Gift Giving = Deal Time!

Who doesn't love a good deal?!

There are a ton of new websites out there that offer huge discounts on major brands and destinations. Discounts can be huge BUT the sales usually last less than 36 hours and the items sell quickly. If you wan to participate, you'll need to register - but no worries, registering is free. Nevertheless, these sites tend to be on my morning checklist....

Rue La La has just about everything, and sales start and end daily. 

One Kings Lane has all home products. They are very high end, but if you are looking for an investment, this is a good place to find something stunning at a lower price.

Living Social offers discounts to local businesses based on where you live. Their offers could be anything from restaurant discounts to laser treatment discounts. I recently purchased a few photography classes for a huge steal through the site.

Gilt Groupe has a mix of high end designers for home, fashion and jewelry. Their stuff goes fast and I'm often finding myself with things that I want but are sold before I get the chance to click. Luckily, they offer a 'wait-list' type function, and will e-mail you if they get more in stock.

The Foundary reminds me of One Kings Lane, but with much more affordable products. This site could be a home run for holiday gift giving!

 Last but not least is one of my favorite sites to visit. It isn't a site that sells anything, but it does all of the price hunting for you (in a way). It's called Copy Cat Chic, and the title should be self explanitory. This site finds some really fabulous (and really expensive) designs, and then hunts for very similar designs being sold at a fraction of the cost. I *adore* this site.

Happy shopping!

Gobble Gobble Goo & Gobble Gobble Gickle....

....I wish turkey only cost a nickel!  Ha! I love this time of year, in part to the fact that we get to hear all the fun Adam Sandler songs!

So Thanksgiving is over and I can no longer button my pants, shoot. It could be in part due to these delicious cupcakes I made for the feast....and of course, I had to make several batches to do some taste testing before serving my family (maybe THAT'S why my pants are a few inches shorter...)

Please, ignore the mess - my kitchen is a disaster....but these Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes were not!!!

 I've discovered that using a sifter makes everything super, super delicate and delicious.

 Sift, sift, sift!

 A little butter never hurt either...

all done!!!

Oh, and how can I forget!! The icing makes the (cup)cake!

As you can tell, a few were missing! Seems like they were enjoyed!!!

Holiday Cards 2010

Here's a peak at some of my holiday cards for 2010. This year the inspiration was bold, fun graphics with a modern flare. You'll see lots of stamps, fun graphics, cool typography, and some funky colors. This year we are keeping the cards simple, but totally, totally awesome!

To see the rest of my 2010 Holiday Collection, and to make a purchase visit my BelieveNotes Etsy Shop.

Oh and...

Happy Veteran's Day.

We may not all be happy with what goes on in the world, but we are the country we are because of those willing to defend us.

I thank not only those who are serving, who may have served, or who will someday serve, but also the families that so generously allow their loved ones to serve.

Fall Cleaning

I thought I would go through some of my old photos today and organize them. I found some real gems that you may enjoy....

This picture is a few years old - always reminded me of an 'Orbit' gum commercial. Don't I have a handsome hubby?

This is one of my favorite pictures ever! I was snapping the shot and my hubby was off camera aiming an apple - if you don't know what I'm talking about just look at the picture, our friends face, and then the upper right hand corner...

This picture of my mother single-handedly shows where I got my compulsive cleaning gene from...

^^ this is an awful picture of my mom, she happens to be a beautiful, beautiful women. But yes, she is indeed vacuuming the inside of the stove...


This picture was taken the night I got engaged - it's the only one I have and I'll always cherish it!

I love going through pictures!! I am sure I'll find more along my road to organization, but for now I'm perfectly content with what I've got!

Happy Halloweenie!!!!

Why couldn't the witch get pregnant
 
cause her husband had a hollow weenie!
happy halloweenie everyone :)


It's 5:15pm here is NY and I have had not a single trick-or-treater in my new home. Bummer.  Now I have about 4lbs of candy to bring to work....but to make up for the lack of cutie pies coming to the door, I decided to dress up little miss Juliet....

 ^^^First she seemed sad ^^^

 ^^^Then she started to plot her revenge^^^

^^^And lastly she vowed to never, ever forget the humiliation^^^

Tweaked!

So I've been working on tweaking, re-tweaking, and then tweaking some more! My goal is to find innovative ways to use typography and font. Here are some of my original Minted submissions after being tweaked!

Can I also secretly confess that I hope Santa brings me a few gift cards for Veer? Yum, new fonts!

Just for Fun

So I've been working almost non-stop on my 2010 holiday collection. At one point I was so in the zone I didn't even realize my newly spayed pup was in the room with me. I wonder how long she was staring?

