I didn’t even take nine whole pictures this April—how’s that for busy? Hah. This month has been a little insane, although with all the crazy definitely comes some fun. I managed to unlock my bike from the stairs in the courtyard and went for a ride around Tybee this past weekend. I accidentally threw out the keys to the lock almost a year ago, and kept putting off fixing that issue. It was perfect weather, and a little escape like that was definitely needed, so I’m glad I honkered down and did that. Honkered is a word, right? Ok.

Most of all, I’m still trucking through with thesis and deciding on my future plans. Forget all that mush about things riding steady from last month—the volume has definitely turned up. These next couple weeks I’ll be in crazy working mode, and that means…power tools! Hoping I can hang in there and make it through in one piece—and with a masters degree in tow ;) That still seems weird to think about, honestly. When I check back in again in June, this will all be over. Terrifying and so exciting all at the same time.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful start to your spring. My allergies are finally gone—whoot! Midwest snow havers, I’m so sorry that mother nature has been turning on you. Hang in there friends. I’m sending vibes that sandals and maxi dresses are on their way. Does anyone have any big plans for the rest of this spring, or something you’re looking forward to for this summer? I feel like we can all at least start to see some of those things peeking their head around the corner. I’m excited to sit by a pool and read and galavant to farmer’s markets. That’s what summers are made of in my mind.

Oh hey, where did you go March? Between finishing up the winter quarter, spending a week catching up on personal projects, and starting a new quarter, March sure did fly by. Right now I’m knee deep in my thesis writing and I’m starting to work on the visual component. I think I finally understand the whole context to what I’m trying to work at now,  thank goodness. I do have to give a shout out to Melanie Biehle of Inward Facing Girl and her book: Blog with Purpose. While reading this over break I finally connected some dots and found the glue that I needed to hold my thesis together. Huge, huge X’s and O’s to you Melanie. Side tangent: I had the luck to meet with Melanie personally at Alt Summit in January when I attended her round table on women and community building. It’s here that I started to admire her thought process, her history, and her unique point of view to blogging. She’s super smart, and such a genuine person to interact with. Side, side tangent: Buy her e-book if you blog. Seriously, do it. If you’re looking for a new spark to light the fire in your own blogging, or you want to get nice and cozy with your brand, this book will definitely give you some new perspective.

So we were talking about March right? Right. Other than school things, my parents snuck a weekend visit in and we kind of ate ourselves silly. I loved that they were able to come back here for a visit before I leave and get to experience the town one last time. St. Partick’s Day was the weekend before and you can imagine with about two million people coming here to Savannah there was a crazy time to be had. I think March can pretty much be summed up with that whole “work hard, play hard” mentality.

Adios March, and hello April. I’m looking forward to some warmer weather—this means bright maxi dresses start to come out of my closet. Here’s to staying sane as this crazy ride called grad school starts to finish up. Eeep.

February, you’ve been good to little old me. While I didn’t have any huge events taking place, I think this February was just one of those months that was full of exploration. I’ve finally been working on the nitty gritty of my thesis, the typeface that I’m designing is coming together in a really fun way, weekends have been spent doing work/having spontaneous fun time with the man-dude, and I even was able to start doing my first DIY’s—and get that canvas painted. Boy has that been on my list for ages!

On the down-side, I have really been struggling with my health again. With a lot of this new exploration has come a lot of stress, and I definitely turn to comfort foods when I get stressed. Cake at 4PM, ok, sure. Can you guys reach out from the internet and slap my wrist the next time that happens please? I hand-lettered that little saying to hang above my desk that says: “No Excuses. For Serious.” It’s been helping—but my kitchen is on the other side of the apartment from where it’s hung ;) Blah blah, March is a new month, and my main goal is to get back on track. I’ve been starting to interview for jobs and send out some applications for post-grad life—I want to be in the right state health-wise before I start heading down that new avenue. I’ve had some exciting opportunities come my way in the past couple weeks, and I’m crossing my fingers I start to see something come of them. This month has really taken a toll on my mentality towards graduation in a big way, and I’m so full of questions. It will be great to have a little direction and I’m hoping that starts to come soon. I’m such a weirdo planner, so it’s hard. I’m sure many of you can relate to this feeling of not knowing what’s next.

