New Love

"Let's Grow mOLD together" (inside blank)

"I pick you..." (inside: "to be my valentine!")

"Be my valentine..." (inside: "and nobody gets hurt.")

We have 3 new cards in the etsy shop right now! Two are re-designs ('Pick you' and 'Gun valentine') of old favorites, and the other is brand spankin' new! We love makin' love cards that are a little different than the average lovey dovey card, and these 3 are no exception- complete with nose picking, guns, and moldy cheese. Check out these 3, along with the rest of our awesome love cards!

Flashback: Dorota and Adam

So, in preparation for Indie Wed in Chicago (coming up on Feb. 2nd!), I've been going through my archives of wedding invitations, and stumbled upon a few designs that I've never shared on the blog. Including this invitation from waaaaaaay back in 2010, which coincidentally is one of my favorites! It's no surprise I totally forgot to post about this suite, considering I gave birth shortly after I finished designing it. It's not like I had anything else better to do. 

This wedding invitation suite was terrific to design, because it was really different than anything else I had ever done up to that point. The bride and groom had specific visions, and I had the challenging and wonderful task of bringin' it to life! The end result was so fun, and I love how vintage/modern/simplistic is turned out to be.

Dorota & Adam wanted a detailed outline of the events of the day, and wanted to convey just how fun and not-so-traditional the day was going to be. Dorota loves books and Adam loves music, so they asked for something that portrayed those elements. The RSVP card was designed as a library card and the "info" card was designed to reflect an old school billboard chart. We stuck to the chic black & white color palette, by pairing the white cardstock with jet black envelopes.

I absolutely adored the old school vibe Dorota & Adam stuck to.  These puppies are definitely unique, and remain one of my favorite designs!

Watch for more "Flashback" wedding invitation suites in the coming weeks as I prepare for my 4th Chicago Indie Wed!

Hello 2013.

I spent the last 4 weeks frantically preparing for Christmas, a stellar holiday party, and continuing the long excruciating process of our home remodel. And finally today, I'm able to sit down and take a step back and remember all the awesome-ness that was 2012. It's funny to look back at things I wanted to accomplish in 2012 (as seen here.), and I realized that you'll never know what a year will throw your way and how your resolutions grow and change as each month passes.

CD had a fantastic year, and each year I grow this little company, I'm always handed new surprises. This was the first year that I started to feel like CD was actually work, hard work actually, and was torn by what that meant and how I could fix it. Feeling stuck in a rut is never fun, but I think it's a necessary evil in being an entrepreneur. It forces you to gain the strength to overcome challenges, and grow stronger.

2012 was definitely a learning year. I had the pleasure (and fear) of going outside of my comfort zone and attend Alt Summit, twice! The experience in Salt Lake City and NYC was tremendous, and I spent all year thinking about what I learned and gained from the conference. My experience at Alt pulled me in all different directions, and I'm still trying to organize my thoughts to this day. Even though I was crazy ass nervous about attending both conferences, at the end of the day, it was extremely beneficial, both to Cracked Designs, and personally.

I'm looking forward to 2013 (despite the fact that I'll be turning 30...) and I'm intrigued by what curve balls I'll be thrown this year.

Some highlights of 2012 include:
-The Journey Journal makes it debut on Urban Outfitters online!
-I had the good fortune of traveling a lot this year. (Hawaii, Nashville, Salt Lake City, NYC, Phoenix)
-My son turned 2, and may have went a little overboard on the invites...
-We are finally in the home stretch of finishing our massive home remodel project!
-I had the pleasure to once again display at Indie Wed in Chicago, and Milwaukee too!
-I did my first craft fair in 3 years in Dec. (Urban Garage Sale in MKE), and boy was it nice to get back out there.

Again, thanks to all the CD supporters out there. I couldn't do it without you. Cheers to making 2013 super terrific!

Alt NYC: Finally, a recap

Well, this only took me a little over 2 months to write. After seeing so much NYC in the news over the past week, I was inspired to finally write my Alt NYC recap and remember the city in a happier time.

