Happy Halloween!

Halloween, for me, is all about eating candy till I'm ready to die. However, last year we bought a ton of candy and had not one single trick-or-treater. I ate enough candy last year to make me not even want to buy candy this year. So, I didn't. No candy at this house! Sorry kids.

But Halloween doesn't have to mean scary critters and dark colors - it can be a pretty holiday too.

Photo from The Crafted Sparrow

I mean, that's a pretty pumpkin. It's even a pretty spider web! Maybe next year I'll whip out the tweezers and bling out a pumpkin of my own!

OK, so for the most part people think of Halloween as something scary, not pretty. But how about Halloween as something cool? If you haven't seen this video yet, you have you. It's down right cool.

Happy Halloween everybody!!!!

How Are Your Kerning Skills?!

Kerning is the art of perfecting the little spaces between every.single.letter in graphic design and typography. It's not easy, especially for somebody like myself that's totally self taught. I've improved dramatically over the past two years, and am proud that I've scored fairly well in this little game.

How well do you do?

Try the kerning game here. What's your score??

Recent Projects

It's been a while since I've shared some custom projects, so here's a glimpse of just a few fun things. Can I also say how much I love my customers?! You all rock!

Some super pretty note cards with just a little bling

Fun moving announcements for the move away from the big city!

Simple save-the-dates and matching wrap around mailing labels

I'm also realizing the importance of taking pictures of completed projects. Lately I've been trying to stage and photograph every item before it ships to the customer - I love looking back at finished projects and thinking "wow! I forgot how much fun that was!" or "Wow! Those really did turn out nice!". Hopefully you will all be able to see the difference as I learn to take better pictures of my products.

If you want a custom project of your own - maybe a perfect holiday gifts *hint hint* - please email me at believenotes@yahoo.com!

Vote for Minted's Head Over Heels Wedding Invitation Challenge

Voting is now open for Minted's Head Over Heels Wedding Invitation Challenge.

I'm once again blown away by the talented designers over at Minted. I entered a few designs, and while I never expect to win anything - it would be a dream to get an Editor's Pick for one of my entries. So please please please head over and throw a few 5's my way - and please vote for as many of the other designs as possible!

Here are my entries, with links to vote:

"Inlay"

"Sorbet Sunset"

"Enchanted"

Thanks in advance! I can't wait to see the results of this challenge!

Absolutely Abnormally Obsessed

The first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem - and folks, I have a problem. I am infatuated with Criminal Minds, the TV show. I'm not a TV watcher, so this is huge for me. HUGE.

I love Agent Morgan. And Hotch. And Dr. Reid. And Garcia kicks ass.

I'm sorry, I would post a little more, but the commercial is over.

The Non-Honeymoon

The past few weeks have been hectic for me. I've been dealing with a some extra pressure at work and the stress seems to maybe be catching up to me. The other day I got in the elevator and forgot to press a button - I went up and down, up and down, up and down, before finally coming to and remembering where I needed to go! How embarrassing!

It doesn't help that Mr. Law and I should have spent the first two weeks of October in Spain, on our Honeymoon. We couldn't go because of work, and yes, I am royally bummed about it. Even though we didn't end up getting to go to Spain, Mr. Law still had his two weeks off from work. He's been such a help lately with chores and house work and general cheering-up. I can't put into words how happy I am to have him.

The 2011 Holiday Collection

It's finally here!

Even though I'm feeling a little under the weather this weekend (seems like everybody has a cold!), I still managed to get almost 75% of the holiday line up on my Etsy shop!

Here are a few of the designs:

To see the entire line, head on over to my Etsy shop - and check back often, as more designs are coming!

Oh What A Week!

Happy Saturday morning to all! And boy, am I glad this work week is over! This past week was particularly busy for me, as at my 9-5 job we hold a week long training class that sucks the life and energy out of my group (we're the trainers teaching the thing!). In addition to the week long class, this past week was also mid-terms at grad school, and on top of it all we had to juggle all of the issues with insurance and whatnot for our flooring problems. It looks like we'll be getting all new floors within the next few weeks, I should be excited, but really I'm just stressed.

I'm also almost finished printing all the samples of the holiday cards! I know I'm running super behind, but I'm planning on having a few cards for sale by the end of the weekend. I've decided to put together digital samplers to show all the color and backer options for my designs - as opposed to printing hard copies of everything. Digital samplers are a great way to show options without incurring the extra costs associated with time and printing. I've always used digital samplers when working with clients, and I thought it would be great to use them for my online shop as well! Here's a peek at one of my sampler sheets:

Can't wait to debut the rest of the line :)

Enjoy the rest of your day everybody!

Behind the Scenes Holiday Collection 2011

Today I am putting the finishing touches on a few more of my holiday cards for the 2011 collection. I've been finishing between 2-4 designs each weekend, and I know I'm a little behind. I've definitely been struggling lately to keep up with work, school, homeowner problems and a growing stationery business. I'm so thrilled that the business is growing, but I'm nervous too! This holiday season is going to be a busy one!

