Beccabury Tells

T.G.I. Friday's

2012-02-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

Before I started my job, I knew few things about the restaurant, T.G.I. Friday's. The last time I went there was in May of 2006. In fact, it was this day:

That's right. High school graduation. If you look close, you can see my little knight helmet charm on my necklace. Yep, my mom is cute like that.

So. Anyway, we went to T.G.I. Friday's for lunch after the graduation ceremony. I remember that Aaron got a cheese burger, not your average cheeseburger. It had a cheese patty- aka mozzarella stick in patty form. Whenever I try to explain my brother-in-law's love of cheese, I always use this burger as an example.

I never really thought about T.G.I. Friday's again until a week into my new job when I got pulled onto a project to re-build their website. Woot woot! It was a super fun process to work with the designer, the back-end developer doing store locator goodness and an experienced front-end developer who could guide me. We have been working on the site for months. I have typed up the descriptions of their retails products, edited images of the oh-so-delicious looking burgers... and changed the PDF's to their nutritional info... which explains why everything looks so delicious.

I digress.

The site finally went live this week! We had some serious celebrations at work and away from work.

Check it out and imagine me changing menu categories... crispy green bean fries... potato skins...

The Jerusalem Movie

2012-02-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

Last week one of my fellow Jerusalem classmates sent this video clip to all of us. I've loved seeing the aerial shots of the Holy Land. Beautiful place!

Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D from JerusalemTheMovie on Vimeo.

Making Stuff

2012-02-14T00:08:00.002-07:00

Oh hey. Way too late to still be up, but sometimes I just stay up and I don't feel tired. It hardly ever happens, so when it does I feel like I need to be really productive... or at least accomplish things on my to-do list. Usually blog posts don't fall on my to-do list but I think this is important because I think it is a fun new step in my career.

Allow me to explain.

Remember that time I didn't know what to do with my life? Oh yeah, that would be all last summer.

Even though it was fun and adventurous and I got to do some awesome things with awesome people... most of the my time last year was spent analyzing what I want to do and where I want to be. When I was going from interview to interview last fall, I remember a specific day driving Aaron and Melissa's white mini van (very good of them to let me borrow). I passed by a sweet sign for a storage warehouse. And then a few hundred yards later, I passed by a different sign that I didn't love.

All of the sudden I felt this excitement that I could make anything I want. I could make a better sign for that person. I have the tools and the knowledge to do it.

I started thinking about what I couldn't make or what I don't really want to make (cars, anything to do with welding, pianos, houses, basically things that involve electricity and metal). But I have been quite satisfied making other things that involve paper or fabric or plastic... stuff with ink or thread, etc. Making those things brings fun joy.

Then I thought about the internet, another love of fun joy. And I had this feeling that the world wide web is just this big blob of mystery that I am not able to understand or make, but that I want to.

I feel like so much of design is going to be focused on the internet... and I kept thinking, yeah I want to be part of that design-webby-movement stuff.

So luckily I got my job!

My official title is front-end web developer. This means I make websites.

When I first learned about this stuff, it was very new to me. So I thought I would share to you, my loyal readers. (But let's be honest. It's mostly so my mom can understand what I am doing all day. )

So, I go to work. I go to meetings and talk about some new digital thing that a client wants. We chat it up with information architects and user experience designers and project managers and back-end developers and flash developers and brand managers. And finally at some point, an art director makes it all happen in a sweet layered photoshop design.

Then they give their design to me. Last month, it looked like this:

I look at the photoshop document for a long time. Then I think about how I should set it up and what elements I ought to group together. Then I write a code to format the layout. I take the text from the copywriter and put in little tags so the browser knows how to recognize everything. The "language" of the code is called HTML.

After I have done that, it looks like this. BUH-ORING.

Luckily, websites don't have to look like that anymore. I write a different code that applies styles to all the elements. Style meaning, background patterns, images, colors, fonts, borders, spacing between things, etc. This code is called CSS.

Sometimes I have to do special styles for Internet Explorer 7 & 8 because some people still use those. (If you are that person, you may consider Google Chrome...)

Adding style is too much fun! Once I think I am done, I work with the designer and a team of quality control who check every page and element in at least 7 browsers, plus the iPad and iPhone. Once it's done, it goes back to the client to approve.

So... this was my first site that I did on my own. It went live on Friday!

Also, this week I got to make a mobile site... aka a site that you can see in any browser but if you are on a mobile device it will default to a site that is specially formatted to handle a small width.

I got this adorable PSD for the chocolate festival at Central Market, which is a gourmet grocery store in Texas. Think Trader Joe's meets Whole Foods meets Costco's samples.

So then I go through the same process first coding the framework in HTML and then adding some pizazz with CSS. For this site, I tested the site on an iPhone simulator on my computer. It was pretty weird to use my mouse to scroll instead of my finger.

You can check this one out here. Ah! I just think it is so cute. All the chocolates and pink and textured background. So fun!

Anywho. That is probably way more than anyone wanted to know about my job. But I love love it. I didn't realize how perfect it would be for me. I love that I can go in to work and get stuff done and learn new things, but still come home and do all the cool free-lance design stuff that I want to do. Perfect fit. Cheers to Texas!

Archer

2012-02-06T21:27:00.003-07:00

Once upon a time, Martha Stewart paid some big bucks to get a custom typeface made by the H&FJ type foundry. They made tons of different version of the font- light, book, italics, semibold, small caps, etc.

It turned out beautiful. They named it Archer.

For many years, only Martha's companies could use any variation of the typeface, but guess what?! Two years, the foundry started selling it to other people. When I first learned of this (from my expert typography friend, Sara, who just happened to intern at Martha), I got excited.

Way excited.

Then I realized how much money it would cost to buy. Months went by... I kept checking the price to see if it had miraculously dropped. I informed my sister, Melissa. She agreed that something must be done. So we saved our pennies and finally bought this beaut of a typeface a couple months ago.

And let me just say, it makes designing anything so much easier. I pretty much only design feminine things and I think it is just perfect. I was using it tonight and loving it. In fact, I have this little chant going through my head every time I use it...

Cleaning

2012-01-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Not that anyone cares, but I really like my room. I think you can tell so much about person by the way they decorate. Last night my home teacher came over and he told us about his job. He installs internet at people's houses. All day I have been thinking of how cool that would be to see so many people's houses.

But I am sure there would be a lot of houses that have a lot of clutter or aren't clean. So then I decided to clean everything. I scrubbed my bathroom, changed my sheets, organized my shelves, and read a few chapters from my new book Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui. I know I have talked about this book quite a few times, and Melissa has blogged about this book many, many times. Clearly we are fans of the book. And I think it is amazing how much more fun it is to keep things clean when it is decorated nice. I remember that whenever we changed around our rooms growing up, it was a big project to a new decoration re-haul because her philosophy is that if you really like the way your room looks when it is clean and everything is just-so, then you will be more motivated to keep it clean.

I still have piles where things accumulate, but I do love my room and so I am trying to be better at keeping it clean because it has such a positive impact on my mental health. In other words, some people exercise for the endorphins... and I just clean my room. Because all I get is a cramp when I exercise. I digress.

Anyway. I have had fun being creative with the few belongings I brought from Utah and some of the world's most inexpensive decorating options.

Wow. That is weird. I just put the world's largest photo of a bathroom up on my blog.

But here is the thing. I think it is so cute and it was really nice of Lizzy and my mom to give me their old shower curtain (thanks Emily for getting it in the first place). And I finally forked out the mulah for Meyer's Clean Day soap. So I think this is worth being celebrated/ shared.

Another thing worth celebrating... Chinese New Year! Had I prepared in advance, I would have created a gathering somewhat like this...

It would involve Melissa's chopstick lessons, orange fanta, too much shrimp for me, and Emily laughing at anything and everything Melissa says.

Gung Hay Fat Choy from the entire Snyder clan back in the day!

Kokka Fabrics

2012-01-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

EXCITING AND FABULOUS NEWS!

Melissa and I signed another fabric contract!

Woot woot!

So. There is a company called Kokka. They are based in Japan and they definitely have the most modern aesthetic in the quilting fabric industry. Melissa and I loved their booth at quilt market last year and we are so excited to be working with this company.

Melissa wrote a more in-depth post about the process and other U.S. designers that work with Kokka. She knows a lot more than I do, but here are some of my favorite prints by other Kokka designers.

We are thrilled in anticipation for another fabric adventure!

This next line should be coming out for spring 2012.

So get your scissors and machines ready for some fabric fun!

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Lauren + William

2012-01-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

Happy January! Just wanted to do a little shout-out and update about my dear friend Lauren.

My first day at BYU was the Sunday before school started. I had just slept in my little dorm room and was walking to church behind a group of girls. I was feeling shy so I wasn't talking to anyone. I hadn't gone to orientation so I thought I would never make a friend.

So I am kind of hanging behind and then this tall beautiful girl in the most perfect dress says hello to me. I said hi back but we didn't really chat. It's ok because we chatted quite a bit later in the year. In fact, she introduced me to YouTube and This American Life podcast. Two things that have influenced my life quite a bit in the past 5 years. She even introduced me to a boy I almost married.

Clearly, she has had a big impact on my life. So. When she asked me to make her wedding invitations I was quite ecstatic. I was mostly ecstatic that she was going to get married to someone she has already had a wonderful life journey with. But also excited that she wanted me to help with what I consider one of the best parts of a wedding. Basing off of our inspirations from the fabulous Anna Bond we came up with a little something like this:

And just look how wonderful they looked on their wedding day:

So classy.

Glad I got to be part of the magic!

Laundry Inspiration

2011-12-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

When I was in Jerusalem, I started to really like laundry. Maybe it is because I had so few clothes, maybe it is because they were always dirty, and maybe it is just because I liked singing in the long hallway between my room and the laundry room. Either way, it was good times.

Ever since then, laundry hasn't been much fun- mostly just a hassle. But all that changed.
Ok, not really.
But I do like it more since I moved to Dallas. And it is because I was inspired by a pin I saw on pinterest (thank you Reagan Brown Nelson).

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I was intrigued by the picture because I wanted to know what it was. Then I read about it, realized it was a DIY project, and then went through my checklist of whether it was worth my time, energy, money, effort, etc. And it passed.

So even though certain family members thought it wasn't my smartest move, I went to 3 different stores to find the ingredients to make my very own laundry detergent!

You just grate a stick of Fels-Naptha Soap. (takes forever, but smells delicious)

Then add some borax and washing soda.

Ta-da! I initially stored it in a tupperware, but then I splurged and bought this jar at ikea and it makes me happy every time I do laundry. If you want to read a review about it or get the step-by-step directions, here is the link.

Buying Furniture

2011-12-19T22:29:00.002-07:00

Sometimes when you move into a new apartment you have to buy furniture. This concept was totally new to me a few weeks ago. But, I rose to the occasion and bought some things. It was less stressful than I thought it would be, and way more satisfying than I ever would have hoped.

I was lucky enough to find an ad on Craigslist put up by an architect. Awesome, right?! I just love saying that I bought furniture from an architect. He had a couch I wanted to look at, but when I got to his house I fell in love with his table, so alas I made a deal and got both!

I was also lucky enough to have a really nice sister and brother-in-law who not only let me borrow the van, but also removed the seats for me so I could have a big space to move things around. Big shout out to the Woods! And while we are doing shout-outs, I would also like to thank my roommate for coming with me (more on her later) and the awesome boys in my ward who carried my couch up our stairs and around the corner (no easy task!).

With no further adieu, may I present my first couch:

I love that it is long. I love that is has real lines and it is comfy but looks modern. And I love love the little weave pattern.

My roommate, Stephanie loves it too. And I bet my mom is going to love my Christmas postcard collage. She sent me these and they are pretty much our only Christmas decorations.

p.s. We rented a carpet cleaner and shampooed the couch 4 times before we sat on it. So don't be grossed out? Ok? Ok.

Now to the table! I am pretty sure the previous owner bought this beauty at IKEA. Actually I know he did, because I saw it at the store and in the catalog. But everything is still in great condition!

Pardon all the things on our table. We were hosting a church activity so my roommate had made tons and tons of cookies so we had to make an adorable presentation.

I really like the spot where we put the table because I can eat breakfast with the sun creeping over the next building over and the sun kind of gets in my eyes while I eat my Frosted Mini Wheats.

And I like that.

Thank you Dallas Craigslist and thank you helpers!

My Brother, the Model

2011-12-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

Remember how my brother is a model?! I do.

So I realized that I mention my sisters in the blogosphere fairly often, but I have other siblings too.

And yes, I am related to a model.

Let me tell you some more about my brother Jesse.

He is super funny. His hair is better than mine.

and

He speaks Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese fluently.

So of course he lives in China... duh.

When he isn't modeling, he is doing awesome stuff all over Asia with Zuriick shoes - only the coolest and trendiest shoes in the art department at BYU and every other place that is cool.

And when he is not doing that, you might find him working on visual displays for a little company called Converse. Awesome, right?

Or maybe you might find him setting up stores for Australian designers.

But right now, it is easiest to see him here on my blog from the scanned magazine spreads I made from the magazine Modern Weekly. They did a feature on Prada so he is wearing all Prada clothing. I don't think I've even touched anything with the name Prada. He has.

Well let the countdown begin! I am picking him up from the airport in a week and one day. He is making the long trek from Shanghai to Dallas, TX. My whole family is going to be in Dallas for Christmas. How wonderful! Go team!

Modern Weekly Images

Living Arrangements

2011-12-06T21:46:00.001-07:00

One reason I wanted to move to Texas is because I thought it was always warm. Turns out, I was wrong.

Today it was 35º all day.

