Shawn

{ Catchin’ Up – Part 1 }

August 27, 2007 by Shawn · 21 Comments

Anyone still checking in here??? Wow, where to even begin after such a long time between posts…I have had so much I’ve wanted to blog about since my last post and I think if I waited till I have time to blog about all of it it’d never happen so I guess I’ll just jump in with random bits and I’ll try to catch up with more frequent posts over the next week.

Balance…struggling to find it. Think I’m getting closer…finally.

What I’ve been keeping busy with…designing blogs. Here’s a few links to some recent projects:

Bella Pink, Mariah M Photography, and most recently Maegan’s Confessions of a Scrapaholic and family blogs.

I have 2 others that should be finished this evening and 4 more that are in various stages as well as a website design that I think I’ll be taking on for a very exciting client. I also had the opportunity to work with Tara on the design for her new Wriskey logo (wish I could share but she’s got an exciting unveiling planned soon). :) She’s got some REALLY fun marketing items that we’ll be working on soon too. Busy busy but I’m loving it. The people I’ve met over the past month have been amazing to work with and I’m so excited to be doing something that I enjoy and actually making a bit of extra (read just enough) money to pay the bills. :)

Okay, lots more to blog about the new design endeavors but that’s one of about a bazillion topics floating around in my head for the past month and I’d like to cover at least a few of them in this post so back to the design stuff later. :)

Sooo, apparently I’m a…

My sweet sweet friend Nancy listed me on her blog as a rockin’ girl blogger. Right back at ya Nancy. :) She’s one of the absolute sweetest most generous women I know. And an incredibly talented designer ta-boot. Thank you Nancy, you made my day. :)

So now I’m supposed to name my list of ‘rockin’ girl bloggers’ which is nearly impossible for me to do. If you saw my bloglines list you’d understand why. So I think I’m gonna try and be kinda random here.

Shabby Miss Jenn – because I totally owe my crazy fun new designing career to her little referral to Tara a month or so ago. She’s always incredibly supportive and just crazy sweet. Love her to pieces.

Okay, is it just me or are there certain blogs where you’re just too intimidated to post comments on? Well, here’s a couple on my list.

Melody’s Sofa – She makes me so thankful for the ‘keep new’ check box in bloglines. I think I have 10 or more posts saved to go back and read now and then. Most recent posts added are this one (going to try doing this challenge tomorrow or wednesday) and this one. I wish I could just copy and paste the whole thing on my blog for everyone to read. Truly inspiring.

Red Shoe’s Blog – this one I’ve recently started commenting on and I’m so glad I did. Catharine is not at all as intimidating as I thought. LOL She’s completely sweet and has even posted flattering comments here on my blog. Totally makes my day. :) She has the most amazing store and it’s right here in Michigan so I’ve been holding off ordering online in hopes that soon I’ll be able to shop there in person. First thing on my list…a little red fairy door. Is that whimsical or what?! :)

Brianna Graham – I honestly didn’t think we had any photographers this stinkin’ cool in Michigan, let alone right in Grand Rapids. She’s got a new website that’s just gorgeous and is selling out workshops left and right. Attending one is on my ever-growing wishlist. It’s another spendy item so I’ve gotta decide if it’s right before or right after the tiffany blue bike. I think they’re both pushed out to spring at this point so I’ve got some time to save my pennies. :)

Shabby Juls – A dear friend that I’ve gotten to know just this past year and I’m so thankful for her. Some of my favorite rockin’ posts from her blog…this recent one – definitely gave me a different and much needed new perspective on life right now, and is this not the coolest table you’ve ever seen?! And how ’bout this fun retro bike that her DH restored? She’s also started selling some gorgeous hand painted items in her new etsy shop.

