Rome Life, II

Yesterday, I:

wore a new shirt for the second time (third?)
painted book pages with Paige Behrens
had one of the best burgers I’ve ever had in my life
discussed the possibilities of bed bugs and Polio
learned about Caravaggio
experimented with watercolor
got pooped on by a bird (on my new shirt)
power walked home
made (kind of) carbonara rigatoni

booked a flight to Paris
wobbled
ate popcorn that Sara Diemer made for me


I love Rome.

Last weekend we went to Florence and Pisa. I am amazed every single day and I just love everything. I am so lucky! Can't wait to see what today brings.

NOW FOR A DOODLE ABOUT LANGUAGE BARRIERS

Rome Life

Since writing about such an experience is difficult to sum up, I thought I'd compile a list of sums from this trip so far.

plane rides 2
days lived in Rome 7
days I have sweated 7
graphic designers from ISU in Rome 33
approximate gelato stops 5
legitimate Italian coffees consumed 2
professors directly interacting with me so far 6
roommates not including me 7
bathrooms in apartment 2
flights of stairs to my apartment 6
number of elevators in my side of building 1
approximate average of miles walked daily 5.3
pizza slices eaten 8
total bottles of laundry detergent 0
total bottles of laundry softener 7
times I have felt threatened 0


Tomorrow we are going on an art history tour walk around the Pantheon and by studio with our entire group. I am pretty excited to see all the things that we have learned about in the flesh and to go more in depth about the pieces. Rome has a really rich history and I can't wait. We were assigned different neighborhoods in our graphic design identity studio, I am assigned the Celio neighborhood. It includes lots of parks and the landmark of it is the Colosseum. We tour our neighborhoods on Friday in the morning then we have the weekend free! Livin' the life.

now, a doodle about cheese cream

Heartbleed: What it is and how to combat it

What in the world is Heartbleed??

I'll let Bret Molina from USA Today explain:

"It's a major bug that affects the technology used to encrypt sensitive information. Ever log in to e-mail or your banking account and notice the "HTTPS" and green lock? That's SSL/TLS, and OpenSSL is among the most popular variants of it.

Heartbleed is a leak in that system that lets anyone read the memory of servers running OpenSSL. "This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content," reads a statement from a Heartbleed website set up by Codenomicon to explain the bug. "This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users."

Codenomicon says it's not clear whether the vulnerability has been abused, but since Heartbleed has been exploitable for a long time, it's difficult to determine whether any service is completely safe."

To read more of his advice (which I would advise), click through this article. He says to wait to change your passwords until the website lets you know that it has fixed the security breach and is safe again. To make sure that the website is safe and know that you should change your password, go through this tutorial from The Mac Observer. The end of this guide from SiteProNews tells you how to make a safe password.

Check your accounts and look through this website list from Mashable that has the affected services on it. Be careful with your information online!

Branding & Identity Systems

Logos that I made for a fictional identity system for the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival's 10th anniversary. After having junior reviews, I'm thinking about going back to change it a bit to make it more like one of my sketches.

These are some of my earlier iterations:




I ended up getting rid of the sheep heads because I wanted to create a more sophisticated version, but now I think I want to go back, add the heads in, and make the type form the shape of the fluff ball of their bodies instead of an outline. It's funkier, more fun, and it shows the personality of knitters and the festival overall better.

Here are sketches that I did early on:



I definitely don't want to start all over with a super cartoony approach, but I do want to do this project over and edit it a bit. I enjoyed this project so much and am looking forward to working on it some more to make it better.

Cerulean

Color Wheel: Cerulean by kaitlinungs featuring modern lamps

Cerulean is a blue hue that covers the colors between blue and cyan. It's a dreamy color that is calming and steadfast, which is why we're showing you mostly bedding and bathroom items. Blues calm you, which is always nice in a bedroom or bathroom. The world cerulean actually comes from Latin word caelum, which means 'heaven, sky.' Sweet dreams.

