fill in the blank friday!

1.   My favorite color is     blue gray.  Like a steely gray. 

2.  My travel destination of choice is    somewhere quaint and charming.  Where I can just sit at a coffee shop and hang out all day.  

3.  My favorite  food is     chipotle.  i should probably quit talking about chipotle before the extent of my addiction comes out.  

4.  My happy place is   target.  I'm one of those people that is happy just walking around and looking at things.  sometimes i'm in the mood to look at makeup, sometimes art, sometimes towels... and target has everything!

5.  My favorite saying is      "Love deeply and passionately... you might get hurt, but it's the only way to live life completely."

6.  My dirty little secret is     that I love pre-teen books.  I love Twilight, Harry Potter, the Vampire Diaries, the Hunger Games, you know, all the ones that "respectable adults" would never be caught reading.  I've read all the Twilight books at least 5 times. 

7.  Something friends might say about me is that I     am creative.  My friend Holly told me the other day I'm one of the most creative people she knows, and it was really a compliment, because although I aspire to be creative, I sometimes doubt myself and it feels good when someone acknowledges you. 

Make sure to link up with all the other "fill-in-the-blankers" at http://thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com/! 

What I Want Wednesday!

OK so Wednesday's almost over, but that doesn't mean I will want these things any less tomorrow!

"I Love You Like Dobby Loves Socks"... ahhh, Harry Potter humor.  I'm a dork. from MarsupialMenagerie on etsy

Marimekko Outdoor Umbrella from Crate & Barrel via Pinterest

If I could get married again (to the same person, of course!) this would be my dream invitation. Made of real wood! via Oh So Beautiful Paper (my new favorite blog, everything is so pretty!)

Cute bubble mugs from ArtOnPorcelain on etsy

Woodgrain Flask from Liquid Courage on etsy.  So many cute flasks.  I don't drink liquor but I should get one just to put on a shelf. 

Hope you guys are having a great week!

Weekend Update: Wedding Fun!

I had a very eventful weekend! Bachelorette Party on Friday, Trivia on Saturday, Wedding on Sunday!
Here's a few pics from the weekend (I still haven't gotten a hang of my phone camera, everything turns out really grainy... anyone got any tips?):

Holly, The Bride

My friend Rachel and I at the "Sips n Strokes" Pre-party.  And I just want yall to know that I tried to iron my pretty new dress before putting it on, and apparently it is not an iron-friendly fabric, and it completely ruined my dress, but I wore it anyway.  I'm guessing no one noticed because it's black, but I don't know that I can ever wear it again.  BOOOO.  At least it was only $20 at TJMaxx!

Conor & I at the wedding

With the Bride

And I finally finished my niece's bookbag! I shared the beginning of the process here, and last night I stitched around the doggie, in the white space I left myself between the artwork and the pink border, and I stitched beads on as a necklace and bejeweled the crown.  I think she looks cute! Then, to keep the threads on the inside from getting caught on pencils and such, I used fabric glue to attach a piece of fabric to the inside of the pocket that covered all the loose threads, and hopefully that will keep the beads from getting loose and falling off also.

fill in the blank friday!

 Hi Everyone! sooooo excited it's friday.  this week has really sucked.  last week did too, matter of fact (just the work part of my weeks, everything else was fine!)  

Tonight I'm going to my friend Holly's Bachelorette party, we're doing a wine & painting party then going out dancing! I'm gonna wear my new shoes and hope I don't fall and die.  Then Sunday night is Holly's wedding, I went ahead and took off work Monday morning in anticipation of the fun times, so hopefully I'll be able to sleep in!

 

1.   One of my happiest moments ever was     the day I left for college.  It's just such an amazing feeling to know the big wide world is out there for the taking and that you're about to live by yourself and have so much freedom.  I'm not saying I did the best job of being responsible with that freedom, or that I "took the world", but just knowing that anything is possible is a great feeling. 

2.  Summer is wedding season and weddings are   fun! Well, receptions are, just hanging out with everyone and drinking and dancing.  

3.  This summer     has been hot.  At least our A/C hasn't gone out like it did the past 2 summers.  Just jinxed myself. crap.  I always love fall best, and this year I am really itching for the leaves to turn orange and the weather to get that slight chill.  Makes me feel happy inside.  

4.  My summer food of choice has been   the same as it always is: chipotle! i'm seriously addicted to chipotle.  i go at least twice a week. 

5.  My summer uniform has been     some candies cropped jeans I got a couple months ago, and short sleeved shirts.  I don't wear a lot of shorts, or tank tops. 

6.  If I could spend the entire summer in one location I would choose    a lake that's not too hot.  And that has a bit of some beachy sand instead of muddy dirt.  I like the lake better than the beach because I do not get along with salt water or waves (salt water makes my eyes water and my newly shaved legs burn, waves make me SOOOO sea sick). 

