this is fantastic

I haven't had a "this is fantastic" post in a while. It doesn't mean I haven't seen anything fantastic....just means I've been to lazy to post.

But I have a treat for you this week.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/22564317 w=400&h=225]

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo.

(thank you Jasmine Star for sharing)

That is fantastic.

That is all.

1....2....3 strikes you're out

Who knew there was a college level summer baseball league here in Carteret County?!?!

I sure didn't...another great reason to live at the beach.

Not only do the Morehead Marlins reside in Morehead City during the summer....but there is a stadium...that one can rent out for the afternoon and play on the field and use the snack station and all the fun stuff when you go out for a lovely Saturday afternoon.

Today was a special day at the ball field. Our good friend Suzannah, as well as the Sound to Sea Program Coordinator at Trinity Center, is leaving us :(. She has served so well and given so much to Trinity Center, and now she's moving on to find more people to make happy.

We had a fabulous time at the ball park. There was food and frenzy, frisbee throwing and a really awesome game of baseball.

I'm still working on how to use my camera on a super bright day...so bear with me.



I think I should have had a higher f-stop for these. Would have been easier to get everyone (or just the person I was wanting to take a picture of) in focus. Focusing long distance is harder than I thought.



It was also a partially cloudy day, so the sun kept on switching from really freaking bright to a bit darker. Sometimes it was hard to keep up.






All in all, we had a really great time. The owner of the stadium/team was super nice. It's a fantastic place to have a birthday party, family reunion, small get together. What a fabulous beginning to the summer!





Unfortunately, I did not do a good job of actually taking any pictures of Suzannah, the reason we had the party anyway. That's her pitching in this picture.

something I'm working on

hi there internet -

I am super excited to share a sneak peek with you today.

I have been lucky enough to help two brides (not including myself) with the paper for their weddings. This is one of my favorite things to do. I love paper. And I love brides and weddings. And I love working individually with a bride to give her exactly what she wants, while staying in a reasonable budget.

Here are a few pictures of my own wedding paper, which I made myself.



I hand tore each piece of paper for each invite. We had our wedding at the beach, so I wanted water, transparency, and blue and brown involved....but not in a cheesy way. There is nothing wrong with using shells and "beachy" themes in a wedding invite, but that just wasn't my style. I researched and worked for a long time designing these and I was so happy with the result.



I used 110 lb cold press water color paper and vellum. I bought the brown envelopes pre-made from paperandmore.com. That is one of my favorite places to get paper and envelopes from. They are reasonably priced and have good quality products. They will also cut and/or perforate any paper for a reasonable price.



And now....a sneak peek of what I'm working on for my most recent client.

font comparer

Have you heard of Font Comparer?

If you are a obsessor lover of fonts, you will L.O.V.E. this site.

Type in whatever at the top of the page and it will show you how those words look in all sorts of fonts below.

FANTASTIC!

I apologize in advance for the hours of your life that you will spend on Font Comparer instead of actually living your life.

out with the old...

and in with NEW SHOES!!!!!!

I am a runner jogger.  I've run a few races (they are one of my favorite things to do) and after my second half marathon I had knee pain like I had never felt before.

I tried a lot of things...a physical trainer, increasing weight training on my lower body, buying new running shoes...etc. etc.

I finally read a book that had a huge influence on my life, "Born to Run" recommended to me by my friend Ashley of edible perspective.  In short, it's a book that promotes barefoot or "minimalist" running.  It goes through a lot of interesting explanation including a Native American tribe in Mexico that can run for miles and miles and miles, evolutionary biology, an interesting experiment with a quadruped and a biped, and some of the best athletes in the world.

In the end, I was convinced that I needed to try barefoot running.  I bought some Vibrams in February 2010.  I had to slowly reteach myself how to run in them....but that has proven quite successful.  I am now running not quite farther, but definitely faster than I ever have.  I ran an 8:55 minute mile tonight.  I know to some that is super slow...to some super fast.  Considering my last half marathon, ran in February 2009, I ran an average of a 12:30 mile...I consider tonight quite a feat.

Finally, I wore that first pair of Vibrams out.  

The black pair was my first pair. I'm super excited about the new pair.

A few negatives about the old pair:
1. They were black. I live at the beach, in the south, and most of the time I run on asphalt....they were flipping HOT!
2. Because they were open with a single strap across the top, I had a Vibrams tan that looked worse than a Teva tan. I was ready to get full coverage in my running slipper.
3. You can barely see it, but there is a hole in the bottom of the right foot. That, obviously is a problem. Though I did run over 400 miles in these shoes...so I really can't complain.

Now, for my favorite part....the bottoms.


Don't they look cool? I think they're so spiderman-esque...if spiderman were blue, yellow, and gray.

All in all, I'm pretty excited. I always feel like I can run faster with new shoes. I know it's all in my head, BUT I did run my fastest mile tonight....that's got to be the magic new shoes, right?

thank you designmom

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. This put a huge smile on my face. I really want to know how to do this.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/22306468 w=400&h=225]

Paper Record Player from kellianderson on Vimeo.

16 and pregnant

I have to have a moment with you Internet...I freaking love "16 and pregnant".

I have for a long time. I've always kind of liked babies and baby shows. I used to watch a baby story on TLC after school. That was when it seemed like it was the only show like that on tv. Not now! Television is full of baby shows from my favorite to "teen mom" to "I didn't know I was pregnant" (which is upper hilarious, though I'm sure not to the unknowing pregnant woman).

I really don't know why I'm so obsessed with "16". Most of the time it really seems like the subjects of the show are from families without a lot of money...the fathers are usually super immature boys that are disrespectful and who are preying on girls with low self-esteem. There are so many times when I wonder why these mothers put up with the crap from the fathers of their children. Crap like showing up to the labor of his child drunk...cheating on the mother of his child while she's pregnant...not being nice...not being loving..not taking seriously the fact that there is a living person of whose DNA he has contributed half.

Some parents are supportive...some aren't.
A few of the moms have had twins. One young mother had twins and one of the twins was born with some sort of developmental disability and will struggle the rest of her life.

It seems unfair to me. There are so many issues that a teenager just shouldn't have to face. So many responsibilities.

All of this and I haven't even mentioned the unborn/new born child. Who knows what kind of, if any, chances that child is going to have.

But I still watch. Because it's a train wreck...I watch. It's that weird anthropological interest I have....if I can get away with that. I do like to watch how people live (with the caveat that I know they are living in front of cameras and how real can someone actually be in front of cameras).

But I will watch and feel so bad for these girls. I want them to succeed, but statistically...they will not. We can only hope for the best.