It wouldn't have been so terrible, but then there was a fire in my building and we had to evacuate. Meaning we spent a good while outside watching the fire trucks and the helicopters swarm around. I think it turned out to be ok because the firefighters weren't moving very quickly.
I digress. My point is that Texas is really hot and really cold.

But it's ok. I love where I live. And it's so cute that it doesn't matter if it is hot or cold or just right.

Lastly, I have been discussing a couple controversial topics today.

#1 Skinny jeans are banned at BYU-Idaho. Interesting. Here are the details.

#2 The Standard of Liberty Foundation. Here is their opinion about how BYU handles same gender attraction.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T19:58:00.001-07:00

Dearest loved ones, friends, fellow bloggers, and random people who happened to click on my blog link from one of my sister's posts, and also the wandering folk who have clicked on a series of links who may happen to come to my blog, and even those who searched for something in google and randomly had my blog appear in the search results...

I love you all.

Let me explain. I moved to Dallas two weeks ago. I have not had internet access at my new apartment, but if all goes well I will finally get it today. Without going into specifics it's been quite the complication to have internet installed.

I have heard many people say that the times they were separated from the internet felt liberating. They may have accomplished several other tasks they had not been focused on, written in their journals, pondered on the meaning of life, explored their neighborhood, expanded their interests, made new friends, etc.

I have done all those things, and it has indeed been rewarding, but I wouldn't use the term liberating. You see, I really like the internet. I used to be scared of it, thinking if I spent too much time on it then I would be a lame person, socially awkward, and probably a gamer.

But I love the internet because of the connections I form and the knowledge I can gain / have gained.

So on this post Thanksgiving weekend, I would like the internet to know why I am grateful for the internet.

I landed a job.

Not through career fairs or networking or the church employment specialist. But by posting my resume and portfolio information on different websites, sending a lot of emails and filling out many digital forms.

I had experience to help me land a job.

Because of my interest in the web, I now have a job designing and coding for the internet. By taking classes and doing an internship all about web communications I expanded my portfolio and had meaningful experiences that led me to a career path.

I can keep in touch with all the people I've ever met (if I want to).

There are many ways to do this. Here are my choice favorites.

Blogs are fabulous.

I can hear about what is going on with my friends or even friends of my friends. I can find out facts about them and interesting stories just by visiting a URL. And I can do all of this on my time. No, nothing beats a phone call or an update, but let's be honest- it's a little awkward to call up someone you haven't seen in years. But with a blog we can reconnect. I can hear about their life and even comment and interact with them in just a few short lines. I can still be some part of their life even when we are miles apart or just in different phases of life.

I have many married friends who I love and used to love spending time with. But when they start a family, it is difficult to communicate as often. We spend our time differently and it can be difficult to converse frequently because of the change in lifestyle. But I still love them, I want to hear about their day, their struggles and triumphs. So when they share on their blogs and I comment, we reconnect and have the opportunity to share again even when our lives are so different. A blog gives me access to their life without having to be consistently involved.

Facebook is amazing.

In college, I created a MySpace account and tried to understand it. Then Steven Shelley wrote on my MySpace profile and said, "Snyder. One word: facebook." So I went and checked it out. The first time I went to the site I was so excited about the white background. It felt so clean and wholesome. This was before I knew anything about graphic design and user interface design, but I knew I had landed on a good thing.

It's been six years and I haven't opened my MySpace account. I love Facebook and I love that so many other people love it too. I won't go into too much detail because I already wrote my ode to Facebook last year when Mark Zuckerberg spoke at BYU. But I love to see people's pictures and the fun things they are doing. I like when they share interesting links or funny status updates. I like when I find my 3rd grade teacher and become her friend. I like being in the know when past roommates get engaged or when people want my address for their wedding announcement. It is a great tool to reconnect- not for networking, not for business ventures, not for commercial advertising, but just for people. A lot of people like to have the inside scoop on celebrities: what they wore, who they are marrying or divorcing, where they were spotted, what they're doing this weekend, etc. There is a whole slew of people focused on getting celebrity information to the masses. But most of us really don't care about Jennifer Aniston. But we do care about the people we have spent time with or the boy who grew up around the corner or that one girl who was really nice to you when you were in a new location for a short while. Facebook gives us the contact information and ability to connect or reconnect with people I have met from all walks of life. Awesome!

Twitter is pretty neat.

I like twitter because it feels like Facebook, but I can "connect" with people in many different industries who are unattainable. You can follow Justin Bieber if you want and hear about his day from him rather than his tabloids. But you also have the option of following any public figure that you like. You can read about quick updates about your industry or get links to interesting things from interesting people that you have never met. This year I learned via twitter: Osama Bin Laden died, BYU published a student review, Adobe purchased TypeKit, and coupon deals.

I could spend hours on Linked In.

I know that most people use Linked In for networking, but I just like to read people's resumes. It is fascinating to become linked with someone whos career profession I know absolutely nothing about. I have linked with previous bishops and people in my ward who had a very specific role in my life. But on Linked In, I can read about what they really do all day, how they got there, what companies they've worked for, what they studied in school. It is really motivating to see that most people have had a variety of jobs and many different work experiences that have been catered to make them reach a certain point of productivity. They have had rich experiences that have guided them to what they are doing now.

The internet provides entertainment.

Being the frugal woman I am, I don't see myself buying a TV or cable access anytime soon. Thus I am grateful for Hulu and the ability to watch Modern Family, clips from the Today Show, documentaries, the Sing-Off, and explore other things on TV without having the commitment of a full hour with commercials. Plus it is free. So cool.

Youtube is really special.

I mostly appreciate it when I have a song in my head and I want to listen to it rather than buy it. It boggles my mind how people will just put up random stuff. Someone took the time to track down the intro of Bobby's World and put it up online so that we can all enjoy it.

Netflix is fun too.

Instant play is golden. It is like having a Blockbuster in your living room. Too bad it is so expensive now, but hey it was good while it lasted.

Vimeo provides the latest and greatest in sweet short videos.

I think motion graphics are awesome and I think film is a very inspiring medium and thus I really appreciate all the goodness on vimeo because only the content creators are posting the work. It is a fabulous little corner of the web.

Email is the best thing.

I love email, most specifically gmail. I love getting messages because I can label them and respond in an organized manner. I can type out my words and slowly think about them. I can add pictures and links and big documents. I can pass on information and keep it all in a tidy conversation list. I can send a quick note without having to use my thumbs on an itty bitty phone dial. I love email.

My list could go on. And it does in my head, but mostly in my browser history and cache. I didn't even expound on wikipedia and TED talks. It just amazes me that so many people contribute to this big collection of information. Yes, some of it is rotten and yeah some people are just sick or want your money. But so much of it is good. People write on forums and answer each other's questions. So many people post tutorials and want to help you be successful. And the craziest thing is that all of these tools, programs, streams, browsers, are most usually free.

So even though some people think the internet is lame and that my generation spend too much time on it, I love it. I have had an email account since the 5th grade. It is a big part of who I am, how I learn, and how I connect. And this year, I am mighty grateful for the collection of inter-networks we call the world wide web. Happy Thanksgiving!

ships

2011-11-05T22:23:00.000-06:00

I woke up this morning feeling pretty sad that today is the day before I move. Meaning, the last of my Alpine days. Not really, because who knows- I may end up living here the rest of my life. And even if I don't, I will always come back multiple times a year.

But this is the end of an era for me.

My mom and I have been rushing to get things done all week and I keep feeling really emotional. This scene from the final episode of Gilmore Girls keeps running through my head.

Last night as I was making my final drive from BYU to my house, I kept thinking, "What am I doing?" I had a super fun night with my friends, I ran into 2 other great friends- one from high school and one from Jerusalem. I navigated through Provo so effortlessly and stopped at my favorite cupcake place. I came home to a warm house and had a nice chat with my mom and planned out the delicious meals we would be making today. All this week I kept running into great people I've known for a long time or given people the update. It is just so fun seeing so many people that know me and my family. It's just so easy.

But I'd like to remind myself that I am ready for this adventure. I keep thinking of this quote that my sister turned into a great print for her shop:

I knew I liked this quote. But I loved it a lot more after Elder Costa gave a devotional at BYU last year with this quote as his thesis. He spoke about getting out of your comfort zone, choosing a career, and moving forward with your life- even when it feels uncomfortable.

Turns out, BYU devotionals are really worth it when you make time for them. Probably wouldn't be moving to Texas right now if it weren't for that one.

If You're Gonna Play in Texas...

2011-11-02T17:02:00.001-06:00

My parents love the band Alabama, and I grew up singing these lyrics. Well team, I've had them stuck in my head all week. Why? I'm deciding whether or not to pack my violin because...

I AM MOVING TO TEXAS!

Not just to sit around and play with my niece and nephew at the park, or to watch the Sing-Off with Aaron and Melissa, but to work at a real job, at a real office, doing real work!

I have often heard the phrase, "when it rains, it pours." Usually it is Sarah Jane referring to my dating life because I will go a long time without having a date and then one week, I will have 2 or 3. Crazy! Well that is how the job hunt in Texas has been. I had several interviews, usually 5 or 6 a week on the phone or in person, but in general it was fairly slow. All summer, I have just been hoping and waiting for something really awesome. Then last week, I had 3 interviews in one day with 2 job offers, and then I had to decline invitations for 3 interviews the next week. I am really glad I had all those interviews because I got to meet so many interesting people along the way and learn about all the creative ways people make money.

But luckily, I got the dream job. This was seriously the job that I wanted more than any of the other interviews or job descriptions or companies I heard about. A recruiter found my resume on monster and got me an interview with Click Here, the interactive and digital agency for The Richards Group advertising agency. The interview went great and they offered me a position the next day to design and build websites. A dream come true!

Turns out, it is kind of hard to find a place to live and pack everything up in a week, but luckily my mom is awesome. She has already printed our maps and itinerary and most importantly, she is going to join me for the long drive from Utah to Texas. Best mom ever, right?

So if any of y'all out there have great packing tips or ideas of how to fit everything I have accumulated in my life into a mini car, give me a holler!

Lonestar state, here I come!

Virtual Personality

2011-10-17T00:11:00.002-06:00

It took me awhile to get onto the TED talks bandwagon, but now that I am riding- I really like this site. I watched this video about a week ago:

You can watch it. But you don't have to, obviously. Ever since I watched it, I have been thinking a lot about the idea of virtual personalities.

The speaker, Adam Ostrow, defines your virtual personality as this cloud that stores your facebook status updates, the connections you make on twitter, the comments you leave on a blog, etc. Your social media presence becomes your virtual personality.

In this TED talk, he mentions a program called "My Next Tweet." It can scan your status updates or your tweets, and it can predict others things you might say based on your past content. Fascinating and weird. But his whole point is that we are creating a digital archive of our self.

I heard about someone in the news who recently died. She went to BYU, so I looked her up and saw her facebook profile. I couldn't see much of the details, but it is so odd to think that facebook could be this human collection project. Will our profiles ever be deleted if no one else knows the password?

Well, I asked google the question and got a link to this article in TIME magazine. Apparently, facebook "memorializes" the profile and it can only be accessed by friends and family, but nothing can be changed or updated. Also, you can not access the page from search results. But I don't know if I want my profile to be memorialized.

I don't know if I would really want my virtual personality to be saved until the end of the internet.

Case in point...

The bulk of the people that I actually interact with in life are different from the people I interact with on the web. There are a select few who I spend time with in person and online.

It is always so interesting to see how someone's virtual personality differs from their human personality. I can think of one friend in particular who is fairly quiet. It's taken me years to really get to know her because she is so shy. But on her blog, I hear about all these crazy things she does and the way she describes them is so so different than if you were having a real conversation with her. She is much more expressive (and perhaps at ease) in her virtual environment.

The more I think about it, I can think of many examples of people who seem to have such a different virtual persona than they are in real life. Sometimes I read blog posts of my friends and think, wow is that really the person I know? Have they changed or are they just different online? Or maybe this is just a side of them that I have never seen.

My point. I think my personality in real life is similar to but not identical to my virtual personality. I still don't know how to indicate if I am typing a comment that is meant to be sarcastic. I use plenty of exclamation points because I don't know how else to indicate that I am happy or smiling. I am used to showing a lot of enthusiasm when I talk to people, but you can't really do that without knowing the best ways to use punctuation. I am also a typography nut. I own hundreds of fonts and I will analyze them for far too long when I am working on a project. But I never use any type variation online or in an email.

So if I am collecting this digital archived collection of "who I am" then I don't really know if I want my virtual self to be "who I am." As of now, I would prefer to have my journals and my sketchbooks saved much more than my blog posts.

But the internet isn't going anywhere, and I may spill water on my journal. The ink isn't going to last. Things could burn or be lost in some natural disaster. So I wonder if emergency preparedness could be about preserving stuff or thoughts just as much as preparing food and having an escape route.

I know that every time someone's hard-drive crashes, I always hope that they are internet savvy so that they won't really lose everything. Now days, if you have picasa or flickr, or if you are one of those people who uploads every photo you take on facebook, then you don't really need a back-up hard drive. And if you have pinterest, you have inspirational images and quotes that you love. If you have your life synced up using google calendar, then you don't really need iCal or all of that other stuff.

And think about how cool it will be, 40 years from now. I was thinking about my little adorable niece today. I was picturing her as a mom and trying to remember what year it was when she took a certain vacation. She will be able to pull up her mom's blog and be able to quickly browse through the archive and blog titles and she can know exactly what dates they were gone, where they went, and what they did because her mom keeps it all updated. She is going to have a crazy awesome record of her personal history.

I don't really have a main point or a way to end this. Except to say that I love not being in school anymore. Of couse I loved loved school, but it's also really great to be able to learn whatever you want to learn.

