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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Here's the Fall 2010 issue of the C-Current Newsletter I design and edit for the School of Communication at ECU






Sunday, October 24, 2010

Launching Cafe Press site






Hey all. BullingtonDesigns just launched its new CafePress Web site.

Our first design is a 1980s famous movie slogans tee shirt.

Keep watching for more new designs.

www.cafepress.com/Bullingtondesigns


Monday, October 4, 2010

Viewbook for School of Communication at ECU


Here are the first few pages of a publication I co-created with faculty and the university publishing department.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Top 10 signs you are a Design Snob

10) You find yourself sneering at other people's incorrect use of hyphens and asterisks.

9) You develop a fondness for certain typefaces/fonts. (However, Times will always be your first love, even if you've outgrown it.)

8) Centered headlines. Ech! Are you kidding me?!

7) A beautiful use of white space can bring tears to your eyes.

6) The look of 10 pt. or thicker lines makes you physically ill.

5) A photo without a bevel and emboss effect? Or even cropped? Come on, what are we living in the stone ages or something?

4) When you refer to Robin Williams, your hero, you are soooo not talking about the actor from "Mork and Mindy."

3) You wondered why you were being forced to take design classes in college — Until you realized you were addicted to Pagemaker and spending hours designing one element of a single flyer.

2) Microsoft Publisher? Yeah, it's cute and inexpensive, but why drive a Corolla when you can be behind the wheel of a Mercedes?

1) Design something on Word? I might as well get out a box of Crayons and some colored paper.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Pit bull book

I'm thinking about writing another pit bull book, possibly one tracing the experiences of five new pit bull "owners" and their adopted pit bulls. If you are thinking about adopting a pit or have one (can be a pit mix), and are interested in being interviewed, please let me know.

Also, if you have other possible suggestions for what a pit bull book should include, let me know that too.

(No pit bull haters please!)

barbbullington@yahoo.com -- please use "Pit Bull book" in subject line

Friday, August 13, 2010

If you're a literary agent looking for a great women's memoir...

...please feel free to read this query letter I am sending out to agents and publishers:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I'm interested in writing a memoir chronicling my experiences starting a local rock band (in Greenville, North Carolina) and that band's initial performances over a period of six months to one year.

I think this story could be edgy, funny and engaging for several reasons:

1) I'm 41 years old and live in a college town that is full of students, many of whom treat anyone over 30 as if they are ready to move into an assisted living facility. I believe it will be interesting to find out a primarily young audience's reactions to a band headed by someone who is not only in their 40s, but also--by day--an (journalism) instructor at the university.

2) Although, for most of my life, I have been afraid to sing in public, I want to be the lead singer of the band. The reason: I always dreamed of being able to sing beautifully but wasn't very good at it. About four years ago, I started vocal training and am now ready (hopefully) to face my fear of singing in front of those who are not blood relations or pets. (My cats think I'm wonderful by the way.)

3) I'm a long-time lover of music and although, chronologically-speaking, I'm not exactly part of the hippest demographic in the music market, I do feel like being in a band could help me to stay in touch with a more youthful, rebellious part of myself that might otherwise be overshadowed by my days of grading papers and grocery shopping.

I have a pretty extensive writing history as a journalist and freelance writer for magazines. I am also the author of four books:
•"Defying Gravity: Tales of a Reluctant Cougar," (written under the pen name of Maya Avery)
•"Then Along Came Barney: The Story of a Dog Who Changed My Mind About Pit bulls"
•"After the Break"
•and "The Work of Life.

You can also view some of my writing samples at:
•www.lifesajourneypackwell.blogspot.com
•www.nchumor.blogspot.com
•www.bullingtondesigns.blogspot.com
•www.softandcozy.blogspot.com

I look forward to hearing from you and very much appreciate your time and consideration regarding your representation.

Sincerely,
Barbara Bullington

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

North Carolina lawyer ad parody

I wrote, directed and edited this ad parody for nchumor.blogspot.com

The Law Firm of Curds and Whey. They're just like you -- except they're wearing a tie.

Parody of those really bad North Carolina lawyer commercials where the lawyers are always standing out somewhere in a field, stream or sitting on a tractor to prove they're just like you!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Short story

Ever see houses that go crazy with the Christmas decorations? Wonder what they're thinking? Here's a short story about Christmas decorations I wrote for a writing competition awhile back:



By Barbara Bullington

Jake dragged the garbage bag around the side of the house to the garbage cans. He stumbled over the rake in the barely lit side yard as he headed back to the front door. “Ugh,” he grunted—not because the stumble hurt —but because, at that same moment, he noticed the neighbors across the street had gone and done it. They’d strung holiday lights.

