A sad time for Oklahoma.

This isn't a political Blog at all whatsoever.

But this IS a blog written by an Oklahoman about creativity.

Things like this seek to squash creativity, freedom of expression,

and appreciation of other cultures.

Well, silence hasn't always been my strong suit,

and I guess sometimes that isn't such a bad thing.

-Angela

108 breaths.

108 Mala beads. A gift my boyfriend brought back for me from Singapore when we first started dating.

The number of beads on the Mala is meant to help keep track of breaths or mantras done when practicing.

Sometimes things come along right at the times we need them.

Just when you have lost faith in happiness, faith in kindness and compassion.

Life proves you all wrong.

You never saw it coming.

And it's better than anything you were planning.

I always thought that if something wasn't happening...

well then gosh darn it I would make it happen.

It is how I approach most things in life.

It works out well with a career, goals, dreams.

But there are two things I know for sure don't work this way.

Love and Growth.

I am glad I sat still in the quiet long enough to let them find me.

Counting my breaths.

Instead of continuing to circle the labyrinth in vain.

-Angela

Goodbye Oklahoma Summer...

I know summer has officially been gone for a few weeks now.

But I think today it finally really hit me.

When I woke this morning for work,

the sunlight that normally wakes me was just a little dimmer.

The sky is now overcast, and as I type I am glancing out my window to water droplets falling from gray clouds.

Looks like Ill be running in the gym today and not outside...

These photos are a couple weeks old, from the last actual weekend of summer. I was thinking I might go the whole summer without going to the lake, but at the last minute was invited to Lake Eufaula for a lovely weekend. We spent the whole day Saturday on the lake laughing and soaking up as many rays as we could, but were reminded of reality when Sunday morning we were greeted with jacket weather. We truly had enjoyed the last day of summer in the best way possible.

Well, I've never been good with goodbyes

so I just needed to say it one more time.

-Angela

Debbie Millman.

Had the pleasure of meeting the design hero of many last night, Debbie Millman. She spoke at the Montgomery for the Oklahoma City chapter of AIGA about the science of the human brain, why we have the need to "brand" things, how humanoids are reconnecting and rehumanizing technology with social networking, and about augmented reality and where she thinks technology is going with it. REALLY enlightening talk. 

Above are a few pics of her, her book, a few brands in Sterling's portfolio, and us last night. 

If you don't already know about Debbie Millman, here are a few facts: 

Debbie Millman is President of the Design division at Sterling Brands, New York, host of the radio show "Design Matters" on DesignObserver.com, the Chair of the new Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts, a contributing Editor at Print Magazine, a design blogger for Fast Company and an author on the design blog Brand New. She is the President of AIGA and the author of three books: How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer (Allworth Press, 2007),Essential Principles of Graphic Design  and Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design. (HOW Books, 2009). How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer is currently in its fourth printing and has been translated in four languages. A sequel, How To Think Like A Great Brand Designer, will be published by Allworth Press in 2010.

Do you guys have any creative heros?

-Angela

Self Portrait.

Sometimes you don't even need to be in the picture to take a self portrait. 

Been reallllyyy busy the past couple days. But wanted to drop in and read a few posts from my fellow bloggers. Hope you guys are having a lovely week. 

-Angela

Snow Day.

Pics from yesterday. ;) The boredom in my house was too much and we decided to get out and take some pictures. Didn't take long before we were right back in the house and making another pot of coffee, though.

But man, snow produces some pretty flattering lighting. Gonna have to take advantage of this a little more.

Happy snow day!

-Angela

Gratitude Days - Fun Work Projects.

Brochure I just got back from the printer. 3 color foil stamped on deckle edge paper. 

Hello to the 3 of you that read this. :) 

Halloween was a blast. Hope everyone had fun!

Anyway, I've been having a kind of weird, stressful past couple days, with preparing for the move and all, so I just wanted to take a minute to be grateful for having a fun job. Especially in this economy. 

I just got my fav project I have worked on so far back from the printer on Friday! A brochure for The School of Visual Arts. A school within the private university I work for. I am grateful because I was given so much creative freedom with it. I am always given quite a bit of freedom, but they really let me go pretty wild with this one. :) So it was super exciting to see the finished product. 

Anyway, I normally try to leave work related things off of my blog but I had so much fun doing this project that I couldn't just keep quiet. Maybe sometime I'll get brave enough to post pictures of the inside and let all you fellow designers out there pick it apart. Haha. 

Have a great day guys. Maybe gratitude will bring me luck and mine will get a little better. :)

-Angela

Ghouls Gone Wild.

Halloween is right around the corner! But I've practically been celebrating all month long. It is my favorite holiday.

So for some reason in OKC everyone decided to have the Halloween events the weekend before Halloween, which kind of defies logic to me. But I was also secretly happy about it because I feel like I get to celebrate Halloween longer. :)

The only problem was the costume. I hadn't made mine yet! So at the last minute I decided I was going to participate in our Halloween Parade that was started by The Flaming Lips 3 years ago. This was the third year that, as a finale of the Halloween parade, they round up 1000+ people to dress up as skeletons and march the parade with flaming torches (with real fire), called "March of a Thousand Flaming Skeletons". While Wayne Coyne follows behind in a giant hamster-ball-like spacebubble. It's quite a spectacle if you have never seen it. And me and my friend Christa decided to be a part of it this year.

