac.

Vacation: Food on the Cruise

When I was on my cruise, the food was amazing. Every night I ate in the Starlight Dining Room with my mom and nana. The tables were set beautifully and the food was so fancy and delicious. I loved dressing up every night and sitting in the elegant dining room. An interesting food event attended was the Midnight Buffet. The food was arranged beautifully on the pool deck complete with salami flowers and ice sculptures. Thanks for reading a bit about my vacation.
xo, Kristen
               
Fonts Used:
King and Queen

[[inspired by]] clockblock on deviantART

DeviantART user clockblock's piece entitled En Masse is a beautiful piece created with letters. I love how accurate the shading on the hands is. This piece was incredibly well done,; it's too bad there are no other pieces like this on the user's profile.

xo, Kristen

Vacation: Taste of Key West Tour

During my day in Key West, Florida, I went on a food tour. We walked to three locations to try some classic Key West flavors. We tried some Cajun chicken, coconut-crusted, pink shrimp and conch fritter (They were so good, I forgot to take pictures until after I had eaten!) at the Sunset Tiki Bar. We also tried some sauces at Pepper's of Key West, ranging from the sweet to the fiery. After trying the hottest sauce they offer samples of, I got the "Hottest Tongue in Key West" button. Once everyone had their fill of delicious sauces (or just plain crackers for my Nana...), we walked to Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe, which makes the best Key [West] Lime Pie in Key West. We each tried some of the Key Lime flavored treats around the store and got to sample a piece of chocolate covered Key Lime Pie. I brought home some Chocolate Lime Macaroons for me and my family and got Penny some Key Lime flavored dog cookies!

Thanks for taking a peek at my vacation!

xo, Kristen

Puppy Play Date

Today, my aunt Joan brought her dog, Yogi, over to have a puppy play date with Penny. It was great coming home from work and having two puppies great me! Yogi and Penny are siblings; they were born in the same litter. They don't get to spend a lot of time together because Yogi lives about 45 minutes away. However, both Penny and Yogi are sick (they're 11) and we wanted them to be able to spend some time together while both of them are still active. They had a good time together playing and eating snacks but they do not like to pose for pictures!

Vacation: Day 3: Key West

The third stop on my cruise was to Key West, Florida. Key West is one of my favorite places. It's so cute and touristy. There are so many souvenir shops and there are vintage signs and decor everywhere. I love places that are kitschy and Key West is the very definition of it. I love all of the old wooden signs and the advertisements every where for  Key (West) Lime Pie. Speaking of pie, I went on a walking tour where I got to sample food from a few local places but more on that later.

xo, Kristen

[[inspired by]] Hanger Tea

There may be no words to describe how much I love the packaging on Hanger Tea. Making the tea bag into a tshirt and putting a clothes hanger in lieu of a string is genius. The boxes which house the "tea-shirts" hang inside a closet inspired box. Soon Mo Kang clearly designed the cutest and most desirable way to drink tea. Photos from Yanko Design.

Vacation: Glass Bottom Boat Tour

WhileI was in Coco Cay, I went on a glass bottom boat tour. A glass bottom boat is a small boat with a partially glass bottom and seats around the opening. On the tour we saw some of the fish that live in the waters near the Bahamas (which thanks to the glass were virtually unphotographable). However, the tour I went on was awesome and there was a guy actually going into the ocean and finding different creatures to bring on the boat. Everyone on the tour got to pass around a variety of creatures. The tour guide even did a demonstration on cleaning a conch and we all got to try a piece of the Caribbean delicacy fresh from the ocean!

xo, Kristen

Vacation: Day 2: CocoCay

The second stop on my cruise was Coco Cay, Bahamas. Coco Cay is a private island owned by Royal Caribbean. The island is gorgeous. It's pretty much a giant beach. While I was on the island I went on a glass bottom boat tour and I spent the rest of the day swimming and napping on the beach. It was such a fun day!

Vacation: Dolphins

While I was in the Bahamas, my mom and I went swimming with Dolphins at Blue Lagoon Island. It was so much fun! I've always loved dolphins and it was amazing being in the water with them. We got to pet them and feed them and then get propelled across the water with them pushing you (sadly no pictures of me doing this)! Dolphins are adorable and so intelligent and this amazing experience made me love them even more.

