IS•LY | I Still Love you

Our 24″ iMac is broken. It’s been broken for a while when it was freezing up every five minutes, but it actually stopped working last night. LAME. Hallelujah for time machine, Applecare, iPhones and our dinosaur Powerbook. Without them, I might just keel over and die.

I’ve been working on some fun projects that I can’t wait to share with you, but since the computer is caput, they’ll have to wait for later. To give you a preview, here’s what you can expect to see next week:

iPhone Case 2.0

I had a brilliant brainwave the other day where I figured out a totally new and totally awesome iphone case design. I’m excited. I hope you are, too.

Nearly Completed Living Room

I’m not sure I’ll ever be done decorating this room, but it’s so close. Close enough that I really want to share it with you. I finally have artwork on the walls and furniture on the floors. It’s almost a complete style 180 from our last apartment, which is always fun.

I hope you have a fabulous, and exciting weekend void of any computer failures or errors.

I’m starting a new column here on IS•LY dedicated entirely about finding awesome things on the cheap. I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I’m excited about sharing it with you.

Many of you who know me personally, know that I’m a very thrifty person. A lot of this comes from my mom; she’s the quintessential frugal woman. She learned as a stay-at-home mom while my dad was in school to make do & stretch every dollar. Even when the success fairy bestowed my parents with a comfortable living, my mom still made it a point to keep spending at a minimum and saving at a maximum.

I remember being so embarrassed when my mom would take me thrift shopping for clothes, etc. I just wasn’t as creative back then, and now I’ve made a complete 180! I just itch for any chance to go and peruse the aisles for hidden treasures. This Saturday I went with Susan on a sans-kids thrifting excursion. She was looking for a desk, and I was looking for a side table. Neither of us were successful finding exactly what we were looking for, but we still scored some awesome goodies anyway.

These shoes might be the reason why I’m starting this little column. I am so excited about them, I’d make up any excuse to share them with you. These shoes are all leather, made in Brazil (my favorite country ever), remind me of some shoes my mom used to have AND they were $3. Score? SCORE!

Are you the type of person to gossip to all of your friends about the good deals you find? If so, please consider me your closest friend and best listener. I want to hear all about it!

I think it’s safe to assume that everyone who attended Alt Summit had a blast and everyone that didn’t go missed out. I am so glad I got to attend. I was in heaven, rubbing shoulders with the finest and creative-est in blogging & design. I think I said, “Oh my goodness, I love your blog!!” about million times last weekend. Every time I said it, I meant every word. I was just giddy and maybe a little star-struck to meet some of my blogging heroes, like Grace & Maxwell. They were all SO KIND and surprisingly approachable.

There’s no doubt, Gabby & the other fabulous Kirtsy ladies put on a spectacular conference filled with 100% relevant topics for design/creative bloggers. IT WAS AMAZING. It was rolling-on-the-ground hilarious. It was thought-provoking. It was an absolute blast. It was perfect. Here are a few of the highlights:

Early Bird Session: How to Find the Best Design Sites

• I got to meet with each of these ladies, and they were all so fabulous. (Allison of Petit Elefant, Nicole of Making it Lovely, Jaime of Design Milk, and Karey of Mackin Ink)
• Here’s the complete list of sites to check out (Allison put me on the list as the next big thing. Uh. . .  serious?!?)
• My google reader is bursting at the seams & so is everyone else’s.

Morning Keynote Breakfast: Why design?

• Putting all of my attention into blogging full-time made all the difference. – Maxwell, Apartment Therapy
• Martha is OVER. It’s all about being real, not flawlessly perfect. – Maxwell, Apartment Therapy
• People will always have an opinion about everything. – Heather, Dooce
• Heather Armstrong is a fabulous speaker and hands down hilarious.
• Grace from design sponge is so genuine and so awesome. I love her blog so much more now that I’ve met her in person.

Form & Function: Designing online

• What makes a good site awesome? Pixel perfection, good CSS, faster loading speed and sites that function on most browsers.
• Good clients trust designers. They know what they’re doing. – Struck Design
• Good designers don’t say no. They come up with something even better & knock the socks off their clients. – Struck Design
• IE sucks. – Bryan, Typekit
• Good typography is possible, even on the web. – Bryan, Typekit

Form & Function: Building your brand & business

• I came into this session a tad late, but it was still super inspiring. Victoria from SFgirlbybay is ridiculously cool. I cornered her a few times to chat and she was very, very nice to me.
• You don’t need to pigeonhole yourself in blogging. As long as it’s something you love & true to you, people will read it. – Gayla, You Grow Girl
• I try to make my life blogworthy. – Sarah, Sarah Jane Studios
• Blogging is a labor of love.

