52 hand-lettered project: 9 | 52

[ 9 | 52 ] how I like my coffee

I love a good mug, just as much as I love a good cup of coffee, if not more! I also take my coffee with milk, but no sugar. This also happens to be the way I take my tea, too! Oh, coffee and tea, how I love thee  ❤.

Happy March everyone! I hope this month brings more warmth, as I am officially done with winter, and cannot wait for spring!!

52 hand-lettered project: 8 | 52

[ 8 | 52 ] things that soothe

I'm not sure if I get stressed out easily, but I do get stressed out a lot. I guess that comes with the territory of being a student. With tests, assignments, extracurriculars, and responsibilities galore, these things keep me centred.

Also, the background image I chose is of a sandwich I had from Art-Is-In Bakery this past summer. If you ever find yourself in the Ottawa area, you must go! Hands down, my favourite bakery. Just thinking about their food soothes me.. Mmm...

the 52 hand-lettered project.

I decided recently that I would participate in the 52 hand-lettered project on Instagram, as a challenge to myself. This year, I would really love to get my creative mojo back, and there really is no better way than to practice, practice, practice!

Armed with my gel ink pen (yep, that's it, really!), I am tackling this challenge head on!

Since I am starting late, here are weeks 1 through 7:

A photo posted by simply steph (@simplystephstudio) on Feb 24, 2015 at 9:39pm PST

[ 1 | 52 ] my mantra for 2015

[ 2 | 52 ] summer love list

[ 3 | 52 ] one thing to do more often

[ 4 | 52 ] a summer memory

[ 5 | 52 ] places to visit

[ 6 | 52 ] a quote about love

[ 7 | 52 ] my everyday essentials

While I'm at it, I'm also hoping to up my photography game. I would love to be able to compose better images to share my work. I have discovered that my home has awful artificial lighting, and I tend to work at night, where that light is all I have.. so it has become a personal challenge to wake up earlier and take advantage of the soft morning light, or at least take photos in the afternoon when the sun is still shining.

updating the look of my phone.

I was itching to change something on my phone. I've had my phone for about a year and a half now, and other than changing the wallpaper, I haven't made many changes in a while.

When I first got my phone, I learned that there are many options to customize the phone. I used to be an iPhone gal, so this was *super* cool. I downloaded the first thing I saw, and I haven't changed much since that day (mostly because I was too lazy to set everything up again). But, like I said, I wanted to change something on my phone, and ohmygosh, I'm having a ball :D

Check it out! New launcher, icons and wallpaper.

    

The lock screen, and the default home page.

The pages on either side of the default home page. One has a clock, and the other my calendar.

I keep my screens pretty empty, and have frequently used apps in the dock (which scrolls and has 3 pages), leaving the rest in the app drawer. I like how clean it is, and it lets me see the wallpaper too! The wallpaper reminds me of the verse, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10) But it's also just a really pretty background :)

I used to use Atom launcher, but Apex has way more functionality. I much prefer it. It feels much less cumbersome. Yippee! A+

Launcher: Apex // Icon Pack: Numix Circle // Wallpaper: Julie Song for designlovefest

recent updates to the blog.

My blog is constantly under construction. The more blogs I read, the more ideas I get, and the more I know for what I want my blog to look like. I don't foresee a major overhaul anytime soon, but small changes are always coming!

Recently I added social media buttons linking to twitter, email, pinterest and my rss feed to the sidebar:

I also added a new image for related posts that don't have their own images, and updated the favicon as well.

I really did add a lot of circles, just to keep everything consistent. One more small change that you may or may not notice is that I removed the borders and shadows around the images.. huzzah! Those always bothered me, but I could never figure out how to get rid of them (there are always so many small pesky things already embedded into layout templates!).

I have learned that the best way to figure out how to make changes is to google them! You just have to know what you are searching for. For example, "remove image border blogger" or "related posts blogger", both of which I have used on my blog. I love customizing my blog!

DIY: decorated phone case.

I got a new phone a while ago, and tried looking far and wide for a phone case that was at the same time protective, durable, pretty and affordable. But apparently, no such case exists for the iPhone 3 because it is so old.

My best options became a white hard case, or a black hard case. They were a little plain for my liking, so I got the white case and made a promise to myself that I would decorate it.. and that I did!

The hardest part was deciding how to decorate it. Many ideas later, I decided to copy this onto my phone, in mini version.

Materials: phone case, coloured nail polish, makeup sponge (or paper towel, or any other sponge), clear nail polish, tape, scissors.

I cut my tape into thin strips (though I would probably do thinner if I were to do this again, simply because the "canvas" is smaller than most) and arranged them in any kind of interlinked pattern.

I experimented with the painting process, and found that what worked best was to paint the coloured nail polish onto the tape, and then dab at it with the makeup sponge to spread it around the body of the case. If you put the colour right onto the case and then dab it, the spot where you originally put the nail polish will be a lighter coloured spot.

The case dries really quickly, since there is actually really little nail polish on it. Once it's dry, remove the tape and repeat the same process with the clear nail polish. I painted the nail polish straight onto the sponge and dabbed it all over the case. (Note: if your case, like mine, separates into two parts, take the case apart before painting the edges that would connect or else you might accidentally glue your case together)

Easy, beautiful, and done!

constant web changes..

People are typically outraged when Facebook decides to yet again rearrange everything on the site. Yet we acclimatize so quickly that we even forget what old layouts look like anymore. We learn how to adapt quickly to this fast paced technology driven world.

For me, it's not a big deal when new versions of software come out and they rearrange the buttons (Microsoft Office Suite), or Facebook changes its layout, or whatever it may be.. It's not hard for me to grasp where things have moved, and learn the new features. My parents however, find it a great inconvenience as they take much longer than I do to relocate all their favourite features. And my friends will update their facebook statuses, infuriated about the layout changes.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I'm not often too bothered by changes, as they are inevitable and usually for the better. Inconvenienced, yeah a little. But angry? Never.

However, I'm looking at Google today, and I have to wonder.. Why black?



On their blog, they say that they want "a cleaner look", but the look they have been rolling in (same toolbar on top) has been white/transparent. In my opinion, that is much cleaner than black, and much less noticeable, and therefore much less distracting.


My Gmail banner right now..

It makes me wonder if they are headed towards having black toolbars on all Google product pages, or if it is only black for the initial period to draw attention to the new changes. I think it's staying black, but I hope it is temporary.. Bring back the white toolbar please! It has only been about a month or so, and I have already fallen in love with the beautiful, clean, easily accessible toolbar at the top of all my Google product pages.