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Gift of Enthusiasm

Cyn — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:39:52 +0000

I’m blogging late today after running errands again for my dad & mom. My dad got the green light to drive himself on short trips from the cardiologist this morning. So yay! A bit of freedom for both of us.

In looking for inspiration, I came across the We Scout Wednesday post from ScoutieGirl’s Tara Gentile about Gifts of Enthusiasm. It reminded me that just last night, in the minutes before sleep, that I was swept away with a discovery.

I’ve always been enthusiastic about paper. As a kid, I would ask to go to the Five and Dime or the local stationery store and could literally spend hours reading cards, touching stationery and ogling at all the paper goodness. At home, I would make my own notepads from lined paper and staples and draw picture after picture in them.

Since I started my business and have really hunkered down to design, I’ve struggled with my style (touched on in this New Year post.) Since January, I’ve worked hard to make discoveries in my designs and be judicious about my creations. I realized last night that I’m feeling Enthusiastic (with a capital E!) about where I’m headed. My style is emerging and becoming definitive to me and I can’t tell you what a gift that is. I’m giving this particular gift of enthusiasm to myself for now, so I can share it with others as soon as I’m able.

Admitting Your Problem is the First Step

Cyn — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:19:34 +0000

I can’t help myself… I’ve done another redesign of my site. Could this be a problem? It’s almost compulsive and when I start to tweak, I can’t stop. I’m happy with the end result though. So, how much of a problem can it be?

Last night, my dad went into the hospital by ambulance with shortness of breath. When I left at 2am (when these things always seem to happen), he was resting comfortably. He’ll be there the next few days for tests and hopefully will be able to go home. We don’t know exactly the cause, but it seems to point to his heart. He can be very hard-headed about things, but has learned that health-wise, it’s important to admit a problem. Think good thoughts for that 79-year-old man, would you?

I’ll be Pinning it Forward on Wednesday, so come on back to see how I see Home.

Bowling Party

Cyn — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:51:39 +0000

I love working on custom designs – something good always comes out of it.

I recently did a set of cards for a math teacher friend of mine, who wanted to send each of her students a hand written note. I asked her some questions about her class, some of the lessons and what her room looks like at school.

She’s a quilter and hangs them in her room at school, I think partially for the geometry of it all. And she always asks her class “What’s the story?” behind any problem they need to solve.

I combined those ideas with the Quadratic Equation (sadly, one of the only things I can remember from math class) and out came a fun, unique design.

Another recent request was for a bowling birthday party invite. Bowling is so iconic that I was excited to design and draw images from the game.

After I drew the pins and a ball, I selected the color palette myself. The birthday girl had not yet weighed in on her colors. I went with light pink and fuchsia, thinking of those glow-in-the-dark neon balls at the alley.

The birthday girl wanted her name in blue and the ball to be yellow. An easy change to make the design more personal for the customer. I also shifted the design to landscape. Here are the final proofs:

Having two boys, we’ve been to quite a few bowling parties, so I’m excited to add this design to my line of invites!

Color Palette

Cyn — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:53:46 +0000

It’s been a rough morning with some technical issues on my site. (Hackers are mean people and you know what the bumper sticker says, right?)

Anyway, it has held up what I was originally going to post. I’ve been furiously working on the Specialty Shops on RDP and it’s very close to how I want it to be. I’m hoping I’ll be able to complete it’s set-up over the weekend and have it “launch” on Monday. Hubby is working most of the weekend, so my hopes are not that high, but we moms fit it in when we can.

To add a little zazz to this post, here is the color palette I’ve come up with for the specialty shops:

I get so many requests for colors and they are difficult to describe, both verbally and in writing. This palette should make the process easier. And I had fun naming the colors…

Here’s to a warm, productive weekend!

Umbrellas

Cyn — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:23:40 +0000

There’s something romantic about umbrellas. The shape, open or closed, is so definitive. I really could look at them endlessly. I’ve always owned an umbrella with some style. I came close to crying when my Chagall design broke a few years ago. Those deep blues… sigh.

So, today I’ll do some designing from the sketches I made on the plane last month and from the mosaic of inspiration below. I think it may be rainy this weekend, so you know what I’ll be under, looking UP. Have a lovely one!

Photo Credits:
1. The umbrella lady, 2. The Umbrella, 3. Umbrella, 4. girl with umbrella, 5. Beach Umbrella, 6. Umbrella Ladies, 7. Gorgeous umbrellas – NJ Balloon Festival (2006), 8. Under my umbrella, 9. red umbrella, 10. Only An Umbrella…, 11. Umbrella, 12. Umbrellas, 13. (– You can stand under my Umbrella –)

Office Area to Studio Space

Cyn — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:26:19 +0000

One of my dreams is to have a studio with room to create whatever I can imagine. As with many of you crafty people out there, I’m sure you make due with whatever space is available. I have been slowly taking over “the playroom,” which was briefly an office B.K. (Before Kids.) Now that these kids are old enough to not have as much floor time and have moved to table time, it’s time for momma to have a studio.

As I make this space my own, I will share the process here. I have some ideas about what I want cosmetically and how I want some of the work areas to be set up, but I would love, no really LOVE, any ideas that you have or have worked well for you in your space.

