Baby Steps

Good Saturday morning all.

I hope you are still asleep and all sleeping in, well aside from you East Coast folks. If you are still asleep WAKE UP!!!! You are wasting the day.

Can you tell I'm a morning person? Who else gets up, makes tea and sits down to write a blog at 8:35 am? Well, probably a lot of people, but not too many of them that I know.

So what pray tell am I going to talk about? Well so you've all offered me a bunch of feedback on the last blog. So I've decided I might try and do this side stationary business thing. I've done some doodling and basic mock ups for ideas and have found a creative outlet I think others might like. Initially I was stuck on the photo card announcement idea. So invitations really haven't come to me yet, but I think I'll get more inspiration as I get more clients... fingers crossed oh please oh please.

But I've got a little ways to go to really compete in the market. But thanks to my lovely husband and Lynda.com, I'll be able to really sink my feet into this thing.

Lynda.com is helping me learn all the great things I don't already know about all my favorite programs. This will help with just the overall efficency of this endevor. And the other reason, my husband, is because he helped me procure a great little Wacom writing tablet.

I was getting annoyed when I was trying to do some scroll work for an idea I had, the mouse was just too damn clunky and I could never get a smooth line, so I started to do a little research and found this: The Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet. For the price and size.. This bad boy cannot be beat.

I got home last night, plugged the puppy in and started to really get used to it. It takes a bit of mind retraining to not do the pick up and move techniques of the mouse, but once you have it, for computer design work, a tablet and pen are the bees knees.

So I think I'm dedicated to really trying to make this work. So hopefully I'll continue to learn and increase my skills and really hit this idea out of the park.

I wish you all a great weekend.

Updates and Epiphanies

So I haven't known what to write about in a quite a while... so that has lead to a dead blog.

So here is a bit of an update.

The knitting projects I've finished:

My second sweater
This is made with a great Alpaca/Merino blend wool from Knitpicks.com. Great site for yarn.

It's a great gun metal grey color with tweed flecks of tan, brown and black throughout. It is super warm and lovely.


M's X-Mas/Birthday Hat
I spoke about this one in the previous blog. But here is a picture of it.
She likes it and that is all that matters right?
Brother's Fingerless Gloves
My brother needed some gloves for the winters in NYC so I made him some that would still allow him to grab for the Train ticket, but keep most of the warmth still in.

Other than the knitting, I've been leading the simple boring old life. But I have been doing some thinking.

Mostly I've been focus on the "the future" and what it might have in store for me both on the job front and just in general.

Well here are my thoughts, and feel free to tell me if you think they are bad.

So I'm feeling very uncreative in my current life. My job is very regimented in creative areas. Therefore, I've been looking at ways to beef up my creative side.

First thought: Wedding Planning. I had so much fun (yes it was stressful, but I still enjoyed it) planning my own wedding, that I thought for a while it might be fun helping others out. But then I see the train wrecks on "Bridezillas" and all those horrible shows, and I'd probably end up hitting some crazy woman and that isn't a good business strategy. Not a good way to indear myself to the clientle. Scratch that idea.

Next thought: Knitting for profit. Recipiants of my kniting tell me to go into selling my knits, but since most of the patterns I use are pro bono I wouldn't be able to sell them for money. So I'd be really limited on what I could sell and then, I don't think I'd enjoy the hobby as much if I had to do it as a grind. And I dont want to disrupt the copyright of others and steal their patterns for my own gain... Again, not a good way to indear myself to my fellow knitters.

So then...

After the success of my invitations and programs for my wedding, and the good reviews so far on what I've drafted for Brother's Programs, I am going to try and build a side business... in... Stationary Graphic Design.

I will try and do this pro bono for friends and referals for a while. This will help me build up my portfolio and help me understand the business end of things more. After a while I'll start hopefully doing a profit business. Drafting contacts and pricing. All those business ownership things that are so fun.

So what do you think of my idea? And do you know of anyone who might be interested in seeing mock ups for possible invites, baby announcements or any kind of stationary need? If you do, can you put in a good word for me or send them my way?

Input would be lovely.