I managed to bring my camera and snap a few pictures. It was extremely dark at the parade so it was kind of hard not to get blurry shots, but some of the longer shutter speed pics came out pretty fun.

Needless to say, even friends we have known for years didn't recognize us.

Doing the make-up was a challenge and well, pretty fun.

The line when we got there was so long. Inside Wayne was commanding the masses of skeletons.

Standing in line for our torches, I snapped a couple of pics of the insane lights and inflatable costumes that were to be surrounding Wayne and his Spacebubble.

The floats ranged from the creepy, to the whimsical.

So did the costumes. (yes, that is me on the left.)

My torch.

Christa looking sinister. Along with the rest of the skeletons behind us.

Then of course I had to start playing with my camera. Long shutter speeds are too much fun when there are torches around.

Halos. And lines.

We were starting to march. This was our first curve around a corner. I loved the movement in this shot.

You can very vaguely see the crowd to the side. The walk was nearly 2 miles and the sidewalks were packed the whole way down.

Before I knew it, the march was over, so I turned around and snapped that picture of the skeletons walking towards me, going back as far as the horizon.

The photographers all gathered around to try to get shots of Wayne.

Then Wayne emerged from his Spacebubble, and was sped away in a golf cart.

So we walked back to McNellies to have a drink and plan the rest of our evening.

Happy Halloween guys. Hope you have a good one. :)

-Angela

Gratitude Mondays - Artistic collaboration with friends

Kidnapped In Dreamy Llama Country. Click to see the photos. http://quickmechanism.com/kidnapping/

I am not good at this whole blogging thing due to my ADD inherited trait of getting my days mixed up. Oh well. I guess the whole point is to be grateful once a week right? :)

Anyway. I would like to say I am grateful for my friends affording me the opportunities to be part of their creative projects. For me, being creative all alone isn't nearly as much fun as having someone there to bounce ideas off of, have fun with, and occasionally i get to be the guinea pig, which is always fun. 

My friend Derek Doublin took this set of pictures of me back in July. He tells me more are on the way, which I can't wait to see. He drug me out to Jones, Oklahoma to take these pics and it was a blast. Some were taken at the local swap meet, some in the middle of nowhere. I have to say, since I've been taking pictures for a while it was nice to be in front of the camera for a while instead of behind it. Derek is truly a wonderful artist and very good at what he does. 

Derek also has a website and poetry blog:

http://www.quickmechanism.com/

http://www.upsidedownlawnmower.com/

Just another thing to be thankful for. 

Gratitude Mondays - Home.

Me at my current apartment. I love the layout of the place. It was built in the 1920s and has tons of charm, faux fireplace, beautiful hardwood floors, tons of 1920s touches. But the constant need for repairs, my upstairs neighbors, and a slew of other potentially disastrous things that have me currently staying at friend's houses much of the time. It has all finally caused me to turn in my 30 days notice. 

It has been a while since I actively did a post on being grateful. I've learned that Friday isn't the most convenient of a day for me to do this sort of post. Fridays are always crazy. So I am going to try Sundays or Mondays for a while. And since right now I am stressed out and frustrated about my apartment falling apart. I think now is the best time to take a step back and be grateful for some things. 

Can't wait to be doing this again. Ahh the joys of living alone. 

I've noticed that during stressful times, being grateful is one of the only things I can do to bring me back to sanity and rationality. I've been through a lot of crappy situations, and gratitude is always a fail proof way to remain Z e n during a storm. 

While looking through endless ads for duplexes and houses in the OKC area, preparing myself for another move. I put up my own ad in the housing wanted section, marketing myself as a good tenant (which was surprisingly successful)... But I learned while looking through the other housing wanted ads, that my situation could be so much worse. 

An essential of being a bachelorette. A proper floordrobe. And an unmade bed. (this isn't my room, just a funny pic)

I do have a place right now. I am inconvenienced but not completely homeless. I am not running away from an abusive spouse or made homeless by a hurricane. I have not gone through a fire and lost all of my belongings. I have money for a first months rent and deposit and am not having to negotiate my way into having more time or relying on the generosity of someone to let me pay it off. 

The favorite of my coffee table books. Best 50 cents I've ever spent. 

Just a book of photos and biographies of people that live alone in various cities. 

I have some control over my situation, although it is annoying. I do not have children that are relying on me to provide a safe place to go. I have a great job. And although getting a roommate would save me a ton of money, I can afford to live by myself modestly. And I don't mind handing over the extra cash in order to save me the headache. 

I am grateful for the potential places I have found that are adorable and surprisingly affordable. I am grateful to be moving into a better neighborhood. I am grateful for finding landlords who seem much more sane. Grateful for soon no longer having to share a porch with anyone. Not having to worry about noises outside of my house. Soon I will not have upstairs neighbors. 

Definitely will be making yet another trip here very soon. I go here every time I have to move.

Another essential for a cheapo bachelorette living alone. Or for cheapos in general.

There aren't a lot of situations that are much more frustrating than to have something go wrong at the place you call home. The place you are supposed to go to retreat from the stresses of the world. No one wants to have a stressful day at work only to come home to more stresses. But I am grateful for the fact that this situation is manageable and temporary. 

I am grateful that I have something to be excited about. and not just frustrated about. 

-Angela