Blog

You may or may not remember my little feature of StarSeventeen, my sister's Etsy shop. Recently, my sister asked me to work on a branding concept for her shop. I was super excited to do this because it is something I've been interested in dabbling in for a while. And of course I was super excited to be helping out my sister! She is an extremely talented artist, so for her to ask me to design something for her was quite the task.

Her art focus of choice these days happen to be painted hats such as these.


She wanted a logo that represented both her signature "portal design" (as you see in this hat) as well as an urban retro feel. The end result?


In addition to the logo, I created a banner for her facebook page and her Etsy shop. My last job was to make post cards, merchandise tags, and business cards for her as well. Everything turned out just as I had envisioned and my sister was by far the easiest client I have ever worked with. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we have ESP. And by ESP, I mean, that I'm familiar enough with her art that I could run with the suggestions she gave me.

Anyway, be on the look out for lots of new super awesome stuff in my sister's shop that goes beyond just the hats! She also just started up a new blog, so feel free to show her some love there as well! And to any of you looking for some design work, I may or may not be just a little happy if you ask me work on a new logo for you. ;)

Any new projects or concepts that you've been working on lately?

It is no secret that this dear old blog needs a little life support at the moment, or maybe a good dose of CPR to at least revitalize it. I've been missing from the blog world for about a month after school took over my life. Between all of the lesson planning, grading of papers, coaching basketball, taking a grad class, AND last but not least keeping up with the continually growing shop, my poor blog has taken the biggest hit of all.

With the arrival of fall, I've decided to try to get my butt back in gear with this whole blogging business. Fall is my favorite time of year and there are a few things that I've been loving lately.

Post-season playoff games for the Baltimore Orioles! Baseball well into October is something that hasn't happened here since we've moved to Baltimore (or even well before then) and the excitement in the city about the O's is pretty awesome! Baseball fans or not, people are getting excited about our baseball team.

via ESPN

Time to get those boots back out! And by getting the boots back out, that also means buying two new pairs to add to lot. Sorry, but I couldn't choose just one of these. In all fairness, I did have some pretty spectacular coupon codes and some leftover money on an Amazon gift card to help me out so that I wouldn't break the bank.

Steve Madden via Amazon

Steve Madden via shoes.com

Also exciting? Popcorn and apple cider! I have a delicious peanut butter popcorn recipe that I'll have to share with you all in the future. I eat way too much of that stuff during these fall months.

While fall in Baltimore is usually pretty warm well until November, this coming week we'll finally be having some of those cooler temperatures that I truly love. Despite tomorrow's weather (lots of rain) I'm loving this outlook for the next few days!


And of course, I can't wait until the leaves start to change! Combine that with some cool, crisp weather and some weekend hiking and I'll be a happy girl.


I just can't help but love fall. It is most certainly my favorite season. What are looking forward to this fall?

It is hard to believe that September is here with fall just around the corner! Fall is by far my favorite season. The humidity of the summer finally leaves, yet the temperatures are pretty much perfect. With beautiful days in the 70s that usually last through October and sometimes even into November, it is hard to complain. That being said, it is time, my friends. Time to prepare for Halloween because it will be here before we know it. So I present to you, three new Halloween cards.

I may be a super dork, but I can't stop laughing at this super ultra hip ghost. He kind of reminds me of Joe Cool if you know what I mean.


And when it comes to this candy corn card, I'm speaking from experience here. I seem to OD on the stuff every single year despite the fact that I hate it. So disgusting, but I just can't stop!


And seriously, it was just too hard for me to pass up this one. Let's face it, there are people that call their significant other "boo" and they need cards, people! They need cards! (If I was really sitting there telling you this in person, I would have said that Jerry Seinfeld-like. Also, I almost typed Jerry Springer instead. That would have been interesting. Ooops.) Plus, who could resist a girl ghost with long eyelashes? You have to look closely, but they are there!


And those, my friends, are my new Halloween cards. Enjoy.

Are you thinking about Halloween yet? Or am I the only one?

I've been hard at work and am finally able to say that the new birthday card line I've been alluding to for a while now is finally finished! In total, there are twelve new birthday cards that are based upon the twelve zodiac signs, each with their respective constellation (yes, I created each constellation-- holy cow that was quite an endeavor). They feature a textured looking navy background and some yellow and orange highlights.

After much research, I decided to dive into this project because it seemed that there was a bit of niche for such an item. And I have to say that after checking out the scene, there are not many cards of this sort that feature the constellation rather than a zodiac symbol or picture. And I am also happy to say that so far they have received many compliments in the few days that they have been launched. It seems that the Virgo and Libra cards are the most popular at the moment, as we are currently in the midst of those birthdays. (I myself happen to be have a birthday right on the Virgo/Libra cusp.)

Needless to say, here is a peek at a few of the cards in the new line which you can now find in my shop.

I really love how the full line turned out. You check out the full line in the Birthday Cards section of my shop.

Have you been working on any new projects lately?

I have left you high and dry, readers. I will be the first to admit it. The school year is upon us and the last week has been incredibly hectic getting back into routines. I plan to continue my travel posts from our road trip this summer and I have a few other posts in store as well in the coming week. However, you may see me less frequently in this neck of the woods until summer vacation arrives again.

Our next stop on our road trip after visiting the Badlands was The Black Hills. We decided to stay in Custer State Park upon recommendation by my mom, and we were not disappointed. The park was absolutely huge and had so many adventures to offer. We spent one day hiking several of the park's beautiful trails up through rock formations that were most incredible. When we had pictured the Black Hills before our arrival, we certainly hadn't expected what we found. And even more flabbergasting was how quickly the land had changed from the Badlands to a rocky and forested terrain of this magnitude within a short two hour drive.

On our second day, we were able to take side trips to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse as well as enjoy some more beautiful scenery and hiking in Custer State Park. The only thing that we didn't love about Custer State Park was the fact that there was a fire ban, so we were unable to have a campfire at our site in the evening. But when you consider the drought conditions of the area, you couldn't complain about it and you felt pretty lucky that the forest was still standing. Point being, this segment of our trip was phenomenal.









There was one other thing that made this portion of the trip special. Ten years ago I traveled through the Black Hills with my parents on a similar road trip. During our time in the Black Hills I had violent food poisoning. It was so bad that I can hardly remember what happened during that part of our trip. I remember driving through those winding roads in the Black Hills, being horribly sick, staying in some random hotel for the night and waking up the next morning being able to choke down a small piece of toast. I think we also saw Mount Rushmore in there somewhere, but I don't remember much of anything because the food poisoning was so bad I had practically blacked out.

It may be silly, but as we drove out of Custer State Park to head onward to Yellowstone, I pumped my fist in the air and yelled, "I did it! I conquered the Black Hills without getting food poisoning! Woohoo!" Andrew looked at me as though I had lost my marbles, but I was glad to say that this time I could enjoy this part of our trip, unlike ten years ago.