CaringBridge :: Featured Template

Very excited to share this with you -

My friend and old CaringBridge pod mate Caryn sent me this link earlier about one of my CaringBridge templates being a feature on a news story   Click the little video camera to watch the video. Here is a direct link to Shelia Davis's CaringBridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sheilatdavis/journal

 

Desi Delights :: Product and Packaging Assignment

Think of Betty Crocker... Make her Indian ... Now you've got Desi Delights

Think of Chocolate Chip cookie mix... Make it Savory Rice Pudding... Now you've got Payesh

Here is my first Product and Packaging assignment.

My absolute favorite Indian food Abhrajeet's family makes is Payesh, which is similar to rice pudding. I like mine with noodles instead of rice, and thicker rather than thinner.  This idea sprang to mind when Abhrajeet suggested I start learning how to cook Indian food from his Grandmother. Coming from a mid-western family where my mom thinks that Ketchup and Salt is the only spice needed, it's taken me a bit of time to get use to the Indian dishes made at Abhrajeet's house every night. When I first had Payesh I was so thrilled that it wasn't spicy I asked for seconds. 

This package ideally would be used for as a gift to give to culturally interested individuals so they can start learning how to cook Indian food and as an introduction to Indian spices. The paper I chose is Mulburry Bark and Banana Leaf paper to relate it culturally in both colors and in resources. The shape of each individualy wrapped package is taken from incents containers and allows everything to be stacked nicely in the box. 

Lots of different ideas with this project and I'm very happy with how it turned out. 

Can't wait for the second packaging assignment.

Sphinx Senior Society Website :: Abhrajeet

I just want to move the spotlight on Abhrajeet for a little bit, as humble as he is about this I would like to show him off :)
This summer Abhrajeet took up the task of helping me with my own website after having very little experience with web design and CSS. At the end of summer he began working on the University of Pennsylvania's Sphinx Senior Society new site.  I can't find the original URL but the new site is here: http://www.sphinxseniorsociety.com/

It amazes me that Abs can write code better than any of the multimedia students I know at Stout and has more to show in his portfolio too. Can anyone say change in major? Kidding. 


I think our new plan will be for me to design the sites and for him to code. Let us know if you're interested in a site... it's almost time to start paying off those student loans. 

6 years and counting...

Today is Abhrajeet and my 6th year anniversary.

6 years ago there was no squishing in. 6 years ago the biggest highlight of the day was if you came to school on time so I could see you for 5 minutes before the bell rant. 6 years ago there was no date nights or sushi or drinking beer at the zoo. 6 years ago neither of us had our drivers license. 6 years ago Arny was only 10 years old. 6 years ago we had no idea that New Years would happen, that we would graduate still dating each other, that I would go to Wisc and you would go to Penn, that we would be able to make a long distance work, that we would fall in love with Great Danes, that you would enjoy spending time fishing on the boat, that I would really like Indian food, that we would celebrate the Holidays four times with different family members and that we would be counting down the days until we're back in Minnesota. 6 years ago was a day I will never forget. Thanks for giving me your suit jacket to warm me up. Love you.

Freelance : Legacy Glass

My friend Josh and his cousin started a hand blown glass business and asked me to do all the promotional material including the logo, business cards, stickers and banners. They are making some amazing looking high quality products and I can't wait to get invited to see them blow. (hint hint... can that be soon please?)


Check out the website that Jared worked on: LegacyGlassWorks.com

Need your Vote

CaringBridge entered the Forrester Groundswell Award for Social Impact. Show your support by casting your vote for us or add your review of our service. http://groundswelldiscussion.com/groundswell/awards2009/detail.php?id=75


Caryn and I created this new page. Exciting to see it live. Please vote - I'm not sure what CaringBridge gets if they win but it would be exciting if they did!

Website is LIVE!

My Website is up! Go to KaydDesign.com to check it out for yourself!

I'm so excited and so relieved to finally check this off my to-do list. Isn't the coding great? Yep that would be my amazing boyfriend's work. (Who knew we would just be able to figure all this out?) You should have seen us this summer -we both just sat on the couch working on different elements of the website with either a glass of wine, a beer or a bowl of ice cream. I definitely miss those nights now that he's gone for the summer.




Check it out in Firefox or Safari please. There's still a few tweaks that I need to figure out when viewed in IE
Comments and Suggestions are greatly appreciated as well so shoot me a note.

Summer's Over

Last Friday Abhrajeet left Minnesota and flew to California to write Mask and Wig's Spring Show with his friends before returning to UPenn for the school year.

