Mail

I love mail, and I rarely get it because I am terrible at sending it. So today when I came home from making lattes I was super surprised to see two letters sitting on my kitchen table. One from Carolyn in CO with a copy of a photo of us outside of mets stadium. Absolutely glorious.

The other was from Greg, which contained my lumberjack. I think I need to start a collection.

Here he is.


ALSOOOO Speaking of lumberjacks:

You can listen to the new Iron and Wine album in it's entirety on Myspace

I love Sam Beam

Into the Wild

This book changed a lot about how I look at the world. I hope the movie does it justice.

Book Autopsies

Crazy ridiculously awesome book sculptures from Brian Dettmer.

"Brian Dettmer carves into books revealing the artwork inside, creating complex layered three-dimensional sculptures."

More Horsepower

Here's a VW ad Greg sent me in honor of my new golf.


so clever.

To whom much is given, much is expected.

My new title is, "Haley Smith: Assistant Designer-Home for the Urban Design Department". I got a job yesterday. Not just any job, but my dream job. I get to sit around all day and design the coolest stuff ever. And we take field trips to flea markets.

I now have a way to pay for my new car, and on top of all this I get to live with Kendra Acker in Wilmington in what she assures me is the cutest apartment ever.

This is what I get to design.

Here are my favorite ladies helping me celebrate. My new roomie is in the corner opposite me in the black tank top. I LOVE KENDRA! Joel, Melissa, and Donna also came to dinner to celebrate.

Galileo!

I got a new car today. Crazy right? It's a lovely 2005 Volkswagen Golf with 26,000 miles. On the way home Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" was playing on the radio so I decided I should name it Galileo. Hopefully we'll do some amazing exploring together.

Wedding Photos

I photographed my first wedding today for Cheryl and Athen. I worked with Cheryl at Starbucks and was flattered/terrified that she asked me. I'm really excited about how they turned out. You can't go wrong with a beach wedding.

Here they are.


And this is the lovely Erica.

Wooden

This would be the sweetest wedding ring of life.


Don't worry I'm not getting married until I'm 35.


I found this on the PoppyTalk website.

We're HOME

Carolyn and I are back a little early from our new england road trip. You can see all my photos on my facebook account, but here are some of my favorites.

Syracuse Gnome


Me and Carolyn kayaking on lake champlain


Birdman in Montreal


Poutine


Bug Light Maine


People I met walking on the rocks



Boston Aquarium Jellyfish


Carolyn, Lauren, and I with my favorite hat in CT


Time Square


And we finished with hanging with one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, Danielle, watching a mets game.

Road Trip!

I'm gearing up for my New England roadtrip with my favorite road tripping buddy Carolyn. We're headed to Syracuse, Burlington VT, Montreal, Portland ME, NYC, and CT. I can't wait to visit some of my favorite people I haven't seen in months, and explore the great northeast. I plan on eating some maine lobster, touring the Ben and Jerry's factory, and scoping out the Poutine. I also want to find a sweet new job interview outfit.

Not to mention finding the incarnation of this guy.

My burly creative lumberjack.

Lunch Boxes

Anyone who has seen my green giraffe lunchbox will know exactly why I appreciate these.

I discovered it while browsing Oh Joy.

On the Road

I bought this adorable travel journal off of Etsy just in time for my New England road trip with Carolyn.



What is the feeling when you're driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -it's the too huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.
-Jack Kerouac

RIP

Let's have a moment of silence for my lovely 1991 Toyota 4Runner. It is officially dead, and I am transportation-less for an indefinite amount of time since I have no idea what this next year is going to look like.

RIP Buddy, you treated me well.

Lunar Eclipse

One of the very few good things about waking up at 4 in the morning to go into work to make coffee is that I got to see the lunar eclipse that happened two nights ago. It was pretty cool, and explained why my neighbors were sitting outside at such an odd hour.


image is from the make blog.

Corey Arnold

This guy makes me want to be a documentary photographer. Anyone know of any great subject matter to document?

Cooking

I love how cooking. I love the food network, I love making new recipes and getting my hands covered in deliciousness. I also love how making certain recipes and eating certain foods can remind you of people and places, and how great it is to share food with one another.

For instance tonight I made a caesar salad and homemade crepes for dessert.

•The recipe for the salad is Ginger's infamous salad dressing...though mine never tastes as good as hers. I think I need a salad spinner.

•I wrote the crepe recipe down in the recipe book Donna, my old wonderful roommate and adopted sister gave to me for my birthday.

•I shared the meal with my mom who loves when I'm home because I do things like grocery shopping and cleaning the fridge.

•The crepes reminded me of this amazing banana, nutella, and whipped cream crepes Adam and I had in London while on an adventure to scope out Wimbledon.

•Then I made a crepe especially for my friend Megan who is leaving for college tomorrow since I wanted to get her a gift but no one needs another thing they just need to find a place for.

Food is good.

