Minted V-Day Challenge

There's currently voting going on over on Minted for the best Valentines cards - I submitted a couple designs. Minted is a super fabulous website where you can order custom greeting cards and other awesome paper goods. The coolest part is that it's all contests between super talented designers - and the consumers are the ones who get to decide the winners! Have any time to go vote for me? :)

If the answer is yes, all you have to do is find the Minted window on my side bar (under my shop photos) that says "vote for me." It will bring to you one of my designs, and in order to get to the other one to give that one some voting love too, just click on my profile info and you should be able to see it!

Here are the two designs I have submitted. One for a boy to hand out in the classroom, and one for that special someone who has already been your valentine for awhile now (and still is.) 

The voting ends at 11am tomorrow, so there's not much time! I would of course super appreciate your votes! :)

i know how to rock the christmas tunes

It's that time of year where all I listen to is UNASHAMEDLY the Transiberian Orchestra - the same two albums I've been listening to with my fam since I was a teen. Maybe it's because of the Christmas memories from those years that I hold so fiercely close, maybe it's because when the guy sings it sounds like he is ripping his soul out. 

Sometimes I try and listen to other Christmas music, but none of it seems right. None of it satisfies. 

So I turn it back and rock out Dwight Schrute style.

Perhaps in order to appease my poor husband who I think would like to listen to something else, I should buy more of their albums. So at least I'm not listening to just the same two over and over.

The good news is that I'm designing again. It feels super awesome as I was worried that my creativity had gone away once I had a baby. But it turns out all I need is a friend to take the babe for a bit and for me to go to yoga and then head to a coffee shop with my computer. I'm excited to share some new designs here soon.

The bad news is my house is a mess. I asked the hubs the other day how many times we had to clean the kitchen before it would just start cleaning itself. He wasn't sure. I'm determined to figure it out.

From there I'll start teaching the cats to clean their own litter box.

And baby girl to put away her own laundry.

She looks doubtful.

But also cute and leg roll-y, so I'll let her off the hook.

Little Climber

We went to visit Daddy at his work.

Gotta start her early!

In other news, I miss blogging. Gotta get back on that. (I think I said that in my last post too.)

Ear hairs

Hello blog.

I've missed writing in here big time. But whenever I think about writing a post, I realize I have no idea what to write about. My life was a lot different a year and a half ago when I started this thing. I blogged about a lot of art stuff, and sometimes posted drawings daily.

Now it's been a VERY long time since I've drawn anything.

Or posted daily.

But it's ok.

Don't worry about it.

Here's a little bit of what I HAVE been doing.

Hanging out with my two favorite peeps.

Putting babies in pumpkins.

Pondering how hard it must be to hold your head up when your cheeks are that big.

Aaaannnnnd here's one more.

Also I've been listening to the new Mumford and Sons album on repeat for like a month now.

Because, honestly. So. Good.


By the way. My baby has tufts of hair that grow out of the tops of her ears. (They are too delicate and shy to be seen in pictures, although we have tried.) Like a hobbit. Except hobbits grow hair on their feet, I think? Maybe an elf. I thought these little hairs would have gone away by now but she seems to be getting more of them. I think I will be sad if I ever discover they are gone one day. I'm not sure where she got the hairy ear genes from. I wish I could say it was me, but alas my ears are bald.

Is it time to shower yet?

The scene is set.

She is sleeping in her crib, and it appears that she is conked out enough that I just...might...have time for a shower.

This is excellent news.

However, despite my speediness, I'm only about half way through when I hear the scream coming through the monitor. Looks like I will have to forego shaving my legs....again. Disappointing, as they were pretty itchy under the sheets last night. By the time I have managed to rinse the conditioner out of my hair, somewhat dry off, throw on a robe and fling my sopping hair into a towel she is screaming like the apocalypse is here RIGHT NOW which makes me feel pretty crappy because what's a mom supposed to do besides make her daughter feel safe and snuggly from everything, ESPECIALLY when it comes to apocalypses? I sprint into her room and discover that she's spit up and it drained down her face and all into her freshly washed hair. No wonder she's upset. How disgusting. She is not immediately soothed as I snuggle and rock her while simultaneously wiping up her mess, probably because in my bright green robe and with my even brighter green towel on my head, I look like an alien. An extra terrestrial brought on by the apocalypse, no doubt.

It quickly becomes clear that the only way to remedy the situation is a mother-daughter dance party. I turn up some of our favorite tunes (girlfriend is a big fan of Band of Horses, just like her mommy) and then we sing and dance all over the living room. Works like a charm every time - soon she is happily looking around and then snuggling into my chest and off to sleep. My wrongs against her have been excused.

Do you think that when the teenage years roll around, and she's shouting at me like it's the apocalypse because I told her that the prom dress that she wants is way too ridiculously expensive, (sound familiar Mom? By the way...my apologies for that.) do you think that when I suggest a mother-daughter dance party all will be immediately forgotten and forgiven? Will we sing and dance to our mutually shared favorite band and then have a happy snuggle afterwards?

Or, when I make such a suggestion, will she stare and blink in silence as if looking into the face of a green alien?

Or maybe there will be an eye roll?

Well. Whatever the case may end up being someday, I will enjoy these snuggly dance parties while I can, as they usually end up being my favorite part of the day.

Legs shaved or not.

Turn it up!

Sitting down to type.

I've been avoiding blogging as of late, mostly because I don't really know what to blog about. The ideas just aren't flowing but I decided to sit down to type and see what happens.

People aren't kidding when they say how difficult it can be to find time when you have a newborn. Some days I am super productive and work on new design projects, get emails sent out, dishes washed, the bathroom cleaned out while she naps, and still have time to load her in the stroller and head out to the park.

AND there's also the days when she refuses to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time and I spend almost all of it holding her and bouncing her and watching so many episodes of Parenthood I don't know how to think anymore, and my biggest accomplishments are keeping her fed and getting a load of laundry done.

There's a learning curve I suppose.

We're figuring it out. Me and the little sweetie.

I'm spending much of my time trying to figure out how to clean the lint or something that builds up in her neck creases. It smells funny and I don't like my baby to smell like cheese. And let me tell you, it's difficult to convince an infant to allow you to clean their neck creases. They don't like people getting all up in their neck crease business.

In other news, it's box elder bug season. They like to cover the front of our house (since it's facing the sun all day) and look disgusting. And since most of the screens on our windows have holes in them we are unable to open any of the windows on the front side of our house for fear that they will invade.

Ugh.

I mean, we should probably find time to fix the holes in our screens sometime so I can enjoy the fall breeze again. But as I mentioned earlier, time can be hard to find.

In MORE other news, my wedding rings fit on my finger again! It's a very very snug fit and I doubt I can get them back off, but it's nice to be wearing them again. Hopefully my digits still have yet to shrink down to their previous comfortable-ring-wearing size.

You can do it digits! I believe in you.

Over and out.

Something about not being pregnant makes me productive again.

I'm so excited to show you my latest note cards for the shop! Now that my preggo belly is gone my creative juices seem to be flowing back to me, which feels great. I'm getting pretty good at snuggling baby girl into her Moby Wrap so that I can wear her around the house while she naps and I can get stuff done. Here are my latest projects!

These are a couple of my animal doodles from last year, digitally colored.

A narwhal thank you note for a pal.

A friendly bunny greeting card for when you just want to say hey. You're cute.

Check them out here!