Design with Swatches

I love this work from Allison Patrick. The texture of the thin strips of paint is beautiful. Image from Paper Crave

Image from DIY Life

Perhaps it was Sherwin-Williams who originally inspired this trend with their ads, but decorating with paint swatches has taken off.  I have been seeing these design ideas creeping across a variety of blogs that I frequent, and I want to share what I have found about this fun DIY decor style. Paint chips are free and you can get them Hardware and Home Improvement stores, they are as colorful, patterned, and because they are paper they are easily adhered to a variety of mediums. The economy  has less-than-great the last few years, which has inspired a new DIY generation, along with the return of craftsmanship. Handmade pieces of art and design can make a beautiful addition to your home.

Image from DIY Life

Image from Design Sponge

I am not any different, plus I have always enjoy getting hands on with art and design. I have been looking for ways to brighten up my very white, yet dark apartment. (Wall are all white but all the cabinets, floors, trim are dark). I NEED color, and I am not allowed to paint. If I can find some cheap frames paint chips could be layered for some textured art or even cut into shapes to make something more "realistic".

I think I am going to try out this decorating tip on a lamp of my own, that I have owned for your years and picked up for $5 at a grocery store. It has been in need of some lovin'. I have recently spray painted the based and now the lamp shade could use some vitality. When I have this project complete I will keep you posted on the progress. If you are not ambitious enough to try this yourself. Etsy has several paint chip wall art pieces to choose from

Image from Design Sponge

Religion of Rebirth

Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew Temple in Thailand is beautiful and took 5 years to complete. As shocking as it can be to see a temple built out of beer bottles, it does not seem too surprising that it was a Buddhist temple that believed in reincarnating used bottles as a building tools rather than trash. I know this temple is old news, and you have probably see it before; but I came across it one of searches on the internet and I had to share all over again. It is awe strong, beautiful, and recycled.

The buildings are made from the bottles, but the bottle caps were used in the mosaic. There are a total of about 1.5 bottles and the monks tend to recycle more bottles. Because "the more bottles we get the more buildings we make" Abbot San Kataboonyo. These monks began saving bottles in 1984 and saved until they had about one million bottles to begin constructing the pagoda.

Perhaps if these Heineken bottles had caught on we would have had more recycled, green glass buildings.

Image Sources

• Treehugger
• Environmentteam
• Ajarn Forum

MyPlate: A Look at the New USDA Food symbol

 My plate does not look too appetizing.

The government’s replacement for the food pyramid is My Plate http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ . It looks generic and simple, which is good for small reproductions, but in most instances I find that this overly simplified system doesn't work. This image will appear on posters in lunchrooms and classrooms across the U.S. In the last two rounds of remaking the “food pyramid" the USDA has removed food imagery from the food pyramid. This can make it difficult to understand what the USDA recommendations are for consumption. The plate is divided by the proportions of what your plate should look like, but without food imagery, one can only assume what we should be eating. Particularly if you are a young child or part of the 7 million illiterate in the U.S. who cannot yet read words like protein or vegetables.

One the positive: the concept and vibrant colors are fitting. It's a plate and a cup, this makes logical sense considering the subject matter. (Better than a pyramid, anyway). This plate shows portion control and basic food categories, but without images I think it becomes harder for a child to initially understand. European nutrition plates, look similar to ours, but the food groups are split into portions that contain images of fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and protein. These images also show variety of foods within each category. On MyPlate the grains could show images of whole grain food and lean portions of meat or beans to show healthy foods we should be eating. 

With the millions of dollars that the government invested into MyPlate, a larger portion of that could have been spent creating a kinetic system. Currently we have this generic MyPlate, with shapes to represent percentages of food types that should be on our plates. The kinetic system could be a generic plate that has slices/portions that can be switched out for diet alternatives, such as diets for vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, and various food allergies. These slices could be interchangeable like a puzzle, and need to fit together to make a healthy diet. (Hey that could be a video game like tetras: pieces need to fit together in order to make a balance diet. Kids could learn about nutrition and have fun.)

I do think that this MyPlate option is better than the last food pyramid we had. I am just failing to see the reason behind removing food from our nutritional infographics.

A Fishy Birthday!

I have many passions and hobbies, and one of them happens to be cake decorating. For my husband's birthday I had to go-all-out. I am not one of those fancy cake decorator's you see on tv, but I do like to learn new techniques and challenge myself. I was so proud of this cake I had to share it with you! He loves to fish so this cake is fishing themed and uses homemade buttercream icing and gum paste. I mixed the colors myself (I love mixing colors, it reminds me of mixing colors for screen printing).

I started with a homemade Strawberry cake
(my husband's favorite),
and iced it in a light blue frosting.

Top of the Cake: A fishing themed cake for his birthday.

Back of the Cake: Loved the color tones
I was able to achieve in the water and
 the hilly piles of buttercream grass.
 The water is food coloring and piping gel. 

Boat: The boat, pole + bobble, and fish were
 made with homemade gum paste. 

Full Cake: Grass and water cascade down the sides.

Writing a Bio

A couple weeks ago Behance’s blog the 99% wrote a post about the death of the resume and rise of the bio. I doubt the resume is dead, but having a bio has become crucial in this digital society. This bio should also be “branded” across your social network sites so that you are identified as the same person and you will seem more sincere if all this information matches. The bio across social media sites, does not have to match word-for-word, but it should be similar.

1. A Bio should be short. Too often people tend to overwrite a bio. Keep it short, simple, and to the point 
2. Begin the bio with your name. (example John Doe is the CEO of Apple Computers.)
3. Include your expertise. Include only skills that would be beneficial to a job/career you are working towards. (example Do NOT include that you are an excellent butt scratcher unless that is what you want one of your duties at the office to be).
4. (If you are writing this for a resume situation) Relate how your expertise can solve a goal or problem they might be having.
5. Personality. The reason why cover letters might be going on the wayside is that bio tends to be more personable. Show your personality either through your writing style or mentioning a quirk or hobby. (example Keep in mind to choose quirks or hobby that symbolize you but won't creep out your reader. We do not want to know if you collect dead animals.
6. WARNING be careful with humor. Humor can be very tricky when written and without context. If your humor is taken incorrectly it could rub your reader the wrong way.
7. Contact. Include a means of contact in your bio. This will be the quickest way to link between your name and your email, phone, or website. Choose just one means of contact, otherwise your bio becomes a dense jumble of links. Contact should be the conclusion of the bio, never at the beginning.
8. SPELL CHECK. Always spell check and/or have a friend look it over before you post it online. Sure a bio is short and easy to edit, but it is better to have it correct from the start. Spell check is easy-enough, but it's also easy to forget. I struggle with the spell check button more than I would like. I wish it was more intuitive in Adobe products, as it is in Word.