Things that have inspired me recently...

I found this description of an artist on Etsy today... so true. Something Jen Swift and I have spoken about many times. I found it inspiring or maybe it's just nice to know there are more of us...

" Being passionate about what you do is wonderful, but I find I never have enough hours in a day, and sometimes I really have to let go of making things and focus on being, you know, a kind and attentive human being and not someone who is always somewhere in the middle of a creative process. "

Another inspiring thing I found recently, again on Etsy, was this video. I've been back to watch it several times over the last few days. I'm not really into communal living on this level but I am into living in a beautiful place, surrounded by people you love on land that is home. I love the "big house" in this piece and could easily see myself in a home like that. The views are spectacular. The land in this video really speaks to me. That and the "big house". There is something so peaceful about the land, the green, the open fields, the mature trees...I could live in that everyday.

New Art

I've added a new piece to the shop! Another collage, titled Like A Bird. Starting to get quite a collection of them. This one is girly and pretty and reminds me of a fairytale with an enchanted kind of feeling. I would love to see it done in a little girl's room or nursery, but I think I'm putting this one in my studio.
Oh, you can customize your text with this one, too! For the default I chose Psalm 124:7 - Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler. But there is an example below the default to show another choice. Feel free to submit your own text :)

Fabulous Photo

This is filed under "customer photos" but really Stephanie is not considered a customer. She is a designer, served on our Fab 5 deisgn team and is beoming quite a fixture here at S3. A while back she found  coffee table with a great shape at a garage sale. She plopped down a whopping $7 and took it home for a little TLC involving paint and decals.

Once it was in her workspace she cleaned it up, sanded it down, applied cream paint, sanded it again to distress the finish and applied some fun decals. A very inexpensive way to get a custom piece! We even cusomized some text with her family name in it. You can find the compass decal in our shop and of course, we can always work up some custom text (or graphics) for your projects!

Here are a few before and after photos ... quite a transformation, don't you think?!

Customer Photos

So, this is a little crazy. Today I was sent photos from the interior designer that used our Birch Trees in Winter in the Lake County YMCA Dream Home project. This is the project that got us noticed in Cleveland and resulted in us doing The Great Big Home and Garden Expo thus designing the stage for Ty Pennington. Interesting that I should receive them now. I guess I did see the designer at the show - she looked us up. I hadn't spoken to her in MONTHS, like 8 months, and she just shows up at my booth to meet me :)

It was fun to meet her. You never know what to expect when your communication with someone is email and phone calls and then you are face to face. She was really sweet and laid back. Super easy to talk to. She, is Ame West of West Interiors. Her space to design in the dream home was the laundry room. She may have done more but I am not aware of any other projects - we just participated in the laundry room project.

So here are the pics of her fantastic work. I'm really happy to be a part of this project and really love the way Ame used our art!

Color Your Career

I took a test today. One that tells you what your career should be based on the colors you like and dislike. You can find it here. I found it to be interesting and somewhat accurate. Here are my results:

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Best Occupational Category

You're a RESEARCHER (hmmm kind of more of the try it and see how it goes type)

Keywords (these I found to be dead-on)
Independent, Self-Motivated, Reserved, Introspective, Analytical, and Curious

Investigative types gather information, analyze and interpret data, and inquire to uncover new facts. They have a strong scientific orientation, enjoy academic or research environments and prefer self-reliant jobs. (scientific, academic - not so much. self-reliant - all the way) Dislikes are group projects, selling, and repetitive activities. (this last line - sooo true)


RESEARCHER OCCUPATIONS

Suggested careers are College Professor, Physician, Psychologist, Pharmacist, Chemist, Marketing Research, Inventor, Sales Forecasting, Project Engineer, Dentist, Identifying Consumer Demand, Chiropractor, Dentist, Medical Technician, Optometrist, Research & Development Manager, Respiratory Therapist, Real Estate Appraiser, Chiropractor, Veterinarian, Geologist, Physicist, Science Teacher, Medical Technologist, and Author of Technical Books. (yeah, not one on the list I would pursue - at least long term - R&D is kinda cool - you know, try it and see what happens)

RESEARCHER WORKPLACES
Task-oriented careers where you can become absorbed in the job, be original and creative, and not conform to rigid company rules will work best for you. Unstructured organizations, for example, that allow you to sail your own ship are vital. (totally my kind of environment - absorbed in the job, unstructured...this indulges my introspective characteristics)

Suggested Researcher workplaces are universities and colleges, home office positions, medical facilities, computer-related industries, scientific foundations and think tanks, research firms, and design laboratories (I guess the home office part fits since I do work from home - the rest don't really appeal to me much)

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Let me know if you try it and how accurate it is for you.

Catching Up

Hello Everyone - It's been a while since I've blogged. It's been very busy around here. The expo has wrapped up and I got home on Tuesday afternoon. Seriously l-o-n-g trip! 13 days - not ideal. At least not for me. And not on a regular basis. But I do believe the trip was worth it.

As promised here are a few photos of me and Stephanie with Ty Pennington. The first one is of us with him at a cocktail party on Friday night. Then us with him on the stage I designed (how cool is that?!) on Saturday morning after his first stage appearance.  I felt so lucky to get a photo with him and my work! He was super nice. Said amazingly nice things about my design and took a few minutes out of his very busy schedule to talk to us. Very gracious of him.

I also thought I'd show a couple of images of the stage itself. The first is of my mock-up. This is the file I submitted to Ty's decorator for approval. In the second photo you can see the actual application. I always love to compare the two. No matter how many jobs I do like this I love to see the transformation of the concept to the actual. I am really happy with the way this job turned out. We had some challenges with the application but we stuck it out and the job turned out fabulous!

I used mostly black and white - white in our matte finish and black in our gloss finish. The play of the color and finishes was so cool!!

All in all - it was a GREAT show! I'm so happy I took the chance. Put myself out there. And invited a great friend to join me. I won't forget this 13 days spent in Cleveland.

Lights. Camera. Action.

Stephanie and I have had

4 stage appearences at the Expo thus far.

Here are a couple pics of us rockin' a decal demo!