November Wallpaper

My adventures in learning Adobe Illustrator continues with the creation of a November desktop wallpaper.

I happened to be in Vermont while making this one, so I was inspired by the fall leaves (and maple syrup). For the month of October I was trying too hard and it just didn’t look right to me, so I tried to keep things kind of simple for November.

This is also the first time that I thought to highlight a holiday on the calendar (in this case, American Thanksgiving).

Hand-drawing the maple leaf on the computer was a neat challenge. I used a stock image as a reference and added all of the anchor points individually. At first I thought I would use the smooth or simplify tool after to make the lines less jagged, but then I realized how perfect the imperfect lines were for a leaf and kept it as it was.

I made some new folder icons to match the different color scheme as well.

I’m pretty excited to cook up some new designs for December and January! With the holidays coming up I have some cute ideas for wallpapers and I’m determined to get some practice with holiday greeting cards.

Every year I tell myself that our family will send out a New Years card - I like that it’s an internationally-celebrated, non-denominational holiday, and it happens to be one of my favorites. I love a fresh start, and I tend to operate with the thought process that I get three fresh starts per year: Rosh Hashanah, New Years, and my birthday (in June). It gives me three opportunities for me to re-evaluate my life. What’s working? What’s not working? What changes would I like to make going forward?

Change can happen any day of the week, but sometimes it’s nice to have a checkpoint to stop and reflect.

Grief is weird and never-ending.

I was standing in front of the Jewish cooking section of my mom’s cookbook collection. The Jewish holiday season snuck up on me as usual, I’m excited for it and dreading it in equal measure.

I picked through a couple of books to flip through and carried them up to my apartment, thinking about how the grieving process is so weird in its ebbs and flows, never-ending. There are dates that I will obviously miss her - the day she passed, her birthday, my birthday. The wedding anniversary shared between my husband and I, and my parents, February 9th.

Then holidays like Rosh Hashanah will come up and I’ll be missing the days when she’d call me and say “it’s Rosh Hashanah, the work day is done, come over for a glass of wine, cheese, and apples.” Or on Halloween when she’d text me saying, “I know you’re going out, but can you stop by so I can see your costume?”

Grief is like a little thread that dances through everything, stitching together timelines, sitting just below the surface of everyday life. It’s there in the good and there in the bad and there in the monotonous.

September Wallpaper

I’m going to set the scene: we’re in the early 2000s, pre-2010. Britney Spears in on the radio, I just posted about my day on LiveJournal, and I’m double-clicking to open Paint Shop Pro to make another desktop background, this time with Aaliyah as the centerpiece.

Fast-forward to 2024.

I mentioned on a way earlier post that I want to share my creative endeavors to track and follow how I change and improve with time and practice.

Whilst learning to use Illustrator, I was given the opportunity to make business flyers for family, which I enjoyed. I’ve been making a few posters and such to practice, learn how to manipulate anchors, and figure out what looks nice. I think, hmm, what’s something new that I can try today?

Let’s make a desktop!

With matching folder icons!

This one allowed me to play around with text and type and the mesh tool. I got to fiddle with anchors and see what I could make. I tooled around with the zig zag effect on ellipses and tried different colors to see what I liked.

It’s very, very simple, but it was a fun first try at a calendar desktop! I’m excited to make a new one for October.

The best way to learn is by doing, and do I will!

Life Lately

Lately I’ve been spending more time reading and drawing.

When I was in undergrad and hoping to change my area of study from biology to illustration and design, I took the advice (so many gave me this advice) that I can always maintain creative hobbies and stay in the sciences professionally. Sometimes I kind of regret taking that advice, I firmly believe the sciences can be embraced as a hobby as well - especially some natural sciences. Regardless, I feel like it’s been really challenging to make enough time for my creative hobbies over the years.

For the couple of years I’ve been trying to prioritize making time for things like drawing, crochet, painting, and writing. Even if I can only make time for some doodles, making and taking that time is important.

