Enjoying the Little Things

Sometimes the little things make me the happiest. My new measuring cups made me smile this morning as I used them for the first time while making a new apple French toast recipe. I spotted these Russian nesting doll measuring cups somewhere online last year, and thought they were adorable. When I spotted them at SuperTarget yesterday, I was so excited.

Graduation was a few weeks ago, and I've been slowly adjusting to normal life. It kind of feels like maybe I'm just on my 2-week break in between quarters, except I'm not pre-ordering books from Amazon and trying to read the first 3 chapters on my so-called break, which makes me want to do a happy dance. One of the unintended consequences of going back to school is that it made me have an appreciation for my free time. The past few weeks I've had time to try new recipes, I've been experimenting a little with some new jewelry designs, and we just got a new couch and have been brainstorming about redecorating to make our apartment feel more cozy, more us.

Life is good.

Coming Soon: Life After Grad School

Since January I've been working on my capstone project, my final mission to accomplish before graduating in June. The capstone project is a big research study and accompanying paper applying what I've learned over the past few years as I've been working toward a master's degree in web design and development. Even though the last few weeks have been especially busy, there is this underlying excitement brimming as I think about life after grad school.

Before going back to school, the three creative activities I enjoyed the most were making jewelry, blogging, and taking pictures. At the time, I was actively selling my jewelry at art and craft fairs, through a few shops and boutiques, and was swimming along in this wonderful creative current- a place where new ideas came easily, and I saw inspiration everywhere. It seems like the more you practice being creative, the more easily that creative energy swirls around you. Well, once school started, all that energy was used for writing, researching, coding, or creating a website for class, and I the things I enjoyed- sewing, taking pictures, and making jewelry- kind of felt like work, so I cut back on those wonderful, messy, hands-on creative projects.

I'm currently working on my final project, a wonderful dive into web usability for small businesses. I'm currently redesigning a website for a family and wedding portrait photographer, and just completed a 20-person usability assessment study testing about perceptions of value, credibility, and web usability of the photographer's website. This project is definitely one of those challenging and equally amazing experiences. At one point I never imagined how I'd be able to write 50 pages on anything, and now I'm worried that I will have way too many things to say about my topic.

Once I've graduated, I'm looking forward to summertime scooter riding, art-making, and just being, but part of me is trying slow down and savor the experience just a little. Even though I know I will always enjoy learning new things and developing new skills on my own, there is something I appreciate about being in school where I'm often obligated to push myself beyond what I think I have in me. My husband gave me an art desk this Christmas in anticipation of my graduation, so I'm getting excited about dusting off my art supplies soon.

Pinterest Love

Today's favorite find on Pinterest, Words of Wisdom print by Francesca Ramos

My dear friend Sarah encouraged me to sign up for Pinterest a few weeks ago, and I'm in love. If you've never heard of Pinterest, it's a website that allows you to bookmark and save catalogs of photos. I'm constantly perusing blogs and websites, and discover so many inspiring things, so I love that Pinterest allows me to save lovely photos into one giant collection. I've always kept a bulletin board on my wall full of inspiring stuff- pictures and cards and magazine cutouts- so this is like having an inspiration board online. So far, my favorite collection is "lovely words," a grouping of images of posters or graphics or other products with beautiful words and quotes.

One of my favorite things about Pinterest is that it's got a social aspect where you can follow collections of photos of like-minded pinners. If you discover a photo you love, you can click on images that others have posted, and you end up on the web page of the original source. I've found it's a great way to discover new artists and interesting websites.