And just as an update, I still am here in good 'ol Texas looking for jobs. Luckily I have had tons and tons of interviews, but I am still holding out for a full-time offer. I'm grateful that I have had plenty of free-lance projects, melimba orders, a really nice sister and brother-in-law, and 2 adorable toddlers who love to pop bubbles just as quickly as I can blow them. We have also been enjoying some delicious artisan breads, home-made lasagna, roast beef sandwiches with aujus, pumpkin muffins, home-made sweet and sour chicken, and tons of chocolate chip cookies. Yep, I think I have literally gained 10 lbs since I have been here. I have another job fair this week, so if ya'll could twist your fingers in my behalf, that would be great!

texas image

Do You Know Her?

2011-10-01T14:44:00.000-06:00

She feels like a friend, but I don't know her. But I see her quite often in all my favorite catalogs.

I'm talking: J.Crew, LL Bean, Anthropologie, Boden, J Jill, and Garnet Hill.

These images all come from Garnet Hill.

As my sister and I were sharing our memories of this model, Melissa pointed out that Boden catalog is the best because they share info about their models. After a page-by-page search, I found out her name is Edda and a lot of other random fun details.

Such as she loves to be asked over for dinner. She is from Iceland.

If you are like me and vaguely interested in the model that all your favorite

clothing stores like, here is her NY Magazine profile.

p.s. May I recommend my sister's latest blog post for some lovely photos of a New England fall?

Love those Cinderella pumpkins on shelves. The visual designer must be a rockin' human being.

Facebook

2011-09-24T20:51:00.001-06:00

You've seen all the crazy changes. Now there is a big one coming. Your profile will look dramatically different soon enough.

THE TIMELINE. check it out.

Pinterest meets MySpace meets Facebook. Interesting.

Another song, mostly for me to have a quick reference without having to look something up.
Lisa Hannigan, I Don't Know

and another.

Eisley, Trolleywood.

Lil' Fishes

2011-09-18T21:10:00.000-06:00

Remember that line on "He's Just Not That Into You" when Drew Barymore says that now days we don't get haircuts when we want a change, we just switch our profile picture... etc.

I think about that line all the time.

Especially tonight after I added my little fishies to the side of my blog. I got way too much satisfaction from embedding a gadget onto a web log. But... aren't they cute?!

They are from this site.

In other news, I am in Tejas... which is espanol for Texas. I thought it would be super hot, turns out it is just rainy- which is great news for the fires and the drought.

I am living with my sister's little family and hopefully I will find a rockin' job... and a cowboy.

Once I get settled in a place to live I am going to buy some fish. When I was in high school, two dear friends (thank you Emily Stevens and Becca Paul) gave me a betta fish in high school. It was the best! I named her Coral and she lived for years. Multiple years. On her final days, she was slowing down. My mom put a little sprite in her bowl and she perked right up... and then she died.

But Coral the Second will be in my life soon enough. Until then, please help me enjoy the new lil' fishes on my sidebar.

2011-09-08T15:36:00.000-06:00

I posted this couple months ago, but then I felt bad about what I said about facebook, so I took it off. But then I remembered oh yeah this is my blog/my personal soapbox. So here it is.

Not that anyone cares, but I have a few thoughts about Pinterest.

My sister Emily loves loves this site and raves about it to everyone she knows, but she may disagree with some of my next statements. My apologies in advance.

AGAINST pinterest:
-you can only be "inspired" for so long, I would rather be making the things than just looking at them
-it is image overload, blogs give you the images and some words to think about
-most things seem to be "repinned" meaning one image goes through a bunch of people but it isn't very fresh content because it is just going through the rounds for everyone to see it
-people don't come up with their own unique and custom captions for the images

FOR pinterest:

-love being able to save an image without have it bog down my hard-drive.

-love the validation I get when someone else likes my pin, especially if I found it and didn't just repin something

-like being able to find people with similar styles to me

-love being able to categorize fun things I see with immediate links

Not that it has anything to do with this, but while I am thinking about my opinions of social media...

Why do people who are in relationships feel like they need to express their affection to the significant other via facebook? Maybe it is just because August is a popular month to get married, but I have seen so so many status updates of girls wishing their husbands happy anniversary and how much they love each other.

Love is great, I fully support love. But I always think, hm if you really love this person a lot, you most likely know where they live, you possibly have their phone number, and you might even see them today or tomorrow. Maybe those options might be better for your personal expression of love rather than on a public website... just a suggestion.

Am I alone in this opinion?

Seeing the Everyday

2011-09-06T22:56:00.002-06:00

Well I finished my internship a bit ago, but I wanted to post about it.

delicious farewell lunch

let's get a closer view: spaghetti squash with Jarick's homemade tomato sauce and freshly shaved parmesan

I learned a lot about the bus, but much much more about how wonderful this magazine truly is.
One thing we accomplished in the short 4 week time period was a new website!

The old site was beautiful, but not quite as user-friendly as it could be. So we did a re-haul, came up with additional content and then designed and built something entirely new.

Let's talk about the new look:

We used photos for the background of every page on the site. This welcome page has a shot of the spreads from the last issue in the studio. We used transparencies behind the text so you can still "see" the images.

(top) We added more options for and details about submissions. (below) My new favorite page has a list of nice things that bloggers and writers have said about the magazine.

I also love the history page. Because this magazine is so unique, it is nice to understand the background and how many people have contributed to make Seeing the Everyday what it is now.

We really wanted to incorporate images of the actual magazine into the design. If you have ever read Seeing the Everyday you know how beautiful the colors, design, photography, and even paper quality combine to make your experience meaningful. We wanted to capture some of that feeling you have while reading the magazine.

I got to be in Cambridge in the final days before the summer issue was sent to press. It was so fun to print out all the spreads, analyze the cover colors and get to fine-tune the small details as it was sent to print. It was fun to be part of the production process, and then see the result in my own home.

sprinkler spread in the summer 2011 issue

Fast forward a month later when I am at home back in Alpine. I went and got the mail while my mom and I were eating lunch. I saw the magazine in the mailbox.
I came in and said, "Mom! Special delivery for you!"
She ran, literally ran to the front door while yelling, "Is it my Seeing magazine?!"

We sat on the couch as she looked slowly at each page. She started to cry just looking at the spreads. She hadn't even read the stories yet! But she knew they would be good.

When we got to the final page and we saw my name as part of the team and I was pretty satisfied that I get to be part of something so neat. A project like this that can bring so many positive emotions must be a good thing!

My internship was a fabulous experience for me. I had friends all over the country doing internships this summer. I would hear about some of their projects that they got to take part of or the errands they ran for the people doing the bigger projects. I am so so grateful that the good people at Seeing the Everyday gave me full reign to offer suggestions and then even build my suggestions! They were so nice to give me this great experience.

You can see the site here at seeingtheveryday.com. If you see something that is not working or a broken link, etc. please let me know!

Suh-weet.

2011-09-06T21:54:00.002-06:00

Who else is loving the new google accounts interface?!
I certainly am.

Along with this song:

Pillow Mints

2011-09-02T16:23:00.001-06:00

All humans should love after dinner mints.

Image

Blurry

2011-09-01T19:49:00.002-06:00

I am the queen of "no flash." I really hate it. I don't have a basic point and shoot, so anytime I am taking photos, it seems to be serious business. And I hate, hate bright glare and photos where you can totally tell the flash had fun.

Usually, I just take a lot of pictures and end up having to delete half of them. But there is now another option. Jessica Hische has done it again. She customized a tumblr site that is all about collecting blurry pictures you took of your friends. These top two, I did try to make blurry. But they are the exception, not the rule. (He's Just Not That Into You)

Adorable baby Matilda.

Teachers

2011-08-30T22:45:00.000-06:00

I have a few friends who just barely started their first year of teaching. As I have talked with them about decorations, lesson plans, and discipline I kept thinking of how hard it must be. When you graduate from college you don't realize how much you wouldn't know if you hadn't gone to school.

For example, Sarah Jane and I were discussing the bulletin board where she wanted to have a calendar.
I said, "Well what else are you going to put up here?... like the schedule for each day?... lesson plans?"
She said, "No Becca, I need them to see the numbers so they can learn how to tell what day it is." I forgot that someone had to teach me that. It wasn't just innate. And the more I keep thinking about all those little things I did in elementary school, I am really grateful for all my teachers.

Sarah Jane is teaching 2nd grade. Here she is in her new classroom:

little owls have each kids name

a natural touch.

posing with the owl I made for her bulletin board.

That is a photo of Sarah when she was in 2nd grade!

bouquet of newly sharpened pencils

the classroom library all organized and categorized!

While I am feeling all schoolish nostalgia (probably because it is the first week of BYU and I am not there) I am going to commentate my graduation excitement. I also want to pass on some wisdom to my friends who will be future graduates.

#1 Don't buy the robe. You can't rent them anymore, which I think is a little odd. They didn't measure me or ask my height or anything so I'm pretty sure I own the one and only size. Borrow it from me, don't buy it.

#2 As cheesy as it might look, bobby pin your cap to your hair. Maybe I have an unusually small head, but I was battling that cap all the day. It always slid off and at some point I just had to embrace it and pretend like I was going for the "side-cap" look.

#3 Figure out which friends are graduating the same semester as you. Find them to sit by, it will make everything so much better!
Exhibit A: I sat with my darling friends Lauren (left) and Paige (right). I was lucky enough to be in Paige's ward for a year and then she ended up living in my room when I moved out. And I worked with the lovely Lauren for the past year on campus.

Lauren, me, Paige... and the Y!

Dad and I

Freshman reunion in our caps and gowns! Lauren, me, Madeline

asking my mom for my diploma back, oh wait. they only gave us the holding case.

graduation day in the HFAC

Giving up on the cap

I spent so so many hours in this wing of the HFAC.
I thought I should have one final stroll, while sporting the cap and gown.

Pretending to look like a scholar. Oops, I don't think scholars wear robes or flowers these days.

I wanted a picture with the JKB, I worked there for over a year!
note: this picture was not taken with a holga, but the sky looks sweet.

Melis, me, Lizbert. Loyal supporters.

These girls patiently sat through my graduation while doodling in their sketchbooks. Lizzy actually took lots of notes. Why? Because one of the speakers kept comparing knowledge to food and saying how delicious it had been to be at BYU...

Grandma Johnson & I with sprinkled Y flags

I am so happy I graduated.

This morning I listened to NPR reporters talk about the low graduation rates for women in Utah. It finally sunk in that I had finished. I graduated from a university. I know that everyone has different circumstances and not everyone is able to have a chance to go to college. I know just how lucky I have been. I tried to thank those who have helped me along the way, but if I missed you- just know that I so glad to have met so many fabulous people and been taught by so many during my BYU experience.
I am so happy that I get to have a bachelor's degree.
Go Cougs!

Summer Songs

2011-08-29T13:36:00.000-06:00

It feels like every season I have a few songs that I just can't get out of my head. I went to the Weepies concert on Friday and was reminded once again just how amazing they are. I have had this song stuck in my head ever since:

Painting by Chagall:

Hazy by Rosi Golan with William Fitzsimmons:

And my new pump-up favorite, Stay by Mozella:

Airboats

2011-08-24T22:36:00.002-06:00

I have Alaska on the mind so I keep seeing things that have to do with Alaska. For example, tonight on TV I was choosing between Food Network, DIY, and HGTV. But then on the National Geographic channel they had a show called Alaska State Troopers. They film random arrests all through the state of Alaska. On tonight's episode they were in Fairbanks during the moose hunt. The state trooper patrolling the area had something called an airboat, exhibit a:

Get this, the airboat works on both water and land, making it the perfect vehicle for swampy areas. The bottom is lined with a slick plastic surface and as long as it has recognizes moisture, it will move using the propeller on the back. Sounds pretty neat.

exhibit a link

exhibit b link

Alaska

2011-08-23T22:36:00.000-06:00

I just got back from the great state of Alaska. I am a pretty lucky girl. I got to go on a cruise with my sister Emily and her boss's family. It was awesome! We met up in Seattle and got to see the McCombs, our friends from California.

Pike Place Market is the best. So many flowers at the right price. I want to move there just for the flowers. Ok and the fish.

love this packaging. all of their products had letter pressed labels.

I never had heard about this, but apparently it is pretty famous: the gum wall. At first I thought it would be gross, but I actually think it is beautiful. It is like an edible Pollock painting.

On Sunday, we got on board the ship and headed to Alaska! Our first stop was Juneau:

We got to ride on a float plane! You know the planes that land on water? It was such a cool feeling to be boating, but yet flying.

We flew to a lodge right across from the Mendenhall Glacier for a bit of Wild Alaskan salmon.

Emily looking good on the flight

2 thumbs up for salmon!

We took lots of pictures of the thick moss on the trees.

Next, we headed to Skagway for a little horse back riding tour of the area.

The whole clan (about 50 of us on the reunion) rode the White Pass Railway train. The track looked uber scary. Here is one of the bridges we went over. Don't tell my mom.

Our last Alaska stop was the beautiful Ketchikan.

We went to the lumberjack show. Emily got pretty cozy with the lumberjacks. Just FYI.

Luckily the stadium for the show was covered and had heaters because it was raining cats and dogs:

In fact, the cold got to me and I was very sick the last 3 days. Luckily the cruise had room service for no extra charge. Best place to be ill!

Thanks Em for letting me be your roommate!

Sarah Jane flies East

2011-08-07T09:20:00.000-06:00

One of the best parts about being in Boston was greeting my visitor: Miss Sarah Jane.
Emily and I saved some of our touristy outings until Sarah Jane came the last weekend I was there.

I haven't read the book "Make Way For Ducklings" but this sculpture is a little homage to it.

note: it is super odd to pose with a small duck, no pose seemed right.

