A Wedding, A Weekend, and the Almost Bar B Que Thieves




This weekend Sara Jane and I helped decorate (and of course attended) Emily Bailey's wedding to Will Dalzell (pictured above in the foreground). It was a nice ceremony in New Ellenton, SC in a small church on a hilltop. The church was beautiful with an antique feel complete with stained glass windows even though it's a newer construction. They opted for a morning wedding at 11AM and a brunch reception that followed in the fellowship hall. The theme of the reception was English garden meets music/literary wonderland which was fitting since Emily is an avid reader, scholar, and musician, and Will is a landscape architect. Rather than serving cake at such an early hour, the couple had a cinnamon roll tower and "cut the cake" by scooping out one of rolls with a serving piece and rather than a champagne toast, they toasted with coffee mugs with "Mrs. D" and "Mr. D" written on them. Tre cute!

After setting up the reception hall the night before the wedding, Sara Jane and I decided to head to the local Bar B Que restaurant down the street. We are suckers for some good bar b que especially when accompanied with an assortment of home cooked sides and rice/hash! So, we park in the tiny parking lot of the restaurant called "Carolina Bar B Que" (clever name) and observe the situation. We were looking for a place called "Duke's" and when we arrived at the wrong restaurant we wondered if we should have continued looking for dukes or if we should stay and eat at the place. While mulling over our decision, we see an interesting family enter the small establishment wearing button down denim tops, high wasted jeans, Reebok tennis shoes, and what appeared to be an entire can of AquaNet hairspray between them. It was then that we knew...it was meant to be. Following them was a man going in alone wearing black tennis shoes, white tube socks, jean shorts, a tshirt tucked in, and a baseball hat. He held the door for us and as we walked in just ahead of him we were greeted with the heavenly scent of pulled pork bar b que, vinegar based sauces, fried everything, and sweet tea. There was a buffet line we filed into, and not wanting to seem like out-of-towners we opted to just go with the buffet rather than order a sandwich which required asking an employee to make.

Along the way down the line as we pile our plates with fried okra, squash, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, green beans, rice, hash, and bar b que, we read handwritten signs detailing the rules of the restaurant. I can't remember exactly what they said, but I do know that they went something like this: "No sharing. Only take what you can eat. Do not eat off of anyone else's plate. Only take what you can eat. No taking buffet food to go. Only take what you can eat." I'm regret that I didn't have a camera to document all of this for you visually. We got the picture by the end of the buffet line, although neither of us seemed to heed the "take only what you can eat" rule which was repeated numerous times.

Heading for the tea we cruise on down the line bypassing an employee wiping the seeming empty counter space between the food and the tea. Armed with our trays and a will to eat we become confused. We hadn't payed. We didn't pay before we gathered our food, nor did we pay after, and we certainly didn't notice a cash register between the macaroni and green beans! We toss around the idea that maybe you pay when you finish eating and that way there's a record of how many times you went back to get more...but that's against the very nature of a buffet! Just then, we notice the man who walked in just behind us pulling out his wallet and nearly being charged for three buffet dinners! Once we noticed our mistake we hurried back to pay for our dinners rather than sticking a perfect stranger with the bill....although it would have been nice if it had been free somehow.

After nearly stealing our food, we sat down to enjoy our loot. It was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.!!! I don't think I'd ever had fried squash before, but I know I can't wait to eat it again. So, if you're ever in New Ellenton, SC stop by Carolina Bar B Que and have some bar b que...just be sure to pay for it :)

Inspiring Inspirations



So, I have recently felt like I hit a proverbial design brick wall when it comes to designing the hardcore/screamo band CD packaging I was assigned. It's been a little discouraging trying to come up with something that is cohesive and attractive while at the same time being of the "hardcore" persuasion. I LOVE Pandora, especially my Bat For Lashes station and have recently become increasingly fond of the band School of Seven Bells and more specifically their song "Half Asleep" which you will find in this video. It has nothing to do with screamo or hardcore music at all (which is fine by me) but I did find some inspiration to get my tail in gear and get some major work done on this packaging system.

