I just posted a video walkthrough of my December Daily album here, and I'd love to share it's VERY FULL pages with you! It's evident that I won't be a vlogger anytime soon, but it was fun to flip through and talk a little more about what I've put together so far. I hope you'll check it out if you have some free time!
Because sometimes we all need a little reminder that we're on the right track, that someone else's success isn't our failure. We've got this - all of us.
To help us keep this in mind, I am sharing free downloadable files of my illustration in black and white and color in a few file types and sizes. You can get them on my Google Drive here.
I'd love it if you'd share this with others who might need to here, it too, and if you do that, please direct them back here or to my Instagram feed.
I don’t think that “excited” begins to cover how I feel about being able to launch this new project with Elise today in the Feed Your Craft shop! This collection is small, but mighty, and is hopefully a fun, light hearted addition to your projects this season.
I jumped at the chance to work ahead on a little December Daily spread using a variety of the papers, cards, tags, and flair, and it was just the thing I needed to tell the story of some holiday traditions and get me even more excited (if that’s possible) for what’s ahead this year.
I love the patterned papers Elise made from the doodles, and wanted to get the most out of each sheet, so I’ve trimmed down the candy cane hearts and will be sprinkling strips of it throughout the album, I just know it.
When I was working on designs for the cards, I couldn’t help but think of some of our traditions, and baked goods is definitely at the top of the list. Using the “Bakes with Love” card to list out some of my husband’s favorites, and using my grandmother’s cards to tuck the recipes in the bottom pocket, I will not only have this memory, but I will never be without the directions to make it a reality.
The full size tree page was so good just on it’s own, but a few enamel dots to make the ornaments pop and a little journaling about my grandmother’s glass ornaments that I display each year, and it’s a fun, easy way to capture a memory.
I cannot tell you how much love went into these designs, or the process of deciding on this little kit, and then, of course, all of Elise’s care when pulling it together and packaging them up, but I can tell you that we were inspired by the incredible talent of everyone who has been supporting our crafty adventures together this year and using what we make to create such awesome work.
I am so grateful for this community and the opportunity to try something new and offer it out into the world. I am so excited to see what’s next!
“The most adult and beautiful thing we can do for each other is not to try to insinuate ourselves into all of each other’s experiences, but just to listen.”
Starting this post by saying that I’ve been thinking lately about what it means to be an adult is like pretending that I don’t think about it all the time, or that I just began to ponder if I’d every really grow up (wherever this elusive “up” should take me). The truth is much more common, I think, because I hear people talk about it all the time as they watch, as I have, their friends get married, have children, buy houses, and generally take steps that make sense accordingly to the chronology of life most of us have understood since childhood.
And here’s the thing – for all of my daydreaming, I am a pretty practical person, so I know as well as many of you do who are reading this, that “adult” is just a word, and I may never, as many never do, feel like one, but that’s not really what this is about. The question of what it means to feel like an adult isn’t rational at all, and if it was, getting married would have changed something about how I felt, big promotions at work, moving across country, large purchases, and milestone birthdays might all have nudged me toward feeling more adult that before. This question of what it means to feel like an adult is about seeking a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of calm that comes from making it to the next “level” – a kind of goal setting not unlike unlocking the door to Mario’s princess; it isn’t about whether or not it should matter, it’s that it does, somehow, and even more so because it can’t be easily defined. And if you’re someone who isn’t sure she ever wants the home or children, eliminating the options of markers along the way, the elusive title grows ever more faint and out of reach.
This is a long winded way of saying I’d almost recently succumbed to the fact that I would never feel like an “adult” regardless of age or position, and that fact, ridiculous as it may be, left me frustrated and a bit sad (though just being sad about it bothers me, too). And of course this is when the tide turns, which I am sure after all that puttering you saw coming, or maybe hoped was coming – I realized I’d had it wrong all along. This being an adult – adulting as I’ve seen on every Pinterest t-shirt – isn’t really about paying for insurance or changing a diaper or paying your mortgage. This being an adult, though I am not certain the name really makes it or matters, might not be about any of those things, but instead, how we behave, what we understand, how we treat people, how we love people, how we love ourselves.
