At a Loss

I'm always at a loss for something to write. Do I write more about my interests, my day-to-day life, only what I make, only book-related things? I still haven't figured it out. 

But I still keep myself busy. And then at that point, I don't make time to write on the blog. 

Lately, I've been helping out with a new online company that has not made its debut yet, but it's going to be awesome. I hope it turns out big because I fully support the concept, design and people behind it. The downside is that I have a lot of work to do! And I'm feeling way under qualified, although I know it's not true.... it just feels like homework all over again. That's why I was done with school, right? Never have a deadline ever again? ;) Yeah, just kidding. 

And on Friday I'm going to have a booth at the Riverwood's Happy Valley Farmer's Market. It's going to be fun! If you live around here, or have friends that do, tell them to drop by the Riverwoods from 5-9 pm this coming Friday! They have live entertainment, great food, and really awesome vendors. 

Speaking of inspiration....

There is a wonderful fellow bookbinder named Sonya from Australia who owns a shop called Sago on Tuesdays who posted something wonderful on Facebook that I wanted to share:

6 of these Sunday Pace journals, each with the same cover but different spine colours, are on their way to Boston, for 6 best friends to use them to share and swap recipes, garden photos, 

thoughts, prayers, family photos and many other special tokens of friendship.

Personalized with custom bookplates, and a common poem about friendship on the first page.

How wonderful, and a joy to make.

The SUNDAY PACE journal is the most tangible, tactile, versatile and comforting journal I make. It is by far the most popular, with both men and women. I am trying out new ideas and formats, but this one is indeed perrenial. Check it out at Etsy, including the COLOPHON which describes the nittygritties about how it's made.

www.sagoontuesdays.etsy.com

*This is NOT my book. This is Sonya's. Isn't it beautiful?


So, speaking of inspiration, how inspiring is a set of 6 or so books for friends to swap? I sure wish I had at least 3 friends to something like this with.....

Searching for Inspiration

First of all, I want to express my great frustration with publishing this post - I had it all neatly written on my smartphone, but for some reason, it didn't upload to the internet. When I published it, it spun its wheels and never did anything...except keep me from ever seeing the post ever again in order to rewrite it. So this is what I get for not writing often enough that one lost post feels like the end of the world. And for ever trusting that Google had Blogger worked out on their own Android OS....


But apart from that, I'm going to try and recall as much of what I wrote before again.


Inspiration is an interesting thing. Isn't it fascinating that people create things every day, each vastly unique from others. I was reading one of Etsy's "Quit Your Day Job" articles and they ask shop owners where they gather their inspiration. More often than not, it's somewhere along the lines of, "Everywhere".


How can a collection of people be looking at roughly the same ocean, beaches, forests, night sky, experiencing the same bus ride, shopping trip or household chores, create the variety of things that they do? It's beautiful. I love it.


Click post to read more...

Daily Crafting

Today is another one of those days where I have to cross things off my never-ending To Do list so I can feel a sense of accomplishment. Yesterday it was the dishes and dinner, and today it's spray painting our ghetto dining room chairs. 

No, really, they are. Thanks to some abandoned chairs (and yes, they truly were) around campus, I started our chair collection. Then just last month when my mom and sister were visiting, we dropped by the surplus sale they have every few months and found some matching chairs. So now I have a set of 4. Hooray! But now to clean them up and bring them out of 1978 (that's what the tag on the bottom said). 

Here's a bit of a product placement (non-sponsored, shucks), but I have to say that Rustoleum brand spray paint is the best in my opinion. Trust me, I've used my fair share of spray paint being an industrial designer. Whether it's been sprayed on polystyrene, bondo encrusted foam, metal, wood, or whatever random material, Rustoleum beats Krylon hands down. The stuff I'm using on these metal chair frames is the Hammered line that leaves a really neat finish and covers up any dinks that may be left behind from years of lovin'. It also doesn't require primer, which gives it an A+ in my book.

