things i like [a lot]

This is everything that I love as of January through March. They are not in any order of importance or value, just put together. From left to right, top to bottom:

|1. This is a photo that I just really, really love. I'm not sure why - I think it just looks so beautiful.
| 2. José Villa...
| 3. Andrew Lyman, who is a really impressive artist that I went to SCAD summer seminars with, painted this...
| 4. Orangette
| 5. Garance Doré - fashion illustrator/photographer... and she's French. :)
| 6. Dan-Ah Kim
| 7. The Sartorialist, oh yes.
| 8. Simply Stardust - lifestyle blog, you might say.
| 9. Bones, we love Bones. Anthropologically speaking....
| 10. Fantastic Mr. Fox - possibly my favorite movie of all time. Isn't that crazy?
| 11. Pier Pressure - a photo project by Ibán Ramón
| 12. Another favorite image...
| 13. The Sartorialist, again, he gets a double honor here.
| 14. Missed Connections
| 15. Shakespeare - I started my lit section on Shakespeare and I'm loving it. Never thought I would like Shakespeare, either...
| 16. Anthropologie
| 17. Northern Exposure... So funny. It's feels like Scrubs & Arrested Development & Napoleon Dynamite mixed together and set in Alaska.
| 18. Nirrimi Joy, who makes me kind of jealous.
| 19. Coldplay, which is pretty much always a like...
| 20. Hollie Chastain - makes paper art from old books, etc.
| 21. Jim & Pam / The Office. "Jam" is my favorite TV or movie romance besides Elizabeth & Darcy. Hands down.

Sheesh, that took forever. :) Enjoy.

wallpapery

So I got a bit bored tonight. I'm sure I had some more important things to be doing with my time (like finishing some homework exams, considering I have [insert really large number here] left to do before graduating...). Anyway, I started playing on Illustrator because the last desktop I made was from February. O.O I'm a naughty graphic artist, yes.

Here is what I came up with... First I started really simple. Meet Miss Dots:



Then I started playing with some symbols (which are just like vectors or something, I'm not really sure what the definition is, but Illustrator comes with dozens...)



And then I brought out the whole army. o.o CLICK TO ENLARGE, s'il vous plaît!



So I hope you enjoy. Use whichever you like, please don't deface them, and that's about it. :) I want to just disclaim for a minute, though: I didn't create a single stitch of any of these graphics that were used to make the graphics. XD These are all Illustrator symbol packs/brushes. All I did was arrange, color & then I edited the last one in Photoshop to make it look a little cooler.

I think I may soon make something a little more... shall we say, pretty? Yes.

On a random thought, eating a Butter Pecan ice cream cone is perilous. This is because I always want to eat the praline and so I take these precarious bites about of the cone, which for one, makes the whole thing disappear more quickly, for another it hurts my teeth, and for a third, it then gives me a bit of brain freeze. Those darn pralines.

Another random thought: I'm going to SCAD in just a week! Wow. I'm a little scared, I think... :P

I think I've been sitting here for about four hours straight (like I haven't even gotten up?), and I also don't think I've been breathing properly. For no good reason, I just do that sometimes, I breathe really shallow. I bet you can't even hear me if you tried to listen to me breathe, you know, in person (which would be odd, I know) and some people might think I was a zombie or something.

So now I'm going to go to bed.

Ttyl,
- caroline

P.S. Next time I post (you know, when there will be hovercrafts and such) I will have learned how to say goodnight in French! Though I have a hunch that it's like "bonsoir," or something.

holiday wallpaper #2

[Click to enlarge. I hope it fits most screens with one option or another...]

Holiday wallpaper #2. Feel free to use it if you like it. Photography & graphics by me.

the sniffles

Hi there!

Yesterday I rearranged my room. Again. To work with I have a desk, a bed, a couch, a trunk, a dresser, and a chair with a printer on it. In a very small space. So far I've arranged it in several different ways, but this one is brand spankin' new. Anyway... Thought I'd share that with you.


[ this is a bottle on a wire. it's orange and it has a little plaque on the wire that says "creativity." thought it was a cool way to edit it... ]

I'm also sick... Always seem to get a cold/sore throat in early to mid December. I usually can evade the silly illness all year long, until *kerplunk* December comes around.



I have made one of my two holiday wallpapers, though... See what you think...


[ obviously, click to eeeeenlarge.]

This is one of my all-time favorite songs, it's so hilarious. You're all welcome to use it if you feel compelled. :)

Oh, yeah, and I drew everything *but* the Dr. Seuss font/song title in Photoshop with my lovely Wacom pen tablet.



*sniffle/cough/sniffle*

I think I'm going to go watch Robin Hood. It's been pretty good so far, we've watched a few episodes of the first season, and now we've started the second season, because it seems more interesting. :)

jiminy crispies!

A parcel of absolutely loveliness arrived in the post, via a burly brown UPS truck.

Want to guess what it ... *voices rises to a squeak* ... was!??

Adobe Design Suite CS Flippin' 4!







*gaspchokedie*

I started using Photoshop by the equal influences of my sister, Sara, and my online RPG addiction. She learned how to use it in her photography classes in college and when we would help her in her studio a few years later (2003, I think), she taught me how to do some simple things. I honestly can't remember, but I don't think I was terribly enthusiastic at the time. I think we were using Photoshop 5 or so then.

At the same time, I was doing Harry Potter roleplaying online, writing like a crazy girl. On those forums, they always have all of these generic avatars and signatures, that they just pass around and find free on sites. However, when I switched my roleplaying site, the new site, MH, had a quantity of Photoshop users, who would make custom signatures with models that represented our characters. It was so fun to personalize each character that one day I sat down on Sara's horrible, large, chunky black PC and conjured up my very own signature, using Ashlee Simpson as my model.



There it is. I just logged into my ridiculously old Photobucket account and found it.

I personally think that it was a good try for my first creation. I guess it was an omen of sorts. After that, I used Photoshop all the time. I downloaded it our family PC and trucked away at it, from . Five years later I can use Photoshop, as well as Illustrator, have made graphics for a band, Chamber of Commerce, realty, a small newspaper, an ad booklet, the Green Bean Coffee Cafe, three different websites for the Green Bean, a website for KC Elrod Photography, and of course, graphics, photography and photo editing for Sara Wise Photography, in which I am a company partner (of sorts). I went from the really old, beige, whirring PC, to a pretty white iMac named Johnny, to my new iMac, the silver & black beauty named Ernie. I've had Photoshop 7, CS, CS2 and now...

CS4.

And that is my story. Kind of like a rags-to-riches thing. Lol, it's so epic written down.

Say goodbye to the crappy, old, slightly not-so-legitimate Creative Suite 2... *waves*



Btw, want to know something really awesome?

I got that whole suite, which consists of about 9 different programs (which I intend to learn and use to their greatest potential), for $600. "What?!" I hear you say, "I thought Photoshop cost thousands!" Well, you're kind of right. I was eligible for the educational discount from Academic Superstore.

Buying it straight from Adobe, with no discounts, just Photoshop is $699. The whole Design Suite is $1799. I saved eleven hundred dollars.

So, anyways, isn't that awesome...

peace out,
caroline

p.s. i promise i'm not bragging, peeps. ;-]

youth shirt design

I finally finished the Youth Shirt Design for Jeremy and the youth group. I think I like how the end product turned out. :)

(click to enlarge. this little JPEG looks absolutely hideous. I do abhore web-resized images.)