I've moved.. again..

Hi hey hello! I've made some blog changes around here: I've renamed my blog, and I've moved (again).

From simply steph to stephkoanie

I renamed my blog from 'simply steph' to 'stephkoanie', to distinguish between my calligraphy and design business (Simply Steph Ko) and personal blog. It just made a lot of sense to me. I use stephkoanie as my personal handle on most platforms, and it's in the URL of the blog. It's also different enough from Simply Steph Ko to really create a separation between personal and business blogging.

Maintaining the separation between personal and business blogs is important to me because I want to make it clear on my business blog that I do calligraphy, and create greeting cards and custom stationery. Don't get me wrong, I still want to share authentically on Simply Steph Ko, but I want to keep it topical and related to the calligraphy work that I do.

On the other hand, I don't know that I really have a purpose on this blog, other than to share my life authentically. And I'm okay with that. I will probably write about things like food, crafts, faith, and my city -- things that interest me!

I've also created a new site logo, with my new calligraphy and handlettering skills. It looks sooo good and refined! I love it. Whaddya think?

It's a huge improvement on what I was using before. I'm so embarrassed, I'm not even going to reshare that. But the previous logo was designed before I knew anything about calligraphy or digitizing it. So it's pretty neat to see the skills I've picked up in the past year and a bit put to use :)

Moving from Blogger to WordPress

When I started blogging in 2011, I used Blogger because it is easy to use and it was already connected to my Google account. In 2015, I switched over to WordPress because I know that WordPress is more powerful, and I wanted to learn the platform.

Later, I ditched that blog in favour of my Blogger blog, because I have a backlog of posts here, and I wanted to use my WordPress blog for business purposes. But then I purchased my own domain name and started self-hosting simplystephko.com, so I no longer used stephkoanie.wordpress.com.

Long story short: I moved this blog to the WordPress platform again because I use WordPress for my business site too. It'll be easier for me to manage this way, so it all just makes so much more sense to me.

More recent-ish posts from this Blogger site have been moved to the WordPress site, but I'm not moving any old posts from this site so I'll leave this blog up just simply as an archive.

Okay, that's it!

There's nothing new there yet, but if you follow my blog, update your bookmarks and feed subscriptions to stephkoanie.wordpress.com to keep reading my fun life-related posts!

Sidenote: It's funny that I used to think the WordPress.com platform was complicated! Now that I've used WordPress.org (the version you can use with paid self-hosted sites), the free WordPress.com platform seems overly simplistic. Perspective shifts over time, and as you learn. Neat-o!

P.S. if you ever have any questions about Blogger, WordPress.com, or WordPress.org, let me know. I'm happy to help!

Make New Blogs, But Keep The Old

One is silver, and the other's gold. I'll let you decide which is which.

My new small business, Simply Steph Ko, lives over at simplystephko.com. I create greeting cards that feature calligraphy, joy, and colour as a way to share love and encouragement.

Since starting that blog, I realized that I needed to niche down. I had to choose a focus, and post about, talk about, write about that and that only. So I write about creativity and Christianity, specifically how it emerges in my creative process through the words that I write, and in the attitude I take in approaching creative work.

Pursuing Secondary Passions

I love it. I love writing about the intersection of creativity and Christianity. I never know how passionate I really was until I began. I love creating cards, I love discovering the power of words and seeing people react to them. But I feel like I've lost my platform to explore and share my other interests. I love writing, and I love sharing. That is probably why I love blogging. But I think about a lot more than only creativity and Christianity.

My secondary passions include: health, culture, food, and my city. I am passionate about the intersection of these areas, too. I am interested in thinking about, and reasoning out issues, or sharing successes. But I don't love food enough to become a food blogger. Instead, this blog will be my "everything" blog. I will share all the things that I am passionate about, other than creativity and Christianity. Here, I am not concerned about building an audience, or writing about anything in particular.

Unstructured and Unplanned Blogging

Don't follow me if you're looking for something predictable. If you want predictable, go read my blog at Simply Steph Ko. There, I will consistently talk about creativity and Christianity, and I post every Monday.

Here, no such structure will exist. Maybe I will post every day for a week, and then I won't post again for a month, or five months. I can give you no guarantees, except that I want to keep this old blog alive.