Okay, gotta run. I wish I had time for more but if I don’t post this now it’ll sit in my drafts folder for another month. I promise to be back soon with pics and lots more links. Still on the list of things to blog about…

a new balanced to-do list
eating healthier – I’ve gotta share my latest favorite meal to make (yes I do make stuff…occasionally)
movie and music reviews
Pixel update
lots of thoughts lately on the amazing friends that I’ve been blessed with. Goofy video and picture mail to share that made me smile. Super sweet real mail that I’ve received. I don’t know what I’d do without them and it’s about time I dedicate an entire post to the subject of friends. :)

That’s just a few of the things still knockin’ around inside my head so hopefully you’ll come back. Off to hang out with one of those dear friends and do some sewing tonight. Maybe I’ll be able to add a new bag or two to the next blog post too. :)

Thanks so much for the e-mails and comments checkin’ in. I won’t be such a stranger from now on. :)

Filed Under: blog design, life Tagged With: design, friends, inspiration, life

{ It’s Been a While }

July 20, 2007 by Shawn · 21 Comments

It’s been way too long since my last post. I’m trying to figure out the balance of this whole blog design thing. I’m learning alot about how my creative mind works especially in a ‘work’ type situation. I’ve been very disciplined with myself about setting goals before I post on the blog again or do a scrapbook page for my own album or even work on my own blog or the new website design. I’m starting to wonder if I’d ever get to those things if I stuck to my goal. I am overwhelmed and very pleased with how many orders I’ve gotten already for blog designs. This past week I’ve been working on 3 and have 2 more to start on this weekend. I actually enjoy having more than one to work on at a time because the styles are so different (especially for the 3 I’ve been working on this week) that when I’m stuck on one I just take a break from it and work on another. For some reason Tara’s is intimidating the heck out of me. Maegan’s I’ve already scrapped what I was working on and now have an entirely different direction that I’m going to try. I’m so excited about the new idea. I’ll keep ya posted when those are finished.

I have some free time that I wasn’t expecting tonight so I’m hoping to finish up those two by the end of the day. (see Mel, it’s a good thing we’re rescheduling) :) Anyway, I think I need to learn to take a break once in awhile and do the blog posts (or blog surfing) and I’d actually probably be more efficient at designing. I want each blog to be unique so I put alot of pressure on myself to come up with something new and different that my creativity just gets drained and could use a little recharge now and then. Excited to take a fresh approach tonight at the two I’m stuck on though.

In the meantime you can check out what we did for Shari’s photography blog.

Kay, editing to add that to truly appreciate the coolness of Shari’s banner you’ll have to click on the link to her blog. For some reason it works as a banner but not as an image in a blog post. Darn it. :(

Super fun to work on. I just LOVE her colors. I’ve been so lucky to get to play with such amazing photos for these banners. Click on the link above to see her incredible photo albums in the side bar. Totally inspiring photography.

Speaking of inspiring photography have I introduced you to my friend Katelyn before? She asked me to play around with some photos she’d taken for a friend recently and come up with a baby announcement. It was nearly impossible choosing which photos to include. I think this version is my favorite…

The mom ended up going with this version because the blanket in the main photo had special meaning. And I think this photo was my favorite but maybe the red is a bit much for a baby announcement.

Katelyn has me on a mission to get a tripod and remote for my camera. 2 of the many things on my wishlist at the moment. Another recent addition to the wish list is the coolest bike I’ve ever seen. Check this thing out. It’s halfway through summer and I so don’t have $500 to spend on it but I’m thinking next spring would be a great time to start riding and how could you find a cooler bike to ride than this baby?!

Lots more to post about but if I wait for time to cover everything I’ll probably never post.

Hopefully it won’t be as long between posts next time. :)

Filed Under: blog design Tagged With: design, wishlist

{ Updates & New Music }

July 13, 2007 by Shawn · 16 Comments

First, Fifi’s blog is becoming more and more fabulous every day as she’s adding posts and updating the albums. If you haven’t checked it out since I first posted the link you’ve already missed a ton. I don’t know how she does it.

Pixel had a GREAT time at the dog park. I wish it weren’t so far away ‘cuz I think we’d go there everyday if it were closer. Nikki was so sweet to invite us along. I just happened to be out watering the flowers on the deck when she was driving by & the afternoon out in the sun, rather than sitting on the computer all day, was just what I needed. Pixel and Murphy had a blast. Here they are terrorizing a poor little dog who was trying to enjoy a nice walk through the park. LOL

Pixel slept pretty much the entire rest of the day and evening. She’d wake up to eat a bit and go outside and then fall right back asleep. So…finding a closer dog park might be on the agenda for this weekend. I’ve had Koda all week while Scott’s up north fishing and dealing with the two of them has been rather trying.

