ON THE TABLE: Tea time

My camera is UNdead! Well, I never sent it to get repaired and a friend came over, held it... it started working. Crazy life suprises! I'm exited to keep practicing with it. Was kind of on a roll there for a bit. Glad to be back! I'm the type who takes 800 photos and only ends up using 6. But, I thoroughly enjoy the process. I try all kinds of angles and my window [and neighbors] are probably laughing up a storm whenever I'm at it. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing yet. Anyways, this sunday I made breakfast and served up some tea. THAT kind of day. There was something about the jar of honey, the lid, the cup and the plates... all so round and clustered. Although the photos didn't come out as well, I'm so exited to keep chasing patterns and shapes with my camera. Hey, I even tried my luck with a .gif! So, what's on your table?

Listening to Royals

VIDEO: Le Mystère

Let's start off with this. When everyone is all about the final piece I'm usually figuring out how it was done. This video is so compeling. You can't stop wacthing it to see what else comes up. But, the behind the scenes is that much more impressive. The process looks very intricate but, organized. Impressive for sure! What videos are you watching that have left you inspired?

CURRENTLY IN LOVE WITH: Longitude Wines by Rob Schellenberg

In the day job, our team is working on branding for a small-scale  liquor company. Now, whenever I'm browsing around, I see bottles and their unique designs everywhere. On the stress, in facebook, link on a tweet and today... on a black & white inspiration facebook album, that redirected me to pinterest. It happens often though. For example, when you finally discover a cookie recipe with the exact ingredients in your cupboard, it suddenly seems like everyone and their mother has made, will make, is making cookies too. Well, in this case, I see bottles everywhere! Power of attraction? Whatever it is, so glad I stumbled upon these beauties. Nothing beats great type + a map. A topographical map at that! 

Images via The Coolist, Design by Rob Schellenberg

DESIGN: Sofía Arana Website

If you've been following me on twitter, or you know... hear me rant in real life, you'll understand why I'm so exited to call this project ready! I learned two things: 1) if you want something done right, do it yourself, 2) if you don't have time to do it yourself, only work with people you know. Let's preface this by saying that this project started last year. Things got a little bumpy with the time frame so, I thought the best way to divide myself into two was hiring a developer. Well, we went through two. The thing is, a group can share a vision but execution is a whole 'nother story. Something wasn't matching up between the design and the development. Guess what we did? Start from scratch. New design, no developer. When something isn't going right, most people try to fix it. I went from trying to fix it, to trashing every single idea we had beforehand. So, back to the moodboard I went and I am SO exited for the final result. 

Sofía Arana is a fashion designer here in Puerto Rico. The first word that comes to mind when you see her work is whimsical. Keeping this in mind, we went for a sleek and minimal look that's image focused. Mainly, images of Sofías new collection! The color scheme is in the blacks and whites to make everything else stand out. I used 'raleway', a very thin and simple font, to contrast with the existing logo. I also went ahead and gave the headers some massive tracking, mostly because I'm quite obsessed with it. Letters can breathe and prove their point. Anywhos, I'm so glad to be able to say it's up and ready! You can check it out here. 

Moodboard Images vía 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Listening to Breezeblocks

ON THE TABLE: Lentil Stew with carrots and canadian bacon

 
[This is a repost from http://www.Ever-Changingtable.com, my-soon-to-be-merged-into-this-blog food blog. I tried having two blogs, it didn't work out. But you all knew that already. Not exactly sure how I thought running two blogs + a full time job + freelancing was even a possiblity.]

Lentil soup always reminds me of my grandmother. Every time I saw her wear her brightest pair of capris I knew we were going shopping [or window shopping at that] and that meant I would choose the place to eat. I would always tag along and our treat was to go eat at any place I picked. I would always pick the same place. We would both order the sandwich of the day and a cup of lentil soup. Even as a kid I always felt like eating this soup was good for me. Like the grown up thing to do. Because at home, I'd probably have mac and cheese. Out of the many things I miss about her, having that moment by ourselves, eating and talking... definitely tops the list. Because every time we sat down to eat that soup, I'd always get some valuable life lesson. Another one for the books. If I was lucky enough [and convincing enough] I'd also walk out with some new goodies from the shopping trip. After my grandmother passed away I would go to that same place and order the same things but, it just didn't feel the same. So now I'm always searching for new lentil recipes to try. It brings me back to those special times with her.

