Well, hello again! I’m really bad at the whole regular updates thing, but oh well! I’m a busy gal! I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of design projects on my plate lately. Ones that have thoroughly entertained me and haven’t at all been a total burden, which is awesome! I think part of that has to do with the fact that I feel like my creative energy has been completely reinvigorated (hooray!). I think I’ve discovered that the trick to being able to pump up the creative juice, at least for me, is to work on each and every project like it’s your personal passion project, wake up super early, and (this is the biggest one), take advantage of sites like Creative Market, Graphic Burger, and other designer’s tools sites. I’ve spent way too much money at Creative Market lately, but it has been 100% worth it because my designs look more polished and put together now.
When I haven’t been developing an ad campaign or a magazine cover or logos for local businesses, I’ve been working on a personal project. It’s been a way to play around with new tools I’ve downloaded from the aforementioned sites, and it’s been a way of keeping me sane. If I ever got just overwhelmed with a client’s project, I would take a break to work on this t-shirt design (and some other works in progress that I have up my sleeve). I’m extremely excited about this shirt, though, guys. It’s a little in-joke from the town I grew up in and currently live in. In 1882, the USPS unintentionally misspelled “Arad” (as in Arad Thompson, the founder of my town) as “Arab”, and we just kind of… accepted it, and we’ve been Arab (pronounced Ay-rab), Alabama ever since. So, yeah, we’ve embraced that typo since 1882. I’m getting the shirts printed on American Apparel unisex tri-blend t-shirts (because they’re the best t-shirts ever and I’m not getting my design put on cheap, uncomfortable Gildan shirts that aren’t flattering or good quality) and selling them for $25 apiece. The money I make is going to go toward my next big purchase, an iMac. My MacBook just isn’t cutting it for all the design stuff I have to do anymore and I need a desktop. So, I’m really pushing these sales! It’s been pretty successful so far, and I’m hoping once the first batch arrives, people will see others wearing the shirts and ask where they got them, and maybe I’ll have more orders to make! It’s been a really fun project, and people seem to like it, so I’m happy.
I decided I wanted to start tending my own plants. My dad has always had plants around our house and he’s definitely got a green thumb, and I wanted to try my hand at it. I took it EXTREMELY easy and got a little cacti and a jade plant. I put the cacti in a plain white concrete planter by Threshold for Target, and I put the jade in the dog domesticated trinket dish by Marta Turowska from Anthropologie. I’m really into it right now, and I can’t wait to take care of these plants!
I’m considering opening an Etsy shop, I’m teaching myself to make woven wall hangings, I’m going to start making my own brooches, and I’m designing all the time. I’ve been very happy lately, and I hope you have too! What’s been going on in everyone’s world? Fill me in!
ugly pretty people 