7.  My summer anthem is     anything by Taylor Swift.  Love. Her. 

Make sure to link up at The Little Things We Do!

30 Day Art Challenge: Day 10

Since I've started offering logo design packages again, I haven't had too much time after work to do much else, so maybe this wasn't the best time to start a 30 day challenge, but I haven't given up yet! I've been working on a bookbag for my niece Kirstin, who starts Kindergarten in August.  She is obsessed with chihuahuas, and my mom tried to find her a bookbag with a dog on it and just couldn't find anything cute, so I offered to make her one.  My mom got this blue backpack with hearts online at Land's End.

So, I purchased this chihuahua picture for $1 from ADreamersVision on etsy:

And I added a pink outline to the doggie and got it printed on fabric at spoonflower.com- an 8"x8" swatch only cost $5!

 Then I carefully cut around the pink line, and then painted fabric glue around the outside edges and adhered it to the backpack:

It's not actually attached in that picture, but you get it.  So now here are the steps I still have left:
1. Go around the perimeter of the dog and stitch the fabric down in a few places where it might easily peel up when a kindergartener starts throwing her bookbag around.
2. Bedazzle! I got some beads at Michael's, and I am going to make the doggie a little beaded necklace and put some jewels on her crown.
3. This is optional: I got some wood blocks to try wood block printing, and I really wanted to stamp some little bones in the section that doesn't have any hearts, but I think it might be overkill, so I'll see how I like it after I get the jewels on.

Update! I finally finished my niece's bookbag! Last night I stitched around the doggie, in the white space I left myself between the artwork and the pink border, and I stitched beads on as a necklace and bejeweled the crown.  I think she looks cute! Then, to keep the threads on the inside from getting caught on pencils and such, I used fabric glue to attach a piece of fabric to the inside of the pocket that covered all the loose threads, and hopefully that will keep the beads from getting loose and falling off also.

Balancing Wooden Wine Holders - Building Process

As I mentioned last week, Saturday I went to help my bride-to-be friend Holly with her DIY bridesmaids’ gifts: balancing wine bottle holders! I got there at 11 and we started setting everything up: putting a new blade on the bandsaw, getting the planer out of the box, deciding on a plan… and the plan was: “oh, we can whip these out in no time!”  Too bad whenever you think a project won’t take long, it always ends up taking 12 times as long as you thought.  So while I don’t have any pictures of the finished product yet, I do have some how-to steps for starting the project.  

Holly got a 3” thick piece of mahogany.  We borrowed our friend Rachel’s “baby bandsaw” and we were pretty worried about having to cut through such a thick piece of wood with the baby bandsaw, and Holly wanted to use the planer she got for Christmas, so we planed the wood down to about 2.5”.  I had never used a planer, and it was really cool.  You slide the wood through and it shaves 1/16 of an inch off the top of the wood every time it goes through, and makes a huge pile of wood shavings (which reminded me of this regretsy post about "sawdust to throw at weddings"; we could have totally made some money, or thrown them on the ground at holly’s wedding this weekend! Haha).

So, then we cut the huge piece of mahogany into smaller sections to make them easier to maneuver, and used Super 77 spray adhesive to attach the printed out pattern to the wood.  You can download the pattern for the balancing wine holders here.  Ned (Holly’s fiancé) used a holesaw drill bit to drill the hole first (so we had a flat surface to drill the hole instead of trying to drill on a rounded surface after cutting the piece out.) 

 

Holly cut out the pieces with the bandsaw, then we started trying to sand them.  By hand.  It. Was. Awful.  And it also made us realize we would never get them done if we didn’t have some power tools.   

So we busted out a hand sander… the kind that vibrates and makes your hand feel like it is going to fall off after you’ve held onto it for 5 minutes… and started using that, and it worked a lot better.  But not good enough.  So that warranted a trip to Home Depot for a belt sander.   If you’ve never used a belt sander, those bad boys are a little scary.  My first experience with a belt sander was when we were making shapes out of foam in college as an intro to model making, and if you weren’t careful, the sander would rip the foam out of your hands and throw it across the room.  The belt sander worked pretty well, and we got about 4 wine holders sanded with the 80 grit sandpaper, and they were looking good! Too bad you then had to sand them with 100 grit, then 150, then 200, and possibly even finer grit than that, before they can be oiled.  When sanding something, you start with a rougher paper to get out the big imperfections, then you have to keep going smoother to get your wood smoother.  It’s a long, drawn out, tedious process, and that’s why projects always take 12 times longer than you think they will!

I left at about 6:30 and that was the status of the project.  The wedding is Sunday and Holly still doesn’t have them finished, so hopefully she’ll be able to find some time to work on them this week and get them done by the wedding! I’ll post finished pics if I can get them!