I've been in a very "art" mood lately and have revisited my desire to be a poor man's Leslie Feist or some such artist in the musical world as well as a fine artist (which I'm sad to say I neglect due to graphic design projects even though fine art is my first love as far as art goes). So, please listen to this music and while you're at it...you should also watch this video, which inspires me to do performance art which I also have a not so secret (anymore) desire to do. If I did ever do performance art, this is what I would want to do. This video makes my heart flutter.

Also...speaking of fine art, I figure now is as good a time as any to post some pictures of some of my "fine art" which may or may not post in the desired places, so pardon my blogger novice nature. Apologies for the poor quality of some of these photos, I just used cell phone pictures that were already stored on my computer.


The above and below are both distorted self portraits on an anamorphic grid...who would've ever thought I could look so pretty?! PS. This was an assignment, the rest of the pieces are things that I had free reign to create, not quite as demented as these two.


Unconventional self portrait. The pink triangles stand for pink point heels representing my feminine side, silver lines connecting everything represent how I desire close relationships and to be connected to people all the time, and the circles are representative of a full life in Christ (never ending as a circle has no beginning and no end) and also art (it is shaped like an aperture in a camera) and my love for art.

Book about Sweet Potato (aka Betty) and her rug. Sara Jane wrote the content in a rhyme for me and I put it with photos I manipulated on each page to tell the story of why she is scared to leave the rug in the den.

This is a mixture of a bunch of stuff, doesn't really have a "deep" explanation, but as an art student, I could certainly come up with one for you to support my work if need be :)

My favorite piece I've ever done. Taught me a lot about what I believe is really true and how to combat lies about what women should look like, who we should be, and what we should seek. The right side is "the world's view" of women...excerpts taken from "pro Ana" web pages for anorexics. It's like a secret underground network of men and women who are so sick and blind to the truth about their bodies, health, and the truth about beauty that they support each other NOT in recovery, but in continuing to practice and pursue the eating disorder. Each excerpt is from "top 50 reasons to be anorexic" which is heartbreaking to read what they truly believe, and what I can believe also if I don't continually trust Jesus and see the truth that beauty is in Him, and that taking care of my body and not neglecting it and harming it. I do not have an eating disorder, but researching for this piece was so eye opening and challenging. It's difficult to be confronted with truth and lies and see where my heart can fool me and where I can be so easily tempted to believe those lies even if just a little.
The left side of this piece is pattern pieces cut and layered with inlaid scriptures about beauty and the creation of a woman. The more I think about it the more I think it may be like the two sides of most Christian women I know. We have the truth in us and truly love and believe it, but we often are tempted to believe and function on many lies and have to fight what is innate in us: sin.

Childhood memory: my first earrings, I was 11 and Daddy took me to Meryl Norman to get my ears pierced, then to Belk's to buy some tiny 18k gold hoops (on clearance, of course) and then to Longhorn for supper and Dunkin Donuts to pick up a dozen donuts for breakfast. One of my all time favorite memories with Daddy.

Iconic lines drawing. This is of Grandmama and all of the lines are made up of tiny icons each with a meaning and purpose of why it is where it is. For example, her neck/throat is made up of musical notes because she hums and sings all of the time; her hair made of hair dryers since she gets her hair done every single Friday, and so on.

Ceramic green tea pitcher.

Lonely Chair, first firing in the wood kiln...I LOVE the effect the wood kiln gives different glazes!
So, here's a tiny taste of my fine art stuff, hope you like it!

Bookmaking and Printmaking

Printmaking stuff:
This summer I took a printmaking class and at the end of the semester we made a book to contain all of our prints. So, I thought I'd take a picture of each print phase and share them with you.

This one is a linoleum block print of Tater called "baked potato" which is what we call her which she lays like this and tucks her paws underneath her. It was the first one I did and I'm not really very proud of it because it's messed up in several areas and is pretty clunky.


