hi what's up hello

hi internet. i feel like no one reads blogs anymore… or at least i know i don’t. but here i am. writing to the abyss!

it’s been almost a year since i shared anything on this little page of my website. i’ve been busy!

after the stationery show in 2018, i did a lot of local pop up markets to try to offload inventory and get my art out there. out where? anywhere! out of my house. my business continues to grow (slowly! but it is growing each quarter!), and i had my first dream die in the form of paper source abruptly dropping my “miss ewe” card from their line after a year of steady reorders of hundreds of cards at a time. i was surprised and bummed out about that, because after they talked me down on my wholesale pricing…driving me to order a shit ton of stock to get a better printing price to improve my margins…they stopped reordering with no warning and then had the fucking audacity to email me (and lots of other small businesses in similar situations) in december, apparently not realizing that i wasn’t a current artist with them anymore, and ask me for $250 for them as a credit to open new stores. if you’re asking yourself “wait…what?”… all i can say is, yeah. i don’t know either. it’s fucked up. go big, but SHOP SMALL. always learning, i guess! the worst thing is, because i am an idiot, i have a couple hundred of this fucking card i’ll never go through unless my business really takes off in ways i do not anticipate. i won’t give up, but, it is definitely a bummer.

to be totally transparent with you, abyss, i cannot really afford to go do the stationery show in nyc this year…which starts sunday. i have FOMO because i have met some really wonderful people and had some wonderful opportunities come up through that event, but i am also glad to take a little time to reflect and continue to create. i would love to go back to the trade show next year… after three times exhibiting, each year better than the last, i still have not made back the money it costs to be there. i can’t tell if my shit sucks or my audience just hasn’t seen me. i hope it’s the latter.

so, this year, instead of the trade show, i’m planning to try to keep a leaner inventory to avoid the paper source style loss, and put more energy into some tangible communications with stores which will hopefully result in finding my people. <3 if that brought you here, hi!

i’ve also been really into pattern making in recent years, so i’m planning to launch some more patterns on my spoonflower page. i wonder how people get into designing patterns for, like, legit fabric companies. ahhhh the spark of a new ambition!

i just finished 9 new greeting card designs to launch with NSS/NYNOW. with this release, i’m mainly exploring some new pattern/floral designs, living my dragonfruit dreams, and filling in some gaps to try to give the people what they want (i didn't really have any "congratulations" cards before, aside from "you did a thing" which has been a great seller, and i think covers every accomplishment, but variety is the spice of life or whatever so now there are more options). oh also… at local markets, people are always turning my cards around to see the back…maybe looking for a price? but i’ve also started printing patterns on the backs to give people something to look at. because, why the hell not? all the same pattern for now, but it’s exciting and fun and i love it and i hope you do too. can’t wait to sell all the old stuff i have on hand and reorder it so i can reorder with the new patterns!

anyway, here are my new card designs!! <3 they’ll be in my online shop and ready for retail/wholesale this sunday, on feb 3! <3

NSS is a'comin'!

NSS is only a couple of weeks away, but i'm feeling calmer than usual pre-show.

i'm excited to share my pre-show mailers with cool stores i've either personally visited or found online and think might be a good fit for my stuff. if you landed here because of that, hi!! i hope to see you at NSS! if you're not attending the show, i'm still excited to share my new products with you soon! :)

each envelope included with my mailers was hand-painted (just like all my desings) and features a floral pattern based on a repeat pattern i recently painted and made into fabric.

this year for NSS, in addition to making a bunch of new greeting cards, i've pared my card line down a bit, removing some designs i loved that just didn't sell well over the past few years, and reworking some designs that i felt could use improvement. i'm also introducing handmade chiffon neck scarves this year... below is a preview! there will be 6 different styles all from desings i've hand-painted. can't wait to share more soon!

one of my secret projects is soon to be no longer a secret! ...and i'm kinda freaking out!

well! i mailed a really cool lenticular card i designed out to retailers this week and i am anxious to see if anyone is as amused by it as i am! it's been really hard for me not to post about my process and all the design iterations i've gone through with this project. i just feel like i'm on the cusp of something no one else in the greeting card circles i find myself in is doing. i think it's the most badass thing ever. i hope you agree!

since i decided to make stationery, i have been asking myself: what can i do that isn't letterpress? what can i do that isn't gold, holographic, or glitter foil? what can i do that isn't just painting pretty flowers on everything? i have been wondering how to set myself apart from other brands and have more of myself come through in my designs, and i really feel like i'm on the right track with all my new designs and products for NSS 2017!

the inspiration for the lenticular card came when we were driving from the montrose airport to telluride a couple of months ago on our ski trip. i was staring at one of silence's toys, a little phone that has a panda on it. i bought it for her because i handed it to her just to occupy her while i checked out, but then she wouldn't let me put it back without a huge fuss (how could i not see that coming???), so i figured whatever, it's cheap, happy to find something that makes her happy. the panda moves and says hi and bye depending on the viewing angle.

i'm an artist who happens to also be an engineer. i like making things. i like seeing how things work. i like when my brain hurts thinking about how things work. lenticular technology is so freakin' cool... once i finally did enough googling describing my daughter's toy phone image and learned the term "lenticular", i was completely set on making something with it for my card line. on our vacation i brainstormed tons of ideas for lenticular cards and researched places to print the cards for me. since then i've painted a handful of designs, i've received samples from several US manufacturers, and i've got more samples on the way! i'm really pumped to share something i hope you'll think is awesome, and although the technology is nothing new, i hope you will find it to be as new and refreshing of an idea for this indie stationery niche as it was for me!

