new job nails

I’m employed!!

It’s almost 3 weeks since I started my new job.  It was crazy being unemployed for so long after leaving my last job to move to Portland.  I was so happy to have so much free time, but the lack of income was starting to make me queasy! My new job is at ZGF, it’s an architecture firm in downtown Portland.

I wanted to do some I’m-excited-I’m-finally-employed-again nails, so I painted office supplies on my nails.  I was planning on re-doing the stapler (I don’t think it’s recognizable enough and it should be flipped the other direction to match the other supplies) but of course life happened and they’ve stayed as they were. (also the notebook should be shaded in white… maybe next time)

mani monday

One week done! 

Since I started a new job last week I decided to keep it mellow with my nails. Last week I went with pink...plain pink, no nothin' solid color pink. 

This week I added a little more. My plan is to do a slow build, so here's my first attempt at simple:

wishful wednesday {office supplies}

Soooo, is it weird that I have a "dream cubicle" ?

There's only so much "sprucing-up" you can do in a beige box.  I have my coloful little picture corner, but everything else only exists in the rainbow of black and brown from the alternate universe that is the office supply warehouse. So here are some fun desk accessories I've come across that would be wonderful and welcome additions to my whimsy-less work existence. . .

Tape Dispensers are always black or gray and come from swingline, but these cuties would be a fun replacment:

 17.99 at ruche.

24.00 at anthropologie

Sticky notes are my favorite part of our office decor, they come in so many colors and since I order the supplies I can pick any color I want (was that a sad thing to brag about?) but these "Leaf-it" notes from Appree are even better:

Aren't they beautiful? So far they come in Original (the slender green leaf at the top), Ginkgo, Maple, Oak, Ivy, and Cherry Blossom.  I just want to cover my walls with them and, from the looks of it, so does everyone else:

 via.

 via.

 via.

Need to keep it together?

I've been pretty bummed that these Poopy Tasks Binder Clips aren't available any more, they have other sets over at knock knock, but none of them are as funny as these.

 4.00 at Omoi Zakka Shop

If you're too classy for poop clips than maybe these Mondial Lus Italian push Pins are more your style. So pretty, and who doesn't love something from Italy?!

My all time favorite office supply are these animal D-clips from Japan, I got some last year for everybody at work as a party favor at our holiday dinner, but I want the whole set:

6.99 each at Tokyo Pen Shop

They are so cute and awesome, and so much better than regular paper clips. Why keep your papers together with some boring loop when you can do it with a Hippo!!!!!


Have you seen enough?     No?

Great! There's more! . . .
Awesome wood "USB Sticks" - get it?! sticks!!

 29-39 euros at oooms

Beautiful labels and number clips from the Brass Collection (for you classy people who didn't get that awesome stick joke)

 20.00 at baum-kuchen

 18.00 at baum-kutchen

and an Adorable Wood Whale to hold your random necessities

65.00 at The Utility Collective

There are so many awesome, hilarious and beautiful desk accessories out there so why do we all use the same dull black generic junk?

So how about you? Do you dream of piggy paper clips and a hot pink stapler? Have you never ever thought this much about a post-it note? Or are you now under the impression that I'm a crazy person?

Tell me, I want to know!!!

quarter century talk

25!!

It doesn't feel any different than 24, but it sure does sound different!

Today is my half birthday, I've been 25 for six months. Back in April I talked about going through the oh so silly yet oh so real and common quarter life crisis, and it's only been heightened since the slew of weddings we've recently been to.

Do you ever think about where you thought you'd be at your age now, when you were younger?

When I was 14 I was sure that I'd be having kids when I was 26, and now that just seems like the most ridiculous timeline I've ever heard. It's funny to think about the expectations and deadlines you set up for yourself when you were younger and had no real life experience. With every t.v. show and movie you see, every "milestone" year seems like it should be a big life changing moment.  Like when I was 8 and watching Clueless over and over again , Cher is supposed to be 16! It made 16 seem so old and mature, like everyone was completely independent. Then I turned 16 and I was still a kid, nothing really changed. 

And now at 25, an age that always sounded so adult, I still feel like a kid, I mean I definitely don't feel like a grown-up yet (for example I still call adults "grown-ups"). I'm not ready for weddings and babies and buying houses, I'm still trying to balance what will make me happy and what will pay my loans off. Some people get there quicker but I feel like for most of us, those deadlines are unrealistic. I'm at the age now where many of my friends are getting married, everyone is telling me, "oh, just you wait a couple years when all your friends are having children, that's the real kicker." We can't even afford the time and money it takes to own a dog, let alone do all that marriage/house buying/baby stuff!!

I feel like everyone goes through these stressful "crisis" periods because we are given so many expectations to live up to. And I know that a lot of them we put on ourselves but it's hard to let go of what 14 year old Aly thought was reasonable and right.

I want to do all those things, but dagnabbit, I'll do them when I'm good and ready!

bloga-joba-versary

Holy Guacamole!

