::NERD ALERT::

A t-shirt that glows according to the strength of the wi-fi around....totes awesome...totes nerdy...totes love it.
Hmm...they have a sweet animated giff to show the shirt in action, but I can seem to pull it down and post it, it keeps coming across as a giff, but just a picture. Any suggestions? I always love learning something new. If I figure it out first I'll let you know.

(Wi-fi detector shirt: $29.99 via think geek. I've ordered from them before and everything was perfect!)

What to do with a non working fireplace

Putting in fire screens or a faux-fire setup is a bit boring and, like, sooo last year. Here are a few ways to make your unusable fireplace fabulous!

Putting wood in, but in a whole new way, is becoming quite popular. Very modern but just a touch of rustic all at the same time.

As a headboard (depending on what room it's in).


Use the interior of the fireplace as a shelf to display art or other pieces.


I like the idea of candles in the fireplace, but not everyone does it well or they never light the candles and thats just no fun. Most importantly, be creative! Any other ideas?
(Pics via decor8, activerain, M.A.Belle, )

Breakfast in the Burgh

Pretty much anytime we stay in Pittsburgh on the weekend we go to affogato for breakfast on Sunday. It's a small coffee house on Lincoln Ave in Bellevue that has an assortment of food, but we always get the same thing...pancakes. They have 3 different batters (plain, whole wheat, and pumpkin is the best!), about 20 add-ons and another 20 "flavor shots" to choose from. They are only $2 and some change for 2 huge, delicious pancakes (and we recommend to get the Canadian bacon too!). Perhaps best of all, is their selection of games you can play while hanging out. And it isn't only for breakfast their hours are M-TH: 7a-9p / F: 7a-10p / S: 8a-4p then 8p-1a / S: 11a-3p. Just look for the big red "a" when you're driving down Lincoln! They even have a little blog of events!

Live from Cleveland Ohio

I drove to Cleveland today to see my dad before his surgery. They pushed back his surgery a day because they had to do a few more tests (he had a small stroke during one of his endocardatic episodes, but they found that there was no brain damage). Our grandma, aunt and uncle arrived today as well and we had time to all hang out, talk and play a few rounds of Scatagories.


The Cleveland Clinic has this great section of their website called theStatus.com which has a profile for patients in the hospital so that we can give our family and friends updates about how he's doing. It's really a great setup where you log in and there is a picture of him, his background, news/updates and even a place for people to leave comments.

The hotel we're in is a little weird, there is no wall in between the shower and the living room, just a shower curtain. I thought my mom was exaggering buttttt, it really is. Ok, well we have to leave the hotel by 5:30 a.m. so I'll try to update tomorrow after surgery.



UPDATE: Surgery went well, he's out of the ICU, but still at the hospital. It will be a long recovery.

Happy Earth Day!

Here are 50 ways to help the Planet from Wire & Twine. Don't be scared, you don't have to do ALL 50 right away. The best thing to do is add one at a time so they become habits, not conscious efforts.

(via swissmiss)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

ok...not in that order, but here it goes...

The BAD:
I'm going to Cleveland on Wednesday night because my Dad is having open heart surgery to replace/fix his heart valve. He's one of three individuals getting an innovative bioposthetic graft surgery. It seems to be safe and I'm sure they will take good care of him, but it's a little nerve-wracking that it has not been performed on humans yet. So all your prayers, wishes on stars, or fingers crossed is greatly appreciated.

The GOOD:
My friend Kristen just got a new job.
My friend Nikkie just closed on her house.
iNSPiRAL recorded 2 new songs while in Jersey.
Annnnnnnnnnd.....
Mikey and I got engaged this weekend!

The UGLY:
Awww ugly dolls are so cute!

(pics are thanks to amelia grazia)

CAPS LOCK

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Mini-Vacation!

Hey all! I've been working my butt off this week so I can leave a little early today. Mikey and I are going to Buhl Mansion, a bed & breakfast about an hour away (don't worry, I'll take plenty of pictures!). We got the trip in an auction at the Pittsburgh Film Office Oscar party this year. It was a black tie event down at Heinz Field and I helped work on the the invite, billboards, tickets, e-blast, etc.


We could have bid on this picture and script signed by the entire cast of House:


Butttt we're more of 'experiences are worth more than possessions' kind of people so we decided on the trip instead and we were soooo excited!

I could have told you that would happen.

Ogilvy did a bus shelter sign with real snacks in it and were going to take away the snacks slowly over a timeframe of a few weeks to reveal the tagline ("Too much good stuff"). Unfortunately, two days after the start of the campaign the ad was broken into and most of the treats were taken. Ten points for creativity and originality, but minus 100 for common sense, if you put unsupervised food in a bus shelter in Chicago, it will get stolen. You can see the before and after to the left.

(via Ad freak)

The Rather Difficult Font Game

I figured I'd pass along this font game, it's a bit tricky even if you know your fonts. I only got 24 out of 34, I thought I would do better, but it's been a very long day and I might have had a little too much caffeine this afternoon.

(Thanks Ted!)

Save the Date: Passages

My co-worker-roommate-friend Randie has an upcoming show at Moxie dada opening May 10th! Her work is awesome, you better be there!

"The choices we make every day collect in pools and streams, just like water agreeing with gravity, to form our passage through life. Our sins and our virtues govern our relationships, and thus the space we occupy in society."