I left some lentils soaking last night with hopes to find a new recipe that would have the ingredients I had laying around. I found this recipe from Nourished Kitchen through Pinterest and although I made some minor tweeks it was certainly the closest in flavor to the one I used to have. 

WHAT: 1 1/2 cups of brown lentils soaked overnight, one white onion, two ounces of canadian bacon, two carrots, one red potato, 1 tbsp of unrefined sea salt, 2 cups vegetable stock, 1 tbsp of chili pepper, 1tsp of yellow curry powder, 1 tbsp of coconut oil  HOW: In a deep stock pot, drizzle the coconut oil and add the bacon. [I diced it in thin strips] Give the bacon a little time to brown and then, add the onions. Cook these until they're tender. Add the carrots and potatoes, then the salt and cover for 6-8 minutes. Uncover and stir. Add lentils, the vegetable stock, the chili powder and the curry and stir again. Simmer without the lid for 20-25 minutes or a bit more if you like your lentils softer. Take two spoonfuls of the stew and blend them in a food processor. Then add back to the pot and stir for a creamier texture... and done!

FIELD TRIP: Cinque Terre

Welcome to my daydreams. [In my mind] I'm walking through the streets of Cinque Terre, Italy without a care in the world and rocking this sundress. Isn't it just gorgeous? I mean, HELLO color!  

Listening to If You Want Me To Stay
 Image via Miemo Penttiten

TYPE: Clarke & Sons

Let's all have a moment of silence for my couple of weeks of non-blogging. Ok. Now that it's out of the way, let's talk type! While browsing and browsing for stamped logos to get me some inspiration I find this branding gem. My kind of morning! There's something about the pairing of the round letters oposed to the sleek and thin serif'd ones that just makes it work beautifully. To see who's behind this creation, head over to The Company You Keep.

Listening to Radiation City
Images via The Compamny You Keep

COLOR: To the sea and back

Currently I'm working on a project that is both reminicent of the simpler times and the city. Like vintage meets modern and analogue eats a macaroon. While browsing through pinterest to get some inspo I noticed all the tabs I had open were some shade of grey, brown and blue. Sand, caramel, grey, navy and cobalt were the colors that came out of this nifty moodboard. I just love how things start to fall into place... So, this is my weekend. Bit of work and some pinteresting. You?

Listening to: Entertainment
Image Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

COFFEE [tea] WITH: Rose from Unik Apparel

Coffee with is a monthly sit down where I have the chance to get to know what inspires some of my favorite creatives from all around. This time Rose from Unik Apparel stopped by. She runs a digital marketing agency, blogs about fashion, gives out social media tips on her twitter feed... this lady does it all! While leaving time to cook and thrift. I mean? SO inspiring!

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WHY/WHO? Hi there! My name is Rose. I'm from Puerto Rico, but currently live in San Diego with a super cute dog & my geeky mister. I work as a social media manager for a luxury wedding company by day and do freelance writing & blogging in the evenings. And, if that's not enough, I blog almost daily over at Unik Apparel (mostly about fashion & style tips) and run a digital marketing agency with a few creatives on the side. In my very limited spare time, I love cooking & try to recreate a new recipe weekly, I also enjoy shopping for vintage treasures, playing video games, and curling up with a good book. 

FAVORITE music Lately, I've been really into what I call "girly" music & that's seriously the name of my playlist. :) I listen to Lenka, Frou Frou, Adele, Natalie Walker and Regina Spektor. I have gone through many phases with music. From heavy metal in high school to alternative/grunge in my college years and finally graduating to what I listen to today. I figured it was time my taste got a little bit more feminine.

FAVORITE shops 1-I love shopping at thrift stores locally there's tons everywhere here. 2- Bow & Drape - I love that the clothes are made-to-order. 3- Sole Society - It has gorgeous shoes at low prices, which enables my shoe addiction. 4- Paper Source - I adore buying paper goodies on this shop. 5- ModCloth - I love their shoes & vintage inspired dresses.

FAVORITE food I adore puerto rican food and miss that the most! Locally, I love crab cakes from Studio Diner. They fly their seafood from New England, so their crab cakes are fresh and AMAZING!

COFFEE with I used to be a huge coffee drinker, but I quit about 7 months ago. Now, I occasionally drink tea with honey and milk. Once or twice monthly, I indulge in a white chocolate mocha.

