chimesblog

This week’s humpday blog love goes to my friend Adria, who ironically thinks I’m mad at her because I haven’t had a chance to talk to her for a couple weeks. But no, I am not! And I realized my blog love post was about her blog this week (I schedule them all in advance) — so I’ve edited to include this blurb!

Anyway, my friend Adria and I go way back — all the way to 7th grade when she came to my school. That’s right. MY school.

Adria is SUPER crafty and she’s the one that got me into quilting and sewing last year.  She and I also went through terrible breakups at about this time last year and are both with fabulous men currently. She also has a weiner dog … well, he’s a chiweenie-min pin mix — McGruff!

Here are some of the fabulous things she makes … I’m lucky enough to get a lot of her fabric scraps, which is how I’ve made such lovely things on the cheap.

So you should probably go check her out, and leave her some lovin’!

This week’s Humpday Blog love goes to my friend Steph Hertel’s Turtle Soup blog.  Don’t confuse her with the yodeling sensation, Stefanie Hertel.

I don’t even know where to start! Steph is pretty much the perfected version of what I do at my blog … she makes things … creates things … designs things … bakes things … and is pretty amazing at it.  I met Stephanie through ISU’s graphic design program — and she is extremely talented.  She works for Hallmark, which is the most coveted job in our field (or at least in my eyes anyway!)

Here’s a random smattering of lovely things that Steph has created and blogged about … you should go check her out, and don’t forget to leave her some love!

Lovely tote bag Steph created a while back

Um, YUM. Peanut butter cup cookies! Oh yes — and she shares recipes as well.

Lovely Zucchini pasta

Seriously — she is a jack of all trades! Adorable felt flower pin …

Here’s a closeup of an adorable onesie she made

Here’s a little taste of some of her great design skills … an invite for her annual cookie party and what I’m guessing is the lovely packaging she created to go with it.

And … a beautiful quilt.

You must take 5 minutes and check her out! Definitely worth it, unless you don’t like looking at well-designed and yummy things. Then … um … why are you here?

This week’s Blog Love goes to my friend Steph for her blog 33% Disaster.

Steph is a web designer at a local company and does a lot of photography on the side. She’s also getting married to a wonderful guy next May and I’m going to be a bridesmaid in her wedding (all after she got the schpeel about me not wanting to be anybody’s bridesmaid).

Steph writes about lots of things going on in her life and mind. Recently she’s done a lot of book reviews and movie reviews.

She’s also keeping a tumblr blog for her wedding inspiration.  Go over and check her out … and leave some love!

Love goes to Des Moines local Cara Hall this week and her ironically titled blog, Failed Feminist.

I met Cara last year through Craft Saturday in Des Moines. In her own words, Cara “is a writer in Des Moines, Iowa (which is cooler than you think). And as much as she never expected to, she loves all things Martha. Just try to pry the knitting needles out of her hands. She’s always trying new recipes and DIY projects, and she hopes you’ll try them too. She’s also always working on herself, and there is oh so much work to do.”

I read Cara’s blog for her crafty updates, her dog photos and commentary, but mostly for her recipes. One of my favorites is inside out egg rolls, which is pictured in the screenshot above.

So, check her out. She’s also a fellow Des Moines Register Featured Blogger.

This week’s installment of Humpday Blog Love is dedicated to Designing Daily, a blog about creativity, inspiration and design’s impact on everyday life. Heidi Miller is the author of this blog.  She’s a fabulous designer and photographer that loves great design, pretty things and has, if I do say so myself, fabulous taste.

I met Heidi in college — she was a fellow ISU design student and we graduated the same year. She lives in the Twin Cities now and just launched Verde Utopia Design. Below is a photo of hers (she took the above as well) and a couple of her fabulous invite designs.

Check out her blog to keep up to date with great design and to get a little sunshine while you’re at it.

This week’s featured blog is look a little closer.  My friend Kim who lives in NYC is the author of this blog. She’s an artist, a volunteer and an all-around amazing person. We’ve collaborated on some album artwork a couple of times.

I met Kim back in 2002 at Wartburg College. We bonded over not wanting to be at Wartburg and both having less-than-ideal roommate experiences and the need to get out and experience something else. Kim went to Iowa and I went to ISU. She ended up in NYC and I haven’t seen her for years.

