APT: Washington Heights + Four Legs + Places + Travels

Today.

Today as been quiet. We’re settled down with our supplies at the apartment and waiting for hurricane Irene—she’s just rain and wind right now, and hopefully that’s how she’ll stay. We slept in a bit (or at least I tried to—one foot out of the bed and I lost my spot!), visited with Mamma Biscuit and her dads, and indulged in some amazing vegan treats from our favorite bakery, Sweet Semosh.

Tonight is for getting caught up on Project Runway, watching old episodes of Cheers, eating leftover Chinese, and staying dry inside. I’m trying to fit in a little freelance work now, too, just in case we lose power tonight. And if we do, well—I’ll be making a lot of friendship bracelets tomorrow!

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22 Comments

  • Reply Nubby August 27, 2011 at 8:36 pm

    Nothing beats the storm blues like Mama Biscuit and sweet vegan treats! Dogs can be such bed hogs….if I come to bed late, Rocky just lays sideways across my entire side. Gotta love that.

  • Reply juliet August 27, 2011 at 8:37 pm

    did you add that circle & text in photoshop? i always use illustrator for shapes & text b/c when i do it in photoshop the don’t look crisp. am i doing it wrong?

    • Anna @ D16 August 27, 2011 at 8:45 pm

      Juliet, I do use Photoshop because it’s so fast when I’m just doing something for the blog (if it were for print, I’d do it in Illustrator or InDesign). I’m not sure why you’re not getting crisp edges, but make sure you have the “anti-alias” button checked if you’re making a shape with anything other than horizontal or vertical lines. When you set your type, set your anti-aliasing to sharp, crisp, strong or smooth—you may have to try all 4 options to see what works best with the size and style of the font you’re using.

    • Melanie Richards August 27, 2011 at 11:50 pm

      Just chiming in: read somewhere that it might help to actually use the rounded rectangle tool to make more crisp circles. Just set the radius to something really high, and hold down the shift key while you drag out your shape.

    • Anna @ D16 August 27, 2011 at 11:56 pm

      If you want to use a shape tool, there’s an ellipse tool in the same menu as the rounded rectangle. Just click & hold to get the full list of options. It has the exact same functionality, but it’s an ellipse. Why would you want to use the rounded rectangle to simulate an existing tool? Just curious, because I don’t see what the difference in result would be, other than taking extra time to figure out the radius.

    • Melanie Richards September 5, 2011 at 9:23 am

      Well, as mentioned this is hearsay but I’m referencing Tyler Galpin’s article, under “General Photoshop Tips”: http://galp.in/blog/2011/08/02/the-ui-guide-part-1-buttons

      He mentions a “snap to pixels” option on the rounded rectangle tool—not available on the circle tool. Reference to that here: http://paularmstrongdesigns.com/weblog/photoshop-tip-snap-shapes-to-pixels

      I think for the original commenter, stuff like this is perhaps a little unnecessary, but for a fiddly UX designer, this might be helpful. Definitely weird though, right? A rounded rectangle? Incidentally, rectangles with an aggressive border-radius are the way to go if you’re trying to make circles with CSS, sans images.

      Whew. Long comment is long.

    • Anna @ D16 September 5, 2011 at 10:13 am

      Funny—I can tell from reading both of those links that I just work in a completely different way. I am obsessed with counting pixels, and I often will work at 800% just to ensure the the edges of my type (and all kind of shapes, not just circles) don’t get clipped. I think that I’m probably more concerned with visual alignment than mathematical alignment than either author, and I often rely on that anti-aliased edge that the second article is so disparaging of in order to achieve a more pleasing visual whole.

