Days of our Kate

“Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard”

Song: Lucky
Artist: Jason Mraz Featuring Colbie Cailat

Well it has been a while since I have posted any new song lyrics or even blogged. I guess life gets busy you find a month has passed since you have blogged last. Anyways, I was reading back over some of my past lyrics and realized the last chunk of them were rather depressing as they came after my last break up. Well I have moved on and mended another broken heart to find I am ‘lucky’ to be with someone new, which is why I am glad to write about some happier lyrics for today. These lyrics played one of the first nights I drove home from a special someone’s place. And after a rough day a work yesterday the last line in today’s lyrics were so true…”you make it easier when life gets hard.” So I thought today would be a great day to share on my new favorite songs with you all. Wishing you all find someone that make you feel this LUCKY.

Here begins a new year and with that a new set of resolutions. While I try not to set very many for myself since they always seem to be forgotten within a few months, it has become a company wide goal of Zipline Interactive to keep up on our blogs. So here it goes!

I have been out of school for about nine months now and working for Zipline Interactive for just over seven. I guess time really does fly when you are having fun…at least most of the time. But there are a few things that the ‘real world’ has taught me since getting a crash course in reality that school failed to mention. So here are five things the ‘real world’ of design has taught me.

5. Dingbats have a purpose. So up until a few months ago I don’t think that I had ever know a use or even explored dingbats. But I have found them to come into great use for a couple of things. First coupons. Instead of searching for a scissor icon to use on your dashed line use dingbats. I can’t off the top of my head tell you what key or particular dingbat to use but I promise you will find one somewhere. And second, when looking for some great orientations they too can be found in dingbats. So make some friends with dingbats or wingdings because you never know what you might find or where they will come in use.

4. iStock is a great resource. Wish I would have know this in school. Not only does it have endless amounts of stock photography and vector images, but it can be a great inspiration or resource for your own designs. I find it is a great place to start when trying to create icons. I am not the best at just whipping out a random icon from within my head, but a few minutes on iStock and you have some great inspiration to leap from. Give it a browse one of these day…you never know what you might find!

3. Inspirations comes from everywhere, not just in your head. Take the time to get inspired and see what other people are doing out there. I felt like in school everything had to come from an original thought in my head or my miraculous ideas…wrong! Truth is there isn’t much out there that hasn’t been done before…but it might be putting a new spin on things that gives it your personal touch. I use books, websites, tv, and even grcery shopping to influence my designs each day. Make it a habit to take a few minutes every day to surf a design site and discover something new…you’ll be amazed at what it can do for you.

2. Not everything is going to be a portfolio piece. Yes when you start designing there is nowhere to go but up. You are new to programs and ideas and your work is constantly improving, but eventually you will learn that not everything you create is going to be the best piece ever or a piece that you want in your portfolio. The truth is most won’t. Which leads me to my final point…

1. “We are commercial artists, not fine artists.” My boss and mentor, Shawn, frequently reminds me of this on a daily basis. Being a new designer you want every new piece to be the best one yet and be beautiful. When it really comes down to it most of the time it isn’t going to matter much what you think or even what your boss or coworker thinks…it is what the client thinks. And most of the time you will find it’s not always beautiful, but it has to be functional. Take the time to learn what your client need are and design for them. If you get the chance as a student to intern, take it! There is so much to learn from working with clients and the sooner you jump in the sooner you will learn the tricks and truths of the real world of design.

So you may often ask yourself, who are your true friends in life? I mean with worst comes to worst who is going to be there for you. The day hell freezes over who’s going to help you move out? We that question was answered this weekend.

It was graduation weekend for one of my best friends, Holly, down at WSU. With a record cold storm in the works we, Tica and I, ventured into the cold night around 5:30 Friday night to make the trek. With the South Hill fast accumulating snow and the Pullman highway it was slow going at first. I made a call to Holly and told here not to hold dinner as I knew it was going to take more than the normal 1.5 hours to get there. With Tica on my lap the whole way we braved the “Arctic Invasion” and made it to Pullman in two hours. With a glass of wine waiting it was great to see my best friend and her family. But Friday was only the beginning.

We awoke Saturday to more snow of course. Graduation began at 10, though it was delated 15 minutes due to weather and parking conditions. Minus a couple bad speakers graduation went smoothly and Holly was more than excited to be graduated and out almost out of Pullman…little did she know about 4 hours later she would be. The original plan was to pack her up a little on Saturday and then finish and make the long haul up to Spokane, her new home, on Sunday. We had nice reservations with her whole family and it was to be a day of celebration, right? Wrong! Plans changed when we saw the roads were looking slushy and we weren’t sure what below freezing temperatures that night would bring. So back to the hotel and Holly’s old apartment to pack. (1:30pm)

With sunset fast approaching and the snow still falling we literally throw things in the U haul. With six of us loading random things into boxes and getting her out of her old apartment and on the road as fast as we could it was a whirl wind. By 3:30 we were on the road.

We were happy to hit the road and be waving good by to “Hell” as we call it. Now for the trek north. It started out looking good but we soon learned it wasn’t as great as we had hoped. Cars in the ditch and 30mph it was slow going and we wondered when we might have to ditch the U haul and just make it home in the cars. I am not going to lie that I thought I might die a few times. With Holly and her mom in front of me I kept my distance and would about lose their tail lights now and again when the blowing and drifting snow would come between us. Or the time I saw Holly’s care drift about 5 feet into to the left, thinking to myself what is she doing…then my car did the same thing. It wasn’t her it was the snow. We white knuckled it the whole way home, Tica once again on my lap. We were happy to see home and Tica was glad to be out of the car.All we wanted was alcohol and a good meal…we found it at the Outback. We all needed food, as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. With a quick stop at RiteAid and a reservation at a hotel for the Ianiciello family, I headed home for the night.