Jake’s house was now dangerously close to being the only one on the block without lights or other decorations on the outside. Till now, he had taken comfort in knowing that, at least his neighbors across the street were “light-less” too. He paused before opening the front door. He could just hear his wife.

The Simmons have their lights up, I see,” she’d say in a pointed way. He wondered if there was any way he could keep her from looking out the window until January.

“The Simmons have their lights up, I see,” said Jake’s wife, Janice, in a pointed way, as he walked into the living room.

“Janice, we’ve been through this before. We put electric candles in the windows inside the house every year. It’s tasteful. And simple! Why mess with tradition?” Jake said all this and then hurriedly headed into the kitchen to wash his hands. He thought about secretly toilet papering the Simmons’ house next Halloween.

Janice followed him, but Jake cut her off before she could say anything.

“There’s not a lot of point to the decorating outside thing,” Jake said. “We don’t have children to enjoy it while they’re playing outside. And we can’t see it from the living room...”

“It’s expensive. And, a lot of unnecessary work,” Janice finished for him in a whining voice that he thought was a little too severe to be construed as playful.

“But,” she continued, in her own voice, “it’s also pretty and everybody else is doing it—even the Simmons. We could pick up just a few inexpensive sets of lights and toss them on the bushes and that would be that. What’s the big deal?”

**
The big deal is that we could put that money to better use some other way. The big deal is that just because everyone jumps off a bridge, doesn’t mean we should too. The big deal is…

Jake now had a whole huge list of Big Deals in his head, but, as he hadn’t had one when his wife made her plea the prior evening, here he was in Home Bargain Bin—a large, confusing, impersonal, crowded warehouse of a store that sold everything from bug killer to nails, from lumber to trash bags, and, yes, outdoor holiday lighting.
He headed to the appropriate aisle, where shelf upon shelf of lights and other decorations stretched for what seemed like a mile. It actually made his stomach queasy. He never did like shopping, especially when there were a lot of confusing options.

“Stay cool,” Jake told himself, deciding to just grab three of the sets of lights in front of him and bail. But, as he was doing so, he noticed the same lights were also offered in a single-colored version. And then he saw the blinking multi-colored. Then, the slow blinking…the fast blinking…the all-white…all blue…indoor…outdoor…indoor/outdoor…

An hour later, Jake headed home with three boxes of…something. After the flood of choices had overtaken him in Home Bargain Bin, Jake couldn’t even remember what he’d selected.

**

Standing in the front yard, Jake told himself he was finally at the easy part. Just throw some lights up on the bushes and be done with it. But, he suddenly realized that these lights would call attention to his yard. Everyone passing by and all the neighbors would see them. So, he gave the bushes a final trimming for the season with his electric trimmer. They looked nice. Too nice for the lawn. So, he ran the rake over some leaves that had managed to escape previous rakings.

An hour later, Jake found himself opening the first box of lights. Two hundred- fifty lights, the box said. Jake figured that would be plenty for the three bushes on the front left side of the house. So, he started stringing the lights around the first bush. He was about half done when he ran out of lights. “What the?” Jake muttered to himself, pulling open the second box.

Three boxes later, he had one and a half bushes covered.

The next step was to plug them in and test them out. Finally, he thought, the easy part. He went into the garage for an outdoor extension cord and brought it back, picked up the end of the lights from the second bush and…realized that he had two outsee plugs and no insees (not being a big do-it-yourselfer, Jake was not aware of the technical terms for the plugs). He made a mental note to add a flaming bag of something to the toilet paper treatment of the Simmons’ house next Halloween.

Fifteen minutes later, Jake had rearranged all the strings of lights so that the outsees and insees mated appropriately. And, suddenly, there was light.

It still being light out, the bulbs gave off the softest of glow, but he could tell that one and a half bush were sure going to look nice once evening fell. Pleased with himself he went inside for a beer.

**

Four hours later, Jake found himself back in the aisles of Home Bargain Bin. This time, he felt less queasy. In fact, he could have sworn he almost felt his adrenaline pumping, although he knew that excitement would be a silly thing to feel over putting up more lights to go with the lights he didn’t even want in the first place.

He was glad the store was still open. He’d been sitting on the couch trying to enjoy some chips and dip, but just couldn’t stop this nagging feeling from bothering him. His wife hadn’t said a word, apparently content with his first effort. Either that, or she was feeling guilty that she hadn’t helped him and, thus, decided to keep her opinions about the glowing bush and a half to herself.