Light Bulbs

I had the best day yesterday. It was my day off and the only major thing that I did was change the broken light bulbs in our house. The porch light has been out for over a year and required a ladder and screws, the lights over the sink have been out for over two years, and the light in our fridge which was the kicker had been out for a week and a half. So I went down to lowes found my odd shaped bulbs after extensive searching and now our house is brilliantly illuminated. And then once I actually saw how gross the newly illuminated fridge was I cleaned that out too.

I also made this amazing shrimp pasta from things we already had around the house, but went to the grocery store literally at the end of my block that I hadn't been to since the beginning of college. It was weird to really feel home. I liked it.

Tea Set

I found my tea set! It was waiting for me at the thrift store behind jiffy lube. It's got lovely silver lining, wispy flowers and scalloped edges. It is perfect. It was also $5 for 4 sets of cups and plates. I think I'm going to make crepes tomorrow to enjoy on my new lovely china.


I snapped this shot on my back deck at 9:00pm so sorry if you don't get the best view.

Digital Polaroid

Sign me up for this digital camera/printer in one.

Ugh

Sometimes life after college feels like this:

Acoustic Umbrella

I was watching MTV's the Hill's yesterday (one of my guilty pleasures) and was really impressed with this acoustic version of Rhianna's Umbrella and googled it right away. Here's what I found.

Marcus Walters

This guy makes me want to keep a better sektchbook.

design gangsta

no widows ya heard?


Thanks Phil

cake breath

I love manifestos

and quotes about cake.

"Childhood is a strange country. It's a place you come from or go to - at least in your mind. For me it has an endless, spellbound something in it that feels remote. It's like a little sealed vault country of cake breath and grass stains where what you do instead of work is spin until you're dizzy."

-Lyall Bush

Polaroid Kid

You can almost smellthe polardoid kid's photos.

Great Etsy shop.

today

Me: I should just find a sugar daddy
Other starbucks employee: I'll be your nutrisweet daddy

Sorry, all I do these days is make coffee. I'll try and find some more fun links at some point.

a lil davinci

To the ambitious for whom neither the bounty of life nor the beauty of the world suffice to content, it comes as penance that life with them is squandered and that they posses neither the benefits nor the beauty of the world. And if they are unable to perceive what is divine in Nature which is all around them, how will they be able to see their own divinity, which is sometimes hidden. - Leonardo Da Vinci

Summertime

These are my glorious friends trying to fit into one set of photobooth pictures.


Our great summer night included
a meal of crabs, corn on the cob, hush puppies and hoegaarden on the porch
arcade games (including me schooling nick in some arcade basketball)
and a midnight walk on the beach

Perfect.

More starbucks

Today at starbucks
1. An actor from the Christopher Guest movies came in.
2. when I went on my lunch break there was a maserati left on in the parking lot.
3. An 80 year old man came in with his iphone and when I asked how awesome it was he said it was, "f ' ing awesome".

Rehoboth is apparently Washington DC's Hamptons.
Quite the day. I'm exhausted.

Starbucks

You will be able to see my photos in our local rehoboth starbucks starting monday. Take a trip down, hang out with me, and enjoy a fabulous latte (I'm getting better I promise).

Heima

Please watch the new beautiful trailer for the Sigur Ros documentary Heima.

Singles Map

I found this map on a blog on a blog of strange maps, and decided that it confirmed a suspicion of a serious lack of single awesome guys in this vicinity. The pacific northwest is looking better and better.

DIY Foreign Aid

I am fascinated by micro-financing and what we can do with a little bit of money in developing worlds. I am also always suspicious of giving away money to charity and being unaware of how that money is being spent.

I found this great organization through my blog travels and decided to make my donation today. It is an organization where you can lend money to people in developing nations to start their own businesses, and they are held accountable for paying you back. I love that it teaches people discipline and care with their money. The organization is called Kiva. You scroll through people and get to read descriptions of their business ventures. You pay through paypal, and they repay you in the same way, so once your loan has been paid back you can help more people with the same $25. It's a beautiful system that keeps on giving.

Here's a great video on the work Kiva does on the NY Times Website.



I chose to donate to Matagiaila, a mother who runs her own fabric printing business.

Storm

Holga Photo from the beach the other day as a storm was rolling in.

My favorite VC alum Melissa Scotton has a new blog about all the things she loves including snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, and design.



Also be sure and check out the new boards she designed for Roxy. She's responsible for the Envi, both Silhouettes, the Sugar Inspire, and the Roxy Girl board.

Started

I'm a day into this whole vegan experiment and I've already learned a lot.

Like:
Soy hot dogs suck
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls are vegan
as well as unfrosted pop tarts
And vegan chicken wings are flipping amazing especially with this awesome ranch dip that I made with one of those mckormick ranch dip packets and nayonaise (vegan mayo).

So far so good.

Also the The Sketchbook Project Only has 185 sketchbooks left out of 500, so definitely buy one, fill it up and maybe we can all roadtrip to Georgia for the show.

Vegan?