This morning I woke up late, which is good, because I was in desperate need of sleep. It may be 2:00 in the afternoon, but I've been cleaning all morning and just sat down with my coffee to work on my holiday cards. Here's a peek at my desktop (and a little glimpse of one of my designs!)

My husband thinks I'm nuts, but I've been having my coffee in my holiday mug since June. I've gotta get into the spirit somehow!

Enjoy the rest of your day everybody!

The Secret Minted Award

Remember this post? You should, it was just a few days ago.

Turns out the design did get an award, but I had no idea, hence it's like a secret win!

As it turns out, apparently the design DID get an award!

I'm always surprised (in a good way) by the designs that Minted picks for awards, this design however was particularly surprising to me since (1) it scored lower than the other designs I submitted,  (2) I was never notified by email of the win and (3) I didn't get the extra little "Jury's Pick" star next to my name on my Minted profile (minor, I know, but those stars mean a lot to us Minties). When I got the email from Minted (about an hour after my original post about NOT winning, how ironic!) I was in disbelief! I emailed Minted just to make sure they weren't mistaken. Nope, not a mistake.

The surprise Minted award made my whole week :)

Derailed by Home Ownership

I took a five day weekend and am preparing to go back to work tomorrow, which I'd love not to do, but hey, girls gotta make money. Any time I take a few days off, I always have these grand plans for how much I'll get accomplished, and then all of a sudden the time is gone, I'm back to work, and nothing really got done.

This weekend, however, I got most things done. Except for two major things, oops. Mostly, they didn't get done because I left those two things for today, and today got majorly derailed. How? Because of home ownership.

You may remember our carbon monoxide scare immediately following the honeymoon, and while that's been fixed, we're now on to the next issue. Water. Damage. From where? We don't really know.

A few months ago we noticed our new hardwood floors buckling. Within two months a three foot section of the floor totally bucked on itself and came up entirely. When we lifted the wood planks we noticed our subfloors were molded. Mold comes from water, we know that, but where is the water coming from? We don't know. Enter insurance companies. Yes, plural, since we own a condo we also have to include the insurance company for the building (since the subfloor technically belongs to the building and not us).

Here are a few pictures of the floors, which need to be replaced entirely:

Molded subflooring

part of where the floor raised completely & more mold hiding out underneath

can you see the rippling & buckling down the entire hallway?

 So on top of all the other lovely things we've got going on, we're also waiting for an engineer to come search for the leak, and once we find that bad boy - it's new floors for us! Hopefully our home won't look like a disaster for the holidays.

Spotted!

Apparently my "Tipsy" design was a runner up for a the Minted Great Ideas Notebook Challenge! It may not have won, but I love seeing something of mine on their blog :)

The awesome thing about Minted is that if a design doesn't win, the designer is able to sell the design on their own. Pretty awesome, right? Maybe this will motivate me to get a line of notebooks ready for the holidays?! They'd make great gifts!!

Living Room Update

Does anybody remember the saga of my sofa from over the summer?

It all started with this post, where I sadly admitted that my sofa was indeed broken.  Mr. Law and I argued a bit about what new sofa to get as a replacement, and eventually we decided on the brown leather sofa. Of course, it didn't fit through our front door, as I updated you all in this post. And then, finally, after well over a month, we got our sofa delivered safe and sound, and I began my quest for completing the living room. In this previous post, I drooled over all sorts of things I wanted to my living room - front bright rugs to pillows to coffee tables.

Oh, and I also remember mentioning our "weekend" project of installing our built-in unit. Well, it took much longer than we thought, but it's about 90% finished now, and I thought I'd share some pictures. I think I might also devote an entire post to how we went about the TV unit, since it was kinda awesome.

Here are some pictures of our living room before and after the updates....

Before:

 

After:

Looking sharp, right? I LOVE all the changes and I'd say right now the living room is about 80% finished. Aside from the new sofa and TV unit, you might notice our lack of area rug. We moved the previous area rug into the dining room, where it seems to be staying, and the orange one I loved (and still love) is making me nervous - too much orange? It was on sale back when I wrote the post, which made it even more appealing to me, but now that it's full price, I seem less motivated to add that POP of color.

I did, however, purchase the amazing decorative pillows from Martha and Ash, as mentioned/showed in my previous post.  The ladies at Martha and Ash were awesome to work with, and I can't lie, I kinda have a crush on ALL of their pillows! I would most definitely purchase from them again - the pillows I have are the perfect shade of orange, they are a good high quality (I love the down inserts, even if they make my husband sneeze), and they improve my quality of nap. Overall four thumbs up!


Now I'm off to work on a few things, and hopefully I'll be back to posting a little later today!

Happy 80th!

Last month was my Gramma's 80th birthday! I am so incredibly blessed to have all four of my grandparents, who are happy & healthy. This year we celebrated as all but one turned 80.

I was tapped to design the invitation for my Grandmother's surprise party last month, and now that the party is over, and was a major success, I thought I'd share some pictures of the invitation.

Here are the "Let's Celebrate" invitations, which will be for sale in my Etsy Shop soon:

They were such a blast to create, and I love that how versatile they are! You can change the wording and easily have a house warming invite, a cocktail party, a birthday party, a graduation party! The options are as endless as the celebrations are!