Next step in finishing the chairs

What to write?

I know it's been 2 months since I posted, but I'm always at a loss for what to write. I envy those bloggers that can post daily or even weekly with captivating and fascinating posts. That's probably why some of them get paid to do so...I'd pay them to read what they have to say most of the time. 

Since posting last, we've finished the semester and officially started summer. The weather had been very typical spring up until last week, with all the back-and-forth temperatures (rain, hot, cold and blustery, pleasant). This weekend it decided to be blistering. Welcome summer! And welcome A/C! :) 

This past weekend we were at the Provo Farmer's Market for their opening day. We had a booth and met a lot of really nice people. Many people stopped by our booth and said they had also taken a bookbinding class. Some even took it from the same teacher, and that was pretty cool. We were across from a booth name My Cutie Pies, that made mini cupcake-sized pies that were delicious. We were also just down the sidewalk from the neatest Swedish fiddle guy that made some really cool music. Even when we don't make any sales, I love being at the farmer's market to see the great skills and talents of local artists and later this summer, to get some amazingly fresh and affordable produce. 

If you haven't been to a farmer's market, you should go to one this summer. Most of them are at the end of week, sometimes Thursdays and Saturdays. And buy a snow cone. New favorite thing of mine. Yumm....

Birth of a Book

Absolutely beautiful video. I love book making. This shows the romanticism of the process (although this has a great deal of machinery involved, the handmade process is of course, very similar).

Branding

Just a little update on my current project. Working on notecards. Pretty boring stuff...okay, not boring, just part of the process.

Moderation

If you ever wonder why I get behind on adding posts, or wish I was more active on facebook, this video is probably the reason why. It really resonates with me and what I spend my time doing. In those moments where I realize that I'm wasting my time with things that are not truly fulfilling, or losing precious time with my daughter, I step away. And perhaps that's because I'm not too good at cutting down, but rather, need to completely eliminate and start over fresh. Whatever way it's done, I recommend it to anyone. Learn something new and start to be engaged in your own life.

Tough, but ordinary week

This week has been fairly typical for me. I made a few new books and have come up with a few ideas for more. Today I added 2 new books on etsy. I've been on a mini book kick for a while, but I will be getting back to regular sized ones soon.

Little one was sick last week with a virus that I think I passed around to the family, and that combined with her new-found toddlerhood didn't mix well and did not create the happiest kid on the block. Being a mother of a toddler is not like being the mother of an infant, and I'm learning that quickly. Luckily, she's healthy now and is giving me the good week that I (and hubby) felt like I (we) needed.

My latest non-book creation was a hoodie for Bug. I used a pattern I bought off of etsy with some Christmas money from a fantastic shop called HeidiandFinn. I got a buy two get one free deal, and I've made 2 out 3 of the ones I purchased. The instructions are easy to follow and they create really adorable clothes. I got the urban unisex hoodie, cowl neck jumper dress and the chic cocktail swing coat.

It's Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day! I've always been someone who's liked this day, regardless of my relationship status (in high school/college). I know some people who have a love/hate relationship with it, but I'm a believer that it's good to get a yearly reminder to appreciate the ones you love. I've read statuses (statusi?) on facebook proposing that we spend everyday, not just this one day, showing our love and appreciation. And I think that's a great idea. But that doesn't make this one day less special. It's kind of like New Years Resolutions. Yes, I believe we should be living healthily and exercising all year long, but New Years is a good time to remind yourself of your goals. Same thing with V-day.

Well, karma must have caught up with me today. I guess we must have not tipped a waiter enough, or I thought poorly of a Utah driver because I got sick. Yuck. Who wants to be sick on Valentine's Day? I guess the worst part is that I don't know what the bug was. And I really hope that no one else in my family gets sick too. Mom said she's feeling under the weather too. Bleh.