For the last few months I’ve entirely cut out working overtime in the lab and it’s given me so much more time to do the things I actually enjoy. I’ve been drawing more, I’m re-learning how to use Photoshop and learning how to use Illustrator and Figma. I’m building on my current functional-beginner level in web design languages like HTML and CSS (I like to think that I’m not a true beginner, but I still need to look things up all the time, I like to consider myself functional-beginner because I still need to look things up all the time).

I’ve been reading two books at any given time - usually one self-help or educational and one fiction/non-fiction/novel for entertainment - and I’m actually finishing them again.

I really want to keep this going and I hope that I can build on it. While I’d still love to change my career, these lifestyle changes are feeling pretty good for the time being. I’m excited to learn about the things that I enjoy most in my free time.

The Things I Restock

I love watching favorites videos on YouTube, but I feel like so many of them are full of new product. The “favorites” or “top-shelf” videos that I enjoy the most are those that involve a regular restock. I think it’s super telling when someone shares the thing that they keep buying over and over again, or the thing that they’ve loved for years, not just a week or two.

So I gave some thought to the things that I’ve loved for a very, very long time and have already repurchased multiple times over. It’s the kind of thing that if I use it up or lose it, I’m buying a replacement pretty much immediately.

1. Tower 28 Sunny Days tinted sunscreen - I think that I’ve been using this for upwards of three years and this is probably my third or fourth tube of it. The color match is perfect (I’m a Melrose), it sits on my skin in an effortless and natural way, and evens out my skintone without completely changing my face. I tried switching it up for a few other brands and keep coming back to this.

2. Mezcla bars - I especially love this flavor, Japanese Matcha Vanilla, but I’ve liked every flavor I’ve tried. This is my #1 superstar grab-and-go bar when I don’t have time to think about breakfast but need to eat something with my coffee en route to work. I buy another mixed-box every time I run out, I wish that they sold these at Costco because I’d buy the bulk size.

3. Nécessaire’s The Body Lotion - I’m almost done with my second tube of this body lotion and will absolutely be buying a third. Every time they have the little trial/travel size bottles in the Sephora beauty bazaar I cash in some points for the minis as well. This body lotion feel amazing, sinks in quickly, isn’t greasy or oily, and is truly unscented. Honorable mention to their body wash, which is one of my only splurgy replacements for the next item on my list…

4. Basis soap - This stuff is classic. It’s perfection. Affordable, less plastic waste than most bottles of body wash, makes my sensitive skin happy, perfect transportability for travel, and a simple and soapy smell (no heavy fragrance)… it’s just the best. At ~11 bucks for six bars it’s a bargain, and I’ve only had to repurchase once because six bars last me a nice long while.

5. Farmacy Honey Butter Lip Balm - This balm is (pun intended) chefs kiss. Part-way through my first tube of it, I lost it and within 24 hours went out to buy two replacements. It is hands-down my favorite lip balm that I’ve tried in a long time. Love the smell of beeswax, so having it right beneath my nose feels like an absolute delight and it isn’t sticky or oily (I am decidedly not a lip oil person for daily-wear).

6. Smints Breath Mints - This is a childhood throwback that I’m still in love with as an adult. I buy these by the box, they’re hands-down the best breath mints ever. The dispenser is clean in a way that I love with its little push button on top dispensing one mint at a time out of the bottom. Smints give Altoids a run for their “curiously strong” money, and they’re tiny. I have them in pretty much every bag that I own, in my desk drawer, in the car… everywhere. Sometimes they’re a pain to order online, but that’s why I buy them by the box and it’s always worth it to me.

At least half of these favorites can be found in my bag on any given day (Mezcla bars, honey butter lip balm, and smints) and all six are used on a daily (or near-daily) basis. They’ve all been repurchased one or more times, and will all be repurchased again. These are the favorites that I love seeing from other people as well.

Life Lately

The other day I was talking with a friend about the early days of YouTube and social media. I was mentally yoinked back to the days of Tumblr (back when tumblarity was still a thing) and, before that, LiveJournal (the original, where I would spill my guts and share all about my day as a 13-16 year old complete with the perfect emoji to indicate my “mood”). It honestly left me wishing for that kind of real-time “journaling”-like blogging again.