30 day art challenge: Day 4

update on my 30 day challenge: it's..... going.  that's about all i can say so far.  I did cut out some fabric for some pillows on wednesday, but last night, i just didn't feel like doing anything. the main reason for that is because i started re-reading the last harry potter book on monday in preparation for the movie.  yes, i am a harry potter dork, and a twilight fanatic. don't hate.  i am 608 pages in, which means only 151 pages to go before I go see the movie on sunday.  definitely gonna finish. 
so, i have missed one day of my challenge so far, well i guess technically this will be day 2 out of 4 of failing at my challenge, because i am going bowling tonight and will probably not be doing anything crafty.... BUT! tomorrow will be the craftiest day I have had in a while... like, since college.  my friend holly is making super awesome balancing wine racks for her bridesmaid gifts (her wedding's next weekend, yay!) and i'm helping!  she's got the wood, we borrowed a bandsaw, she's got the pattern printed out, we've pulled together supplies, and we're making these tomorrow!

Picture from etsy seller WondrousWorksinWood .... if we're lucky maybe ours will look as good as this!

So I say making a trip back to my woodworking days of college more than makes up for me being a little harry potter-obsessed this week.  I'll post a how-to and pics next week!  Have a good weekend everyone!

Logo Design Packages Available Again

About a year ago, I was offering custom and premade Logo Design Packages, and after doing it for a couple months I had become so busy that I took the packages out of my shop to focus more on the print-side of my business.  It's a fine line to walk, because you make more money doing custom work, but at the same time you've got to put aside a lot more hours in the day to work on logos and branding packages.  In light of my upcoming web design classes, I've decided to take on some clients for the next few months to help towards the $5000 dollar part of the school equation.  So, take a look and please let me know if you need any logo/banner/avatar/advertising work done, and please pass along my name to anyone who is looking for custom design work!

you are a single shopaholic?

I'm not really sure what this "family of stick figures" is trying to say about this person.  She's single, has no kids, but lots of animals, but she's also a shopaholic? hmmm...

30 Day Art Challenge: Day 1

For the first day of my 30 Day Challenge, I posted a print I had been working on a few weeks ago but hadn't made some different color variations and put it in the shop yet.  What do you guys think?

& they lived happily ever after, 8x10 print with customizable colors and names. Available in the shop.

30 day challenges

I was reading a post by Maggie of Mighty Girl where she spoke of Matt Cutts and 30 Day Challenges. 
I think the only way to really change your life is to do things continually... whether it's taking a class, wearing lipstick or high heels every day, learning to not be so dependent on technology, etc.  When it comes to my artwork, I become complacent for months at a time.  I am lucky in the respect that I have a sustainable field- I make a digital piece and can continue to sell the same print, as opposed to painters who can make one piece and then when they sell it, it's gone.  Which is why they can sell their paintings for high prices.  They are one of a kind.  So when I got to the point where I was making a reasonable amount of sales and had to print things and package them every night, I stopped making new things.  Sure, I make a random new print every once in a while, but for the most part I just renew listings that are already in my shop.  So, for the next month, I am going to create a new piece of art every day! Being realistic, I may not create an entirely new piece every day, but I am going to try to at least work on a new piece everyday.  For a while I had been sketching things everyday, so excited about all the new artwork I could make, and it kind of tapered off (plus I switched to my cute yellow summery Jessica Simpson purse, and my sketchbook kinda crowds it haha.)

 See? So cute, I love everything Jessica Simpson makes, even if I would probably never wear 5 inch heels. They're still cute.
Anyway, back on topic, I ramble I know.   So, my point is I wanna try to work on my art every day for a month, OR at least do something crafty.  I have some IKEA fabric that I've been wanting to make pillows with, I've got some clockparts and basswood slices I've had for probably a year that I have been wanting to paint and make clocks with, and I've been wanting to make a bench with cubbies for the entryway so we can leave our shoes by the door (thus keeping the dirt out so even when I don't sweep/mop our socks won't be all nasty.)
So, I'd love for you to share some things you'd like to start doing, whether or not you plan on doing the 30 day challenge!

fill in the blank friday!

Don't forget to link up at The Little Things We Do!

So, what's everyone's plans for the weekend? Tonight I'm going to Antico Pizza, and I'm so excited! I love their pizza, and it's BYOB and you stand up and eat and it's just sooo good.  I'll say it again if I have to.  Then, we're trying out a comedy thing called Cineprov at the Relapse Theater.  The movie for the night is Deep Blue Sea (you know, where they make the sharks smart and then the sharks turn on them and try to kill them?) and improv comedians make fun of the movie the whole time.   Hopefully it'll be a good time.  I've heard there might not be air conditioning, and I've also heard you can get in for free if you wear a bathing suit (which I am not going to do), so hopefully it'll be some good laughs (and people watching, if crazy people really show up in their swimsuits).

