Month: February 2011

Hi guys, I’ve been tagged by Brooke of Bright Wishes. It’s a little “chain game” where you answer the questions below on a piece of paper so everyone can see your hand writing. I thought this idea was kind of fun since we never get to see hand writing in the blog world. See if you’ve been tagged by me below!

Questions:
1. What’s your name / blogger name? 2. What’s your blogs URL? 3. Write, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. 4. Favorite quote? 5. Your favorite band / singers? 6. Anything else you want to say? 7. Tag 3 bloggers to participate.

* if you like this photo effect, hope over to Sydney’s blog (The Daybook) and read the excellent tutorial.

Your turn!!

This freelance project happens to be for some family members who have written a book together. The boy’s grandmother kept journals leading up to and after the death of her husband and now those journals have been turned into a book. The boy’s mother is a writer and has spent the last few years crafting this book into what it is today. Now, years later this story of grief is ready to be published and they’ve asked me to design the cover. I’m pretty excited about the whole deal, but the pressure is on to match the quality of the written material inside. I would suggest you to check oceannenvironment for guide on book cover design.

I’m on the hunt to be inspired, to find the perfect graphic treatment to bring this book to life. Let’s be honest…most people judge a book by it’s cover and in this case, that’s my cover design that is going to be judged.

Here’s a great resource for anyone else who may have a book cover design on their hands. The Book Cover Archive is lovely. I’ve pulled some covers from that site that I feel are particularly interesting and relatable to the current project I’m working on. I need something that is slightly vague but full of emotions. The first time I read the rough draft of the book I balled my eyes out in sections. The second time I read the revised rough draft, I did the same. I feel like I am getting to know my boyfriends family through this book and I am honored they want me to be a part of the process.

Here are some little nuggets of gold pulled from the book. The book is uniquely written from three peoples perspectives, the boy’s grandmother, mother and ill grandfather. It’s written in a way that brings his grandmother’s journal entries, his mother’s recollections, and his grandfather’s little love notes to life. I love it and can’t wait to see it published and shared with the world.

“I look for his obituary in the paper. How strange to see his life portrayed as a paragraph collection of facts. These vitals are as limiting as his body became. They don’t describe what a treasure he was. They don’t explain how special he was. I am thankful to have known him. I am thankful that I shared his life.”
–Jan, November 2010 (excerpt from book)

” It catches m eye from across the room- a small picture with bright colors against a dark background. As I get closer, I see a clothesline strung between bandaged trees with men’s and women’s laundry being tossed chaotically by a frenzied wind. It is only because I stand staring for so long that I finally notice the words around the frame, written in a color that is barely perceptible: “An individual doesn’t get cancer, a family does.”
–Cammie, Winter 2000 (excerpt from book)

I’ve always love looking through other’s blogs and finding the “photo an hour” posts. I think these posts have such great personality and show you little snippets from the lives of the bloggers we adore. I took a stab at this little challenge, and although I didn’t get a picture exactly every hour, I think it captured what I did yesterday when I had the day off. Enjoy!

“Wake up” chai

Mid morning snack

lazy days = lazy kitty

a snapshot of quilting “hell”

catching up on blogging

taking the pup out for a walk

taco dinner. yummy cilantro!

Well, that was kind of fun. I’ll have to try that again when I’m having a more exciting day. I was playing with camera setting today and was please when I was able to take all of these photos in the manual setting. Go me!

So there has been a post theme going around lately titled “6 confessions”. I believe this post theme started with Leigh-Ann over at Freckled Nest, and ever since she posted it I’ve loved reading everyone’s little secrets as I hop from blog to blog. I hope my 6 confessions aren’t too shocking or pathetic. (hehe)

6 confessions = things  you may not know about me.

1. I’ve never traveled or lived west of the current city I live in, St. Louis. ( lame )
2. I’m an extremely picky eater and I’m not a big fan of my food mixing on a plate.
( cross contamination! eww)
3. I have a list of boys and girls names picked out for my child to be. ( I’m totally not having a baby anytime soon, but I am obsessed with their cuteness )
4. I own all the sessions of Gilmore Girls and Sex and The City on DVD and have watched them multiple times. Never gets old.
5. I read the entire Twilight series after lots of hesitation and fell in love with it after page 1. Yes I’m 24 years old. ( I also got my mom and grandmother to read it and they loved it. )
6. I hate reading books and count down the pages until I get to the end. ( I’m trying to learn to love them. )

Wow, those were actually easier to write than I expected. Am I that transparent?? hmmm.

You can ask me more questions if you’d like to know more via my FORMSPRING page.