But, we keep in contact and I actually helped her build her website and her blog.

Kim writes about all sorts of interesting things. Mostly, she finds beauty in unexpected places and finds a way to brighten everybody’s day.

One of her cute little bunnies that she posted all over the city to remind people that somebody loves them.

Her adorable, but mischievous kitty, Lavi.

And one of her beautiful paintings.

You should check her out!

I spent the whole weekend in Ames since it was graduation weekend and the BF FINALLY graduated. We went out Friday AND Saturday. I managed to squeeze in an hour-long run/walk yesterday while he was doing the big graduation ceremony (I didn’t go since I couldn’t sit for that long)…and we went to Applebee’s with his family for supper (mmmmmm huge ass apple walnut salad!)…and then we watched StepBrothers until super late last night. I got up early today but wasn’t very productive at all (it’s after 7 PM!!). 

First, I spent most of my morning putting together a 5K training plan for one of my BFFs, Adria. I convinced her to run a 5K with me in September or October and she’s up for it. Updates on that will follow.  I’m finishing up the program and will be hopefully sending it to her tonight so she can start on it.

Secondly — the obvious — I spent most of my afternoon moving my blog (formerly runningchimes.wordpress.com) here and doing a quickie design that will suffice for now until I get time to do a real design and redo my portfolio. I’ve been paying $10 a month for this domain, I might as well get SOME use out of it!

Finally, I spent a lot of the evening listing some things on my etsy store, re-figuring some prices and retagging some items. I’ve got quite a bit of design up. My store got some traffic the other day when I posted that black prom dress that I’ve decided I’ll never be able to squeeze into.

Unrelated: I had decided not to work out today, but then re-decided that I should. AND if I do, I get to eat the ice cream that I have in the freezer. Don’t worry — it’s just a single serving. I plan to do a half hour of biking since I haven’t biked for a while and then some strength training and stretches. Maybe 45 minutes of biking. We’ll see. I plan to go at 8 PM. That’s later than usual, but I’ve got a new rule: something is better than nothing!  I have a hard time working out late, but I figure biking easy for 30 minutes is better than sitting on my ass for 30 more minutes. 

Anyway, that is all. I shall be posting more crafty stuff hopefully and more running stuff. I need to take some photos of my crafts and post them here, facebook and on etsy. Also, I’m going to probably start using the nike+ again this week since I can run 1 mile consecutively. I’d like to know what my pace is…just for s&g’s.

Finally: Shout out to PerpetualSpiral (whose real name I don’t know…which I feel bad b/c she’s pretty awesome) — fellow craftster and twitterer.  She’s always got some kind words and praise for me!  Yay for tweeps that I’ve never met in real life.

Today was a very exciting day for a few reasons.

1) I finally got internet/cable. I’ll be damned if I can figure out how to hook up the cable with all my gadgets (Wii and DVD player).  I’m sure I could figure it out…except I’d have to be able to see what was going on behind the TV but I can’t move the entertainment center/TV (TV weighs about as much as I do).

2) I’m finishing my very first PAID freelance job. Working on the final touches right now and putting together an invoice. This is pretty exciting considering it might lead to more paid freelance work AND this client was pretty easy to work with.

3) My coworker bought us some gifts over lunch today…

My friend Niki had a blog post about ugly websites on  the Design O’Blog that prompted me to send her the link to my fugly website from a LONG time ago. Ironically, creating that site was what made me interested in graphic design. I figured out how to work the programs…but apparently not how to design.

Here’s her ugly website.

She created it just for her own entertainment and to write the blog post, fortunately. She knows better than that.

Anyway, my ugly website was originally hosted at www.geocities.com/sparkyz_kitten.  I sent Niki the link to my site and immediately exceeded my hourly bandwidth limit (with like 2 views)…so I had to move it to my own personal site. Awesome.

Anyway, without further ado…here’s my ugly website.

Here are some screenies.

My friend Niki (and Nike+ challenger) has got a really cool blog going with all her running info in it.

You can check it out at:
http://www.26miles385yards.com/