I downloaded the first episode of Lena Dunham’s new podcast on a whim, searching for something different to listen to, but assuming it would be great, but necessarily my taste in the end. The episode is all about friendship, with stories that were lovely and witty, but it was one line, the first of this post, that set off a light bulb in my mind and left me running home to grab my computer and write. “The most adult and beautiful thing…” she says, and it’s in that moment that the word “adult” is used for the first time, finally, in a way I am elated to hear, and it’s something I want to be again, an aspiration instead of a social status. “…that we can do for each other” she continues, and that’s when it hits me, though I knew it when I was little watching my mother, unwavering to my childhood pleas to hate this person or that for being mean or stupid or weird, bringing me back, constantly, to the middle, where I suspended judgment long enough to understand where the other person is coming from, and then inevitably longer because once you understand, it’s nearly impossible to keep on with your quick, short sighted, though immediately comforting judgments. It’s so easy to say someone is mean and awful after they’ve said something hurtful, but before you’ve taken the moment to find them, listen to them, and to see them again on the terms of their life and not yours.
I am realizing as I write this that you might have already come to the same conclusion that is now hitting me, that you knew, all along, that the act of becoming an “adult” if we have to title it (which, come on, some times we do), might have nothing to do with a list of the external statuses we so often measure or fret over, and instead rests on the way we are willing to engage with the world around us.
I love the idea that more than paying my bills (which I gratefully do), or being married (which I happily am), or having children (which I willingly decline), the act of listening, really listening to someone, and letting them bring their full selves to the table without judgment might be the most “adult” thing I can do this year.
I love how beautiful and important it is to care about people enough to let them be themselves. I love that how by doing just that I might, in glimpses, be that “adult” I’ve been questioning if I could ever be.
And here’s the thing: I might be more of an adult, if we’re to agree to these terms, that I ever thought I was, and that’s a good feeling, regardless of how much I want not to care at all.
In just about two weeks a very talented guy will come to our home with a camera in order to capture who I am and why I do what I do, why I love what I love, make what I make, teach what I teach, and all I’ve been able to think since I found out is this: oh no, he’ll see how un-adult our life is. I wish I hadn’t typed that, but even more so, I wish it wasn’t true, but the reality is that I’ve been worried we’re living in limbo in our rented apartment without solid plans to move on, knee deep in a combination of our neighborhood haunts (bookshops, and wine bars, and coffee shops, oh my!), and all I will be showing is a girl with too many Legos, too many books, too many dreams, and too few plans.
Tonight, I’ve been thinking about this differently, and my hope for what he’ll see, and maybe capture on film, are different, too. Maybe in the end I will be the girl who lives an incredible full life with her husband in the middle of the city she loves, knee deep in a neighborhood she knows by heart, and a surrounded by the things she loves, no matter what they are, and this feels so different, and better.
Here’s what I know to be true: life is how we are willing to see it, and often, it’s how we are willing to define it, and I am choosing today to see and define mine as complicated and beautiful, and if I am going to be an adult, may I be the kind that listens.
To say I'm excited about this release would be an understatement. To say that I tossed around seven thousand ideas for how to use the flair first, feels like even more of an understatement, even though I know it's really an exaggeration brought on by a desire to make every possible festive project full of Thanksgiving pie, gingerbread houses, tiny mice bearing banners, and, of course, an homage to one of my favorite "holidays" - Starbucks' Red Cup Day!
The thing is, though all of those flair and the fun stories they will help illustrate are coming, I knew there was one story I wanted to tell right now, and seeing Elise's post on Instagram about sharing what we're thankful for, I knew the flair I needed to use most of all from this release wouldn't be flashy, and the story that goes with it wouldn't be cute or festive, but simply, quietly, it was just the one that needed to be told.
I recently returned from one week away with my mother and sister in New Mexico, where we flew in to visit my grandfather and his wife. I hadn't been out to visit since prior to my teen years, and though so much was the same, I was seeing everything with new, more seasoned eyes, and I saw so much more than I'd bargained for.
The layout is as simple as the flair that inspired it, and I am thankful for that. My grandfather, a maker at heart, a wood worker by trade, and a man of invention and reinvention, would be proud, I think, by what it uses, and doesn't use, to tell the story.
The wood veneer alpha title is a nod to what he loves, and I think if he were here he'd have offered to cut out letters himself that I could use. The bottom half of the page is framed by a scrap of the crinkly kraft paper he used to wrap and pack the wooden jewelry box he sent me, and the lined paper for journaling are sheets from his notebook that he offered, as he did the use of his masking tape (I wish I'd said yes to this one), crayons, cardstock paper, and glue while I was there.
Just like the flair says, I am giving thanks for all those moments we spent together, for the bits of him I took with me, and for the bits of him I've had with me all along.
I'd like to think that the maker in him is the same maker in me - always looking for new ways to do things, new ways to use what we have to make it work when it doesn't seem possible, new ways to use the talents we have to make someone else's life better, even in the smallest of ways.
