I will now tame you with a mama magic trick.

I'm pretty sure I need this bag/this bag was made for me. I'm the type of mama who hates the traditional diaper bag, so I'm always on the lookout for a good big tote bag. But now that Beckett is getting older, I don't need quite as much stuff as I used to (which means I don't need quite as huge of a bag), but I do still need boatloads of snacks, distractions, and other 'tricks' to keep my often, ornery-in-public son, quiet. A lot of times I already feel like my tote bag is a 'Bag of tricks', and I enjoy watching Beckett's eyes (and sometimes my husbands eyes) light up with excitement in anticipation for what I'll pull out of my bag next. I'm sort of a badass mama magician.

Get this awesome tote (I'm sure as heck going to!) at Madewell

Handshake Anxiety

One moment I hate in life, is the moment when you are introduced to someone for the first time and go in for the handshake. Let me explain this, I am super short and tiny. (I usually say I have a height deficiency) Although I am pushing my 30's, I have a young face and many mistake me for being in my early 20's, and have often gotten sympathetic looks when I am out with my son, Beckett. (Like - "Oh, that poor teen mom") I hate it. Despite all this, I have a pretty strong handshake. It doesn't really go with my body.

The hate shaking hands with people, because so many people give the weirdest handshakes. They like just put out their fingertips, and I'm like, what the hell do I do with this, kiss your hand? But then there are some people who you think are going to give a really good strong handshake (like men), but then totally psych you out by giving you 'limp hand'. So then I look like a total dude because I'm the one who gave the manly handshake. It also doesn't help that my hands are ALWAYS ice cold, and usually clammy. People always feel the need to comment on that fact, like "Hey, were you just stranded in the cold?!" Yeah dude, my hands are cold, what are you, a comedian? Now shut it and let's get on with the interview.

The point of this post is that it's hard to find someone who gives a genuinely good handshake. I decided instead of shaking hands with people from now on, I think I'm going to start giving high fives. That wouldn't be weird right?

Hump(back)

I've been wanting to make a whale card for a while. Why? I'm not really sure, maybe because whales are cool, duh! So, check out our Etsy shop for our newest card: "Let's Hump" (the inside of this card is blank)

The strange land that is my desk.

The other day while I was working I stopped for a minute to look at my desk. It was covered in saxophone cutouts, glittery spaceships, white underpants and more. It made me pretty darn happy knowing that I get to spend all day covering my desk in the weirdest combination of things and dreaming up some crazy cards in the process.

We heart Indie Wed

We trekked down to Chicago on Saturday for our third Indie Wed show. It was amazing as usual. There's really nothing bad to ever say about this event, seriously, I can't even think of a single thing. We met a whole bunch of cute couples, and managed to keep the awkward-ness at a record minimum. I'd like to think we are some kind of Indie Wed pros! Check out all of our Wedding Invitation sets in our Etsy shop, or some of our custom designs on our site.

Altitude Design Summit Recap, as told by an awkward gal.

I've been back from Salt Lake City for a whole week, and only now have I been able to finally wrap my head around the entire Alt Summit experience and write this post. I've been reading all the recaps from other attendees all week, and wanted to go in a different direction and be true to my nature, so my recap won't blend into the vast sea (vast fabulous sea) of other Alt recaps. So, if you want to hear about all the glorious speakers (there were many!), delicious food, trendy fashions, and swanky parities, this is not the blog post where you are going to get it.  I gots to keep it real people.

I first have to say that this conference was excellent, well organized, and insightful. It's incredibly rare to get a humongous room full of women together and keep it happy, friendly, and non-catty. A group of 400+ extremely creative people in one place is a very special thing, and the energy from this place is electric, you can feel it in your bones. Although I can see how Alt can be overwhelming at times, I couldn't help but be inspired and refreshed at everything I gathered and learned. I felt incredibly lucky to be apart of this event.

Part One: Loner
So, moving on to the really real part of things. I'm super duper awkward. For those who know me, you know it's true. I've always been that shy girl who sits in the back of the class in elementary school and pees her pants when someone expects her to answer a question. Sure I've gotten better as I've gotten older, (basically, there is no more pants wetting) but I still can't help but to give off an awkward vibe. Why the hell do you think I own my own business and work from home? No co-workers, baby! So, you can imagine my nervousness as I ventured out to Alt Summit, completely ALONE. It's like an introvert's worst nightmare. But nevertheless, I decided it was time to put on my big girl pants and get out in the real world with other human beings.

Part Two: Small Talk
I am awful at small talk, seriously, I can't emphasize how awful I am at small talk. I spent a lot of time at Alt just watching other people so effortlessly make small talk with someone they just met and then 5 minutes later became BFF's for life and trading those 'Best Friends' necklaces with one another. It was wildly entertaining. I am in awe of all the people who can do that (and extremely jealous), and it seemed like every single person at Alt had this miraculous ability, except me, naturally. I did, however, force myself to go up to people and talk, or sit with random groups of people and mingle. It was kind of like getting my teeth pulled out and getting punched in the gut at the same time. I was constantly thinking, "do they think I'm a weirdo?" "is there something in my teeth?" "why the hell did I just share the story of puking on my 1st grade teacher?". I was so busy thinking up all these things while I was talking to people, that a lot of times I ended up forgetting their names or forgetting to tell them my name. I'm actually really shocked that people didn't just slowly back away from me, mid conversation. Despite the throw up feeling in my throat, I met a whole slew of genuinely sweet and very cool people, who were all nice enough to endure the agony of awkward-ness. So, to those I met, thank you!

