massive sweet and lovely update - part two

Part two of my massive sweet and lovely update is design work! I have some pre-made blogger templates available, as well as custom work like blog overhauls, blog headers, custom illustrations and custom paper dolls! I'll only be working on a limited number of projects at once so I have a low quantity in stock on each custom design item.

I stopped doing custom work about a year ago and have had some of emails about it since then, so I hope some of you guys are still out there and interested lol ;) I'm really excited about the custom paper dolls! I think they'd be perfect for marketing a little boutique or even maybe for a super customized bridesmaid invitation?

I have four pre-made blogger templates in the shop ready to go and I'm hoping to be adding more constantly! My idea is to make designs that look like you had custom work done, even though it's actually a template. I feel like so many prefab templates seem to lack little details that make a blog look special and I want to change that :)

Please note: coupons are not eligible on custom design work or blog templates.

fast motion

I am so, so thankful to have a successful small business (knock on wood!) but O.M.G. am I worn out from the Christmas rush! My brother hasn't helped me as much this year as he used to, and I'm not quite comfortable hiring someone to help me pack orders in my bedroom lol. So I've been making, printing, packing, shipping and emailing from morning until the wee small hours. I actually feel guilty going to sleep each night because there's so much left to be done. And we still haven't even baked cookies or written out Christmas cards yet. As grateful as I am, I'm really looking forward to putting my shop on vacation next week and enjoying some calm days with my family :)

dress - c/o le bomb shop | sweater - forever 21 | shoes - modcloth

what's old is new again

For the last year or two I've been obsessively collecting vintage bedding on etsy. Usually pillowcases and fat quarters (seriously, search for "vintage fat quarter sheet" on etsy and prepare to get lost in the awesomeness) so I treasure those little snippets of mid-century design like you wouldn't believe. I'm so hesitant to use them since they're soon going to be in short supply. I hate the idea of these gorgeous colors and patterns disappearing over time, which they're bound to do as they're used up for craft projects and quilts and (in my case) pillows. And that's where I got this idea -- digital patterns inspired by vintage bedding.

I poured over my collection of swatches and picked some of my absolute favorites to base my first batch of patterns on. About 200 hours later (or at least it seems that way) Presto! A collection of 10 digital designs for my first vintage bedding paper pack! Hooray! The kit is available in my shop here! It includes all of the designs as 12" x 12" papers at 300dpi.

I also uploaded the designs to my society6 store, so they're available as laptop covers, pillows, iphone cases, etc. I especially love how they look on the iphone cases!! These three are my personal favorites!

calendar sneak peek!

I've been drawing and drawing and drawing and drawing, and I am FINALLY... almost finished. I have just one illustration left, and then my 2013 calendar will be complete :) I thought I'd share some sneak peeks first, mainly because I'm just so happy with how it's coming along so far!

These are definitely my favorite flapper doodle drawings. I haven't been this smitten with my own work in a long, long time. It's a nice feeling :) I'll be listing all of these as prints in my shop over the weekend, and if you like what you see, the calendar is available for pre-order here!







ps. I got the first shot by duct-taping my iphone to my ceiling and using a self-timer. I put a piece of paper between my phone and the duct-tape so it wouldn't damage it, and it worked great! Also, my sweater and shorts are both from asos. Just in case anyone was wondering :)

The most wonderful time of the year

It's that time of the year again -- 2013 calendar time. I've been hard at work (I say "work" but really this is my absolute favorite part of my job!) coming up with the 12 new illustrations for my new flapper doodle calendar. So far I have two complete drawings, one half-finished drawing and 9 incredibly rough sketches. And I've been working on it non-stop for days, so I guess at this rate I should be finished by, say, sometime in 2014?! ;p Maybe I'll share a sneak peek if anyone is interested?

Now to completely change the subject... these shoes. THESE SHOES. I went vintage shopping with my cousin a couple weeks ago, and she found these incredible pastel pink beauties. They were marked a size 8, and I'm a size 7, but I tried them on anyway... and they fit!! And they were only $10! I need to change the laces (I think the original ones were lost along the way and somebody replaced them with sneaker laces) but otherwise they're in amazing condition and just so so perfect! Look at those pretty little cutouts! *dies*

Dress - modcloth | Cardigan & belt - f21 | Shoes - vintage | Brooch - DIY

busy busy busy

dress - modcloth
shirt - forever 21
belt - dorothy perkins
shoes - marshalls

I have so much to do today, I think I almost wept when I looked at the clock and saw it was time to get up and begin my day. My to-do list seems to be a mile long, but I'm hoping to check off as much as I possibly can by midnight. May turned out to be one of the worst months ever for my family (you probably wouldn't even believe me if I listed everything that happened to us. When our sink broke last week I said "it's LITERALLY everything and the kitchen sink!!") so I just spent so much time away from my computer that things got really, really backed up. Deadlines are swiftly approaching so it's super duper crunch time!

