(Sporadic) Updates

The days are long, but the years are short, as they say! I initially felt like I maybe didn't accomplish much this year, but looking back, that's not true at all. I sometimes get stuck in that 2010s girl boss (blegh) way of thinking that the only meaningful accomplishments are related to work, but the last few years I've been writing down what I do every day, and it's been a good way to rehab that way of thinking. So, this is just a record of what I did this year, what movies I loved, what books I enjoyed and …

In September my sister and I finally went on our trip to Tokyo. For context, we were initially suppoused to go April 202, but of course the pandemic halted that plan. For the past 5 years we tried to re-book a few times but various life things kept getting in the way, so I was determined that this year would be the year. We were only able to go to Tokyo for a week, but we still had an incredible time. We both came back and have already started talking about what we want to do the next time we …

In June, my sister and I took our dad on a belated birthday trip. Two years ago he turned 60 and our gift to him was to take him on a trip anywhere he wanted to go. It took awhile to plan, but he ended up chosing Scotland. We went for a week, rented the car and explored the highlands. We started off in Glasgow, drove through the highlands to Inverness and ended up in Edinburgh. Along the way to Inverness, we did many pit stops including doing a boat tour on Loch Lochmond and stoppig on the side of …

In May I went to Barcelona with my friend Rachelle. The main point of the trip was to attend the OFFF Conference, which happens every year at the Disseny Hub Barcelona. The other reason was to just be in a really cool city, eating a lot of tasty food and hanging out with my good friend. I brought my Pentax and my little Ektar camera. I still have a roll somewhere that needs to be developed from this trip, but I did end up with some nice shots of a memorable trip. As usual my Pentax created some interesting light …

Somehow, and I knew this would happen, summer flew by and I forgot to post any updates. I think that's a good thing though. This summer I was able to take a mini sabbatical from work and spent June, July and most of August catching up on life things and working on some mini projects that I had floating around in my head. One fun thing I did was I designed and produced my own custom matchbooks 🔥 Basically, they are very expensive business cards, but I love seeing people's reactions when I give them one. I also travelled A …

February and March feel like a blur, which is maybe why I'm writing this in mid-April! February kicked off with some Winterlicious dinners. This year, I checked out Mother Tongue, Nuna, and Lulu Bar. Nuna, which serves Peruvian food, was the stand-out for me. Every dish we ate there was interesting and special and I haven't shut up about it since. I also finally went to Porzia's, which is known for its lasagna. I generally feel like most Italian spots are charging an arm and a leg for simple Italian dishes, but this place is not one of them. I …

Historically, January was a month that would go by fast for me because of my birthday being right in the middle of the month, but this year it draaaaaaaaaged on. It truly felt like an eight-week month somehow. I did my best to be active and creative as much as I could despite the urge to be a human burrito. For my birthday, my sister took me to see Jamie xx at history and it was a great show. His concert visuals were interesting because his team set up multiple cameras pointing at the real crowd, so the projections behind …

I wanted to do something a little different to kick off my eighth year of my daily design project. For the last few years, I've been focused on digital work only, specifically because I've been learning Cinema 4D independently, and this personal project has been a good outlet for that. In October, I got to work on a cool assignment at Mailchimp (I will eventually share that project when I get my samples mailed!), where I could go a little more analog than the work I generally get to do. I did a lot of scanning, collaging and hand-lettering, and it …

This year, I impulsively bought a Kodak Ektar Half-Frame film camera, and it’s been fun to play with. Previously, I’ve been using disposable cameras, but I felt slightly guilty about the single-use aspect of using those. I love that I can get double the prints from one roll! The resolution is lower with the half-frame but I think it's a great option if you want to shoot random, everyday moments. I also resurfaced my old Pentax that I’ve had for almost 15 years now. I’m rusty with my manual settings, but it’s been nice getting back to it.

This list is mostly for myself, but I wanted to share my favourite movies and music from 2024: New Movies Love Lies Bleeding - Such a cool and stylized neo-noir. I loved the surreal turn in the third act. There's also a shot of a broken egg in cigarette ash, and for some reason, it lives rent-free in my head. This movie also made me go back to weight-lifting. The Substance - This movie excites me about the prospect of a new wave of bombastic body horror movies. The colours, set design and the third act, really just worked for …