[[inspired by]] Adriana Carvalho

I came across an artist by the name of Adriana Carvalho who creates the most beautiful, lingerie inspired pieces out of found objects. The pieces are sexy and dark and there's pretty much no way to describe her hauntingly beautiful pieces without looking at them. Make sure to visit the rest of Adriana Carvalho's work, my favorite collections are the "Love Series," "Road-Kill," and "Dama de Ferro."

Frozen Chai Latte

 

 I love chai tea. It's absolutely delicious. This simple recipe is a fun way to drink your tea. It involves frozen tea ice cubes which are simple to make. I boiled water for a normal 8 oz  cup of tea but put three tea bags in the cup instead of one. I steeped the tea for 5 minutes and then poured it into an ice cube tray. You can do this with any flavor and put it in any drink. I made frozen chai lattes with my tea cubes; it is simple to make and is perfect for a summer day.

 Ingredients:

-6 to 7 tea ice cubes

- about 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1/2 cup milk

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Crush ice cubes in blender until no large chunks remain. 

Add cinnamon, vanilla and milk.
Blend until combined.

Sprinkle cinnamon on top and enjoy!

Vacation: Nassau

The first stop on my cruise was to Nassau, Bahamas. Nassau is beautiful. It's a bright colorful city on the ocean. There's a ton of shopping to do in Nassau; there are so may diamond and gemstone stores and high fashion boutiques along with the standard souvenir shops. I loved how the buildings were as colorful as the flowers around the city. And I loved the murals that I walked past. As a designer, I of course love the official logo of the Bahamas, which is a stylized representation of the islands, how cool is that! After shopping, my mom and I went swimming with dolphins! It was so fun and I'll talk more about my dolphin swim in another post. The only down side to Nassau is that the government requires the shops to close around 6pm so after dusk there wasn't much to do except go to bars and restaurants and my mom did not want to go bar hopping! 

Read more about my vacation!

xo, Kristen

Vacation: Getting on the Boat

My vacation began when I got on the plane in Providence, RI. I flew into Fort Lauderdale, FL with my family and it took about two and a half hours. When we arrived at the airport, a shuttle bus took us to the pier where after a bit of mandatory paperwork we boarded Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas. Our room was super tiny! but I spent almost no time in there as there was always something to do on the boat or at the ports.

Keep reading more about my vacation!


xo, Kristen

Fruit Rolls

Nothing says summer like fresh fruit. I made this recipe using strawberries and mangoes (one of my favorite combinations). If you don't like strawberries and mangoes, you can easily replace any other type of fruit. My mom is allergic to mango so I made some plain strawberry ones for her. I bet a raspberry and blueberry combination would be delicious as well. I just want to eat these rolls all the time; they're so delicious and pretty.


Ingredients:

4 Spring roll wrappers

1 cup uniformly chopped strawberries and mangoes. (There is a great tutorial on how to cut a mango here.)

Bowl of warm water

Instructions:

1. Dip spring roll wrappers into warm water until they are soft and have the texture of cooked pasta.

2. Spoon fruit into a log shape in the center of the circle.

3. Fold sides into middle.
4. Fold short end over.
5. Roll remaining wrapper into itself.

6. Eat!

Vacation!

I went on vacation with my mom and nana. We went on a cruise that began in Miami, Florida and went to Nassau, Bahamas; Coco Cay, Bahamas and Key West, Florida. I had a great time and saw some awesome things that I'd like to share with you. If I wrote about my entire vacation in this one post, you would be scrolling down and down and down for eons. So I'll spare you the trouble and break up my trip into sections...

1. Getting on the Boat
2. Day 1: Nassau
3. Dolphins
4. Day 2: Coco Cay
5. Glass Bottom Boat Tour
6. Day 3: Key West
7. Taste of Key West Tour
8. Food on the Cruise
9. View from the Boat
10. Around the Ship
11. Days 4 and 5: Miami



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Sweetly Broken Font