If you're still following me from back when I used to write more regularly (kind of), then hello! I'm glad you've stuck around! It's nice to see you again! Why don't you leave me a comment so I know that you're still here :)

If you just stumbled upon this blog, then welcome! I'm glad you're here. I'm always happy to have you join in on my adventure through life. Feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourself. I'd love to know more about you and if you enjoy reading my random ramblings.

I look forward to more posts about nothing in particular, but about life in general.

Talk soon!

Steph

simply steph is moving!

I'm in the process of moving my blog over to Wordpress at stephkoanie.wordpress.com. In the meantime, I'm posting on both Blogger and Wordpress until eventually I will post only at Wordpress! I haven't quite figured out when that will be yet, but I'll keep this blog around for archival reasons.

I decided to move to Wordpress because I wanted to play with more flexible layout designs, and Blogger just wasn't meeting my needs anymore. I'm now using Simply Steph to showcase my new lettering work, and continue to write about my faith (and all that interests me!).

So please, let me know what you think of the new space, and I hope to see you there!

summer highlights.

I haven't blogged my summer at all, so here are some highlights from this summer! As told by my phone's camera roll - no photo, no memory of it! Jk. But I am a lazy photographer.

Got a new Magic Bullet at home, and my family loves it. Having a ball making our first smoothies together, hahaha.

Tried the new ramen place in Chinatown (Ginza) and it's really really yummy.

Click through for more photos!

how do you overcome writer's block?

..you write.

I always get caught in this spiral of not knowing what to write: I have nothing to write that is interesting, nor important, nor valuable; it serves no purpose, I'm not good enough, or whatever other excuses I can make up for myself. Writer's block- it's the absolute worst. I still have nothing to write, so I'm writing about writer's block. Makes sense, right?

I feel like this is reminder to myself that I need to get back on my feet and write again. For me, the creative process comes in journalling, in drawing and in mindmapping. I miss it, I definitely do! So while I have nothing exciting nor insightful to share today, I am here to say hello. Hello! And so for the sake of updating my blog, and for the sake of getting back on my feet and writing again, I am going to update y'all.

It is now November, and well into the school year. A major major change in my life is that I found out this summer that I am graduating this year! I was originally going to take an extra year because I switched into my program a year late, but I am somehow able to take my 3rd and 4th year credits at the same time. Praise God! But at the same time, it brings lots of new challenges that I was not prepared for (but when is anyone ever prepared?). So, I am now exploring the world of post-graduation. Will I pursue more education? If so, what? Next year, or after getting work experience? Will I go into the work world next year? Basically: What will I do, and where will I go? I have definitely found myself in a sea of applications and am praying for guidance as to where I should be.

Woop woop! I don't really know if I have anything else to update y'all on. I'm doing swell, other than the usual stresses of a university student (TIME. WHAT IS TIME.), I moved (again) this year aaaaaaaaaaand yes.

Hello friends! I will try to come back and write more often. I miss this, and I will try my best to not let writer's block get the best of me. I want to share my world with you, and I do have a few ideas for some potential posts. So, see you soon! I hope :)

what a journey!

I took a break from blogging because I got busy, and found blogging to be a burden. I did not find joy in blogging and could not remember why I was blogging anymore. I'll be honest, the past few months have been an absolute journey for me in the greatest way.

I took a break to invest in the relationships in my life, and I am glad I did! With that being said, I now remember why I started blogging in the first place. Not to be cute and share fun crafts (although that is obviously a big part of it!) but to keep up with the few readers who do join me here, and invest in my relationships with you guys too!!

I have a very relationship-centric approach to life. I have learned in the past few months just how important relationships are to me (with God, with family, with friends, ...), and it has become obvious that I thrive off them! I was not meant to be alone, but to live in a community. Will you join me?

I will be posting a few update posts in the coming week.. big things are happening! Get excited! (I am!)

a year in review: 2012

This past year has whizzed by! It's amazing how much can happen in a year! My blog has undergone such a transformation as it follows my own personal life. Most notably, I publicly committed my life to Jesus Christ and it has been such a journey, but a great one so far.

I don't really do new years resolutions, but there are some things I would like to do more of in the coming year. I definitely want to do more crafting, more sketching, more reading, more exercising and more praying.

In the meantime, let's look back at some highlights from the past year!

Crafts
I decorated my phone case with nail polish.


I tried painting, and made two paintings for my room.


Faith
I got baptized!
I shared my testimony on the blog.