This is a chine colle aquatint print from a copper plate. It's titled "Susie Homemaker- Blue Chine Colle". This process is both fun and frustrating! You cut out colored paper to fit a certain shape within the plate, ink the plate, and then press it with glue into dampened paper and roll it through the printing press. It's so upsetting when you go through the trouble and then it comes out with the colored paper in the wrong places...but so exciting when you pull the paper off of the plate on the press and it's all in the right place! :)

Chine colle dry point print of Mama and her dog, Bailey when Mama was my age, titled "Mama and Bailey". Dry point is when you scratch into a plexiglass plate and then rub ink into the grooves, clean it off, and roll it through dampened paper in the printing press. This one is a chine colle because the image space is filled with a little bit of a tan tissue paper.

Another chine colle of "Susie Homemaker"

The original "Susie Homemaker" before the plate was etched to create the aquatint. Etching is a process that takes a long time and seems like it's going to be way more trouble than it's worth along the way but once that first print comes off the press, it's clear that it's all worth it. By the way, the process involves bevelling the edges of a copper plate, painting on a oil based ground all over the plate, scratching through where you want lines, then dipping it in an acid bath, neutralizing the acid, cleaning off the ground, and then inking the plate, cleaning it off, dampening paper, then rolling it through the printing press. Very involved process, but with lovely and controllable results.

Bookmaking stuff:


This is the book I made for the prints. This was a fun thing to learn how to do because now I can make sketchbooks, cookbooks, guestbooks....for example:



This is the guestbook I just finished making for Emily Bailey's (soon to be Dalzell) wedding. It's lined with green and the pages have deckled edges and i drew green lines on the pages so that people could sign in an organized fashion. The leaves are 3d and the veins in the leaves I pressed into a groove on the coffee table so that they would pop out. What do you think?

Still Alive, Still a Design Student


I just realized that I need to update about being a pi chi this past fall recruitment. I have a couple pictures, not many but a precious few and some great stories to share about the experience. Somehow other worries and such seem to take over when coming back to "reality" and I don't quite get to process what all I've just experienced. The above picture is of my AOII "family". I am so excited to have two of these new girls added to our growing family. The girl in the bottom left was in my pi chi group and I LOVED her..had no idea she was going to be in my family until the night of big/lil reveal, but could not be more thrilled!

In other news: I just spent my entire weekend working on a design chaurette with four interior designers and another graphic designer, Matt. We were working to redesign the Lakeside cafe on campus. We were given no budget but just the objective to collaborate and create a new and exciting place, increase seating, make it more appealing and just all around better. Matt and I were in charge of the branding and the signage for the whole building and I could not have picked a better partner to work with...not sure if he would say the same or not. He is a great designer with awesome ideas and the talent to make those ideas come to life. We came up with a concept while talking with our interior designers and then we split off into design groups and ran with it. I also should mention that we had such talented and capable interior designers who were so easy to work with even though we didn't work with them as closely at first. They did an incredible job and I was so so so impressed with what they put together in only a few short days! Here are some pictures of the work we collaborated on and presented to a panel of judges from the school:


Bottom floor when you enter Lakeside and turn left.


I didn't get the picture that Matt worked on to get the logos placed on the chairs so all I have of this floor is the "before" rendering. Don't they look so good?! I mean, we only had a weekend and these women pulled together an impressive floor plan, design scheme, and rendering...not without consequence however. The designer who rendered these drawings was in the studio for 24 hours straight. She's quite the dedicated, talented woman!

You see above the signs that would be suspended in a frosted glass/cut out shiny glass sign hanging from the ceiling above each restaurant. We renamed and re branded all of them with their own iconic logo.
This is a rough image of the counter faces made of brushed aluminum and vinyl cut outs of the separated logo to continue the branding in an interesting, not too repetitive way throughout the building.
More signage curved to go into areas with scalloped edges and they all pop off of the wall from steel pegs.
Again, more signage on brushed aluminum backing with a frosted glass or resin material popped off with steel pegs.