I've been thinking a lot about becoming a vegan. Don't get me wrong I love chicken tenders and a good burger, but meat just isn't looking as appealing lately. I think it started with my uncle telling me about The China Study.

"The book examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illness such as cancers of the breast, prostate, and large bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, degenerative brain disease, and macular degeneration." Which also supports the findings from my great grandmothers book called, "Will Bible Foods Prevent Cancer".

I also got a chance to visit my friend David's chicken farm.

I had just had this little guys cousin for lunch.

And on top of that there was an episode of This American Life which went and examined a pig farm. There wasn't any slaughtering of animals or anything like that but it just seemed really unnatural.

Here's a clip.


I've been looking into alternative recipes and seeing just what I'm getting myself into. VegCooking has been a pretty good resource.

What do you guys think?

Alexandre Bettler

Really super in love with Alexandre Bettler's work, a designer from London. I found him while blog searching and recognized one of his posters from the Royal College of Art Exhibit we went to last year. His work is not overwhelmingly beautiful, but it is playful. He makes includes clever observations from the world around him. Click the picture to see more. I like the object section the best.


The full phrase on the cup is "This is my cup of tea".

State Fair Gloriousness

Went to the DE state fair last night with friends. We rode scary fair rides, I had a corn dog, and we paid too much money to see freaks that weren't really freaks. It was a beautiful night. Hopefully I'll have some sweet holga shots once the film is developed.



blurry trapeze performers

BIG WAVES!

Every now and then we get some great waves. Abby and I went body boarding. We almost died multiple times...it was awesome. Here's the surf report 8.5 ft waves which is sweet considering good waves around here is anything over 4 feet.

I want a mobile

Mobile's from shoptheescape.com

Oprah has one.

A great site, with great photography, for a great cause. Buy a meter.

Vintage

I'm digging the "new" vintage collection from Nike

haircut

So I did it anyway.
Hello grown up haircut.

The Sketchbook Project

Here's a cool project. A gallery in Atlanta, GA is sending out sketchbooks to the first 250 people who order one. You get a moleskine notebook, and fill it with sketches or writings about your fears. Then you send the notebook back and they are going to have a show with the completed notebooks. I just ordered one, at least it will keep me drawing. Click the image above for more info.

Punk Rock Flea Market

This looks like it's going to be fun.

*THIS* Saturday July 21st 10:00am to 5:00pm
At The Starlight Ballroom / Club Polaris
(460 N 9th Street - Just Below 9th and Spring Garden)
All Ages - 21+ To Drink / $3 entry donation / Tables Are Sold Out

THE PUNK ROCK FLEA MARKET - SUMMER EDITION

(100+ tables of vendors selling old records, clothes, art, music, food, junk, bicycles, stereo equipment, instruments, automobiles, tools, posters, furniture, computers, skateboards and lots of other stuff ! All proceeds goto making sure that all ages shows remain a reality at the first unitarian church !)

For a complete sellers list, visit :
http://www.r5productions.com/prfm.html

haircut

I like Victoria Beckham's new hair for me, but that would include lots of hair straightening.

thoughts?

Starbucks

I started working at Starbucks, and making frappuccinos makes me tired.

The face of the West Bank

This artist takes huge images of israeli's and palestinians with the same jobs and pastes them next to one another with goofy faces to show the similarities between the two groups.
Will it do any good? I say it can't hurt.

beach

Who says you need big waves to go surfing. It makes me really happy when I see people surfing, and making the best of the little break. This is dedication. I tried to paddle out today, but I think I should probably stick to photography. Being a girl and a beginner is super intimidating.

A photo from today.

Will it blend?

Adam sent this to me and it reminded me of when we used to put random stuff in the microwave and play "will it melt" in the studio before class junior year.

The new indie rock trend

I stole this posting from the veer site, but I thought it was too funny.

Apparently the latest male indie rock trend is to have a cat. Check out this flickr site dedicated to them.

Hilarious

I was hanging out with Abby today and since she is an avid gardener now she decided to give me her first eggplant. I was super excited about this because I've been wanting to make some baba ghanoush. Then she handed me the eggplant.

Priceless.

If a city banned advertising

Maybe it's just because I did really bad in advertising class in college, but most advertisements that collage cityscapes just leave a bad taste in my mouth.

"Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom."

This is what Sao Paolo Brazil has decided to do by passing a mandate that makes it illegal to advertise in the city. This includes billboards, on transportation, and even banning blimps. I love the idea.


Tony De Marco has taken photos documenting the new city. Click on the image above to view his flickr shots.

Mix Tape

The Burnside Writers Collective put together a sweet summer mix tape.
Download the free tracks from their favorite myspace artists at the bottom of this page.

Looks like "Blue Like Jazz" may become a movie.

Also Sarah had the great recommendation of using Pandora to set some sweet mood music for festive occasions. She says, "For example, cooking spaghetti? Type in your favorite Italian Opera singer (because we all have one... ha), and voila. Moody music. Bliss."

Sounds great to me.

Amandatron

Check out my illustrator friend Amanda's site.