first garden


For the last few years I have really wanted a garden. The only problem is, despite having my ridiculously talented green-thumb mom,  I have never really learned how to garden properly, let alone had the space to try and teach myself. Then I started dating this ridiculously wonderful and knowledgeable man Insert Ty. Rather than living in space all his growing up years, Ty actually paid attention when his dad would grown things in their backyard. So a few months ago, with spring approaching, regular talks about having a garden on a friend's land down the road started happening between me and Ty. so. awesome.

The rain and late snows kept us from planting for a while, but last Saturday Ty and I capitalized on the ideally sunny day and planted us a rockin' garden equipped with the following: potatoes, red potatoes, orange and purple carrots, radishes, beets, 8 different kinds of tomatoes, broccoli, red green and yellow peppers (as well as a few bushes of hot peppers Ty picked out), spinach, lettuce greens, swiss chard, yams, sugar snap peas, green beans, white pumpkins,  zucchini, butternut squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, onions, garlic and corn.  BOOM! Plus, I extended the garden to my porch with some sweet basil, Thai basil, mint, cilantro and rosemary.

I can't wait for all that lovely produce and herbness to be happy and edible. Something tells me we might end up with a bit too much to handle ourselves, though, so note to friends: be expecting gift produce baskets.

PS I can't wait to make this with my very own garden vegetables. eeeek! Life is so exciting.

Getting back up




I came across this quote yesterday and thought it nice enough to design up into this little mini web poster.

Spring time at the garage sales


I scored those delightfully buttery moccasins for $1 at a garage sale on Saturday. One dollar! Can you believe that? They feel like heaven on my feet. Amazing. Also amazing is that shirt we scored for Ty for 50 cents from a cute lady whose husband is a cowboy. So great. That's why garage sales are great -- you get awesome stuff for cheap from generally really friendly people who tell you stories about the stuff you are buying. Love.

Our garage sale-ing Saturday began when Ty and I drove up to Lehi Saturday morning for rugby practice, only to discover there was no rugby practice. However, there was an abundance of garage sale signs which we happily followed. We acquired the following:

1 new golfbag for Ty ($5)
Approximately 40 golf balls ($8)
Two cowboy/southwestern button up shirts (50 cents each)
1 pair of buttery-soft yellow leather moccasins ($1)
1 machinist apron (that I plan to use while letterpressing) ($1)
1 pair of machinist goggles (Which Ty plans to wear while riding his motorcycle) ($1)
25 small cream-colored linen bags with drawstrings (25 cents)
7 quarter-sized brass medallions with the number 53 stamped into them (25 cents)
1 cup of black cherry Kool-aid ($1 -- Ty was really generous with that little girl)
1 small, silver serving pitcher (50 cents)
1 baseball mitt ($3)

2 reasons why Mike is the best boss ever


1. He guesses what color palette I am going to wear each day and coordinates his
outfits to follow suit to make me happy.
2. He poses with me in poses like this (also to make me happy).

Mike: red shirt by American Apparel, denim pants by Earnest Sewn, Money Cat kicks by Nike, gold watch by Michael Kors.
Nicki: red vintage dress (I wore this same dress at high school graduation...what up?! still totally stylin'), navy cardigan by Jcrew, cream and leather shoes by Urban Outfitters, Gold Player watch by Nixon, gold medallion necklace from Need Supply.

45-second hair


This morning was my morning for smoothie duty (aka -- I was in charge of making breakfast smoothies for me and kates today), and since I woke up late, I had about 2 minutes allotted for hair-doing time. I had run across this hair tutorial a couple days ago, which looked ridiculously fast and easy, so I gave it a try, and BAM! 45-second hair do involving no more than 3 bobby pins. Fast, easy and awesome -- now that's what I'm talking about.

my evening


Ty is out of town this week (I took him to the airport yesterday afternoon), so today at work I made myself a list of stuff I was going to do tonight during normal Nicki-Ty time.

The original, obviously short, list for tonight went like this:
1. Get lower-clothes-bar rack for closet from Ross.
2. Send client #1 his updated logos.
3. Work on client #2's brochure.

And this is how my evening really went down:
1. Decide I don't need the lower clothes bar, totally forgo Ross, and fantasize on the way home about cleaning out the shelves in the closet instead (I am definitely a girl who loves dejunking and cleaning).
2. Go to Home Depot on my way home from work and purchase the dark blue paint I have decided is perfect for my bathroom walls (as pictured above -- you better believe that blue is gonna look great. Before and afters to come). Also purchase extra paint rollers.
3. Discover that the patio couch cover I ordered arrived today and has been waiting for me on my porch all afternoon. Take cover inside and unwrap. Replace all the patio couch cushions on the patio couch after removing them from the dining room floor when they have been keeping dry all this rainy day. Cover patio couch with perfectly-fitting patio couch cover. Feel accomplished.
4. Video chat with Angela while trying on recently purchased sandals and deciding they need to be sent back because that t-strap section is just not working for me (yay for free mail returns!).
5. Gchat with Ty briefly.
6. Go bowling for Family Home Evening with my neighbors. Score a 78. Feel good about said score.
7. Go out to frozen yogurt with my ridiculously funny carmates on the way home from Family Home Evening rather than rushing home to do necessary design work for the evening. Put two scoops of mochi on my California tart frozen yogurt. (NOTE: This was a much better choice than rushing home to do the aforementioned design work.)
8. Get home. Do client #1's logo refinements and send them off.
9. Talk with Ty on the phone and subsequently gchat for another 30 seconds while sending him the logos to take a look at.
10. Do a majority of design work on client #2's brochure and send her an e-mail update of the brochure's current standing and inform her of its imminent completion tomorrow.
11. Gchat with Anna about her lovely day for a few minutes.

Kinda different than expected, right? And definitely way better/fuller/better. And that's a wrap. I'm headed to bed. Goodnight all.

cycling kit design

I have these amazing friends who happen to also be really amazing cyclists and work at a killer bike shop in Pleasant Grove. Last year sometime there was some mention of me doing the design for their shop kit (FYI: kit=cycling jersey+cycling short/bib). So, design I did, and boom! They're here! Shown above modeled by my handsome and wonderful friend, Clay Adair (thank you Clay). He's single, ladies, if anyone wants an intro. Super fun to design. Awesome to get the chance to do a fabric piece. And totally rad that I get to wear it when I ride.