This summer was the best summer we've ever had in the past 6 years of being together. Of course, we can't wait until after graduation when we don't have to squash our hang out time into the summer months. (Get it... Summer Squashing... because we have to squash everything into summer? I think we're pretty clever)


In the beginning of summer we made a list of goals. Here they are again:

• Read 15 books - Abhrajeet read while on the bus for 3 hours a day but didn't get anywhere near 15 books
• Make Money - we both had internships this summer
• Go to a Music Festival - We went to Sound Set
• Try 10 new beers - We exceeded this amount and found many new favorites
• Screen print shirts -
  
• Eat Sushi 5 times - Succeeded and it was delicious!
  
• Design Shoes -
• Cabin 3 times - Love our vacations!
• Try 10 New restaurants - We ate out a lot but didn't try 10 new restaurants
• Make website - huge thanks to Abhrajeet for coding my website: KaydDesign.com
• Learn Flash -
  
• Study for GRE - Abhrajeet crushed the test. Studying wasn't very fun but we're glad it's done
• Go to Minnehaha Falls - We visited the falls and ate at Sea Salt Eatery
• Make Movies like the old days -
  
• Take a Trip to Menomonie and visit the creamery - The Creamery was Delicious
• Work out - we worked out twice. Does that count?

I'll still update this blog with my personal work and events even though it's called "Summer Squashing"

Thanks for listening and following us
Abhrajeet & Kayd

Brew at the Zoo

Two weeks ago we went to a fundraiser for the Minnesota Zoo Conservatory called "Brew at the Zoo". It was one of our favorite date nights this summer and can't stop talking about how amazing it was.

Even before we turned in our tickets, zoo employees greeted us with Owls, Hawks and Eagles. Then we were handed a sample glass and and told to "have a great night."

18 different Beer companies were there - some were major but many of them were loco micro breweries... and we definitely love supporting the local micro brews.


Here's all the different beer either we both tried or one of us tried:

• Sheephead Ale - Brau Brothers in Lucan, MN
• *Wild Blue -Anheuser-Busch
• Choclate something... - Flat Earth in St. Paul
• Duke IPA - Granite City in Eagan
• Blueberry something... - Granite City in Eagan
• St. Peter Pale Ale - Great Waters in St. Paul
• Tighty Whitey - Great Waters in St. Paul
• Skinny Dip - J.J. Taylor in Minneapolis
• *Minnesota Tan - Lift Bridge in Stillwater
• Crosscut Pale Ale - Lift Bridge is Stillwater
• *Bastogne Blonde - Rock Bottom in Minneapolis
• *Hop Bomb Double IPA - Rock Bottom in Minneapolis
• Extra Pale Ale - Summit in St. Paul
• India Pale Ale - Summit in St. Paul
• Horizon Red Ale - Summit in St. Paul
• *Cynic - Surly in Brooklyn Center
• *Bender - Surly in Brooklyn Center
• *Furious - Surly in Brooklyn Center
• Anchor Stream - Wirtz in St. Paul
• Anchor Fog Horn - Wirtz in St. Paul
• Full Sail Amber - Wirtz in St. Paul
• Sessions Black Lager - Wirtz in St. Paul

As you can tell from the list above it was a great night. The zoo even arranged for shuttles to drive people back to hotels.

We can't wait to go next year!

Sushi Sushi Sushi

One of our goals this summer was to try out as much sushi our wallets could afford.

We tried 5 different restaurants and too many different types of nigiri and rolls to keep track of. Obvious favorites no matter where we went were the Salmon and White Tuna nigiri.



The restaurants we tried this summer were Fuji Ya, Oragami, Tiger Sushi, Akita and Kyoto.

Fuji Ya was by far our favorite place. The atmosphere was great and we can't wait to get a big enough party to sit in a blocked off party room in the back. We tried lots of different Nigiri that night and our waitress was great with helping navigate through the menu.

Origami was okay. To us the sushi seemed smaller and we were practically sitting with the table next to us we were so close.

Tiger Sushi hosted AIGA Cocktails with Creatives that me and a friend went to. We didn't get to try much but it seemed like a great place. (AND this is the first place where I had a Surley beer. Loved it)

Akita in Woodbury has the best deal. A $25 dinner buffet lets you try anything and everything you could imagine. The first time to went we misunderstood and ordered 4 nagiri or 5 different fish. Even though it was delicious it definitely filled us up way too fast. The second time we went we were pro-orderers and expanded our selection. Definitely try the Spider Rolls if you go.

Kyoto just opened up in Eagan and is owned by the same person as Akita. It's the same deal, $15 lunch buffet, $25 dinner buffet. I think it will take a few months before Kyoto will be polished but we are so glad it's only minutes away from where we live.