We wandered our way to Beacon Street area and found some great things. This tree for example.

lovely cobblestone paths (they say Boston is America's cobblestone capitol)

We saw a group of tourists taking a picture in front of this house and we offered to take the photo. When they were done, we said, "Hey could you take a picture of us too?" We figured the house must have some historical prominence. Turns out they just wanted the hydrangeas for a nice back-drop. But hey good excuse to get a picture of our group.

Our guide book said that Louisa May Alcott lived in this apartment after she published Little Women.

America's first public school! I had to have my two favorite school teachers strike a pose.

On the duck tour. The bus turns into a boat!

Sundays in Boston were great. This particular one Sarah and I stopped at a Unitarian church. I guess during their summer service they have guest speakers/ pastors. But on this Sunday, they didn't have anyone scheduled so the music committee took over and performed a bunch of popular songs that had meaning to them and then gave little talks about how music has influenced their spirituality. It was really great. We got to hear a few songs from Wicked, a couple Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, and they finished with "Lean on Me."

Later that day we packed a picnic to Walden Pond. It was delicious. Chicken salad, hummus, carrots, apples, peanut m&m's, all the Snyder staples.

We ended up fighting the bugs at Concord River instead, but it was still lovely.

(entirely coincidental that I happen to be licking my lips. Ha, Sarah caught me mid-bite)

I have always wanted to read "Walden" at Walden Pond, but I couldn't get my hands on a copy before we walked out the door. Emily's friend Brian did have a copy of "A Work on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" so I took it anyway. How perfect that we actually ended up on the Concord River! So I performed a dramatic reading of a few pages and we discussed.

Then we took turns with the reading hat:

Emily, Brian, and I on the bridge.

Background info on these next shots, Sarah and I can never seem to take a normal picture together. There is always something weird with our hands.

We still didn't get a normal one, but Brian sure looks good.

People talk a lot about Trader Joe's when they go on vacations. I had been there a few times, but was able to truly embrace the store in Boston. There are so many and it is so healthy but not ridiculously expensive and so gourmet. It is fabulous for small group cooking. I probably went twice a week.

When Sarah was there, we explored every shelf and found delectable delights in the freezer aisle: mango mochi! These are little balls of mango ice cream covered in gummy-like mochi. It is wonderful, cold, refreshing, and somewhat chewy.

Newport Day.

We wanted to go see cute towns and have a coastal adventure. Brian told us that Newport was the place to go. So we headed there on a Monday morning, sure that we would be the only ones there; we were wrong.

We headed to the Cliffwalk first. This is a path that goes around the island at the top of the cliffs. On one side you have a drop off and then the ocean, on the other side you have the most fabulous mansions in the United States. They have mansion tours here for people to browse. There are so many!

(We're not just talkin' oh yeah that's a pretty big house, we're talkin' Elizabeth Bennet wandering through Pemberley with her aunt and uncle. )

image

So here are the cliffs. That little path is what we walked on.

image

We didn't realize how hot it would be and we ended up stopping in the shade all the time. See, in the shade- grabbing my sunscreen, again. Don't worry, I am not posting the sweaty pictures.

Here we are at the "Breakers" (the Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion- this is his summer home!). This may be old news to most, but Gloria Vanderbilt is part of this family line. And her son is Anderson Cooper. Fun fact.

Lookin' good SJ.

We decided to take our own mansion tour. I have seen enough movies to know what mansions look like on the inside, so we drove around through Newport and went to a bunch of parking lots. As we drove past this street, Sarah said, "did you see those hydrangeas?!" So we went around the block in our quest to find the these flowers. So fabulous.

Sarah Jane knows how to pose with flowers, I clearly do not.

Thanks Sarah Jane for a great trip, and Emily for being our excellent host and tour-guide!

Portlandia

2011-08-02T13:51:00.000-06:00

I always feel guilty inside when I blog about things that I didn't discover. The other day I asked my brother-in-law if he had heard about spotify. Him and Melissa stopped me and said look this up:

So good.

This one is for my foodie friends:

But the best one I've seen so far... for my crafty friends:

So awesome.

Thanks Aaron & Melissa

Innovative Fabrics

2011-08-01T00:22:00.000-06:00

May I share a story?
Thanks.

The other night the family is headed to Zupa's for dinner. My dad was driving separately on his bike. We got there first and decided to check out the latest and greatest at DownEast across the street while we were waiting. Melissa was looking for something specific and I was just perusing/ providing assistance/ insight/ opinions. To my astonishment and delight, I saw that DownEast now carries an Anthropologie rack. Most of the stuff is still ridiculously expensive, but I spotted a pair of denim capris. Before I admire anything too closely, I check the tag.
$9.99
Awesome. So I inspect further.
It's a nice dark denim and it's a good wide leg capri- very classy shape.
Melissa notices my observation and encourages me to try them on.
"Oh no, I couldn't. We don't have time. Let's just look for you."

Of couse, I did try them on. I was pulling them up to my feet and had them just over my ankles when I feel this sharp pain. Seriously, it felt like hundreds of little miniature needles were stabbing me.
I think I may have had a little audible gasp. I hurried and took them off and checked the tag to see what was going down.

This is what I found:
95% cotton 5% metal

True story. Upon further observation, we saw that there were little tiny shiny specks of metal to give it a little shimmer. Ouch. Who had this idea and who allowed it to happen?

I did a little research if you want to check it out. It looks like you can only get this look from very high end designers, which makes sense because normal people don't want to be in pain if they are spending $1,000 on a clothing item.

image link

Moral of the story: if you're trying on clothes and they look too shiny, check the tag.

Gilmore Girls

2011-07-27T15:41:00.000-06:00

I have been really excited about writing this post for a month or so now.

It's no lie that I love Gilmore Girls. If you don't know what it is, let me tell you a quick synopsis.

Lorelai gets pregnant when she is just 16. She keeps the baby and names her Lorelai, but calls her Rory. She raises her in a cute little house in a small town called

Stars Hollow, Connecticut this will be important later in the post.

Rory and Lorelai live a lovely life with fast talking, clever wit, lots of cultural references, and too many love interests.

This show has been a favorite of mine for several years. My sister was flipping through channels one night and stopped on the WB to see the pilot episode. It was great. Because we weren't allowed to watch TV on weekdays, we would sometimes sneak downstairs to turn it on really quiet or sometimes I would go to my friend's house to work on our political science homework every Tuesday night...

Later in seasons 5 and 6, I got mad at the show and felt like it was getting gross and the comedic timing just wasn't the same. I heard they got new producers and I stopped watching for a bit.

But then I heard about the final episode and I watched clips of it on youtube many a times. It really is the perfect last scene to a series.

Last fall I would always have a break on Tuesday for lunch between noon and 1, which happened to be when Gilmore Girls reruns were on. On one Tuesday, I was enjoying some tomato soup and flipped to channel 28 to find the last episode had just begun. I watched it, like normal. But this time, I went to class a half hour late because I had to savor every minute it was on. Few times in my life have I cried as hard as I did in that final episode. I felt like an era was ending.

Last summer, my friends Sarah and Brittany were chatting about GG as we like to call it now. I have seasons 1-3, so I brought them down to Provo and we started inviting girls in the ward to come over, eat otterpops, and celebrate the Lorelais with us. When Sarah and I moved in to the same apartment last summer, we were pleased to find that our newest roommate, dear Shayna had the entire series on DVD. We started where we left off and it became a roommate tradition to eat our Cafe Rio, run to the grocery store to grab Ben & Jerry's and then watch an episode or 2 or 3 or 4 of Gilmore Girls.

In the final weeks before school was ending, we were just starting season 7. We all had odd time schedules so I ended up watching the last part of season 7 while packing up my room. It was interesting re-living Rory's life while I was ending up my college days. Going to her last college parties, while I was. Reflecting on broken engagements, as I was. Seeing her pack up the boxes with Paris, while I packed. Wondering what to do next, like I was. It may sound cheesy to those that don't love Gilmore Girls, but when you grow up at the same time and somewhat shared memories, you just feel connected.

The night before I graduated, my roommates and I gathered one last time to watch the final episode. It was lovely. We laughed, we cried. I am sure going to miss those girls.

Fast forward to why I am doing this post. Well because Emily had a crazy idea that I loved. She read about Stars Hollow on wikipedia and learned that Amy Sherman-Palladino (the creator and producer) went on a vacation to Washington, CT and went for a little visit to the downtown. From this visit and others to Essex and Wallingford, she got the idea for Gilmore Girls. In fact she started writing the pilot on a napkin called Ralph's ... (like Luke's).

So Emily and I did a pilgrimage of sorts. In preparation the night before, we watched the road trip to Harvard where they stay at the Cheshire Cat. Great episode. We figured it would be good prep because they were doing the opposite of us. We were leaving from Harvard and going to CT.

Emily (and her co-workers) called every car rental in the Boston area until she got her hands on a Jeep wrangler. Why you ask?

Well because Lorelai drove a Jeep Wrangler. Hers was a greenish tan. Luckily we happened to run into a greenish tan Jeep Wrangler while we were in the town of Washington, CT. See for yourself:

When we got there, we visited the local places with real Washington natives. I told Emily to try to avoid telling people why we were in town... you know, I didn't want them to think we were crazy. But we met a lovely little lady at a yarn shop and it just spilled out. But don't worry, she said people come around all the time for the exact same reason!

Ok here Washington Food Market, which may have inspired Doose's Market that Taylor owned and Dean worked at.

We also had to visit the bookstore, because Rory was super intellectual and would love to hang out here. Plus her and Jess had some awesome flirting scenes here. I was hoping to find a Jess for me, but alas all we found was the Awkward Family Photos book, which is fabulous. Emily bought it for me later and I can't get enough of it.

Kind of crazy, but this is the town hall in Washington, it doesn't look like Miss Patty's dance studio at all, but it is beautiful so it deserved a photo.

Next we headed to Wallingford and then stayed at a bed and breakfast in New Milford. Both of them looked even more like Stars Hollow than Washington. I was thrilled when I saw this gazebo in the center of town.

Then we found the park bench. Remember all those scenes when Rory would just be reading on the bench or waiting for the bus?

I certainly do. For this next pose, I was planning on photoshopping Dean or Lane but I get enough time with photoshop in my real life.

As we were walking around the town, we found some fun things and some not fun things. The curved railroad seemed quaint and rustic. So we captured a few shots and did mini portrait sessions for ourselves. Don't be surprised if you see those as profile pics in weeks to come.

note: don't worry, this one will never be used as a profile pic. What am I even doing?

There was fun of those creepy carnivals going on in the park next to the railroad. Trust me, the railroad tracks seemed safer. If this were Stars Hollow, it could be like a Stars Hollow High event, definitely not something for us Chilton fans.

This appears to be the cool hangout in town, besides the carnival. If you look close, the boy by the tree was indeed giving me an odd look as I zoomed in with my big lens to snap this photo. Little did he know that I needed to capture everything on this trip.

Now, back to the New England that we love. Isn't it so great that there are flags everywhere?

This is a bank. Beautifulest bank I've seen.

a lovely church, it kind of looks like the church where Rory showed up late to when Lorelai was becoming Sukie and Jackson's baby's god-mother.

This is the same church, but this picture kind of looks like Luke is in an old truck driving past.

Gilmore Girls, you were good to us.

Back Home

2011-07-24T19:26:00.000-06:00

Boston was awesome.

St. George was fabulous.

Lake Mead was rockin'.

But I am happy to be home.

The vacations have come to a halt for a few weeks which will be nice to do things like clean my room, make my bed, go to the same ward for a consecutive two weeks.

I am sad I missed so many weddings. I have come home to a hefty amount of wedding announcements (is it terrible that on those facebook group pages I request the announcements even if I know I can't go? I just love to see all the designs!) and I am just sad that I missed so many celebrations. I have never had so many friends get married in any summer of my life. Seriously love is in the air this year.

Today I opened my planner to start organizing my life again and found that the bookmark was placed at April 23. Which means I have not opened it since I graduated. Wow.

P.S. this is the best planner in the world. (Moleskine weekly planner) It is the length of my wallet. I have day spots on the left to write appointments, but then a running to-do list for the week on the right.

Speaking of graduation, I did graduate. I got my diploma in the mail a couple weeks ago, which is interesting because I had a terrible dream last night. My sister thinks I should start a blog that is just a dream log because I have such crazy ones and I always remember all the details.

So a little background, all my life I have had dreams about forgetting that I was registered in a class. In college this is very easy to do because no one will really alert you or notice if you are missing. In my dream, it is the last week of the semester and I am going to fail the class because I didn't do any of the assignments. When I graduated, I told my family (and my boss) that I was so excited to graduate and be done with those dreams forever.

Well it has only been a couple months and I still had one. But now it is worse.

Last night, in my dream I was taking an Anthropology class from my friend Autumn.

This is interesting because Autumn majored in anthropology.

At the beginning of the dream we were having a conversation about how fun it would be for her to be my professor. But then for some reason, my life got too hectic and I couldn't go to class (I believe it was on Wednesday nights from 6 - 9:30 and I would always forget about it). Then we fast forward to the last week before finals and I ran into Autumn on campus and she said, "Hey, how come you haven't been coming to my class?" Then it hit me and I got so nervous and asked her what I could to at least get a passing grade, because I knew that if I didn't pass, I would have to come back and retake the class so I could graduate. She made me e-mail her supervisor professor because this was her first year teaching and she couldn't make exceptions on assignments for any students.

This part is also somewhat close to real life, because Autumn was a TA for Anthro 101.

I woke up, remembering that I had received my diploma in the mail a few weeks ago and I had several extra credits that I didn't need and I have certainly taken enough humanities and art classes to fulfill any generals that Anthropology could have gotten me.

I am relieved.

See, I did graduate.

moleskine image

MacBook Pro

2011-07-20T07:27:00.000-06:00

I couldn't sleep last night so of course my mind wandered to Apple products.

