June 9, 2008 Grace in Chicago.

I’m finally just now sharing photos that I took on my trip to Chicago this past Memorial Day weekend. I went to help Joy photograph a wedding (and I’ll be sharing those photos in a post later this week). The wedding was fun, but I had a great time just trekking around downtown Chicago and visiting with Joy’s family.

I took a red-eye flight so I actually got into Chicago Midway early the next morning. On the way to Joy’s house, I caught this Illinois sunrise.

When we got to her home, there was a rainbow waiting for us.

Precious Cadence let me sleep in her room during my stay. She left me a note of welcome.

I got a taste of what it’s like to be a mother of three young ones. Oy vey. Haha.

After being in the Chicago area for CHA the last three years, I finally had the opportunity to actually go into downtown and tour. Here are just a few flowers that lined Michigan Ave.

Of course I took a photo of the Apple store. Of course I did.

Tourist central: The Water Tower Place.

Joy with her Aunt who was kind enough to act as our guide. She was super fun.

Joy is laughing at me about something, but I forgot what about.

My craving for Thai food and sushi was satisfied. Yum.

And my fortune. I concur.

I didn’t get a chance to visit with other friends while in Chicago, but I hope I get a chance to when I visit again in July! What?! Yup, I’m coming back for more wedding fun. Yay, I can’t wait!

June 6, 2008 Grace’s Love List - 6/6

• I always enjoy visiting Google’s homepage when holidays or days of interest come around. And the Doodle 4 Google exhibit imagines the Google logo redesigned by kids. Interesting.
• Are you a camera nut? I am. And these lens bracelets from re:vision are especially sweet. Too pricey for me, but I can dream.
• What color personality are you? If you’re curious, play the Voice of Color game to discover what color personality you are. Me? I’m water beads and pop art.

• What is it with me and piles of paper? Little pieces of paper continue to fascinate me. And here’s a nice collection from Three Potato Four. I should start putting together my own piles of paper to send. Would anyone really want a piece of paper that used to be an old receipt? Hmmm…
• Yes! Make Magazine (sister mag to Craft Magazine) has come out with their much anticipated Maker’s Notebook. I finished with a degree in Genetics in college, so you can bet that I interned as a lab rat during my last years. And I remember filling out lab research books to list out my experiments and their results. The Maker’s Notebook reminds me of that. This notebook is perfect for designers.
• I am in love with Duffy. Downloaded Rockferry from iTunes and I’ve had it playing almost nonstop. She reminds me of a more mellow Amy Winehouse, with an age-old sound but more poppy. The album is great for rainy days, but also for sunny days - it’s that diverse. Golden. Sweet. Lovely.

SOAP OPERAS ARE FASCINATING
I’ve never really watched soap operas. They always seemed kinda silly to me. But since I’ve been home sick these last two days, I’ve done nothing but watch them. Oh, my. I don’t want to be addicted, but I think it’s too late.

So my family and I are celebrating my grandfather’s 95th birthday on Saturday. Woah. And it’s a baby celebration for my friend Lizz on Sunday. And in between I’ll be creating and taking photos and blog designing. Joy.

Have a great weekend!

June 5, 2008 Clean slate.

A new year. A new blog design. A new Grace. Here we go.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
I celebrated my birthday this past Sunday with the best people in the world: my family and friends. The party started early Saturday evening and we did a countdown to midnight. So much fun. I felt incredibly loved and so lucky with the people in my life. We had food cooked by my brother, an awesome guava cake, an ample supply of spirits, and Rock Band. I couldn’t have asked for more than that.

Here are a few pics from that night:

Archie, getting the party started.

Celebrating Melinda’s 30th birthday, which was the Thursday before.

With my roommates from college. We saw SATC the night before and continued the party.

Everyone playing Rock Band. It’s so freakin’ addictive.

I’m sure I’m saying something truly riveting…

The spirits. And there was more in the ice box in the garage. Oy.

And a game of Texas Hold’Em. I don’t play, but I love to watch.

Can you find birthday Grace?

A photo of just a few of the birthday cards I received. Love them all and I’m going to scrap them soon.

Thanks to my Dad for making sure I was a girl, to my Mom for doing most of the hard work, to my brother for being my hero, and to all my friends for keeping me theirs and loving me unconditionally.

