When I started this blog, I promised myself that I wouldn’t have any rules. My past attempts at blogging have resulted in a lot of failed projects; mostly because I always forced myself to follow a theme. For the first few weeks it would be great! I’d be all excited and prolific and have a million things to share…and then I’d get bored…or busy…or run out of things to say…and my blog would linger in the virtual world and slowly drown in spam comments.

It’s just not in my nature to stay on point for long. Eric will gladly complain talk about how often I jump from one interest to another. One time, I saw a PBS documentary about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. This lead to an entire weekend of reading, watching, and googling everything I could on the topic. … Read More »

I ventured out for the first time in weeks today, to meet a friend for lunch. I can count the number of times I’ve left the house in the last month on one hand. So it goes as a work-at-home freelancer. Leaving my neighborhood has become quite the adventure.

Boarding the downtown 2 train, though, I was quickly reminded why I’ve grown to hate the subway.

As I stepped through the doors, I caught a whiff of old urine, wet dog and alcohol. The scent came from a couple boarding just behind me. The pock-faced, greasy-haired woman had the look of someone who has been on too many drugs for too long. You get to know that look pretty well living here. Like the air has been sucked right out of a person. Her boyfriend had the same sickly look and was … Read More »

This week’s IF topic is “Fluid” – here’s a quick little whale floating down a river – I think he got lost.

In an effort to improve user experience, I’ve made some changes to the Kinderling website. This is an overview of what’s changed and why.

Cleaner Look:

I cleaned up the design of the site to make the products shine. This will also help with loading time.

Navigation:

Instead of browsing by style, I’ve found that people are either interested in purchasing single silhouettes, or double silhouettes. So, I’ve modified the main navigation to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

Fewer Products:

Tired of clicking through page after page of products? Well, fret no more! Now you navigate by series (designs with the same patterns but different color options) – and the entire list of series fits on one page!

And the Kicker:

My favorite piece of the upgrade is the brand new color picker. Once you choose a Series, you can click through … Read More »

Just a quick little sketch for IF. The word was “Forward”. I know this piece isn’t very original, but I wanted to at least get something down.

I will soon be offering hand drawn digital family portraits over at Kinderling. Here is a preview (yep – that’s my family)

I am working on a new line of hand-drawn digital custom portraits to add to Kinderling. Here is a sneak peek. Please let me know what you think in the comments! I would love to hear your thoughts.

And of course, here is the “Before” photo:

Over the last year, Eric and I have become close friends with 3 sets of neighbors in our building. This is a major benefit of living in a large apartment building. It makes our social life a whole lot easier. We spend a lot of time with each other playing cards, watching our favorite shows (it helps that we have the same favorite shows), painting pottery, walking the dogs, or generally hanging out in our pajamas. Sometimes it feels like we live in an episode of Friends. Except there’s way less drama. And I love it.

Each week, the girls (3-5 of us) get together in one of our apartments, make tacos and unwind with a glass or two of sparkling wine for what we’ve coined “Girl’s Night” (super creative, I know). It’s a nice break from the week and a … Read More »

Back in this post, I discussed a college writing exercise that helped me see my 5-year future in a way that was less about accomplishing specific career goals and more about deciding what type of life I wanted. I’m lucky enough to be living the life I wrote down and it’s time to do it again. The next 5 years hold new adventures and new desires. I can almost taste them.

Before I share my letter, though, I wanted to preface it with this:

One of the things I’ve been working on is accepting myself for who I am and trying not to live under anyone else’s expectations about what I should be doing with my life (even if those are my own made up expectations). What … Read More »