Part Three: The Awkward Pause
I'm oddly proud of the fact that I can totally nail the perfect awkward pause. It's an artform, really. For instance, I was making some solid conversation with someone at lunch and we were talking about road trips and kitschy roadside attractions. Now, this is something I'm really passionate about, so I get really into it when I get on the subject of excellent roadside oddities. In the middle of the conversation about visiting caves, I exclaimed "I just really loooove caves!". Immediately after that incredibly weird comment, there was a long awkward pause. I mean, what the hell do you say in reply to a person who has just proclaimed their love for a big hole in the ground? I'm not quite sure why I thought it was a good idea to declare my love for such an odd thing.  And it wasn't like I just said it off the cuff either, I said it really excited and intensely, which probably made it all the creepier. The conversation never quite recovered after that, but she was nice enough to continue to talk to me for the rest of lunch (which I greatly appreciated!) I would love to say that this was the only awkward pause moment I had at Alt, but alas, my trip was filled with awkward pauses, all created by me, of course.

(The above photo is the only photo I could find in the Alt Flickr stream that had me in it. I love that I just barely made it in...)

Part Four: Sticking Out
If you're an introvert, the last thing you want to do is stand out in a crowd. Now, I am not an extreme introvert as I am painting myself to be, for example I love getting recognition for the design work I do, and I love participating in indie craft fairs and meeting the people who love my stuff, face to face. To quote Ben Silbermann of Pinterest (who gave an awe inspiring keynote speech), "I'm an extrovert introvert". This pretty much sums me up completely. If you get a few drinks in me, I'll be your best friend, but stone cold sober and you'll be looking for the closest exit. I have always wished I was more like the 'Few drinks in me' version of me all the time, and attending Alt Summit this year was one of my baby steps towards being a more outgoing, and socially 'normal' person. One of my main goals at Alt was to play it cool, and show this kind of intimidating group of popular girls that I was just as cool as them. As you can imagine, this didn't go as planned. My most fatal mistake was ordering a beer at the Wednesday night dinner instead of wine. Right after I ordered the beer, I realized my mistake immediately once I looked around at all the other women who had their glasses of Merlot and Chardonnay. What the hell was I thinking? It didn't help that the beer I ordered came in a HUGE glass, which only drew more attention to the fact that I was the only one who wasn't drinking wine. I also was the only one who ordered steak, which also made me stick out in the bunch, since everyone ordered fish or salads. (For those who care, I ordered a Squatters Brewery I.P.A which was delicious! I bet it could have kicked the asses of all the wines at the table.  On a side note - Mad Props to Squatters, they had a lot of tasty beers that a true Milwaukeean-read alcoholic- highly approves of!)

Part Five: Acceptance
So, because I've titled this last section as "acceptance", this whole thing may have read like some sort of 12 step program for awkward people, and maybe in some ways, it is. Despite all of the cringe worthy awkward moments I had during my 5 day trip to Utah, I came to realize that I am a pretty perfect version of me. Sure, it would have been really easy to go into a shame spiral of depression after showing my Medical Insurance card to the car rental agent after she asked me for my 'insurance card' (obviously, she wanted my car insurance in this situation, duh.) To get back to the point, even though it would have been easy to go into a shame spiral after this event, I turned it into a funny story and quickly called my husband to tell him what I had done. I know I'm not going to change my awkward-ness and magically become the outgoing and perky person I sometimes wish I could be, and instead, I embrace all the quirkiness that makes me, me. After listening to all the speakers and talking with all of the creative attendees at Alt Summit, I realized that I didn't have to be the best dressed or coolest cat at Alt. As long as I love what I do & know that I'm good at doing it, that shines through and makes my stuff special. So, with all this being said, I'm proud to announce that I'm pretty awesomely awkward, and I love it. And I think that confession makes me pretty darn cool just the way I am.


PS: For a complete list of all of the amazing awkward moments I experienced in Utah, feel free to let me know.  To tempt you...they include things like, being trapped in snow, falling in high heels, and eating alone, just to name a few. A note to the Alt organizers for next year- I should be your #1 candidate to be a speaker to talk about 'Surviving as a socially awkward blogger/designer'. I think it would draw in about 5 people. Just something to think about folks...

Indie Wed 2012

So, I assure you, I will post a recap of AltSummit soon (it will be witty, I promise), but in the meantime I have been getting ready for the annual Indie Wed down in Chicago tomorrow! It will be my third time participating, and every year it gets better and better, so I'm excited to be apart of this wonderfully organized & of course, unique, event again.

Every year I debut a couple of new wedding invitation sets, so here they are in all their glory - 'Wes' and 'Venn'. You can buy samples of each of these sets in our Etsy shop now.

If you are engaged, and in the greater Milwaukee or Chicago area, Indie Wed is definitely a wedding show to check out. Get all the deets here.

Ut-awe(some)

Tomorrow I leave Utah to come home to good ol' Milwaukee, and I have to say that I really fell in love with Salt Lake City. It's absolutely beautiful. If nature & urban life got freaky and had a baby, it would be Salt Lake City. I love how you can be walking around a really urban, cool city one minute and then 30 minutes later you can be high up in the mountains, snowboarding.

I am impressed, Salt Lake City, I can't wait to come back and explore some more!

Hello, Salt Lake City!

Well, I am off to Salt Lake City tomorrow to attend Alt! I'm a little nervous, since I'm an Alt virgin, but since I hear nothing but amazing things about the conference, I am beyond excited!

Our Holiday Card

I always love designing our family holiday card, and each year I try to come up with something new and cool that conveys a year in our life. Since 2011 was packed full of fun vacations, first steps, and more, I came up with a bunch of icons that represented our year and shaped it into a heart.  I really loved the outcome, it makes me smile and remember all the awesome-ness that was 2011.