Completely Unfinished - personal blog & creative hodgepodge

Productivity tips // Favorite Mac applications & workflow

May 9th, 2013

So way back in the day when I was about to start college, I got a letter in the mail from the graphic design department (called Interactive Digital Design at my school) urging incoming students to come equipped with a Macbook. They want me to get a Mac?! I didn’t understand. The world of Macs were a foreign land to me which I thought were only reserved for super nerds and fancy people or something. I had only used one way back when it still had the bubbly interface while I was taking my first photography class in 7th grade in 2001. Woah.

I was worried that the Mac would be sooo different from my PC and hard to learn. WHAT THERE’S NOT TWO CLICK BUTTONS?! I was comfortable with my PC and didn’t want change! I knew how to work my Paint Shop Pro and everything was fine and dandy. But my parents urged me to get a MacBook for my new laptop to head to college with, because that’s what my future professors recommended. And nowadays, I can’t believe I ever hesitated getting that first Mac! Soon enough I realized that Macs are less complicated and that I liked designing better on them. Ironically I am now kind of a super nerd.

These days i’m getting more and more into minimalism. Here’s some of my favorite things I use to keep my workflow simple:

Notational Velocity (& Simplenote)

Hands down my favorite Mac OSX app of all time. I use the program Notational Velocity for all of my word processing needs. I love the stark simplicity of it & how super quick it takes to load and use. I’m not a fan of Microsoft Office (even the mac osx one) because I find it too bulky and slow to open up. Basically, when I have something in my head I want to write down, I want to write it down NOW. Same for when I want to open a text file. Everything from the keyboard and everything saves automatically, no need to hit a button!

I organize my blog post ideas and drafts in one text file where I can work on some posts in chunks. I also use the website Simplenote (an iphone app too) and have it synced with Notational Velocity if I want to access my word files and i’m not on my laptop! That way I can always have my blog posts & other text files when I want to work on them.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver is a quick launch application that eliminates the need to use your dock to open programs, or clicking to open anything for that matter. Takes a some getting used to, but it’s well worth it.

iGTD:

This one is for Getting Things Done. I was a big fan of the app ‘Things’ after hearing about it from a professor, but didn’t want to shell out the money for it. I found iGTD as a great alternative. I mostly use it for long term goals instead of short to-do list goals…It’s great that you can have different categories. I have “design” “etsy/crafts” “art” “blog” “personal” and you can easily view all of your goals in one place, assign certain urgency for them, and cross them off when you’re done.

One of these days I will pay for the ‘Things’ app [especially now that iGTD is discontinued!] The UI is way pretty.

Evernote

I was a bit late to the game on this program. Now I can’t remember what I did before it. Some ridiculous combination of copying and pasting links to webpages that I wanted to save. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how great this app is :)

Other essentials: Dropbox, Espresso (instant previews when coding!)

I didn’t get paid to say anything about these apps. I just really love them!

What’s your favorite productivity app?

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Thrifty Style: Green & Girly + a self design rut

May 2nd, 2013

Let’s just pretend it hasn’t been almost a month since I posted okay? OK!

I’ve been working on a re-design of this space and my personal identity in general, and the ah-ha! moment has yet to happen. Frankly that has left me feeling less than inspired to post. Although, I DID re-design My Portfolio site– I always have an easier time with that than the blog. Anyone else have that problem?

I’m going to try the opposite approach now of pushing through and creating content instead of waiting for the design lightbulb to turn on!

I don’t think i’ve mentioned this but I have been unemployed of a normal full time job since the end of February. Since then, I’ve been luckily up to my eyeballs in freelance work, traveling, playing in roller derby games almost every weekend, and last but not least..thrifting during the day!

One of my favorite shops is a bike ride-able distance from where I live, and is only open early during the day from Tuesdays-Saturday. (I just realized they’re open Saturdays mornings instead of just during the week like I thought!) Now that i’ve been around during the day I get overly excited for ample thrifting time.

I tweeted about the fact that I broke my rule about not buying anymore house ware stuff until I moved–Oops. I just couldn’t say no to a Powerpuff girls plate and vintage mushrooms :)

Here’s the haul I got from the Bellport Methodist Thrift Shop and the local Savers to kick off May. (Long Island, NY)

Honestly I just bought the first book because it had ‘vegan’ in the title.

I will forever love the Powerpuff girls. Buttercup for the win! Sweater shirt is from Forever21.

Okay this is REALLY cool. Vintage mushroom patterned adhesive backing– daydreaming about putting this on top of some stools. Or ya know, everything.

Coffee tin was kind of a splurge since it didn’t come in a set. Awesome set of ceramic mugs from the 60s.

5 Comments Posted in: thrifty

Texas Adventures

April 6th, 2013

Remnants of SXSW

A couple shots from my first visit to The Lone Star State from two weeks ago! It was really nice to have a break from New York/the east coast…especially since the state of Texas is pretty much the opposite. (Or at least it seemed that way to me!)

East Austin reminded me of Brooklyn a lot– we ended up there for some free shows coincidentally on a very crowded last day of SXSW. There was so much going on!

Vegan Bahn Mi sliders

Silly shot from the San Antonio wax museum

25 Before 25 Final Recap + Goals

March 27th, 2013

This is pretty overdue (better late than never, right?) I finished these goals on my 25 before 25 list before my birthday at the end of February..

Finish my personal zine

DONE! I’m so glad I finally finished this. I started the zine way back when I was 22 (?!) In the end I realized I just had to get over that hurdle of perfection and feeling like it wasn’t good enough.

Start saving a trip fund

DONE! I’m a big believer that things are easier to remember when you have a pretty daily remember of them, amiright? Like, if I just told myself to put away a small amount of money each month into my savings account I probably wouldn’t remember to do it.

I cleaned out an old jar and cut a photo I took of the woods to fit flush up against the jar. I figured the photo could be switched out depending on the season or where you most want to visit next for inspiration.

Plant a garden

DONE! (ish) When I put ‘plant a garden’ on my list I actually pictured a full on vegetable garden, but since the summer was kind of crazy I didn’t have a lot of time to do that and it quickly passed me by. I knew that I still wanted some kind of garden and succulents seemed perfect. I now have a little indoor ‘garden’ of sorts that I love, so i’m counting this as completed :)

Start a vintage clothes wardrobe

DONE. It’s a small start! Kind of obsessed with the Levi’s denim jacket.

Sell prints on Etsy

1/2 DONE. I have designed the amount of prints I was aiming for but I haven’t gotten the chance to actually set up the shop yet. I’ve posted 2 sneak peeks already so I didn’t think you needed to see anymore photos of this :)

I missed 7 things which were:

Table at a craft fair . Volunteer somewhere . Learn to surf . Record a demo & design it . Host a potluck . Take a knitting class . Adopt a cat

Not bad. I’m really proud of myself for creating such an ambitious list. The full list and everything I finished is located here!

What i’m planning for this year:

Are you working through a list of goals? Any similar ones?

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Vacation week

March 16th, 2013

Hello from Texas! Been taking some time off in San Antonio since Wednesday. Today we’re headed to Austin (i’ve been totally itching to visit for the first time) Don’t worry though, we’re not going to SXSW so you don’t have to be jealous :) We came to visit Matt’s family and just adventure around. I’ll be back soon!