A Tour of The Crayon Box

I've decided to come shake the cobwebs off the good old Salmagundi. I'm not sure how many more uses it will have but for the moment a blog seems to be much handier than email.

About a month ago Courto and I moved to the Old Northside with two other girlie whos and some of you have not seen pictures of our new abode yet. This is a problem, because it really is a lovely place. We have affectionately dubbed it The Crayon Box for reasons you will soon discover on our little tour.

Home Sweet Home

A view from our side of the duplex

Our back porch

Our lovely front porch

A view from the porch of our corner, we like to keep track of what is going on in the neighborhood.

We spend a lot of time relaxing out here

Entryway

The parlor

If you stop by in the afternoon, we could share a spot of tea in here.

Our little purposeless nook, except perhaps for tying your shoes.

The dining room

This handy pull out door separates the dining and living rooms.

The living room

Our little butler pantry which we discovered serves as a nice buffet line.

The kitchen, the door goes out to the back porch.

The stairs to get to the basement are hiding in the back right corner of the kitchen. I neglected to take pictures this time around.

This view of the main floor from the parlor is what inspired the name of our abode - The Crayon Box - it's got all your basic colors, in variations.

Going up to the second floor from the dining room.

Courto's room

Her new desk from Grandma & Grandpa

And her spanking new Amish bedroom furniture

The slave stairs come up to the second floor from the kitchen.

Second floor hallway, linen closet on the left, slave stairs right after that and then Courto & Brianne's bathroom.

Second floor hallway, stairs going up to third floor.

My little reading nook, free of my room's wonderful distractions. The door goes over to the other side of the duplex.

Danielle and I's bathroom

Although this bathroom is smaller than the other, I like it much better because of features like this brick wall.

The door to the left of my chair goes into an attic storage room.

My bedroom

There is still a bit more unpacking to do and more pictures to hang but we are pretty well settled in and thoroughly enjoying our downtown accommodations!

"Cheese, Gromit!!"

Last week I had a little Wallace & Gromit party. And guess what? I actually took a few pictures with people in them! I thought you all would appreciate that. But first, a picture of the appropriately decorated "chalkboard" is necessary to set the scene:

And a close up of the food is also quite important.

Whenever you watch Wallace & Gromit it is absolutely essential to eat crackers and cheese and sip some good English tea. Grandma, do you recognize your milk glass? They worked perfectly for my little party! Thanks for passing them along.

Getting a candid snap - Danielle and Lauralee - friends from Redeemer and good old Courto.

And a lovely posed photo. I think Danielle M. was too busy thinking heavenly thoughts about her English tea to look at the camera.

Round Two for Epiphany

Some of you may remember that last year I made a personal discovery of a long standing holiday - the Feast of the Epiphany. Well guess what? Another year has passed and today we were bequeathed yet another Feast of the Epiphany! Last year, due to the shortness between discovery and holiday, my celebration was very small. I was determined to have a grand celebration this year but I had a bit of an epiphany today: I am a big procrastinator! Well... this really wasn't much of an epiphany but my procrastination did most certainly affect my preparedness. However, I am making progress toward my grand Epiphany celebration! For starters: This year I had four guests, an Epiphany greeting and a properly made King's cake.

Still Estivating... Check Back In 2011

In June this blog unknowingly began its estivation in cyberspace junkyard and it missed the fact that its estivation had expired when autumn set in on September 22 and then doubly expired yesterday on the first of winter.

I'm now trying to summon it back home but it may take a few days, maybe a week or two. I should probably just wait for the new year to start to make sure it's really sick of its extended stay in the cyberspace junkyard.

Just thought I'd let whoever is still out there know I'm trying.

Happy National Doughnut Day!

While at the dentist this morning I was browsing through the newspaper and discovered that today is National Doughnut Day which means... you can pay a visit to Krispie Kreme and get a free doughnut. Dunkin Donuts is also giving out free donuts however you have to by a beverage to get it. And who knows what local bakeries are doing it too!

Portfolio Has Sapped Me Of All Motivation!

That's my excuse at least! I'm trying to work on school but I have really been lacking motivation this week! And just a few minutes ago I found an entirely new way to waste time while trying to write a paper. (That's right - I'm writing a paper - one of 2 or 3 of my entire graphic design education!) Anyway, here's the new distraction I discovered: The Puppy Shuffle!

Journey Behind The Journey

Friday April 16th, 2010 was a big day for me. It was the culmination of 100+ hours (possibly 200+) and a bunch of dollars that were used to produce one little book with a big purpose. The book is my portfolio, the purpose is to attain a job in graphic design! I shouldn't say all those hours and dollars were only put toward one little book. Along with my portfolio, I produced a resume, business card, envelope, leave behind and website. Here's a little sampling of the work I did:

Portfolio Cover

Leave Behind Cover

Business Card - Front Side

Although everything you see looks fairly simplistic, it was anything but that! I started working on all these things a couple of months ago but the majority of the work was done in the last couple of weeks - mostly the last week. On Monday the 5th, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and not very hopeful that I would be able to get done what was needed.

Things began to change dramatically after Grandma prayed for me and encouraged me to stop, pray and then get a fresh start on my day. All of my work did not magically disappear nor were solutions to my projects instantly popping into my brain and getting translated onto my computer. What changed at that time was my attitude. I was no longer overcome with worry about finishing my work and instead was able to think optimistically about it.

In this past week I've been averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night and about 15 hours of school work a day. I got pretty tired and a little cranky at times but for the most part I was energized, alert, able to focus on one thing at time and have a positive attitude.

On Thursday afternoon I was feeling pretty exhausted and starting to wonder if I would get everything done. While I had hoped to have my portfolio printed and assembled by the last weekend, it didn't happen until Thursday afternoon. Of course, mistakes immediately popped off of the printed page. However, cost and time prevented me from making corrections and reprinting. I have never created a book before and that was my next task. Things eventually got wrapped up around 11:00pm. I wasn't overly excited about my portfolio, business cards and resume but consoled myself with the realization that worse things can happen than my work not looking as good as I'd like, my website not being up and running when I'd like and my portfolio presentation not going as well as I'd hope for.

I managed to get about 6 hours of sleep on Thursday night, woke up to a breakfast made by Courtney on Friday morning and arrived at school in plenty of time. I had everything I needed but was a little disappointed with it. Nonetheless, when the presentations began at 9:00, I was able to talk fairly confidently about my work. I wasn't nervous or tired as I had expected and despite the mistakes I saw in my work, I think it was received pretty well by the reviewers.

I know there were many people praying for me during this process because I most certainly noticed! If you were one of those people, thank you so very much for taking the time to do so!

It was so nice to be able to relax after the presentation was done! Mom and I got to go out for supper at a new (for us) restaurant - The Bosphorus Cafe, enjoy coffee at Calvin Fletcher Coffee Co. and watch Alex & Emma. Overall, it was a fantastic day!