Big News!

After five years (in May) of dating, Gannon and I are engaged! We began discussing getting married about two months ago (boy was it difficult keeping that under wraps!) and on Friday evening, after a dinner of frozen pizza and red wine, Gannon surprised me with my ring :) In case you're a little underwhelmed with my version of the story, here's Gannon's version:

So there Jen and I were, waterskiing down the Suez Canal on the backs of sharks, when an orca whale tossed us thirty feet into the air. At the top of our arc, staring down into the maw, I slipped a ring on her finger and whispered, "Shit just got real."

And now for the part I know anyone really cares about (and why it took us two months to tell anyone), ring pictures. These were taken with my camera phone, which explains why this post is occurring two days after, instead of three months!

I don't think Gannon could've had a more perfect ring made for me. I love that the sapphire changes color (blue in natural light, purple in artificial) depending on the lighting, I love the brushed gold (no shiny rings for this lady!), and I love the round setting! <3

I can't wait to start planning, okay so maybe I've already started pinning away, haha. We haven't set a date, but it'll definitely be 12-18 more months before we tie the knot. It's been 5, what's one more year anyways?

(Belated) Christmas Images

I'm behind the times. Here's a stream of Christmas morning pictures... Real blog posts coming soon, I promise ;)

I made candles as gifts this year. Orange & Clove or Basil & Lime.

I made a TON of Rosemary Sugar Cookies to give as gifts, take to parties, etc. I skip rolling them in sugar and add about half a lemon's zest.

Also made some confetti streamers to go with the Christmas bunting I made last year.

A Few Summer Images

Things have been crazy busy this summer! Gannon and I moved to Downtown Durham (in love with our new apartment & neighborhood, pictures eventually) a few weeks ago and I've been spending a lot of free time packing, getting rid of things, and then unpacking! Here's a random assortment of pictures from the last few months. For some reason, I haven't taken many pictures of anything this summer. I think I've been feeling a bit burnt-out on shooting stuff.

Dear Facebook, it's not you, it's me...

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I'm back! Today I'd like to share with you the reasons why I'm deleting my Facebook account...

In an effort to further simplify my life, I've decided its time to part ways with Facebook. It was fun while I was in college, but now it's devolved into a half-assed attempt at procrastination. Lately I've found my News Feed brings out 1 of 2 reactions from me:

1: I DON'T CARE
2: Miss Snarky McSnarkerson

Sometimes I really do care what my friends and family have to say/ what pictures they post but most times no one shares much of anything worth interest anymore. What used to be conversations or things sparking conversations, has turned into Application requests or silence. I'm hoping that by deleting my account, it will force me to try harder in interacting with my friends and family (and hopefully they'll reciprocate).

I have plenty of other websites to occupy my time (Hello Pinterest!) . It's time to say Farewell Facebook!

Wedding Invitation Line Sneak Peek!

With Curious Mustard, I want to offer typical graphic design services, but I also want to offer stationery design services. Currently, my for me project is developing both a small wedding invitation line and a notecard line to sell in an online shop. I have always loved greeting cards, notecards, personal stationery invitations, and heck, even post-it/todo notepads (though I am the world's worst list-maker). Working on these lines has been my oasis, as I try to find a good balance between my 9-5 job, my current freelance project (logo + website design), and legitimizing Curious Mustard.



Right now I plan to offer 6 pre-made wedding designs, and a set of 3-5 notecard designs (changing these every 4 months or so). I can't wait until I'm all finished with designs and mocking them up, so that I can share them on here!