Looks delicious right?

We can't wait to get some sushi when I visit Philly in the fall

Szott Foundation VolleyBowl Tournament

A few weeks back Emmy organized a Volleyball and Bowling Tournament to benefit the Andrew and Abby Szott Foundation. She helped raise almost $2000! A huge thanks to Emmy for putting this event on. Since I cannot bowl very well without bumpers and Volleyball tends to make my arms really red I opted out and instead took photos the whole day.







Great job Emmy! Can't wait for next year.

Creamery Restaurant + Inn

If you're ever in the Menomonie area you should check out The Creamery Inn + Restaurant. It's located just a few miles down Hwy 25 in Downsville. They renovated last fall and ever since I saw it at the opening I've been waiting to take Abhrajeet. The restaurant uses locally grown ingredients, supports local artists and is a really neat place to hang out. They also started to host weddings and their Inn fills up very quickly during the summer months.

Caryn gave me a gift certificate to the Creamery after I photographed her little boy Devon and it was the best payment ever! Abhrajeet and I went to brunch and the menu was outstanding; there were so many mouth watering choices! To start the meal off, Abhrajeet, who loves locally brewed beer, ordered a local Belgian beer while I ordered a peach mojito. Later on he also ordered a local IPA, which was delicious.

Soon after our waiter Adrian served us bread. Instead of rolls of bread or biscuits like any other restaurant we received a little basket of blueberry scones, warm bread and muffins. They were delicious to say the least!
As an appetizer we ordered Trout Cakes. Combined with the sauce and the greens each bite seemed more delicious than the previous. One of the meals we split was the Buffalo Sliders. (Don't they look HUGE!) We weren't sure how to attack them so we squished the buns together as much as possible and took a giant bite. The sauce and cheese were to die for and we ended up taking 1/2 of a burger home.
The other entree we ordered was the Blue Prawns. This house made pasta dish was super creamy and the Blue Prawns were huge.
Even though we were stuffed we just couldn't pass up on dessert once we heard they had pistachio ice cream. We're huge fans of pistachios and this dessert was the perfect end to our meal and the best pistachio ice cream we've ever had!

A huge thanks to the entire staff for the hospitality and phenomenal food! We will definitely be back as soon as we can.

Visit the Creamery's Website
My cousin, Amber Engfer, took the photos on the Creamery's website. Check out her blog

Studio On Fire :: Letterpress

As soon as I heard that Studio on Fire was hosting a workshop I jumped on the opportunity! Good thing I did too because the it was sold out in a mere 2 hours. I cannot thank Ben, Salina, Eric, David (and two other workers) enough for allowing a group from AIGA MN to tour the studio, pick your brain and give the press a try.

I've known about this studio for a few years and they are constantly being featured on blogs all around the US, so I just thought they would have some huge luxury space. However, their space is pretty small in comparison to their reputation and gives it a feels that a lot of heart and sweat went into make it what it is today. They are very proud of what they do and absolutely love letterpress. Ben used to work a 40 hour work week at a firm and went home and did 40 more hours a week on his hobby, letterpress. He soon figured out that he could create a business out of this and Studio on Fire has been going strong for 10 years. (man, I hope that happens to me someday!)


Letterpress machines are pretty much ancient. It took a great deal of muscle to get one page, I could never imagine doing a thousand sheets without going to the gym to train first.


I cannot wait to letterpress something... so if you're looking to get something designed and printed this way let me know!

Studio on Fire Website, Blog
More photos on Flickr

Up North

This year the 4th of July celebration was eventful to say the least. Over 70 family members traveled from California, Texas, Arizona, Illinois and Wisconsin to join in the family reunion. It was great to meet my dad's cousins who had not been up to the lake in 20 years and to hear stories of my grandparents and how life was back in the day.

This 8 day celebration was a bit exhausting but well worth all the time family put into making this a successful week. Each day, starting at 4 pm, everyone would gather at someone's cabin to eat and drink the night away. We caught up on what everyone had been doing for the last few years and what their kids were up to now. My cousins and I (the newer generation) learn how our great grandparents met and saw a slide show of the last family reunion when my dad was my age.




I absolutely love our place on Eagle's Nest. The water is always calm and only occasionally will you see a boat pulling a waterskiier or tuber. It's the perfect get away to forget all your troubles at home and enjoy nature. (did I also mention that there is not cell or internet service so you don't really have a choice but to sit back and relax?) I can't wait to go back up a few times before school starts up again.