Maybe with less TMI details, but something to look back on and reflect where I was compared to where I am.

Lately, life has felt super up-in-the-air. I wish that I could slow down for more than a weekend here and there. I wish it were possible to take some kind of a gap year (or even half-year!) to figure things out, like some do either before or after college. Alas, the bills, responsibilities, and need for health insurance are very different in your mid-30s than your early 20s.

I’ve been fully rejected for both my dream job and all lower-level positions that may help me someday reach my dream job and I’m burnt out from applying. At this point I just want to find a whole new career, one that might suit my life and interests a bit better, but I don’t know what that might be anymore.

We’ve essentially abandoned our home search - not only because everything is beyond anything we could possibly afford, but even while looking at homes beyond our means, they’re not the style we’re interested in. Our old little apartment suits us fine for now though, and we can still afford it.

So many of the homes for sale around us have been renovated in the same cookie-cutter way, either with additions or full demo-remodels that have extended the cute bungalows that once were to the very edge of the property. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of home if it’s what you want, but it isn’t what we want and it isn’t our style. Sometimes I worry that my ideal home will cease to exist, that they’ll all be changed instead of restored, if I don’t hurry up and find it.

I’ve been trying to focus on all of the good I have around me… I’m honestly grateful for the apartment we have, in its prime location with rent control. We can’t own it, but we enjoy it immensely. While I wouldn’t say that I’m happy with my job right now, I am happy with my health insurance and I’ve been trying to make the most of the time I do have off. I’ve tried over the past year to spend as much time as possible outdoors, going for more hikes, walks at the beach, and trips to the lake in the Adirondacks.

I’m grateful for my family, my cats, and our new superstar pup named Paco who came into our lives just when we needed him the most.

Shifting focus like this really does help me amidst a world of feeling lost. Indulging in simple pleasures like an amazing candle or splurging on the nicer bottle of wine instead of the cheaper option can make the day-to-day feel special as well, as material and superficial as that may sound.

Clean Your Fridge

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but clean up your refrigerator. Not the inside – though if that needs a scrub down, by all means – but the outside. We had wedding invitations, thank you notes, grocery lists, and recipes strewn across our refrigerator for so long, it didn’t only need a pare-down, but a full cleaning. I’m talking Clorox and Magic Erasers to clean up the inevitable grease and grime that seems omnipresent in a well-used kitchen.

Save-the-dates and postcards went into a keepsake box and old receipts were thrown away. One quick swipe revealed how bright-white that door was supposed to be, and wow, it feels great to see it now!

Because we had so many layers of memorabilia and ephemera, we didn’t notice how gosh dang dirty the refrigerator door had become.

There’s breathing room between favorite magnets (linked here) and keepsake items and more room to make words and notes with our magnetic Scrabble tiles (link to similar but slightly different).

So as silly as it may sounds, if you need to, clean up your refrigerator.

Moody Shopping

When I’ve got the itch for an unfeasible shopping spree – either due to budget or physical space – I like to make myself a little wish list. Sometimes there is rhyme and reason to the list, full of items that look nice together or are meant to be used for similar purposes. Other times they’re just nice little objects that have tickled my fancy.

This works well for me for two reasons:

1. If I still want the item and I’m still thinking about the item however many months later, I must really want it. Making the purchase would, at that point, likely be well thought out and no longer impulsive.

2. Assuming I still want the item, I can take my time setting money aside for it or making space for it in my life.

These are some of the things that I’m admiring (but not currently up for purchasing) right now.

