A Fragmented Novel

I was in Green Apple Bookstore today falling in love with every book wishing the store had their own credit card so I could spend all the money on books I wanted, when I saw this beautifully designed hardback. I don't want to say it was "written" by Vladimir Nabokov because there's controversy over why this was published when it was never supposed to. Ooo, sounds like literature gossip, doesn't it? It is.

Apparently, Nabokov had never wanted to publish this novel if he had not finished it. When he passed away in 1977, "The Original of Laura" sat unfinished, and it was through direct orders from the writer himself that his wife was to destroy the fragmented novel if it were never completed. Like any other wife with a brilliant writer for a husband would have done, she kept the pieces of unfinished work. She had never published it, but she also hadn't destroyed it.

In 1991 she passed away leaving the fragmented novel to stay with the remaining family, their son, Dmitri. Once the responsibility was left in his hands he considered keeping to his fathers' wishes as well. Until now.

The cover of the book prints "A Novel in Fragments", because it literally is. Nabokov had written his only draft on index cards. And because this was the way the pieces of novel survived, his son decided to publish the unfinished novel with the cards themselves.

When you open the book you see replicated index cards printed on each page with the type printed directly beneath it. You can choose to read the book though the scribbles of Nabokov's handwriting or through the paragraphs printed below the cards. And, if you're really in the mood to become one with Nabokov and attempt to see his writing the way he did, you can punch out each index card (yes, they perforated every card in the book), and arrange them how you'd imagine the story of "The Original of Laura" being told.



Unfortunately, I did not buy the book. I'll just have to return during the week to admire it and read snippets. If any of you read it let me know how it is. I've read articles saying it's not quite the read considering half of the novel is placed in an order that most believe was not the original way Nabokov had intended.

Photo creds: A Look Inside!,

My Little Short Story, "The Shed"

I'm a little behind in posting this, but during last October's APE (Alternative Press Expo), a short story of mine was published in a comic anthology, SIREN. I collaborated with an illustrator and good friend of mine, Bret Hobbs.

Years ago during one of my productive writing periods, I wrote a short story about a young boy who became friends with a shed. Yes, that simple. It was always a story I wanted to return to and luckily for me Bret was in need of such a story. I revised it, handed it over to Bret and only yesterday did I finally see the finished and published product!

The book is beautiful, and I feel so lucky to have "The Shed" in the same book alongside the illustrations of really talented artists:

Frank Lin

Carissa Susilo & Edward Ko

"The Shed" takes place in the small town of Los Arbolitos where a young boy named Tano leaves from school each day to visit a shed. He becomes friends with the shed in the sense that it's a place where his green toy army men can march into battle and rest when wounded, and where he can spend his evenings being the General before he hears the yells of his mother calling for his return. Sadly, the story ends with the collapse of the shed and the isolated death of Tano.

Here are just a few pages from "The Shed" that Bret and I collaborated on. If you want to see the rest and read the story, buy the book!

(Click images to enlarge)

The theme of each comic or short story had to deal with being lured and caught in a different way. "The Shed" was perfect for this theme as there was a definite example of little Tano being lured into going inside a shed that stood like "a viejo, waiting for the desert to collapse him down to his knees".

Again, the book is awesome and recommend anyone that's into comics and great illustration to grab a copy of SIREN. It's available through the website here.

Calaveras, Hearts, and Vinyl

This Christmas we were a bit tight on money so it was time to get creative. My fiancè, Andres decided to do a large 4' x 6' vinyl installation in his nieces' bedroom (He's kind of a vinyl guru). She recently turned 10 so I did my best to help him figure out what kind of design I would have liked to have if I were a 10 year old girl. He didn't want something too girly and with an edge. He hand drew the design, scanned it, vectorized it, then took it to the vinyl plotting machine to get cut. Once that was done he hand picked the vinyl, taped it up and that's what you see here:

Next came the application of the piece which became a little tricky because of the glossy paint on the walls. So I helped.
The final piece was applied:

And then the final product came out so awesome that we quickly turned it into a photo booth opportunity! Andres and the new recipient of a one of a kind design:

engagement photos

we went through and picked our top favorite photos from our engagement session to put in a slideshow. photo credits go out to my dad and his assistant, my mom.

our vision for these photos came from wanting a beautiful landscape that is unfortunately getting harder and harder to find in southern california. we took a few props out with us in case we wanted to add to the shots, but in the end we chose the most cinematic photos because we thought we looked cool in them!

enjoy the slideshow! oh, and picking the music that was going to go with these took a while, but in the end we just had to go with "space age love" by a flock of seagulls because it represented how fun our engagement session was and how much in love we've always been with the 80's.

zumi zumi zumi i want you!

christmas gift or wedding gift found here!

i'm a subscriber to the photojojo newsletter, and am surprised that i haven't blogged about their coolness before. my most recent newsletter informed me of this insanely awesome rad new camera. zumi digitial camera 2.0 it is called, and it's a digital camera that makes your photos look vintage AND takes digital 8mm video (with sound recording capabilities and black & white video mode)! eeek. i'm obsessing over this camera as i write this because it seems like it was made for me.