Andrew & Abby Szott Foundation : Please Donate

I am reminded everyday of the impact CaringBridge has on the families writing the journal entries and to their followers reading the entries. I first learned about CaringBridge the hard way back in 2004 when a high school classmate was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma. CaringBridge made it easy to get updates on Abby and write in her guestbook to remind her that people were thinking and praying for her. Abby is now an angel and watches over her parents as they created and continue to grow the Andrew and Abby Szott Foundation. Please read their story that was 'born out of tremendous love and great loss.'
The Szott foundation gives families the 'gift of time'. This allows parents to stay home with their sick child. The Szott Foundation has been fortunate to grant the Gift of Time to 10 loving families and have given away over $130,000! Read here to learn more about the recipients.

Abby's mom Kathryn recently sent out a note asking for donations:
HELP! Is it on the way?
Good afternoon family and friends,

I hope you are enjoying this lovely summer Sunday afternoon. I had the pleasure of having lunch with Jon, one of Abby's dear friends today, and I was reminded once again of how important relationships are. I treasure the ones I have with the young people in my life, and who were in Abby's. I'm not always very good at keeping connected with them. I continue to vow that I will do better.

Moving on to a more difficult topic for me to discuss, I am going to plead for your help. As unemployment continues to rise, so does the immense need of families depending on charitable organizations such as the Andrew and Abby Szott Foundation. It is a time that we must lean heavily on those who are able to give. As I mentioned last time I wrote, we are having to suspend giving a Gift of Time for the third quarter of 2009, and that breaks my heart. This is an appeal to all of you out there who care deeply about the Szott Foundation's mission to provide the Gift of Time that allows one parent to stay home from work full-time to take care of the physical, emotional, and medical needs of a child with life-threatening cancer. I am aware that many of you will not be able to support the Szott Foundation by attending one, two, or all three of our fundraisers that are scheduled for the end of July and beginning of August, but perhaps you can contribute by making a generous donation.

Please reflect upon my request. I ask you to imagine if it was your child fighting for life, and you were having to make a choice between work and being able to stay home with you child. Please, please help. Donating on-line is fast and easy. All you need to do is click on the "Donate Now" button.

With many blessings and sincerest gratitude.

Kathryn Szott, President of the Andrew and Abby Szott Foundation

Here's Abby's CaringBridge site. It has received over 230,000 page views
Visit the Andrew and Abby Szott Foundation to learn more


Please help this foundation! Any amount you can give would be amazing.
Also if you're in the Eagan area check out Sand Volleyball and Bowling Fundraiser, Homerun for Time fundraiser, and Tournament for Time fundraiser.

New Themes for CaringBridge

It's been an month since I've started interning at CaringBridge and they have definitely kept me busy! Today 7 of my personal page themes were deployed and can be used with anyone with a CaringBridge site.


You can check out more of their themes here: http://www.caringbridge.org/stylegallery

Remember when I decorated my desk? Well I've been pinning up my designs (all 25 of them) and it definitely gives the space a lot of color!

Photo Shoot

I'm so thankful for my family and friends these past few months- many of them have found freelance gigs for me, helped me in my job search and let me borrow their 'much-too expensive-for-a-student' equipment. A huge thanks goes out to Caryn, a pod mate of mine at CarringBridge, for allowing me to experiment with photography on her first born. I didn't really know where to start with a photo shoot of a sixth month old but I gave it a shot anyway. I got tons of great photos of the lil drool machine playing with his parents. Here are some of my personal favorites:





So once again, thanks Caryn! Your little guys is such a charmer!

Meet the Gals!

A few days ago I posted a sneak peek of my new summer hobby - taking vintage earrings and broaches and making them into so dazzling and funky rings. So without further adieu, meet the girls...

Meet Alice.
This dazzling ring is the life of the party.

Meet Regina
This dazzlin' young thing is sure to draw you some attention, and who knows maybe someone will buy you a drink next time you two are out on the town.

Hello Rebecca.
Elegant burst with center pink stone makes this accessory the icing on your outfit.

Meet Norma Jean
This little pink thang of fun is perfect for those first dates.

Hello Minnie
Some striking color and a bit of shine, you know Minnie's in for a good time :)

Meet Lucille
She'll add a brilliant sparkle to any summer couture.

Meet Florence.
Elegant, Black simulated pearl enshrined with faux diamonds. She's ready for a night on the town.

Hello Evelyn.
Driving in a convertible with a scarf around her hair, this daisy can always be found in the sun.

Add one of these fine ladies to your accessories. Ask me for pricing
Each ring is unique, I can't make duplicates so be sure to tell me if you want a particular one.