Background change

I’ll start by saying that my attempts to get into grad school are going full force. Meaning I’m studying for (my second) GRE exam, this time the Psychology one, and I’ll be starting to write my statements of purpose (which I loathe) and all of that application-stuff so cooking, crafting and blogging are all sort of going to the wayside. I did start a craft last night that I plan on posting, but at this rate, I’m not sure when I’ll have time again to sit down and work on it. So I’ll let the suspense linger….

With that said, autumn has come to New England and I have a very love/hate relationship with it. I love the smells, the brisk air, the colors and the fact that I get to layer my clothes but it’s also a foreshadowing of winter. BUT I need to get over that, I’m not planning on moving to the tropics anytime soon so winter and I should just learn to get along.

Nothing helps changing attitudes and enjoying the change in season quite like changing your iPhones wallpaper – amiright? No, but just go with me on this. And it’s always irritating that when you google search “iPhone wallpaper” you get all of these women in bikinis. I mean, if I ever open up a guy’s phone and he has the background be a hot girl wearing skimpy clothes, I may just have him the glaring of his life.

So with that said, I found another decent site for wallpapers at (iDesign)*iPhone. They have a lot of different categories, some of which of course contain half naked girlies and I couldn’t even scroll through “paintings” because it was all sci-fi fantasy art, but some of the pictures are pretty cool. Some of my favorites are:

And more colorful options:

 

And this one which I thought was cool and was anxious to try out on my phone:

   Here’s what it looks like in use:

And yes, that’s the front screen of my iPhone in case your interested in my organization (of which I put a lot of care into).

I’ll be anxious to get some of these images come Christmas because they do have some cute holiday ones.

Oh and I should mention the blog post that I read over at design*sponge which spurred my interest in the first place. This adorable designer, Cartolina, has designed cute cards that you can text to your friends in case you want to beautiful your warm wishes and/or invites to friends. You can see images HERE. I still haven’t decided if it’s worth the $2.99 only because only two of my friends have iPhones and it’s unclear as to how this will look on regular phones, but it’s a cute idea that I think needs to further developed by others.

Well, until I blog again, enjoy.

recipe per week

I've always admired someone who can cook. I've never really had the talent and I'm too timid to try something/buy something new. I think I hesitate in thinking that either the ingredients will be too expensive or that I'll just ruin it.

But as my interest in design blogs has grown, so too has my interest in finding great recipes. I have an enormous recipes folder and at least 3 applications on my iPhone (which is cool by the way) to help me find new recipes. So I got to thinking, what if I just push myself to make one new recipe a week. It could be from cookies to pasta, but 1, single recipe that I've said to myself, 'I need to bookmark this. This looks good.' I need to take it out of just the files and into my kitchen.

With that said, I'm going to try to do this once a week. It will probably start this week as I plan on making THESE cookies in the not so distant future. I won't and simply cannot be one of those awesome foodie bloggers that takes pictures of all of my creations, but I will try when the occasion strikes. But I will certainly link to recipes as most of the awesome foodie bloggers have done all the grunt work for me.

Wish me luck!

Also, let me share this fantastic illustration from Julia Rothman, whom I love, depicting my new absolute favorite snack. This and greek yogurt with honey are my new obsessions.

stepping up technologically

Let me preface this by saying, a year ago I didn't believe that I needed a phone with internet. I absolutely did not need to check my facebook page or email every 20 minutes and I certainly didn't need to be one of those people who has their back arched and head faced down every second of the day.

But moving to Providence and being on my own has meant that I get lost. A lot. And I really need something that gives me an address and directions at the touch of my hand. Yes, I could ask for directions, but Rhode Islanders are all locals (once you leave the main city area), so their idea of giving directions is, "You turn left where that old Dunkin Donuts used to be and then go straight until you hit Bob's Furniture and then you'll see it when you pass the new Dunkin Donuts." It's actually pretty humorous (I've seen ads for Kohls that have the address then underneath say, "behind the old paper mill"), but it's not an accurate way to get me to where I want to go.

With that said, I ordered the new iPhone 4 and I plan on going crazy with apps and videos and music. So there. Convictions be damned. I'm excited.

In that spirit, I thought I'd post some cute iPhone wallpapers that I've found. I've seen posts for cases and accessories, but I don't have an adorable puppy to put as my background, so I'll have to make due with these:

For some like me who are so micromanagerial (should be word so I'm keeping it) that you need a constant reminder of where you are in space and time, Able Parris, is a collage artist who has created some great collages for your desktop or iPhone wallpaper that you can change every month. It'll be too late for me to use this one on my new phone, as I won't likely receive it until close to July, but I love the squid and clown fish! (link to download this HERE)

He also has some general ones if you're not too keen on being reminded of the month, like this one which reminds me of when my grandmother and I used to bird watch out her kitchen window. Golden finches were always my favorite to spot.

Another great source is Poolga, which is a collection of artists works specifically for your iPhone, iPad or whathave you. Here is a small sampling of my favorites:

Sometimes I just love the girly and excessively ornate.

In contrast to that, this simple little submarine picture is adorably plain.

This may be the first wallpaper that gets to grace my new phone. I love the urban spring feel.

I'm so obsessed with maps. I don't know what it is (perhaps that micromanagerialness manifesting again?) but my bedroom is already turning into a gallery of maps, why not my iPhone?

There are so many different wallpapers on this site. I can't wait to get my phone so that I can use some of them!