Upcycled thrift store belt

I recently went on a little visit to the local thrift stores in downtown Kirksville, just to browse. These days, thrift and second hand stores seem to be the only places that I can afford!

Anyway, in addition to a great, super soft vintage-y ringer t-shirt (Iowa State Wrestling Champions 1987, woot woot!), I found this great leather belt with roses engraved into it. It was tiny (I think it must have been made for a little girl!) but I thought I could do something cool with it, so I bought it. Along with the t-shirt, I spent an outrageous 75 cents. Not bad, eh?

Yesterday I finally got around to being crafty and made some leather bracelets out of the belt! I got out my x-acto knife, bought some suede cord, and got crackin'. They came out pretty neat, yes? Oh, and I had another leather cuff that had fallen apart, so I used the suede cord to make it wearable again! Maybe I'll donate them to AIGA for our fundraiser this fall, or give them as gifts... hmm!!

Painted jars and bottles

A few weeks ago I decided to actually use the glass jars and bottles I've been trying to remember to recycle by sprucing them up a bit with some paint!

I've only done the two so far, but I plan on doing more. I also was delving through the archives of a newly discovered design blog that I love, Poppytalk, and saw this post. I thought it was a really cool yet simple way to paint bottles that gave them a really finished, polished look (more so than mine anyway, lol). Hmm... next weekend project? I think so!

4 posters and a thought.

Ey, I haven't been keeping up with this as much as I would like. But here is my post: 4 posters and a thought.

Yesterday I was working behind the ice cream counter at my minimum wage, high school-esque restaurant job, and in worked a group of construction workers wanting some ice cream to help them cool off after a hard days work. I could tell by their accents they weren't from around here; their drawls were so thick I could barely understand them. They each paid with their ice cream with damp money. It was damp from being on their body, sweaty from a full day's work. At first I was kind of grossed out, but then I wondered why it seemed so familiar. I realized it was because I remember the money my dad gave me on hot summer evenings for ice cream was always damp from his sweat after a long day.

This little reminder of a small detail from my childhood is what my creative writing professor would have said was gold. He loved little nothings like that, details that seem so meaningless but can add so much life to a story.

"My father handed me a dollar bill; it was damp, wet with the very sweat that earned it."

And on a different note, here are 4 posters I adore. I could spend hours looking at posters at Gigposters.com.

Doublenaut

Subject Matter Studio

The one and only Hatch Show Print.

Farm Barn Art Co.

Couldn't resist.

Solo afternoon.

I went on a hike yesterday after work at Rainbow Basin, a conservation area in Kirksville. I love the place. I used to say that I didn't think this part of the state, the northeast, was as pretty as the rest because it's too flat, not like the rest of the state, and certainly not like the beautiful hills of the MO River that I grew up on. But if you step out of Kirksville in pretty much any direction, it's breathtaking. I am self-admittedly in love with my Missouri, and getting out in it is awesome. Reminds me of tramping around the woods as a kid, spending all day outside.

Lovely.

...Oh, and I brought my camera.

Yellow flowers are pretty...

but purple ones are, too.

I see you.

I took about a million pictures of this trying to focus on it. At least this one turned out.

Brown-eyed suzies are my favorite, even the damaged ones.

I thought this was beautiful.

Just thought I'd share.

I stumbled upon this project while browsing the web one day. It's a father-daughter collaboration between David Eustace and his daughter Rachel. They went on a road trip together and documented the whole thing. I think the coolest thing about it is that, as beautiful and moving as it is to outsiders like myself, I know that the images and everything they collected and the time they spent together means so much more to them than it ever could to anyone else, like a secret.

.....Plus, I love anything having to do with road trips, and the fact that they are in the southwest makes me more excited for my own road trip down to NM later this summer.

Filling up my notebook.

I've been filling up my notebook with random sketches/drawings/musings/whatevers. I love handwritten typography (maybe because of my Sagmeister fixation?...eh, join the party), and I it's fun to practice. I think it's a great way to liven up pretty much any poster or piece of design, if appropriate, of course. I always find a lot of great inspiration at WeLoveTypography.

Quote from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, a book I've been visiting.

I wish I could remember from where I picked up this quote.

From Emma, my sister, who claims to have written it herself.

Justin Vernon, how I love thee.