Needless to say it was a crazy weekend and I was happy to relax at home Sunday morning.

So next time someone asks me what are friends for? I can tell them…They are for driving in blizzard conditions to see you graduate, loading up your U haul in the snow, driving you out of Hell, praying you don’t die, and drinking with when you make it through. Hope you have a friend in your life that would do that for you. I know she would do the same thing for me! Love you Holls!

“We’d open your window
Stay in your bed
All day ’til the street lights came on

So what happened to bulletproof weeks in your arms?
What happened to feeling cheap radio songs?
What happened to thinking the world was flat?
What happened to that?”

Song: Bulletproof Weeks

Artist: Matt Nathanson

Well this lyric come to you from one of my new favorite albums and artist: Some Mad Hope by Matt Nathanson. He will be in town (Spokane, WA) tomorrow and I am looking forward to being there. These lyrics come from on of his more mellow songs on the album, but I love it. The idea of bulletproof weeks in your arms echos true in my heart. Missing that person that means so much to you and wondering where those wonderful days of no worries have gone. I hope some day these bulletproof arms will hold me again…until then this song might just be my hymn.

“And the only way to love yourself.
Is to give your love to someone else, someone else.

I’m disappointed in myself.
I left you on a shelf that I could never reach.”

Song: The Middle

Artist: Jon McLaughlin

Well this has been a long time in the making. I haven’t blogged in a while so I though I would at least get some new lyrics up. Fresh off JM new album OK Now is this great song…along with many others. I find these lyrics to be too true. The only way to learn about yourself is to give yourself up fully to others. I have truly given myself and loved two men in my life. I have some how in the mix lost them both but learned a great deal about myself in process. I know all the hurt that I have felt from being in these places in life, but I would have also never know what it could have been like if I hadn’t have given myself fully. Live, learn, and love. Life is short and sometime you have to fall to know what it can be like. I don’t always listen to my own advice, but I try to. This is to all those out there going through a rough patch…we will get through this!

“I cannot go to the ocean
I cannot drive the streets at night
I cannot wake up in the morning
Without you on my mind
So you’re gone and I’m haunted
And I bet you are just fine

Did I make it that
Easy to walk right in and out
Of my life?”

Artist: A Fine Frenzy

Song: Almost Lover

So it has been a while since I have posted and I thought I would at least put up a lyric today. Life has been crazy with the move, but it is starting to mellow out. Anyways, these lyrics are close to my heart nowadays. I try to erase the memories and move on, but it still is hard to wake in the morning without you in my life (you know who you are). Also the last line…Did I make it that easy to wake right in and out of my life? You have left me wondering this exact thing as I haven’t heard from you in so long. I can’t help, but worry and wonder how you are. You think that it makes it easier, but you aren’t in my shoes either. I have been mad, sad, happy, irate, frustrated, worried, lonely, hurt, and everything in between. I don’t know why I still care, by this time I should have just written you out of my life. But I can’t. I thought I meant more to you. I know you need this but I still don’t get why you walked out on a friend. But I guess some how I made it that easy for you to walk right out of my life.

Still missing you and hate myself because of it…

Katie Lou

“She don’t need no shiny diamonds
or a fancy car to drive in
She just needs me there beside her
on a quiet peaceful day”

Artist: Nuno Bettencourt

Song: Quiet Peaceful Day

It has been a few days since I last posted lyrics so I had to find a good one. I was driving home tonight and heard this on one of my most recent random mixes and knew it was the one. A random little song I heard on a movie this week and just kind of fell in love with. I have had it rough over the last few years with relationships and such. My most recent ended a little over a month ago. When it comes down to it I really don’t want all the gifts and money, I just want a guy that loves me at the end of the day and needs me a little bit; I just need someone beside me on a quiet peaceful day. I guess I haven’t found the right one so I will keep looking. But really guys we don’t need the world, we just want to be your world and give you the world. I hate feeling like I am always the wrong girl and so many times I have had guys say they can’t give me waht I want or think that they aren’t good enough…to a few of you out there and you know who you are…you are good enough and don’t ever doubt that. I really don’t need all the stuff…just a quiet peaceful day besides you. Hope all of you out there with a special someone are enjoying your quiet peaceful days.

“I’m just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze and love is a riddle
I don’t know where to go I can’t do it alone
(I’ve tried) and I don’t know why”

Artist: Lenka

Song: The Show

This is the iTunes free download of the week and I would highly recommend downloading it. A cute little song about life. It reminds me of the Juno soundtrack. I don’t have mch to say about this one…it just like it.

“And all at once the crowd begins to sing
Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same”

Artist: The Fray

Song: All at Once

So from one of my favorite bands comes today’s lyrics. I saw them in concert once and it was amazing. This some is one of those that gets me through a bad day or a bad break up. Well anyways, sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. I hate to say it but it is so true. I am having a really hard time accepting this right now, but hopefully it is for the best.

“And I can’t believe, uh that I’m your man,
And I get to kiss you baby just because I can.”

Artist: Michael Buble

Song: Everything

Today’s selection in in honor of working at Klink’s on the Lake. We listen to Michael Buble almost every night. I really liked the cd at first and even purchased it and listened to it in the car. Now some days I want to through it out the window, but there is still one song that I love: Everything. Even though I don’t have a man right now I hope that one day I will have a guy like this. The best part is just thinking about him kissing me just because I am his and he can. That is the pinnacle of romantic. I hope you all agree!