KV's Confessions: January 2012

January 31, 2012

A little lesson in Typography...

I have a confession to make... I'm a Typoholic.

In other words... I LOVE TYPOGRAPHY!

It's historic, complex, detail oriented, and a perfectionist's dream.

One thing I notice right away is a designer's attention to type. It's not the fonts so much that bother me; it's the careless eye that overlooks some of the most common, easily fixable issues that arise while dealing with type.

A basic understanding of the "No-No's" is all you need to steer clear of committing a Typography fail... so I thought today I would teach a quick lesson on the Character palette in Photoshop, show you some bad examples, and fix them with my favorite character tools :)

Here we go!

You may now be asking, "WHAT THE CRAP DO THESE TERMS MEAN?"

Read on, my fellow typography lovers... read on.

KEARNING

"the space between each individual letter; typically adjusted in headings"

BEFORE... too much spacing after the capitals and in between words:

AFTER... decreasing the kearning fixes odd spaces and increases the visual flow:

TRACKING

"the spacing between letters in a general section of type; adjusted for readability/spacing issues"

BEFORE... too close together, hard on the eyes for reading big sections of text:

AFTER... more white space for easy readability:

LEADING

"the vertical space between each line of text; adjusted for readability/spacing issues"

BEFORE... space between lines too close together- hard to read:

AFTER... lines are evenly spaced out- easy to read:

BASELINE SHIFT

"lets you adjust where your letter's baseline will sit; either higher or lower"

BEFORE... capitals' baselines are sitting lower than the rest of the letters:

AFTER... capitals' baselines have been shifted to match the others:

* * * * *

A couple other rules I like to follow...

1. Never stretch your text vertical or horizontal- yuck! I hate when I see this. It's obvious and totally ruins the typeface. Increase the font size or adjust the tracking to solve spacing issues. If you are warping it too much it's probably time to choose a different font.

2. Stop centering everything! I can sometimes fall into this pattern when I'm writing blog posts and I have to stop myself. Centering seems nice at first- but it ends up making your post look messy with all those hanging sentences lingering into the next line and the jagged edges of the paragraph shape. Left justify- it's better that way.

2. Choose a basic font for your page text. Page text is not the time to play with those fun fonts- leave those for headings. Keep it simple and your readers will thank you!

Am I missing anything?

"...Bueller?"

January 30, 2012

Music Mondays (new link up!)

Good morning my lovelies, and a HUGE welcome to my new readers this last month!

I'm so stoked because I have so much in store for you this week...

One of my recent ideas was to start my own linky party. If you've been reading for a while you know I love my music... especially when I'm on an all night design binge or I just need to turn my brain into a bust-it-out machine. Music has that effect where I can just let go, focus, and get creative... you too huh? :)

Mondays are those heinous 24 hours when we typically have an assload of tasks to accomplish, so I figured, why not do "Music Monday"- a place where we can all link up our favorite playlists and hop around to see what everyone else is listening to?

Now, I'm sure there may be other linky parties with this same idea (I'm sorry if I've stolen it) but I'm just doing it for fun on my own blog; I hope you join me!

So here's how it's gonna work... every week I'll post a playlist of 5 different songs coinciding with the week's theme. I'll give you a heads up what the next week's theme will be each week. The theme is only for inspiration- you are welcome to post whatever songs you wish! I've found the best way to share your playlist is with Grooveshark (click the link on my widget below).

So I've decided this week's theme to be:

"Your top 5 favorite songs from a single artist or band"

Personally, I've been obsessing over AWOLNATION lately- they have this creepy/hot sound and I'm in love with the singer's voice! So... you ready? Listen up!

*NEXT WEEK'S THEME: 5 favorite songs from your birth year!*

If you'd like to participate:

1. Add your post URL to the linky below

2. Add this button somewhere in your post por favor
3. Visit the other links and make some new friends!

Thanks guys- hope you have a very musical Monday!

January 28, 2012

"Science is hard... let's DESIGN!"

image via

Just a few designers quoting profound wisdom today!

Do you have any designer wisdom to add?

January 27, 2012

First Time Vlogging + Friday's Fancies!

Oh, heyyy! Happy Friday! What are your plans for the weekend?

We got Josh's Mamacita in town for the weekend so we are going to be having fun family time, and Josh says he wants to take me out for a date on Saturday night, so that will be nice :)

Anyway, today is a very special post because I'm doing a two-parter... one part Friday's Fancies and one part VLOGGING.

You heard me, I vlogged.

And um, it's my first time so don't laugh at me! I was nervous, awkward, and rambled on for a long, long time. Next time will be better... if there is a next time... but that is in your hands now (more on that later).

OK so first order of business: Friday's Fancies. I love this weekly series- it's so much fun, you guys should try it! This week's theme was all about creating a winter outfit. I've been seeing the fur vest trend going around and thought I would put my own spin on it, with a fun color scheme as usual :) Can you tell I have a matchy-matchy kind of style? I can't help it!

(If this vest was faux, it would be a lot better, but I couldn't find one as pretty... so nothing personal PETA... don't come after me!)

What do you guys think? Would you ever wear a vest like that? What if you were rich like the Kardashian's and every day was like a public fashion show? I think I would.

