Holiday Cards Now Available at Minted!

One of my favorite parts of being a stationery designer is having the joy of Christmas in May. Yes, I said May. You may not realize just how much work goes into designing holiday cards every year, so trust me when I say it's a lot of work. As a designer, I'm thinking about the holidays all year round, and it's always SO much fun when Minted has their holiday challenges in the Spring. It's such a blast to play holiday music in warm weather with the windows open. My neighbors must think I'm crazy.

Anyway, I have two designs that will be for sale this year through Minted. Snowy Man is a fun, simple design featuring a little snowman and simple type.

I'm so excited that Snowy Man is now available, and if you're one of those super organized go-getter types that started buying presents last year, well now's a perfect time for you to start thinking about your holiday cards!

What Makes My Blog So Special?

WARNING: This is going to be a long post, and things might get a little deep. I’ve gone back and forth and re-written this post a million times already. As my husband knows, anytime I start a statement with “I’ve been thinking….” there’s usually something pretty major about to go down. So, here goes nothing.

I’ve been thinking.

About this blog, about my brand, about myself, about my contributions, my value, and my future. I’ve really, really, really been thinking.

What I think is that this blog is missing something – or rather, was missing something (but I’ll touch on that in a few moments).

This blog started out as a crazy idea and, without a ton of thought, I started writing it. Since I had already been doing some stationery work, I decided to have my blog follow along under the umbrella of stationery, but it was all sort of haphazard. The problem is that my early blog was that of a newbie designer that didn’t have a ton of confidence, because well, I didn’t really know who I was or what I stood for. That’s definitely changed.

My blog lacked direction, intention, and an overall sense of “special-ness”. My blog did not accurately portray who I am as a person.

Let me tell you a little of why I think that happened. I allowed myself to become intimidated. I mean, I’m a good designer, but maybe I’m not that good; and I’m a good writer, but damn, “so-and-so” is freaking amazing! I let the focus of my blog shift because I was so afraid that other people would start comparing me to some other mysterious unknown entity. My fear of judgment seemed to have, unintentionally, allowed the topics on my blog to shift from business-driven to personal-driven. Because, hey, I don’t mind being judged as a person, I am who I am and proud of it, but as a new business person, I was definitely a little less secure.

Anyway, lately I’ve been thinking; and I think I’ve found my missing link. I’ve finally found some confidence. Over the past few years, I have grown tremendously as both a person and a designer. I have also grown tremendously in my professional 9-5 job within Talent Development. Looking back, I am sad that I didn’t write more about my experiences as an insecure newbie. I’ve learned a lot and I believe it would have been a valuable thing to have documented. Not just for readers, but for myself. I also wish I had combined a little more of what I really do for a living (Talent Development and Industrial/Organizational Psychology) with my passion for stationery, design and all things pretty. I seemed to have tried to create a divide between the different aspects of myself, part of me is a designer, part of me is an I/O specialist, part of me is a wife, etc etc - in reality, I'm not parts of myself, I am me. All of me, all together, all at once. I am one person that's doing a lot of things. And that right there is missing link number two. My blog needed to be a little less about what I thought would make readers happy, and a little more about would have made me happy. So moving forward, that’s how it’s going to be.

That’s what is going to make my blog special. The fact that it is mine, and the fact that nobody else has my expertise. (yes, I said it, I have expertise, and if you continue to read my blog, you’ll find out more about what it is!)

So, from now on out, I don’t want you to only view this blog as “Believe Notes”, but also as “Jackie Mangiolino” as in me, the person. I promise to write about the things that are important to me; the things I have learned, the things I continue to learn, the tips and tricks I pick up, and the real, honest successes and failures that little business people, like me, face. I am not perfect and I will not pretend to be. I’m a little a lot quirky, I have a wild, slightly dry sense of humor, and I am one ambitious little lady. I am passionate not only about stationery design, but about people as individuals and professionals. I spend 9 hours a day coaching people through their professional careers, and I would love to share some of that insight as well.

I can’t predict the future, but I would like to think that by having a blog that better reflects me, I’ll end up with readers that really understand and appreciate my thoughts.

Welcome to my new blog, I hope you enjoy the ride.


PS - do you like the opening graphic? I'm thinking of turning it into a stamp to sell in my Etsy shop :) I heart my mom :)

2012 Resoluations - Future Letter

Better late than never, right? And even betterer if the resolution involves being better??? (Betterer is a word, according to my 5-year-old cousin, and if it works for him, it works for me)

I managed to squeeze in one last post back in December to recap some of what 2011 was for me. Reading that post again, I think I need to revisit that while 2011 was indeed a year of growth,  it was not necessarily a year of "bettering".  Not totally sure if that makes sense to you, but it's the only way I can think of it in my head. Oh, and keep in mind I haven't had my morning coffee yet.  It seems that 2011, for me, was a year of settling into "newness" and with that "settling" also came growth. To be honest, I didn't really seek out that growth, it just happened. I wasn't growing for a particular reason other than to keep up with my life, not that that's a bad thing, because I grew anyway, but this year I want to grow with intention to be better.

