Just to see how it looked online, I’ve posted my last three pictures from New Orleans. This is the Mississippi River from Jackson Square. I am not sure what that is across the water, probably just more Louisiana?

I am not sure if you can tell, but along the bottom of the template I drew some graph paper. I might have to make it larger or darker for it to really show up…I guess if you just wanted to show three images, you could use the template at full size (this is medium size) and then the graph paper would show. It occurred to me that with the orange type in the banner, the graph paper, and the clean orderly arrangements of everything in P2, we have a sort of Rhodia notebook theme going on!

So I was thinking this morning about words, and mentally preparing the introduction to our word category (still…again…) and I was pondering the word project – like art pro’ject, not like one would project’ a slide. I was considering the use of the word pro’ject as a verb, and again, not as one would project’ on an overhead projector, but the act of doing a pro’ject. Like, when I’m at home drawing our banner and you’re at home building a bunny house, we are pro’jecting. I was debating how I would show the reader the two different pronunciations of the word (you can see I went with a boldface and an accent mark for the syllable that should be emphasized) and it occurred to me how brilliant dictionaries are in that they have a whole language of symbols dedicated to pronunciation. This led to long happy musings on how much I love dictionaries, and how I think I will take some pictures of my dictionary collection for the blog, and then – it came to me! – a great project I will do if someday I become really really wealthy. I will make a dictionary that combines all the languages of the Latin alphabet, or perhaps, more realistically, all the Romance languages. Each word will be listed in its native tongue, with the definition, pronunciation, root, etymology and synonyms provided in all languages. The entries for each word will be completely comprehensive, like the Oxford English Dictionary, so perhaps I will call it the Oxford Romance Dictionary. Except I won’t be making it in Oxford, so I guess I will call it the Mother of all Dictionaries instead. I really like this idea because I suspect there are words in other languages that explain things that we may not have an English word for; for example, deja vu. The dictionary will be printed on that very thin paper they use in all old dictionaries, the kind that comes off the press already smelling like an old used bookstore. I will research fonts and maybe use one of the old typesetting fonts from earlier dictionaries…anyways, it went on like this while I showered, made my lunch, took out the trash…and then it occurred to me, this dictionary is going to be huge, where am I going to keep it? It will probably have to just live on the floor, and I will have a large chandelier hanging over it, and if I am short on space, I will just throw a mattress on top of it and use it as a bed. Of course, if I am wealthy enough to make such a dictionary, I doubt I will be short on space, but the idea of sleeping on a giant dictionary is so appealing, like the princess and the pea, except the pea is every single word in all the Romance languages. This would be such a fantastic project, that would probably take years of time, and a lot of resources and research and dedication, I will probably have to spend days, weeks, months, poring over old dictionaries and hiring translators and laying out pages, and at the end, when it is done, and I throw my mattress on top of it, people will probably think I have gone insane and they will have me committed. But…what if I documented the whole project with a blog? Ah ha! Then I wouldn’t be judged crazy, I’d probably get a book deal and a spot on Oprah! Because a blog legitimizes all sorts of otherwise crazy ideas! Like that girl who wore one dress for 365 days in a row – pre-internet, people would have been like “you are a strange lady” but she turns it into a blog, and all of a sudden she’s an internet sensation, she has a message, a cause, and a ton of followers.

See, the title makes sense now, right? Our blog: legitimizing all our creative endeavors, hermetic tendencies, mysterious business cards, and other brilliant ideas.

The embosser has arrived! I tried it on the thinner card stock, and it worked really well.

Here is where I am with our custom banner. (Ignore that weird blue tinge, I think I bumped up the contrast without paying attention to the entire right side of the image. In the final version, you will not be riding into a blue haze, and the lines will be darker and easier to see.)

So here is the banner so far. I do not know anything about CSS, but my hope is that it is like a template, and there will be some sort of placeholder for our banner, so that, once the style sheet is in place, either one of us will be able to update the banner picture when needed, as long as we keep the same dimensions. Maybe if you haven’t had your appointment with Max yet, you can add this to the agenda?

Provided the above is possible, my concept with the banner is that it will be made up of a number of pieces of paper layered over each other, sort of like they are in the picture above, but in a more rectangular alignment that fits at the top of our blog. You will always be on the left, since your name is first, and I will always be on the right. That accounts for two pieces of the paper. In the middle, there will probably just be one big piece of paper that says Carmen+Emile on it. That makes three visual elements, with a plain white background (that is not just white space but really scanned drawing paper.) To play off the simplicity and minimalism of our theme, I used the silhouette style for you and I, and sort of planned on doing all future updates in this style, as long as you like it. The Carmen+Emile title can be either computer-type or drawn on the paper – do you have any preference?

Some things to consider:

• This banner plan currently does not have any color. is this okay, or do we want some color up here?
• If we keep the individual elements (you, me and the title) as layers in Photoshop, we can update any part as needed without changing the whole thing. My idea was that anytime we have a banner-worthy event, I can make a new drawing for you or I. For instance, in this one, the idea is that you are riding your bike in San Francisco and I am walking by the beach in Santa Barbara. Since they’re just pencil drawings, they only take a few hours (although drawing that bike was kind of a bitch, so I hope you like it! Plus, I know it is too small to see it now, but I gave you cute little kitten heels and Maggie Ward satin charmeuse sweatpants to glam up your ride!)
• The picture above is a work in progress. I need to fix your waving hand, the palm trees behind me need some work, and I thought about adding the edge of the Golden Gate bridge behind and to the left of you. If you think that is too cliche, I can do something else – any suggestions?
• Once we’re tired of this current banner, I wouldn’t mind adding a page for previous banners, like a banner gallery.

Okay, let me know if you like where this is going, if you have any suggestions, or if you had something completely different in mind! It will be the first thing we see on the blog, so it needs to be something we’re both 100% satisfied with.

Well, here’s the second round of the 3-step project template. I think the size of the overall image, and the font in the text boxes are both about right – would you agree? I’ll email it to you right now as a psd file. The layers are named things like “Type here” and “drop image here” so hopefully it is not too complicated? You can call me and we can go through it together. Once you use it the first time, it’s really easy to just drop pictures in, flatten it, and then upload it!

Now that I’m looking at it, if I fix it so you can delete the Step One, Step Two, etc captions in each text box, this would be a great way to present a simple recipe and three pictures, too.