More design

These are some of my favorite A1s from the past year.

A) Michelle Obama and Jill Biden visit the area.

B) Residents fight or support construction of wind farm

C) Teachers receive these amazing grants that they can spend on basically anything

D) A story about preventing farm runoff from seeping into the rivers

E) A normal A1, but with lots of awesome art.

How I fill my days

It's been over a year since I posted pages, basically since I started designing, so I thought it was time to show ya'll what I've been doing in the interim. These are some of my favorite lifestyles and homes pages (which are my all-time favorite to do). Tomorrow, I'll post some A1 fronts.

A) A Homes story about decorating your home with branches and berries from your yard.

B) A wire story about the popular spices for 2008.

C) A wire story about fancy luggage. I didn't have much in the way of art, so I decided to whip together something that I thought would look like a children's book, in a good way.

D) A wire story about good old Lincoln. Thought I would go for presidential.

E) A story about our cartoonist's 20th year on the job. 

Amazingly inspiring

Take the time to check out artist Maira Kalman's blog on the NY Times extolling the virtues of Lincoln through prose, calligraphy, embroidery, paintings and illustrations. It's truly a must-see: In Love with A. Lincoln.

On a side note, the NY Times, in my opinion, is the very model of a modern newspaper. Finding creative ways to tell stories, new storyforms, reaching out to readers, making the site more interactive — they are bolding going where no one else has gone and we'd all do better to follow their example.

today i like...

Many of the books I loved as a child were actually ones my mother saved from her childhood, including early '60s coloring books. The simple lines and sort of mod/Pink Panther-ish styling of these Blanca Gomez prints remind me of those charming old books, when super simple, clean design reigned before the wave of terror that blanketed our nation when Bratz became popular.

Blanca Gomez prints can be found at Velocity Art and Design. Most of the prints are between $20 and $30.

To Do

I have a lot to do (like, a ludicrous, soul-crushing amount), but I'm having a hard time even keeping track of all of it.

I write on my hands, then forget to look.

I scribble on Post-It notes and then lose them.

I write Stickies on my desktop and they never stay there (could someone enlighten me on how to lock them in place? Mine always get lost as soon as I shut down!).

Does anyone have advice on how to create a to-do list that works if you don't use a planner (i used to swear by a planner but since I stopped being a reporter, it became one less thing to carry in my purse)?

I'm baaaack!

I'm back from sunny SoCal!
I traversed the OC, went to the LA County Museum of Art to see the Vanity Fair exhibit, ate at In-N-Out, Jack In the Box, Sammy's Woodfire Pizza and many other places, saw the Kodak Theater, went to San Diego's Balboa Park and partied it up with the gays at The Abbey. Thank you so much to Ryan and his friends for their hospitality during our visit!

It was too much fun to go into a ton of detail, but I think this video clip captures the vibe of most of the trip:

Fresh in Bel Air from Amber Lester on Vimeo.

dedicated to the one i love

Above: Stopping to smell the roses on Valentine's Day 2005.

On Valentine's Day in 2005, Sean woke up early and went to buy a bouquet of white roses for the girls at the student newspaper. He wanted to get something special for someone though, hoping that person would get the hint, so he picked up a box of Sweethearts candy and scrawled:
To: Ambles
From: Seaken
(our old newspaper logins)
The girls came into the office and oohed and aahed when they found roses taped to their monitors. Being dense, I didn't notice the Sweethearts until much later. When I did, I asked Chanelle not-so-subtly if she got a box as well. Sean looked up and said, "No! Just you."

It was the first clue I ever had that Sean might have feelings for me. And the first time I ever saw how truly sweet he is, and humble, because he didn't want any fuss made over the fact he had done something so sweet for us girls. We started dating a little over two months later and we've been together ever since.

Rehab

The first thing you need to know is that I am the kind of crafty person who is capable, but essentially lazy. I like to wander the aisles of Michael's, talk about all the projects I'd like to do someday, buy the supplies and let them rot in the corner until I move and give them away.

So that's part of why I put off rehabbing this desk for oh, three years. This was my mother's desk as a child, and in turn became my desk as a child. It's nothing to write home about style-wise, but it's a piece of furniture that holds things and I am a packrat, so I can't bear to get rid of it.

I'm always reading in magazines where they spray painted some piece of furniture and it was SO EASY, so I bought semi-gloss spray paint, four new drawer pulls, sandpaper and surgical masks. I learned a few lessons.

1. One drop cloth is not enough, especially if you've decided to do this on a snow day in your dining room.
2. Spray paint = dust. Clouds of it. Everywhere.
3. Spray paint can occasionally bubble, irrevocably ruining the facade of your desk no matter how much you try to sandpaper it into oblivion.
4. A mix of real paint (with paintbrushes) and spray paint seems to do the trick. Also, I realized after the second week of working on this project that if the paint starts to bubble, just wipe it away.

The desk doesn't look perfect, but I will say it looks newer. It also blends better with all the neutrals and white trim in my room and I've noticed that just because it is white, the room feels wider. And don't worry; I already mopped and cleaned the dining room.

Anyways, here is the new, improved desk:

Today I like...

Being the Francophile that I am, I find it hard to resist the pillows and pillow covers made by Mon Coussin, a design team comprised of Claire Eglizeaud and Paul Moreau.

Their pillows often feature photographs and drawings, bold graphics and — be still my heart — typography. I would love this combination in my living room — it's like a whole new answer to that joke, "What's black and white and red all over?" Um, Mon Coussin pillows? ** Side note: I was telling Sean the other day that when I was little, I once suggested that the answer to that joke was "A penguin after a fight?" hahahha.**

Find them, unfortunately priced by the British pound, at Bonjour Mon Coussin

oui, oui

I want my life to look and sound exactly like this. Maybe I can film an homage and have it shown at my funeral and at the end it can just say, "That was her life. That was her life every time."