I did get at least a temporary site posted for the blog design and also the boutique. Check out Jill’s purses. She’s been busy busy sewing. :)

I know I’ve got a spelling error (which I’m usually so careful about) on the pricing page. I’d like to add paypal buttons to that page this weekend so I’ll fix the spelling error when I do that.

Tara (Bella Pink), Maegan and Shari, I’ve got you all on my list and I’ll be emailing you today with questions to help get me started on your blogs this weekend. :)

I’ll be catching up on e-mails today. Last night I actually gave myself a bit of a break from my usual computer tasks and just spent time chatting with friends and finding new music. And I found some great stuff. I was originally in search of a song that had me in tears on the way home last night by this group. I’d have bought their whole album but it’s not available until the end of august and they haven’t even let the first single out yet. :( The song is called East to West and you can hear it by clicking the link above. It’ll definitely be on my blogpod as soon as it’s available.

I did actually discover two new artists that Lauren and Katelyn had never heard of though. Score! :) Sara Bareilles & Jon McLaughlin are fast becoming my new favorites. I’ve updated the blogpod with a couple songs from each of them, as well as some other new stuff that Lauren sent me and I think a song or two discovered on ‘So You Think You Can Dance’. One of the great bonuses of watching that show. :) This selection of songs best represents what I would consider my style of music. I like all kinds but if I had to pick a style these songs would fit it perfectly. I already see the lyrics from a few of these definitely showing up on a scrapbook page or two (or three).

Hopefully I’ll be back with 1 or 2 links to fresh new blog designs and maybe a purse or two by the end of the weekend. I have two that are so close to being done but just haven’t spent any time in the studio this week. And I really should work on my own blog design that is long overdue if people are going to be coming here to see what an Eclectic Whimsy Design blog could look like, dontcha think?

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Filed Under: blog design, life Tagged With: design, music, pixel

{ What Makes Fifi Fabulous }

July 11, 2007 by Shawn · 18 Comments

I’d like to introduce you to someone who I only just ‘met’ 5 days ago and she’s very quickly become one of my favorite people on the planet. Let me back up a bit to Thursday when I received an e-mail from Tara Frey of Bella Pink saying she’d been given my name by the incredibly sweet Shabby Miss Jenn. Jenn I hope you got my e-mail that I sent through your website. I may have been too wordy. :) Well, Tara (who I’ll have more to say about her fabulousness in future posts but right now this one’s all about Fifi) gave Fifi my name and told her I would be perfect for the job of setting up her new blog, which is what I’ve been busy doing the past few days. I’ve learned a lot and had so much fun and I’m excited to get to work on the next blog. Sounds like I’ve already got a few lined up. Yay! :) So here’s what we came up with for Fifi’s banner but we did a lot of fun stuff in other areas of the blog so you’ll definitely want to check it out.

So what makes Fifi fabulous in my book?

She signs her e-mails with x’s and o’s
She called Sunday afternoon just to chat and she has the perfect amount of french accent that I could’ve listened to her talk all afternoon but instead she seemed genuinely interested in little ‘ol me. :)
She crafty in an elegant but whimsical way that I adore, choosing photos to use for her banner was nearly impossible!
She grew up in Paris
She now lives in a little cottage that has more character in each room than most people have in a house probably 3 times the size.
She has a cabana and a hammock that are to die for.
She’s a freelance writer and photo stylist for a number of national magazines. Half of her cover designs I actually have sitting in my magazine collection and one of them I even kept setting out on my ottoman long after it’s published date just because the cover itself was inspiring to me every time I looked at it. What are these fabulous magazines you might ask? You can see a few in her sidebar on the blog but among the list are magazines like Cottage Style, Creative Home, Romantic Country, Home Companion, Coastal Living, Style, Windows & Walls, and that’s just to name a few.
She’s writing a book. I can’t even journal on a scrapbook page and she’s writing a whole BOOK!
Within less than two days of her blog going live it’s been viewed over 2,000 times. That’s a lot of people who must’ve known how fabulous fifi was long before I had the pleasure of meeting her.

