Sunday, April 28, 2013

Favorite Things: Seven {etc.}

{Part of a Friday series with AlexStar and Lee that celebrates our power to discern, discriminate, decide and declare. Please join us in the comments or on your own site if you have a few favorites, too.}

Perhaps you spotted it, too: we are a far cry from Friday. This weekend was my mom's birthday, so we were working in the yard, playing with her horse, and making a treasure hunt. In my world, birthdays should always come with treasure hunts. Every single one of my favorite birthday parties featured a treasure hunt. Take note, world. Anaiah was the best at coming up with the rhyming couplets for the clues. Anatole provided undirected enthusiasm. I did the heavy lifting. It was fun, I had to cap myself off after a while or run the risk of making the thing last all night.

We will get to the favorites in a moment, but this blog has been more Blog Lite lately, so we can indulge in some chit-chat.

Last week I designed myself a logo, finally. I had to Googleteach myself Illustrator in the process, so the thing went like this:

a) sketch out a dozen or so ideas

b) Pinterest a quadrillion 'design inspirations'

c) repeat a) and b) a few times

d) open Illustrator

e) Google 'how to _________ in Illustrator cs5', open twenty tabs and read/watch tutorials, get sidetracked by other cool techniques for a while

f) fish random object out of baby's mouth

g) fiddle with colors, grouping objects

h) feed baby, distract long enough to make her believe that I am not being neglectful

i) repeat e) for practically every new move, resist urge to physically cut and paste, yell instructions very slowly to computer like for a mostly-deaf foreigner

j) fret, send tons of annoying and needy emails of rough drafts to everyone I know asking for feedback, fret some more

Anyhoo, you get the point. There aren't enough letters in the alphabet, really, and there was much more baby happening in there. But eventually, in five minute bursts between children and editing photos and life, I came up with something I can live with for a while.


I invite you to be impressed, I gently discourage any other public reactions. Because I ain't changing it for a while, I'm far too busy to go through that again right now. It's a shame no one is paying me hourly, because I would make bank. Now I just have to create all the associated literature - business cards, releases, etc. and I am in like Flynn. It feels good, this one has been on my to-do list for far too long, it's a bit like womaning up and finally going to the DMV already.  Also, it was really really fun, I can see why people do this for a living. Now, some favorites!

Favorite Ecological Sin (being things that are deleterious to our planet’s resources but that you enjoy anyway)

:: We already know about me and hot showers, and there are so many things that we do every day that are just paving our way to aitch-ee-double-toothpick. But for this category I hearken back to the mountains of New Mexico when it was just me, an empty road, and a V8 engine. Or, when I wasn't borrowing someone else's truck, the straight six of my own Toyota Pickup. However we get it done, I love driving all by myself out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but vista and the gas pedal and room to haul in the back.

Favorite Bogus Swear Word (when in mixed company)

:: For my own use, I say Drat and Rats fairly ubiquitously. And Whoopsie-doodles. But I gotta say, I love love love Star's 'dog business', it's so delicate yet descriptive, and hilarious to imagine dogs going about their business in a business-like manner, perhaps with briefcases. It cracks me up every dang time I hear her say it.

I read once that John Steinbeck never swore in the traditional sense, he thought it was too crass and unimaginative, so he came up with stunning and florid exclamations on the spot out of his own highly flavored brain, and I keep meaning to cultivate the practice. Oh, Aunt Nellie's Underclothes!

Cheers, blog public, happy to keep things family friendly!

4 comments:

  1. Our old landlord used to refer to his dog's going to the bathroom as "doing her job."

    "C'mon outside Sadie, do your job!"

    Never failed to crack me up.

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    1. Oh man, I'm going about this thing all wrong. Tomorrow I'm waking Anaiah up and telling her to do her business. Get that work ethic pumped up nice and early.

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  2. I love the Logo! Your description of the steps you went through made me laugh, about what I do while trying out a new project!

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    1. Oh man, and it was even so much worse than that. Hello, learning curve!

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