the fact that it's all digital is lovely! i have a diana f+ and it's awesome and takes the vintage style photos i love, but unfortunately it starts to pull on your pocket because you've got to buy the film, then pay for it to get developed. it's fun taking the photos, but then can't share them as quickly as you'd like because you need to scan them into your computer.

but here comes this little dude that can do it all digitally and record video. genius genius genius!

it's got a 2GB card and fits up to 1600 high-res shots and 2 hours of video. insane i tell you! this should be on everyone's christmas list. i can just imagine all the fun my fiancé and i could have with it on our honeymoon :)

take a look at the video it shoots. i made sure to find you a good video with a good soundtrack!

traveldiary: harinezumi from ethermoon on Vimeo.

so, you want to get your hands on one yet? check out the photojojo store for more info and to see all the other kewlio camera loveliness they have going on.

fun wedding details

i'm a visual person, so in order to start "seeing" our wedding come to life, i need to start piecing things together! i put this inspiration board together to see how certain elements look with each other while also making sure to keep an eye out for great design and details that will add a fun charm to our day.

i don't know if i could tell you that we're going to have a running theme in the wedding only because we're into so many things that i don't know if we could nail it to a single "theme". i see so many weddings in these blogs with every detail going along with either a rustic, vintage, garden, modern, quirky, etc. theme. but what do you do when you're sort of into all of that?

i'll just start with things that we like. it will all come together somehow, right? uh huh. here are my most recent inspirational picks from various blogs that i'll share with you.

now let me tell you why i chose these (if only for the sake of me jotting down notes) oh, and please click the image for an extreme close up.

1. the first image caught my attention because of the simple and clean design. the way the date was set along the left side is a nice touch to adding graphic design to a small menu card. love it! 2. there was a nice charm to the look of just adding some torn fabric scraps and ribbon as hints of color on those strings that got my mind thinking if that would fit into our wedding. 3. LOVE this! i'm a fan of photo props, but have been trying to think of ways that we can make ours different, more "us", and not cheesy. you'll usually see "just married" in wedding photos, and to be honest that doesn't really feel like us. we both come from large mexican families that speak spanish, so what better way to say we've just been married than with a "novia" and "novio" card! now to pick the font that we would use... 4. just a close up of those fabric scraps. 5. i haven't been to a wedding since i was a little girl, so i'm used to people throwing rice at the couple after the ceremony. do people even do that anymore? it just makes a mess! that's why i thought these sticks with ribbons attached to the end were adorable. guests can keep them as a little souvenir and they'll look great in pictures! 6. we're getting married outside and luckily have a very bob villa-esque dad that can make anything out of anything, so we're volunteering him to make the arch/canopy, or whatever you want to call it. the one in this image was simple, which we'd like it to be considering we'll only be using it for about a half hour. it also has pieces of fabric and ribbon...hmm, it looks like i like the idea of fabric and ribbon, huh? another reason that i love that my dad is going to make our arch is because i have a feeling that they'll want to reuse it in their backyard garden to put plants around it. i know they will! i can already see my parents sitting in the backyard on sunday mornings with the coffee looking at the arch and replaying the wedding to each other. i'm not lying!


photos pulled from these awesome and addictive blogs:
100layercake
greenweddingshoes
oncewed
junebugweddings.com

a perty paper wreath

bad news for this year's x-mas = no x-mas tree. good news = we got creative! a real x-mas tree wasn't in our budget this year so we decided to make a paper wreath. i've never had a real one growing up, and always kind of thought they were pretty, but then i came across this tutorial when looking up holiday crafty projects. ooo, pretty, i can do that!

so i took a trip to the oh so addictive paper source and spent a total of $7! bought two sheets of decorative paper and the rest of the supplies i already had at home because that's how i role. seriously, come to our place if you ever want to do crafts. we have everything!

it took about an hour or so with the lovely help of my fiance, and plus, it's just more fun to do projects like this together while listening to some good tunes. so we cut out our leaves, taped them onto our chip board circle backing and together created this beauty:

the process:

it's fun feeling like martha stewart every once in a while! it's not too late for you to make one, so check out the red thread blog for a very easy to follow tutorial.

merry christmas!

the man needs cufflinks!

i know i should probably be looking for wedding shoes to match my dress, earrings, thinking about how i'm going to wear my hair, or all the above, but right now i'm in the mood for some cuffs! my fiance hasn't really done much shopping around for a suit or thought about the little details like the socks, shoes, and cuffs he'll wear so i'm dedicating this post to him and all the other soon to be grooms that are wondering how they're going to bring style to their wedding attire.

since i have my dress picked out, i'm no longer paying attention to the dresses women are wearing in all the wedding blog photos i look at each day. instead, i'm looking at the dudes and how they're pulling off their looks. thank god to these guys for bringing up the par on looking snazzy though. am i right? (see mad men-iclicious below).