Daylight Saving Time

"If I could turn back time, if I could find a way to take back those words that hurt you" - Cher ( listen here )

                                            

Unfortunately for Cher, the country is turning time FORWARD this weekend because of Daylight Saving Time.

DST begins Sunday, March 9th at 2:00 am. Don't forget to turn your clocks an hour ahead before you go to sleep Sunday night!

Still need to get ready for DST? Here are some things you can do.

                                         

Listen to a song that is somewhat reminiscent of time travel. Think techno. We are going forward in time, after all. I would recommend the new Digital Witness by quirky St. Vincent.

Pack all your things for Monday on Sunday night. Fail to prepare and prepare to fail!

Write notes to yourself to change the clocks if you haven't already.


Here's to springing forward with style & grace. Good luck, everybody!

Organization Made Easy

We adore chaos because we love to produce order. - M.C. Escher

I almost always have a hard time keeping my stuff organized, and like I said a couple weeks ago, my new years resolution is to keep my things more organized! I thought I'd put together some tips that I think will help me and hopefully YOU keep your place tidier!



Yup. Cans. Jars also! Anything that your food comes in *that can be cleaned*, consider it usable storage space! I happen to love Claussen pickles, and they come in a nice big glass jar. It holds my dishwasher wand thing right now next to the sink. So handy. I highly suggest this tip, and get creative with it! Decorate a soup can and it could be your new toothbrush holder. DIY projects, hello!

Another tip that I absolutely LOVE. I hang my keys up along with scarves, purses, hats, earbuds, towels, and literally anything else that would otherwise be laying in a pile somewhere else. Hooks are so handy and are completely underutilized, in my opinion.





Y'know, those things you hang on the back of the door and shove your shoes in? Well, surprise, they can be used for so much more than just shoes. Personally, I haven't invested in one of these yet but I may just have to. From what I hear, they save a lot of space and have a lot of holding power. What more could you want from an organizational piece? NOTHING. That's what.


Alright folks, I hope that you found this post thought provoking and helpful. If you have any more ideas for handy home organization, let me know at kaitlinungs@gmail.com! I would love to hear them.

Color wheel: Yellow

How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun.
-Vincent Van Gogh

yellow! by kaitlinungs featuring a marimekko mug

Has this dreary winter weather got you feeling blue? Change your mindset to yellow! The following is a chart from Empower Yourself with Color Psychology that explains how each color of yellow can influence your feelings. You can visit the page this chart is from by clicking here.

Variations of the Color Yellow

 Light Clear Yellow  Light clear yellow helps to clear the mind, making it open and alert.

 Lemon Yellow  Lemon yellow promotes self-reliance and a need for an orderly life. This yellow increases our sensitivity to criticism.

 Citrine Yellow  Citrine is a superficial and fickle color. It encourages the serial relationship hopper, the teaser, with unstable emotions. This yellow can be deceitful and retreats from responsibility.

Golden Yellow This yellow is the color of the loner with an intense curiosity and interest in investigating the finer details of its interests. Golden yellow is sensitive to criticism.

 Cream  Cream, tinted with a hint of yellow, encourages new ideas. However, this very pale color can also indicate a lack of confidence and a need for reassurance.

Dark Yellow The darker shades of yellow indicate an inclination toward depression and melancholy, lack of love and low self-worth. Dark yellow relates to the constant complainer and the cynic.

Check out the items above that you can quickly and easily add into your daily life for a pop of happiness and a clear mind. Make sure you pick the right shade of yellow for you!

How to Find Deals

Everyone I know is always looking for a great deal. Some people will go to great lengths, like that show on TLC called "Extreme Cheapskates." If you're like me and don't really want to pee in a jar or use washcloths as toilet paper to save money, we have some ideas on how to get free things or at least get them at a discounted price!


1. Facebook groups 

 Search around on Facebook a bit to see if there are any community swap groups. These groups typically have rules and regulations that you must abide by, but all the rules are easy to follow and complete politely. Facebook groups are an easy way to either cheaply buy or swap items that you need! They're also a great resource to sell things you no longer use or want.

2. Thrift shops 

 Thrift shops are a great way to find a great deal on quality items that you may not find elsewhere. BUT, make sure you go in with an eye for good quality - look for stains, rips, cracks - anything that could be detrimental to the lifetime of the item you're considering. Sometimes something with a little extra "love" showing in it could be worth it for the price that is listed. To quote rapper Macklemore, "...it was 99 cents!"

3. Coupons
  
 Just like I mentioned Extreme Cheapskates from TLC above, there's another show called Extreme Couponers. I admire the couponers that they show because most of them do it for a living. Here's how to coupon like the rest of us! Look for coupons and deals in the weekly newspaper. Lots of stores have some sort of packet of products with coupons for them in the front of the store. Don't forget about looking for deals online! If you are looking for a specific item, Google it with a store you'd find it in. For instance, you could google "wrenches Lowes coupons" and find all sorts of nifty deals on tools.

4. Freecycle  

Freecycle is kind of like that "free" section on Craigslist, but specific to your county and completely safe AND completely free! You can sign up according to your county and receive email alerts when people are looking for an item and giving items away. Click here to find more details.

Happy deal hunting!

57th day of 2014

Today is February 27th. We are officially 57 days into the new year! Yay!

So... How are those new years resolutions looking? Common resolutions are to lose weight, be less dependent on caffeine, fall in love, save money, and stay organized. Personally, I promised myself that I would keep my apartment more organized, but I have kind of fallen off the bandwagon on that one. This post is dedicated to all you that want to better yourselves in some way but can't seem to keep on track! Let's see if we can get you back on track with those resolutions. If you want to see a list of common resolutions and statistics about them, click here.

Overall, to have a successful resolution, you MUST give yourself little goals to reach throughout the entire goal. This keeps you accountable and checks you throughout your journey. What kind of little goals should you make? Well, it depends on what kind of resolution you made!

Little goals for each resolution

WEIGHT LOSS
- drink 1 glass of water with breakfast every day
- have 2 or less sweet treats a day

- chew every bite of food at least 5 times

LESS CAFFEINE
- research different sources of caffeine than coffee

- switch an apple and some water out for a cup of coffee once a day
- drink a lower - caffeine tea to wean yourself off

FALL IN LOVE

- take steps to love yourself daily! Eat well, sleep a healthy amount, pay attention to yourself.
- smile at one new person a day and say hello

- go to a new place once a week

SAVE MONEY

- eat at home instead of out at least once a day - prepare ahead!

- check movies out from the library on the weekend instead of the theater

- go on a spending cleanse (don't buy anything except food and essentials for a month)

STAY ORGANIZED

- make your bed every morning

- put your dishes in the dishwasher or clean them right away

- put your clean clothes away within a day of drying them

I would suggest keeping sticky notes or a list of these mini goals somewhere you'd see it every day, like your bathroom mirror. Remember that you can make resolutions throughout the year, not just in early January! Keep at your goals and keep on truckin'. If you miss a mini goal one day, it's okay because it's just a mini goal. Start over the next day. You got it!

National Pancake Day

The laziest man I ever met put popcorn in his pancakes so they would turn over by themselves. -W.C. Fields

Today, March 4th is national pancake day!! National pancake day was started by IHOP in 2006. Just because IHOP started this holiday is no reason that you can't celebrate by yourself! Join in the festivities by making pancakes from scratch, from box, or buying some at a restaurant.

Here are some links to yummy pancake recipes!

Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

Banana Pancakes

Milk-free pancakes

The wikipedia article on pancakes describes pancakes as follows:

A pancake, also known as a hotcake or flapjack (in North America) is a flat cake, often thin, flat, and round, prepared from a starch-based batter and cooked on a hot surface such as griddle or frying pan. In Britain it is often made without a raising agent, and is similar to a crêpe. In America, a raising agent is used (typically baking powder). The American pancake is similar to a Scotch pancake or drop scone.

You can also visit the wikipedia article by clicking here. Enjoy your pancake day!