1. For any other Wes Anderson fans… Hotel Chevalier Dressing Gown via The Society of the Crossed Keys

2. A fabulous summer bag to go with everything via ALTICASTORE on Etsy

3. Werner's Nomenclature of Colours: Adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Anatomy, and the Arts by Patrick Syme because it just looks like a neat book to flip through

4. Like I need another mug to squeeze into my overflowing cabinet, this one from MoMA Design Store is just great

5. I’ve been admiring this Bodum coffee maker from MoMA Design Store for more than six months

Montréal, QC

2023 has been a year of very, very minimal travel. I visited family a couple of times but didn’t spend much time exploring new areas (or even revisiting old favorites). This past weekend, I finally took a little-big adventure to Montréal to see a Christmas market, eat some gluten free croissants, and enjoy the snow.

I managed to see the Great Christmas Market twice. At first visit (the evening of Thursday, November 30th); it was relatively quiet, which allowed for plenty of time to mosey about, explore the stalls, see the goods, and enjoy a cup of mulled wine and hot cocoa. Our second visit was on the weekend; it was absolutely packed, lively with music and people dancing, and had an amazing and exciting atmosphere.

Both had me excited and fully in the holiday spirit!

If you know me, you know I cannot resist handmade ceramics and pottery. I found a booth with the most beautiful pieces, including small mugs! There’s something about a small mug that makes whatever is inside of it feel extra special, like a little treat… so you know that I couldn’t resist purchasing one as a souvenir.

Montréal had some of the most beautiful looking bread and pastries I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, being a celiac girly, beyond admiration and adoration, I couldn’t try any of it… except from an incredible bakery near where I stayed called Le Marquis Signature Santé. Oh my moon and stars, I have not had so incredible a croissant in a decade at least. These beat out every gluten free pastry I tried in Paris. I tried the chocolatine (pain au chocolat/chocolate croissant), the croissant almondine (almond croissant, my personal all-time favorite), and the original croissant as a smoked salmon sandwich. Wowowowow… I rearranged my entire luggage just to bring a frozen pack of six chocolatines home with me. I’m in love! I would honestly make the short flight back with a near-empty suitcase just bring home more in the future, because I want these as a little weekend breakfast treat forever and ever. They had so many other beautiful, incredible looking pastries as well, I genuinely really want to go back sometime.

About 48 hours into my stay, the snow finally arrived… en masse! I was *so* excited, I love the snow and look forward to it every year. I love fall as well, but I tend to call myself a “winter person”. And don’t get me started on snowy days at the beach!

I made the choice to briefly live in Vermont down the street from my grandparents, and I’m not even a skier. For about two days I just kept walking all over the city, slipping and sliding with every step with a stupid-big grin on my face. Above all else, I think this really got me into the winter spirit and so made me miss living in Vermont. New Jersey hasn’t had much snow over the past couple years – a blessing to some, but a major disappointment for me. So it fully made my entire month getting to enjoy two full days of perfect snow!

Montréal was so much fun, but I’m excited to visit other parts of Canada in the future. I’ve been told that Toronto is a must-see, but I kind of have my eye on some more quiet and quaint, less urban areas.

I’m thankful to have had this short but sweet getaway ahead of the holidays!

Lists, lists, lists

I am a List Person™.

I make lists for pretty much everything - to-do lists, wish lists, grocery lists, pro/con lists - if there’s a thing that could be put in list form, you bet I’ve probably made it.

I also love having a sneak peek into other peoples’ lists. I follow #foundlists on Instagram (love a grocery list abandoned in a stray cart or left on shelf between cereal boxes). When people I admire share lists, offering a little glimpse into their real life, I sometimes save them for “future inspiration”. Some of these include Joy the Baker’s grocery list (via bon appétit), Joanna Goddard’s 40 forever ingredients (via Ali Slagle’s substack), and Joan Didion’s packing list (as written in her book The White Album*). Some I keep a digital copy bookmarked, others I will write down in my own personal notebook or planner for future reference.

* I highly recommend this book.

While reading The White Album, I read Joan Didion’s packing list thinking,

‘I love this, it’s so realistic - toothbrush and toothpaste, basis soap, razor, deodorant. But it also has a certain level of luxury and class - bourbon, mohair throw… unmistakeably Joan Didion.’

Joy the Baker’s grocery list includes details like “pink wine - anything in the $11-15 range, I’m not picky” and “Impulse Buys!” which include extra-large green pimento olives “for martinis”. So very relatable!