Here’s to trucking on in March—with fun times like St. Patrick’s day to keep us on our toes! How was your February?

If you’re interested in more sneak peaks into my months, follow along on instagram! Oh, and those adorable magnets shown above were sent to me by stickygram! I have them all lined up on my fridge right now. These are such a great was to get your instagram photos into your real life—that’s so nice when most of my photo documentation just stays on my phone or computer now-a-days. And they’re crazy cute to boot.

This month has been a true new start! New blog design, (still) new relationship, new vision for the blog, new career opportunities, and a new sense of boundaries. My saying no has been paying off!! Even though I feel like a huge meanie when I do it, I’ve yet to feel bad for too long and I’ve been much happier over-all getting to focus on fewer things. This January I’ve enjoyed taking the time to escape. I went kayaking and camping one weekend and it was amazing to be in nature and to get away from real life for a bit. Then, when I was off to Alt Summit it was an entirely different kind of escape tactic. I’m filled to the brim with information about this space, my thesis, and new possibilities of where I want to head in the future. This month was also the start of my new quarter, and I’ve really been enjoying my typeface design class. It’s awesome to take the knowledge I’ve been gathering from my lettering studies and put it towards a new facet of typography. By the end of this quarter I’ll have a real-life working typeable typeface! I’m getting crazy giddy just thinking about it. You all know I have issues.

I’ve really missed this. New year, and a new vow to stay on top of my game, right?

While my post-Alt post will be up next week, one of the main things I’ve taken from my time away is that I need time to reflect. I’m so go-go-go all the time that I rarely take the time to sit back and digest everything that’s going on around me. Along with my monthly reviews, I’m going to be making this space into a more reflective spot—forcing myself to take the time and really take into account everything that I’m learning day by day. I’m always amazed at the ideas and the insight I find from taking that time (and also when I get your input on top of it all!), so why does it always get pushed to the side to fit in an extra hour of the Beverly Hills Housewives? Yeah, yeah, I know—tell me about it!  I’d love to know: how do you reflect? I’m sure any tactics you can share would be amazing to tuck away for future use!

Here’s a big cheers to a great start to the year and to keeping it all going into the second month! And, as always, you can find more behind-the-scenes happenings by following pinegateroad on instagram!

I’m going to start being a real blogger human next week and get back at this — I know this break has been taking a toll on this little space. For now, I want to be a little reflective on this past year and a couple things that have really made this year a big one for me.

ONE— This blog went through a drastic re-design early on in the year, and that is truly what I believe took it to the next level. I switched to self-hosted wordpress and I was finally able to take control over all the design details and tinker with everything I needed to. With this design, I grew more and more confident about reaching out to other bloggers and creatives to feature and be featured. I also started using this space as a place to experiment with my own creative ventures — you know those recipes I’ve been creating? I don’t think I would have ever had the reasoning to create, style, and photograph any of that had it not been for this space. Having this space, and having the support system to see it grow into whatever it may end up being has given me such a spark in my life this year, and it has been truly invaluable. Thank you blog friends! Topping this off, this year I set the plans in motion to attend Alt Summit—which is happening in just a couple WEEKS now!—and I’m beyond enthralled to see how this conference will help me grow this space even further over the next year.

TWO— While my love of lettering sparked in 2011, it was this year that I gained the support from professors, friends, and the online community that really helped me foster this craft into something I think I can carry with me for the rest of my creative career. I can get lost in lettering for hours, practicing with different inks, techniques, nibs, brushes, just everything really! I was lucky enough to have a professor here at SCAD take me on for an independent study this past quarter and that really gave me the time to research the history of lettering and to play around. While I’m nowhere near where I need to be with this professionally, I think I’m on my way and I have this year to thank for that.

THREE— Professionally this year has been a doozy. Thanks to the growth in my blog and the support my lettering has been getting, I’ve been able to become a regular freelance designer—something I didn’t think I’d be able to do for many years! Simultaneously I’ve been going through grad school, and I even took an internship in advertising over the summer and another one remotely with Verily Magazine. With so many different experiences I’ve really been able to discover where I think my heart lies professionally—or at least know where I think it could lye. The opportunities that have come my way this year have been nothing next to shocking, and this year has been one big fat amazing learning experience. I took everything I could on, became a huge ball of stress, but I don’t think I would have changed a thing. This year has really taught me about where to put my priorities, and this is something I can keep with me for the rest of my life.

