My 100th Post

is my first 365.
These are the PJ pants I'm making to learn how to sew. I think come this Thursday, I just might be finished with lessons and looking to sew on my own! I've ordered two patterns that I'm so excited to get to work on which means plenty of 365 posts!

And then here's a sneak peek of some new additions I hope to be adding to the shop!



365

I'm also looking for a few people willing to give up their normal shopping list and try something different. For over a year I have been using my grocery/coupon list when I go shopping and I've noticed it's saved me a ton of time (and money because I remember the coupons!) Just recently I've added on a meal planner to the grocery/coupon list in an attempt to plan out our meals, in turn planning out what foods I buy. We were in a horrible habit of waiting until hubs got home from work to decide what we wanted for dinner and we were eating at 7:30/8:00... way too late for this girl. So I gave this method a try and I'm curious to hear reactions from other users besides myself.




If you're willing to give up your normal grocery shopping/meal planning routine for a bit, leave a comment and I'll send you a PDF to print off. You'll be one of the lucky ones because if I decide to carry this in my shop, you have it at your disposal and never have to buy it ;-)

I have it set up so it can be saddle stitched, but that's not really necessary. On the left you have your grocery list with two columns: items you need and coupons you have. The problem I ran into is that I would clip all my coupons, load them up in my handy mini folder and I would get to the grocery and forget the coupon offer or need to double check how many of the item I needed to buy to take advantage of the coupon. And I clipped a lot of coupons, so I had to flip thru the whole stack just to find one. So I created my own shopping list that had the coupon column where I could write down the coupon offer next to the item I needed. Some times I would use it, other times the generic brand was less expensive or there was a better deal on another brand. As you can see from my photos, I would simply cross off that coupon and I usually pulled it from the stack right then and there so I wouldn't hand it to the cashier and have them look at me funny when they couldn't apply the coupon.
I then decided that I was going to give meal planning a try. So, again, as you can see, I wrote out what we were having each nite so that I could do a quick glance in case I saw something on sale that we could either substitute or eat with the meal. I must say it's helped us eat much earlier too- at least by 6:30!

In all honesty, if you're the least bit curious, please leave a comment and I'll shoot it your way (just make sure there is a way I can contact you via email). After a month or so, I'll follow up and see how you are liking the format, the ease, etc. and see if you have any tips, complaints or suggestions.

Brownie's Promos

I don't know if they made it in time for her monthly grab bag, but here they are ready to be shipped off! I had to take quick pictures at work, so they're a bit fuzzy...




I opted to for small 3Drug sized cards this time instead of the A2 cards I sent in to The Little Black Box. It was a better use of my time, material and honestly- I felt that the card was useful, but you weren't getting "the real deal"... ya know what I mean? I wasn't giving away a "full product"... just a sneak peek!

I'm trying to decide if I want to do The Little Black Box again. Do you ever get a feeling inside that says, "No. This isn't right for you." and then your mind says, "But you need to promote." If I DID do it, I would want to get into the November Box in hopes of catching the holiday crowd, but then again... I don't know. I feel like the 3Drug cards would work for that- even a pack of 5 gift tags... but then why would they need to come to the shop to buy? They have their gift tags and even if they DO need more, who is to say that they wouldn't just use those for someone they liked/hated (depending on if they liked the designs) and then go out to walmart to buy more. I don't know... I'm starting to wonder if tangible promotional pieces really work for me. Maybe I'll see how I fare this holiday season and then make my decisions for next year. Map it out on a schedule. Plan.

Today is a fun filled day of cleaning. The hubs is hosting poker next friday and our house is in need of a MAJOR overhaul. We haven't done this since nugget was born. It's not that we're messy/dirty people. It's that we live in a small cape cod with 2 giant dogs and a little one. We clean every week- the nuggets room gets THOROUGHLY cleaned every week, but when you live in small quarters there isn't much room for the dirt and dust to go but on top of what's already there. My philosophy is that in bigger houses, there are more places for the dirt to go- thus it "looks" cleaner. We are also big fans of making piles for later... and later comes and we are too busy playing catch up or we just don't have time. This has been our busiest summer yet- I've been trying to get work steadily coming in, hubs has been studying like crazy for his exams to be a registered architect (so he can design/build my next house) and we've both been trying to keep up with nugget (she's visiting grandpa and nonna today so we can clean, use cleaning products and concentrate on that). It's hard because one of us essentially loses a productive work day while watching Charlotte. It's okay though. We're getting our schedules worked out and working together and I think that's what's important. We support each other and in the goal each of us is trying to achieve, so it's a great system we have set up, I think.

I took before pictures, so if I'm brave enough to show my house in disarray, I'll show the before/after shots... and if not- just the after! If anything, I should probably show my work area... that might sting a little, but I got myself in this mess- I have to get myself out! One thing I will show in the near future is the before/after shots of the house in general. I think we've done really well with the house with what we had to work with. It's not the most glamorous house, but I'm happy with it so far!


i never pretend to understand this pooch.

Big Fish Little Pond

Currently in the process of being reworked...



and not really sure why i didn't think of this the first time around!

