{Spirit of the Season}

I happened to find these while poking around OK Great's blog. There's actually a site dedicated to creating these crafty politico pumpkins over at Yes We Carve.

{Design Freebies}

Head over to Mujka Design shop for free delightful design downloads like these contemporary & vintage swatches. Aren't they lovely? Design makes me uber excited!

{Book Wishlist}

I am overcome by all these great patterns & designs from the Simply Pattern book from Victionary. Its a great collection of patterns that are showcased on fabric, products, interiors and installations in this book. Which makes it a definite pick for my book wish list. Any recommendations for tasty eye candy design/type/illustration books like this one?

{Photos by Victionary.com}

{Online Publishing Options}

With so many free online publishing resources they present creative people the chance to showcase a body of work in a convienent and professional way. They certainly seem to be one of my driving forces to getting my commerical photo and design work shown to a wider audience.

Last year I used Blurb to create 7 x 7" softback books of my photo styling portfolio to send to styling agencies (this was when I was considering looking for representation in photo styling). I worked for weeks to create this book and mailed a few off to see what might happen. (p.s. there is no feeling like sending your work out into the world to see what opportunities might arise from it). After two interviews with agents I found that this was not the right time in my life to make this leap into the freelance world, perhaps someday. Netherless, I got to meet some great people in the commercial photo industry and was able to get a feel for the pros and cons about working with an agent. So to summarize, Blurb is a great free book software that offers you a chance to upload and format your professional looking books to keep or send out into the world.

I've been focusing my energies on doing this same type of thing again but this time with the help of ISSUU. ISSUU is a publishing media that gives its users the opportunity to publish professional looking online magazines minus the professional price tag. It seems to be the YouTube for print. Check it out for yourself. Browsing through the open library is like hanging out in the aisles of Barnes & Noble. I'm still working out some kinks but here are a few cover pages for my ISSUU mag that I have been working on. What do you think of the graphics? Should I keep them or dump them? I think the grease pencil markups add to the design of the pages and are meant to refer to the editing process that makes this whole thing (eventually) come together.

{ Modish Marketing }

I'm a huge fan of Modish blog & recently sighed up for their marketing newsletter which I enjoy right from my email inbox. Jena, the creator and writer for Modish lends her insightful and savvy marketing & advertising tips for the indie artist community. Check out her latest newsletter focusing on advertising ideas. Thanks Jena for your great business promoting ideas ;)

{ Amy Butler: Green Goods }

I am always delighted to hear when more and more green options become available to the everyday crafty consumer. It is definitely a sign of the times and I am thrilled to support it whenever I can! Behold the fab Amy Butler keeps turning out products to turn your crafts into beautiful pieces of work, while at the same time making only a finger print of impact on the environment. Her new paper crafts/stationary line are made out of recycled paper and are printed with soy based inks. Could it get any more delightful? Oh, but it does! Her modern spin on the new line will have you waiting outside your local Michaels store just to stock up! Hhhmmm... might she possibly be the next Martha?

{Photos by Amy Butler}

{ Apple Pickn }

A family favorite tradition that started a few years ago. We load up our bags & pack a picnic to spend an afternoon in the apple orchards in Wisconsin. With lots of exploring and beautiful fall colors to admire, whats not to love ;) Here are some photos from our day trip.

{Blog Break}

Hi everyone. I've missed you and my inbox is sad without your sweet comments to fill its disk space. As you can tell I've taken a bit of a break & am keeping busy with working on my website and resume. I have a few things in the works and can't wait to share them with you next week.
I hope everyone is enjoying Fall and all its changes in color and weather. ;)

{ Fallen }

It's official (for me, that is),Fall is in the air and I'm loving it ;) Inspired by the change in seasons along with experiencing fall during an early morning run with my cousin yesterday I'm happy to show you the fruits of my labor. These are part of my fallen collection in my shop. I hope you enjoy them as much as I am.

{EV Photography}

{ Sweet Tooth }

Looking through old issues of Bon Appetit magazines last night while watching Bravo TV stirred in me a major sweet tooth. So much so that I was inspired to express my love for my favorite sweet treats on paper. I forgot how much I loved to draw when I was growning up...here are some of my sketches. Have a beautiful weekend!

{ Let's Pretend... }

That I was selected to design a cover for the first issue of Tasty Bites magazine. It's all for pretend, but I like to give myself assignments from time to time to see where it might lead. Here are some of the photographs and fonts that I am using.... with more to come!