OK, so it's time for the vlog... *eeeek!* I'm a little nervous to post this, because after watching it I kinda wish I could have dubbed over some parts and changed things, but I didn't feel like editing. And I rambled on talking for almost 10 minutes (sorry). This was actually my first take. I tried a couple more takes, but it felt rehearsed and I felt dumb, so yeah.

To give you some background, what I was trying to explain in the video is that I got this vlogging idea from iBlog4.me (previously known as For The Love Of Blogs). They have a Coffee Talk series every Friday encouraging you to vlog, and every week there is a new question to answer in your video.

That's the whole point behind it... anyway... I'll stop typing now and just let you listen.

(Oh and try to count how many times I say, "Anyway" and "Um")

What do you guys think?! Am I weird?? Not what you expected?

I'm exposed for the real person I am... it kinda feels pretty awesome.
Somehow I feel a little bit closer to you now :)

Oh, and when I said, "If I can do it, you guys can probably do it too."

I meant to say, "you guys DEFINITELY can do it too!"

Seriously. Try it.

And don't forget to ask me anything!!!
Leave me a comment with your questions if you'd like to see my face talk again :)

Have a LOVELY weekend, my friends!!

January 26, 2012

Confess to a GDS: The Sharde Edition

1. What do you love/hate most about blogging?
Well I really love to talk, like a lot. And I love to do hair and dress up everyday.... and I craft a lot too. For the longest time, I've had people asking me where I got something, or how I made my clothes, and I finally have a place to share it. That makes me really happy & I love that aspect about blogging. The one thing I hate about blogging is the stigma thats attached to it. When I tell some people I blog they kind of think its dorky, or dumb, and brush it off before they have any interest in viewing it. However, I think people who aren't open to things are dorks themselves!

2. What do you consider your "dream job?"
I'm living out my dream job right now! Being a hairstylist is a way that I get to express my creativity on a daily basis, and I get to talk to new people everyday! What more could I want?

3. What 3 things are most important to you?
1. My love. He's my best friend, cheerleader, and the best spouse I could ever find!
2. My mom, she's my other best friend.
3. My kids. I mean, my pets. My dog Higgins and my cat Cocoa. They're the coolest.

4. What movie could you watch over and over again and still love every time?
Wedding Singer! Or.. Night At The Roxbury. They're both my favorite.

5. What's one thing you want to do before you die?
To narrow it down to one thing its really hard. I'd love to open a special events salon- while I love cut and color, I have a passion for styling! It'd be awesome to have a successful salon just for special events and blowouts.

6. What celebrity do you have the hots for?
JT. Mr. Timberlake. Not his looks, but his posture, the way he carries himself. So smooth & suave.

7. If you could travel through time, what decade would you most like to visit?
I'd love to see some dinosaurs!!!!! Raaarrrrr!

8. What are you most excited about right now?
The future. While I feel really old in my brain, in human years I'm really pretty young. There's so much fun to be had, experiences to share, and things to see. I just moved to California 6 months ago, and I can't wait to see what adventures are to come.

9. What's one trend in the fashion/hair world that you wish would go away?
Girls showing their stomachs. I don't know why it bother's me so much, but honestly- you can look cute, sexy, have tight fitting clothes, but showing your stomach just feels trashy to me. 99.9% of the time.

10. What words do you like to live by?
Seize the day. Life's too short, so you can't take one day for granted.

Get your hair & fashion fix by visiting her blog over at

The Style Projects!

...I'm also guest posting over there today; check it out!

January 25, 2012

Flashback

image via

I'm so bad at taking photos.

I'm a blogger who doesn't think about taking photos... how bout that?

It doesn't occur to me that every little thing I do throughout the day is photo worthy. It feels forced. I don't always get dressed and think to whip out the camera. Even when I travel or go to a fun event I'm so caught up in the moment that I almost always forget to take the pictures.

I hate that I do that... I want to be that fabulous blogger/photographer with hundreds of photos to have you stalk through. I want to have beautiful framed photos on our walls categorizing every event, vacation, and family function in the highest resolution possible. I want my grandchildren to have lots of photos to look through someday. I want to display our history together in albums and throughout our home.

So upon thinking about all this, I got inspired to do a "flashback photo" post, went digging through some oldies, and ended up finding memories. I was going through photo albums crying and laughing at the same time (I don't know if Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" had anything to do with that... can you picture it? Dear God...).

I saw how much I had aged over the last 8 years since high school when Josh and I started dating. I flashed back to all of our dates and time spent together... *tearing up again as I'm writing* and I just realized that time has gone by so fast...

*bawling and typing at the same time... stop it Celine...*

Seeing these photos was helping me remember everything all over again.

Sometimes we forget who we used to be and how we used to act. We are so caught up with now and the future that the past starts to slowly fade away. If you don't remind yourself every once in a while, you can forget some of your most treasured memories.

This happens to me a lot, so every once in a while I like to curl up with a photo album and just cherish the good ol' days.... (and that's why I'm making my ugly crying face right now... what is wrong with me!!!)

I guess through seeing how quickly everything changes I'm reminded to be thankful for this life of mine, however long or short it may be... I know it's just a glimpse, a small moment in the span of eternity, and I know there is so much more to look forward to after this life is complete.

Anyway... *sniff, sigh* ...now that I've had my softy-session, let me take you back through me and Josh's relationship, from our first dates to now :)