Fresh Look

at the 2009 desk calendar

i'm super pumped because the thing took me over a year to create! i had to be very careful to match the visuals with the season without looking too "planned" (this could also be considered a sneak peek because all of these designs started out as single cards!) it will be printed on a natural linen to give it an antiqued feel and keep the eye from being blinded by white. i wanted the colors and designs to speak for themselves and pop, but not overwhelm. february and december are a little awkward to me, but i don't know... they work with the style and no sense in spending another year with my OCD tendencies!

they'll be up in the shop soon- i have to test the prints to make sure the colors work out and then figure out a few other things... hopefully by the middle of the month!

Photo session

so, i spent 4 hours yesterday retaking every photo i took sunday. the lighting is horrid at my house and i had the day off, so nugget and i (well, she's beginning to be more of a chicken patty now- the way she's growing!) headed up to my parents house where one entire side of the house is nothing but windows. you can hear the choirs sing when the sun comes thru and you have a camera and product in hand. lucky for me, my parents WANT me to come up (amazing how they couldn't wait for me to move out and now they can't wait for me to come back) and they're more than happy to keep an eye on Charlotte while i do what i need to do. granted, nothing around the house got done and i'm contemplating a few major movings of furniture, so i need to get the house in a reasonable order before i destroy it again... because chances are we'll get halfway thru moving stuff around and stop.

so here are a few of the items i posted monday re-shot yesterday. i just think they look so much better.



i've gotten a great response on this set of notecards. wish i would have bought more of the lemon envelopes now when they were on clearance- anyone know where to find them? sorbet lemon A2... did they discontinue that color?!



i love my little sheep. they'll look fabulous once i get some blue envelopes to match. i can't wait to try them out letterpressed!

i have a slew of photos to color correct, so back to that! keep checking the shop to see new items. i should be listing some more today!

Progress... yes progress

I'm finishing up some prints to send to the print shop to be scored and trimmed. i figured that i was sending my promo pieces there to be cut and scored... and i AM reopening very soon... so i might as well print out the designs that are definitely going into the shop and have them cut and scored as well for photos. it will save me a lot of hand work and with having to stuff all these sleeves with cards, i welcome any work i can shove off on someone else ;-)



here is my new packaging for multiple items. i'll probably end up doing it on the single items as well, but i'm a little torn- it seems a little much for one card. i'm justifying it on single cards because i have little thank you notes that get tucked in and business cards and i don't like the idea of them flopping around in the envelope. everything needs to be harnessed in.



here's a shot (and a little sneak peek of some of the new designs) of the giveaway items i sent off to Miss Melissa. she sent me a sweet little convo saying she enjoyed her little treat... and that the honey bee was appropriate because that's what Melissa means. huh... learn something new everyday!

i'm really excited for the unveiling of my new designs. i'm liking the direction i'm going and the ideas i have in store. a lot of my designs are pattern driven and i like that. i like the effect it will have on my shop and i like the overall feel.

sneaky peek

before i get to the sneak peek- big ups to cardiology for their mention on design*sponge! they're in the national stationery show part 2 section of her post- yay stacy and kristen!



here's your sneak peek for this week! once the idea is fully flushed out for these, i'll do a formal announcement of what it's all about. but for now, this is what you get!

AIGA- sweet little binder

before i get into my post on my nifty little binder, i need to give a shout out to the stationery give-away winners!!

Katy of KisforCalligraphy
Kimberly of MakintheBestOfIt
Peggy of PeggMackoDesigns
Cassie of SomethingfromCassie

Check these ladies out!

ok so the AIGA binder. my department manager enrolled all of the designers in AIGA. i was a member in college, but couldn't afford the professional rate after that. well... little did i know that you would get this sweet binder for being "professional" i must say i haven't read it yet- just skimmed it- ok read the insert titles, but it looks like it will be a very useful tool. in the binder you get... "A Client's Guide to Design: How to Get the Most Out of the Process", "Use of Fonts", "Use of Software", "Sales Tax", "Print Design and Environmental Responsibility", "Use of Photography" and "Standard Form of Agreement or Design Services." i'll sit down and read my binder next week sometime and pass along any information i can pull out of there.



just a little sneak peek at a new series i'm working on... i have a feeling the printing process will take some tweeking on these, but it will turn out pretty darn nice, if i do say so myself.

first day back

so it's my first day back to work (real-world work, not etsy) after maternity leave. it's been kinda fun... didn't really skip too much of a beat. it's been nice to be back around adults and have conversations with full sentences. i do miss my little girl, but she's in good hands.

today was the last day for my packaging survey. i'll try and get the data collected and sorted for monday... that's my goal at least!

and here's a little sneak peak of my latest design adventure.


i have multiple ideas brewing with this, so i'm hoping at least one pans out. this is also part of a series i began way back when but haven't been able to debut because i'm one design short for said series- ugh. i'll work it out. i just don't want to throw something out for the sake of getting it out into the world! i need to play with the elements more and get my thoughts worked out... they're a bit tired these days. :-)

short post, but be back tomorrow... tomorrow debuts the blog calendar!