This sign is a 12'x6' wall made of brushed aluminum and the logo in white is cut through to reveal a white, back lit Lucite to highlight the negative spaces within the logo. In print, the logo would be in the colors you see on the green signs.

And....I am very very very pleased to announce that after the presentations on Sunday afternoon, the scores were tallied, and I got a text message from a girl in our group letting me know that our group got the highest score out of 10 groups!!!! So the top four groups will be refining all of this and then presenting again to a different panel (auxillary services of GSU) who will make the final decision and then construction will begin in May 2010. I hope we will be chosen! How incredible it would be to see a logo and signage and everything that I had a heavy hand in creating on the campus being used and enjoyed by students for who knows how many years!?

Bamboozled

I absolutely hate this vase, counter top, etc....so I want to be sure everybody knows this is a picture from the Internet, it is not my stuff.

However, the above photo is the source of inspiration for this post title, which I must admit was something I thought up while laying in bed and I had to chuckle to myself and then find a way to work it in. I love the term bamboozled and my bamboo plant has been slowly sort of dying for the past 6-8 months, so I thought it fitting.

I bought a lucky bamboo plant two years ago and at first, it shot up like a weed and was so beautiful and green and wonderful...but then, the poor bamboo plant's fate became not so lucky. As I threw my belongings into my car and got ready to go home for Christmas break, I let my house plants sit outside to soak in some still rather warm air, breeze, and sunshine. Sadly, I absentmindedly forgot about the poor dears and when a frost set in, they were done-zo! At least the other plant was. The lucky bamboo has been soldiering on in a crispy on top curly-q for at least half of the year and I still don't know whether to get a new one and scrap this one, or just let it keep on going.

The bamboo and the other house plant are still on the back patio, at least until it gets cold because I don't think house plants have the warming, welcoming effect when they are crispy and brown. None of these pictures are my actual bamboo plant, but this is similar to what it looks like since I don't have a picture and don't want to take one right now.


I miss the days that my poor bamboo plant was this lush and lovely.

Similar to what it looked like in its former glory. This is the same vase and rocks that I have mine in.


I'm sure anybody who stumbles across my little blog here has been waiting on the edge of their seats to hear about the outcome of the tomato plant I talked about way back when. Well, I am happy to inform you that my humble little tomato plant has now yielded a total of 10 tomatoes to date! Some large, some not so large, but all very tasty. Daddy told me to pick them right before they are totally ripe so that the birds don't get them before I do. So, I put them in the window sill to ripen the rest of the way like you see above.

There is just something about a homegrown tomato that you can't beat! They taste SO much better than grocery store tomatoes. Even if mine are not the size of my head like the ones in the store, they taste 20 times better.

Speaking of tomatoes, I made a tomato pie a couple of weeks ago and brought it home to share with the fam last time I was home. It's a recipe from "My Mama Made That" the cookbook that I got for Sara Jane for her birthday last year. She made the same recipe here, you should read this post and try it even if you aren't crazy about tomatoes. Sara Jane said one girl who ate it doesn't like tomatoes but LOVED the pie!


Also, this recipe calls for basil, how handy since I also have fresh basil growing in the back yard. Gardens are so lovely to have and the growth of a plant is really pretty amazing. That reminds me of how if God loves even plants who don't have souls enough to keep them going (even my sad little bamboo) and he provides the fruit on the plants to feed the birds who will try to steal my tomatoes, and food for me, how much more will He provide for my needs emotionally, spiritually, etc. Even if I feel like I'm getting crispy and brown and not making a lot of beautiful tomatoes, he hasn't forgotten or forsaken me...he'll just prune and garden until I'm lush and fruitful. Wearing out a metaphor? Well, Jesus used the plant metaphor so I figured I'd just follow suit. Funny how when something hits you what Jesus was saying just suddenly sinks in in a new and fresh way. I love that about the Bible and Jesus. As Sammy quotes all of the time "the bible is deep enough for an elephant to wade in, yet shallow enough for a child to play in", there's always more to know and little by little it is being revealed more to me and I hope to you as well.
 

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