I have my eye on this table for the center of the room:

And I am totally going to do this to the cabinets (discovered via sfgirlbybay):

Finding time to renovate this space will be challenging, but the end result will motivate me to squeeze it in with my other responsibilities. Then, when I’m done, I’ll move on to my true fantasy studio here…

Yearning to Design

Cyn — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:39:23 +0000

Running a small, online paper goods store and being the sole owner, designer and the everything else-er, makes time seem to tick quickly. Mostly, I enjoy all the aspects of the business, but when it’s tax time in particular, my mind is yearning to design.

We were recently on vacation and I was able to doodle on the plane, while sitting next to both my boys. A rarity, for sure, and I was able to begin developing a new set of cards. From then to now, I’ve had very little time to actually design, but I’m hoping this week will bring a big enough pocket to get most of my thoughts onto the paper. Here’s what I have so far…

I envision the set to have some of the design over the fold of the card and a main focal point on the front. Wish me luck with time this week… hope it goes your way too!

MN Week – Clean and Simple Design from the Humorous Cathy Zielske

Cyn — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:00:54 +0000

Preamble to the profile

MN Week was born out of the discovery of people I admired online. If I dug them enough, I would click on the About and find a Minnesotan. A few of these discoveries happened in quick succession and I didn’t have to be hit with a snowball to see a pattern.

One thing to note: these profiles are not journalistic, but more personal. I’ll leave the professional writing to the, uh, professionals. Enjoy discovering these talented people living in a place that celebrates music, food and creativity…

I admire funny. When you combine it with talent, energy and accessibility, I get downright enthusiastic! Cathy Zielske has been a graphic designer for 19 years. When she began scrapbooking in 2001, Cathy relied on her design skills to create clean and simple pages. Her focus was, and still is, on the photos and words to communicate her everyday life. Good design transcends any medium and Cathy’s eye has helped introduce clean, graphic layouts to the scrapbooking world. Check out the example of the beautiful layout below. Cathy used one of her templates (available at Designer Digitals) to focus on a large photo and write about one ordinary family moment in time.

SUPPLIES: Layered Template No. 21 (Cathy Zielske); Blaine Paper Pack (Michelle Martin);
Classic Foundation Cardstock (Katie Pertiet); Avenir font

You can visit Cathy on Vimeo for a tutorial on how to create this page for yourself!

I’ve mentioned that Cathy is funny, yes? Well, you would know that if you follow her on Twitter. I thought I would include a few of my favorite tweets…

“This new hair dye job takes at LEAST 17 months off me.”

“Me, making small talk with my daughter’s 9th grade boyfriend. ‘I had a great apple today.’ #parentswithoutpersonalities”

“Damn @Oprah, the Celine thing? with the tenor dudes? And Hallelujah? Who’s gonna make me cry when you’re off the air? Who?”

“I was going to say a fresh snow fall and Tom Waits on the iTunes is a match made in a boozy, snowy heaven.”

“Thinking of wearing black today. Then, if the Vikings lose, I’ll already be dressed for mourning . If they win, I will simply look thinner.”

I think I relate to Cathy for a few reasons… we’re the same age, we think that this will be the year to conquer our health/food issues and we’re family gals, trying to enjoy all that comes with growing up as a family unit. Plus, she loves Crowded House, one of my personal faves. CZ was kind enough to send back responses to the Minnesota food and music questions:

Name your 3 favorite foods to eat in MN.
veggie samosas from Taste of India in Maplewood
veggie fried rice from the Village Wok in Minneapolis
and french fries…from any where.

First rock concert you ever saw: who? where? and why?
Journey, at the Seattle Center Coliseum, because they were AWESOME.

——————————————————————————-
There are many places to find Cathy Zielske on these interwebs. Besides the goodies you can find at Designer Digitals, her tutorials on Vimeo and her tweets on Twitter, she teaches workshops and classes at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Her books, Clean&Simple Scrapbooking, and Clean&Simple Scrapbooking: The Sequel are available at Amazon.com. Aren’t they pretty?

And, of course, her phenomenal blog. If you know me, you know I’m a fan of good writing, and that’s what you’ll find there. Thanks to CZ for participating in MN Week!

Finishing up MN Week is print maker extraordinaire, Laura Brown. She’ll dispel the process of printmaking by rockin’ a little haiku on you (and a few more words to boot.) See you tomorrow!

Out with the Old

Cyn — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:30:10 +0000

Hello out there! Seems like it’s been awhile… how do you like the new look? I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Still tweaking here and there, but have begun the big renovation of the main site.

Thank you to all that have supported me and my business in one way or another this past year. It’s more appreciated than you’ll ever know.

I have lots of plans for some good posting in 2010, so please stay tuned.

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and fulfilling new year!

Our Happy New Year Card

Kid Paper

Cyn — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:53:46 +0000

My boys are learning to ice skate in this nifty program through our town hockey group. It’s three sessions in three days with equipment included. Which gave me time in the cold rink to sketch some designs. I’ve been meaning to add ore designs to my children’s stationery “line” and here are a couple I’ve printed.

And here are those boys…