NSS - little update!

I had such a good time at NSS... Thank you everyone who came by my booth and gave me positive feedback and encouragement! It's waaaay outside my comfort zone to be the center of attention AND to have to sell myself...and that's basically the position I put myself in for 3.5 days - and over something as extremely personal as my art. I'm really lucky my husband came with me to be my hype guy and keep my spirits up when I wanted to run away because my shyness/social anxiety started getting the best of me. Hanging in there was so worth it, though. I am so excited to have my work in stores across the country! I made some great connections and I can see so many opportunities to share more of my art with people in the future! We're getting back into our (new!!) normal routine in NC. For example, yesterday we went to the farmer's market in the morning and got Indian takeout for dinner (old normal), and this morning I woke up and found an email order from NSS in my spam folder in my inbox, so I adjusted my spam filter settings and ran upstairs to package that order (new normal)!

thanks to the delightful doreen (http://www.bobanduncle.com/) for the picture!!

NSS setup day 1!

i should start by noting that day 0 involved a 13h travel day from raleigh, NC to NYC to unload the van, and then to doylsetown, PA to stay the night with my cousin and his family. they fed us a great home-cooked meal and we had a fun miniature jam session around midnight before craaaashing. anyway, that was a lost day. it's behind us now.

FRIDAY! friday really was day 1. we woke up in PA and enjoyed an extraordinary homemade cappuccino before heading down to fred's breakfast club for some grub. guys. fred's breakfast club. i wish i could adequately describe how fun it was... or just how nice our few hours spent in PA were. it was just the lull we needed between stressful packing, driving, unpacking, and setup!

after breakfast, we took the NJT from trenton, NJ to penn station in NYC and dropped our stuff off at our hotel, then it was off to the javits! we got a couple of coats of paint on my walls, assembled our ikea "table" and i blocked out the mural i'm putting on my back wall to lure people into my booth. we got all of our friday setup goals accomplished in a reasonable amount of time so we rewarded ourselves with lots of sushi & sake! CELEBRAAAAATE!

everything hits at once

this past weekend i worked reeeally hard to get every painting finished, scanned, dust and cat fur removed (oh. my. god.), and uploaded to the printer! a marathon painting and scanning day sunday, an entire monday spent in a coffee shop overhearing terrible conversations, a sore wrist from attempting to use the mouse pad instead of an actual mouse for the first dozen cards, and one (ok, three) minor meltdown later... everything has been uploaded! the lady at the print shop said i should be able to review proofs as early as thursday this week! i am so anxious to see the final product you guys. YOUGUYS.

in the meantime, after i get home from long days at my real job (you know, the one that pays me?), i'll be resizing images for a catalog to take to NSS and an online store (launching in june)! here's what that looks like:

analog lyfe is hard / happy accident!

do you think anna bond ever drops her paintbrush and ruins her paintings, or is that just me?

i was painting and talking to my mom on the phone the other day, trying to multitask, and i dropped my freaking paintbrush... it rolled out of my hand and over my paper and got paint eeeeevvverywhere essentially ruining this thing i'd been working on little by little for two days. i was so annoyed with myself for being so clumsy, but i have absolutely no time to dwell or grieve with my NSS prep work! MUST. KEEP. MOVING.

i immediately started re-painting it, and you know what? it looked so much better. i fell more in love with the design. i even cranked out a few more similar designs to fill out my line for the stationery show! so, yeah...! for the next few days i'll be finishing my last few paintings, getting things scanned, and uploading files for my very first proofs! AAAAHHHH!!!

the dream becomes the nightmare

WELP! last night i had my first NSS nightmare... i got to the javits to set up my booth and my walls were already built, but my back wall was the wall of a house instead of wood. in the middle of my rear wall there was a huge fireplace. the floor was extremely old hard  wood and was sloping downward toward the fireplace. i stepped on the floor to test its stability and the beams sagged and separated and gave way under my feet.

we complained about this to our across the aisle neighbors, but they wanted no part in voicing or resolving the problem... jerks... we tried moving my booth forward a little into the aisle to get the drooping floor behind us, but it didn't work. and then i woke up. problem not solved.

NSS 2015

well guys i applied for NSS 2015 and i got accepted! BOOTH 1867! so. eek! i had 65 copies of my first finished design printed to use as this year's christmas card. it's so cute! in fact, i anticipate that some of the recipients may find themselves here because of that card... so hi, if that's you!

so here's my plan! complete at least 50 card designs by the end of april.

wish me luck! THIS IS HAPPENING!

