Great Balls of Fire!

This weekend I was strolling down Jackson Blvd. when I unexpectedly came upon a window display that I helped create! It was quite exciting to see in real life! This was one of my freelance projects for DRT - to basically take the flame and popcorn bucket images and make them ready for the printer. :) Now I'm sort of interested to try this spicy popcorn...

Blues, Brews & BBQ

Hello Friends! Last month I designed this logo for the McHenry Rotary Club's Blues, Brews & BBQ Event. I'm excited to share it here along with the website concepts I developed today. These are just samples in the super early stages of the design process, but I think they look pretty neat! Let me know which is your favorite by commenting on Facebook - vote for Choice A or Choice B!

Website Choice A

Website Choice B

Let me know which is your favorite by commenting on Facebook - vote for Choice A or Choice B!

Thanks!

Blog About It

Last night I whipped up a blog header for my friend Hilary. We were going for the clean, elegant crafter look, and I believe we accomplished just that!

http://hercards.blogspot.com/

Working on this Hilary's reminded me of some fun blog banners I designed in the recent past...

I created a blog for my freelance client, Disruptive Retail Thinking (commonly known as DRT, pronounced dirt), back in October. Apparently they haven't had any drty thoughts because the only posts on here are from when I created it, but I still think the design is cool!

http://chicagodrt.wordpress.com/

And this was one of my favorite blogs to follow! It was written by one of my college friends and is unfortunately no longer in existence... Maybe seeing this will inspire her to bring it back to life!

- Sugar Blues -

Wow! Today I'm blogging my 44th blog! I think when I get to 50 I should throw a party. I love a good excuse to throw a party... :)

Speaking of parties, today I'm proud to display a poster I created for my friend Joanna. This past year she began her own holistic health business called Heal 'N Glow and I love to support her in any way I can. She is brilliant, beautiful and has the best line of holistic products around. If anyone can attend this event, I strongly recommend it!

Links to her websites: www.healandglow.com and www.wholesomeholistic.com
And for more on the event: www.thestudioartschool.com - Events & Workshops

Courtesy Replied

The other day I applied for a job online. I skimmed the job description and emailed my cover letter and resume right away and put it on my list of jobs to follow up with. The very next day I got an email saying “thank you for your interest but your qualifications did not match those needed for this position,” and I was happy! You must be thinking that I’ve totally lost my mind, but I haven’t! A large majority of my applications get sent in to a black hole where no one ever emails, calls, answers the phone, or maybe even exist. Just by sending that quick little email, she eliminated a lot of unnecessary following up from unqualified candidates. How not annoying that will be! This company is brilliant, or wait, actually they’re simply courteous. Dear Company, thank you for your prompt rejection letter, I thoroughly appreciated it. 

Card Me

In todays world of social media, texting and email, many elements of a designers job are being, well, re-arranged. What used to be print based, like postcards, letterhead, mailings and annual reports, are now becoming internet based. I get it, internet advertising is less expensive, less maintenance, and overall more effective. But one thing that seems to be retaining its print value in the millennium is the business card.

A few reasons why I think business cards are still popular:

      1.     they are cute and fun to hand out

      2.     they signify professionalism

      3.     they fit in our miniature clutches, wallets and clips

      4.     they aren’t a pain to keep around, they fit in rolodex’s, organizers or old watch containers.

      5.     they look great on your desk

      6.     they make you feel like you know a lot of important people

      7.     they’re actually quite helpful –clean, to the point, and just plain wonderful

      8.     they are the best way for people to give their contact information, whether it be just a phone number or their life story. Only a business card can fit office, cell, home, fax, address, second address, email, second email, screen name, website, portfolio, blog, twitter, and Facebook URLs without looking cluttered and confusing!

      In the past year or so, I’ve started my own business card collection. I am always on the lookout for great designs to keep in my stash. My collection is small right now with just over 50 beautiful cards, but it will grow!! Send me your card if you think it’s really great and is not pictured below!! J

Fashion Show!

I had fun designing this poster for the high school :)

Wrapping Up 2011 And Our Trip

The last two days in Mercer were wonderful. I'm writing this post from home, but I wish I was still Up North... On Thursday night we cooked a huge pot of chili over a fire on the ice. Ted and Garrett built a tee-pee to hold the pot and Megan and I combined the ingredients. Maybe it was the fire, maybe it was just being Up North, but we all agreed, that was the best chili ever. My mouth is watering just thinking about it... I don't know if we'll ever be able to make it the same. There wasn't one spoonful left.

Friday was spent relaxing, ice fishing (surprise...), and snowmobiling. We loaded up the snowmobiles and decided to try a neighboring lake for some fish. Ted and Garrett were not having any luck on our lake, but we didn't have any better luck on Cedar Lake, either. After all that ice fishing there was only one fish worth keeping, all the other catches were little. I would have given up much sooner, but men will be men...

After spending all that time out in the cold, we were ready for a good, warm dinner and a celebration. We grilled steaks and asparagus and baked some potatoes and said so long to 2011. We drank champagne, played games, and counted down to 2012. And we saw flying squirrels! What better way to celebrate than with good company, good food, good wine, and finally, a good snowfall. We woke up in the morning to about 8 inches of fluffy snow to see us off. Of course, it snows on the last day...

We were all sad to leave. Packing, cleaning, and saying goodbye was painful as it always is. We left with promises of more adventures in the very near future! Let's make the next year even better than the last.

Thank you to everyone for reading! Best wishes to you all in the new year!

Getting Crafty...

I was very excited to invite close friends to the cabin so I had some fun with the invites! These are a miniature pocket with three inserts - an invitation, an accommodations and a new years card. I used some leftover recycled card stock to make the pockets and used the sewing machine to close the sides with a red zig-zag stitch.  I didn't invite very many people... these wouldn't have been a good idea for a large quantity.

I got creative Up North before Garrett and Megan arrived while Ted was ice fishing. I made these place cards from paper scraps and wine glass tags from felt and embroidery floss. I had fun with the Up North theme and used only scraps. I can't believe I didn't get a photo of the dinner on the table! Oops.