Personally, I’ve been going through some pretty drastic changes. I ended a long-term relationship in the spring, and at the same time it seemed that everyone I knew here in Savannah graduated. After coming back from the summer it was a bit like starting all over in this town that I already knew pretty well. You know a little about my journey towards a healthier lifestyle, but I’ve been growing and learning how to integrate this new way of living into my daily routine. I can firmly say that this isn’t a fad, and it’s something I’ve been able to keep up with for over half a year now! I won’t say I didn’t slip over the holidays, but since becoming this healthier version of myself I’ve become more happy than I ever could have imagined. This last quarter was an odd one—taking all online classes and working from home—but it challenged me to get out of the house to meet people and pursue my passions with a vengeance for the first time in who knows when. Topping off the end of this year, I’ve started a brand new relationship, and I’m extremely excited to see where things end up. (Insert gushy happy filled words here)

Well, that was enough me me me for all of 2013, so cheers to the new year, and keeping things merry and bright this post-holiday season! Look forward to posts getting a little more regular, and a little less ridged—one of my goals for this year that you’ll have to wait till next week to hear about. Cheers friends.

I have to say that this month has been one of the momentous yet at the same time monotonous months of my life. I can really say that I’ve had a shift in perspective in a lot of goings on in my life this month, but I’ve been really trying hard to take things one day at a time to make subtle changes in my life. If you’re sitting here telling me to cut it with all that cryptic nonsense, that will come. My month in review is just not the place to share that just yet. 

July was all about cherishing those little moments, like interacting with animals when I went to visit my Aunt in Richmond. Getting to see my aunt in Richmond, AND a college bestie! My mom came to visit for a great little weekend early in the month, and it was so nice getting to be around some  more family. I’ve been taking a few mornings to relax—in bed—and elsewhere as I’ve also been piling my freelance workload up this month! I love me some time to letter, but you already knew that.

Oh…and that little obsession with kale happened too.

With the lack of time to update this summer, I thought I’d throw in a nice Sunday afternoon post, all about my June, in review. Yes, I do realize that it’s halfway into July—seriously, where did this summer go? This June was mostly spent getting a grasp of my new life living in Winston-Salem, making some new friends and having fun with a full-sized kitchen for the first time in my adult life. I’ve been on the biggest popsicle-making kick of my life. While I haven’t had that much free time, I’ve been indulging in long walks on the trail behind my apartment, sitting outside on my patio with a glass or two of wine, and having the occasional late night at the office—that’s where I snapped that killer storm cloud coming in from across town, creepy right? I’ve also been indulging in the fact that it’s summer, and that I have a purpose to get dressed up every day for work. The bright clothes and lipsticks have been making an appearance, which I’ve been loving.

If you’d like to follow along on more of my monthly adventures, I’m one of those crazy posting-all-the-time types on Instagram. Username, pinegateroad.

May had to be one of the toughest months I’ve had in quite a while. I’ve been dealing with a recent break-up and some other weird little issues that have made this month not so pleasant. While I’m still healing from it all, there were definitely some spurts of light that shone through. I spent a lot of time getting to know new people, and I tried to celebrate the little things in life. I’m now exchanging letters with four of my sorority sisters from college, which is really great. I love that stuff. I’ve also been trying to dress up my life with little beauties here and there, like the fresh flowers,  the amazing little catch all from Emily’s shop, and that strawberry fool recipe by Tina Jeffers.

Hello June, I’ve been waiting for you.

April has been such a doozie! (are people saying that still? I kind of felt like my grammy would say something like that, but it perfectly captured my feelings about this month). I’m getting a lot of experience working within the bureaucratic system with my collaborative class, as well as juggling a weekend trip to the farm in South Dakota for my mom’s surprise 50th birthday (see the painting? I busted out those lost skills to paint a portrait of our puppy–12 year old dog–Gumbo!) and another weekend trip to Pawley’s Island in South Carolina to visit my Aunt and cousin on their spring break. Along with that, I’ve been enjoying the beach and yogurt weather, as well as starting to make homemade pizzas again. Oh, speaking of food, I had a rendez-vous with my long-lost love Carribou Coffee in the Minneapolis airport. It was true bliss, let me tell you.