Gari The Girl

create or starve.

[deeplovephotography]

Auckland Alleyways instagram | flickr | facebook

[garithegirl-blog]

I swear I should’ve been a redhead.

So two of my sisters are redheads and one of my sisters is blonde like me. I say this because redheads photograph so much better! Here is my little sister. She’s fifteen and absolutely gorgeous! Just look at her! We went downtown in Fort Smith where I am from and it was very easy to find cool spots to take portraits. She is also a great model because I get to edit it however I want and she has to like it! 

[garithegirl-blog]

I love my sistas.

I don’t know if you all have guessed or not, but I was a devoted member to my sorority (I just went alum last Tuesday). For homecoming this year I made sure to take their photos and design a little something something. It was fun because they are so photogenic! The design was simple because I didn’t want to bog it down crazy fonts when I have beautiful faces to work with!

[garithegirl-blog]

My love for Vistaprint is still going strong.

I really love Vistaprint. I really love coupons, so I really love Vistaprint. We got 50 business cards for around $10.. That just seems crazy to me. Especially since we haven't gone through a fourth of them. This is the back and I think they turned out amazingly. So, of course we had to take a really cool picture to post on instagram..

[garithegirl-blog]

I swear I do more than take photos...

Okay, so I am obsessed with these senior pictures I took of my friend Morgan. I had the 6D left over from the wedding I took that weekend, so I just used that with a 50mm lens and it was just golden. The flowers that are out at UCA right now made for an amazing picture and how beautiful is Morgan? She really made my job so much easier. We were only out there for around 20-30 minutes and that was plenty of time to get a great shot. 

[garithegirl-blog]

Invites on Etsy.

After I had passed the torch on to someone else as the PR chair for Delta Zeta, I wasn’t designing like I used to and I missed it! I had to find something to feed my creative soul. SO I went on Etsy and started to get some inspiration. My friend asked me if I could design a bachelorette card for her sister and this is what I came up with! I ended up loving it, but I didn’t have the time to really focus on my Etsy store... P.S. I changed the address and name because I am paranoid of having my friends info online just fyi. 

[garithegirl-blog]

Ehh what about another photo.

So obviously I have been photo happy lately on the blog.. BUT its just because I have been so busy with photos! You can express yourself in so many different ways of creativity, photography just seems like my favorite at the moment. Here is a look at one of the weddings I shot this weekend. TOTALLY STRESSFUL but well well worth it. I will probably do more but for now, one is enough...This was shot at La Vadas in North Little Rock. It is a wedding venue and it is absolutely breathtaking. 

[bukoladreamwedding]

lovers

[garithegirl-blog]

Sorority Pose on 3.

I’ve been doing DZ’s photos for two years and I love it. I love being able to add different girls in different poses and be able to match their outfits and tell them to “fake” laugh. It is more fun than it is work and I love that. This is one of my favorite ones from the last time I shot their photos. They are all so beautiful inside and out that I didn’t have to edit it very much at all!

[garithegirl-blog]

I’m not too girly

When people look at my work, one of the first things they say is that it looks girly and trendy. That is a compliment, but I don’t want that to be the only thing I can do. This photo doesn’t completely show how guy-designed I can be, but it does show my non-girly poses. 

[garithegirl-blog]

Headshot City

This semester has been filled with headshots! I love taking headshots! I am always able to take a great photo because I can get an upclose great shot with my 50mm lens. 

I love photographing friends because they let me boss them around and always love how the photos turn out! I’ll always say yes to a 20 minute headshot session with my friends!

[garithegirl-blog]

Here is a little clip of me doing what I love…Illustrator. I would show you something more detailed but that would go into a 30 minute video, you would be annoyed, and you would stop watching after 10 seconds! I have realized that I love doing design work in front of people who don’t know “who” Illustrator is. It makes me look like such an expert! disclaimer: I am not saying that creating a text box is hard or makes me an expert.. jus sayin.

[garithegirl-blog]

C.H.A.L.K.    P.A.I.N.T.

Two words. Chalk Paint. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this amazing invention. NO SANDING. I repeat, NO SANDING. It’s like a dream! The paint is somewhat pricey, but the amount of time and effort you save is worth every single penny. I was able to paint this side table in 30 minutes... 30 MINUTES. Okay, i’ll stop with the capitalization. I wish I had a before picture to show you (I never remember to take them, I think it’s because I just get too excited about crafting) but it was basically just a medium wood. I was lucky with the knob, it came with that. I just painted it a dark blue (no primer btw..) It took one coat, with some touch ups. Then I waited a few minutes and sanded the spots I wanted to distress. 

I am telling you, it is a dream COME TRUE for a crafter!

[garithegirl-blog]

I guess I cook now...

This christmas I decided to do something special for my coworkers and my family. I am older and almost out of college so I am starting to get to the point where I am responsible for getting my grandparents and my coworkers gifts on my own! I decided to get a little creative with it and make a mint chocolate bark packaged in a cute christmas mason jar! Here is how they turned out!

They were a huge success and my whole family wanted me to make them for everyone! 

They are really easy to make. All you need is 15 oreos, mint extract, white chocolate and green food coloring. Add all of those together and let sit in the refrigerator and it is ready to eat! It takes less than 20 minutes and it is SO delicious!

[garithegirl-blog]

My pride and joy.

This piece of design is pretty dear to my heart. I was really able to brand and advertise the way I have always wanted to do. I was able (with the help of my advisor and sisters) to come up with words that we think described our organization and what we wanted to keep up throughout the years. Then I was able to design the logo. After that, I put it behind a lily print (can't go wrong with that), and the DZ logo was born. 

Since this, other chapters have used this and I have seen it duplicated and copied numerous times which is honestly okay with me because I know that they really appreciate what I did and they respect the logo I came up with. 

[garithegirl-blog]

Pushing my limits.

Now, in my senior year of college I firmly believe it when people say, “it’s harder than it looks”. Nothing reigned more true to me than this project. 

I made this in my ceramics class here at UCA. We were basically given free reign to do whatever we wanted and I loved experimenting with the colors and different textures that you could do in the kiln. 

The idea came to me so fast I couldn’t wait to complete it. After my initial creative thought, came more and more questions and difficulties. How will I put the string through? How heavy is it going to be? How will I hang it on the wall? What string do I use? 

All of these questions were not exactly easy to answer. I had to go through many obstacles that I didn’t particularly want to go through. After using big machinery to finish my art project and having people hold my project so I could drill it into the wall, it all somehow ended up to be worth it and I was ecstatic by the finished product. 

[garithegirl-blog]

Art doesn’t always turn out the way you want...

This piece of artwork means so much to me. Mostly because of the hard work I put in to making it what it is. It started out as an assignment for my drawing class (I don’t know if I have said this, but I used to be an art major). We had to use ink and create a design to make “wallpaper”. It took me awhile to figure out a design to duplicate over and over. It had to all go together but also be detailed. I finally came up with a “feather”-like design. 

The big problem that warranted the crazy headline is the story that comes when I was actually making the wallpaper. 

Early into my freshman year of college I had an older boyfriend that lived in Fort Smith. We never saw each other and he didn’t like the idea of coming to visit me in my 5x5 foot dorm room. As I was painting my “masterpiece”, he broke up with me through text. I was devastated. I was also stressed because this project was coming up soon. I was so anxious, I spilled the ink ALL over the paper. Which of course made me even more upset, and OF COURSE Hobby Lobby did not have the right ink. SO I had to think fast and cut my project in half and change the color half way through. I like to think that without knowing that story you would not think there was anything wrong with this piece, but I will never forget it.