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The end is here! Yesterday was my 30th day for my Design a Day Challenge, and don't you worry, I did in fact design something even though I'm not posting it until this morning. We headed out last night to Koopers, a favorite spot for burgers, in Fells Point. Their burgers are so good that they've been voted best in Baltimore. Plus, they even have one of those food trucks that you'll often spot around town serving their burgers. We met up with a friend of a friend that just moved to Baltimore and ended up staying longer than we had thought we were going to (not that it was a bad thing! It was a fun night!) so I didn't get to post my design last night.

So now, for day 30, I stuck with a nature inspired theme of an ocean blue feather and a wood grain patterned note card.






Finally, I paired these simple note cards with matching ocean blue envelopes. I love the simplicity! The downside, drawing things like this in Illustrator makes me desperately want a tablet. I would be so much better off that way! I've been drawing everything with a mouse which is absolutely awful! I have always been pretty good at drawing, but using a mouse is pretty difficult. Why then is this the downside? Well, tablets are ridiculously expensive if you want one that works well. Time to start saving.

In other news, I was accepted on Heartsy, which is like a Groupon for crafts. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to do it-- it's a pretty steep discount, but if a lot of people purchase the vouchers it's a lot of exposure. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

I listen to music while I'm doing just about everything-- while I work, while I cook, while I teach, while I travel. The other day I was doing just such while working on some designs I had in mind. I decided to change things up a bit and thought I'd put the good ol' iPod on shuffle. Mind you, I have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of songs on that thing. Some stuff that's on there I forget about. I've actually come to a point where I have to make the horrible decision of what to take off of the iPod when I want to add something new! Ugh!

Anyway, as I sat there working, some very interesting things that I am slightly ashamed of happened to come on. And to make it even more embarrassing for myself (I tend to make fun of myself a lot, so it's ok, you can laugh) I began singing along to these songs word for word at top notch volume. The scary part-- I honestly hadn't heard some of these songs in such a long time that I don't even know how my mind was able to remember the words from that far back! When I'm talking a long time ago, I'm talking like first and second grade. This was 1990-1992 for me, so you know, 20 years ago.

2nd grade. (Sorry about the crappy scanned photo.)

Funny thing, first grade was an important year in music for me. It's when I was first introduced to my forever favorite band Midnight Oil. I'd run around the house singing King of the Mountain (check it out below) at the top of my lungs. I also started that lifelong relationship with the Red Hot Chili Peppers that I wrote about earlier this week. And then of course there were all of those other artists that should remain nameless or semi-nameless due to the embarrassment factor. But I'll be nice and share with you anyway.




Any of that sound familiar to you? What did you listen to when you were in elementary school?

Baltimore is a pretty inspiring place. So much history, architecture, and art in this vibrant city. Baltimore has a bad reputation, but after living here for four years, I feel like it is my duty to let people know just how cool it actually is. My shop name, Row House 14, is actually where I live-- a row house with the street address number 14. My house is my studio and that is how the name came about.

One thing that I love about the old Baltimore row houses is that many people have painted their doors brightly in colors that look fantastic alongside the brick buildings. When we moved into our row house, I was determined to do just the same-- I chose teal. (surprising, right?)


I love doors. They represent quite a bit in our lives. Recently, my mother made a complete doors series of woodblock prints that were beautiful. Her doors represented all sorts of places she had lived throughout her life. The Baltimore doors and her woodblock prints were equally inspiring today when I came up with these colorful door postcards. The colors are Baltimore and design woodblock inspired.






In addition to these fun postcards, I also worked on some note cards today that will eventually find their way into my shop. I felt this design quite inspiring in itself as it seems I have had all sorts of doors of opportunity opening for me lately.

Is it really day 28? Why, yes! That means I only have two more days to go. I'm thinking I won't stop there, however. There are too many super awesometastic things that I've been coming up with!

Take today's design for example-- a set of stationery perfect for a writer. Four note cards with envelopes and four postcards made out of super heavy weight card stock, all hand cut and hand scored. A set of four pens, accompanied by four different quotes from some of the greatest writers of all time.






I love this set! I mean absolutely LOVE this set! Not only do I love the design and colors, but I love the quality. Some of the best quality card stock and envelopes that I have encountered to be exact. And the best part-- 100% recycled paper and made with wind power. Throw in some wise words by Michener, Hawthorne, Wordsworth, and Renard and the set is complete. These are by far my new favorite! Nothing compares!

The fence and pergola project is making some progress, but nothing to document at the moment. So instead of an update, I thought I'd show you a different project I've been working on. You could say it has been an ongoing project, but not nearly as painstaking and the back yard. When we moved into the row house, I decided that I was going to do a complete overhaul of our decor. Our guest room in the apartment really had no decor as it served as storage and office as well.

While our new guest room in the row house was temporary storage for a few things we needed to get rid of, we took care of that last weekend when the dumpster for the rest of the back yard concrete arrived. It felt good to purge all of the other junk from the house that we'd been waiting to take to the dump-- most notably 4 floor lamps that were lined up against the wall in the guest room. With those out, I feel as though I can finally share the progress.

I've turned to one of my favorite color combinations-- blue and brown. While the room is not finished and needs a coat of paint to get rid of the boring white, here is what I've put together so far.



Everything in the room has just happened into place one at a time. I found the clock at Uncommon and immediately knew it belonged. The dripping dark blue pitcher is a pottery piece I had thrown a while ago that somehow showed up on the night stand. I decided it worked so I let it stay. The bedside lamp was an impulse $14 buy at Target. I used a frame that was a Christmas present for a paper cut piece that I made to coordinate the room. The photos are my own originals that I framed using old frames I found around the house. The night stand was a cabinet we used in our tiny bathroom at the old apartment. I needed something for the guest room and it just happened to fit in that space perfectly. And finally, I sewed the accent pillows from fabric I found at JoAnn Fabrics-- they match the luxuriously soft and silky bamboo sheets I picked up on clearance at Bed Bath & Beyond.

The next project for this room is paint. In fact, I'm hoping to choose some paint colors in the coming week. And one lovely part of this room that I failed to show you, is the exposed brick wall-- such a contemporary feature for an old row house.