As I plan to pack for an upcoming trip to Savannah next month, I found myself considering Joan’s packing list, and as I wrote my short grocery list in preparation for the week ahead, I thought about the dozens of grocery lists I’ve read from other people. I haven’t planned much for my mini-vacation, but I thought I’d share my little grocery list and some of the things I plan to prepare this afternoon to make my week a little bit easier.

Today was a bit of a re-stock on shelf-stable/cabinet staples like capers, jam, tin fish, and coconut aminos.

From the things I plan to prepare today - quick pickle red onions, hard (or soft) boiled eggs, potatoes, vinaigrette, chicken - you might be able to get an idea of how I prepare my lunches for the week. Ingredients that I forgot to include on this list (but did pick up) include tomatoes and green beans.

I pack my lunch for work every day, in part due to my dietary restrictions, but also because it’s budget-friendly. I love to pack salads because they’re so easy for me to prep in the morning if need be, especially when half the toppings (like potatoes, boiled eggs, and pickled red onions) are already prepared.

This applies to sandwiches as well - if I cook the chicken ahead of time, I can either use it in a salad or on a sandwich.

I also happened to make a totally slamming dill yogurt dip to snack on later today and this week, it doesn’t get any easier to make:

• plain greek yogurt

  • (I used a whole 16 oz container of 0% fat Fage, but sometimes I also get the full-fat or 2% or whatever… I’m not devoted to any particular brand or fat content)

• chopped dill

  • (I use a heavy hand here… I think for the 16 oz of yogurt I used somewhere around 2/3 of a cup, give or take)

• hidden valley ranch seasoning powder

  • (This is a lazy move… you could use actual spices to your taste, but I wanted quick and easy and already had this in the cabinet, use as much or as little as you’d like.)

• dill pickle brine

  • (I get the fresh kind of dill pickles from the refrigerator section, my favorite is grillos but I’m sure that bubbies or mclures would be awesome as well… again, use as much or as little as you’d like both to thin the yogurt a bit and to get that cucumbery, briny flavor. I used a hefty splash.)

And mix! The end. I think it tastes better with time as it sits, and I like to eat it with potato chips or sliced radishes.

2023's Style Transition

Over the past several months I’ve been thinking about how my personal style has changed and transitioned over the past ten years. I felt like in my mid twenties I really started to experiment a bit more with different colors and prints, mixing and matching a lot more high end-low end pieces and finding cuts that were flattering on me.

In June I will be entering my mid-thirties and I find myself re-evaluating what style I like and what styles I want to emulate, and reflecting on how that has changed over the past decade. Even down to the clothes I wear to work - a medical laboratory where scrubs are optional, but not required - I find myself leaning towards a wardrobe that can potentially be transitioned out of the wet lab and into every day life. I am in the process of going through all of my clothes and cutting down on things that I no longer reach for. Some of them are going into storage, but many are being either sold, donated, or gifted to someone who will get more wear out of them.

To better visualize these changes, I want to take pictures of outfits that I feel good in and like wearing. I want to see the things that make me feel more confident, so that I can really lean into that style. This will be a major challenge for me, as I am historically awful at remembering to take pictures of myself, and even worse at asking others to take pictures of me. I am determined to turn that around, though!

All that being said, I wore this faux leather pencil skirt to an improv show last night. It was a very different look for me, but I loved it! I’ve been giving tights a fair shot as well, starting with Sheertex, as they claim to be indestructible. So far I have ripped both pairs that I tried, so jury is still out on that one.

More to follow on this adventure…

Oil & Water

There’s something super humbling about trying something new. Allowing yourself to be an absolute beginner can be so messy; sometimes it can feel like a waste of time, a waste of materials, a waste of energy.

Yet still, I love it.