Food
Red Velvet Canada Day Cake


Chili Lime Pork Loin


Gluten-Free Chicken and Kale Rice Dish
Turkey Meatballs with Tomato Honey Garlic Sauce

Life
I ran my first race.
I switched majors to Health Studies.

Fun
I volunteered and had fun at Bluesfest.


My friends visited Ottawa for Canada Day.
I went to my first wedding in about 10 years (Jolene's wedding), and met one of my favourite wedding photographers!

Trips
I visited Karen in Chicago.


I visited Rosemarie in Vancouver.


Blog
I started sharing my favourite finds around the Internet in my Friday Faves links.
I updated the blog look and added social media links.

bloglovin' vs google reader.

I recently added my blog to Bloglovin', so if you use Bloglovin', go ahead and follow me using this link!

Truth be told, I'm not a user of Bloglovin'. I'm actually an avid Google Reader user. I love love love it, and follow all my blogs using it. RSS feed readers in general are super convenient for following blogs because you can read them all in one handy location!

One thing I do really like about Bloglovin' is that it looks great! It's super clean, brings you right to the blog post on the blog itself, and you can use their handy navigation between blogs you follow.

As far as looks go, I think Bloglovin' wins. But I am going to stick with Google Reader for its functionality. Plus I can sign into my Google Account once, and be good to go with Gmail, Calendar, Blogger, Reader, YouTube, etc. I love Google? Haha.

I do have to admit though, I do miss out on lovely layouts because Reader puts them into a standard template (which actually looks great and uniform). But I try to comment on posts I enjoy and that way I am pretty familiar with my favourite blogs' layouts!

If you do use Bloglovin' though, you can now follow me! To each his own!

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!

a change of plans.. for the better!!

Oh wow.

Not too long ago, I went through my blog to clean it up, and fix some broken links and I stumbled across this post from last year. Wow. First of all, it's super vague. But because I know what I was talking about (muahahaha), it makes for a really interesting reflection activity.

At about this time last year, I had just finished my first year of university. It was both an amazing experience, but also the toughest, most lonely and trying period of my life. I studied general sciences in my first year and to be completely honest, I finished the year super stressed out and crying to my mom almost every day (exaggeration, as I only talk to my mom once a week). In short, I was not doing well in my classes, nor was I enjoying them.

In any case, I had lost sight of what I wanted to do, why I was at university, and what my overall direction was. With the support of my mom, I started exploring many many different schooling options, unsure of my intention to return to Queen's.

One of my top options in terms of interests, was the Graphic Communications Management program at Ryerson.. seriously, sounds so cool! It's a mix of graphic design/communications and business. The one thing that I truly loved in high school was working on the yearbook, where I was the creative and layout editor. And I follow so many design blogs it's not even funny. Graphic design is something I have little experience in, but something I definitely want to explore as a hobby. (Sidenote: Last summer I got to shadow the graphic design team at Health Canada, where I was working. They create all the graphics you see, from brochures, to banners, to website buttons, etc etc etc. I actually got to see the new cigarette pack labels before they were released. The ones that cover 50% of the packaging? Yep. I learned a lot!!)

And other than that, I was also considering Health Science/Business Major/Minor, or a degree in Communications at uOttawa.

But you know what? After taking a good mix of health and business courses this year, I discovered that business is NOT for me. However, health certainly is. I fell in love with my courses, and the only thing I care to read about in the news deals with health policies and certain interesting socioeconomic links to health. That's what I'm interested in.

Looking back, something I can clearly see is how much I've been growing in my faith. I can really see how God used my situation to direct me to where I am now. He drew me into my community and family at my fellowship in Kingston, where I found a place I could grow. For that, I am so grateful. In the past two years, I have gained so much more than I ever could without Him. It is with much difficulty, but much joy and relief that I have been praying and trusting that God will lead me to find something that I am truly passionate about, willing to spend my time doing and above all, aligns with God's will and desire for me. Praise the Lord for that!

And so, I chose to change my plan from Biology (I took zero biology courses last year, hahaha!) to Health Studies. It means that I have to take a fifth year of undergrad, but that is totally fine. I'd way rather take an extra year of something I like, than finish on time studying something I don't like. I applied to change programs almost a month ago now, and it was supposed to take 10 days to process, but now 24 days later (so long!), I've been accepted!!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!!

(Thanks to everyone and anyone who has put up with my stress, complaining, whining, lack of emotion or whatever as I tried to figure out my life a little. It's been a weird journey, but we're here and ready to roll. Thank you for all the support!)

first day of work, and welcome summer!