Today, not only can you get the "give thanks" flair in the Get Stuffed set, you can also get flair to match all your wintry, festive, celebratory memory keeping as we enter this season of light. I am so excited that my favorite hippo, Harriet, is making an appearance this time, and she's donned her biggest red bow in the spirit of the holidays.
Harriet can be found in a few sets in different color ways, but no matter which one you pick up, you will get a little extra treat! Anyone who purchases a set of flair with Harriet in it will receive a digital 6x8 print that can be printed and used in albums, resized for Christmas cards or gift tags, or if you're me, framed as part of your holiday decor, because there's just never enough Harriet.
Now that I've rambled about grandpas and hippos and my love of both enough, please hop on over to Elise's blog for more inspiration, and then head to the shop to pick up some flair of your own!
One thing though before you go - a simple thank you that's really nowhere near enough, for all of the support you've shown to me and to Elise over these past almost six months. I am eternally grateful for your kind words, incredibly inspiring use of what we make, and your willingness to let us keep coming back, knocking on your proverbial doors, and asking if we can share your space for a while to tell you what we've been working on, and encouraging you to do the same. Thank you making it possible for us to be able to keep doing what we love and sharing it with you.
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
Circles again, of course, and once more journaling tucked away under the photos, under the title, meaning that this theme I've had lately with both continues on in this layout. The difference is the subject matter as I figure out a way to approach one of the smallest, most impactful changes I've made recently - taking a break. Who knew that thirty minutes away for a bit of food or coffee, rest or reading, drawing or writing, could be so life changing?
Simple is the name of the game in my layouts when it comes to design, and even more so when I want to use a variety of photos. Without room for all of them, and wanting to echo the round shape of Elise's awesome days of the week mini flair, I went with two inch circles using my paper punch. I wanted to capture what I ate or did on each day's break, but knew I didn't want to draw too much attention to those details, so I punched cardstock circles to go with each photo, and wrong the details there, tucking each below the image. To make it easier to see the text without have to flip up each photo causing bends, I attached the flair to a bard fastener, pushing that through both circles, and giving them the ability to spin.
The bulk of my journaling is found under the large BREAK title, and in an effort not to have one piece of carstock folder over that might cause it to stick out or look bulky, I attached the strip the alphas are on to the journaling strip with a pieces of washi tape, making a clean, flexible hinge.
My favorite part of this layout is that the flair become much more than just embellishments - they are both prompts and practical tools in making the layout work (the brad as a spinner underneath). Finding ways to make your flair do double work for you means more use, less waste, and far fewer pangs of guilt when you find yourself needing to buy every single awesome design in the Feed Your Craft shop. But, if you do feel a pang of guilt over your overflowing cart, I'm here to help! Use this code and take 20% off your order: BRANDI20. Does it get any better than that?
I am relatively sure that most of what I doodle are items I'd love to have in real life, so the fact that I'm lucky enough to have a talented friend who turns my little designs into incredible mini flair that I can use on a variety of projects, well, that's just about the best.
I am also pretty sure that I say ever set we release is my favorite, but oh, this one really gets my heart. Pencils and crayons and pillows, oh my! Take a self professed school supply addict, mix in a love for the joys of autumn, a bit of spook, and some turtley awesome designs, and I am all in!
I thought for this release that it might be fun to show of the flair two ways - one in a layout that keeps it very simple, but uses the flair as a practical, but beautiful embellishment, and how fun it is to use the flair outside paper projects.
I don't think it's a secret that I tend to love super simple layout with very little embellishments, but that's precisely why I love Elise's mini flair. The flair are the perfect size to add a bit of a punch to a layout without taking away from the photo or the journaling. I also love that they make the perfect prompt for telling a story, like on this layout that's both about reading and my love of cider when it gets cooler.
As promised, paper projects aren't the only use for the flair, and I absolutely couldn't resist attaching this little fox (Francine) to my favorite scarf. I love having that little bit of foxy fun in my outfit.
There are so many fun designs, so hop on over to the Feed Your Craft shop and pick up your own, and then visit Elise's blog for more inspiration on how to use these mini doodle flair!
Now I'm off to make more project with these beauties! Also, don't forget to enter to win my giveaway on Instagram!
I am absolutely over the moon in love with the Babe Vibes pep talk generator, but after a glitch the other night that left me without someone else's good words on the screen, I took it as an invitation make my own. This is part of my pep talk - a little touch love, which is what I need lately.
I thought there might be a chance you need it, too, you can download it for free here: Geode Pep Talk. If you decide to download it, personal use only, please.
Now, go be a geode. You've got this.