It's my 2 year workiversary and my 1 year bolgiversary.
How the heck did that happen?

It's hard to tell where the time went.  One year ago today I wrote this post. I still feel the way I did then, I've been a little better at pushing myself to be creative in my personal time, but still there's something missing. A feeling of self-satisfaction? Of accomplishment? Or maybe just the ability to believe it when I tell myself there will be more than this. You get a little disillusioned when you sit in a florescent lit box for too long. I know I have to change something, but where do you even begin?

I'm still excited about this blog, and I still feel (as I said back in July) that it is a great motivator.  But I need to take it further. It's so easy to come home, sink into the couch and stare at a screen all night, and it's so easy to sleep the weekends away. Seriously, So. Easy. But I really have got to get my patootie off this couch and do something productive with my time (yes dad, you've been right all along).

I have so many ideas running though my head but I'm always putting things on hold until there's more time, space, money, and so on in the never ending list of excuses.  I'm somehow frozen by the fear that this is it, that I've found my career . . . and it's beige.

The funny part is how common these feelings are.  Just about everyone goes through it and, for the most part, gets past it.  I read at least one story a week about someone clawing their way out of the depths of their cubicle. It's frustrating being in the middle of a problem and knowing the possible solution but not being able to bring yourself to the execution.  All it takes is doing. But it's so much easier to sit. I've been a sitter for almost 25 years. So, what's it going to take to get me to stand up?

. . .  welcome to a quarter life crisis

it's been too long

I know, I know, excuses, excuses.

Sorry for my little hiatus there.  It was completely unintentional, I don't even know how it's already Wednesday again.  Somehow, against my will, work has taken over my life.  When I'm not at work, or thinking about work, I'm trying to rest up so I can get work done . . . at work.  The sad part about all this is that I don't have some wonderful dream job.  I know I mentioned that work has been a bit hectic last time I went to the farmers market, but it's been a while since I've talked about what I do, or want to for that matter.

For me starting a blog was about taking responsibility.  I have always been terrible at self-motivation.  I got work done in school and worked very hard, the studio was my second home, but I'll admit I got the work done because I had to.  It was much easier to keep practicing art when there were critiques to complete pieces for, equipment and space to use, and a room full of peers who were educated in my practice and interested in what each other was working on.  People who you could bounce ideas off of and (unbeknownst to them) compete with.  It's something I don't like admitting and I must say am a little ashamed of, but I have not made a single print since my last class at SAIC about 2 years ago, I want to, I just haven't.  Since I went to art school, most of the people I know here in Chicago are artist, and let me tell you, that last sentence was blasphemy.  When I go out and see the kids I went to school with the fact that I have a well-paying 9-5 is nothing compared to the painting they completed last night, it's a strange world, and I chose the unpopular route.

Since graduating I have found other ways to be creative, ways that don't include an acid bath (in school I focused in etching which involves either nitric acid or ferric chloride - not something you can do in your living room).  Once I came to the realization that a cubicle wasn't going to be enough for me I needed something to keep me accountable, and that is why I started this blog.  It's a constant reminder to continue to do art.  It's amazing how quickly time can slip away from you, I swear yesterday it was still June and now we're almost in August.  When I log in and see that I haven't written anything in a whole week it's an indication that I need to take some time to focus on myself again.  This blog has been wonderful at keeping me motivated and creative.  Whenever I sit down and don't have anything to write about there is a little voice in my head that says "Well, then, do something about it.  If you made something then there would be plenty to write about."  That little voice is right, and it keeps me going.

It looks like work might settle down soon, and the Morning Man and I are going on a well deserved vacation to Portland for my Mom's Birthday in two weeks.  I think I'll be able to take my life back,

just as long as I keep listening to that little voice.

workiversary

Today is my 1 year jobiversary.  One year ago today I started working in this office, I was so excited I finally snagged the kind of job I wanted.  Yep, my dream job was doing administrative work in a cubicle.  In the past year I've climbed to the top of the 2 person ladder, gained a lot more responsibilities (office administrator, office manager, and personal assistant to the principal attorney), and I've learned a lot. 

A few months ago I finally had a epiphany.  After earning a BFA at one of the top 3 art colleges in the US, I actually want a job that is a little more creative. . .  I never said it was a brilliant epiphany.  You'd think I would have come to this realization 17 years ago in elementary school, when I would finish other kids' art projects for them, and get upset when the art "lesson" (painting on paper plates) would be replaced by math, because everyone was behind on their times tables.  Instead it took me 1 year at a desk.

Now, I'm no dummy.  I'm not going to go quit my job and work as a studio artist.  I've never been delusional enough to think "studio artist" could be a valid career choice.  My student loans are too high and my parents have enough worries of thier own without trying to pay for their grown daughters' rent and groceries.  But there are some changes I can make, time I can set aside, and skills I can teach myself so that one day I can work somewhere that's a little less beige.

So, here I go, first step make a blog (check). Next, make stuff . . .