{the delicious sweet biscuits @ Tasty n Sons}

1.   My plans this summer include      nothing really.  I went on my vacation to the Dominican Republic (first vacation since our honeymoon 2.5 yrs ago) in May, so I don't really have any more vacation plans.  I hope to get to the pool a few times and maybe the lake or the beach.  

2.  The best summer I ever had was    probably when I was a preteen and I went to the YMCA day camp every day, and it's just so fun having so many friends and playing in the sun and swimming and having first everythings- boyfriends, kisses, heartbreaks (not that that's fun, but it's fond memories when you look back on it and realize everything happens for a reason).

3.  Summer is     hot.  growing up in south georgia there's just no respite from the overwhelming heat - and the bugs, ugh, gnats everywhere!  you can see why i got married in the winter. 

4.  My favorite summer food is   ice cream! we just got one of the self-serve frozen yogurt places right by my house, and it's so good.  and i may or may not have had a frosty for lunch today. 

5.  The best way to quench a summer thirst is with     a mojito.  i love those things. 

6.  My summer uniform consists of       capri pants and light shirts- i'm not big on shorts or tank tops either, really.  

7.  The best thing about summer is     that traffic is a million times better and it takes me 10 minutes less to get to work.  Plus it's easier to get up in the morning because it's brighter outside, and it stays brighter at night so you feel like doing things after work. 

what i want wednesday!

today i'm going to showcase some of my favorite things that i've found through pinterest (follow me here: http://pinterest.com/noellepriss/) - these are from my "luxurious modern bedroom" board, which i envision to be charcoal gray and yellow, and full of texture!  my wall color is a blue-gray, i can't remember the exact color right now but i'll have to remember to post a picture soon.

Bella Bedding from Z Gallerie

Yellow Woodgrain Rug from rugsusa.com

Lantern from zgallerie (apparently it's not for sale on the website anymore, but that doesn't make me want it any less!)

Yellow Ruffle Pillow from whitenest on etsy

Side table from West Elm

Felted Loop Pillow, free pattern available on lionbrand.com

Check out the entire pinterest board to see the other exciting things I want for my bedroom!

back to school, back to school

i have some exciting news to share! i'm going back to school! not REAL school, i guess, but taking web design classes. 

i know someone who now has a design business who learned web design through emory's continuing education program.  at the end of approximately 8 months, i should have a certificate in web design, and i think the track i'm going to specialize in is e-commerce.  with my background in selling on etsy, and knowing that i'd love to have my own shop and be able to design with my own aesthetic, i think i'd like to stick to the shop-side of web design, and help other people create their e-commerce sites. i also want to learn some wordpress and do some blog design.  final cost will be about $5000, which is a big chunk of change, but about $25,000 less than getting an associates degree in web design online.  it also means i will be going to class all day on saturdays for a while, but i can suck it up and deal.

and then i can work from home and make a cute little computer nook with birch trees! love it! via designsponge

fill in the blank friday!

hi everyone, hope you're having a good friday-before-vacation... i had to work today but we get to leave in about 30 minutes.  not before we decorate my boss's office in aluminum foil for her bday though! hopefully she won't kill us, but i think it's going to be so cute.  plus I got cute zebra print and polka dot streamers to hang from the door and the ceiling, and silver balloons... here's our inspiration:

(AP Photo/Mankato Free Press, John Cross) MANDATORY CREDIT

We're definitely not going this crazy because I think our boss would get pretty mad, but we're gonna do the chairs and door and desk and the things on the desk.
OK....now time for some blanks!

1.   The best news I ever received was       hmmm.... probably that I got into Georgia Tech.  Definitely a proud moment.

2.  Something I'm looking forward to is    hmm... these are hard today.  I'm looking forward to pitching a plan this weekend to my husband for me to start taking some web design classes! 

3.  Something I would never do is     eat bugs.  eww gross.  my mom told me she ate some kind of chocolate-covered bugs at some point in her life, and i just don't think i could do it.  i would fail big time at fear factor. 

4.  If I could choose someone to be my life coach (famous or not, living or dead), I'd choose   Marc Newson.  He's a crazy awesome Industrial Designer, and he is probably pretty crazy in real life too, so it'd just be fun to hang out with him and see how he gets his crazy ideas so he'll rub off on me.

5.  If I had to put a label on my style it would be    lazy.  i wear what is clean and not too wrinkly.  jeans every day.  wear my hair up in a wet ponytail at least 3 times a week because there is no way i'm getting out of bed 10 minutes earlier to blowdry it.

6.  One should always       do what makes them happy.

7.  I want to      be a super awesome famous designer who gets to travel the world!