design.travel.eat

(best looking ornaments ever)

(chic + cozy mountain home)

(smashed and roasted potatoes….currently on my sunday night menu)

(color + composition + pattern inspiration)

(what i hope my family room fire-place looks like in the near future)

So here’s a blog post where I ‘blog vomit’ everything I’ve been wanting to share in the past week and a half but for one reason or another haven’t actually blogged about them….and share a little Pinterest eye candy (above)!  First, I can’t believe we’re already into November!  October pretty much flew by and  I feel like I don’t even have much to show for it!  Lately my to-do lists have been filled with mundane errands and tasks that give me much pleausre to cross off my, but don’t provide much to show other than a new name on my driver’s license.  Below is a lisf of the ‘blog vomit’ I’ve been holding in the past week (that sounds much more vulgar than I intend it to), enjoy and happy Friday!

-  Recently I had the opportunity to attend KCADC’s annual meeting and had the pleasure of listening to Fast Company’s  CEO  Bill Taylor speak about how our businesses can keep up with the lightning speed that our economy and businesses environments are changing….below are a few comments I jotted down while I was there.  On a Fast Company side note, as I’m sure most of you know, there website is definitely one worth checking out every once in awhile.

focus not on what keeps you up at night but what gets you up in the morning….appeal to all human senses…change the role/conversation you have within the industry…you can’t let what you know limit what you can imagine

- Through some recent research I’ve been doing, I’ve come across SMPS Boston’s blog and am in love with it!  It’s an AEC (achitecture, engineering, construction) marketing blog that has a great collection of articles focusing on being the primary resource for education, networking and strategic and marketing information for our members and others working in the built environment.   Even if you’re not in a marketing position it’s still a good one to check out.

- As a designer and (I like to think) a creative person, I can often come to a creative road block where I struggle to push through to the other side with an ‘a ha’ idea.  At work I find myself looking to precedents and with (wes)design I find myself calling my Mom (graphic design idea wiz) but sometimes I find myself searching for a different solution and after finding this article I think I’ve found the answer!  There’s a list of 7 solutions here but the one that stuck out to me are IDEO’s Method Cards.  I would be oh so excited to find these in my stocking this year (hint hint ) and here’s a little blurb about them:

IDEO’s human factors specialists conceived the deck as a design research tool for its staff and clients, to be used by researchers, designers, and engineers to evaluate and select the empathic research methods that best inform specific design initiatives. The tool can be used in various ways—sorted, browsed, searched, spread out, pinned up—as both information and inspiration to human-centered design teams and individuals at various stages to support planning and execution of design programs.