Kay, the list could go on and on but mostly she’s fabulous for being so sweet and giving me the opportunity to play with her fabulous photos and create a place where she can share her fabulousness with others here on the web. One comment left on Fifi’s blog already seemed to say it perfectly…

“I can’t stress enough how much I am enjoying your blog!! It feels like an e-magazine. Perhaps waiting for my favorite magazines in the mail won’t be as painful now that I have found YOU!!” ~ Britta

Fifi, if you’re reading this, thank you again for this opportunity. I have enjoyed working with you SO much.

So, other than learning a TON of new stuff about Typepad the past few days and putting together something as fabulous as I could come up with for Fifi I’ve been working also on the Eclectic Whimsy website and have that just about ready to go live with…again…but this time different. :) Hopefully I’ll be able to finish that up later today. I haven’t spent any time in the sewing studio but hope to do that a little today too.

Lots more that I wanted to post about but it’s a GORGEOUS day and my neighbor Nikki will be here any minute to pick me and the dogs up to head to the dog park. I’ll be taking the camera so hopefully I’ll have long overdue pics of Pixel. Hopefully I’ll have time to blog more later tonight. :)

Filed Under: blog design Tagged With: design

{ Warning…Major Enabling Ahead }

July 4, 2007 by Shawn · 10 Comments

You ever have that when you go to the mall with a couple hundred bucks in your pocket and you can’t find a single thing that says ‘take me home’? And then the opposite is true when you go with a friend to shop and don’t have a dime to spend on yourself but you find the greatest shoes or the coolest t-shirt that’s just so perfectly you. I haven’t been to the mall in a long time but I’m finding the same scenario to be true online lately. So I figure I’ll just be an enabler for those of you with a little extra money burnin’ a hole in your pockets. If you don’t have money to spend you may want to stop scrolling down right about now ‘cuz you will find like me that you almost NEED to have these items, I’m sure of it. First I stumbled across a blog (an evil evil blog although I can’t remember who’s it was anymore) that mentioned Sarah Jessica Parker’s new line at Steve & Barry’s. Like these little numbers…

Those prices, believe it or not, are for the entire outfit. Can’t really beat that.

And tonight I got an email from Max Studio. I don’t know why I even open these things. Is this not the perfect summer dress?!?!

And there were about 6 other great combos in this collection. I can totally see these working right into fall with a cute matching cardigan.

There there’s 2 perfect jewelry pieces. I’ve been wanting a skeleton key necklace and this one has a little added vintage sparkle to it. And then what’s not to love about Amy Butler fabric combined in a soldered pendant and does anyone else notice how PERFECTLY it would go with that brown and green dress above?!

And in the digi-scrapping world…

Amy’s Ribbon Flowers Kylie’s Sparkle-Arkle Vellum Alpha

Amanda’s Threaded Petals Marcie’s Curled Cardboard Pockets

Weeds & Wildflowers Doodling Days #1: Curled Alpha

Fun stuff. I did pick up this free kit at 2 Peas. I think it’s their best freebie offered so far. If you haven’t gotten it yet definitely check it out. :)

Oh, and I thought I would share a little secret about a LO that I posted recently. I got a number of comments on my ‘creative’ use of Natalie’s ribbons with Nancy’s new comic frames and I have to come clean and admit that the idea behind using the ribbon that way was born of necessity more so than creativity. The photo I wanted to use in the top section of the frame wasn’t wide enough to fit properly so I decided that if I could find something to cover at least a section of that frame I could clone trees from the left side of the photo and extend it enough to make it look as if the photo was much wider than it was in reality. And by golly if Natalie’s ribbon didn’t work perfectly to accomplish what I was trying to do. :) You can check out the original photo here.

