your assigned reading...

janell beals and her team have done it again, another beautiful issue. do yourself a favor and read it here. in additional to tons of colorful rooms, there's a great article offering up organizing tips, which we can all use, and another article on how small businesses can utilize facebook for marketing.

we're having issues.

big issues. we need a new coffee maker.

***

our coffee pot overflows sometimes. sometimes is now almost daily. if you don't seat the filter in the ideal spot, you find coffee all over your countertop. i hate cleaning up spilled coffee before i've had my coffee. our current coffee maker is from cuisinart. i like cuisinart products. except their coffee makers. this is the 2nd one that's had this problem.

help us. do you love your coffee maker? what brand is it?

*** via

author robert leleux

sometime last year (or the year before, i lose track of time) robert leleux ordered calling cards from pixelimpress. shortly thereafter i was browsing thru lonny and i see a familiar name. i email robert and ask if my customer is the one and the same features editor of lonny mag. YES! it's him. a few months later, i see this in the nov/dec 2011 issue of lonny. robert and his husband michael's apartment. omg. it's gorgeous. as in, drop dead. do yourself a favor and head over there and check it out. there's more photos of his gorgeous home.
it's the type of home where you know the owners have a story to tell about EVERYTHING there. and you know you can sit for hours listening to them share those stores. i love that.

in that same article, it mentions that robert has a book coming out in a few months. well, that book is out. and i caught up with robert on one of his stops on his book tour, right by my house. here's robert and i a few nights ago.
it was a pleasure meeting robert! he's just as i imagined him. funny. contagious laugh. and a storyteller. if this tells you anything, his signature matches his personality...look how good his book looks sitting on my end table with my domino book.
head over here to see if robert's coming to your town.

i must live under a rock

because i had never heard of this film until i watched a little bit of the golden globes a few weeks ago. and i hear it's garnered 10 academy award nominations today. what? where have i been...

i admit i don't go to the movies often. i like to wait for the movie to come out on dvd or on demand, that way i can watch it in the luxury of my own home. (read: on my comfy sofa, in my flannel pjs, with the ability to pause the movie for a restroom break.)

the artist is a silent movie (what? do they still make those?) in black and white. well, that's 2 strikes for me not to see it. i'm challenged by black and white movies and subtitles. i feel like i have to think more. i feel like i'm straining to watch the movie. does that happen to anyone else?

but then there's this guy. uggie.
i hear he steals the show. reason enough for me to see it. cuz as you all know, i love a cute dog.

how about you? how you seen the artist?

valentine goodies in stock

don't forget valentine's day is right around the corner. ok, fine, 3 weeks away, but still, it'll be here before you know it. i've got some goodies in the shop to help you out.

these are my favorites. they come with shimmer silver envelopes which are a new item for me.

they remind me of a subtler version of this.

***

AND, you can write on them with a normal ballpoint or felt tip pen. better still.

or how about some tone on tone chevron with simple hearts. perfect to hand out to your friends. make 'em smile.

or let me personalize your valentine's day card with you and that special someone. like kate did.

ooh, and i almost forgot to tell you... calendars are 25% off right now. there's only a few left. you can find them here.
***from here

it's a sea...

of calling cards on my office floor. i'm trying to find a customer's calling card from 2010.
when you order calling cards from the shop, i always (well...except for a particular order i printed in september of 201o and now she is ordering more and i am trying to find her sample) staple a sample of the finished calling card to your order for an accurate color reference (handy for if i ever switch printers), save the digital file of your card, and then put a copy of the calling card in my "stash".

there's a box stash. i dumped the above sea of cards from that stash. these are from 2010 and part of 2011.

there's a small felt bowl stash that has samples of most designs.
and there's a glass bowl stash for current work printed in the last few months. these cards are stashed here until they make it to the box stash.
and if you say the word stash over and over again you start to visualize moustaches. at least i do.

while going thru the box stash for that customer's card, i honed in on some favorite cards i've done.

loved this one. he sold seasoned firewood. if i remember correctly, his sister got him these cards for christmas.
i love doing photo cards. did you know i can put your photo on a calling card? ... now you do.
these were for my friend janna. janna has an etsy shop here. she makes great jewelry and takes superb photos, so we put one on her calling card.
some pinstripe action.
ooh, chevron.
one customer wanted this graphic on her cards. a little outside my box, but i love how they turned out.and here's my trusty assistant helping me search for that missing card.
and yes, i found the card. it was in the small felt bowl stash. go figure.

happy weekend!

enjoy your weekend! i'll be back on monday with photos from our trip to the dallas world aquarium. i took 100+ photos of the flamingoes... they were beautiful!

pixel's 4!

pixels is 4 years old today! here she is this morning. i got her out of bed for a mini photo shoot.
and to say goodbye to grandma and grandpa who left today to continue their road trip. here's 3 generations....
i scrolled thru my blog posts tagged with 'pixel'. boy, there's a lot. but here's a coupla my favorite photos of the little girl. playing gopher at just a few months old...
just a baby, maybe 2 months old. i love this photo.
and all grown up at 3 years old.
happy birthday pixel! mommy and daddy love you bunches.

what i did on my christmas vacation

wow, i haven't posted in 2 weeks. my niece just wrote and nagged reminded me. so, morgan, this one's for you.

i took a staycation over the holidays, but just because i haven't blogged in 2 weeks doesn't mean my staycation was 2 weeks long. that would have been nice. instead it was about a week but not even a complete week without work. i was slammed with orders last week. mostly this. you can get yours here.

and thanks to a lovely guest blogger at the dallasnews.com arts blog for posting my calendar there. what a pleasant surprise!

here's the highlights of what i did on my staycation.

we made pioneer woman's cinnamon rolls christmas morning and delivered them to our neighbors.
we saw this. great. highly recommend it. it takes a good movie to make me sit in a theater for 3 hours! (with previews.) steve saw it with me (and another blogger friend). this was a record day for us. it was the first time we've sat in a theater together in our 8 years together. yep, we've never been to the movies together.
we fitted pixel for hunting boots. texas land is covered with sand burrs. and the little girl gets hurt when steve takes her quail hunting. these were the first pair we tried. don't ya just love pixel's pleading look?
those fell off with 5 steps. so we tried these. these stayed on.......despite actions like this. we almost peed our pants watching pixel walk in these.
i pinned and pinned and pinned and pinned some more. you can follow my pins here.


we became addicted to the office. we started with season 1, episode 1. speaking about peeing your pants.... it's hysterical. there were days when we watched 14 episodes in a row. we're now on season 6.and we play this while watching. another addiction.
we took my visiting in-laws to the dallas arboretum this past friday. it was a sunshiney day and warm, 70 degrees. we read signs... and picked out the typos... ok so that was me. can you find the typo?
we saw a mud house.
we watched the mommy and me groups.
i practiced with my new camera.
i took photos of my mother-in-law and steve, blowing his nose...
and my father-in-law.and rocksand teeny tiny flowersand ornamental kale.there's not much in bloom this time of year at the arboretum, so i took photos of the writings on the wall. (found inside tiny wood houses in the children's play area.)
how was your holiday?