To keep in form, I'll title this "Through the Awkward Eye" again, even though my experience in New York was littered with far less awkward-ness than back in Salt Lake City. I know, it's disappointing. Well, it all started because I was lucky enough to have won a ticket to Alt in NYC about 2 weeks before the actual conference. Honestly, I was a little torn. On one hand, I was over-the-moon excited to be able to go to Alt again, and this time in one of my favorite cities. But the other part of me was shaking in my boots, because once again, I would be putting on my big girl pants and *gasp*, mingle with others. Visions of my painfully awkward experience in SLC were playing out in my head and kind of made me want to puke. I know what you're thinking...."Why would you want to go again then?". Well, at the end of the day, Alt is such a beautiful and inspiring event that makes your heart burst with creativity and motivation and unicorns and cool stuff like that. No matter how awkward my first encounter with Alt was, everything I took away from the conference overshadowed that. Not only the things I learned at the conference, but the things I learned about myself, and the confidence I gained to feel comfortable in my own skin. And boy, am I glad I ventured out again...

Dare I say...Alt NYC was better than the Salt Lake City event. It was 100 times smaller, and was only one day, but those 2 things, I think, are what made it so amazing. I didn't feel as overwhelmed as I did in January and it was just so much more comfortable and natural overall. It didn't hurt that Martha Stewart made a guest appearance either! I think experiencing Alt for the first time back in January, I was able to be much more laid back this time around, and was more eager to learn than to impress. And honestly, it worked for me. People were actually coming to me, instead of slowly backing away. Maybe it was my killer bright red pants, who knows. Don't get me wrong, I still did have a few awkward conversations, but all in all, it was fantastic.

The caliber of the speakers in New York was amazing. Especially Tina Roth Eisenberg, from Swiss Miss. I was pretty floored listening to all the speakers, and felt so invigorated and honestly, like I could take on the world.

Believe it or not, I talked with a bunch of cool folks and DID NOT scare them away immediately. It's true, it's true. I actually managed to make decent small talk and sound like a normal human being. The whole time in my head, I was like, "Hot damn Tara! Work it, work it!" I was pretty impressed with myself. Even during the party at the end of the night, I talked with 3 separate people, and did not miss a beat. No studdering, no weird comments, nothing. After my pleasant conversations, I decided to duck out early, you know, while I was ahead. No need to push my luck in the awkward department.

The view from the rooftop of Martha Stewart Omnimedia

The 2 1/2 glorious days I spent in the city were pure bliss. Even though I've been to NYC multiple times previously, it was like I was re-discovering the city again. And, boy oh boy, I fell in love hard. Exploring the city by myself was perfect. It was so nice to get a little time away and re-group. There's no other city to feel more inspired, than New York City.

I very much hope that there is another Alt in New York in the years to come, it's such a great alternative to the January event. Personally, I think the one reason I love this conference so much is not only is it wildly inspiring to creatives like me, but both the Salt Lake City and NYC conferences made me push my boundaries of comfort, which made me more confident and led me to produce some of my best work this year.

I was totally blown away by the High Line.

On one final note, since I did so well being a normal person for once in my life, this post won't contain any embarrassing stories of me giving my medical insurance card to the car rental agent. (Oh god, I still cringe and get barf chunks in my mouth when I think about that...) or anything like that. And, unfortunately I won't be attending Alt Summit in Salt Lake City this January either, so you'll have to wait for more embarrassing stories in future posts. Don't worry, there are guaranteed to be many my friends, many...

*See my first Alt Summit recap here.

New Christmas Card

Added a brand new Christmas card to the etsy shop last week! Tis the season!

Inside greeting: "Hoping all your holiday wishes come true!"

Find it here.

Remodel

One of the many reasons I've been a terrible blogger lately, is because for the past year we've been doing a major remodel of our upstairs attic space. We live in a 100 year old bungalow home with loads of character, which originally drew us to the house, naturally. In addition to all the history of the house, we also loved that almost all of the upstairs space was unfinished when we bought it. This meant that we would be able to completely remodel it just the way we wanted to. Score.