CHANGES
So you like the new blog design? Goodness, there are still massive additions I need to make, but at least I got the foundation of this blog design down. There are a lot of pages that will remain under construction through the weekend, so I hope you come back to visit to see the changes.

HOME SICK
Ugh. I’ve got a head cold that I can’t shake off. So I’m sick in bed and messing around with my blog design. I need to finish a few designs tonight. Art therapy - there’s nothing quite like it.

May 30, 2008 Grace’s Love List - 5/30

Here’s the last Love List for May! Yay!

• There’s a trend right now for screen savers that act as clocks - digital, analog, and everything in between. The hot one right now is Simon Heys’ World Clock, listing out the time in type. But I found this design by Jesson Yip which I like a lot. I like how the numbers mesh into each other, reminding me that time really is fleeting. The screen saver won’t be available until June, but until then check out his page.
• I love free vectors. I love free vectors that are designed well. And I found some really brilliant designs from DaPino-Colada. I suggest visiting their site often; they update frequently. Score!
• Logos Logos does the kind of math I enjoy. They’ve put together a series of equations that add up to popular logo designs. I like following these equations because they’re fun to figure out. I love how smart this funny site is.

• The office supply geek in me is one happy girl. Found these Sheer Post Its from 3M. Where were these when I was in college?
• Totally freakin’ cool. A watch face that looks like a cassette tape. This is a really great grad gift. It’s graduation season right now and I think this will be a great gift for my cousin. Or, ya know, I might just keep this for myself.
• Some people just have too much time on their hands. I’m glad this guy is one of them. Flickr artist Icedsoul has put together a photo set of his four Star Wars Troopers in funny/hair-raising/thoughtful/interesting situations. Called Troopies365, he’s taking a photo-a-day for the next year and sharing with us the adventures of his beloved Troopies.

And now -for the first time ever- a bonus to the Love List which I’ll call Heart Taps. Heart Taps are additions to the Grace Love Lists that are just too good, too brilliant, too awesome that they need a special-special mention.

This Heart Tap give props to hulu.com for making available the full length movie of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party. This docu-concert movie is one of my top 10 favorites; it’s that good. This documentary follows comedian Dave Chappelle as he puts together a once-in-a-lifetime concert in Brooklyn in the Fall of 2004. Released in early 2006, it became one of the most well-received movies of the year. But don’t take my word for it. Carve yourself about two hours of time to watch the movie. It’ll leave you with that warm, good feeling inside.

BIG PLANS THIS WEEKEND
I’ve got a certain milestone birthday to celebrate on Sunday. I need to do some random acts of craziness before then so that I can cross them off my “things-to-do-before-I-hit-30″ list. I’ll be out with the girls tonight to watch SATC. And I’ll pretty much be content.

Have a great weekend!

May 23, 2008 Grace’s Love List - 5/23

• If you’ve ever wanted to learn the keyboard shortcuts to Photoshop and other Mac apps, visit Photojojo’s store and order yourself a keyboard shortcut skin. I’ve already ordered myself one for my MacBook Pro laptop and can’t wait to skin my keyboard with color.
• Speaking of skins, a great site for them if you want to mod everything from your iPod to your laptop is Skinzini. I like skinning my gadgets to escape the monotony of metal and white and black.
• Found this post on Abduzeedo - tons of free Photoshop brushes. I’ve been feeling a bit moddish lately and am enjoying the designs offered. These are must downloads. And you’re welcome.

• Just as I enjoy the muffin hat on muffins, I enjoy the crusty edges of brownies. And if you’re a brownie-edge lover, too, then the Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan is for you. I know my favorite piece from this pan will be the very ends because then you’ll get crusty brownie on three sides. Score!
• I love this bubble necklace from the MoMA Store. It’s beyond beautiful. I’m not usually big on necklaces, but when I see one I like, I know it’s one that speaks to me. And this one does.
• Meet Amy. See the amazing wedding toast Amy’s family and friends made for her. She is a lucky girl, this Amy. And you can watch the video of this toast below.

A Girl Named Amy: A Wedding Toast

THE FUN STARTS TODAY
Because my summer has officially started. This weekend, Chicago. Next weekend, my birthday and a new blog design. Fun, fun, fun! Stay tuned!

May 22, 2008 I’m leaving on a jet plane.

Kinda. If you call Southwest planes jets.

I’m on my way to Chicago! To meet up with Joy! And do fun stuff! Whee!

