83 Applications Later...

I got a job! And that's just from my Gmail, not including paper and online apps., and all those tedious interviews. Yeah, brutal. Job hunting in Portland is not for the faint of heart. Oh, but if you saw how brilliant the leaves look right now, you'd know it was worth it.

So what is this job, you say? Well, it's at a call center called Stream. Yeah, I know, talking on the phone is somewhere around the equivalent of an un-anesthetized visit to the orthodontist for me (probably if you're reading this, I owe you a call), but I must endure until something more suitable heads my way. And the environment is super chill, there's an X-Box in the lounge, and a bunch of computer nerds with awesome lateral lisps (think nerdy Neil from Family Guy)...well, I can wish.



So, I'll keep plugging away until Oblation Papers & Press asks me to head up their letterpress shop...yep, still wishing...

Two new blogs.

Just discovered these amazing blogs:

1. Lab Partners : Absolutely stunning vintage inspired letterpress and gocco prints. I am in love with this stuff. This duo has the 40's/50's aesthetic down pat. Check out their flickr stream for even more eye candy.
























2. Laissezfaire : An all things design blog, in the vein of Design*Sponge. Can one see too much good design? Well...um, no, I don't think so. I mean check out this architecture! Even Howard Roark could stand behind that.

Washington.

Click on Cara above for pics from a quick trip up to Camp Ghormley in central Washington. Our kind host, Benjamin, (whose parents run the camp and generously let us crash at their place -- a wood two story with forest green carpet that looked suspiciously like our old house in Colorado [run-on?]) sadly didn't make the cut in the pics. He was too busy actually working while Cara and I tramped through the woods. Pics or no, thanks goes out to Benjamin and his fam for taking us in (and feeding us some excellent pumpkin-shaped cookies). And to the state of Washington for their beautiful leaves and awesome state highway signs.

Thought for the day.

The reader 'plays' the text as a musician plays an instrument...Like an interpretation of a musical score, reading is a performance of the written word.

**Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

Phenomenal-illustrator-that-throws-me-back-to-my-childhood of the week

is...S. Britt.

In the style of Ezra Jack Keats, Eric Carle, and Richard Scarry, he revives that fantastic 70's/80's aesthetic. A-mazing.

An Unfortunate Encounter with Pop Music.

Last night: restocking, reorganizing, refolding after hours. As soon as we closed shop, my fellow employees changed the radio station to some Pop Top 50 thing. I avoid music from those charts like the plague, but this time I was locked in with my paycheck riding in the balance.

And I left with one question: WHY??!!

Let me give you the overview:

Lyrics: Damn, girl, you lookin' hot. Damn, boy, I'm lookin' hot.

Beat: Same canned hip-hop beat we've known since the early 90's, looped bass line, annoyingly repetitive sample from old song or movie.

Message: Male = woman user. Female = meat.

Musicality: I don't know words with more than 3 syllables.

Seriously. Depressing. Tell me how this falls under the same artistic category as Bach, Beethoven, Glass, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Sigur Ros...it's blasphemy, I tell you! I know I'm a music snob, but, honestly, this is the popular music of our generation? It's like I'm inside an Ayn Rand novel...

Time for the E.A. Meetings...

That's right. Etsy-holics Anonymous. I'm addicted! You can get on the forums and help answer people's questions and critique their shops...and then you post a comment and people look at your shop...and then they say they like your bunny pic and more people look at your shop...and then you have people favoriting you and wanting to trade...and then you become well-known enough to quit your day job--wait, I don't have one--well, to just use your part-time job for it's stellar discount and make stuff full time...and then...wait, sorry, totally dreaming. But I did get a bunch of favorites and a trade offer. What fun!

Oh, and about my discount...did I mention that I got about $300 worth of stuff today for $90 when they gave employees a %70 percent off sale items sale? Jealous?
.

Betsy on Etsy.

Yes, the crafty little community that stole my name without the B now has me on as a seller.

My name: Plan B.

I'm just getting started, so there's only a couple things on now, but more is to come soon. You can keep track by this handy-dandy Etsy widget to the right here. And, dear friends, now would be an opportune time to buy so that you can be my guinea pigs, before the real people start buying (hehe...just kidding. You're real!). If you see anything on my website you especially think should be posted, please, do tell.

Oh, slight warning: when you venture onto the Etsy site, better alot a significant slot of time, cause there's some amazing stuff on there (my own included, of course!).

End of self-promotion.