A while ago, I promised a better picture of the headboard I built for my bedroom. Since then, I purchased some new bedding and realized that the red lettering wasn’t working anymore. So, I updated it to black, and I like it much better. Here’s how it turned out.

I have to admit I cheated a little and photoshopped the gray wall for the pic. It’s really a light beige that blends too much with the white headboard, so I’d like to change it to a shade like this. Also, a lesson I learned in this whole DIY headboard process is not to use 3M hooks to hang one of these. Just don’t do it.

I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to the correct uses for Adobe programs. I will admit that I do most layouts in Illustrator, but I know that at least the more complex ones should be pulled together in InDesign. It drives me absolutely crazy when anyone does layouts in Photoshop. It’s meant for image editing/manipulation. Come on now.

Anyhow, I was playing around with a visual metaphor for the hierarchy of graphic software, and thought I’d share. I’d like to eventually make this into a print or at least offer some wallpaper, but for now, here’s what I came up with.

And on a few others, apparently. I’m not sure how many people this will be relevant to, but I experienced this little glitch recently, as did a couple of my friends. So I thought I’d share the solution for anyone who may be dealing with the same kind of frustration.

Have you ever been happily working along in Illustrator, then you try to proportionately scale an object with shift + drag, and it doesn’t work? How about the space bar not working when you want to access the hand tool or zoom in/out? This happened to me, as well as some others.

I tried figuring out what could have caused this, and I remembered that I had recently updated Firefox. On a whim, I shut both that and Illustrator down, and only started Illustrator back up. Things were back to normal. Then I restarted Firefox, and Illustrator still worked fine.

So the moral of the story is if you have any trouble like I just described, try closing both programs, and allow Illustrator to start up before Firefox. Hope that’s helpful to someone!

The last time that I mentioned Shawn Roberts, it was regarding his debut album, Traveling South. This go around, it’s to focus on one of his other numerous talents – painting and illustration. My design sister, Flora, and I are promoting Shawn’s upcoming gallery show on our blogs to help get the word out.

Here’s the official press release:

Robots Takeover Chicago

The ROBOTS NEED LOVE, TOO Group Art Show, a mix of robot themed  paintings, screen prints, electronic work, and sculpture will debut at Chicago’s Barbara & Barbara Gallery, at 1021 North Western Avenue on May 22nd, 2010 from 7pm-11pm

The group show fuses artists from across the country including Chicago, Florida, Pittsburgh, Virginia, and Detroit and their varied take on the subject of robots in all art forms.

“Robot art is inspired by many things; from the balance of technology and nature or the power of creating life to just a fond memory of playing with their old tin toys,”  said Shawn Roberts, the host of the show. “This event is all about that love or hate affair we have with robots.”

The ROBOTS NEED LOVE, TOO event also features  live music from Chicago’s The Vicki Lawsons.

Here’s a sneak peek at one of the pieces that will be on display, Capeck Prophecy (acrylic on wood).

If you’re in the Chicago area – go, go, go!

I recently received a pair of JLab‘s Jbuds earphones as a gift, and now I’m compelled to share them as a recommendation. Great product. Super comfy and nice sound.

Well, it seems I’ve taken a longer than anticipated hiatus from updating. I need to try to remain more consistent. So I’m getting back into the swing of things with a new Swatch Me. This time, I’m highlighting a new shade of long wearing lip color from Stila that I recently purchased. The color called Adorable, is a great mix of beige and peach.

I tend to veer more toward silver and white gold when it comes to jewelry, but lately I’ve been drawn to a particular vintage-looking, muted gold. I picked up this bib necklace from Target the other day, and simply love the color.

I heart Paper Source. I received their new catalog in the mail yesterday, and among many awesome new items, these mum stamps in particular caught my eye.

I really like them as a graphic element. I’m a huge doodler and I’ve been drawing flowers similar to this in my notebook. Definitely a fan. Paper Source just has great design all around.

I was excited to catch the new Amazon Kindle spot today, done in the same vein as the previous one. Amazing art direction once again.

It seems like I’m coming up with more categories than posts to fill them with, but it’s just more motivation. I thought it would be fun to match Pantone® swatches to great colors I come across in actual objects, so I’m creating a series called Swatch Me to highlight them.

For my first installment, I’m choosing OPI for Sephora’s Dark Room. I’ve been on a nailpolish kick and I recently purchased this shade, a really cool greenish black.