Oh wow. This time of year marks when I started blogging again last year. It may not be the exact date, but it's weird to think that I've been at this for a year! Though, admittedly, it has been very on and off depending on my schedule, and mostly depending on how busy I was with school.

But in any case, my summer is starting again. I'm returning to the same place to work as where I was last year, with Health Canada. In a different office space, with slightly different people, but for the most part it is the same. I will be doing similar jobs, working with similar people, and all that. One big difference is that things have gotten a little messy due to the confusion and shuffle caused by the cuts in government jobs. It just means that students across the government will likely take on larger and more interactive roles, rather than simple observatory roles. I like this prospective, as it kind of felt like I spent all of last year learning the ropes. Real world, here I come! Kind of.

I spent all morning getting my computer accounts set up. It was a long and slow process, which involved a lot of phone tag, b ut compared to what must have been a week last year, only one morning this year is considerable progress. I also still only have a temporary work pass, and can't wait to get my real swipey pass again! It makes me feel important, and like a real worker. Also I don't like bothering the security guard to let me in and out.. haha. But he remembers me from last summer, and wished me a very friendly welcome back. D'awwww. What a cute old french man, tehehe.

I have many tentative summer plans, and I can't wait to take the time to sit down and figure out what I do want to do with my time this summer. I so badly want to include some sort of exercise in my plan, but nothing particularly tempts me. I usually like to swim, but I don't like going to the pools in Ottawa because I know people who still work there, and sometimes I just want to swim and not socialize. Irrational reasoning, I know, but I like swimming for its solitude. But I do plan to bike to work more this summer! Especially because I'm not getting a bus pass this year. The prices went way up, it's sort of ridiculous. That's all I've got for exercise, for now. If anyone has any ideas, or wants to join me, or include me in their plans, let me know!

I am also considering taking an online class with Athabasca. I really need to look into that if I want to get started soon. From what I read before, you seem to work on your own timeline so it doesn't seem that crucial to start right away? I hope so anyway, because I haven't checked lately and need to get on that. I'm also thinking of volunteering at Bluesfest, if it works with schedules and all that. And so many more small plans to figure out!!

I will write about my trip to Vancouver last week, soon. I still want to get picture from Tiff first..

Yipee! Summer! I'm glad the weather agrees. It is beautiful today. Enjoy the sunshine!

blog layouts and rss feed readers.

I follow all my blogs in an rss feed reader, and it means that I don't get the see the beautiful layouts on all the blogs that I read. I read for content only, but I'm not sure that this is a good thing!

Some people spend so much time on their layouts, and I really want to appreciate them. I love a beautiful layout. But I also love the convenience that Google Reader gives me by putting all the blogs I follow in the same place.

I just redid the look of my own blog. I simplified it (simply steph, right?). Well, really, I'm using a Blogger template, but I customized the colours, sizes, and fonts of the various aspects of the template. I also redid my about me blurb, and a few other small things here and there. I like the new look, it's clean.

Someday I hope to learn css, html, and coding to a certain extent so that I can create my own beautiful sites. I'm tired of using templates and modifying someone else's coding. I took a basic class at summer camp when I was 12, but that was a very very long time ago. One day, I will be able to create my own layout, but for now, I have switched to Blogger's "Simple" template.

Soon, I promise!

I've moved back into my apartment in Kingston!! Yaaay! There's so so so much we have to do though. We just finished vacuuming and mopping and scrubbing (and oh my goodness so much cleaning), and now we're going to go buy things for our apartment. Silly necessary things, pfff. Haha. Getting the apartment ready takes so much effort!

Anyway, I promise the rest of my vacation blog will go up soon! I haven't had much time to write it yet... I worked all the way up til the day I moved to Kingston, and as soon as I got to Kingston I had to set up my apartment, saw some friends etc. I feel like I haven't actually had the chance to sit down and rest yet. Phew!

Posts to come:
-cruise
-jewelry organizer I made (it's awesome, and easy too!)

Later, gators!

welcome!

Welcome to my new location for my blog! It's actually an old location, technically. I created this blog in 2009, and posted on it in a very irregular fashion. I also never told anyone about my blog, so it remained completely unknown with no reading audience whatsoever. But let's just say it's a new location.