My dad let me use his wireless mouse a few years ago. I liked it for awhile but there always seems to be some problem: the left click doesn't work, the bluetooth connection is flaky and the battery life is short. I have heard some similar complaints about the Magic Mouse, but I used it for 7ish months and absolutely loved it.
Then I was thinking about why we even buy wireless mouses. The fact that you're even using a mouse means you're probably going to be sitting somewhat still for awhile, so why does it matter if it is plugged in or not?

But now I think maybe Apple made us do it.
Check it out.
The latest version of the MacBook has the CD drive on the right, and all the other connections on the left (ethernet, USB, headphones, etc). I enjoy this because there are no cord connections on the back and I don't like to reach around the back, it's awkward and I usually have to tip the screen down.

But this does present a problem for the mouse. The wired mouse comes with a fairly short cord.

You can only plug it in on the left and then you have to waste the cord length to wrap it around the machine. Once you make it to its proper side (for the majority of humans) on the right, it doesn't give you much wiggle space. If I want to drag an object from the bottom corner of my screen to the top, it requires two movements which slows me down. And if I were by chance a mouse-pad person, it is barely able to graze its landing target.

I guess this post is mostly for my old co-workers Lynnae and Justin: I admit that there is one thing about my Apple product that I don't like. Actually, make that two- the speakers are weak and a wired mouse needs a longer wire. But that's really small potatoes to the joy this blessed machine has brought into my life.

Job Hunt

2011-07-17T10:20:00.000-06:00

Hey friends. So I have been on the job hunt since I graduated, and today I came across this little beauty. Check it out. Anthropologie is looking for an intern in the fall for their visual displays. You have to receive college credit in order to apply, so I can't do it but someone else should totally apply. They just posted it today.

Bethany- you should totally apply.

ZA's

2011-07-13T11:48:00.000-06:00

One of the best parts about being in Boston... PIZZA. This weekend Emily, SJ, and I went to this place called Za's. They only use ingredients they buy from farmer's markets. Let's talk about the pizza we got.

These were the toppings:

Verrill Farms Strawberries
Basil
Caramelized Onion
Vermont Goat Cheese
EVOO

For the non-Rachel Ray fans, EVOO stands for extra virgin olive oil. The owner loves this acronym so much that he started a new restaurant called "EVOO" but it is pronounced eevu. It was awesome. We also got a salad. Let's talk about it.

These were the toppings:

Verrill Farms Baby Spinach
Grilled 'n Chilled Red Onions
Toasted Walnuts
Blue Cheese
Mustard Vinaigrette

We didn't take any photos, and my leftovers don't really do it justice, especially with that odd smile I am pulling.

We didn't get any desserts but let's talk about them.
This one was calling my name: Shane's Lavender-Honey Creme Brulee with Whipped Cream
I may go back and get it real soon.

If not then maybe this: Chocolate Goat Cheesecake with Whipped Cream

Brooke, I feel like I am you documenting all your big city food adventures!

A Visitor

2011-07-13T08:24:00.001-06:00

Before I came to Boston I was on a blog streak... hm that sounds like an odd way to say that. Since I haven't had internet access, I am kind of fading on the habit. My apologies.

Anyway, look who came to visit?!

Sarah Jane left yesterday but we partied it up while we could.

On Monday we headed to Newport, Rhode Island to find some massive mansions. This one is the Vanderbilt's. They have a famous cliffwalk that goes behind the mansions and has a lovely ocean view. We definitely recommend it but don't go in the middle of the day in the middle of July.

A Wish Fulfilled

2011-06-28T21:34:00.000-06:00

This is my new friend Lisa. I clearly give her a thumbs up.

Anthropologie wants her to design clothes for them... this is a big deal. Since I knew I would be seeing her, I wore the only Anthropologie item I own (thanks mom):

You might be thinking, hm Becca... what are you doing posing like waitress in the middle of the street?

Well for starters, I knew my sister was taking a picture of me. So obviously I had to pose. And I have a few friends who always do the one hand on hip look whenever there is a camera. Usually I think it looks a little stiff, but it just seemed to fit with me holding the plate and all.

I was waiting for Lisa to pick us up for a dinner party.

I had to stand on the street because I was so excited. I had been giddy with anticipation.

BECAUSE SHE DRIVES A CONVERTIBLE!

So I packed a scarf, and made Emily take a picture. This is a big moment in my life. Emily asked why I was so so so excited and I realized I had never been in a convertible. Now that I have, I think the whole world should know that they are absolutely wonderful. It is like riding a scooter, but you can go faster and you are safer and you don't even have to wear a helmet. You get to wear a scarf instead!

Then we stopped at the park. Parks in Boston are wonderful. People kayak at the park. Awesome.

People also go fishing at the park... like Emily. Thanks to the Preece kids, we now know how to properly fish. You place bread on the end of a stick and wait until it floats off. Then you watch the fish eat it. My kind of fishing!

Always gotta love the "right before they were prepared" shot.

The Lobster State

2011-06-28T21:05:00.000-06:00

Oh Hey Maine. You're lookin good.

Bostonian Adventures

2011-06-16T09:35:00.000-06:00

source

I made it! The first 24 hours were filled with amazing pizza made by the father of Nicolitalia's followed by delicious ice cream from Kimball Farm. A great day of work at the new internship and a journey on the train

source

to see the Boston Pops perform American classics. Bueno!

source

Mitt Romney

2011-06-08T11:23:00.000-06:00

I may have already posted this detail at some point. But, I worked at a Mitt Romney call center.
For one day.
Well for less than an hour. Ok....
I made one call.
It was so hard. And awkward.
I had passed by the call center everyday going back and forth from school and I kept thinking you know, I really ought to go in there sometime. I didn't go until the night before they chose the Republican nominee. Someone gave me a list of numbers and said ok call them and encourage them to vote tomorrow. Then tell them why Mitt Romney is great.
I dialed the first number on the list.
No answer.
Dialed the second number on the list.
No answer.
(My anxiety of actually having to talk to someone was wearing off.)
I dialed the third number on the list.
Answer. Angry man. Very angry man who was sick of Mitt Romney callers. Told me that we shouldn't call his house again.

Sad Becca. I almost started crying. I hated being yelled at, so I sneakily snuck out. The next day, McCain beat him.

Moral of the story: I think I am going to let Mitt make his own calls.

But I did learn something. I learned that as much as I listen to National Public Radio and tell people what I learned in my AP Gov & Politics class, I know very little about politics. To really be involved you have to know about the candidates, what they have done, and what they are going to do. I knew very little about Mitt Romney and certainly not enough to convince someone else to vote for him. So this next upcoming election I have a new goal. It isn't too lofty. I just want to be more informed about not just who is running but what they would actually do... and most importantly how that may affect me.

So here is to being more educated!

Now this doesn't really have to do with my new goal, but it is helping me remember that religion ought to be put aside when it comes to choosing politicians. Here is an article by evangelical Warren Cole Smith about why he can not support Romney. Very interesting. But more interesting than that is Michael Otterson's rebuttal.

Go America. Go Jasper Johns and his version of the flag.

Romney Image source
Flag Image Source

Special K

2011-06-06T09:28:00.000-06:00

My sister Melissa got my family into the Special K fruit & yogurt cereal. It is delicious.

They have pictures or raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries on the cover. But get this. Upon observation of the nutrition facts the fruit is actually strawberry flavored apples. Crazy... and cheaper.

Loving this sunshine!

2011-06-01T23:45:00.000-06:00

This Utah rain season has been hard on my heart. But bless the day, the sun came out to play!

And I forgot how much I love to mow the lawn.

Image from Ian Payne.

Calling All KNIGHTS!

2011-05-29T10:52:00.000-06:00

image from panoramio

Ok I guess it is not all Knights, just the Lone Peak Knights that graduated in 2006. My friend Chase found out there would be no 5 year reunion this year, so we decided to put a make-shift facebook event together. But there is word on the street that it has been cancelled. So I want to spread the word that it is not cancelled and we would love to see you Knights there! It will be this Friday June 3rd at the new park in Alpine, 100 S. 600 E. at 7 pm. I have the southernmost pavilion reserved.

Now even if you didn't graduate with me, I think this event description is too hilarious to not share with all. It has caused a bit or dramatic behavior on the event wall, but I think it's funny:

Good news guys. It's happening, and we gonna do it big. Some of you may look back on your days at Lone Peak and not remember them fondly. While for others such as Sterling Coons high school was your finest moment. All the same, it's been five years and it's time to look back and celebrate our time at Lone Peak for what it was.

Now we recognize that not all 586 of us Alumni can come, but everyone is invited along with significant others and children. Yes, Linzy Parduhn and Kara Wood, Ruby and Madden are cordially invited!

Now what's going to happen at this five year reunion? Brady Rice will emcee the event. There will be several slideshows from our time at Lone Peak. There will also be a discussion and review of our class's Senior Superlative and Senior Quotes. IE Chris Eppich and Gabes Gee "Most Kissable Lips" and Conner Jensen's quote "I've been hit with a few shells but I don't walk with a limp."

This reunion will be an informal event to help us to get ready for the upcoming ten year reunion in 2016 and for all of us alums to catch up and joke around with one another again. And finally, a chance for Steve Shelley to fulfill some of his old high school wishes...

This is a public event please alert friends, family and anyone else who wants to come. Please spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stumble Upon it, Myspace, and of course texting and conventional conversation.

If you have questions/ comments/ concerns write on our wall.

Can't wait to see you all there! Go Knights! It's Knight-Time! Class of 2006 4eva!!!

P.S. Don't worry. Billy Burgess will be there.

Know Your Religion

2011-05-27T07:26:00.000-06:00

image from LDS Church News

A year or so ago, I took Bro. Bott's missionary preparation class . I had heard such great things about the course, so I wrote down everything I possibly could. I took my laptop instead of my notebook so that I wouldn't miss a word. Sometimes the class felt more like a courtroom and I was the record-keeper rather than really being in the class. I have enjoyed looking back at my notes so I can remember and re-learn what he taught. But luckily, anyone can do that. Bro. Bott has a blog called KYR: Know Your Religion. It is a collection of questions he has been asked throughout the years, followed by his in-depth answer. There are some really interesting questions that aren't always talked about or are difficult to make sense of. Bro. Bott is famous for answering and explaining the difficult questions. He even started another blog that is just for dating/ marriage questions and another that is focused to prepare missionaries.

Nathaniel Daniel

2011-05-26T12:00:00.000-06:00

So once upon time, I made some friends in 6th grade. They ended up being some of my best. I was always a little bit jealous of their manhood and always wanted to be part of their "dream team." But it's ok, I later embraced my femininity and got over it. And luckily I am still friends with all of these boys. A few weeks ago, the youngest of the gang got married: Nate got married!
We had to take some pictures to celebrate... the boys wanted to celebrate "dream team" style. I thought I would post a few of these in honor of a new member of the blogosphere. Griffin and I made him a new blog yesterday for his travels in Europe this summer! He left today for 6 weeks to study interior design. How awesome is that?!

ps. all the boys wearing yellow ties are single. just FYI.

2011 International Quilt Market

2011-05-25T09:50:00.000-06:00

Well it has taken a couple of weeks but I finally got the around to posting about quilt market. Melissa and I got to meet some pretty cool people, yes that is Amy Butler and then American Jane!

To catch the full post, visit the new site www.melimba-beccabury.com. This is our new blog that has all things fabric! We have a lot of pictures of what you can expect to see in quilt stores in Fall 2011. Enjoy!

slow motion

2011-05-23T08:23:00.000-06:00

If you read Design Mom then this video is old news, but I think it is just beautiful. Making me hungry...

BSS | Breakfast Interrupted from Bruton Stroube Studios on Vimeo.

From Bruton Stroube Studios

melimba-beccabury.com

2011-05-18T19:52:00.000-06:00

Oh hey you. Big news. Ok it's not that big, but it is fun news. Years ago my sister Melissa and I dreamt of doing some awesome art-sorta business together. We designed the fabric "Rainy Days and Mondays" together a couple years ago. But that is all we have really done, but now that I am graduated and have so much more time on my hands I am going to join Melissa in her fabric and paper endeavors that she has already been working on with her etsy shop and a few stationery stores in Texas and Utah. So now we need a new site to feature our combined work! Plus we have some fabric to sell. Drumroll.... introducing the new site....

Bro Roberts

2011-05-18T07:57:00.001-06:00

Found this post from months ago that I never published.

The other day I got a call from the executive secretary in my ward. He wanted to schedule a time for my ecclesiastical endorsement to keep going to the BYU. I had the pleasure of telling him that I will be graduating this semester. Actually, it was kind of sad. Still a pleasure but it was like one of two life changes I have had to make so far with this whole graduation thing.

Anyway, he said that the bishopric would still like me to come in because they want to do a "get to know you" interview with every person in the ward every semester. So I went in last night and met with one of the counselors: Fred Roberts. Now if you know a thing or two abou basketball, you may recognize his name.

He played in the NBA for awhile. I don't really know how long, but I do know that he played for the Jazz, the Spurs, and Mavericks.
So I go into my interview and knowing there was a Jazz game last night, I said, "Wow I am honored that I get to meet with you during a Jazz game. Don't you wish you were watching the game?" He said, "Ah, no it's good to be here. They are playing the Bulls tonight so that should be interesting. I do get to sit front row next week because my daughter's husband's parents sometimes get tickets and sometimes they trickle down to us... etc."
Back to me: Well don't you always get great seats with your Jazz connections?
Roberts (we will call him by his last name because everyone in the NBA did for years): I suppose I could, but I don't really like the traffic and having to get up there and everything. Now it was great when I got to play because I could just drive up early and then play my game and then hang out a bit until the traffic died down. But now it's just so crowded. I would rather go out to dinner.

