unveiling...

I am so excited to share the grand opening of this beautiful store that I had the pleasure of building along with Brian. Adair approached us a couple of months ago to do it and I loved working with her. Not only is her aesthetic similar to mine but she had some great ideas and a good sense of what she wanted before going into the job. Its very difficult to work with a client that has no clue what they want!! Working with Adair was the perfect balance of her input and vision balanced with my "expertise" as the design talent behind the site. I admit she pushed me a bit out of my comfort zone but in such a good way. We got to play with all kinds of different aspects of building on Pappashop and I think all three of us are just thrilled with how the site turned out! Please hop on over and take a look and do check back as Adair is loading new product every day!!

In addition to building Adair's site, I have been busy with LolliShops goodies as well. I am one of Sadie's Beta testers of the site as she gears up to launch next week!! There is so much exciting, behind the scenes stuff going on and the giddiness of the LolliShop girls (and guys) is palpable. I have been fortunate to work with several folks in preparing for their shop openings and just by doing banners I am excited to start shopping!! Here are some sneak peeks:

card love and Help!!

Hello friends. I am so enjoying my card making jag. I made more today!! Its been great to dig into the ephemera goodies I have collected and gotten from friends and add to my stash of cards to send and give to friends and loved ones. I haven't done any Happy Birthday ones yet so I am going to try to tackle that one next.

Tonight I presented the big web project that Brian and I have been working on to our client, who happens to be the school where Hannah goes. I have really enjoyed working on the site and it was so much fun to show everyone all the work we have been doing. They loved it!! We have a few more little tweaks and twists and a bit more info to add but its largely done... you can check it out here.
I am actually seeing the light at the end of my "To Do" list as far as jobs are concerned. It feels really good and maybe I will be able to carve out some time to catch up on Bluhm Studios business here soon. I am long over due on some new business cards for myself and I need to rewrite my contract and Terms of Service and rate schedule and all that stuff that has been niggling the back of my mind.

This is the part where I need some HELP! I have a client lined up who needs a scottie dog for part of her logo. Scotties used to be EVERYWHERE but I sure am having a heck of a time finding some clip art to incorporate. If anyone has any vintage or just decent clip art that I might be able to use, I would sure appreciate a heads up!! Thank You!!

the one about the Chaos

I know, I suck.. I went off on Saturday excited to meet up with Ms Chaos herself and had the best of intentions to rush back and report on what a wonderful time we had meeting up, talking and eating pizza and meeting the demands of the CEO and his peeps. Things got a little nutty here and I am barely uploading my pix tonight, meanwhile Karin is already home, unpacked, has posted and is making journals! I feel like kind of a loser.
Anyway, Karin rocks, I love her and I wish she lived next door to me. I think I DID run straight home and tell Holly that. Why do I have to meet all these kindred spirits that live so far from me?? I mean a 7 hour drive might as well be Oklahoma, especially when you have littles.
Despite my better judgment I will even post a picture here.. please keep in mind that these were taken by short people. I think we were lucky to get even one we are willing to share publicly. Well, ok, me.. and my extra chin. eeeeew. Ok, I am depressed. Karin is so teeny and fit... yeah don't even try denying that Karin.

All in all, we had a blast. I am sure, given the chance, we could have talked and laughed and joked for HOURS or even days. I hope that we can get together again soon, maybe even without that little CEO trying to gnaw off someone's hand in frustration that we wanted to take pictures to prove we actually met.

OK, in other news and totally off topic, I just wanted everyone to take a look at Jennifer's website that Brian & I just completed. She is still loading up her shop with goodies but her blog and everything else is functional. All of a sudden Brian & have lots of work piling up. We are beginning work next on the website for Hannah's school which I am excited about. Its nice to have a project that is near and dear to your heart and that the faculty feels so excited about. I'll keep everyone informed as to our progress.

'nite!

losing my mind

Ack, I feel like I am in the midst of an Alzheimers moment. (or week) There is so much going on around here that I feel like I am be pulled in many directions.

The kindergarten situation around here has been very stressful to me. We thought we were all set and everything would be good to go with Hannah attending the same school she goes to now which is a private parochial school. I worked the open enrollment day and turn out was great, for all classes BUT kindergarten so currently there is very low enrollment. Whether or not there will be a kinder class there is still unknown so rather than wait until so late in the summer and the possibility of scrambling around (more than now) we decided we had better enroll her in the public schools as a safety net.

Well, last week I learned that where we live is zoned to the worst school in the district. It is also an under performing school and not in the best part of town. Needless to say, there is NO WAY she is going there. H is very bright, she is reading, spelling and socially advanced. She needs to be in a class where she will be challenged and she can learn. We have been all set to go do battle with the district to get her transferred to a better school but of course, I, in all my spaciness have misplaced her birth certificate and immunization records. Enter world's most patient husband who has been running all over obtaining copies. I feel so bad.. I feel like a flake. I am so worried about all of this it is practically all I can think of.
(update: another phone call to one of our CHOSEN schools and it looks like the girl I talked to at the district gave me mis-information.. ok I feel a little better.. we still need to get over there and sign her up)

In other news, I have been BUSY. Brian (aka MrDoodle) and I have finished up Cerri's website. She will be busy with it and says she plans to have the Grand Opening by the end of the month. Its so cute, I hope you will all check it out. We are waiting for some feedback on the final draft of Jenn's site and then on to two more. I have been doing some behind the scenes work with a couple of wonderful girls, Jennifer & Natasha, and I can't wait to reveal the things we have been cooking up. I can share this new banner I squeezed in for my pal Kim's blog though. She is so much fun to work for because she just says, "Hey Heather, I am ready for a new banner" and let's me do whatever my heart desires. I know she loves fairies and collects Kirk's Folly so I went with this for this time. She LOVED it so that makes me very happy.
Hope everyone is doing well. I haven't been blog hopping much lately. I am afraid to open up my Google reader.. I bet there are 100's of posts to catch up on. I keep missing my OK friends on chat and so wanted to wish Holly a Happy Birthday in "person" yesterday. I guess I got the next best thing though, by having Brian tell her. Happy Birthday Sweetie!! And Donna, I miss you!!!

not much

How cute is the wee babe in this blog banner I just did for Dara at Sophie Rose designs? I had such fun making this "girly girl" banner for her and it was an added bonus to get to use her daughter's image. I am at work on the full deal for Dara. We need to get everything installed into her blog and etsy shop and get her new business cards ordered. Oh boy! You know how much I love getting those in the mail. In other design news, Brian ( Mr Doodle) and I have just gotten 2 new website jobs for folks you will surely recognize. As soon as I can, I will share more details.. I am excited though!

Anyway, it is late and I am have officially slipped into rambling mode. I could probably just go on and on about nothing. I am not sure what else I have to REALLY blog about right now. We are hanging in there. I am looking forward to a day of just being close to home after a couple of days of running around. Tomorrow I will take a picture of the round robin pages I did before I mail the book off and also hopefully some other little treats. G'nite.

exciting...

I'm pooped after a very stressful day but I promised some exciting news, so here....

www.MrDoodleandCompany.com