Hope you all have a good weekend!!

Type, Type, Type

So lately I've been researching typography. Personally, this is an area that I struggle in - it's also the area I feel most strongly impacts a design. Bad typography can single handedly ruin an entire product.

If you'd like to follow me on my journey to improve my type design, check out these sites:

For the true beginner

Communicating with Type

11 Essential Tips

ILoveTypography

28 Other Great Typography Sites

I'm hoping that over the next few months I can grow as a designer. Maybe by pushing myself a little outside of my comfort zone, I'll be able to find a new little world of lovely design.

Wish me luck and stay posted to see my work evolve!

Rainy stormy nights...

Let it be known that I love tumultuous weather. I have a beautiful view from my little porch of the water and NYC skyline, and when a storm is brewing, man, the view is just to die for!

So here I am on a Monday night, taking a break from designing to enjoy the company of my little pup and a grand old lightening show.

Life is good.

Another Minted Invite

Isn't it funny how a cool design element can be reworked into totally different asthetics?! Check out a re-work if my firework invite:

Back in Business!!

Ahhh - so after a several month slump (from blogging that is), I'm BACK!!

Check out some of my latest designs on Minted, and please check back at the end of the competition to vote for myself and for all the other designers!

Here's what I submitted, although I do think I'll be making some modifications as time moves on.

One of the topics that has come up recently on the Minted Forum is this notion of copying designs. My thoughts are really simple: DO NOT DO IT!!!

Designers work so hard on coming up with something that accurately represents them and their style. Tons of time and creativity get put into each and every details of every single design. That being said, it's really hurtful, and down right wrong, to copy a design exactly.

Like many other designers out there, I am often inspired by other pieces of art or stationary. Sometimes I rework something into my own style, or my own vision, but I will never, ever take something that isn't mine and copy + paste.

Being inspired is beautiful, copying is ugly.

Back to the basics....

Alright, so maybe I've slightly forgotten that this blog is meant to be for stationary and paper design, but how could I not get caught up in home ownership and puppy mischief!

The past few months have been chaos, but as always, design and printing has been my outlet, here are a few things I have been working on:

Here are a few fun cards from Valentine's Day...

Here are a few house warming invitations...

Here's a little note I made for all the nice folks that bought our new pup a gift...

Some fabulous save-the-dates (I say fabulous because they're mine!)

And one of my most popular  'thank you' notes

Enjoy!!!

Poopy Puppy

I know, I know, it's been way too far and few between with these blog posts, but I promise that my life has calmed down a bit and I'll update much more frequently!!

Speaking of calming down (not!), we rescued ourselves a little puppy! World, meet Juliet....

She's brought so much joy to us in the few short weeks we've had her, and I'm pretty sure she is thankful to have been rescued!!

We rescued her from the North Shore Animal League in Long Island, New York. The staff was wonderful, as are all of the medical staff and doctors. For all of you who are considering getting a new pet, think twice before spending a gazillion dollars on a purebred or puppy store dog. While I believe all dogs deserve homes, I am actively against puppy mills. There are thousands of animals, like Juliet, that need homes desperately. Adopting Juliet was inexpensive (under $200!), and beyond rewarding. 

Just look at her face, come on! How could anybody pay thousands of dollars on poorly bred puppy mill dogs, when they can save a love-mutt from being put to sleep?!!

If you are interesting in rescuing, the following are some noteworthy organizations and sites:

North Shore Animal League

The Little Shelter

Pet Finder

Also check out your local human society. 

And um, who doesn't cry at those adoption commercials with the Sarah McLachlan songs?!

Whoops!!

Hmm....who knew moving and home ownership would be so darn time consuming???


I've been MIA for a few weeks, but I hope it's for good reason. We've finally moved into our very first home, and while we are THRILLED that house purchasing is over, we're slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of moving and settling into our first place. Over the past month we've hosted at least one dinner party per weekend (often two), painted/decorated every room, started renovating a bathroom, and bought tons and tons of fresh flowers. Alright, so I'm the only one that has bought fresh flowers, but hey, he enjoys them too!!

I've also been working my little hands off with stationary, invitations and announcements. I LOVE having my own office, and I'm already thinking of ways to get a laser printer. While I haven't had time to photograph some of my most recent design adventures, I have been able to photograph the big move...

Enjoy!

iPhone party

Kramer, before he made his way to the back of the closet.

Notice, my closet is season organized and color coded. His isn't.

Our first dinner party. 

My office, slowly but surely coming together.