Well, fast forward to five years later, we finally started the remodel project (last summer 2011), and holy smokes, talk about a daunting and exhausting task. We had always dreamed of the day when we would get to pick out our dream layout and all the fun stuff of a brand new space. But little did I know how time consuming and stressful it is to have every decision completely up to you. Wasn't this supposed to be fun and easy? Our new space is huge and basically doubles our current living space, adding a huge master bedroom, master bathroom, office and loft area. So, there were lots and lots of decisions to be made. What I learned so far, is that Adam and I are terrible at making quick interior decorating decisions. It took us, seriously, 6 months to pick out hard wood flooring. I cannot tell you how many hours have been spent looking at wood. It kind of makes me want to barf just thinking about it. The thing is, we want everything to be just perfect. And perfection is a stressful thing.

Well, finally, we are in the home stretch of the finalization of this remodel (kind of...) We are currently finishing the master bathroom (which took 1 year of picking out just the right tile...seriously, what is wrong with us!?) The master bedroom has been finished for a while now, and once the bathroom is complete we can finally move into the new space. I'm also currently in the process of moving my office into the new office space. Even though we are in the final steps, I'm predicting we still have a ways to go. There is still the daunting task of converting my current office space into a loft space, picking out the perfect bed, closet organization, and overall decorating of the entire space. sigh.

Although it's been a long process littered with Adam and I arguing over toilets, paint color and tile, it's been amazing & rewarding to see this space that was once a dingy attic home to a terrifying bat, turn into a beautiful, natural light drenched, living area. We wanted this space to reflect our eclectic style, combining modern elements with vintage charm. We want to stay true to who we are and let this new space shine with our personalities, while still honoring the original character of our home. So far, I'm loving the little details that we've started incorporate, like a 60's mod sputnik light, exposed brick and bright colored flea market finds. I'm already falling in love hard, and even though the space isn't perfect yet, I know it's completely "us", and well, that's pretty perfect in itself.

Above pictures are a little glimpse of my favorite details so far, and since it's become such a huge part of our world, I'm excited to share more about the remodel in the months to come!

Fun with Hand Lettering

I recently designed some wedding invitation samples for Genevieve & Alex for their summer bash next year. I love their fun color scheme, and overall "party" feel to their celebration. I decided to do something a little different on these samples that I've never done before...hand lettering! It was so much fun to draw out some of the fonts, and give these puppies a little extra touch of whimsy. Hopefully I get to do some more hand drawn fonts soon!

The glorious roadtrip: Nashville, TN

We are back from a glorious roadtrip down south today. Way back when Adam and I were youngins, we took the most fantastical roadtrip down south and hit tons of roadside gems, like Dollywood, Graceland, the list goes on and on. So, we decided to go back down south again and take a mini roadtrip to Nashville, TN, and Kentucky. There's just something' about the open road, and that sweet Southern air. Here are some pics from Nashville if you'd like to see.

Printer's Alley

Hatch Show Print. Very very cool.

We loved Nashville, and all the music in the air. It made me wish I could strum a banjo. I'll post more about some other gems we found along the way...

New Card Alert

We've been so busy lately, that I totally forgot to post about our newest card! You can find it in our Etsy shop now.
on front: "You're goin' places"
inside: "Good luck!"

Alt Summit NYC

First of all, I never win anything. So, when I saw Alt running a contest to try to win a coveted ticket to the first ever NYC conference, I decided to play along (but tried not to get my hopes up). Well, much to my surprise, I actually won a ticket! Needless to say, I am beyond stoked and grateful to Bing for running the contest.

I attended Alt for the first time this past January, and it was fabulous, although I did step out of my comfort zone quite a bit, as remembered by this post.  NYC is one of my most favorite cities, and am looking forward to visiting again. I'm thinking I might take in a Mets game, visit the Whitney, and stroll around Brooklyn. I've been to NYC quite a few times before, but am always looking to see something new, anyone got any suggestions?

Time to dust off my big girl pants and try this thing again, and hopefully keep the awkward-ness at a minimum. But really, who am I kidding?