Kristen Loves Design

So, you’ve all heard from me every single day in the month of November (no pre-scheduled nonsense) because of NaBloPoMo (that I talked about here). It was kind of nice, you know?! And kind of hard. And a lot of times I thought when. will. it. end…but today is the last day so I guess this is where I talk about what I learned or some-such.

Well I learned that I LOVE to talk (blog) and I met new people (and their blogs), so that was all great! And I learned that I’m going to keep on blogging every day (whether anyone is reading or not) because like most things, where you start is often radically different than where you end.

I learned that this here blog is an awesome creative outlet – a place for me to talk and talk and talk about all types of design in the universe that I think are interesting, cool, notable, whatever. And I’ve learned that a lot of you like to read what I write too! So cheers to us all, as we continue down the path of Kristen Loves Design…

Off the top of my head, I can think of three songs about Mondays (in the order I thought of them; not sure what that means):  The Carpenters, The Mamas and the Papas, and The Bangles.

But I can’t think of any songs about Tuesdays, which for me are usually the worst days of the week.

Mondays are usually pretty busy in corporate-drone-world, plus usually the “weekend glow” hasn’t worn off (yet). And I can’t remember (yet) all the things I need to do for the upcoming week that I should have done the previous week or on the weekend.

Tuesdays are a mess. There are a million things that need to be done. And now there are only 4 days of the week left (3 if you don’t count Tuesdays, since at the point of I-am-counting-days I am in full panic mode already).

So I thought, why not do a Tuesday series?

I thought what I would do is have my Carl tell me a random word and I would write about a post about it. I pitched this idea tonight, expecting for him to maybe laugh at me (not sure why, he never honestly does), or maybe, just maybe to give me a word. Like apple. Or turtle. Or another random (easy word). Instead he comes up with:

Perfection.

Okay…

Maybe this wasn’t my better ideas! Hahahaha. Well, I’ll try it for at least this week. So, perfection. Nice to meet you. Oh we know each other well. Yeah, maybe too well. I am a perfectionist. Well that is the official definition. I am nothing like that, but let’s just say I am a procrastinator of epic proportions, so that doesn’t help! Seriously though. In a lot of ways I have tried not to be such a perfectionist about certain things because it makes me act like so not a nice person! And truly, does it matter, anyway? I read in an article once that a good strategy to determine if something was a big deal (like if something wasn’t perfect) was to decide if your future self would think it was a big deal in 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months, and 5 years. Good point.

What do you think? Do you have any “interesting” stories about perfection?

So remember when I said here that I was going to talk about birthday presents I received this year so I could write little mini-reviews for you all? Well here I go again. The second present I received was the J. Crew schoolboy blazer (in velvet, olive moss).

Image courtesy of J.Crew (note this picture is the bristol blue color that I also like because the olive moss color was being worn by a model and I thought that might look weird!)

This present was from my parents and for almost every occasion I can rely on (mostly my Mom) to buy me something or another from J.Crew. The schoolboy blazer is of course a classic, and the updated shape is really beautiful. It can be easily worn as a lightweight winter jacket if you wear layers underneath and a scarf!

The back story of Kristen and J.Crew…I am of course obsessed with everything they make, but really, who isn’t? I have a special affinity for them as I was obsessed (are you sensing a theme?) with them in college and I actually still own several sweaters and turtlenecks from then! Anyway, I lost interest in them for years (like everyone else did) until I became a manager for them in one of their retail stores. It was a great experience and I learned a lot about retail and fashion and store design, since I was responsible for the store re-sets and the window displays which was really fun – I can now dress any mannequin in multiple layers in 10 minutes or less, I think! I was there right when Mickey Drexler took over and oh how I wish I had bought stock – I knew he would make them as successful as they are now! One of the reasons I love J.Crew is their ability to spot fashion trends and capitalize on them but also their ability to add their own very unique twist to everything. There is a whole generation of people now (myself included) who wear glitter shoes and layered shirts and multiple necklaces with torn rolled-up jeans and heels with bright lipgloss – all because of their influence!

I’m thinking of wearing my new blazer with a light chambray blouse, dark high-waisted blue jeans with wide bottoms and these shoes and this scarf (in bright dahlia).

What do you think? How would you style this blazer?

I just wanted to pop in here and tell you that I was featured again on Outblush, this time for choosing an item for one of their 2011 Holiday Gift Ideas. Enjoy!

As mentioned here, every Friday night I am writing my seemingly random answers to seemingly random diary pages:

1. My day was “sweet and sour” because we are having an awesome Thanksgiving Day weekend but I don’t want to go back to work on Monday (or ever, for that matter).
2. If there was “no tomorrow” I would end up being an angel.
3. “Yes” I have been swamped with responsibility.
4. Some give affection as “cozy as a pillow.”
5. “Someone else” had the biggest influence on me.

(Note: The answers are more or less the text in quotes.)

So I talked here about potentially writing a life list, and I think I am actually going to do it! But not all at once. I tend to get very overwhelmed with creating “end all and be all” lists, filing systems, whatever. The experts always say to break down larger tasks into little bite-sized chunks. Good idea, but I also can’t write down each little chunk because then I get overwhelmed by that task too! So, here I am.

Today I have just 3 things to start with:

• Run and finish the NYC marathon
• Organize every piece of paper we have into an easy-to-use filing cabinet
• Hang artwork on the living walls (which have been blank for almost 2 years)

Once I get my life list “done” (I mean everything written down, not done, done) then I’ll go back and add categories (I saw Jules do this first, awesome!). Of course it goes without saying I might change items on the list at any time too!

So what’s on your life list? Or what is maybe just one thing you would like to accomplish?