My Blog has Moved!

For the past week I've been curled over the computer and obsessing over creating my very own website. Like a real ".com" website. My husband had been talking about making one for his graphic design, Annie recently made hers, and I wanted one too! I'm finding tons more stuff to blog about and I wanted to create a space for my writing portfolio (finally!).

When I first started this blog, I wanted it to be focused on my short stories. It started out that way. I'd post snippets of short stories, but then, because it was a blog, they were done and gone by the next day's post. I want my stories to live somewhere, so that's what motivated me to create my own website. This way, if people want to read the short stories that make Junia the writer a writer, they can!

I didn't think I'd care about ditching this blog, but as I write this I feel a little sad. It's kind of funny. But I shall move on! I'm married now and the flood of inspiration and motivation to take over the world has finally hit me. So I shall do that by moving over to juniaisabel.com!

Last night, with the help of the awesome Annie Clark (who designed my new banner), I put the final touches and am so excited to share it with you! I hope you'll make the move over with me. It's going to be fun!

See ya!

Junia

Honey Moon

It's been about 5 days since me and my husband returned from our chilly honeymoon in Banff and I'm still dreaming about the sites we saw, the falls we took learning to snowboard, and the friendliest people we met. It was our first time traveling together and it couldn't have been more fun. We took our Zumi digital camera that we were waiting to use for this exact moment and took so much video. It's the easiest camera to use and the footage comes out exactly how I see things when I'm dreaming. That's how come I love it so!

My husband and I are a bit obsessed with music and creating the soundtrack of our lives, so we didn't want to waste any of this footage without adding a song that played on repeat for much of the duration of our honeymoon. He's currently working in Final Cut Pro and making a full length video with all the footage we took and a much longer soundtrack. But in the meantime, I couldn't wait, so I made this video with one of my new favorite tunes that takes me back to these lovely memories. Enjoy!

Song: You Hid by Toro y Moi

Annie Clark is a Designer

And likes to take pictures. And is obsessed with Zooey Deschanel. And drinks good coffee and donuts from Four Barrel a lot. And there's other stuff about her that's cool.

Annie was also my maid of honor! But I told myself I wouldn't make this post about my wedding (even though I just had to post a picture of how adorable she looked at the wedding, which I hope she doesn't mind). After years of creating awesome designs and fine tuning who she is as a designer, she's started her own website. It's still in its beginning stages, but I can't wait to see how it grows! You can follow her likes and cool stuff like that on her blog, buy her designs on Minted.com, or follow her little sentences on Twitter.

It's the best thing to be surrounded by people that inspire you, are motivated to create, and have great style. Annie Clark is definitely all of that, plus a really great friend. I look at the designs she pumps out and get totally jealous that I didn't go to school to learn graphic design or have the patience to sit down and teach myself Photoshop. Luckily, my husband, another awesome graphic designer lets me sit behind him to try and learn while he designs (I like to call myself a backseat designer), but who am I kidding. I'll leave the designing to Annie and him. But the neat thing about being around Annie and her designs is that it's brought me to love the tiny details and differences in typefaces, spacing between letters, and the way colors can make a design brilliant or horrific. Although I'm not a graphic designer, I feel I look at the world as half of one because of the things I've learned from both Annie and Andres.

See where Annie Clark creates her designs and hear what she says in this Minted.com interview.

Married!

Before.

Fifteen years later.

We're married!

Life couldn't get any better. We returned from our beautiful honeymoon in Banff, Canada this past weekend and are living life as if we just stepped into a new universe where anything is possible. We're like two superhero characters that want to fly at lightning speed to anywhere in the world, stretch as far as we need to do anything for each other, and shoot lasers at anything that comes in our way!

The wedding day and the days leading up felt so surreal. I knew there was going to be a moment when it all hit me. And of course that moment had to come as I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to finally see my groom. But what I loved most about that moment was being aware. I was aware of everything going on around me. The processional song "Taken" by Eluvium was playing loud (just how I wanted), I saw everyone stand, it was a dream. It was the perfect 80's movie moment that I dreamt about since I was little. It was epic! And to top it off, our exiting song after we were pronounced Mr. & Mrs. was New Order's "Ceremony"! Seriously, the best day of my life!

There's a lot more to come in the blog posts that follow, but for now I wanted to announce it on my little blog that I'm married!

Father of the Bride

As it reaches the two week countdown to my wedding day it is time I dive into the hunt of finding the perfect song my dad and I will dance to. So here I am with a compilation of songs I remember my dad playing during my childhood. Listening to them I started to get emotional so what better way to express some of what I'm feeling then through my bloggity blog.

You always hear that a father and daughter share a special bond. I'm not sure if that holds true to everyone else, but it definitely is in my case. I grew up with a dad that came from a life of hard work. There were things to get done, and you did them without complaining about it. You would never see him complain about having to fix things, staying at work late, having to wake up at four in the morning to go to work each day. He would come home from work, his work boots still on and ready to practice field hockey with me in the backyard. He took pride in everything he owned and everything he built. He was often a man of few words, but many laughs. Boys I dated were scared of him until they gained his trust. He was that type of dad to me growing up. It wasn't until I was in my college years that I began to want to know more about him and his past. Our relationship grew. He became my friend. He shared more stories of his childhood and I grew to respect how he chose to raise me.

