I spent the weekend in Chicago with two of my best friends and had an absolute blast. I tried really hard to actually lug my camera around with me wherever we went to document little snippets of the windy city. Although we had CTA passes, we walked around the majority of the time — which is always a favorite thing of mine to do in a new city. We saw more, and hey, burned off all the SERIOUS calories we took in ( at least, that’s the hope ).

On Saturday, we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo for a few hours and enjoyed the animals + people watching galore. We were particularly proud of our matching attire for the day. Chambray for the win. We attempted to research nice italian restaurants for the evening, but ended up eating at our second deep dish pizza joint of the weekend. First night was Giordano’s. Second was Gino’s East. Our consensus was loving Giordano’s just a little bit more.

I’ve always found travel ( no matter how near or far ) to be one of the most calming + mind opening opportunities. It’s been a goal of mine to do it more, so I couldn’t be more happier to have had such a blast with these two this weekend. It was the kind of weird / hilarious / perfect reunion we needed. Until next time, Chicago … and thank you for not denting my rear bumper this time around.

READING through the Braid Creative blog. Well, re-reading it through would be a more correct statement. I’ve been following along their blog for some time now and always feel so refreshed after spending some time around there.

THINKING ABOUT the future and where I want to take my business. These thoughts have been on my mind a lot lately, so I finally started jotting down notes on paper. There’s something so tangible about seeing everything written down in print. It almost feels as if you are finally committing to an idea and 100% want to make it work.

LOVING the movie Mud. Michael and I went to see it this weekend at one of our local “old school” theaters. I absolutely loved the story, acting, and tone of the film. It was one of those movies that transported me directly to the story. I forgot that I was sitting in an uncomfortable seat and instead felt as if I was cruising on a rickety old boat in Arkansas.

LOOKING FORWARD TO my weekend in Chicago with two of my most favorite people. As a trio, we’re weird. I mean, really weird. Who knows what we’ll talk about and do this time, but I absolutely cannot wait. Plus, I get to thankfully stuff myself with Giordano’s pizza, a favorite. What are your weekend plans??

I put a note out on facebook the other day asking for new freelance topics that you guys would like to cover. A bunch of you responded already, but if you have new ideas that aren’t currently listed, please comment right here. Today, we’ll cover confidence + self worth. Pricing is a tricky subject ( & I’ve covered it a few times in the past ) – but I’m going to tell you about a little secret today that can help with the confidence factor.

When I first started out, I undervalued my own work. Not only was I scared to talk about money, but I was constantly being told that possible clients “couldn’t afford my prices.” This baffled me, simply because I knew deep down that I was already cutting people a very good deal … so why was it so hard to land a gig??

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I was looking through Andy Warhol quotes the other day and found this one. “I like boring things.” I laughed at first, but then realized I could relate in all sorts of ways to this simple thought. It’s true. Boring doesn’t have to be a negative thing – and I think Warhol is a great example of that. His work was somewhat abstract, repetitive, and simple at its core … yet so many people were / are drawn to it, including myself. It takes true talent for “boring” to become exciting. Eh?? Kinda tricky to think about, but I love it. So naturally, this wallpaper is simple. And because of that, it may possibly be my personal favorite yet. At least it can make a stressful day feel more lighthearted. Feel free to download + enjoy via the links below :

I thought I’d share a recent branding process I worked on with Emily of Gem Photo — soon to be Em The Gem. We’re currently finishing up her website, so we haven’t technically launched yet. While the official new brand is a little different than what’s seen in this collection, I thought I’d share insight into SOME of the other presented options that didn’t make the cut. A peak behind the scenes, if you will. You can see the moodboard for this project right here and notice that we put heavy focus on a script that was both bold + modern. Plus, we ended up with a killer color palette that we both couldn’t be more excited about.

I absolutely cannot wait to share the rest with you all, seriously. The website concept is very out of the box and uniquely beautiful, so you can bet I’ll let you know as soon as that happens along with a full brand look. But until then, here is the official sneak peak!