i honestly believe dudes everywhere began to take notice that there's more to wear at your wedding than a boring black and white tuxedo since the airing of mad men. guys got to see how their ladies grew giddy over don draper, and women began to wonder if their guys would get the hint and start dressing up a little more. i ain't lying. you know they look good. but in the end, this sexy suited look has been blowing up in weddings, and i'm a fan! if any guys are reading this and don't think that look can be easily pulled off, snap out of it. it isn't that hard, and real people like you and me can pull it off quite stunningly. just take a look at this groom:


the suit could not have fit him better. i'm loving that he didn't go all bright colored and funky with his socks, and that his shoes aren't converse or vans. sorry, i'm kind of hatin' on the look where the groom wears sneakers. just not a fan, when he could look so sharp with a look like the one above. photography props for the adorable couple above go out to another photographer who my fiance and i so respectably admire, max wanger. and to view more photos from that couple and their pertie wedding check out max's blog.

so maybe your guy wants to add more personality to his wedding attire aside from picking a snazzy tie; cufflinks are the perfect way to go. i never put much thought to them myself, but seeing how much is out there now makes me excited to see what my fiance will choose. most of the below cufflinks were found on etsy, but the other more colorful ones were surprisingly from vera bradley. i must say i am quite the vera bradley fan. my fiance actually found the tie that he wore in our save the date card there and it was perfect. just the right amount of color and personality. so why not go with vera for a unique cufflink that can pop?
vintage typewriter keys cufflinks by qa create

bloodwood cufflinks by holcomb's woodworking

king of hearts vintage cufflinks by crimson king

and because these were way too cool to pass up, there are also these sugar skull calavera cufflinks by little angels jewelry

fun!

fotos, fotos, fotos

the countdown to our wedding is coming up on 4 months. save the dates have been sent out (will post images soon), so now people know that there's something going down for real. we've already started to hear back from friends and family that they love our card and can't wait for the wedding. we can't either, but we also know there's a lot more planning to do to make it the best party we've ever thrown!

before i start creating the really long list of to-do's we have yet to get to, i'm going to tap myself on the back because we've got one of the most important tasks crossed off. yay for us, because we've got one of the best photographers to capture our day. that alone makes me feel like the wedding needs no other planning. i'm serious. she's that awesome!

she is none other than ms. sarah yates. i came across her photography when i was researching the ace hotel in palm springs for a possible bachelorette party. my google search presented me with this lovely arrange of photos taken at the ace. i fell in love with the dream-like 70's essence immediately, and thought, 'i wish i could have pictures of me like that! those are the type of pictures i want to show my kids someday'. coincidentally, i stumbled upon those photos while also searching for the perfect photographer, and thought it wouldn't hurt to contact her. so i did. and it just so happened that her personality reflected the beautiful, artistic and creative photographs she takes. and, boom! just like that we had to have her.

*see sarah's photos from the ace hotel that made me fall in love here.





my fiance and i had the honor of meeting her in person to chat and instantly found a friend in her. knowing that she's going to be there on our wedding day brings a smile and giggle to my face and a sense of ease that she's going to capture the day exactly the way i've always dreamed. my fiance and i have already talked about how we can't wait for her to take our family portraits (once we make cute little babies of course!), but one thing at a time. slow down junia!

if you want to check out more of sarah's photographic awesomeness, she's got a picture a day blog that herself and super talented boyfriend, lou mora have going on: birds of a feather.

books and design

judge a book by its cover. really. i do.

the cover of a book means a lot to me. it shows me how involved the author was with the publishing and marketing of their own work. you spend all this time writing, editing, revising, etc, you better go through the time of having cover art that can easily be framed in a cute shadow box on my wall. wouldn't you want that?

my obsession for books that i have yet to read but love to have on my shelf is a little out of control. if i could dedicate an entire room to just books, i would. i've recently been paying closer attention to the actual designs on book covers and wanted to share this post with you because i feel good design makes such a difference in everything. good design allows me to be a consumer when i can't afford to. good design makes me feel like i own something of value. and good design looks good on my shelves. so have fun with me as i share just a tiny few of some excellently designed book covers:


1. a novel idea 2. all and sundry uncollected work 2004-2009 3. the journey prize stories 21: the best of canada's new writers 4. this is where i leave you

if i've kept your attention to this point, you might also enjoy this project that a group of designers are undertaking. hopefully you've read at least one of vladimir nabokov's books, if not, go get one and become a fan. fortunately, i took a class that focused primarily on every single piece of literature he wrote (just ask if you want to borrow one), so i've come to treasure his words. this project takes nabokov's fascination with the collection of butterflies and puts a new twist to redesigning the covers to his books. designers were to only use paper and specimen boxes. take a look at the few i'm sharing with you, and then go watch the rest of the nabokov collection slideshow here to see the others and read more about the project.