(Click for larger view)

HV Review: Xmp3split

Ok, the probability of you needing this software is probably pretty slim, but if I did, then someone else might. It's for splitting mp3 files into smaller sections. It's amazingly easy, all you do is set your preferences to the length time time you want your sections into and tell it where to go, then drag your mp3 into the program, and voila! I was really astonished by the speed, my audio file was 18.5 hours long and I split it into 30 minute sections and it took less than 10 seconds! It's a Mac program, it's free, it's small and you can find the download here. There are also programs like AudioSlicer that look for silences in an audio file so it will split where songs end instead of set time segments.

(For those of you who are curious what my file was, I had the audio book of The Half Blood Prince , but it was all one long mp3, which is perfect for my iTunes, but Mike got an iPod and it's easier to have smaller sections. Yes, I'm a Harry Potter fan girl. Yes, I loooove audio books. Yes, I'm a nerd.)

It's Raining..

It's raining in the Burgh today, and as I sit here being good and throughly enjoying my dill hummus, green peppers and organic tortilla chips, I really just want a chocolate cupcake...mmm.

If you need something to brighten up your rainy day check out these cute illustrations from a local Pittsburgh artist over at her esty shop: kitschy-coo. She has original paintings, notecards, and prints. This one looks like it could be of Sissy and me!

Randomness of the Day

Ohhh the internet is so entertaining sometimes. Here's some of my favorites as of lately:

• You Have to Burn the Rope game, seriously less than 5 minutes of your time, stay for the music and I promise you'll smile. (via best.week.ever)
• Cats in Sinks...why DO they love it so much?
• Top 10 Sound Illusions. Must listen to with headphones. (I think the "virtual barbershop" is the best.)
• Some useful free vector art, 10 pages of it, and you don't have to sign up! Yay!
• The debate of why Chewbacca didn't get a medal at the end of A New Hope goes on. (via the.star.wars.blog)

(pic is album cover via apartment.therapy)

No Turkey.

Ummm....I wasn't planning on it, whatever it is I am not supposed to do with the turkey and a shirt.

(I don't remember where I found this! Sooorrrrrry!)

Time (under $100)

For me, time peices are works of art. They can be so well designed and really add to a room and they are FUNCTIONAL! I think it's worth spending a little bit of cash on these beauties, but not too much. So here are 10 fabulous clocks under 100 dollars.1. clybourn wall clock ($79.95): Two sided train station clock that mounts out from wall.
2. Giant Flip Clock ($95.00): Quiet flipping and retro design, 13" x 5" x 4" wall mountable, or it can rest on any flat surface
3. Decode Clock ($59.95): I always think this concept is so clever! 12", comes in back or white
4. Spellbound Wall Clock ($21.99): The number of minutes it written between the hours.
5. Times Square Numeri Clock ($98.00): 13.75" square orange painted metal.
6. TimeZones Clock (about $55.00): I don't know what it is, but I've always had a thing for timezones.
7. Chic Chalet Clock ($59.00): A very minimal and pretty cuckoo clock.
8. Timesphere Clock, White Dial, Red Ball ($50.00): Ball seems to float around the clock in this minimalist design.
9. Projection Alarm Clock ($19.95): Ok, ok, this one isn't that pretty, but I have one of these that projects the time on the ceiling and I love it! Highly recommended. (A quick word to those of us with very bad near-sightedness, it's difficult to see without glasses/contacts, so make sure to put it far away so the numbers are as large as possible)
10. Make your own! You can make a clock out of ANYTHING with a simple kit from almost any craft store. A personal or prefect match to your decor is sometimes better than anything you can buy.

(Found with some help from: bltd, apartment therapy, & google)

Back to my alma mater.

On Thursday I took a trip back to good old Bobby Mo to be on a design panel for this "Creativity at Work" program they put on every year. It's basically an informational career day with a focus on the creative fields like design, advertising, video, etc. It was a bit surreal because I had attended as a student several years and now I was on the other side offering my (small bit of) wisdom to the bright young stars of tomorrow, or something like that. I felt a bit honored that they had asked me to be there. My fabulous fellow panelists were :

Joe Meadows—"Senior Multimedia Developer" (aka: web guy) over at American Eagle that I know from many AIGA happy hours
Amy Joy—a lovely designer for Robert Morris who was brought in at last minute (shes does a wonderful job on our alumni magazine!)
Doris Short—Denmark native, AIGA board member, and a very knowledgeable in-house designer over at GlaxoSmithKline

All in all it was a successful event, quite a few students showed up and it was great to catch up with quite a few of my professors that were there.

Replanting

I've never had much of a green thumb, my mum does, but it isn't one of the (many) genes I got from her. (It doesn't help that Weezy likes to eat plants and gets a kick out of knocking them over.) I really want to save one pot of several plants that is particularly meaningful to me, so I asked Mike for some help. The other night we replanted them and they look quite sad and pretty much dead, but you can see there is still a bit of hope!


We heard somewhere that cats don't like tin foil, I don't actually know if this is true, but we put some on the ledge where the plants are and Weez hasn't messed with them yet!

Oh April Fools Day...

The internet really does make April Fools Day so much fun. You really can't believe anything you read that day and I really feel silly when I almost believe some of the stories. Here's a few of my favorite pranks from yesterday:

Brand New's "Ford Re-design"


Think Geek's "Catalog" full of absurd items like a usb pregnancy test and this sweet labyrinth lock maze.


Annnnnnd my favorite "Flying Penguins Found by BBC Program" on Nothing to do with Arbroath

Star Wars + Crafters = Sooooo Cute!

Besides the fact that Yoda is (update:) almost the same height as Han and Leia, and corrent me if I am wrong, but I thought Admiral Ackbar was a lot taller. Now I'm just being picky (and jealous that I don't have the skills to make some of my own).(via boingboing)