NSS - the end. maybe.

today was the last day of NSS. saying goodbye to our booth neighbors while rolling out of javits with all our crap felt like camp had ended or something. i'm supreeeemely grateful to have met so many wonderful people and for the amazing opportunity i was given to see what the stationery industry is like (for smaller, independent companies at least).

i've developed a super strong (and crazy?) desire to exhibit my own stationery line next year. i mean, it'd be FROM SCRATCH starting NOW, but i feel like i could do this. i have so many fucking ideas but i rarely make time to let myself explore them and actually create something from them. i should just change that.

i have so much more to say but my brain is a swarm of thoughts and feelings. for now i'm off to enjoy a few more days in new york with my beloved husband!

NSS - paper party!

this evening after NSS, we attended the oh so beautiful paper paper party! holy crap. sam had a couple of dreams come true there... i stared at anna bond from afar and made googly eyes at her (SO. PRETTY.)... and we escaped relatively unscathed (aside from that $32 whiskey) and headed to shake shack for burgers and fries before bedtime. i enjoyed an extremely delicious mushroom burger on the sidewalk while toting around the most lovely flower arrangements leftover from the party... i'm ready to go dream about how awesome it is that i get to hug my husband tomorrow!

NSS - for real, for real.

WELP! today was day one of the national stationery show! hooooooly crap. we set out for javits around 9am (show begins at 10!). on the way, i stopped by the grocery store around the corner to grab coffee and morningtime treats for me and sam. while walking up the steps into javits i TRIPPED and spilled one of our beautiful iced coffees all over the concrete and also split the cup down the side so coffee was just slowly spilling out of the side of this cup while i laughed hysterically at myself -- NOTHING WEIRD! strangers literally applauded when i got up and successfully walked into the building. so. that was GREEEAT.

we had a few moments of calm reflection (i.e. secret silent panic) between booth visitors today and i sketched out a couple of prototypes for my new stationery line that i'll be launching soon:

...anyway...

today was pretty great. we talked to a lot of buyers, got a few orders, and saw some of our favourite designers all in one place. we're off to get manicures or wine or both! NEW YORK IS AWESOME! STATIONERY IS AWESOME! hooray!!

NSS - finishing the booth

today started off pretty nicely. sam and i went to the grocery store around the corner for fresh-baked raspberry pastries (omg......) and coffee. we got to javits by 9am and began the daunting task of FINISHING the booth. we didn't have much of a plan of attack, just a mess of things that in some way needed to end up on the wall and a plan in sam's head for how it should all look.

another friend of sam's joined us and helped hang shelves, assemble furniture, hang signs, and position product. things went so much faster with three people! we had our ups and downs in terms of available energy to complete the task, but overall i'd say we did a pretty awesome job putting that damn booth together. i'm thinking there's only like a 2-3% chance that any of it is currently sitting on the floor after falling to its death because we didn't adhere it to the wall well enough.

after everything was mounted to the wall and all the trash had been moved to the end of the aisle, the booth started to look pretty great. we got everything organized for tomorrow and taped off the booth (because people just do that at NSS? i don't know, i guess it's a thing? as if there's any way that would stop someone from going in and stealing all sam's stuff or photgraphing her product). sam had a celebratory swig of whiskey and we called it a damn day.

on our walk out of the building i saw anna bond of rifle paper co sitting in a chair looking at her phone... i swooned a little; i'll admit it. it's an honor for me to be in this place where all these great designers and illustrators are showing off their hard work. it's also a privilege to help my friend with her first time exhibiting at NSS. we've all got a big day ahead of us tomorrow! more to come.

NSS - the booth begins

what a super long day spent assembling a booth out of thin air!! sam ordered long strips of foam core and we tie-wrapped them to the existing pipe & drape setup provided by javits. it's not the most professional looking faux wall i've ever seen, but it's not bad considering we had no fucking clue what we were doing.

i enjoyed piecing the foam core together and figuring out creative solutions for our lighting direction issues and stuff like that. we left javits sometime after 8pm with all 3 walls up and more or less stable...and all the lights clamped and functioning. tomorrow will be another long day of hanging shelves, assembling ikea furniture, and displaying product! eee!

right now it's time to put delicious belgian food in our faces as a reward for all this hard work! 

NSS - getting there

several months ago i made a commitment to my friend sam that i would go with her to the national stationery show and be her booth bitch/hype girl. i'm still not totally sure what to expect, but today we flew to new york to get ready for it! a dream for me would be to someday exhibit my own stationery line at NSS... and make a living being an artist... but for now i'm so happy to support a talented & hilarious friend however i can.

we woke up stupid early, got to the airport stupid early, ate oily omelettes at RDU, experienced the miracle of human flight, and then had lunch with a reeeeally calm dude (he said "no worries" at least thrice) whose apartment we're air bnb-ing for the week. this guy apparently used to work at le bernardin with fuckin' éric ripert and seemed to adore him as much as i do. so. that gave me warm fuzzies.

so anyway, we're here. we got some groceries. i'm going to go scour the adjacent blocks for absurd and trendy food like pizza cone...ttyl!