I love the “whoops” and the “what now?” and the “oh that worked!”, the trial and error of figuring it out and learning something new. I remind myself of when I first tried to crochet and wound up with a whole bunch of knots, but now I have scarves and hats. Every new hobby or skill starts out a bit clumsy,

This weekend I started playing around with oil paints. I’m not attached to this first canvas, I didn’t even know what to do with it, I just started mixing colors and saw what appeared. I watched maybe twenty minutes of YouTube videos about supplies needed, basic tips… the advice to paint “thin to thick” echoed in my mind as I struggled to keep colors from blending more than I wanted them to.

I’m excited to keep going and see what happens, little by little I’m learning something new. I had a few new years resolutions for 2023, two of them involved hobbies: learn to oil paint, learn to water paint. It took me ten months to dive in, but here I am, starting with oil before I move on to water. So I will continue to share this experience as I work through it.

Savannah, GA: What a walking city!

Savannah, GA is honestly one of the most beautiful cities I have ever had the opportunity to wander around. The trees, the architecture, the fountains, the parks... oh, so many parks. I felt like every couple of blocks there was another square with another park!

Savannah actually has 24 squares total, one of which - Chippewa Square - happens to be famous for the legendary movie Forrest Gump. You can read more about that here, but of course most everyone knows his famous "Life is like a box of chocolates," line.

Once you've wandered around the parks, a stroll by the waterfront could be lovely! I really enjoyed watching the huge liners piled high with shipping containers gliding in and out of the city.  There are a few restaurants down there where you can sit outside and watch; if you're with a friend or a partner like I was, it's a great area to split a bottle of bubbly!

Speaking of a bottle of bubbly, did I mention that Savannah has open container laws? You can actually order a glass of wine or a beer in a cup to go and bring it with you!

So how perfect is that?! Grab a glass of wine and have a beautiful wander.

Take your time to enjoy the countless fountains all over the city. Each square has a little piece of Savannah history documented, so there's plenty of history to learn.

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is down there, so you know you're gonna find a ton of original artwork to check out.

The weather is gorgeous throughout most of the year, nice and sunny and warm; so if you're like me and half the year is a bit on the cold and damp side, it's a perfect little mini-vacation spot down in the south.

I highly recommend you leave time in your trip to Savannah to let yourself walk and wander and take it all in. It's a really beautiful small city with lots to see!

Savannah, GA: The Olde Pink House

There's something really magical about an all-pink-everything institution like The Olde Pink House. When I say all pink, I mean it. Pink walls, inside and out. Pink menus. It's like they knew 'millennial pink' was going to be a thing before it ever was! 

But, really... this place is quintessential old-school charm Savannah. It can be tight to get a reservation, but I'm certain it would be worth it. We did have a reservation, and we (perhaps foolishly) gave it up at the last minute. We just wanted to hang out at the bar and enjoy some appetizers in lieu of full entrees. While I'm sure on another evening a full dinner here would have been very special, we really just wanted some shrimp n' grits and a couple of drinks.

Of course I had to enjoy some rosé! The weather outside was hot, and, let's be real... when you're in a pink house, you enjoy a pink drink!

The shrimp and grits were absolutely delicious, super creamy and cheesy. AKA: everything I look for and more when I'm on vacation in the south.

It was the perfect, laid back evening. The bartender was friendly and conversational, the atmosphere was very comfortable and a bit whimsical.

If/when we return to Savannah, we'll be sure to stop by again! Maybe even for a full dinner...?

Geysers are bonkers...

These little hot springs are just so mystifying.

The previous time I saw the geysers in Iceland, it was snowing very hard, it was very cold and very windy, and the great explosion evaporated immediately upon blast-off. This time, it couldn't be more different!

The geysers seemed to be eternally deep and the colors were absolutely beautiful. 

Like last time, catching Strokkur mid-explosion is a little bit tricky. It is significantly easier to catch it in the summer than it is in the winter, though. In winter, it's so cold out, the water just immediately evaporates post-boom.

When you're walking around the park in the summer, every so often you'll get a slight mist one or two geysers over from the explosion.

If you're in Iceland and doing the Golden Circle, I definitely recommend stopping at the Geysers! It certainly won't be the quickest stop you make all day, but