spec book.

Okay, so maybe this will be my nerdiest post ever, but I've been working non-stop on this new assignment for my typography class. We have to make a typeface specimen book. What is that? We give the history of a typeface, indicate its origins (both in visually and in text) and show how the typeface can and should be used.

Now, please understand that my typography teacher wants us to get totally geeked out on typefaces. We played this game in class once that went something like this:

my typography teacher: Okay, suppose that Helvetica and Bodoni had a child. Which typeface would it be?

Oh man. Let me tell you right now that I don't know that answer off the top of my head.

So, here's my spec book. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. I plan on printing it all out on one long sheet and folding it like an accordian for the final version (this only 4 of 9 pages):




When my friend, Nate, saw this project he said, "Man, can you imagine what school was like before computers? You would've learned real stuff, like Latin and philosophy." I still laugh every time I re-tell this joke.

fashion shoot.

yup. I made these clothes. Nate took the pictures.

photoshoot.

I drew Nate in church today.
He took a bunch of pictures of me on Saturday night. He set a studio up in his basement and needed to test it out.

25: the beginning of the rest of my life.

My birthday was on Friday night. It was probably the absolute best birthday of my life. Here's a list of highlights:

Whitney let me ride her bike during Critical Mass (just a massive bikeride that happens once a month in Provo):


Then I went to the opening of the art show that I made the chickens for:Karisa made the best carrot cake I've ever tasted and brought it to the art opening in honor of my birthday.

Then we (all of my family who lives in Utah and my friends Whitney, Mike Alger, Nate, Mark, Mary, and Lauren) all walked to the local Indian restaurant and enjoyed dinner. They all said one thing they loved about me as they passed my toki-doki cell phone charm around the table. My emotions ranged from laughing to crying.



Perhaps what Mark said was the most notable:
"What I love about Laura is that no matter how dramatic my life seems, her drama can always trump mine."


Then we made this exodus in lots of different cars to my parents' house for cake and ice cream. I rode with Mike Alger along with Mary and Lauren:

Mike: Sorry guys, my heater takes forever to warm up. But I have two blankets back there.

Mary: Oh good. I'm so cold.

Mary starts wrapping herself up in the blankets as I'm giving directions to Mike about where we're headed.

Mike: ...So Laura, right here? ...Oh yeah, you might wanna watch out for the red blanket though. I think I saw a clump on it or something.

Laura: A clump? What does that mean?! (Mike's car is kind of noisy) Mary, watch out, Mike says he saw a clump on the red blanket back there.

Mary: A clump? You mean on this red blanket I'm swaddled in?

I couldn't stop laughing. Also I think that Mary just stayed all swaddled up in that clumpy blanket. It was the joke of the night for me.

The chocolate cake my mom made was divine.

My brother, Carl, gave me the kid's book Preztel (a childhood favorite of mine) and everyone humored me by allowing me to read it to them.

We did fortune telling games and stayed up late.

Me, Mary, and Whit all had a fabulous sleepover full of girl talk and went out to breakfast in the morning.

My only question: How does life get better than this? And I'm being completely serious.

indesign!

My Indesign assignment is ready to be turned in for class, but not fully complete. Most of the text is just filler-- placeholder text. That's fine for my teacher, but I want to make copies for Nate and the Ortons as Christmas gifts with real text. So, if any of you have advice on how to watch "Grey's Anatomy" like a man (or any other good jokes,) please send them my way.

Or if you know how to make the picture bigger, that would help too.

independence day.

I discovered a new hobby on the 4th of July. Mom asked me to use the power sprayer to clean off some old plastic yard chairs so guests could sit on them. I pull-started the motor myself and reluctantly began. The frigid water from the hose seemed unpleasant at first, but as the mist slowly seeped into my clothes I completely forgot about it and cut loose. I couldn't stop. I cleaned all 25 chairs, then washed my car, then Miriam's car. It sprays out so fast that it hurts your fingers if you accidentally get them in the way of all that pressure. 2.5 gallons per minute. I felt like I was using a weapon and I loved it.

Thanks to Nate, Ikea, and Miriam, I also have a beautiful workspace in my old room. I just used my desk to draw my power spraying picture. I love it.

And I attended my niece's baby blessing. New babies in the family always renew a certain sense of responsibility for me. It's like although I'm not likely to play a very prominent role in the lives of my nieces and nephews, but I know that my influence will still impact their lives to some degree. I think my alcoholic grandfather. I never met my grandfather because he died young of his habit. Although this fact alone doesn't seem to impact my life obviously as an individual, the life he led seems to have an obvious overarching, effect that could continually ripple through our family tree.
I just want to have a net positive influence in my family network; I don't know how else to explain it. I just feel an urgency to be a good aunt.


If anyone can identify these lyrics from these seasonal songs, I will happily wash your car with the power sprayer. I don't even care if you cheat:

1- ". . . I saw you at the perfect place
It's gonna happen soon, but not today
So go to sleep, and make the change . . ."

2- " . . . So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field . . ."

tokidoki!

In this picture: find 15 fruits, someone being poked, and Erykah Badu all listening to Brad Wilcox speak at the American Fork Tabernacle. (Whitney and Nathan are honorary collaborators on this piece.)

this is my banana boyfriend.
(cell phone charm)

and this is a moofia.

My tokidoki package arrived today. I took them out of their packages and photographed them on top of the swamp cooler first thing when they arrived. I feel like an eight-year-old boy who just successfully nagged his mom into buying him a teenage mutant ninja turtle action figure.