Ha, isn't he awesome?! Then we preceded to discuss Nicolitatlia's Pizzeria (my fav-or-ite place in Provo). He is such a foodie! I love people after my own heart.

Mary and Martha

2011-05-17T09:58:00.001-06:00

Thanks so much for all your congratulations! I am really excited. I am going to live with my sister in Boston and we are already planning the fun things we can do. She works at the Harvard Business School, so I think I will go to work with her sometimes and just hang out at Harvard... super cool!

Speaking of Emily, I am living in her old apartment currently. At my parent's house, they have a lovely little two story apartment that is attached to the side. When my dad was working from home, they built this attachment for him and his employees. But they expanded a few years ago and now have a bigger office in downtown Alpine. So my parents put in our old oven, cabinets, and even our ancient trash compactor in the basement so that there is a real kitchen. Emily was the last one to live here before I moved in so it still has most of her stuff. She has a lot of books. There is a bookshelf with lots of church books. I started a few but just wasn't getting into them, until I picked up one called "Mary, Martha, and Me" by Camille Fronk Olson. I am loving it.

image from here

The author talks about the Mary and Martha story when the Savior came to their home in Bethany. We often think that being really busy and getting a lot done is really good and we shouldn't be idle and we have no time to ponder... but the author talks about how her grandma was always like that. She was always filing her time with so many good things, always serving others, always baking a casserole for someone. She was a seamstress, gardener, cook, quilter, laundress, and always attacked scores of domestic projects. She even had this silent competition with her neighbor over who could get the laundry done the fastest in the morning. Her mom remembers once her mom woke up so early and worked so fast that she had the laundry ready to hang on the line at 5:30 am on a Monday morning, but to her shock the neighbor already had hers hanging on the line. She even remembers her mom starting a load on Saturday night so that she could get it done earlier, just for this little competition.
Now I certainly don't care when my laundry is done or how it compares to someone else's, but I do have other things that are like silent competition in my head. The author talks about competitively comparing our abilities, possessions, and even temperaments. She said, "They have a newer car, we have a bigger yard, she requires less sleep, he has more stamina, he is more patient, she is more knowledgable... or she can do the laundry faster." Even by the tone of voice we can tell what someone thinks is better. I paid particular attention to this chapter because our lesson was on pure charity the other day and how to stop judging and just let the love flow.
Here's the author's examples:
"She's a working mother, but I chose to stay home with my kids."
"I'm getting an education, so I can be a better mother to my kids."
"He is still pursuing college degrees, but he should be working to provide and save for his family."
"He is in a dead-end job because he dropped out of school; I wanted my family to be well cared for, so we sacrificed for many years so I could get the best education."

She also quoted this woman who made a comment at a lecture she spoke at:

"After hearing you, I felt discouraged because I will never know the scriptures as well. But then I thought, instead of going to school, I chose to follow the prophet- I married and had a family."

I think the author was pretty ticked by this comment, but she cushioned it very nicely.

It is so easy to say that one way of doing something is "more righteous" or "better." She said that when we see the differences between Mary and Martha's approaches to their time with the Savior, it may be easy to say one of them is "better" than the other, just as we always do with other things, other people, other situations. But with this extrordinaire grandma she had, it seems like she fits into the perfect Relief Society mother, but she seems more like a Martha. But maybe we are getting mixed messages because it seems like we ought to be more like Mary, and take time to rest and be.

from Gospel Art Book lds.org

The author never saw her grandma with her scriptures or talking about doctrine, etc. But that doesn't mean she (a Martha personality) would be second to Mary. She said that in the church we sometimes say oh Mary chose the better part.
But that is not what Christ said. He said, "One thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part." The author says the "one needful thing" is having Jesus Christ in our life. It doesn't matter what our life looks like and how we fill our time, but it's how we use the influence of Jesus Christ to determine WHAT we should do and WHEN we should do it. Because for me, that is the hard part. I know all the good things- I know what is black, white, and grey. But I just don't know who I should be focusing on when or what I should fill my time with in what order. But as long as I commune with the Spirit often, I feel in control and not so confused with all there is that I could be doing.
It's been a good reminder.
What a great book.
How awesome is it that people gain insight and then share it in a book?
I love that we have books for that reason. Anyway, I highly recommend it. Sorry my thoughts are so jumbled. It's been a great read.

Friday the 13th

2011-05-15T08:25:00.000-06:00

In the words of little sister Lizzy, "I know it's Friday the 13th and all but really it's like the best day of my life." This Friday the 13th was pretty awesome for all the girls in the Snyder fam.

#1 Lizzy made the high school dance company as a sophomore! So cool!

#2 Emily moved into a new apartment in Boston that is all her own.

#3 Melissa and I went to the International Quilt Market! It was rockin'... pictures are sure to come soon.

#4 I got a call from a clothing company that wants to me to make some patterns for them. Sweet nectar!

#5 I confirmed some great news. I will be an intern in Boston this summer for my favorite magazine. This is Seeing the Everyday:

Now I love so many magazines. I always have and probably always will. When I first started college, my only dream was to work for Martha Stewart or Real Simple magazine. As I explored tons of different majors and made lists of what I should study, I still kept wanting to do graphic design- even though I didn't really know what it was at the time. And while I still love those publications and think they are the gold standard in so many areas that I love (food, crafting, photography, interior design, etc.), I am so excited to be working with a brand new magazine that I fully support, not just the design but also the purpose. There are no advertisements and the writing comes from random people from all walks of life. Not paid journalists and writers, but brothers, moms, aunts and uncles, sisters, and dads sharing their stories of how prosaic moments influenced their family, their relationships, and who they are today.

As you can see in that last spread, their purpose is to glorify the seemingly prosaic, "because the common or mundane moments and interactions that daily might seem inconsequential- are perhaps among the most critical and influential in character development and nurturing family relationships." Beautiful. I can't read this magazine without tearing up. And now I am so excited to be working with them and to be part of the Seeing the Everyday team.

All images from Seeing the Everyday's facebook page.

Cashew Caramels

2011-05-09T20:11:00.000-06:00

Oh hey world. Well I moved home for a bit until Sarah Jane gets married. And let me tell you I am reaping the benefits. The singles ward was cancelled this week so that we could be at our home wards with our mom for mother's day. Convenient... I got the gift they give to all 18 and older women... thank you thank you. Don't mind if I do.

Why I love Chrome

2011-05-03T18:45:00.000-06:00

love loving the new google chrome logo.

old

new

on the dock: lookin good

It makes me happy each time I click on my browser.

Vimeo

2011-04-29T22:44:00.000-06:00

Well hello world.
So I took a class in which I learned an art form entitled "motion graphics." Fun. I created a vimeo page today to post my creations. I will share them here with you. They are in order from worst to best.

This was an assignment to create a 30 second commercial using 3d layers for a TV series. I chose Ace of Cakes... obviously.

Ace of Cakes from Rebecca Snyder on Vimeo.

This assignment could anything less than 2 minutes and we could only use typographic characters, ie: things you can type on the keyboard.

Times & Seasons from Rebecca Snyder on Vimeo.

The big kahuna-- final project. This is a 30 second public service announcement from an organization of our choice. Go Weepies!

You Can Easily Grow a Garden! from Rebecca Snyder on Vimeo.

Dumplings

2011-04-28T21:23:00.000-06:00

photo from dragonfruit blog

Today I watched KungFu Panda for the first time. The sweet ~~little~~ big panda is motivated by food just as much as I am, a panda after my own heart. He kept eating dumplings and they looked so delicious. So you better believe it, I did make myself dumplings for dinner. No I did not use chopsticks.

Birthday Times

2011-04-19T19:22:00.000-06:00

So, I usually try to avoid wearing the same outfit two days in a row. But. Last week I made an exception. My sister Emily gave me this beautiful dress on my day of birth. Luckily I was in Alpine before I went to school, so I got to wear it on the very day of birth! Then, I decided I had to wear it the next day too because it is just too adorable to not. Thanks Em!

I was a bit worried about my birthday this year. It was the day before the last day of classes, which for design majors is pretty stressful because usually projects are due on the last day of class. So add that to Sarah Jane being gone in China and Danny breaking up with me a few days earlier...let's just say, I just didn't see how this birthday was going to be awesome.

But it was!

Melissa came to Utah on the 11th so I got to chill with the family and these cute kids:

My parents made some delicious food. Roland Snyder's grilled salmon= muy bien. And if you are looking for a new vegetable side dish- try this new one. Roast some carrots in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and some parsley. Then when it is cooked, bring them out and top them with feta. Yes!

Also, Remember back in the day when I posted that picture of the Cocoa Bean cupcake? They have this flavor that is chocolate cake with sweetened condensed milk, buttercream frosting, and heath topping. (Yes, I know this is a very specific name for this type of cake, but hey we're keeping this blog G-rated.) Well mother dearest made that very cake just for me. It was great the day of, but it was even better when I ate a quarter of it in one sitting!

Great birthday indeed! Add all those festivities to the awesome Outback dinner and very wonderful present my roommates gave me the night before, Emily's tender blog post, the kitty cat card from my co-workers, gracious gifts from my parents, and lots of calls, text messages, and lil' facebook notifications... it ended up being a pretty awesome day. Thanks everyone! Cheers to another year!

PG

2011-04-15T08:52:00.000-06:00

My boss sent us to this at work. Yes.

Sarah Jane's Bridal Shower

2011-04-10T22:55:00.000-06:00

Thanks to all who came to Sarah Jane's bridal shower!

It was such a lovely time and so many people helped out.

For the far-off sisters who have been asking for the full details, this is what we ate:

Mom brought a delicious fruit tray with strawberries, pineapple, oranges, grapes, and bananas with her trademark pineapple top in the middle for decoration.
Then we warmed up some pita bread and served them in triangles with hummus
We also had a veggie tray with celery, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and green peppers
Then the lovely Melissa Parkinson brought a divine spinach salad with raspberries, blackberries, and candied nuts
SJ's roommates also brought a pasta salad with a pesto dressing (probably my fav food of the night!- must get that recipe)
Another one of Sarah Jane's friends brought some guacamole and pico de gallo. They were a bit spicy for me, but I am a baby. Everyone else loved them though
I made yellow and chocolate cake cupcakes and frosted them with that crazy rosette tip
Lastly, mom brought the ingredients for the lemon citric acid drink and the soft pebbled ice

Here are a few photos. I thought I would take more, but alas I got pretty into the partying. The lighting in my apartment is not so bueno, so most of the human shots are black and white.

Danielle, Natalie, SJ, Becca: these are her roomies

oh looky there, my roommates too!

my old next door neighbor AND Jerusalem friend, the
newly married, Mrs. Allen (hers was the last shower I through)

the spread

the darling Melissa

we realized while taking this that we don't have any normal pictures together.
Oops, the pretzel hug will have to do for now.

Two thumbs up from Sarah on the paper garlands.

Best picture of the night. I wanted a picture of Lindy
with her cute big belly, but I wanted Sarah in
it too, so I asked them do the same pose- shockingly,
they actually did.

the whole group

The Pants

2011-04-10T22:08:00.000-06:00

So remember that post I did last week about the pants? I just remembered why.

I have a friend named Andrew. He is great. He went to Jerusalem with me. The night before I boarded the plane, I looked at the student directory- it had pictures. I thought he looked like a real cool guy and I basically had a crush before I even got to the Middle East.

Then we lived in the same building for 4 months. It was fun, but the crush didn't work out.

Fast forward two years to present day, I still think he is wonderful but he is engaged to another friend from Jerusalem. No worries.

This is when we did "fake engagements" by the danger sign.

But this is really a better symbol of what our relationship was like.

Anyway, that is all background for this post. Because sometimes I post pictures and talk about people without explaining who they are or how I know them.

So, in Jerusalem I was the craft girl. I brought all my embroidery materials with me on the trip which ended up being great because when we were bored on the bus, I stitched people's initials onto their backpacks so we could tell them apart-- great fun. Well one day Andrew needed his pants repaired. So I was working on them and he told me a story about his mom that I have never forgotten.

Now Andrew's mom mastered in home economics, so she knows her stuff. Back in her college days she also repaired some pants for a man friend. He had dropped them off at her house for her to mend. Then later when she was on her way to return them, she saw the boy with his mom in the front room. So she opens the door, throws the pants at the boy and says, "Hey, you left these at my apartment." Then she closed the door and walked away.

Awesome. Sis. Kennedy, I salute you. Ha!

Like sister, like sister.

2011-04-10T21:40:00.000-06:00

All yesterday I had this sad song stuck in my head. Then I check my sister's blog and she has the song title for her latest blog post! Cuh-razy! This song was big news awhile ago because one of the animation professors here at the BY made a frame by frame animation of this beautiful dance. Check it out.
Like the lady says in You've Got Mail, "You may want to watch it with a box of tissues..."

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

I love Gmail

2011-04-07T12:47:00.000-06:00

The best thing ever just happened to me. And I have Google to thank for that.

I was drafting an e-mail and I said "I have attached this file and it is a little different... blah... blah."

Then I go to push send.

But wait, it doesn't send.

Rather, I get a little notice that says, "Hey Bec- you used the phrase "have attached file" but yet you haven't attached a file. Are you sure this message is ready to be sent?"

Ok the computer didn't actually call me by name. But then I realized oh yeah, I didn't even attach it yet. Perfect, right? I wish I had gotten a screen shot of it so that y'all would really believe me. So then I tried to do it again, but it didn't work and I ended up sending a fake e-mail to my supervisor. Oops.

Also, I may have already posted this song, but I am especially needing and loving it today.

Motherhood

2011-04-05T19:24:00.001-06:00

Hey Y'all. Excuse my southern drawl, I just watched Paula Deen on Rachel Ray and sometimes she brings out the y'all in me.