Totally completely off topic, but how about Mad Men on Sunday?! I won't say any spoilers but my goodness that was one of the best so far this season! I can't believe there are only a couple episodes left... I feel like after waiting so long for this new season we should have gotten a few extra to make up for the wait. ;p

messy

It's been raining like mad here this week, so it's been too dark for outfit photos*. The only reason you can even see anything in this photo is because I have every light on in my room and I lightened it in photoshop (hence the graininess!) But I thought this was a good opportunity to show me and my room on an off-day!

Yesterday I packed up all of my pending etsy orders and made quite a mess in the process... I also didn't put much effort into my appearance, I just thew on a black dress & tights and put my hair in a messy bun. As much attention as I've paid to every organizational detail in my room, I still end up with something like this when I'm working. No amount of de-cluttered drawers, filing cabinets and shelving units can prevent Hurricane Kate! I usually take my outfit photos in the morning, when I've just gotten dressed, the lighting is good, my hair is perfect and my room is still neat and tidy from straightening it up the night before. And then all hell breaks loose when I actually get to work, lol! This is a tiny bit worse than usual since Christmas has (thankfully!) brought me a few more orders than usual, but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't typical of my workspace all year long ;)

*I took this photo around 3pm. Can you believe that?! I'm beginning to forget what the sun looks like.

christmas cards

After way too much procrastinating, I finally finished my 2011 Christmas cards and they're up in my etsy shop now!! :) I'm so incredibly happy with how they came out. Last night I think I put off going to sleep for at least 40 minutes because I kept getting out of bed to go look at them again. It's silly, but like I said when I finished my calendar... I've been discontented with my drawings for so long that finally enjoying my own work is pretty much pure glee! :)

The Season's Greetings one is actually based on a vintage 20's Christmas card that I found online here and "Fond wishes for a Happy Christmas" was a saying I found on another vintage card. I thought it was so sweet I had to use it! The two text cards feature lyrics from my personal favorite Christmas song, "Mistletoe and Holly" by Frank Sinatra.

the calendar is finished! yay!

The calendar is complete! woo hoo! It is without a doubt my favorite Flapper Doodle thing ever, and I'm just so excited about it! I didn't want to crowd this post with too many photos, so if you'd like to see a close-up view of each month's illustration, I have them on my Flapper Doodle blog here, or in the last picture of the etsy listing here.

One of the reasons this particular calendar is so special to me is that I chose to base two of the drawings on photos of my grandmothers when they were young! The May illustration is based on a photo of my Grandmom Eve, and September is based on a photo of my Grandmom Dawn.

The calendar is available as a wall calendar and a PDF in my etsy shop HERE. psst! If you're thinking about buying one, don't forget my blog readers can always get 10% off in my shop with the code BRILLIANT! ;)

work in progress

I finally finished all of my 2012 calendar illustrations last night! yay! It took me a lot longer than I originally planned but I'm incredibly happy with how it came out. It's far and away my favorite Flapper Doodle project so far... I'd love to continue working more in this style, so I really hope the calendar goes over well!

Now I just have to spend the day working on the calendar part of the calendar (months, dates, etc), which isn't a super amount of fun but I'm so excited to see the finished product that I'm actually looking forward to it! :D

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! :)

un, deux, trois

remixed item: polka dot dress from le bomb shop

outfit 1: cardigan - target // shoes - c/o blowfish // belt - forever 21

outfit 2: cardigan - old navy // belt - fossil

outfit 3: belt - vintage // bag - modcloth // tights - we love colors // shoes - target

I wore outfit #1 to run errands a couple weeks ago but I never ended up posting it here.. I'm actually not entirely fond of it, I think it's the long cardigan. Short ones just look so much better on me!

Sorry my blogging has been so erratic this week (no melody lingers on, style idol or wishlist wednesday, and this post should have gone up yesterday!) When I took some time to make the dresses this weekend, it set me back on my work A LOT. Ye gads, my inbox was scary to even look at. But I'm finally (mostly) caught up on things I should have been doing when I was sewing, so now I can hopefully get back to my normal blogging schedule. I really want to figure out how to work more fun-time into my life, though. It might even help me live longer lol :)

the awkward stage

red dress - modcloth

skirt - h&m

belt - forever 21

shoes - c/o blowfish

hairbow - hive & honey

Today is a pretty exciting day for me! I took the advertising plunge, and purchased my first big ad buy for Flapper Doodle, and it went up this morning! It was a huge investment for me, but after hours of talks with my financial advisor (aka Mom) I decided to go for it.

Flapper Doodle is at a really awkward stage right now. It's sort of like when you're growing out your hair, and it gets to that weird just-below-the-shoulders length... you desperately want it to be waist length, but the frustration of this in-between stage makes you want to cut it all off again. Flapper Doodle is [knock on wood] successful, in that it keeps me VERY busy and gives me a steady income. But it's also getting to be a bit too much for me to handle on my own lately, and I constantly need to ask my mom & brother to help me out. I hope that buying this ad, and hopefully more in the future, will help me expand Flapper Doodle to a two-girl operation sometime soon. My 2012 goal is to be able to have a designated workspace (aka not in my bedroom) and have a part-time employee helping me out. If I can't reach that goal, I might need to do the business equivalent of "chopping it all off," downsizing to a few products so I can actually manage it on my own.

