how the little one uses her travel journal

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i’m not sure how my sister feels about this, but her girls are very big into party planning. of course i only encourage this behavior and have to ask the important questions – like what is the theme? the colors? what kind of decorations do we have to make? what food will be served?

the little one (shown above) has been hanging out in my studio lately and she has a birthday coming up – 7 years old. yesterday we sat around the conference table with a note pad and had a meeting about the cake (that has been my task since they were born). today when she was in my office she got one of my travel journals and wrote a little plan for her party. on the unlined side she drew her vision (something i’m always asking about) — clearly her plan is to have an ice cream party.

working on

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i’m in the final stages of my 2013 calendars and planners. i’ve finalized all of the new patterns and colors and now just have to pull everything together. for the first time in 5 years i have included a couple brighter / darker colors. i haven’t decided how i feel about that yet – it’s a big change for me.

last year the academic planners were a big hit. in a couple of weeks i’ll have a limited edition of them available. sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know when they are ready.

summer

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it’s officially summer here. time for hanging out by the pool, going to the beach and lots of casual get togethers. now is the time to freshen up your stationery stash with some new summer paper goods. there’s lots of new items in my shop and some of them are perfect for the long hot days of summer. don’t forget to keep some items on hand for hostess gifts. check out the goods at shoplettercdesign here.

not only do i know it is summer because of the 100 degree weather today, but also because the summer sleep overs and studio help has started.

stacks

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awhile ago i heard somewhere when it comes to organization you are either a piler or a filer. if you look around my studio you can see i am a piler. last weekend i was straightening up before someone stopped by and i noticed everything is in stacks and containers. and everything is out in the open because i know if i put it away i will probably never use it again.

daisy garland kit

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my mom was going to watch my sister’s kids last week and wanted to take a little craft to do with the girls – so i put together a simple little spring daisy kit. in some glassine bags i packaged scraps of white and yellow paper, bakers twine, a flower punch and a hole punch. i made a sample flower and sent my mother on her way.

the flowers are easy to make:
– take two of the punched out flowers and glue them to either side of the twine (don’t worry about lining up the petals – they look more natural when they aren’t even)
– add a yellow dot on both sides of the flower
– keep adding flowers until you are done
– hang up anywhere you want to add a little bit of spring

a little bit of winter

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this year there has been a real lack of snow around here. but this morning there was a nice little surprise snow fall. i’m sure most people are welcoming the non-snow winter after last year – where there was so much snow roofs were collapsing or the freak snow/ice storm last october that shut down the state for over a week – but i am happy that there was at least one morning of winter weather.

weekend worktable

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weekends in my office are my favorite. probably because there is no pressure of having to get orders ready to mail by 5:00. or maybe because i don’t really answer email or send proofs, but work on projects that i don’t get to during the week. usually i don’t even sit at my desk, i use my laptop on my worktable in the other room – far away from printers and databases.

this weekend i did have to do some work for two very important clients – my nieces. they needed their valentines. they both gave very specific art direction. however there was a problem – was weeks ago i ran out of envelopes for my tiny valentines. so they got something even better – handmade envelopes. i couldn’t give them just plain white envelopes so i printed a pattern on some paper and started folding and glueing.


and now they just have to had their name and some sticker hearts and they will have the perfect valentines to hand out.

surprise trip to the city

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i had a little trip planned to new york city with one of my sisters and mother. the night before we left my sister decided to surprise her kids and take them along. it’s about a 3 hour train trip so i put together a little travel kit to give them something to do (besides play with my phone or laptop). i didn’t have much time so i grabbed some pocket journals, mini pencils and extra stickers i had in a mistakes box. everything was put in a glassine bag for safe keeping and put the food bag (clementines, cheese, crackers and water).

even in the wind and cold we had a fun trip – especially the girls who brought their dolls to the american doll store (my mom might have enjoyed the store more than they did).