Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Its Semisweet!


My new collection is finally finished and ready for press! I will be unveiling the new semisweet collection at the Craft and Hobby Associations winter trade show (booth 5424) in Anaheim in two weeks. I ve finished drawing, painting and scanning, Im creating patterns and borders and stripes by manipulating the images I scanned. Im on my last two themes with a total of 13 themes. This is from the birthday boy theme, featuring dogs and monkeys and tons of fun! All of this has been done for licensing, there is no client. In otherwords, no pay until I sell it! Ive been working on the collection for six months, inbetween paying jobs and at night. I love what I do....

Monday, January 01, 2007

New Years Resolutions

Starting in 2006 my family set a goal to eat healthier and we did it! My husband, 6 yr old daughter and I, swore off fast food (almost) we still allowed ourselves a once a month trip to In and Out, a California based hamburger chain that serves everything fresh, they even cut their own fries from fresh potatos. We still eat out, we just stay away from any place with a drive through or that serves breakfast all day.

THis year we are going a step further. We are going as organic as we can, not crazy all organic.... but stuff that makes sense. Anything that we consume on a regular basis (eggs, bread, milk, rice, veggies and fruit) we will buy organic. All other stuff will be fresh, no cans! As little processed foods as possible, no more american cheese or balogne for Juliann, and no fake stuff! No more microwave popcorn with fake butter or diet soda. We always weigh ourselves and measure Juli on Jan 2, so tomorrow, I will know how a year of cutting back on fast food went for us.

As for me personally, my goals for this year are simple. I am a freelance designer/illustrator. My goal is to do what I love, and be happy and successful doing it.
I will say no to projects that will interfear with bigger and more important projects.
I will make beads for one hour every day m-f.
I will not work after 5:00
I will not put work before family
I will explain to my clients that they will be charged 1.5 times my normal rate for overtime for any work that I have to do over a weekend or holiday. I will also get 'permisison' from my family before I take a job like this.
I will keep up my portfolios on a monthly basis
I will add to my website on a monthly basis

The last two are the hardest... I still find that doing things to promote myself seem to be the lowest priority, and I need to work on that the most. I got the new dreamweaver software for building my website and I will be starting this afternoon, re-building my sites.

May your year be filled with good fortune and great adventure!!!

Happy new year