I'd love for Flapper Doodle to be my full time job forever, so I really hope this plan works! Oh, and you can hop over to A Beautiful Mess if you want to see my ad in the sidebar! eep!! I'm really happy with how it came out! :-D

ps. Congratulations to the winner of the H&M giveaway, comment #29 Kaycie! I have a new giveaway coming next Monday, so stay tuned! :)

work in progress

This time of year is "get ready for the holiday shopping season" time for my shop. Now is when I come up with the designs for my Christmas cards, next year's calendar & planner and any new products that I want to have in my shop & ready for the holidays. And every year without fail I end up losing all track of time while I'm doing this! For me this week has been a jumble of staying up until 6am, waking up at noon to keep working, eating pizza, guzzling grapefruit juice, and urgent runs to Michaels to buy more pens. AND I LOVE IT!

Of course, it's also responsible for me totally lapsing on my posting this weekend. eek! I didn't get to schedule a Silents & Talkies post, or a post for today and honestly I'm enjoying working on my drawings so much, I hardly even care that I missed two posts! Sorry!

Hopefully this sneak peek of my 2012 calendar art will suffice? I'm so beyond happy with it, it's kind of ridiculous. I haven't been too thrilled with my artwork lately, so I'm tickled pink that I'm finally drawing things I'm not only liking but loving?! If I have a muse, she was totally on vacation. But she seems to be back, so yay!! :D

The calendar is a tribute to one of my favorite artists, Edward Gorey. I'm putting my flappers into Gorey-esque settings and adding some super intricate art deco patterns, too. Overall it might be my favorite project I've done for my shop so far!

I'll make sure I put down the pens long enough to schedule a Slumber Party Sunday post later, but until then I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!! :)

shop updates

I was such a busy bee this weekend! I got practically no sleep at all, but I did whip up a bunch of new products for some of my etsy shops! I thought that since my work is such a HUGE part of my life it was about time I started sharing it a bit more on my blog! Hope you don't mind!! :)

I added a few pendants to Sweet & Lovely, featuring some of my classic movie artwork. Puns Intended now has discounted art print sets and some pendants, as well. As usual though, most of my efforts went into my primary shop, Flapper Doodle! I added two new styles of bridesmaid cards, It's a Girl! and It's a Boy! birth announcements, baby shower invitations and brand new cheaper versions of my BFF pendant sets. I also started working on my 2012 calendar and 2011 Christmas cards, but they won't be ready for a little bit yet :)

ps. All of the images link to the listings if you want to take a closer peek! :)

the sunny side of the street

dress - modcloth

cardigan - old navy

shoes - blowfish

bag - h&m

locket - handmade

As you might know if you follow me on twitter (or read this post) last week was pretty awful. Every once in a while, it seems like everything goes wrong all at once, from the really big "my whole life is a mess" things to little tiny things like spilling food on your lap (which only seems to happen during those really bad weeks, right?) Anyway, I decided Saturday night that it was NOT going to continue.

I felt really proactive about changing things for the better. I bought the Dream Job e-course from Red Velvet (which, by the way, I highly recommend!), and spent the weekend totally re-evaluating my job, with a new sunny outlook to make everything run more smoothly, and more importantly-- be more fun! With a smile in tow, I headed into this week.. prepared to be in a good mood!

Then I read Kaelah's 30 Day Detox post! It's a 30 day challenge to expunge bad moods, and refrain from negative tweeting and blogging. Like Kaelah said, if one bad thing can sour your mood for a whole day.. why can't one good thing brighten your mood for a whole day?! This couldn't come at a better time for me, and I'm totally psyched about participating! I tried something similar last year with Good Mood Week (which failed miserably) but I think that this time will be totally different. I'm attacking the things that cause my bad moods (mainly: chores that build up until they become overwhelming, and my job) at the root, instead of letting the problems fester & just covering them up with a smile.

I figure, I have this one life.. why spend my precious time doing things I hate, dwelling on problems that bother me and spoiling my thoughts with negativity? It's time to get positive and enjoy each and every day! :) If all goes well, hopefully the 30 day detox will turn into a lifetime! And hey, maybe I'll start to actually smile in my photos once in a while ;-D

Do you want to comment, but have no idea what to say? Trust me, I've been there! So to make things a little easier, here is a question you can answer if you can't think of anything else to say! :)

What do you do to cheer yourself up? It's strictly popcorn, potatoes and movies for me!

cute pictures of cats

I worked way into the wee small hours of the morning, didn't have a post scheduled and didn't feel like writing one... so the natural solution? Pictures of cute cats!!! All of the photos link back to the sources. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! :)

ps. If you like my artwork, you might want to check my flapper doodle blog next week to see what I've been working on.. I totally overhauled all of my packaging, and made a bunch of new products that I'll be introducing around Monday or Tuesday (provided the rain stops long enough for me to take good photos) ... I am so excited about it!!! :D