Sad news. Tonight is my last night of being FHE mother. The semester doesn't end for a couple weeks but this will be our last FHE with our small little group. This group has been great, we legitimately feel like a family. We have real lessons where we really discuss the gospel instead of just trudging through it. We talk with each other and check in during the week and we can always count on a friend at church. One time we even postponed/replaced the lesson with discussing one of our "brother's" relationship and how he could get a girl to commit. When someone is sick in our family, we know about it. It's darling. Most definitely the best FHE family I have had in my singles ward experience.
Anyway, one of my "sons" has asked me to a little mending for him. I sewed up a hole in his shorts a few weeks ago and last week he came with another pair. I feel so environmentally friendly when I repair clothing: like reduce, REUSE, recycle... ya know?
And it is reminding me how much I love to sew or be the sewer girl. Shayna and I took some photos to document the special repairing of the pants.

lame, you can't even tell that I did anything- but maybe that is a good thing?

On another craft note: It is Sarah Jane's Bridal shower this week! I am so excited. It will be so fun, you should come. 7-9 Thursday at my apartment. I have been a busy beaver making some fun crafts for this joyous event- but I will post pictures with the full documentation a wee bit later.

fun new paper garlands!

Senioritis

2011-03-30T11:57:00.000-06:00

the adorable Calvin Wood

I haven't heard anyone use the word "senioritis" since high school... probably because there are so many of us seniors here at college. But let me tell ya, it is alive and well in the soul of Becca. My darling lil' nephew Cal illustrates what I can't wait to do after I graduate!

My public apologies to his mother for taking this photo from her site the same day she published it.

Hot Air Balloon!

2011-03-15T09:29:00.000-06:00

Emily Snyder: this is for you:
I got to go on a hot air balloon ride on Saturday and it was cuhrazy awesome. The Barney's have friends who own the Bank of American Fork balloons (including the pig!) so they were going to take people on rides. Danny and I got to go at the beginning, but then the wind picked up so he landed and no one else got to go. I feel pretty bad that we "hogged" all the time, but it was really wonderfully wonderful. Here is a little picture of the descent.

Speaking of balloons, National Geographic is doing something pretty awesome. Check it out.

BFF= engaged

2011-03-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

It is old news now, but my roommate and dearest friend of the past two years is engaged! It is so interesting to have observed the entire process. I have never been this close to someone to watch the initiation of the dating process and all the ups and downs of the 2 years. And it has been beautiful to observe Jacob and Sarah Jane come together and handle their differences, but always come back together. I have been grateful for Jacob's handiness as the apartment boyfriend- fixing handles, taking out the trash, moving things, etc. They are perfect together! And I am so honored I got to know about the proposal before it happened and I even got to lie to Sarah Jane to help the process! Here they are after their proposal hike:

had to have the classics

the happy Becca

lovely flowers he surprised her with

hen Sarah Pugmire (roommate) came from the BYU basketball game and I just had to save that. Lookin' good Pugmire!

Turns out moving pictures around is harder than it looks, my apologies.

St. George!

2011-03-01T08:45:00.002-07:00

So the family had a fun time in St. George a few weekends ago. We went down to celebrate President's Day and it was wonderful and lovely. Too much good food to be had!
On the crew we had

Momma

Dad

Lizbert

me (with a picture by Sarah Jane)

and oh looky there- Danny Barney came too!

So I may or may not have a boyfriend. Ok I do. Isn't he cute?! Oh man I am sounding like TAMN from the seriously so blessed blog. Anyway, he came with us to St. George and we had some good times in Hurricane, Snow Canyon, St. George temple, and Cedar City. We went repelling in Snow Canyon with the Barney clan and my dad caught some pretty sweet shots.

Some more of the crew

My first time repelling!

I feel like I am playing hide and seek in this one.

you can't tell but we're balancing on the fence post, we don't always just stand like that and Lizzy is not a giant.

the moms working the ropes

Liz and Mary Alice

Danny and Emma being oh so brave, going down backwards!

The girls

The couple :)

Just took this survey

2011-02-16T07:31:00.002-07:00

Interesting question. But I wrote definitely yes. Go Cougs!

Font

2011-02-12T17:50:00.001-07:00

I love fonts. I have been working on a project today and I was having some problems with font book. So I went through a font validation check to make sure there were no errors with the fonts. Turns out I have 819! Yeah, 819 fonts. Uber cool.

If you want to start a collection yourself, here are a few awesome possom resources.
Da Font
My Fonts
Font Shop
Font Squirrel
Fonts.com
Hoefler

Thinking of the Middle East Today

2011-02-01T11:36:00.001-07:00

and this cupcake:

Better Than Whatever Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe

oh and this:

ZUMBA tonight!

Condie

2011-01-25T08:53:00.001-07:00

Ever since Condoleeza Rice came to speak, I have heard so many people refer to her as "Condie." Is that acceptable or normal? Are we allowed to call a secretary of state by a nickname? Is she ok with this? Just wondering because I think it is odd.

Well let's rewind to my high school years. I was in AP Government & Politics and so I would sometimes watch C-Span. I wasn't allowed to watch TV after school but if my mom wasn't home, sometimes I would turn it on. I remember getting really into two things: Justice Alito's Senate confirmation question thing, and then Condoleezza's appearance before Senate for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks from 9-11. I remember Charles Schubert (Democrat from NY) was asking her a question and just being a bit snooty and then she came back with this fantabulous answer. She wasn't even nervous at all (or at least didn't act like it) and presented her thoughts so nicely with such feminine poise.

Ever since then I have thought she was awesome and have even felt like I know her a little bit. When I would hear her name in the news or see pictures of her in the newspaper, I would seriously think, "Oh my friend Condoleezza just out doing her thing- changing the world." (Note: Even though she's my "friend," I don't call her Condie. Should I?)

Now fast forward to a couple weeks ago at BYU. We normally have our devotional/forum on Tuesdays but she is such a big deal that we moved around our campus schedule so she could speak to us on a Thursday morning. I knew it wasn't going to be broadcast so I had my pen, notebook, and back up pens prepared so I could glean all I could and share it with the good people of cyber-space.

My notes of her words:

Headlines and history's judgement are rarely the same.
After September 11th, everyday was September 12th and now we still need to defend out country beyond our sanctuaries and reach out to help failed states heal.
Nowadays, the large and powerful countries are not the dangerous ones.
(In reference to Afghanistan...) Despite the hard work, we have to complete the job.
Every dictator fears the moment when the people will go against them (she was talking about the electoral process in the U.S. and how dictators live in anxiety and rule with fear.)
(On the economy...) Growth is led by the private sector: risk taking, innovation, creativity can not all be funded by the government. The government is a foundation to make innovation happen.
(In reference to China and their power growth...) Can a country that is so afraid of the internet and free thinking really be the one to lead the growth of knowledge?
Our (U.S.) role in the international system is special. We have a constant renewal of energy with all of our immigrants. We need our immigrants because we want energetic and ambitious people to join us.
(In reference to her grandfather who became a Protestant clergy so he could have a scholarship...) My grandfather knew that education would give him a different life. As educated people, you have special responsibilities.
If you are good at English, take more math. If you are good at math, become more engaged in the arts. Overcoming and mastering something that is hard for you is good. We are caught up in our own territory, geography, and language.
When she is lacking in optimism, she reads the biographies of the founding fathers.
It is fine and good to ask questions and to want to know the full range of human knowledge.
Find your passion while you are here studying at Brigham Young University. This isn't just what you are studying, but find out what you're excited to do every single day.
At a university, world's open up to you that you never would have imagined.
You have a responsibility to be optimistic about where you're going when you have been given so much to move forward with.
Whatever is wrong with the world, it would be worse without the leadership.

So there we have it. Pretty incredible woman. Everyone I have talked to about it thought she was absolutely wonderful. She also talked a lot about family and heritage, Russians, and playing the piano. She started off with telling us about how nice it is to be out of D.C. now. She reads the newspaper with her breakfast and says, "Hm, isn't that interesting?" and goes on with her day.
And now for my soapbox. Sometimes I feel like as a woman I can not amount to anything until or unless I am married and have kids. And I do think that is the most important thing a woman can be doing with her time, it isn't the option for everyone. And being in my last semester at the Y, my plan of those pursuits are seeming like less of a near reality.
So that is just another reason why I think Condoleezza is great. She isn't married and while I have no idea what her man stories are, etc. It is nice to know that she is still powerful and has still has done so much for our country, even if it is not in the traditional ways. Go Cougs!

Nephi & Lehi

2011-01-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

One more thought about the More Good speaker tonight.
He said,"There is great power we posses in being 'ordinary'."
Love that.

It reminded me of one of my favorite scriptures, Helaman 11:19. The preceding chapters are about Nephi (not the one in 1 Nephi- I think this is Helaman's son), his leadership roles and all he is working on to further the spread of the gospel. He is given the sealing power and many revelations. Then comes verse 18:

And behold, the people did rejoice and glorify God, and the whole face of the land was filled with rejoicing; and they did no more seek to destroy Nephi, but they did esteem him as a great prophet, and a man of God, having great power and authority given unto him from God.

And then verse 19.

And behold, Lehi, his brother, was not a whit behind him as to things pertaining to righteousness.

Good stuff. No comparison, no competition. Both wonderful men moving the work forward.

The Bookstore

2011-01-20T00:42:00.003-07:00

I already told this to the bulk of my blog readers: my sister and my roommates. But I just feel like it must be shared on cyberspace!

Today at the bookstore I bought an awesome Charley Harper calendar. The above image is on my wall as we speak (isn't is just darling?). So I am waiting at the register, the one by the magazines on the west side. As I approach the check-out line and the lady scans my calendar, I gave her my form of payment.
I said, "This is one of those Visa gift cards and sometimes it doesn't work so just a warning... it may only have some left..."
Then the girl who is behind me in line says, "Oh that's fun is it a wedding gift or something?"
I immediately start laughing and said, "No, I wish."

Time out.
Rewind.
No, I wish? Seriously?! Did I really need to say that to the girl at the check-out. It was like a reflex. I wasn't even thinking. It just came out lightening fast. I felt like I was on Gilmore Girls, that's how fast this dialogue was going.
So then I continue, feeling awkward. "Actually it is from my boss."
Girl in line: "Oh that is really cool. You have a great boss."
Me: "Thank you."
And I walk away.

Thank you?! It's almost like she was trying to be excited for me that even though I wasn't married, I certainly had a cool boss. And I thanked her for it? So odd. After I walked about 3 steps away, I replayed the conversation in my head and had a good laugh. My sister said, "Well I guess we know what you really want." I felt like I was that witness at the end of Legally Blonde when they are asking questions rapid-fire. Too funny!

Love Anne Taintor

I am feeling a bit hyper, thus I might as well type- not sleep

2011-01-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

I rediscovered something about myself today. I have memory anxiety. What does this mean? Whenever I learn something that really blows my mind, not just something in class but some real knowledge and truth that I know is going to affect my life each day, I have to save it. In my sister's favorite book, there is a section about saving books. Rather than thinking that we need to keep every book that has ever affected us, we just need to assimilate the life lessons into our life. We don't need the actual writing, just glean the goodness and let it change you.

Love this journal my dear friend Lindy gave me.
designer's site

Lovely theory, but I am not so good at this. Most of the books that really affect me I have had to return to the library. So instead of just letting go and moving on, I hand-write the sections into my journal that I really like. You know, just in case I need it.
And tonight I needed it. I was talking to a friend about people in our church who struggle with homosexuality. Over the break I read "Goodbye, I love you" by Carol Lynn Pearson. Luckily, I had written down a quote from her book that perfectly explained the point I was trying to make.
But even though I have all this information at my finger-tips (and I have a fairly photographic memory of where it is in the book and next to which sketch...) sometimes it is hard to just say things for myself, because there is always someone you can quote or refer to.
Why am I thinking of all this? Tonight I went to some stake's institute and the speaker is the president of the "More Good" foundation. I am still not exactly sure what they do, but their purpose is to get more positive Mormon exposure online. They help people create LDS themed websites and they post lots of videos on YouTube and if they see anti-Mormon content that breaks copyright laws or twist information, they contact the organizations being violated so they are aware. Then they can get the misperceptions out of cyber-space. Interesting, right? Well he said a lovely thing (he said many lovely things), "We must change perception before you can make the invitation."

This reminded me of my days on Heritage Tours. When you graduate, our high school seminary offered a 3 week bus trip all over the U.S. to church history sites. Everyone in the group was challenged to give someone a Book of Mormon. I was nervous about it all 3 weeks. When you gave a Book of Mormon away then you got to go to the front of the bus and tell everyone about it. I wanted to be that person. Who doesn't love attention?

This is Rachel (and me)
Clearly our best photo

So anyway, one night my friend Rachel and I were chillin' at a hotel in Pittsford, NY. We got talking to the attendant at the front desk. Let's be honest, he was really cute and we were asking him a bunch of questions and possibly flirting it up. We talked to him for quite awhile and learned a lot about him. I remember that I always tried to steer the conversation to religion or about Mormons. Anyway, we ended up running up to our room to grab a Book of Mormon and we kept trying to give it to him even though he didn't want it. It was bad news. And I felt really disappointed that we were bad missionaries and we wouldn't reach our goal.
Well, I have thought about that night quite a bit and am grateful for the lessons I learned about the way to not preach the gospel. I haven't been too exposed to people of other faiths because I grew up in Utah, but I like this idea of the "More Good" foundation because it is more about just clearing our name and clearing the air rather than forcing someone to take a book and reach the quota for the day. Another thing the foundation president said: "Mormonism can be complex and difficult, what can you do to help people make sense of it?"

So there may be some subtle changes to the blog. Just FYI.