So 2012 is going to the year of being better.

Jess Constable from Makeunder My Life does this awesome thing called a "Future Letter" where she sums up her years resolutions in the form of a letter to herself in the vantage point of her already accomplishing the goals at the end of the year. I think it's a fun way to write out some goals so I'm going to give it a shot.

Let's now pretend it's the end of 2012, and I'm writing a letter to myself, as a pat on the back for all I've accomplished.

Dear Jackie, 

          Wowza! 2012 was an amazing year, wasn't it! The past twelve months have been a wild ride, but you handled it with grace and composure, such a lady you are! (Ok, am I taking this too far??? Read on...). It's not easy living through a home renovation, and even though your home isn't huge, the challenges were still, well, challenging. You dove into the new year, back in January, by ripping up ALL of your floors and doing a DIY kitchen renovation. They came out so great that you moved on to renovate the second bathroom as well. You've now got a beautiful home, that's mostly finished and decorated, and you can relax and enjoy it without having to plan the next major renovation. *phew*.
          When tax season came around, you finally decided to make your business legit. Yes, you finally got yourself a Tax ID Number for Believe Notes and have been growing your business guilt-free. Taxes stink, and the book keeping is challenging, but the business is better for it. You can now enjoy all sorts of great designer discounts which have allowed you offer new products at reasonable prices. 
          On the topic of prices, you did a great job of putting together pricing sheets, paper options,  invitation suite options, and so on. You're life is crazy, but that doesn't mean it can't be better organized! Your customers are super happy for the easy info too! Job well done!
          Let's talk new products; 2012 was the year that you became a better designer tenfold. You used more of your hand drawn illustrations in your designs, you finally launched your wedding suites (rather successfully, you foxy lady, you!), you started selling custom rubber stamps in your Etsy shop, and you mastered the art of staging photos. Lady, you're on a roll!! You attended the National Stationery Show and finally got to meet so many of your Mintie friends for real - they ROCK ROCK ROCK! It's still a blessing to be part of the Minted community.
          This past year, I'm proud to say, you overcame your fear of networking and have made new friends in the design world. You're Twitter has tons of followers because people are just really damn interested in everything you have to say (HA!). OK, seriously, you've been more active in the blogging community, the Twitter community, and you've began advertising your brand. You're realizing that it's OK to reach out to people, ask questions and be vulnerable. That's what makes you human and relatable, it's what makes people understand that business don't happen out of thin air, and everybody has a secret challenge that can be overcome. It also gives you great material to blog about. Double whammy.
          You're still enjoying the feeling of being a semi-newly-wed with Mr. Law, and he is still safe and sound after every day (night?) of work. After a lack of traveling in 2011, you've managed to take 2012 by storm. You've gotten out of the country and had plenty of time to act like newly weds again. No, you still aren't thinking about children. Although you don't mind hanging out with other peoples' munchkins, there's something that happens when children become tired/hungry where you're reminded that, deep down, you still think of children as scary little aliens meant for other people to endure 24/7. Harsh? Maybe. Got the point? Definitely. Are you ready? NO!
         Corporate world is still treating you well. You've had tremendous growth over the past year and are a better coach, practitioner and I/O professional because of the experience. You no longer shake every time you board the corporate plane. OK, you shake a little, but you don't need meds anymore. 
          On that note, let me take one more chance to congratulate you on a year well done. You've had your bumps and bruises, but you're BETTER for all of it. Not just a better designer, but a better person. You're a better wife, a better daughter, a better friend, a better professional and a better designer.
                   
                           Warm regards, 
                                      Future Jackie :)

I can't wait to check in at the end of 2012 and see if the above letter is accurate. I sure hope so. Does anybody else write a future letter to themselves? I'd love to hear about it!

Sayonara - Just For A Little

2012 is here and I'm hitting the ground running. If you've been following me you know that we've had some  home issues (floors buckling, anyone?) and I'm happy that we're finally getting things squared away. We've finally gotten the adjustment back from the insurance company, and we are ready to GO! Next week we are getting brand new floors throughout our ENTIRE condo, and then two days after the floors are installed - get ready to call me crazy - we are remodeling our kitchen!

So over the course of three weeks (fingers crossed that it doesn't take longer!) we will have all new floors, an entirely new kitchen, and a bunch of grey hairs. What won't we have? Well, I won't have time blog. It's sad because there is so much I want to chat about, from recent design projects to the holidays to new things for 2012. However, home ownership is calling, and I've got to unplug (literally) my computer for a few weeks. Looks like January is going to fly by, and while you may see a few posts from me over the next month, but don't set your expectations too high. The magic isn't going to start up again until February; however, I promise there will be some blog magic when all is said and done.

In the meantime, you can follow me on twitter @believenotes for all sorts of fun real-time thoughts, and follow my pins on Pinterest to see what's keeping me inspired. Oh, and as always, you can shoot me an email at believenotes@yahoo.com.

So, everybody, I look forward to speaking again soon, and please don't comment if all of my hair turns grey. Speaking of grey, how pretty are these DIY dollar store fake fruits covered in glitter??

Source unknown - from Pinterest