I am so excited to be collaborating with the new Kinfolk magazine! Such a beautiful idea, this magazine is all about spending time with those close to you--it's about those simple, intimate gatherings. I will be doing some blogging for their journal, check out my first post!

images via Odette NY.

1.oh sweet woods 2.The Edible Garden by Alys Fowler 3.Belle Fleur de Lis 4.Three Buttons
5.slidegirl54 6.knitalatte11 7.Hello Sandwich 8.nathalie et cetera

I love the idea of people gardening with little or no space, it really points out the fact that you can provide for yourself regardless of your outside space! Our last apartment had no outside space at all, being on the fourth floor of an old building, with window box options pretty limited. We made do with some herbs in the kitchen window, some lettuce in the living room. But now we have a rooftop attached to our apartment, not exactly finished or safe to spend a lot of time on, but good enough for a little garden. (Keep reading for pictures!)

I know I know, it's been ages since I posted last. I sort of shy away from blogging when I'm struggling a bit in real life. I haven't done any art or design work in a while, for example. It's hard graduating! Definitely much harder than I expected.

I am now faced with the seemingly impossible task of finding a job, and I feel like I might have to give up the dream of getting one I will actually enjoy (whatever that may be, I'm not sure). I've been working (in retail still) and it's hard to find a job while you are already working somewhere. Where am I supposed to find the time to finish my portfolio? How will I even schedule interviews? It's not that rough, I just feel like I'm giving up on my dreams a bit.

It has been a really long sleepless week...! I can honestly say I'm finished this time, though I have a few other things to finish up. I'm so excited for regular life again, school really is not my thing. I can't wait until I can work on my own projects without feeling guilty about not doing homework. I have this HUGE list of things to do when I am finally out of here... And I'm excited about that.

Meanwhile, here is one of my books to go along with those displays I showed you. There is another book, and yet another (a process book). They are quite lovely and I'll take a picture of them soon (they have presentations to give and places to be)! I have my final presentation tomorrow which of course I haven't prepared for very well. I planned on being prepared but once those books were printed I was just finished...

I am ALMOST done. That is, the 3D aspect of my project. Kitty likes it, what do you think? I have pared down all of the pictures to these few, but I really need a good camera to take some pictures with. My little Sony Cybershot is not all that high quality.

Hello! I've been at my computer constantly lately, but a lot of my websites are banned--because I am a super procrastinator (this counts as procrastinating, probably) I had to block bad time wasters, so I have all the time I need to work on my thesis! Which is due in a week and a half (Ahhh!). I'm having a hard time getting all of my thoughts out of my head and onto paper (or the screen!)

Yay! I received my copy of UPPERCASE magazine in the mail last week (it was actually just sitting on my doorstep for two days while I was away so I'm glad nobody stole it!) I am honoured to be a part of Janine's amazing creation, there are so many talented artists involved. A little piece of my paper collection was featured--my library cards and pockets--and they look quite nice in print. Like I said, I was blown away by this issue and I am looking forward to future issues!

I've been working hard lately, but it's mostly fun cut and paste work. I created four models of what the final project will look like (approximately). It feels like I've accomplished a lot by doing this but there is still so much left to do! I had fun with this though, and I used my glue gun for the first time in a long time. Above is one of my inspiration clipboards. Still wondering what it's all about? In due time... in due time.

Phew! It's so hard to get caught up. Posting will probably be sporadic this season, because I'll be working on my thesis and of course my millions of other projects I distract myself with.

I'm quite excited about my thesis project, which is analyzing independent retail stores and creating an affordable, modular display concept. Which, hey, guess what, I am building BY HAND. I am perfectly capable but I am realizing just now what an enormous task this is... Wish me luck. I have to document my process so I hope to share some of it with you.

Here's a start, some inspiration-based layouts/experiments I am trying out for my final output (a catalogue).

The above images in the layout are from pony_tail on flickr. (Copyrighted, hope their not mad, I'm not actually using these layouts for anything)

Above main photo via willow ships via anabela. I am super jealous of how fabulous this girl (Chelsea Jade) and her photography and her band (teacups) are. Like wow. I still wish I was in a band, though I think that opportunity is long gone now!

Hello,
I've been away... Those of you who are students can probably understand my stress right now, the semester is almost over and then one semester left! Then finally it's over (I'm not one of those people who enjoys school that much). Do you want to see what I've been working on?

Above is a soap package design for a men's cosmetic line (I know, they're pretty girly because of the calligraphy). It's hard to make something look 19th century and manly at the same time. I took this on as a personal challenge to create something NOT girly, and... we'll see what happens. I am also working on expanding on the cosmetic line I created "Organic Chemistry" to do the branding, advertising, and more packaging, which includes a women's version of the line. This is a quite exciting project, and I'm enjoying it (some of the projects they give us are pretty uninteresting, but not this one!). The goal is to design something that can be oriented towards men and women, and creating a distinction there.