My parents always like to point out how unique I am compared to other people, and even though I always take it as a compliment, it is thanks to them that I am so unique. That I never settle, always want the best and look for how to get it, will not take for granted everything I have worked for, and enjoy my life with my soon to be husband! If I could only choose one attribute from my dad to take with me into the married life, it would be the love he has for my mom. They are best friends and do everything together. They train for bike races together, travel the world together, act silly with each other and fall asleep on each other's shoulders. As funny as it sounds, they're perfect for each other. Watching their marriage has made me even more excited for mine!

So here I am. Still. Thinking of the perfect song to play as me and my dad dance like we did when I was a little girl and he'd put on these records while my mom got dinner ready in the kitchen.

You'll just have to wait until after the wedding to see what me and my dad picked!

First go with our Zumi Digital

You may have remembered me blogging about desperately wanting a Zumi digital camera here. Well, we wanted it so bad that we decided to sacrifice something that we were going to include in the wedding to get our hands on this camera!

We got it in the mail last week and quickly started playing with it. It's the tiniest thing, easy to use and there's no excuse for you to not take it everywhere you go because it literally can fit in your pocket it's that small. Let me just remind you that this was our very first time using the camera so excuse the slight fingertip during the beginning of the video. I was just too excited that I had to share how the video quality came out. It's exactly what we were hoping for!

Our experience with the camera: If you're going to use it to take photos make sure there's plenty of light or else it's going to come out very dark and grainy. After taking photos with it, we decided we're most likely going to use it more for the 8mm style video it takes. It's so fun. So sit back, relax, and watch me being a nerd on a bike ride through GG Park. Can't wait to shoot more videos with our new little Zumi.

Zumi-Bike Ride from junia y andres on Vimeo.

The soundtrack to this video is "New Theory" by Washed Out. We're kind of obsessed with him right now and can't imagine how our life would be now if we never heard him. Here's the video that inspired us:

Washed Out - "New Theory" from justin gaar on Vimeo.

Funny TV

My fiancè asked me the other day if I had watched or heard of the TV show Community. I answered, "Oh, that one that always has people sitting around a table with the guy from Talk Soup? Nah". He told me we should give it a try because it came highly recommended for our sense of humor. Ok, then. We watched the pilot. I'm not even sure how many episodes are out right now, I just know we're behind and look forward to catching up! The show is hilarious and the cast perfect.

Here's a clip that had us cracking up!

It airs Thursday nights on NBC @ 8:00 so watch it!

Etsy Wedding Finds

I've started to hunt Etsy for little stuffies that can add some charm to the wedding and thought I'd share. It's addicting, time consuming, and inspiring to see all the handmade things people around the world make. Although I'm not going to post what I've actually bought for the wedding because I'm a sneaky little bride, I will post some cute finds that I came across while on the hunt for things I needed. Who knows, they might inspire you. I know they inspired me to want to make stuff and sell it on Etsy!

Oh, and the countdown to the wedding is now just a little over a month. Am I freaking out? A little on the inside, but excited more then anything. I'm so happy we decided to take our honeymoon directly following the wedding. All this planning and stress will all soothe itself away when we jump on that plane and enjoy a week of relaxation and adventure as a married couple! Can't wait!

Esty finds from left to right: Summer Love Bridesmaids Clutch Set/ Dos Palomas Wedding Papel Picado Banners/ Custom Wooden Star House Wedding Toppers/ Love Birds Screen Print/ Billy Ball/ The Three Tenors.

A Home made from Pictures

I'm going to be getting married in exactly 58 days and I've already begun to daydream and piece out the home that I want to begin to make for me and my soon to be hubbers.

I grew up constantly rearranging my room to suit the season and my mood, so the ideas have started to flood in again. There were days I would surprise my parents when they got home from work with a redecorated living room too. They'd often have me move it back to how it was, but I was convinced I was going to become an interior designer. I never became one, but I'm still obsessed with creating an inviting and stylish home.

Our love for design doesn't come cheap, but that's the beauty of saving up and creating the home of your dreams piece by piece. Someday we'll strike it rich and buy it all at once, but for now I can daydream and put the pieces of my dream home together through pictures, right?

photo creds: Red Set Whistle, Design*Sponge, M&Co, Bohemian Vintage

Sale @ Britex Fabrics in SF!

Next Monday, February 15 and Tuesday, February 16th, Britex Fabrics is having a 30% off sale on all fabrics, notions, and remnants. This store is amazing and feels like a candy store when you walk in. If you're in SF, you should definitely check out the sale. The fabrics, patterns and remnants they have in that store are amazing, but they often come at a high cost. It's a sale, and I know I'm going to be there to see what I can score!