Keynote Lunch: New media artists

• Let the creative process take you on a journey. – Erik Natske
• Erik Natske does some incredible things with flash. Jaw-dropping awesome.
• DJ earworm does an incredible job of mashing up 20 different songs to make a cohesive song. Super awesome.
• DJ earworm did a mash-up for Annie Lennox. It’s stunning. Check it out here.

Design Theory: Designing Your Community

• Erin of Design for Mankind is another new favorite person (Goodness, I met so many!). She’s so genuine, sweet & super stylish.
• It’s good to keep the conversation going in the comments.
• Meaningful comments that add to the conversation, are key. It’s especially important to show appreciation for folks that take time to comment on your site & to those that may write about you.
• A canned response is better than no response. – Erin, design for mankind
• It’s not super important to follow metrics obsessively, but be aware of them. – Erin, design for mankind
• Blogrolls can be frustrating. Who to add? How many to add? Should they just disappear? {probably}.

Form & Function: Beyond Ad Networks

• This session was super helpful. I really enjoyed how each panelist had a different perspective & brought different ideas to the session. Maggie is another new favorite person of mine. She’s stylish, clever, a savvy shopper and super fun to talk to.
• If you’re a good writer, try selling your stories to a newspaper. (that does NOT apply to me)
• Sell individual ads rather than sponsorships.
• Sell more ads at a lower price.
• Stay consistent in your ads aesthetics. It’s not bad to send advertisors a style guide. Ads are like accessories to a great outfit. They’ve got to match.
• Make sponsored posts separate, and mark as being sponsored content. Charge 10x more for in content sponsorship posts.
• Hand-pick your sponsors, don’t be afraid to ask for advertising. You’ve got to grow a pair to be a successful blogger. Ask for what you want.

Is there a rewind button I can press so I can relive the conference? Goodness, I had so much fun! I didn’t meet a single person there that I didn’t like. I can’t wait for Alt 2011!

*I didn’t take these photographs, mine turned out terribly. You can see the event photos here.

Last Friday as I was wrapping things up at work, Chris and I decided that our Friday night plans would be best spent camping. The only problem was we have NO gear. Chris picked me up with a long checklist of must-have items and we set off for the cheapest outdoor gear store we could find.

Luckily, the first place we went to was the perfect place. Seriously. Besides backpacks (which we already had) we got completely outfitted for our hike-in camping adventure for under $190. We lucked out with an awesome sales associate who found us a $40 tent. Yup. Awesome.

We left a little late, which meant our hiking and set-up was all done in the dark, but it worked out really well. Chris managed to pack all of our gear and I managed to pack Penelope (nearly 30lbs) and my camera gear. I had a little argument in my head whether or not it would be worth it to take my camera and tripod and luckily the smarter part of my brain won out. Just before we went off to bed I took out my gear and looked for just the right shot. It was a beautiful night. As I was setting up the moon had just come out and the skinny tree branches of the trees created sweet silhouettes against the glowing sky. Seriously it was beautiful.

I’m so happy that this photo (above) worked out so well. It made packing the camera SO worth it. That night Penelope and I snuggled inside a mummy bag just big enough for the two of us. High-quality Z’s weren’t the name of the game, but I sure had fun snuggling with the Nels.

Exploring the countryside was so fun, this area was incredible. We’ll be doing this again. Definitely. Read more about our adventure on Whrrl.

Click here for the story.

Now, this blog is more of an art, craft and design blog than anything, but Penelope is just WAY too stinking cute not to write a Penelope update. She loves dancing. LOVES dancing. She’s not like your typical 16 month old that may on occasion bob up and down when prompted to by first-time parents. She dances. She has songs that she likes, and she only dances for the songs she likes.

She has fabulous taste in music. Her current favorite (and mine, too) is Discovery’s So Insane. She dances to it using her repertoire of: twirling, booty shaking, shoulder shrugging and foot stomping. Wonder where she’s seen those moves? Maybe from a silly mom that likes to dance, maybe.

You might notice her chubby legs and fabulously large belly. I found an old ballet tutu from my first performance, Allison in Wonderland, and enthusiastically changed her into the outfit hoping that it would fit. It does. The same tutu I wore when I was 5. FIVE!

I couldn’t be more proud to see my little girl strutting her stuff in something that I thought was the cat’s pajamas when I was five. And maybe even still at 24.

Here I am at five, during a little photo shoot with my dad. I loved that costume. I think it had something to do with the feather in the hair and the ruffles on the top. The bright blue can’t be beat, either.

Between starting a new job and moving into a new house my online time has come to a screetching halt. I’m anxiously waiting to get internet on Monday! See you soon.