Coffee & Honeycomb

My favorite part about following design bloggers (besides the amount of inspiration it exudes) is: THE FREEBIES! Anything from fun greeting cards to organizational printables and especially new wallpapers are always a joy to come across as a reader. (: A few bloggers who always spit out designs that I enjoy and appreciate are DESIGN EAT REPEAT, DESIGN LOVE FEST and BREANNA ROSE. All the great work has inspired me to start creating and sharing my own! Starting today, I aim to create two new graphic and inspiring downloads for you each week. I think wallpapers are the perfect way to get my design fix when I'm itching to create, as well as share with you some of my favorite quotes and verses.

Today I'm kicking off the new series "happy download" with 5 super simple desktop wallpapers! I hope you enjoy and I'd love to hear if you chose one to download!

TO DO SO: Right click on the image and click on "open in new tab." This will allow you to access the image's full size. Once you are there, right click + save, or directly drag it onto your desktop. Then, make your wallpaper! 1, 2, 3! (:

Secret - sometimes what I do with desktop wallpapers I find is I print it out and tape it to my wall. I call it wall art. :) Feel free to do that with these, too.




^ Those four are my own original creations. Hope you like! I also wanted to share with you the desktop I am currently using which I found from DESIGN LOVE FEST. (below)


----------

* ALSO! This is my FIRST original post exclusive to this blog. (YAY!) Please continue to follow along by subscribing to the email list on the right OR via my personal favorite, BLOGLOVIN. (:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COFFEE&HONEYCOMB ON BLOGLOVIN.

xo.

I am a design [noob]. However, I'd like to change that! (: Today was step one.

Like the chevron? I learned how through this quick and simple tutorial. If you click on the photo, it will take you directly to the link where I learned how. You should definitely try it, I promise it's dummy-proof.

And the gradient? That was all me. ;) Once I covered my artboard with the chevron pattern, I changed the opacity of lines in pairs, starting from 50% all the way to 100%. (So, all lines are the same color, the top two lines are just of it as 50% opacity, and the bottom lines are the true colors, 100%).

Depending on your pattern and design, this will change, but it's the same idea. Then I pasted some text on it to tell a narrative. This is my simple and lazy way to begin documenting my beginner design story... And I'd love to hear yours, too!

Are you an Adobe user? Whether it be a beginner or pro, I'd love to check our your work, too. Share below! :)

Cheers!

    

{ Top & shorts: Banana Republic | Necklace and blazer: Forever 21 | Purse: Kate Spade | Shoes: Dolce Vita, Nordstrom }

Happy Sunday, guys!

Banana Republic Factory was having a huge sale this past weekend and I wanted to just pop in and eye shop (first mistake), but I ended up walking out with a new pair of beautiful green shorts. After discount, they were 16 bucks — which was a number I could totally justify. And I did. Proof: LE SHORTS! :) Today's weather was high 70's so I wore them to church today, which I was happy about. (Sidebar: how do we feel about the length of these shorts? Church appropriate? Work appropriate? ZG appropriate? I figured they would be fine because the shape/design of the shorts was pretty modest — not too tight, not a flashing color... But then again, idk.)

Anyway, I made one of the girls in youth group take these outfit photos for me. She did a good job. :) To be honest, I'm 100% awkward/shy about every aspect of the outfit photo process (what do bloggers call these things anyway? I'm gonna call them look books). But I'm learning to get over it because I enjoy it more than I'm shy about it. Blogging, photo editing, and documenting my outfits is fun for me and I am going to be bold and proud of my passions and aspirations. :) I hope you like them, too.

Besides, when you step out of your comfort zone, that's where the magic happens. 

On another note, tomorrow is my first day of my internship! YAY. I can't believe time has flown by so quickly... People kind of have a hard time really grasping what my MAIP internship is — mostly because I do a half-ass job of explaining it, excuse my french.  Maybe I'll try explaining in full detail tomorrow, along with how day one went... if I survive that is! I hear it's a dog eat dog world out there. Pray for me.

Really, pray for me. These are my prayer requests:

1. To be kind and humble... to my colleagues, my bosses, my barista, the lady on the corner, whomever. I remember at my last internship last summer, I acted like a know-it-all. I thought I was a rockstar. But really, I was only an incoming junior and 19 years old, so... that's kind of embarrassing  But really. There's a fine line between confident and cocky, but that line makes a world of a difference. Confidence allows room for growth and welcomes learning; cockiness is intimidated and threatened by new knowledge. 


2. To be confident... with my ideas, my opinions, and my story. (: One that that I should not be shy about is the way God made me. I am who I am by the grace of God and I shouldn't shrink down to be anything else — because when you try to be anything or anyone else, shrinking is actually what you're doing. I want to learn to love the person God made me to be.


3. To be bold enough to speak up when something is on my mind, and confident enough to remain silent when there is nothing to be said. < My pastor said this last week in his sermon and I fell in love with this saying. Relevant to me in every facet of my life and interaction because  I am often aware of the risks of speaking up and the anxiety of being quiet.


4. I'm reading the OT right now — and I'm learning a lot! However, I'm very behind in my reading plan. How behind? Oh, about 75 chapters behind. So, I'm excited to be commuting again because I have a guaranteed 2 hours (give and take) in my day to read... Or do my makeup, or check twitter, or sleep, or play 7 by 7. SO! Please pray that these train rides to and from work will be more than mundane transportation, but magical and real and life changing intimacy meetings with my Lord.

How can I pray for you? Have a good week! XO.

I'm linking up with:
Style Elixir
The Life of the Party
What Jean Likes

Be careful if you ever go to London, you guys. I (unfortunately) didn't come across one while I was there, but apparently there's a bunch of humped zebras meandering around.
Okay, but really. Can SOMEONE tell me WTH that means?! Because I'll be mildly disappointed if there were really zebras and I missed it. And not just any ol' zebras, HUMPED zebras.

And kids, this is how you prepare for a trip. Make massive amounts of Nutella sandwiches and learn from the best -- Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, of course. And this time, we were watching,"Winning London." Appropriately. (;

Cheers!