Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Name Your Design featured on Project Nursery

One of the best things to come from having this blog has been meeting two new friends (Stacy & Julie) who both live within just a few miles of me and both have young children who my kids love to play with. Whenever I get together with them I'm absolutely amazed (and delighted!) at how much we have in common and how fun it is to talk with them.

I mention this because I was just at Stacy's house last week drooling over her decor (most of which she created herself), and then on Monday her son, Parker's, bedroom (above) was featured on Project Nursery. Here's a link to the full interview for all the details.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Hawaiian-themed invitations

A couple of months ago one of my favorite customers, Heather, (who I've previously mentioned here and here) asked me to create some Hawaiian-themed invitations for a surprise birthday party. I've been so excited to see the party pictures, and she just posted them yesterday. Here are a few of my favorites...

Friday, April 17, 2009

more thoughts on balance...

I hope I don't sound like a broken record, but I thought of something this evening that I'd like to share...

As Sarah & Abraham has grown and I've found myself enjoying this work more and more, I've really been letting things slide around the house. I always keep the dishes and laundry caught up, but we've been eating takeout and frozen pizza way more than I'd like to, and my lax attitude about vacuuming, dusting, etc. has become a bit ridiculous.

So for the past week or so I've shifted my focus back to this concept of balance once again. I've been making time for the things that matter and not allowing other things to get in the way.

For example, for the past couple of weeks my daily orders have been about three times my usual average, but I've been making a conscious effort to step away from the computer and make plans with friends and do fun things with my kids. My husband has been working 4-days a week so I can have one full day a week of uninterrupted work, but for the past three weeks I've ended up ditching work on those days to do something fun with him and the kids. I'm also trying to cook at least a little bit more.

Which brings me to this evening... I was in the kitchen making lasagna, watching my kids play in the backyard, and I felt so content. I had several orders that I could have been working on, emails I could have been replying to, and some new product ideas I was really excited to work on, but instead of feeling resentful about my role as wife/mother/homemaker taking up my time, I felt like I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing.

Then this Brian Andreas story popped into my head, and it felt like one of Oprah's Aha! Moments:
Weight Training

This is a giant block of whatever is most difficult for you to carry & trust me on this, you'll carry it more times than you can count until you decide that's exactly what you want to do most & then it won't weigh a thing anymore.
Which also reminded me of this excellent post about balance on Stacy's Inkspot Workshop blog. If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Real Simple magazine

Sarah & Abraham calling cards are featured on page 64 in the May issue of Real Simple magazine!

I've been wanting to share this news since December when they contacted me about featuring my calling cards in an upcoming issue, but I figured I should wait until it was actually in print. I haven't seen it yet, but Sally at Polka Dot Market was kind enough to scan the page and email it to me (thank you!!!)

Real Simple is one of my favorite magazines, so it's a huge honor!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Sarah & Abraham Evites

I'm so excited to finally be able to share one of the side projects I've been working on for the past couple of months... Sarah & Abraham Evites! I'm a big fan of Evite, so when they asked me if I'd like to design some invitations for them, I jumped at the opportunity! I'm always a little nervous about graphic design work like this (how picky will they be? how many revisions will I end up doing?), but these were really fun to work on, and they gave me a lot of creative freedom.