As an upside, we're celebrating Valentine's for the whole week...a little tomorrow (because today was crazy) and maybe something this weekend. I'm thinking of adopting the idea of celebrating birthdays for a week, and Christmas for a month. :)

Lastly, for your enjoyment, a video of Lindsay blowing on a helicopter. Okay, that sounds weird. But you have to watch it to understand. :)

The chorus of laughter and comments are from my family who was webchatting with us at the time.

New Beginnings

My best friend got married yesterday! Yay! And they threw a great party. The bride was gorgeous....I can't even put into words how beautiful she was. And the groom was quite dashing too. They looked so incredibly happy. I'm excited for them and their new life together. 

Now that I'm not running around helping her have the perfect wedding, I needed a new project. Because, just like my mother, I can't not have a project (or stress....). I'm now in the midst of redesigning my website. I finished my new logo (I wasn't completely fond of the last one), and thus had to provide a clean slate that matched the color palette. It's a lot of work, and that's even with these built-in templates and only 3 pages. I completely commiserate with people who have bigger, more trafficked websites than my own and decide to do some design changes. 

That's the new plan. Let's see how this goes!

Dance Party

Oh yes, today I had a dance party....with my toddler, and it was fantastic! That little girl can rock it, I'm tellin' ya. Daft Punk is her favorite from what I can tell. I might have to post a video here or on facebook.

I'm also working on a wedding guestbook for my best friend, Shahn. I got a lot done today. All I have left is sewing it together. I'm excited about it because I think it's beautiful. And I'm excited for Shahn to get married!

I also finished Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire yesterday, so that was pretty exciting. I think this goes in the record books for the longest book I've ever read....until I finish the next one! I love the movies, but after reading the books, I've discovered that the movies are a different animal than the books. Great on their own, but sorely disappointing when you've read the books. I mean, they left out some pivotal characters from Goblet of Fire. And switched some things around that I was sad to see...but as a movie-enthusiast, I know why they did it.

I know a lot of people that complain about books made into movies. I had never been one of them because I've honestly read very few novels in my adult life. I think I'm going to take the middle ground and see them as the two different mediums that they are.

New direction...for the time being

Well, as of a few days ago, I was going to full force start a small business and an etsy shop. I then discovered how much paperwork, time and money is required beforehand. So now, I'm going to keep it as a hobby and not make the jump....yet. I will soon, but I might have to donate some plasma or something. ;)

Things I've been thinking about lately: why do stores refuse to sell normal colored socks for children? My 1-1/2 year old needs some black and cream socks...not tights, socks. They don't even have black or brown socks for little boys. You'd think, if they sell mini suits for baby boys, why wouldn't they sell reasonable socks? Perhaps I'm the only mother who would complain about such a thing. In the meantime, I'm trying to discover a way to make or modify adult socks to fit a child size 6. I'll keep you updated.

Gotta get started somewhere

So, first official blog post. I can't possibly think of anything that you would be interested in reading. I used to think I was an interesting person, but I sit down to write about it...and, well, it's funny how that all disappears. I'm also not a fantastic writer. Leave that to my sister, she's a great writer. 

I prefer to use my hands and make stuff then sit down to a computer or notebook and compose a story. I'm a list-maker. I rarely doodle, though I know from my education that I should do more. I always wish I was better at drawing, but I know that's all my fault. Practice makes perfect, and I never practice. Best website that helps me with the motivation to draw: idsketching.com. Thanks Spencer and John!

Well, how did this all start (you may ask)? In October, my aunt told me that Google was hosting a "Utah Get Your Business Online" and you could get a website for free! Sign me up! And so, I did. I wanted to start selling handmade books, and what better way than through my own website? Well, without any advertising, or money for advertising, not many people knew about or visited the site besides family (thanks family!). I needed to get Winzy Design out there. Etsy started to call my name....

And that's where this adventure is right now. I'm trying to start an Etsy shop. And adjust my website to be an archive of past projects so people can see what I can do. I also started this blog so people could get to know me....and realize that I'm not a huge loser...only a design nerd. :) I'll keep you updated on the process!