Yeah, but not yet. I’m stuck in Oakland waiting for my flight. It’s been delayed two hours, which means I won’t be landing in Chicago until close to 3a.m. Poor Joy since she has to pick me up.

So while I’m waiting, I’ve connected myself to the interwebs and am now catching up on episodes of Top Chef: Chicago on You Tube. Is that legal? I don’t even know, but if someone puts it up, I will watch.

ART THERAPY
I need some. Like right now. I’ve been so busy at work that I haven’t had the time to just create random acts of art. Haven’t had the time to even blog. No excuses, I know, but there you have it. I expect I’ll be messing around in Joy’s stash so we’ll see what the weekend brings.

LABEL TULIP SHARES
Layouts! That I did as the guest designer this month for Label Tulip. I really love this club because the girls on the team are awesome. They love to scrapbook and they show it off well. Fantastic team, fantastic talent, fantastic product choice. And I’m honored to be with them this month.

“One Day at a Time”

“Daily Routine”

Personalized Gift Tags

THAT’S ALL FOR NOW
Until tomorrow and a new Love List. Same bat time. Same bat channel.

May 16, 2008 Grace’s Love List - 5/16

First, the Love List!

• Yay! Just today I downloaded from iTunes the remaining album tracks to Jason Mraz’s new release “We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.” I had already purchased his last two EPs from this album and now own the deluxe collection. Since I pretty much want to marry this guy, I’ll assume that he wrote this album for me.
• Color is my thing. I love lots and lots and lots of color. And I sincerely love Rhonna Farrer. And by extension, I seriously adore her new paper pack, “Spring Vibe.” I have a series of weddings/wedding showers/graduations/birthday parties/baby showers to attend this summer, and I’m planning on making gift tags using the designs from this collection. I’ll share once I get a stash done.
• According to this Marital Rating Scale, I would fail as a wife. I would fail on a scale so embarrassing, I might as well not marry. According to this 1930’s marital scale, that is. Really? Who dresses for breakfast anymore? I eat breakfast in my pajammies until I’m forced out of them. That’s how I roll.

• I’ve seen a lot of knitting sites sharing patterns and designs of knit caps of cute animals. And when I was browsing through shanalogic.com, I saw this knit cap of a cute frog. To me, this cutie looks a lot like Keroppi - my favorite Sanrio character. I must get this hat. It will add to my cuteness.
• I hope cupcakes aren’t a fad yet. Cupcakes have been a popular design element in scrapbooking, from the releases I’ve seen from the past two CHA shows. So if you’re a fan of the look, visit the Tea & Cakes section of dotcomgiftshop.com. I have a friend who’ll I’ll be purchasing a gift for from this site because she’s such a cake-foodie.
• Who saw the Today show this morning? Who saw my once-upon-a-time husband Joey Mc Intyre performing with the rest of NKOTB? Eeeee!! My 6th grade self is so happy that they’re getting back together. I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to score tickets for their reunion concert, but I’m praying more than a few of my friends will get the hint that I want those tickets to be my birthday present.

NKTOB, baby!

Second, my database woes. I’ve been struggling with my database for this blog. It went caput on my last night and I struggled with it all night long. I was able to salvage everything, except the comments count. If you scroll through the previous posts (for the last 3 months, I think), it looks like I’ve lost all the comments you’ve left. They’re actually still there when you open up individual pages, but the count on the main page is gone. No worries. That’s not a deal breaker. I just love reading everyone’s comments, so I’m happy they’re still there.

But cross your fingers that this blog doesn’t pain me anymore. It’s a love-love relationship between us and I’ve got more design changes coming. Expect something new by the end of the month, a design more user-friendly, I hope.

Hugs to everyone and have a creative day!

May 14, 2008 Beauty outside my window.

I was proofing photos on my computer when I looked out through my bedroom window and saw this.

So I went outside to see the view and I wasn’t disappointed. Simply beautiful. Perfect.

May 13, 2008 Fixed.

Apologies for all Internet Explorer users. I think I’ve found the bug on my site and you should now be able to open up for more momentarybliss.com goodness.

May 12, 2008 Say hello to my Copic pens.

(Trying for a nod to Scarface. Did I pull it off?) 

Got my Copic markers late last week and I actually took a photo of them to share. Such perfect, pretty pens. Endless possibilities. They work beautifully with stamps and they blend seamlessly.

You know there’s something wrong with me when I go ga-ga for markers.