Confessions of a Dangerously Minted Mind

So I have a confession to make... I have most recently come to the conclusion that my creative juices may have come to a screeching halt. I am not sure when the tap may have actually turned off but after careful review of my last entries in the Perfect Match Minted Challenge, I'm pretty sure it was just about....there.

  

What I had hoped was inspired was questionable. What I had hoped was modern looked half finished. My attempt at watercolors looked like a third grader gone wild with three very angry crayons. My very very retro seemed well just plain weird. How did I not see that BEFORE I designed them? How is it that I am only able to recognize how awful they were after I am dumbstruck by the absolutely stunningly, gorgeously and ridiculously creative works of the very talented around me? Where does that kind of creativity come from? Can I order that from Amazon with overnight shipping please? 

 

You know I have this fear that what it takes is the studious application of copious amounts of time and energy spent trolling pinterest, voraciously reading twenty blogs a day, daily ripping editorial pages from a stack of magazines waist high, weekly visits to art museum's and gallery openings, learning the art of using my smart phone to catapult me to creative genius thru instragram and tweeting my every creative thought real time. For the love of all that is holy, please someone tell me that's not true. Because if it is I see an epic fail coming on. Where does all that free time come from? Am I just not doing it right or is it as I fear ... I used to be creative and now I am just not. I tell you dear reader, the worry is great that the well has gone dry. Or as my husband says...maybe you just need a vacation and bigger glass of vino. Not sure just yet I hope sincerely you will stay tuned as I try to figure it out.

 

 

 Photo: Daniel Everett

 

Font Friday: Doodleista

 

Because into everyones life must fall a doodle or two. Remember math class? C'mon I wasnt the ONLY one not listening to the square root of pi. So to honor the doodlers. I present Doddleista from Filiz Sahin. Once again, from the kindness of a typographers heart - it's FREE.

 

Font Friday: Early Addition with Citizen Slab

I am in love. There are no other words for how I feel about Citzen Slab font. I want to put it on EVERYTHING. And the creater Joel Felix says - the very kind soul that he his- that you can have it for free. Get it here.

Designers Care: It's not just pretty paper

 

I want to share something wonderful with you that I am very proud to be a part of. After Hurrican Sandy hit, Jackie Mangiolino, the Long Island designer behind Belive Notes, decided she wanted to help the local communities devastated by the storm. So she reached out to all of us in the design community and asked if we would be willing to donate designs to be turned into stamps and then used to create small art cards. The answer. "How fast do you need it?"

 

And so Designers Care was born. Each card available in the shop has been donated by established designer, then had stamped or hand embossed onto a small wallet sized card or larger note card. The cards range from simple thanks...

 

 

to the inspirational ...

 

 

 

to the very personal...

 

 

 

This initiative is a non-profit, so all proceeds (aside from shipping and transaction fees) will be donated to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief. We hope to make a difference. Help us by sharing what we're doing with your friends and family.

 

Happy Veteran's Day

 

On this day and every day we honor the the monumental sacrifice of sons and daughters everywhere. We shall always and forever be grateful.

 

Photo credits: Brooke Daniels Photography ( my amazing neighboor)

Font Friday: Ragazza

What has more flourish than you can throw a stick it but still manages not to be fussy? Ragazza Script for Latinotype!

Let's Play Catch Up

Life is full of triumphs and epic fails but I like to think that's what life is all about. It's not the destination ... but the journey. Right? And since my epic fails are a bit too numerous to recount, and I quite sure to make a few more I'd thought we'd just go with some of the cooler things of late.

I tried my hand once again in Minted's Holiday Card Challenge. Super excited and very honored to receive an Editor's Pick for Serendipity. Next up? My first art print challenge.

I was very hesitant to try my hand with what I consider to be one of the harder challenges Minted presents. The Art Print challenge.So many uber talented designers out there creating amazing stuff! But I LOVED my print and the book that inspired it and thankfully Minted did too! Sweet Pea will be on sale soon! 

Super Mom. Super Wife. Super Woman. Super Tired.

A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen or so the saying goes... right? But I've been thinking what if dirty dishes piled up in the sink cuz nobody has five minutes to swap them with the clean ones in the dishwasher, or the trash that needs to be taken out (Seriously. What is that smell?) and the groceries that need to be bought on top of the groceries waiting to be put away means it's plain you've just got too much crap going on? 

I mean, between football practice that runs into basketball practice that overlaps with the PTA meeting that conflicts with my neighborhood board meetings, that all conflict with being a small business owner. I suddenly feel like my desire to be all things is moving beyond my type A personality and converging towards crazy? But when I consider dropping any one of them I am appalled at the thought that I won't be my kids biggest cheerleader, make sure warm nutritious meals are on the table for my family, be a contributing member of my community or that I wouldn't ( gasp!) blog, pin, tweet, create, promote, and tag my way to building my small business.

I don't know. Suddenly, I'm struggling to make all the pieces fit and I am just not sure what to do about it. I want to be a super mom, a super wife and a super business woman but how do you balance it all? For now what I do know...am I a super mom? Vote's still out on that one but a plate of warm chocolate cookies never hurts to sway your constituency. A super wife? That strikes me as a loaded question... but I'll run with you betcha. A great business woman? Not sure. I have a tremendous amount of self doubt and competition is fierce. Being seen, being heard and being original gets harder all the time. I am not leading a nearly interesting enough life to tweet about, there are not enough hours in the day to pin, I am not nearly creative enough to DIY myself into a corner and then blog about it and with major changes over at Etsy. Some super focus is now needed to keep my little shop from becoming irrelevant.

Super mom? Maybe. Super wife? I like to think so. Super Woman? Ah no. Super tired? That would be a yes.

American Elections: Vintage Typecuts

Have you seen the humorous drinking poster on conservative intel? Create your own like I did, using these great FREE Vintage Election Graphics  fromWeblays. They're only free until Nov. 6th!