The same coworker whom I did the simple t-shirt sleeve alteration for wanted to put my sewing skills to test by asking me to make two tank tops with his logo for him. He provided the fabric and the tank top for me to imitate.
One was a white jersey mesh and the second was a stretchy black cotton.

Sewing up the jerseys were a little tough, but once I got a good flow, I made it work out. The tough part was cutting & sewing the logo.

For the white jersey tank, he asked me to cut out a coral 'N' (for his brand Nativ Label). I brought the 'N' into Photoshop, sized it to what he wanted, printed it 100%, cut it out, and pinned it to the fabric to trace and cut.

After sewing it on, I had to repeat the whole process for a black tank top with a creamy-ish colored 'N'. The black cotton was easier to work with than the jersey mesh.

I got a two thumbs up. He has more projects in mind, so we'll see where that goes!

My friends and I are the worst with following through with things. Okay, that may be an exaggeration. Everyone has their quirks, obviously. We just take our time with things.
Here's an example: The five of us wanted to do Secret Santa for Christmas. We found this website to jumble our names up, we each got an email of whom we had to give a gift to, and we all put together gifts. That was easy. The hard part, being that we're all spread across the east coast basically - we had to mail our gifts to each other. Some haven't send out the gifts yet. I gave mine early this month. Talk about delays, delays.

Of course I went down a creative route. She currently lives in Louisiana, was born & raised in New York. I bought a plain mug & glass paint, and painted Louisiana and New York with planes traveling to and from.
To cure the paint, it can either air dry for 21 days or be baked. I let mine air dry.

I wanted to put together a nice little gift bag, so I bought three nail polishes and a manicure set with files, clippers, etc. Obviously I bought it around the holiday season, so the red sparkled set screams Christmas.

I put everything in that nice little gift bag and sent it on its way.

Side note observation: Martha Stewart does everything right. Glass paint! ...That's all I have to say.

Back in December I posted about business cards that I had cut and made. I enjoyed the creative aspect of taking full control and making everything handmade. I recently felt I just needed to let the professionals do what they do and make me business cards.
I ordered from both Vistaprint and Moo.

I was so excited when they both arrived. Vistaprint came in a normal mailing pack, but Moo sent them in a little recycled box which is cute.

Vistaprint every so often has a sale where you can buy 250 business cards starting at $10. Of course, fees are added for double sided color and whatnot. I was able to design both front and back the way I wanted and the colors printed really great matching exactly what I wanted.
I found a good deal for Moo where I can order 100 free mini Moo cards with just having to pay for shipping. I found the deal just a few days after ordering my other business cards, but I couldn't say no to free cards so I took advantage. Being that the cards were free, there were limitations on how much you can customize the cards. The front image is totally customizable with just the addition of the little Moo tag. The back was really limiting. I added my chevron pattern on the side and typed up a few websites using the most basic font offered. I altered the colors so they weren't exactly the same as my other cards.

The quality is pretty good for both sets being the most standard matte paper and print. I also have to admit I like having both cards being different sizes. I love the mini Moo cards. When I run out I plan on definitely printing more of these. May alter the colors a bit, but I love them both. It's the exact professionalism I was looking for.

It's been a while since I've done an actual 'recent purchases' post. I've been on a spending kick lately, so here's a few items I just super recently.

I found out just the other day that WORN came out with an archive just last month. It consists of selected articles from all their back issues, edited and combined into 400 pages of goodness.
I really wanted it, so I made the trip out to the bookstore with some friends to buy it. They wanted to also go into the comic book next door to pick up the latest comic from their favorite series. While they were browsing, I took a look around and found Tank Girl book two! I never was able to find a good copy on Amazon or Ebay and there it was in front of me, so I couldn't say no. Had to add it to my collection!

Lastly, I had discovered Smell Bent, a super small perfume company whom has such interesting sounding scents. I really wanted to try one. It's a very interesting smell. I wanted more, so I bought two more just now, hah! I totally recommend checking out Smell Bent!

Do you get bored with plain ole' t-shirts? Story of my life. To spice up my wardrobe, the first place I go to are my sleeves. Most of my shirts have designs on the front or back leaving my sleeves to be the only option to be changed. But who doesn't like fun sleeves anyway?

My coworker printed this shirt at work for me using his design. I brought it home with the intention of changing the sleeves. All white t-shirts are usually not my favorite.

I found the fabric I wanted to use. I took off the sleeves with my seam ripper, laid the sleeves down, pinned them to the fabric, and basically cut along the edges to make them exactly the same.

I pinned the patterned fabric to the shirt to replace the old sleeves and sewed it together.

Afterwards I flipped the exposed edges over and sewed it so the sleeves won't fray.

Viola. A super simple idea to fix up simple plain t-shirts. I love working with patterned fabric to make my wardrobe fun. You should too!

My semester/college life is officially done. As happy as I am to finally move on, it saddens me to think about what are now memories and how my life will change. It's crazy how fast you become an adult! I figured to put myself in a happy place right now, I'll post about my Portland trip, finally!

A group of my friends wanted to go away for our last spring break ever. I've spoken so much of Portland that they decided they wanted to not take the typical Cancun vacation. We purchased our flight and found a wonderful spot to stay via Airbnb.

We explored the city - downtown, so many shops (especially vintage), so many parks, so many delicious restaurants and food carts, and so much more.

I can't even tell you how much walking and hiking was a part of this trip. Every day we went on hikes. I love that there are so many fantastic parks within the city, it makes New York seem like a concrete wasteland.
We also got really lucky with the weather. The pacific northwest is known for being just a wee bit rainy. The eight days we were there it must have only rained twice. That really allowed these hikes to happen!

(Gotta throw out credit to my friend Katherine for this photo.)

Towards the end of the trip, we rented a car to explore some areas outside the city. We took a trip near Mt. Hood, discovered a trail with so many waterfalls, and visited a sea lion cave in Florence. The Oregon coast is amazing.
Every day outdid the day before; our trip just got better and better. Our last day we received the best life lessons from a man named Mo on Hawthorne, a perfect way to end our trip.

I mentioned in a previous post about my film camera troubles, I went and bought so many disposable cameras. I really love the idea of capturing images the old school way through film and printed photos - the anticipation to see the end result after getting them printed. I ended up not taking many photos on my phone.
My plan is to get the rest of my photos developed and make more little photo albums/scrapbooks which I plan on doing real soon! I'll post about that when the time comes!

Happy May! It surely is a happy May indeed.
School is coming to an end, the summer is rolling around, I have a full time job waiting for me, and I feel a lot of creative energy and feel inspired. I can't complain right now.

Our student exhibition opened on Tuesday. A lot of great work from different majors. Being a part of it this year and seeing the behind the scenes, there's quite a bit I can complain about with the disorganization and whatnot, but being that everything is done and over with, why bother lingering on it.

I got one piece in. It was my Galileo piece. It looks so nice and crisp in a frame hanging on a wall in a gallery. I have to admit, it's a nice feeling. It makes me want to be a part of gallery exhibitions in the future. I don't think I would turn that down.

My final day of classes forever is Thursday coming. I'm really feeling all the emotions. I don't want to think about it yet.
But I can't wait for the freedom. Real soon!