So that’s the real truth. Creativity born out of necessity. Does that still count for creativity?? Anyway, I guess that’s more of a tip than a tutorial. If anyone’s unfamiliar with the clone tool and wants a little lesson in that I can see if I can put together something more tutorial like. Just holler. :)

Oooh, one more bit of enabling speaking of Nancy. As I was looking for links to the comic frames I noticed that her newest paper pack is up at the Lilypad. The texture on these is gorgeous. I’m lucky enough to get to play with them a little in advance and I’m working on a LO that I’ll hopefully finish later today with the fabulous cardboard included in this pack. Looks like she’s got it marked down at least for today so check it out.

Thanks to my new favorite software you can click on the preview above to get right to the Lilypad to buy this. Never could figure that out before. Not sure I’ll ever wanna blog without this software anymore. This whole post (which I realize is insanely long) would’ve taken me hours to do without it.

Kay, gotta finish getting ready for Jill to come over. Been feelin’ a little (read a lot) lonely in this apartment lately and she decided to spend part of her 4th of July holiday with ME. She’s picking up bagels on the way and then we’ll be workin’ on Eclectic Whimsy stuff for awhile. Other than that have a quiet day planned. Hopin’ to do some more sewing in the studio and scrap a page or two. Maybe a nice long walk with Pixel (and the camera). Hope everyone else is enjoying a nice holiday with your families.

Filed Under: digi-scrapping Tagged With: digi-scrapping, shopping

{ A New Bag & A Blog Tool Find }

July 3, 2007 by Shawn · 6 Comments

Kay, I’m on a break at work so this will be quick (hopefully). First in regards to the last post I realized after posting that I talk about wanting to do more photography and possibly make a little extra money at it in the same post as a really not so great photo of Pixel. I mean she’s cute and all in it but it was taken at night inside which is horrible lighting and I’m usually rushing to get the shot with her cuz within a second she’d have been back in the bathroom pulling a roll of toilet paper through the apartment. SO, I just want to acknowledge how silly that probably seemed that I would post a not so great photo in the same post as a discussion about wanting to make money taking photos. *blush* Also in response to some of the comments and emails (which have been awesome btw and I’m still working on responses to a few of them)…zippers – would LOVE to be able to offer them as a closure but I’m a bit of a perfectionist and zippers are sortof picky things to get just right so at least at this point I can’t imagine anyone would want to pay for the extra hour it would take me to include a well sewn zipper in one of my bags. But I’ll work on that. Maybe a trip to Utah and a week in Kim’s sewing studio and I’d be a pro at some of that fussier stuff. Wouldn’t THAT be fun?! :) Laptop bags – I have wanted to do these for ages and have lots of requests for them but here’s the thing…laptops are heavy. At least mine is. They’re also typically quite expensive. Personally I’ve just not gotten comfortable with the idea that something I make is responsible for keeping something that valuable from crashing to the ground and breaking into a million pieces. I also envision a laptop bag to have a zipper and ya already know now how I feel about those. SO, there ya have it on my current thoughts on those two items. Removable accessories, totally diggin’ that idea. And the green, black & white combo is SO happenin’. I think green is my new fav color of the moment so I’ll probably make two. :)

I did finish one up last night with some fabric that I found at one of my favorite fabric stores that’s normally dangerous to even walk into for me. I love looking through their remnants and found just enough of this denim-y blue batik fabric to make a purse out of. I can’t add a fancy picture here from work but here’s a view of the inside and if you’re interested it’s posted in my etsy shop for sale here.

And Kimmy and I just realized how perfectly it matches my outfit today. It’s really kindof a shame to sell it for how perfectly it goes so I probably won’t be heartbroken if it sticks around. Extra money’s always nice too though. :)

I still have that little tutorial (or really more like a creative tip) to share but don’t have the image to include here at work.

I also found a new software for doing blog posts in that I just love. I can’t use it here at work and I’m already missing it after only using it on one post. You can find it here. Check it out. :)

Kay, back to work. Lots more to post about so maybe I’ll be back later tonight with more. :)

Filed Under: sewing Tagged With: blog tips, pixel, sewing