YouTube: my hero

2011-01-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

Dreams

2011-01-17T07:31:00.003-07:00

It is 6:55 am, I just woke up. I have some work to do but I have to document something.

Here they are deciphering stuff. I chose this picture because I just love Ellen Page, and her outfit.

So I saw Inception over Christmas break. It was all that I expected: crazy, mind blowing, etc. And ever since then, I can't stop thinking about my dreams. A couple days ago I woke up and remembered 3 dreams rather vividly and I couldn't help but wonder "did someone lead me to those other dreams?"

That is the background, this is the foreground.
Last night I had a rather crazy dream. I was with my roommate Charlotte and my friend Kelli (who is currently in the MTC- go missionaries!) and we had just arrived at the Conference Center. We were on the very right hand side on the terrace level. As we were walking down to our seats, I said to Charlotte, "Where is Sarah (another of our roommates)?"
She said,"Oh she was hoping to come but turns out she has dance practice at 10 am, and you know how her teacher is."
So it was just the 3 of us there to watch the young women's general broadcast at 10 am. As we're waiting for it to begin, I notice my dad sitting on the stand next to Pres. Eyring. For some reason I was fairly calm and collected.
Charlotte said, "Isn't that your dad?"
"Of course it is. He always wears a green dress shirt under his suit." (For the record, this is not true.)
I also noticed that his tie was really loose. Like way too loose. As in, the knot was nowhere near his neck.
Then I started to get concerned.
But, then when the broadcast was supposed to start (you know they do the little minute countdown) suddenly President Eyring started to play some musical instrument. Then somehow my dad pulled out what looked like a cornet, some other guy on the stand had a trumpet, and another had a trombone. They started dancing and playing their instruments all over the stand.
Needless to say, the crowd went wild.
At first I didn't know if I ought to join in, clapping and hollering in the Conference Center?... totes inappropriate. But after I saw Sis. Beck cheering (she was the YW president) then I felt ok to cheer. Suddenly, my lil' sister Lizzy replaced Charlotte and Kelli and they were nowhere to be found. But Liz and I ran to the front to cheer on our dad.
When he saw that we were coming up, he left the stage (in the middle of the song) and comes from the back-stage with multiple boxes of flowers. He puts them up by the other guys and they start tossing them towards the crowd. (For the record, the audience shrunk to more of a de Jong concert hall size rather than the Conference Center-- I know, quite the transformation right.)
So my dad starts throwing the flowers to us, and a bunch of the young women from our ward were suddenly surrounding us. Some of the flowers were lovely. But some were lettuce leaves with that terrible flower dye. Ya know how Memorial day arrangements have those white carnations that are sprayed that very unnatural blue. That's what we were dealing with here.
I don't know if they figured hey, some people in the distance will just see the colors and the lettuce and assume they are flowers... it was interesting.
So then Lizzy and I were like, dad come sit next to us so you can watch the rest of the broadcast.
But we had driven separate cars so he could keep his performance secret from us, so he decided to drive home and beat the traffic.

Cuhrazy right! When I first woke up, I had no idea why I had that dream. But now as I type it all out, I am sure the biggest influence was watching music man with the family last night (Dad's choice).

Also, I am sure it helps that I saw Sis. Beck on the stand when Condoleezza Rice spoke at BYU the other day (I'll save those details for another post. She deserves her own, because it was one of the most enlightening and motivating meetings of my life.)

Sarah Jane's photo at Kelli's farewell. (She is on the far left)

I am sure it helps that I am having withdrawals from my dear friend Kelli who recently left on her mission. And I think the Sarah and Charlotte situation may have been because all of my roommates have been out of town this weekend, so I came home and was with Lizzy... (Sorry Shayna, maybe you'll be in my next dream!)

But I can't explain the setting.

Conclusion: Dreams are powerful and quite creative.

My very last college semester

2011-01-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

Well the time is fast approaching for me to leave the good ol' BYU. I have quite the exciting line-up for my last few months. My schedule includes:

entrepreneurship lecture series
intro to film
business practices of graphic design
social entrepreneurship
motion graphics
individual directed study with the head of the art department

It has taken quite awhile to finalize, but I am pumped. On facebook a few months ago, I put up the status update: "Best class taken at BYU?" Several of my friends mentioned intro to film so I thought I would check it out. I decided that I am way influenced by the shows I love.

Oh Kathleen

For example, everyone knows that I secretly (and not so secretly) want to be Kathleen Kelly from You've Got Mail and that I thought my college experience could look somewhat like Rory's in Gilmore Girls.

Lorelai II

So even though I am not Kathleen or Rory, I figure that my life will always include movies and series of some kind, so I might as well take a class to know how to analyze the things I watch.
My entrepreneurship lecture series is just 1 credit to finish off my business minor. I wanted to take the women's entrepreneurship class but it conflicted with my schedule. Tragic.

I am already loving my business practices class. It is nice to talk about real life and planning instead of just the fluff of design. It will also be rather convenient to be talking about how to get a job while I am beginning the search to find something awesome.

The social entrepreneurship class is going to be so awesome. The teacher is Warner Woodworth, who has created several groups to help educate people in third world countries. He is a professor of organizational behavior and so he uses business principles to apply to the "social sector" the area of the economy that is not taken care of by either the private or public sector. The first time he did this class, they created Help International- which is a program that 2 of my dear roommates joined. Kelli went to Guatemala and completed an internship teaching women about hygiene. At the same time Aly went to Uganda and helped build sun ovens and teach about hygiene.
I know next to nothing about any of this stuff, but I think it is going to be great. How can it not be when this is our textbook:

How to Change the World by David Bornstein

Last class is motion graphics. This is going to be suh-weet. I am not totally sure how to even define motion graphics but it is a combo between print design and animation. It is more about giving life to text. For example, if you have been to the Carl Bloch exhibit at the MOA, you may recall a room of moving text and images in the first room as you enter. Well my teacher created all that goodness. He is a design professor but he knows oh so much about technology, motion, and interactive media. He is pretty much the best, not to mention my favorite design teacher. Here is a little sample of what he did with some BYU students before:

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

And this is something he created on his own:

F is for FAIL from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

Beautiful right? I am so going to love Winter 2011!

You know you're lazy when...

2010-12-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

You sleep on your couch because you are too out of it to go downstairs to your bed.

Yes, I did wake up with back pain.

If you or someone you love is dealing with back pain, may I highly recommend sleeping on your back. It is oh so hard to get used to, but I promise it is worth it. When I lived with my Japanese room-mate she always slept on her back and convinced me to as well and let me tell ya- the best night's sleep I have ever had. If you put a bag of rice on your head it also helps because then you know if you move, the rice will fall. Try it. Change your life.

In other news, remember Taylor Swift?

When she first came out with that Tim McGraw song I wasn't a big fan because I felt like she was piggy-backing on Tim' fame or something. But little Lizbert got her new album for Christmas and I am just loving it. I even read her album intro and I was oh so close to having a tear.

She is quite deep. Her album is called "speak now" referencing in wedding ceremonies when they say "speak now or forever hold your peace." And each song is a different story in her life when she wanted to speak but she didn't or times she wished she had, or things she wished that people had spoken to her. I love that she writes all her own songs.

My new goal: Start thinking about music the same way I think about art. I pretty much love all art when I know the background. When you read an artist statement next to their piece and it gives so much more meaning than just their image. So from now before I make a hasty judgement I am going to read someone's album intro and try to understand their artistic purpose. Maybe I will even call it my new year's resolution.

One foot of snow. Alleluia.

2010-12-21T12:39:00.004-07:00

Well it's official, I like playing with the colors on my blog more than posting. But I do have excitingish news. I made a website. It took a long time, and I probably would never have done it if I hadn't had taken a web design class this semester. So even though it is not perfect and depending on which browser you use, it may not come up at all. I have a new respect for the experts of HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript goodness. To you who do those things for a living, here is a cyber salute! If you want to check it out, here it be: rebeccamade.com. There is also a little widge widget on the side for your button clicking pleasure.

Oh look, Paula Scher's Swatch poster.

Hopefully you skiers can get some fresh powder today. May your days be merry and bright!

Roommates

2010-12-11T16:35:00.007-07:00

our lovely apartment (Lauren Merkley's photo)

I so much love my roommates. Life is good when you have an awesome environment to come home to everyday. People that agree with you that we should recycle, and keep our apartment clean and have it smell nice and have clean carpet. We put up decorations and even Christmas lights lining the inside. I love living with them.

So, my roommate Sarah had a great idea for our ward Christmas party. We had to bring white elephant gifts so we decided to get some crazy frames from DI and put our own pictures in them. I thought it would be good to do our photos with a lovely soft focus and zoomed in on some big curls so we looked like the Olan Mills days. We did, it was great. Here they are.

Shayna

Charlotte

Sarah

brought to you by the letter "v"

2010-12-06T18:05:00.003-07:00

Just realized something way important. Whenever I am in a weird mood, I resort back to my mother's idea of funny. She starts pretending like every word she says starts with the letter "v" and I totally do it. I was just singing the song "I got that joy joy joy joy down in my heart... WHERE?" and then I noticed that my roommates were tired of asking "where."

So I started walking slowly to my computer and said

I vuess I vill start vorking on my vebsite.

Thanks Denise. And Jessica Hische for the dropcap.

Rabbit!

2010-11-30T17:50:00.003-07:00

I am in a situation.

My ward "closing social" is on Dec. 10th. It should be awesome. Food, slideshow, possibly my room-mates and I sharing a special talent on stage (we still need to ask).

Now rewind to yesterday, my boss decides that we will have our work Christmas party on the 10th. Oh no, what is a girl to do? I have been brainstorming this party with my boss since probably July. I love love love all my co-workers and have been really wanting to meet all their significant others.

Both events start at the same time. I see people in my ward all the time and I see people at work quite often as well. But I have reduced my hours, meaning I see them less. While I stew about it-- I will keep singing this lovely song by Brandi Carlile.

And I discovered a new band! Well I didn't really bring them fame or anything, but I really love them. SJ and I decided they are a nice blend between folk and electronica and harmony time. Take a listen, if you would like.

For the record: the song is called "fall into love" but I am in a marriage prep class right now and I have learned a great deal. I just want to say that I do know that there is no such thing as "falling in love." It is a decision, it is not something that just happens to you and you have to go with it. You do have control. So even though I like the song, I do not approve their message. Thank your ladies and gentleman.

If you enjoyed it, here is another. If not, so sad for you.

Another Job

2010-11-10T06:27:00.005-07:00

So yesterday I saw a friend from high school who is pregnant. She gave me a little update and then she said," So are you still going to school?"

I said, "Yeah I'm studying graphic design and then I graduate in April."

Then she said, "Ok so is anything else going on?"

I kind of laughed to myself but I didn't understand exactly what she was asking.Llike if she wanted to know if I was dating someone or engaged or something or maybe she had heard about Robert and I or something.

But I just said uh, no and we wrapped it up.

It is very interesting to answer people's questions based on how they know you or how often you talk. I wasn't going to start saying well yeah there is a lot going on: I just got hired as the designer for the Education in Zion gallery in the Joseph Smith building and I just won the HRS Christmas Card competition and one of my dearest friends has her mission farewell this week and I am making graduation adventure plans and I am throwing 2 bridal showers in the next 2 weeks and I just did a deep clean of my room and I made a delicious spinach and shrimp pasta last week and my roommates are absolutely wonderful and I love my ward and I am Relief Society president so I have several interviews to complete this week and my marriage prep class has been the most educational class I have taken at BYU and I love to go in and talk to my professor about why the world behaves as it does and I am writing a research paper about vintage aprons, scarves, and tablecloths that were created between the 1930s and 1960s and I am working on coding my portfolio website and I just got home from Boston with my sisters and I get to go to St.George for Thanksgiving and I just got some new grey zuriick shoes and I am absolutely loving them and I just finished studying for my organization behavior test and I am creating some wedding announcements for a friend in my ward and I just discovered some new music that is rocking my world.

Anyway, I didn't say all that but I am loving this last year of my BYU life. I saw some friends from freshman year the other day and as I walked away, I thought of how different I am right now than I was when I shared a bathroom with those girls. College has been good.

As I look toward graduation, I have already been making plans about which people I am going to meet outside of the Marriott Center to take a photo with in our caps and gowns.

Oh and family you might want to be prepared for a photo shoot because there are all these random place on campus that I love and as I have been walking around, I keep thinking- oh let's take a photo there with me in my cap and gown, oh and that tree I just love that tree, we'll need a photo there for sure.

I have also been more sentimental about the college experience because I am in an art exhibition about women and education and why it is important for women, particularly in the Church, to be educated. If you have any interest, come to the opening reception! It is called "After Eve" next Thursday, Nov. 18th and it will be at the Education in Zion Gallery in the Joseph Smith Building at 7:30, on BYU campus of course.

Advertising

2010-11-03T21:45:00.002-06:00

Many semesters ago when I was in my advertising class, our TA would show us the great examples. I am now wishing I could remember all of them but I did remember one of them this week and have been showing it to everyone I can.

This is another one I really love.

For FHE the other night, we had a YouTube night and everyone got to show a video. Well that was the plan, but we didn't get through everyone. I kept saying, "I have a video I want to share but it's not funny- it is just really beautiful." I probably said that exact like 5 times because I wanted to show it and I knew people would love it but I didn't want to be too domineering ya know? So once everyone left I turned to my room mates and said, "Ok I am showing you this video whether you like it or not." Success, but not enough. So I show you now: (Background- this was actually Melissa's favorite video first. She showed it to me in her apartment right after she got married when I was in my senior year of high school. Full credit goes to her and Aaron.)

Last but not least. Maddie introduced me to this a couple weeks ago. They are tap dancers and they do this to prepare before they actually do the moves with their feet. Truly inspiring.