I have also listed a few of my pieces from The Royal Family show on Etsy, so take a peek! There are so many more, but I don't want to post them all at once. I hope you enjoy them!

Hello! I haven't been in a photobooth in SO long, I thought it would be nice (and maybe a bit cliché) to introduce myself in pictures for my portfolio. I've been abandoning the internet like crazy lately! I am such a neglectful blogger sometimes. I've been catching up on my Google Reader, and I have forgotten until now how much I love the internet. Seriously. Love. It. And how I like knowing everything about anything, and the longer I am away, the less that will be true! I've also picked up a few new offline hobbies/goals, which are: learn to sew, and learn Japanese…

I'd like to say a quick thank you to Ellie for posting about my homework (!), and to Karyn for mentioning my blog!

Hello! It's been a while! I have been so busy working and finishing up school projects, I have had hardly any time for the internet. I dearly miss the internet. At least I have some homework to show for myself! This is a final project for the Editorial Design course I posted about earlier (the Natural Living book).

We had to design an annual report for a company, and since I'm not really that interested in "companies" as opposed to independent businesses, I just had no other choice but to do my report on Urban Outfitters Inc. which is the least "corporate" corporation I can think of! Also, I love it, and I am currently working at Anthropologie—which is where I focused my report—as a temp for the Yorkville store opening. So naturally, you know. (Click on the above image to view the entire book page by page at Issuu).

I did all the collage illustrations (fun!) and the financial layouts (not as fun!). It was a great project and I'm really proud of how it turned out. I printed it on this natural-textured cream coloured paper, with little flecks of brown in it. Let me know what you think!

Some of you might have heard through the grapevine about my little book project, which I am doing for a summer course on Editorial Design. I feel it's really important to work with my personal style, so I was really glad we were allowed to choose what type of book and the content it would be based on. Feeling pretty inspired by some talented Flickr photographers/nature lovers, I asked some of them to participate by submitting interviews and photos to me. It will not be published, it's a special one time only thing, and there will be one copy printed for me, and one for each participant involved in the project. (You will all get to see the PDF, don't worry! I know that's not the same...)

Anyway, I'm excited to show you a little sneak peek, I am trying to assemble everything in the "right" order while adding photos that keep rolling into my inbox. I am so excited to see the final printed version, due in ONE WEEK, Ahh! And I will let you know how it turns out : )

Photos in these spreads by Karin Eriksson and Chelsea Fuss from {frolic!}.

I have been so busy working on school work today, trying so hard to get things done instead of catching up on my rss feeds. I have 6 projects to do and 4 weeks to do them in. Ahhhh! School is just too much sometimes.

The above image is a layout I'm going for my editorial class, we are designing our own magazines and mine is about (you guessed it) collage. The feature spread is about Vincent Pacheco, collage genius, and his collage is in the layout above (see original here). I added the text, drawings, and adapted it into a layout. I love getting to incorporate handmade elements into design work where I can.

I'm starting on some new projects—one of which is something I've been thinking of for a while, and I'm going to pull it off as a school project. The problem with design school is that while trying to develop my style, sometimes there are so many restrictions that I feel I have to do the obvious. That makes me bored with school. But in some classes I get to do what I feel like, and that's what I want out of school—I'm probably not alone.

This project was for a class, we had to interpret music, one song we loved and one we hated. What I chose to do was to make timelapse videos of myself making two collages. I listened to the songs while I picked out the images I would use, and then again while I was collaging. I ended up listening to the songs so many times that the song I disliked even grew on me.

The first (below) is "the good", which is Pretty Bird by Jenny Lewis. This is the music I usually listen to when I create.

And the next is "the bad," the song Okinawa Rasta Beef by Boredoms (thanks Jory for picking it out for me!). You'll see it's amusingly different than the first.

I just spent 10 hours working on this project for school with fierce, caffiene-induced concentration. It's an interactive booklet, and I'm very impressed with myself.

The little birdie heads tweet and everything! And look at that HAND-DRAWN text (maybe I like drawing after all...)

More samples ahead!

I'm trying to work on my Flash project for school. I am so stuck, this is how far I've gotten. And of course I know what I want to do, but how to do it? Not so sure.

I made these collages for a school project, where we had to... sort of re-interpret a magazine. It was kind of open, I think, so this is what I did. I'm so predictable, it's a collage. But it's a lot different than the work that I usually do.

I like it, it's dramatic! It's supposed to bring the element of the Dada style to the magazine—which already had subtle hints of it to begin with. I chose the Italian magazine Velvet, issue 25.

This is a little entry I put into the first few pages of the journal I am sending out next week for the 1001journals project. It's a really great idea, and if you don't know about it you should go and read about it. This journal will be sent all over, and it is specifically for collage. I know some of the people who are participating, but not all, and I'm excited to see what I get back (if I get it back...)!