      Then again, I’m coming from a print background, so I still think it’s weird to be creating ANYTHING with a “hard” edge in Photoshop. 😉

      Now, where I do think I will be applying this bit of information in the future will be when considering designs specifically for mobile devices. Designing for lower resolutions is really no fun because it’s so hard to get a crisp edge on tiny shapes, and I suspect this tip will do the trick! Thanks so much for posting the links—this is stuff that we print designers never really encounter in our vector-based worlds. 🙂

  • Reply dahlila August 27, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    You take beautiful photos. I adore the first one. It looks like what complete hapiness means: in bed, with the hubby & the dog. 🙂

    d xo

  • Reply juliet August 27, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    Thanks!!!

  • Reply belinda August 27, 2011 at 9:01 pm

    make me a bracelet and i will make you a painting. stay safe, my shore family are all losing power in a big way. ugh. hiding.

  • Reply mamma August 27, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    Thanks for coming by Anna! I think I overdid it with those vegan coconut cupcakes and melt sandwich cookies. Thank goodness we had that insane Carol Channing record on the player to take the edge off! I just woke up with Mamma Biscuit’s snout wedged between my armpit and my back while an insane episode of My Gypsy Wedding ran loudly on my TV (ughh, fiber optic lighting applied to an oversized tulle wedding gown in pepto bismol pink is what the bride was wearing when I woke up, I think I’m blind)

    The rain is really coming down out there now! Everything will be just fine as long as the internet remains available throughout this hurricane! I’m about to watch the the first season of Three’s Company that you left with us (I know what you are think but Momento can wait damn it!) xoxo Mamma is sending you pug kisses!

  • Reply Giselle Medina August 27, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    Don’t worry, I’m in Florida. We get our share of hurricanes frequently. Just prepare for high waters and loss of electricity (unless you have generators). I actually enjoy them from time to time (of course if its not a category 5). You get to spend time with your loved ones, and do things you wouldn’t normally do when the powers on.

    But what does suck is taking a shower in the dark.

    • Anna @ D16 August 27, 2011 at 9:41 pm

      Not worried about myself, but very concerned about the large number of people in this city who don’t have homes. Manhattan in particular is very small, very narrow, at sea level, and surrounded by water. Flooding could be devastating for the residents on New York who already have the greatest disadvantages.

  • Reply Leone August 27, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    Whoa girl, are you in for a treat with the latest ep. of Project Runway. Bitchy bitchy bitchy! Enjoy & stay safe.

  • Reply Rose August 27, 2011 at 11:04 pm

    I am sending good thoughts to everyone on the east coast right now. I have 3 sisters in Boston and hope the best possible outcome for them. Stay dry and safe and well fed!

  • Reply Melanie Richards August 28, 2011 at 12:07 am

    Here’s hoping that Irene is as anti-climatic for the Northeast as it was for Charleston. I somewhat suspect that news and weather channels hype up storms more than is accurate, because besides being a good safety precaution, it’s good for business. Thinking of you guys and hoping Irene doesn’t live up to her hype. Stay safe!

    • Anna @ D16 August 28, 2011 at 12:22 am

      We’re mostly limiting ourselves to the relatively hype-free WNYC (public radio) and the gov’t weather service. Commercial news outlets are crazy! Not just when it comes to storms, but pretty much everything.

  • Reply Alicia August 28, 2011 at 10:12 am

    It looks very cozy.

  • Reply Cacamilis August 29, 2011 at 6:53 am

    Irene can’t stop you shopping …. have you seen the Numph dress ??
    I have one and love it.

  • Reply Annie markantonatou August 29, 2011 at 10:43 am

    lovely pics! i hope everything will be ok!

  • Reply Melissa Jade August 29, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    that doggie pic is priceless.

  • Reply Hanna May 5, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    Hi Anna! Last week I discovered your great blog/world here at doorsixten and have been stuck ever since. I might be your longest visit ever (if you check your analytics) because one week later I’ve only reached August of 2011, so I still have some posts left. Luckily! I just wanted to say that I really like your work here and find every post packed with interesting stuff! Good job! /Hanna

    PS. I’m swedish so your post on the swedish christmas music was SO funny to me! And yes I downloaded the record and will make sure to listen to it for our next holiday, only seven more months to go..!

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