I decided to move away from "that ottawa girl" because I rarely talk about the city of Ottawa, and I won't always be in Ottawa. So it just seems awfully silly to have a blog called that. However, my name will stay with me forever, so it's a pretty timeless blog location. I have also figured that if I keep my URL as a generic title, I can change the name of my blog by changing the banner if I so fancy. I also use stephkoanie as my alias on most places on the internet. You can find me on twitter, pinterest, flickr, tons of other random sites that I don't actually use but have accounts on..

I also made a lovely new banner for this blog "simply steph". It's suuper simple, but I like it that way. Simple. That does it. It's really not the greatest, I can see that, and it has its obvious flaws (or it does to me), but I'm going to stick with it until I am creative enough/have enough time to do more fiddling.



Sorry to my loyal readers (all 6 or so of you!!) for making you have to update your bookmarks/rss reader feeds etc. I hate it when other people move, but I guess I'm a little hypocritical. Here I am, at a new location. I like it better though.

And that's that! Welcome, or welcome back to my new/old home.

workey work work

I actually have work to do at work now.. what is this?! Haha. I used to be able to take an hour or so out of my day to read, blog, email, etc. And now I actually have a lot of work to do- running after people (usually via email or phone), helping create/update documents and all the other random tasks I've always had to do. I don't even take an hour to just browse the internet at work anymore!!

And bluesfest is at night and HARRY POTTER IS TOMORROW!! I've been working on my costume.. I'll share it with you soon. It's awesome, get excited!

I am so busy! No time to blog! Seriously, I'll post soon though. I have lots of things to share about course selection and academics and whatnot.

Til then, ta-ta! Going home, and then seeing Metric tonight. It's going to be awesome, let's see what Emily Haines wears (or doesn't wear) tonight!

blog posts to come..

I have so much going on right now, and so much I want to share.. I think my mind is going to explode. Here is a list of things I will write about in the coming future..

-Bluesfest (ohmygoodness the music is so good..!!)

-work updates (chasing people for price quotes, going out for dim sum and the shocking event we witnessed at the restaurant, side jobs at the office)

-HP7 (oh, I can't wait!)

-course selection woes

"How was your day?"

Haha!

I don't think I post often enough to really provide a day-to-day explanation of my life..

But blogging is a great tool for organizing my thoughts in such a way that when I talk to someone in person, I can just give them a quick run down of my life since I have already written a blog post so my thoughts are pre-organized!

home, at last.

That Ottawa Girl is finally back home, in Ottawa.

I spent all of today relaxing. It's been nice. I told myself that I'd allow myself to spend one day relaxing at home, doing absolutely nothing. And that I did. I tried to start unpacking, but that did not happen. It is simply too overwhelming! I can't imagine anyone enjoying the act of unpacking. I simply accumulated too much stuff over the 8 months I was at school, and now to find a place for all this stuff in my already crowded room... Hah, funny joke. I'll need to figure something out.

It has been raining all day here, another good excuse to stay locked up indoors. I wish I could say that I curled up on the couch with a cup of tea and a good read, but sadly, I just ate KD out of a pot just as if I was still in residence. It's a tough transition, alright!

Hopefully tomorrow I can kick start my summer. Go to the library, find some good books, catch up with some friends, finally repaint my nails (which I would not allow myself to repaint during exams - too much of a distraction) and take some pictures.

Get ready summer, here I come!

almost there..!

Only two more exams until summer!

I have so many aspirations for this summer, I can't wait.

This blog, an awesome summer office job, lots of bluesfest, shopping, driving, photography and more! I can't wait. I hope I can accomplish all that I set out to do.

In terms of photography, my parents got a DSLR this past Christmas, and I hope that through practice I will learn to use it. I also hope to carry my point and shoot around wherever I go to capture moments that often don't get appreciated.

I am also really excited to work in an office this summer. I have lifeguarded for the past two summers, and am tired of sitting outside all the time (I know, this sounds weird, right?). The sun is actually so energy draining, and I'm excited to be learning new stuff this summer!

And for music, I definitely want to attend bluesfest as much as I can. You can't beat live music, it's amazing. I'm also playing soccer again this year for the first time since grade 10, and I hope I have not forgotten how to dribble and kick. Oh man, it's been too long! I plan to also join a church and fellowship at home now, and hope to grow spiritually as well.

Am I crazy? Do I aspire to accomplish too much this summer? What do you think? Wish me luck!