Anyway, this nagging feeling had really gotten to him. With less than half of his house lighted with holiday cheer, he felt that the other half must look sad to passersby in comparison. He didn’t care what the Simmons thought about it. All this was clearly their fault to begin with. Mack and Suzie Simmons with their fancy, glowing ice cycles dangling from their roof. No, they weren’t worth a second thought. But, The Passersby…

Not to mention, he’d worked hard trimming the bushes, so there was no reason to hide his light under a barrel. Or, was it bushel? In this case, a bush maybe? Or something like that.

So, there he was, grabbing six more boxes of strings of lights that clearly were a rip-off because he still couldn’t conceive of how over seven hundred lights could only cover a bush and a half. He figured the light company probably had a good laugh about how there were really only fifty or so lights on a so-called two-hundred-fifty string but how nobody in their right mind had time to count them and find out the scam.

In the same aisle, he also grabbed a box of special lights he’d passed over the first time. They, too, had been part of cause of the nagging feeling, he realized. Ever since he’d gotten home the first time, he hadn’t been able to get them out of his mind. He’d never seen anything like these before. These lights were big, round globes that slowly changed color from red to green to blue. He wasn’t sure what blue had to do with Christmas, but they were pretty cool nonetheless.

Jake hadn’t picked up the box of lights the first time because of how expensive they were. Suddenly, though, he felt himself not quite so concerned about the price. Actually, that glowing Santa seemed like a bargain at $30, so he picked that up too. His wife might complain once they got their credit card bill in the cold of January after the warmth of the holidays had passed. But, wasn’t this all her fault in the first place for begging him to do this? He was just trying to make her happy.

**

Four hours later, Janice was indeed pacified. Or at least, sleeping soundly. She’d finally given up helping and gone to bed. Jake was searching the side of his house with a flashlight for that elusive electrical outlet he knew was there somewhere. This was his fifth outdoor extension cord and he was running out of outlets. It was the only part of the front of his house that was not now shining brightly, but it would be in a minute.

The outlet located, Jake felt what he might have identified as a shudder of excitement if he hadn’t known that would be a silly thing to feel about doing something he hadn’t wanted to do in the first place. Jake’s hands almost trembled—certainly from the cold—as he pushed the outsee into the insee and…

He could almost hear a chorus of “hallelujahs” as brightness signaled this most recent chain of electrical lights and decorations was connected and working. Jake walked backward to the street and stood at the curb admiring his work.

All six of the bushes—three on one side of the front door of house and three on the other—were glowing in multiple hues with slow, intermittent blinking. A bright star on top of the house shone continuously in all white. A bright and happy plastic Santa stood next to a colony of glowing, inflatable snowmen. Five metal sculpture trees with tube lighting adorned various areas of his lawn beyond Santa. And the absolute masterpiece —a string of large globes slowly changing colors—hung around the tree on the left side of his house. On the right side, next to the garbage cans, was a collection of deer, similar in material to the metal trees. White lights spread were spread around their feet—an electric recreation of an icy pond.

Jake smiled at his hard work and, since it was late and no one else likely to be up, allowed himself a momentary smirk at the sudden dullness of the Simmons’ ice cycles as well as all the other now seemingly scantily decorated houses on the block.

Mentally patting himself on the back—hey, he hadn’t wanted to do it and it had been a lot harder than he thought, but not too shabby at all—Jake started to head into the house. As he walked, he noticed that the trees on the right side were illuminating his garbage cans. Not exactly in line with the overall look he was going for.

He tried to tell himself not to worry about it—that he could move the cans to the backyard in the morning. Nevertheless, he woke up several times that night only to find that he had been dreaming about the specially decorated holiday garbage cans he’d seen at Home Bargain Bin.

The scene of those cans lined up painted with Santa faces and reindeer taunted him well into the morning. By the afternoon, Jake found himself once again at what he now affectionately called, “The Bin,” purchasing three cans and a couple of boxes of matching holiday trash bags.

**

A week later, Jake and his wife were standing in front of the living room window, still amazed by the steady stream of traffic on their usually very quiet street. Apparently, it was not only random Passersby enjoying the view. People he’d never seen before were making special trips to his front lawn. Some cars would cruise by slowly. Others would park at the curb and families would pile out. Parents would pose their children in front of the house for photographs that would very likely become keepsakes of a happy holiday memory for years.

It pleased Jake to see people enjoying his hard work. Secretly, it also pleased him that, at times, the street would become so congested that the Simmons couldn’t even get into or out of their driveway. It also made Jake happy that his wife seemed pleased with their extraordinary holiday decorations, even though she still held lingering worries about the cost of the electric bill. Electric bill, Jake thought. That’s the least of our financial problems. Wait till the mail comes in January.