INSPIRED by -Perusing through magazines/publications like Rue, Matchbook and Toffee. -Pinterest definitely inspires me for home decor projects to style looks for my articles & myself. -All the wonderful creative blogs and style blogs out there. I read them as much as possible. They are amazing! -Conversations with friends and other creatives. Brainstorming with them provides me with tons of insight and solid ideas. -Walking all over San Diego. There's tons of inspiration everywhere here from parks, museums, coffee shops, the beach and all the wonderful neighborhoods.

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Learn more about Rose through her blog, twitter or website. If you'd like to sit down for coffee, shoot me an email! Would love to have you. Past Coffee drinkers can be found here.

CURRENTLY IN LOVE WITH: Pigment + Surface

Sometimes Pinterest brings me to some very talented designers. Today I'm in love with Allison Kunath. I couldn't stop scrolling once I found her tumblr called Pigment + Surface and then, her portfolio blew me away. SO much talent! 

Listening to Wildcat
Images via Pigment + Surface by Allison Kunath

PHOTO CLUSTER: Weekend

Sleep, eat, repeat. That is what my weekend was all about. I'm trying to carry my camera around more often because I've noticed that after I 'instagram' my life away, I barely have anything to blog about. It's been said in twitter, it's been shot on instagram. But, after shooting some photos for Ever-changing Table I caught the photo bug again. Here's a little summary of my photo cluster:

• Coffee in bed, working in bed. I barely got out but had so many emails to catch up with. 
• Every week, new flowers. Who knew such a tiny little thing would cheer me up as much?
• Blogged about my favorite breakfast. Because, hello! It's like a flat taco of joy... 
• Prepared some coffee on my french press and then vined about it. Now, keep in mind my coffee days are only weekends. So this was almost an event in it's own. 
• Finally, I devoured some brussels sprouts. I can only have them once ina while so this was such a treat. I also blogged about about my thyroid issues and why I have to [try] to stay away from Cruciferous vegetables.

Listening to m b v [Can't wait till that vinyl is my hands!] 

DESIGN: February Desktop & Phone Wallpaper

February is upon us and to be honest, where did January go? Everything is going by so fast and I can barely catch up. But, thankfully it's a good thing! January was a very productive month and February is about get get even better. I made a little wallpaper inspired by a photo I took of the last flower arangement I made. If you follow me on instagram you'll notice I've been buying flowers every week. From my home to your gadgets. Hope you like it!

Download: Desktop || Phone

DESIGN: MILA B3

After almost harassing my [didn't know what going to be future] client with a request for CMYK bracelets, I knew I wanted to come up with the branding for her future jewelry store. We went through all the details about what her brand represented and the main thing that I focused on was that it was named after her daughter Mila and she wanted to include somehow her other two daughters. [twins!] Sometimes the process to find inspiration can be very daunting, but in this particular case I already had an idea of what I thought she would like. I started to sketch an 'M' shape to represent Mila but needed a way to incorporate the 'twins' into it. After a bit of back and forth I added the two triangles that support the 'M'. Now, her logo does not only represent her children and the thought behind the store, but it serves as an 'M' shape for branding purposes and a heart as each unique piece of her line is made with love. 

I've been a busy bee for the start of this new year and couldn't be happier. As I get some time off in the week I hope to come back and update this blog on a regular basis. I wanted to thank you all for your support as this whole design venture wouldn't have even happened if it wasn't for your comments and design requests when I didn't even know it was my calling. I know calling sounds cheesy, but being awake for 3 days doing a blog makeover and being thrilled about it doesn't really happened to a lot of people. I thank you guys for waking me up and encouraging me to 'jump' into what I really love to do. 

Currently… smoothies, sunnies and squash

Hectic. That's how the new year greeted me. Only 19 days into January and it's been a handful but, the best kind! I made a little insta-summary of the week and it pretty much goes like this... new morning smoothie routine, new books, new sunnies, trying butternut quash for the first time, showing off my new outfits and weekly flower buying. Common denominator? TONS OF NEW. I went a little personal of how I'm working towards a new mindset this 2013 over on my food blog. Click here to keep reading and learn why I'm calling the crazy stuff that's been happening to me " Magic bonuses of life". I hope you're all having an awesome January!