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!

Baggu bags

I loooove Baggu bags. I have a few of the classic reusable bags, and one of the duck bags, that I use as an everyday tote bag. The classic bags are great for shopping trips, they can hold around 2-3 grocery bag's worth of goodies, up to 50 pounds. I've been trying to remember to use them when shopping for other things as well, like Target runs, mall trips, or bookstore visits. I'd love to buy more of the classic bags (look at all the fun colors they offer!), but I never buy more than 2 bags worth of stuff in any trip, so I won't *sigh*. However, I'll keep them in mind for stocking stuffers for the holiday season :)

For spring they have a line called Shabd Totes, which are beautiful tie-dyed back packs, and duck bags. I really want one (maybe a back pack, since I have a duck bag), the problem is, which color do I choose? :)

all images from www.baggubag.com

Curious Mustard: Identity System

In between projects and my 9-5 design job, I've been slowly working to develop my freelancing business. The first obstacle was creating a name. After one false start, Curious Mustard is the name I've chosen, and the one I'm sticking with, gosh darn it :) I began by writing down a long list of words and adjectives I liked, from there I made pairs from different words off my list, and finally arrived at Curious Mustard. I wanted a name that was short and sweet, quirky, and most importantly, available!

So far, I've been working on the fun stuff: identity system, projects, Etsy shop, website, but now its time to work on the business-y stuff: obtaining a license, filing for a Doing Business As (since sadly, Curious Mustard is not my real name), and creating pricing guidelines. When books and blogs talk about how much time you spend on non-design stuff, they aren't joking around!

A bit more about my current identity system:

logo: of course it's going to be mustard! I wanted to create something sweet and simple, since this is the basis of my design "style." I also wanted something that could look professional yet playful, depending on its application.

pattern: I decided to pair a simple grey grid pattern with my logo, to add more visual interest to the system. It will be carried over to my website (and is already used on here and Twitter!)

I thought it would be fun to put my logo and/or pattern on various items beyond my business card and letterhead: mini Moleskines, buttons, stickers, and various envelopes. All of the items above (except for the sticker and buttons) were screenprinted using my Gocco and custom mixing a mustard yellow.



I got my Gocco for Christmas and used that to print my logo on the various items. It worked beautifully on everything except my business cards. I think from now on, I'll use a custom rubber stamp instead of gocco'ing everything, it will be more cost effective. It was fun to experiment though!

Recently Watched: Never Let Me Go

A few nights ago, Gannon and I watched Never Let Me Go. I read the novel of the same name, by Kazuo Ishiguro, a couple of years ago and was not impressed. At the time, I thought the plot would make a great movie, I just didn't particularly like his writing style. According to a Newsweek review of the movie, he tries to write in a way that would make his novels "unfilmable", however I think the film version was excellent, much better than the book.

I'm not a huge Kiera Knightly fan, but her scrunchy features were perfect for portraying a jealous and selfish Ruth. I am, however, a big fan of Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield, and I thought they were adorable :) I would recommend this film to someone looking to watch a beautiful, quiet, and haunting movie.

Currently Reading

I recently ordered a few books on freelancing from Amazon, Creative Inc by Joy Cho & Meg Mateo Ilasco, Craft Inc Business Planner by Meg Mateo Ilasco, and the Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.




Creative Inc. seems to be both helpful and inspiring, featuring lots of Q&A with freelancers in variety of creative fields. I haven't finished reading it, but so far I am enjoying it! Craft Inc. Business Planner is mostly what it's name implies, a planner to help you go through the steps of starting your own crafty (or in my case design) business while keeping you organized and on track. The Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines is mostly for reference. It covers all the bases of various design and illustrator roles, from pricing to sample contracts.

Linda & Harriett

Yesterday when I got home two packages were waiting at my door. I only expected one package, so the other left me stumped.



The package I was expecting was stationery from Linda & Harriett. I ordered a bunch of stationery, some for myself and some to hang on to for when I need a cute gift item (I didn't photograph these!). Everything is letterpressed and adorable. I love the boxes and personalized pink pencils. When someone puts effort into packaging and adds something extra (or simply includes a personal note) it makes me want to buy more things from them (I should remember this for my own items)! Linda & Harriett still have some Outlet items available, you should definitely check them out!


The mystery package was a WUNC/NPR mug! Last Fall I enrolled in the "Sustaining Donor" program and requested a mug as my gift. Finally, about 5 months later, it arrived! WUNC had some sort of mix-up at the time of my donation and basically my request was in internet limbo for awhile. I'm just happy it arrived finally :) I love NPR!

Eye Candy

Sometimes you just need to look at adorable movie stars. All images from here.

Currently Reading: Eating Animals

If you enjoy eating meat, and don’t want to think about the conditions animals face in factory farms, don’t read this book.

I resisted buying this book for two years because I was disappointed that one of my favorite authors hadn’t written another fiction novel. I finally bought it last week at the bookstore on campus (it was 9$!) after UNC and Duke both announced it as their summer reading selections.

I like to read the reviews at the beginning of books and honestly, when I read Natalie Portman’s review in the front I chuckled. So what if a celebrity was moved to give this book to all of her loved ones?

Currently, I’m 75% of the way through, and I feel guilty for chuckling. I find myself questioning whether or not I should eat meat. I’ve even discussed it with Gannon, asking him to read it after me. After we both read it, we’ll talk about how and if we should change our eating habits.

This book is very hard for me to read, because it makes me feel guilty and a little hopeless. I think he has very powerful and personal messages throughout, and I don’t think I will be able to finish it and not change the way I eat.

Chocolate Caramel Torte (Happy Birthday to Me!)

One of the great things about life post-college is having time and funds to pursue hobbies. I say pursue because I'm kind of infamous (okay, maybe only among my family) for picking up new "hobbies" and not following through. One hobby I've stuck with so far is baking.

Recent baking adventures include a monthly devotional to matcha. I made matcha cupcakes in January (for the boyfriend's birthday) and matcha sugar cookies in February. I postponed matcha bakings in March for my birthday (I plan to resume in April by trying to make a matcha pie crust!).

I originally wanted to make cupcakes, something chocolate-y. When scouring recipes on the internet, I found this recipe. I've never made a torte, but this one was similar to a pie, minus baking the filling.



Obviously from my pictures I left off the salt. FOR BACON. If you're a fan of bacon and a fan of chocolate yet still wrinkling up your nose, fear not. The combination is incredible, and I'm sadly not the first to discover it. The first time I had chocolate + bacon was at a local German restaurant, J.Beski's. They serve an amazing chocolate cake topped with crumbled bacon. The other time I've had it was a Mo's Bacon Bar. Yum!

It was a fairly easy process, minus a little dough mishap. In the past, with making pies, I've only used one recipe, from this book. It always turns out beautifully. When making the torte dough, I remember thinking "this can't be enough liquid." For me, the crust was too dry, and when it came time to roll it out, it broke apart. No worries though, I just rubbed some more butter and a little water into the cracks, and patched it back up :) Next time (if I ever make it again) I'd like to add cocoa to Alice Waters' dough recipe to see the difference.

The torte was amazing (still is, I have leftovers!), maybe the best thing I've made thus far. Definitely tastes yummy paired with some of Gannon's homebrewed Hefeweizen!

Zoo Times

Here are some pictures from this past weekend: