For all the “life” stuff check out http://jazminbrooks.co.uk

For the time being design stuff can be found on my twitter http://twitter.com/#!/jaz_design or on my Masters blog – http://ma.jazdesign.co.uk

Thank you for reading, and I hope you stick around for the next stage of the journey!

Notice the very subtle highlight of the grey and the text on the “read the blog” link when you mouseover? That’s attention to detail.

The thing with the label tag is perhaps not so creative, but more of a necessity. You should take the time to make labels for your inputs/textareas/selects etc because it adds to the usability of the page and validates.

Not only should you take the time to make your label tags, but you should take the time to style them.

That’s right, style them. The default styling, in the majority of browsers, on a label tag is simply the same as the text. This would be fine, except a label isn’t just text. It’s interactive. Have you ever noticed when clicking on the text next to a checkbox it checks or unchecks the box? Assuming all elements have labels assigned to them, you can click on any label in any form and have it move the focus to that element. This is exceptionally useful for things such as checkboxes and radio buttons which can be quite small. You’re increasing the clickable area around the element and therefore increasing usability.

I would wager a lot of people don’t know about this trick, I’d say some figure it out by chance like I did, and the reason? By default the cursor style does not change over a label.

I very quickly learnt to add the following to the CSS reset I use on all my sites:

label{
cursor:pointer;
}

You can find out more about CSS resets here.

Voila! Your cursor should turn into a hand when hovering over the label, and when clicked it will place the focus in the associated element.

I usually go a bit further and give the label some colour, or weight, make it fit with the rest of the design.

It’s a good idea to put the cursor:pointer style on the button tag too, just to provide the added visual reinforcement that it is a button and to keep behaviours on the web and computers consistent.

So, add that snippet to your CSS reset, and consider how you can creatively enhance your form with more styles now that you have the label tag to play with!

I’ve made it 11 days I’m pretty pleased. I know there’s a way to go yet, but I’m really enjoying it so I intend to keep it up. I’ve also been doing well with my January goals (to be explained at the end of the month), though I will say they involve reading design related books at lunchtimes and I’m really enjoying reading New Media at the moment. It’s a very academic book which I did read bits of while I was at university doing my dissertation, but now I’m reading it cover to cover, and it’s totally waking my brain up!

Anyway enough chat:

For those of you that don’t know, a brief reminder/explanation…

What is Project 365?

Project 365 involves doing something every day for a year. It doesn’t have to start on January 1st, and it doesn’t have to be photography, though from what I’ve seen it does tend to be something creative. One photo a day, one sketch a day etc. The idea’s been gaining popularity over the years and I see more and more people doing it. In 2008 I managed to keep it going pretty well until the April and it petered out into June.

There was one guy who took one photograph a day for 18 years of his life. He was pretty cool, go check him out for some inspiration.

For an even more in depth explanation, check out this article on Fuel Your Photography.

How do I join in?

Just start! Whatever your passion, just go with it. If you want to share it with the world there are a variety of ways! flickr, tumblr, deviantArt, a blog… just get snapping and get sharing!

There are bunches of groups on flickr dedicated to Project 365. I joined Project 366-1 (2010) because many of the same people from the group I was in in 2008 are there. They’re full of helpful advice and suggestions about how to keep it going, and there’s weekly competitions which are pretty cool too!

It was also our first Christmas at our flat instead of a parents’. Lunch was good and not as much hard work as I thought, but that may be to do with not cooking a whole turkey… I also managed to watch every single Wallace and Gromit short & film over the festive period.

For our Xmassy pics complete with snow, Snoopy, Playmobil advent calendars, check them out on Facebook here.

There’s a slew of 2009 review & 2010 promises in my Google Reader today, but what’s one more eh?

2009

Design

I will pick up some files from work on Monday so I can do a review of my work from the year. Includes the designs and associated work for smtrac and StationeryWise.

Photography

I’d briefly considered 365 again but didn’t get very far this year. You can see the photography I uploaded this year here.

Life in General

Work and home life are pretty much the same. I got a raise which I was pretty pleased with. We’re decorating the bathroom at the moment (same colours, just needed a few things sorting out, it already looks miles better). Love-wise we celebrated 3 very happy years together. Familywise, long story, but I just went from being an only child with one parent for 22 years to having two parents, two (half) sisters and a (half) brother. So that’s been good and interesting.

2010

I am yet again attempting Project 365, you can track my progress on my flickr here. This is my big resolution for the year on a creative level. On a personal level it’s health and eating real food, not just chocolate/caek.

There are plenty of posts about keeping resolutions and such out there, and I’ve read a lot of them over the years. The things that stick out most seem to be about taking small steps so as not to overwhelm yourself and creating new habits so as to make real changes. It’s also good to write these things down, review them regularly and have ways to hold yourself accountable.

I liked Gretchen’s post at the Happiness Project about taking each month for a different “thing”. So I’ve done something similar:

Jan – Work/Money
Feb – Love/Relationships
Mar – Mindfulness/Happiness
Apr – Skin/Teeth (yes that sounds weird, it’s not, I’m rubbish at these routines)
May – Cleaning/Tidying
Jun – Exercise
Jul – Photography
Aug – Social
Sept – Art
Oct – Spirituality
Nov – Writing
Dec – Family

Each month has some kind of event, end goal and reward. I’ll be updating my blog from time to time about these because I think it’s good to check in and talk about what I’ve learnt.

Lastly

Eddyb has redesigned his site and blog, go check it out!

Takashi Murakami by Zenzott on flickr

I was going to write about the reason I’ve seen Muse 8 times now, but I think you all know and I decided this was more important.

If you’d asked me to explain what pop art was a two weeks ago, the most I would probably be able to muster would have been “something to do with Andy Warhol?” Also do note, I’m sure this is riddled with errors to do with dates, movements, titles etc, I’m only just learning about it all, so constructive comments very welcome!

I love my traditional art, love it. The National Gallery is my favourite in London and whilst abstraction is growing on me, paintings of things that look like what they are really appeal to me – the artist’s flair and expression being found in the brush strokes – and the skill required! Compare it to something like Tracy Emin’s bed and there’s no competition in my eyes, “traditional” art wins.

As an artist, designer and photographer, I’m always looking for inspiration. It seems wrong to shut out such a vibrant and talented world as modern art. I think that personal preference will always come back to the more “traditional” art, but the Pop Life exhibit at the Tate has helped the shift in my thinking somewhat.

What is pop art?

“Pop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist’s use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art. Pop removes the material from its context and isolates the object, or combines it with other objects, for contemplation. The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it.” – Wikipedia

How I understand that, and correct me if I’m wrong, is the pop artists make art that is commercial or explores the boundaries between art and commerce. Context is vital. The goal isn’t necessarily to create something beautiful, but to create something controversial. It’s not about taste (that’s for sure!) and the nature of the work allows for easy mass production.

The Exhibit

The exhibition itself featured both artists from the original movement and contemporaries featuring a similar style, and similarly commenting on society.

Just a brief review, should have written this sooner while it was still fresh in my mind!

You’re greeted with a Murakami giant anime figure and Koons’ silver rabbit. As someone who frequently features dolls and toys in her personal work I enjoy the idea of recreating the toys as something else (talking Koons here).

Murakami making “collectible ‘snack toys’ packaged with sweets or chewing gum – affordable to all” is all very well, but another comment on the problems with society? Where do these mass produced plastic toys end up when they’re inevitably thrown away? See my post about the Midway Albatross.

I actually found the Warhol “Gems” to be quite impressive, probably because I’m fond of sparkly things myself. The UV light was a bit of a head messer, but it wouldn’t be a Tate Modern exhibition without some weird light in it somewhere.

I loved the Pop Shop. The colours, the designs. So funky, though I’m sure that’s not the point. (The point being commercial, affordable art)

I hated Damien Hirst’s calf in formaldehyde. Hate. No animal should die for art, and I assume it’s real? It’s hooves were gold. I kind of get what he’s saying, but Damien, next time, use your words! I was however quite taken with his sparkly wall of gems, though I feel I should have read the card next to it to really understand it’s meaning. I was too busy magpying all over the shop.

Murakami is another one who really stuck out, probably the video of Kirsten Dunst dressed up like an anime character singing “Turning Japanese” by the Vapors. A song which doesn’t mean that they are actually turning Japanese, but more turning into something they don’t expect, or then there is the rumoured meaning of “wanking”. So I’m not sure if that was part of the commentary. It was completely surreal though.

Why is pop art important?

Pop art as a movement is important because it is controversial. It asks questions, it dares to challenge you and it makes you THINK. These things are incredibly important to me as a young person and artist/designer still figuring out my place and what I think about things.

More Information

The T-shirt Competition on Threadless
The Tate Room Guide

Fortunately for us we live just off the local park where our town’s firework display is held. Our balcony produces an excellent view of the show – and easy access to warmth! I must admit to not being much of a fan of standing outside at night at the beginning of winter, bonfire or no bonfire.

This year I decided to try and take some photographs, having such a good vantage spot.

f/3.5 Exposure 1/8 secs ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I used my Pentax DA that came with my camera, simply because I couldn’t decide on a different lens. I’d read some articles (listed below) about what to use, but uncertain about where exactly to focus, I went with old faithful. Next time I want to experiment more, I’m sure my prime lens could get some fantastic results.

More pictures and tips after the jump!

f/3.5 Exposure 3 secs ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I kept my f-stop the same (which I would probably play with next time) and just experimented with shutter speeds. I had the camera on a tripod, in the same position the whole time. I did zoom in at one point, but was unhappy with the results.

Having it on a tripod allowed me to photograph the finale in such a way as to fade it all together in the above slideshow. I wish I’d got the end properly as I feel it ends too abruptly, but another lesson for next time. I probably would have put the camera on continuous shooting mode had I thought of it so I could just hold the shutter while I wanted it to take the pictures. This would have worked much better than taking the picture and then waiting for it to store it.

Exposure - all 1/2 sec except the bottom right which was 6 seconds. I adjusted the contrast slightly to remove light pollution. f/3.5 ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I really liked these, they don’t look like normal fireworks to me, just weird and pretty explosions.

f/3.5 Exposure 1/6 secs ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

Not so keen on the shorter exposure, would rather have the longer trails, but did like these pictures for the colour.

Exposure - all 1/8 sec except the bottom right which was 1/3 seconds. I adjusted the contrast slightly to remove light pollution. f/3.5 ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I loved the pictures and can’t wait to experiment again!

Useful Links

• Digital Photography School – How to Photograph Fireworks
• Pioneer Woman – Breaking the Rules: Fireworks the “Wrong” Way
• Just Fireworks flickr Group
• Firework Mutants flickr Group

Now please don’t switch off just yet.

Whether “global warming”, or “climate change” is actually happening, or would happen regardless of us makes no odds. It is no excuse for being wasteful. There’s little to no effort to recycling, so why set such a bad example of values to your kids etc? It’s not good to waste things, just because you can! Odds are, that wastefulness is hurting someone or something somewhere. Like the ocean and it’s inhabitants for example.

So, where does our plastic end up?

Photograph belongs to Chris Jordan - http://www.chrisjordan.com/ It has not been Photoshopped.

Yes folks, that is an albatross. A dead albatross showing the contents of it’s stomach. 2000 miles away from the nearest continent – and there’s many more. Plastic now outweighs plankton 6 to 1 in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (more info).

Taken from Journey to Midway website:

Midway Atoll, one of the remotest islands on earth, is a kaleidoscope of geography, culture, human history, and natural wonder. It also serves as a lens into one of the most profound and symbolic environmental tragedies of our time: the deaths by starvation of thousands of albatrosses who mistake floating plastic trash for food.

See Journey to Midway and Chris Jordan’s photography for more information about this horror.

But, I recycle, I’m not responsible

I find this film particularly striking (check out from about 5:00 onwards) – a collection of objects found in rotting albatross carcasses. If you were thinking “oh this isn’t my doing”, check out how many toothbrushes, pens and lighters there are there and think again.

Now you “they’re just animals” folk can sing and dance all you want, you can’t think this is right, expecting birds and fish to eat our waste and then die, only to put it back in the sea. No one deserves that. No one deserves to swallow an ink cartridge or golf ball thinking it’s food! Especially just so we can continue this “throw-away society”. It’s not worth it.

What can I do?

Recycling is important, but with plastic it’s called “downcycling” and in the end the plastic still isn’t going to biodegrade for a very very long time and may well end up in the sea. I’m not saying don’t recycle. I’m saying use less plastic!

Buying throw-away products costs more in the long run, matches are just as good as lighters, use pencils when you can? I’ve vowed to never buy biros again. The few pens I have can have refills and the rest of the time I’m going to be using pencils. I’ve also given up Kinder Eggs…

Well if you’re so perfect…

Yes, I’m responsible too. Everyone is to some extent. No one can be completely “green”, that’s not a realistic expectation and it’s not about that. It’s doing what you can and it’s NOT hard. Here in Woking the council has actually upped the types of items we can recycle in our bins. In the new year we’ll have food collections too!

When I feel my efforts slipping I find myself checking out Chris’ work.

I’m almost done, I swear

Remember to do what you can with your recycling, and when buying something, ask yourself, do you really REALLY need it? And if so, buy something that’s built to last you, not for you to throw away.

The Links

http://www.midwayjourney.com/
http://www.chrisjordan.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lastchancetosee/ – Worth watching while it’s still on the iPlayer! Beautiful imagery and very interesting information about good being done in the world, and of course showing the effects of our existance. And it has Stephen Fry. Are you not sold with that alone?

Galleries

Beautifully Web Design http://beautifully-webdesign.net/

Best Web Gallery http://bestwebgallery.com/

CSS Beauty http://www.cssbeauty.com/

CSS Elite http://www.csselite.com/

Logo of the Day http://logooftheday.com/

Logo Pond http://logopond.com/

Blog Design Heroes http://blogdesignheroes.com/

Card Observer http://cardobserver.com/

Cart Frenzy http://cartfrenzy.com/

Creamy CSS http://creamycss.com/

Folio Focus http://foliofocus.com/

Minimal Exhibit http://minimalexhibit.com/

Type Inspire http://typeinspire.com/

Your Logo Makes me Barf http://www.yourlogomakesmebarf.com/

This one just makes me giggle

Photography

Digital Photography School http://digital-photography-school.com/

Fuel your Photography http://www.fuelyourphotography.com/

Photo Tuts + http://photo.tutsplus.com/

Stuck in Customs http://www.stuckincustoms.com/

John Godwin http://john-godwin.co.uk/blog/

Resources

Bittbox http://www.bittbox.com/

Designus http://dezignus.com/ – check out the fantastic header!

Tutorials

10 Steps http://10steps.sg/

Flash Tuts + http://flash.tutsplus.com/

Net Tuts + http://net.tutsplus.com/

PSD Tuts + http://psd.tutsplus.com/

Tutorial 9 http://www.tutorial9.net/

Vector Tuts + http://vector.tutsplus.com/

Misc

LifeHacker http://lifehacker.com/

Post Secret http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Fuel your Blogging http://www.fuelyourblogging.com/

Fuel your Writing http://www.fuelyourwriting.com/

Since my Big Ben “pseudo tilt-shift” got featured in Abduzeedo’s Daily Inspiration the other day I thought I’d talk a little more about “tilt-shift” and what I’ve learnt in the last couple of weeks.

What is Tilt-Shift Photography?

Really and truly the popular thing at the moment is actually “miniature faking” via digital post-processing – I don’t think there’s many people out there with the lens required to acheive this effect out of camera.

Wiki Says:

Miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is made to look like a photograph of a miniature scale model. Blurring parts of the photo simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered in close-up photography, making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is.

Show Me Some Examples

Did I tell you, I simply love this effect? So do a lot of other people at the moment! For more examples of beautiful tilt-shift photography, check out these links!

• 41 Amazing Tilt-shift Miniature Faking Photographs
• 50 Beautiful Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography on Smashing Magazine
• Tilt-shift Miniature Fakes flickr group
• Tilt-shift Britain flickr group
• Tilt-shift flickr group
• More of my London Eye tilt-shifts

How can I Make a Miniature Fake?

Firstly, it’s good to think about your angle when taking the picture – above is better. It implies that what’s below you is smaller than you, and is how you’d look at a “toy town”. I had the advantage of being on the London Eye, so up nice and high. You can get the effect from any angle, but above just seems to emphasise it all the more.

Taking it into Photoshop

To boil it down as simply as possible, select an area with a gradient in quick mask mode, use lens blur on the selected area and then boost the saturation. For a detailed tutorial, this is the one I used to get started.

Boosting the saturation is important, because it gives it that lovely vibrant “toy” effect that we’re looking for. I usually tweak the curves and other things, whatever looks good

There are also websites out there which will do this for you, though I prefer greater control.

So, show me your tilt-shift miniature fakes!

I’m a sucker for impulse buys – as the picture of a Shaun the Sheep bath poof will tell you, though to be honest I could be a lot worse. For the record, I’ve had the big Shaun since I was a kid It was just the bath sponge thing that grabbed my eye in Morisons.

When I finished university I dutifully figured out my money, had a heart attack, and then went about my business. I looked at my spreadsheet a couple of times over the last year or so, but things changed drastically when the Mister was able to move down and I’d never figured in that things cost half as much as before, so it was time for a new budget and I decided to refresh my knowledge of budgeting.

Useful Links

• 42 Ways to Radically Simplify Your Financial Life
• Building Your First Budget
• How to Budget Effectively and Also How to Stick to it
• 8 Ways to Make Huge Savings in your Budget
• 10 Ways to Simplify your Budget

My Top Tips

If you’ve figured out a budget, great! If you’re having trouble sticking to it however, I’ve got a few tips which I use myself to prevent “wasted” money.

Put it on a wishlist – I try and hold out for Christmas and birthdays with things that aren’t a true need. Plus putting things on a wishlist means you can go back and delete them when you realise you don’t really need them in the first place. It’s all about priorities, which sounds scary and grown up, but it’s really not that bad.

Show it to the other half/a (frugal) friend - I tend to find that when the Mister asks me “why do you want that?” and I not only have to justify it to myself, but someone else as well, if I struggle, I put it back.

Track your spending – I use an iPhone application called Balance which is free and very simple to use. A lot of people are using Mint which interacts directly with accounts and thing. The act of tracking every purchase as I make it means I’m more likely to rethink it – especially when I see what I’ve already spent that month.

I’ve only just started doing this again, but I did track my spending every day for a month a couple of years ago and the results were astonishing (HOW MUCH on chocolate?!). I cannot for the life of me find the post where I added it all up, so you’ll just have to take my word on the chocolate.

De-clutter regularly – we have a comfortably small flat, with acres of storage, but even with this, I find I’m constantly de-cluttering. This in itself makes it more likely for me to think twice about buying something and the de-cluttering means I really see how much I’ve bought. I guess the real tip here is to live somewhere comfortable but not bigger than what you truly need, people fill the space they live in, it’s just natural.

Wait a week – similar to the wishlist tip, waiting a week can be particularly useful for figuring out if you really need something. When I was trying to decide which phone to get, I waited a month to commit to my iPhone – and yes, it was an extravagance, but that level of deliberation meant it was a carefully considered extravagance that I could have backed out of should something more important/better come along.

There are plenty of other tips out there, these are just what I find works for me!

My birthday this year fell on a Monday, so the weekend was filled with a party with my friends and a party with my family – lots of good food, good conversations. I had a fantastic weekend!

For the actual day it was just the Mister and I, he took me up to London for a trip on the London Eye – having never been.

You can find some of my photographs on flickr. I thought it was a great experience. Would love to go up at night as well! We were fortunate enough for it to be a mild day, with some cloud cover but lots of sun, so the views were clear, but it wasn’t too bright.

I’ve fallen in love with the pseudo tilt-shift effect and so thought I’d try it out with some of them, since I was looking from above and all

I got a ton of presents. I love presents. I can’t help it, everyone loves presents. And I loved everything everyone got me this year. Such great choices! Some things I never knew I needed until I had them (I’m thinking of the book about how to make felt animals – see below)

This is a small selection of my presents, I still have one to cash in (shopping!) and any money I got went on the Great Devon Trip to see Muse. These are the ones I hadn’t found homes for before remembering to take a photo!

In that black box is some incense. I’m halfway through the “Logo Design Workbook” now. The notebook has become my art/design notes book.

Check out the TRADITIONAL SHERBET at the top there. So much better than the plastic packaged stuff. I’m eating it sparingly, trying to make it last as long as possible. I’ll probably keep one forever. The earings were made by my friend Michelle, you can buy more of her excellent jewellery on her Etsy page.

The Cute Book is the felt animal thing. I love sewing. It’s not something I ever make time for, but for some reason I just love it. I took textiles at GCSE as a result. I didn’t know I needed this book until I had it. I’m now in the process of making my first lizard, something more than one person has asked me for. Getting the felt involved a trip to a Hobby Craft and my God was I in heaven there! SO MUCH ART STUFF. I nearly had a heart attack.

And the Mister was so kind as to replace the cheapo Claddagh ring I accidentally put through the wash, with a nicer, more expensive silver one

Last Sunday we headed over to Reading Festival to watch the one and only Radiohead perform. I had no idea what to expect, and was blown away. The other bands were good too, but I’d be lying if I said I’d gone to see them. I was there purely for Radiohead, and some festival fun.

I have to say, hearing that many people sing along to Karma Police, it sends chills down your spine – it really does. I’ve never quite got over that part of the gig experience, people singing along – all those people on the same page. There’s nothing like it.

It was great to just chill out to their interesting and extraordinary music. We had a wonderful time. You can catch the highlights on the BBC website here.

Then we had Muse. Muse and their homecoming gigs in Teignmouth, Devon. (163 miles away…) Somehow, somehow we ended up with tickets for both the gigs. Friday we headed down, checked into our hotel, headed back out to the first gig. Exhausted though I was from the epic driving, it was fantastic. The Den is a small venue, so no matter where you were the view was good.

Saturday, just as awesome. We spent the day exploring Teignmouth town , down on the beach, and eating cream teas… and donut men.

Probably my favourite song from the gigs was Cave. It wasn’t just Cave. It was a “jazz rendition”. The piano was spectacular.  The whole thing was spectacular. See the vid here!

My other favourite is the song which I guess has replaced Butterflies (similar in their epicness) on their live setlist, United States of Eurasia. I’d have been a bit upset if we’d only gone on the Saturday when Matt messed up the Chopin at the end and didn’t finish it

Favourite new song? Easy. Undisclosed Desires.

See my flickr for more pics!

I love inspirational images. Love. I read a lot of blogs and galleries every morning (slowly being documented here!) and figured I needed a place to put all of my favourite images that I find. If you’re interested in a bit of daily inspiration, but not an overwhelming amount, check out my tumblr! I am using a default theme, time is short right now.

I’ve also added a tumblr widget on the right here, and a flickr one (when I redevelop my site I’ll find a better one!)

ETA: I’ve actually stopped using tumblr. The servers are constantly down, and it’s a lot of effort to add things to it. I’ve started using vi.sualize.us because it offers a similar functionality to Delicious, but for saving and sharing images! View my visualized here!

As for the tumblr widget, I’m using it to display my flickr photos for now because I couldn’t find a flickr widget I liked

These are a selection of the blogs that I have stored in my Google Reader that I check in on every day. I hope you find something you like after the jump!

1st Web Designer http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/
Does some really great features posts, a very good resource if you’re looking for web design related things.

A List Apart http://www.alistapart.com/
A must read. Lots of theory, background, very informative articles. Something useful for everyone in the industry.

Abduzeedo http://abduzeedo.com/

If you’re looking for inspiration, this is the place to get it. Absolutely bursting at the seams with inspiration – quality inspiration. The daily inspiration is community driven and so there is a huge variety of art, design and media at your fingertips. Also features tutorials, wallpapers and some link love.

Spoon Graphics http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/
Chris Spooner keeps me very entertained. His posts are up to date, well written, interesting and most importantly useful. Check him out.

Colour Lovers http://www.colourlovers.com/
Colour is very important in design (how many black and white websites do you see out there? I challenge you to show me some). It’s important in art, and photography. The posts from this site are always beautiful and interesting. We could all do with a bit more colour, myself included.

CSSplay http://www.cssplay.co.uk/
Full of excellent techniques to add interactivity and sparkle to your websites.

David Airey http://www.davidairey.com/
Someone who I was fortunate to come across whilst doing my degree. David Airey is very good at branding, there’s lots of excellent information on his site about the logo design process etc. The blog posts are well worth subscribing too – lots to think about.

Design Observer http://designobserver.com/
Great for industry book advice. Great for inspiration and a different take on design.

eightyone http://www.eightyonedesign.co.uk/
I liked their articles about their rebrand and how they work – about the process. You won’t often find studios this honest.

Fubiz http://www.fubiz.net/
General inspiration about everything you could ever think of. Gorgeous and inspirational. I love this site. Love it!

ilovedust http://www.ilovedust.com/
ilovedust have been an inspiration to me ever since they came to talk at our university (some of them are Portsmouth graduates too). Their work is beyond gorgeous, beyond inspired. I subscribe to their blog just to keep up to date with their work. Not to sound like a fangirl or anything.

Jason Santa Maria http://jasonsantamaria.com/
A true experience designer. A creative that sometimes blogs. Truly interesting content.

Just Creative Design http://justcreativedesign.com/
Good articles about good practice within design and within the industry. Changed his font to Comic Sans for April fools

Lee Munroe http://www.leemunroe.com/
Informative posts, inspirational posts. Someone who knows what he’s doing.

Six Revisions http://sixrevisions.com/
Quality informative posts, aimed at web developers and designers. Features some photography sometimes too. Favourite post recently is this one – http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/definitive-guide-to-taming-the-ie6-beast/

Owltastic http://owltastic.com/
I loved her old design, and I love the new design. Her posts are pretty personal sometimes, but personally I like to read about the people behind the designs. Meagan’s design work is excellent and well worth a look.

Web Designer Wall http://www.webdesignerwall.com/
Another of my favourite designers in the whole world, WebDesignerWall has lots of great tutorials (including indepth details on skinning for WordPress)

Web Designer Depot http://www.webdesignerdepot.com
Can’t be ignored. A big melting pot of incredibly useful things and stuff for web designers, graphic designers and sometimes photographers.

Smashing Magazine http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
So much information, so many cool resources, some really good articles on typography.

Fuel Your Creativity http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/
Does exactly what it says on the tin! Check out the full network, includes photography, illustration, user interface and many more!

Lilula http://www.lilula.co.uk/
Graduated from Portsmouth a year after me. Has this excellent Twitter-magig. Up and coming!

The Dos and Don’ts of Modern Web Design http://webdosanddonts.com/
I just like this site because sometimes I disagree and it gives me an opportunity to justify the way I work.

EddyB http://www.eddyb.co.uk
Yeah, he’s my other half, but you can’t blame me for promoting his excellent work. He makes awesome little Flash interactive pieces, including award winning ones.

To come: Awesome galleries full of inspiration!

After queueing for three and a half hours, we unfortunately did not get to play with any Lego. We were dedicated to our cause though, despite being told many times we were in the “danger zone” and felt that the organisers did their best – 2000+ people showed up for the 600 places.

You can see a selection of my photos from the day here. There’s some cute pictures of kids with Lego and James here on the Mail website.

More details about James May’s Toy Stories.

If you were one of the ones who queued, regardless of if you got in or not, there’s a Facebook group for you.

I’ll post if I hear of any more news on what build stage it’s at. We’re hoping to go back and view it in all it’s glory!

ETA: It appears to be working! Hi my two subscribers! *waves*

There have been a bunch of changes here (the domain move – remember to update your bookmarks http//blog.jazdesign.co.uk), the feeds and I’ve also rejigged the categories. I’ll probably explain the reasons in the coming weeks. The author page etc still need an update and I want to go through the old posts, remove the crap and categorise what remains.

The view from my balcony, with a very very long lens. You wouldn't know I was in a busy commuter town centre would you?

As it is, our apartment just overlooks the central park, so I see trees from my balcony, and the hills during winter (see photo). There’s still flats directly opposite, but the nature’s there. And, we have a balcony. I was lucky enough to be given some plants, some grown from seed and so all very young. This terrified me somewhat, but I was amazed at how much I enjoy looking after them. I’m not doing brilliantly, but I really enjoy going out to the balcony, watering the plants, checking them, not knowing what to do when I find something wrong… ahem.

If you’re living in a small apartment, don’t have a garden etc I highly recommend just getting one little plant, herbs will gladly live on your windowsil and you can use them! I find tending to my plants very grounding and enjoyable, and I know very little about it.

More pictures of my little plant family, and Fuzz Lightyear (because he’s amazing) after the jump! To note, some of the photos are also on my flickr and you can visit them by clicking on them!

Ignore the dead ones behind, I did “dead head” those, though being a gardening spaz I didn’t really know what that meant…

My boss gave me these a year ago when I moved into the apartment. I really didn’t think this was going to survive – but it did and flowered a second time, though there were three in there before, and whilst those did come up, only one of them truly made it. I’ve since put them in a bigger pot in the hope they’ll keep going. I’m also curious as to where my pictures of it flowering have gone…

This was so exciting, my first tomatoes on my little pearl(?) tomato plant! I hadn’t expected any of them to really do anything…

And then even more appeared!

A tiny cucumber? I must admit this is the one plant I’m having the most trouble with. The leafs are all covered with a white moldish looking fuzz, and from what I’ve read that’s ok. It looks pretty strange though. I also don’t know when to pick the cucumbers, the biggest one is green and yellowy green and doesn’t look how I imagined one to look, so it’s just been sitting there for ages. I’m guessing it’s done? There’s a pic on my twitpic here. This is the plant I was most excited about, so it figures it’s the one doing worst!

More pearls.

They’re so tiny! But ripe. Too ripe in fact, a couple of them split, I don’t know if that’s hugely bad? If I didn’t water them enough? Didn’t pick them soon enough? But I’m trying not to let it happen again. I’ve got a couple of unsplit ones to eat tomorrow

More tiny cucumbers, before the great molding of July.

My trough of various herbs! Thyme, basil, sage or mint (we can’t figure it out), angelica and parsley.

The tiny tomatoes that had split. I’m really clueless, really!

My bigger tomato plants. These were the first tomatoes to appear, now I’ve got quite a lot and am just waiting for them to ripen off. Apparently if I’d cut the plants I would have had more, but I really don’t know which bit of it I was supposed to cut…

They keep going through phases of being really green and happy to really wilted and unhappy. I figure it’s because they’re in their teenage years…

Like someone else I know who never gets out of bed!

In addition to the recipes after the jump, we’ve also had leak and goats cheese tart and souffléd omelette. This weekend we’re having a blue cheese gratin and lemon roulade.

Chocolate Crème Brûlée & Meringues

With the leftover egg whites Ed made meringues which we delicious, and very good for a first attempt. The sugar topping was very crunchy, but delicious all the same.

Soufflé Macaroni Cheese

This really was delicious, a great variation of a classic and a meal I love all too much!

Buttermilk Scones with Raspberry Butter

Beautiful. Although it says it makes 10, it made 8 teeny tiny scones, so I’d bump the recipe somewhat!

Crème Caramel

I love crème caramel, and I loved this. I don’t advise eating half of the whole thing in one evening though…

Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple Syrup

We went the whole hog and got proper Canadian syrup. And they were divine. I’m still a massive English pancake fan, but I wouldn’t mind a batch of these as well come pancake day, or any day!

Spiced Chickpea Cakes

With a dollop of yoghurt and some cucumber. Really yummy, better than I expected. We’ve had trouble in the past with things you have to make into little round cake shapes…

Chocolate Mousse

Made with Green & Blacks dark chocolate. I’m not big on dark chocolate, but my goodness, these were absolutely perfect.

Key Lime Pie

Very yummy. I think it says it serves ten, but I think we only got six servings out of it… and they were small!

Stuffed Jacket Potatoes with Leeks, Cheddar and Bourisn

Definitely kicks the traditional jacket up a notch.

Home-made Pasta with Classic Fresh Tomato Sauce

The pasta recipe wasn’t from the book, but trying home-made pasta was a delicious experience! The sauce was good too. Ed used some of the basil I’ve been growing on the balcony (pictures of all my lovely plants to come soon).

Anyway, I figure this theme will do until I have time to make my own. I quite like it, it’s very customisable. The left just feels a bit cluttered to me. Still much better than the default though.

Also – Jaz Design – I’m going to be rebranding as Jaz Design

I thought I’d check out Microsoft’s actual website… (you can view the full screenshot here)

Visit the website to see for yourself.

This boggles my mind! Standards for everyone eh?

We also likened it to what they do in the weightloss TV shows, where they take all the food a person has eaten in a week and dump it on a table. I imagine looking through my photographs is going to be something like that!

My CC blog for yesterday is up here: http://caloriecount.about.com/users/jaz_desig n/307162.html

I don’t know how successful it will be, but it can’t hurt. More awareness of what one is eating can only be a good thing. I know I tend to mindlessly eat, not enjoy my food and not realise how much I’ve actually eaten. Seeing is believing they say!

In other photography news, I finally finished my black and white film I had in my SLR and now have those to upload when I get a minute (mostly photos from The Great Snow and a day in Brighton). I’m also planning to sit down and sort out my Project 366 photos (though I think this year didn’t start out so well with that as last year).

Week 1. Click to full view!

I love post-its. I use them whenever I can and stick them everywhere! I thought I might try something, really out of curiosity for me, and keep my post-its each week. Some things here might be clues as to what’s on the horizon.