Busy Weekending!

Hello everyone! This morning I was taking off my deep red nail polish when I heard a knock at the door. I bounded down the stairs with my tissue soaked in polish-remover and already red-stained. (That stuff is SO HARD to get off!) There was a friendly looking guy on our porch with his Bible and pamphlets. It was cold out so I decided to give him a break and let him give me a pamphlet. He stared down at my hands and looked back up at me puzzled. He left pretty quickly and I thought; "Wow, that's the fastest Jehovah's Witness visit ever!" (I like to be friendly to these people because they are trying to do something for their faith; which is better than trying to rob me. And I've gotta give them credit for standing behind their religion even if I'm faithful to my own.) I shut the door and realized that my fingers looked bloody; as did the deep red tissue. Heh heh. He thought he walked in on some sort of crime scene when the real crime was my choosing deep red nail polish. I'm repentant! It's a busy weekend of working ahead. I haven't had much time for rest and relaxation lately. I've been in Boston working for a client every day (it's a 2-hour commute time each way) and I've been working on my own work and other client work during my weekends. I've got a big presentation next week that I am preparing for and need to finish designing a whole bunch of things today and tomorrow. Rush Rush Rush!!! Hopefully I can stop and breath soon...so much going on in my head! I thought I would post a few photos today. The first is of the beloved Chili made for me by my husband on Valentine's Day. (Thanks again!!) It's made with pulled pork...which I don't normally like, but is so good in chili. I also posted a photo after the latest snow we had. I just loved the morning sky looking up in our back yard. And finally; me in my office. Looking tired; no makeup, hair in a mishapen bun, and ready to work through the weekend. Have a good one, all!

Passing Notes

I was paging through my latest issue of "How" Magazine (it's the 2007 Design Annual) and stumbled on a gorgeous wedding invitation featured. I went to the designer's website and was AMAZED. The firm is called "Passing Notes". What beautiful work!!! For anyone who loves invitation design and loves eye candy this site is for you. The work there took my breath away. I was sad when I had finished looking through everything! The studio showcases designs that truly reflect the people they are for. And the thinking is very "outside the box" and refreshing. I was starting to think that all invitation design was starting to look the same! This gives me hope that new ideas exist, we just have to spend a little extra time to get there. Note, the site is in Flash so you'll have to have it installed. Also, I noticed that if you click each number, a new project comes up. To see all the images/parts from one project you have to look over to the right...you'll see a ": next" link. Click on that to remain on the same project and see all its different parts and pieces. That's where the fun is! All I can say is, I'm completely inspired! I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I did! Let me know what you think! I'd love to hear opinions.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It is snowy here; we're having a bit of a storm come through. I decided not to travel into the city today; so I'm working here at home. Lots to do! I decided to take a break and write... I won't spoil the Valentines Day surprises, but I CAN say that my husband is making me my special chili (mentioned a few posts ago). I will be sure to take pictures of it this time. It's in the crock pot now and smells good. *sigh* I'm very excited. I never knew food could make me so elated. I'd never much cared one way or the other about food. It's also tax time! Our accountant is coming over tomorrow night to help weed through the jungle of papers and forms. I've tried to stay as organized as possible with everything so hopefully it will go smoothly. My first year of freelancing went well (for what I had hoped anyway). And thankfully my sometimes anal-retentive ways have helped me via a detailed excel spreadsheet where all my numbers and figures are recorded. I hope the tax faerie is nice to me and doesn't need to audit us. I've tried so hard to make sure everything is perfect. But it still makes me worry. Maybe I can slip her a few bucks under my pillow tonight to make sure we have an understanding.

Anyhoo, I'm happy to be safely indoors today. Drivers around here are nuts on the highways. I know; I'm one of them. But at least I'm a polite driver. And I'm always careful. You can be crazy AND careful. It's an art. I'm also glad to not be on the T. (The subway system in Boston). There's always "that person" nearby picking his/her nose. ALWAYS. And I find myself wondering why they seem to think nobody would see them. "You're in an open public space!!" I've wanted to yell. But I suffer and gag in silence. There's also "that guy" on the train who tries to use slick lines like "hey, I've seen you on this train a few times and wanted to say hi, so hi!". Or "hey cutie". Or some other phrase that's delivered in an overly friendly, slightly patronizing way. I'm not a mean person, so I smile and say hello politely. And then I stare at my shoe.

Meanwhile my inner dialogue says: "look dude, I'm trying to friggin' get to work. I'd drive my car; but this place is a traffic disaster from hell. So I'm stuck on the train watching the nose picker while I gag. I'm happily married...see my ring? And I don't see you on the train because I'm thinking about my day ahead. I'm not scoping the scene trying to pick up strangers. Please don't follow me when I get off the train. And please don't get mad that I'm not giving in to your advances...I don't want to be found dead in a trash can somewhere. But I'm sure you're a nice person."

More Penguin Love

Hi All! Today was an exciting surprise. Grace over at Design Sponge featured my Penguin card on her blog today! What a thrill! Thanks Grace! This busy week has come to an end. This weekend will find me working most of the time. I'm grateful to have that problem! Lots of ad campaign and branding work to do. I do have a manicure appointment for Saturday; not that it will last for more than a day since I am not girly enough to take proper care of my hands! But it's a fun indulgence once in a while. I will see if I can squeeze in some time to finish designing some plate designs for future letterpress projects. I have a design or two done, but need a few more to make a full/complete plate order. I also have some paper I'm interested in ordering and I have some etsy shipping to do. Busy times! Well, I'm off to dinner with my husband. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. Get rest and have fun (if you can!)

Penguin Love

Hi everyone! Ugh; I'm still fighting my cold from hell. I finally got to the doctor today and she prescribed some antibiotics and other goodies. I hope I'm on the upswing now! I feel like a permanent lump on the couch. I'll have to be surgically removed. This past weekend I had some free time and pressed some new cards...they are flat notecards with rounded corners with a little mint green king penguin with baby. They're just a little fun design that are also professional. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what kind of designs I want to do; and realize that I like the more frilly/girly looks. But, there is so much design out there that already fits that bill; I want to be different and provide designs that suit anyone's needs; both personally and professionally. I find that I like to hand-write notes when it comes to business matters and many designs out there are too frilly to feel professional. So I've decided to focus on designs that can be used in that capacity and still be fun for personal use. I have lots of ideas for future designs to work as flat notes like this; it's just a matter of getting plates made and getting to it. What was fun about the penguin cards is that thet didn't take nearly as long to produce (since the design is one color and simpler). I really enjoyed working on them; it was both relaxing and fun. They are now up for sale on my etsy shop if anyone is interested!! Have a great day everyone!!

Argyle!

Happy Friday everyone!! I just posted my Argyle cards for sale on my Etsy shop. I only have only 4 sets for sale right now. I plan to do a reprint of these for sure; and next time they will be on Crane's Lettra paper. I hope you like them! I even designed cool new Presslings labels to go on the cardsets. I have a version designed for letterpress and a version for screenprinted cards. The letterpress one features a bright pink logo and the screenprinted features a bright blue. It's designed to cover a lot of the front and have a blue tab that wraps around the back. You can see both sides in the photos above. I'm happy with how it came out. It's going to be a busy 2 months here at the studio. I'm doing work for 3 different corporate clients as well as invitation projects for a few other people. I will hopefully unbury myself by the end of March so I can come up for air and do more letterpress creating. I'm happy to be so busy since January was on the slow side. For fun, here is a link to a cute online shop that I like called Cut & Paste. Have a great weekend everyone...stay warm and enjoy creating!