Jake also felt another emotion that didn’t fit in with it all. Panic. Yes, that was it. A growing sense of panic. It was nice that all these people liked the house, but he couldn’t help wondering if maybe it wasn’t enough to make their trips worthwhile. He had just that very day seen a car dealership with a 15-foot tall inflatable Frosty and found himself envying its stature. Having that on his front lawn would certainly make anyone’s trip worthwhile. And what about those decorations in the drug store that made music?

Jake didn’t want to disappoint anyone. Maybe he could stop in the dealership and find out where they had acquired the King of All Snowmen. Maybe he could have one rush-delivered to his house from the company. Maybe…

**

One week later, it was finally Christmas Eve. Jake sipped a beer and his wife, a margarita. She handed him some sunscreen and reminded him that all the bright light wasn’t good for him.

For a minute, Jake was drawn by the words “bright light.” He thought of his house miles away and unlit at the moment—unplugged for their trip. Thoughts of all the kilowatts and giant, inflatable holiday characters. And electrical cords and more lights. And sparkling reflections of it all on the snowy ground. They all filled his head and wrapped him in a sense of manic giddiness.

“Jake?” His wife’s voice drew him out of his reverie and—as he opened his eyes—all the sparkle of his thoughts was absorbed into or drowned out by the light of the sun. “Are you falling asleep? Do you want to go for a swim?”

“No. Sure,” Jake said.

“Are you having a good time?”

“Yes,” Jake said, meaning it, now that he was really back in the present moment. “But, are you sure we can afford this trip? I mean, you surprising me with last-minute plane tickets for a holiday vacation. It couldn’t have been cheap.”

Jake’s wife looked out at the ocean and smiled a squinty but content smile in the sunlight even though she seemed somewhat in need of a nap herself.

“Trust me, sweetheart,” she said. “We couldn’t have afforded not to come.”

Jake was content too and he wanted to stay that way. The warmth was relaxing all his cares away. If this kept up, he might go a good hour without thinking about possible additions he could have made if they’d stayed home. He really regretted not having any hanging ice cycles. Not because the Simmons had them and he was envious or anything. Just because they were so pretty.

**

Miles away, Mack and Suzie Simmons were having a similar conversation on the snow covered front lawn of their home. Mack was impressed at how bright it was even thought it was nighttime.

“Suzie? Are you sure we can afford all this? I mean, I always wanted to do something spectacular like this to our house,” he said, affectionately patting one of a troop of glowing snowmen. “But, it must have been expensive.”

“Don’t worry about a thing. Janice sold them to me cheap. Something like half of what her husband paid for it all. She only had one provision…That I wait until after they left on vacation to move it all over here and not to mention one word about it to Jake beforehand.”

“Well,” Mack said, as he waved and smiled at a slowly passing car and walking back to his curb once again to get another gander at the fruits of their hours of hanging and stringing and plugging and unplugging and plugging again. “It sure does look great.”

Standing there in the street, he felt an enormous sense of pride. Then, suddenly, a thought hit him. The Tibbles down the street had giant candy canes lining the sidewalk to their door. They were plastic and lighted as if by magic from the inside. He wondered how much they cost and where he could get some.

It was only Christmas Eve. It might be worth it even if it was last minute. After all, they could still leave the lights up for another week or two, at least. And, what about Gingerbread men? What was a holiday display without Gingerbread men decorations, he wondered, although he wasn’t exactly sure of their significance. Maybe even also some actual gingerbread men. His wife could bake them and they could wrap them with plastic and holiday ribbons, and hand them out to passersby…

Monday, July 12, 2010

Pet Photos by Bullington Designs

We've all heard about studies proving that animals help lower our blood pressure.
Here's a way to incorporate photos of your pets into your home or office in order to create more comfy/relaxing surroundings:

Send me a copy of your pet's photo and receive a larger version of the photo with a watercolor or other "special effects" version(s) (created in Adobe Photoshop) of that same photo or other pic on photo grade paper ready for framing.

Cost: $3 plus$2 shipping and handling for one 8" x 10." Please ask me about costs of other sizes. (I can also do people, places or other photos).

Email: barbbullington@yahoo.com (make sure to put "Pet Photo" in the subject line).

Here are some samples:



Friday, July 2, 2010

Book cover for "The Work of Life"-- Front (created 2009)




Available at www.Amazon.com

My cat fancy articles

Feature profile of David Edwards, artist and cat lover (April 2010 edition)




Feature article about Joy Eubanks and the Marley Fund (Apri 2004 edition)