JORGÉ

So my friend Jen is doing some really funny blog posts lately. 365 days of Jorgé, her little rubber pig. You seriously need to read her posts.

Here we are with Jorgé at Big City Soup on Thursday. He loved our afternoon of inspiration. He even saw Russell Simmons and knew him. I however did not. I saw his shoes and wouldn't have known him if I looked up anyway. I live in a sad sheltered pathetic world.

CHILDREN'S ILLUSTRATION

I went out this Thursday with my coworkers on an inspiration shopping trip. It's always a good time. Julie and I ended up in a children's store looking at the most amazing pop-up book. I mean, this thing had the most amazing engineering causing huge trees to pop out of fairly small book.

I love children's books. It's such a wonderful place to showcase an artists crazy skills. This guy, Jelle Gijsberts from the Netherlands, has such a great use of light with happy images. I simply want to wander through the images he creates.

FELT FLOWER

I love this felt flower so much. I just love how full and flowery it is. Not flat like my previous felt flower. I really want to teach myself how to make it so I can use it in a project. It's gone now but you can find it at the Balsam Etsy shop.

ETSY FRONT PAGE

Hey! I was on the front page of Etsy and didn't know. Some kind person e-mailed me. That's fun!

LOOKY HERE

Here are two fun designs done by customers. I love seeing how other people transform their Chandelier in a Box.

HAPPY . . . BASICALLY

"Yes, basically I'm a happy person." I love that line in When Harry Met Sally and it fits me perfectly. I really am happy. But...

Now this "but" doesn't cancel out my initial statement, but (there it is again) on Monday I was feeling a little of the after Christmas blues. On that same Monday, I went to a very good friends wedding, an old boyfriend as a matter of fact, and I sat there watching him and his new bride beam with happiness and listened to all of the positive comments that were made about both and I remembered . . . David really is happy. He throws caution to the wind and cheerfully finds pleasure in almost everything. I also remembered how David told me on a few occasions. "You have a good life Patti, you have to choose to be happy."

Now, I reiterate, I consider myself a happy person. I realize I have a wonderful life, job, house etc. but I think it's taken me a while to get here. I used to be the person that said, "I'll be happier when {blank} happens." And when {blank} happened I'd move onto the next "thing" that I believed would make me really happy. And I’m a bit of a complainer. I think it keeps me free of ulcers. AND, I like to downplay things so that if they turn out better than I expected, it’s that much more exciting! For example, “I just know that noise is a robber waiting to kill me in the bathroom. Oh, it’s just my drunk neighbor banging on the wrong door. I’m alive! Hallelujah!” But seriously, I think what David said is true, you have to choose to be happy.

I can see I've unconsciously followed his advice in the following way. My last two jobs were miserable and I helped along that misery by having a bad attitude in one job and not quitting the other horrible job soon enough. I was also hating graphic design and really missed working in a scientific field. It took some time, but finally I was fed up with the mental misery and decided to stop lamenting science and really embrace graphic design. I was going to make it work and it was going to start working by finding a new job. But I was picky, it took a year to find something that I thought was a good fit and as soon as I found my new job I made another resolution, "I'm going to love this job if it kills me."

I'm not dead yet. I do love my job and graphic design. It's amazingly creative and I work with really wonderful people. I'm happy, and I made that choice to be. So when I think back on David’s advice all I can say is, he’s right. (He would LOVE to hear me say that to him.)

But it could be better. While wallowing in my after Christmas blues I thought not just about what David said, but all of the other people who have been talking about living a more positive life, namely my friends Kristina and Oprah. Haha. And I think now is the time to really get serious about being happy and attracting all that is good into my life. So I got the book Being Happy by Andrew Matthews to carry around as a personal reminder and . . .

I’m starting a new blog, Up Not Down, A Happy Direction. This blog is a place to share stories, inspire and motivate people who have made the choice to have a happier life.

So go over to the new blog and email me your stories so we can share your inspiration and I’ll find funny things that remind us why life is so great. Remember, if you’re too busy being happy you won’t see that there is anything wrong with that.

TYPOGRAPHIC PAPER

I just found these beautiful paper sculptures done by Yulia Brodskaya. It's really just an awesome representation of paper quilling. Most quilling I've seen looks pretty dated, but seeing this makes me want to run out and give it a whirl.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I had to post this image from Design Sponge. I simply love it and one day will do it when I get my wrapping act together.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

TPLO BUMMER

I've taken my dog running a lot this summer, getting him an me in shape. Unfortunately, he started getting a little gimpy and finally blew out his ACL and has been hobbling around on 3 legs the last couple weeks. He's only 7 1/2 and I really want his remaining years to be good, so he went in for TPLO surgery this morning.

It's pretty invasive and involves the sawing of bones so I shed a few tears when I dropped him off because you never know what could happen during surgery. But they said he looks good although he may have an ulcer. I'm not even going to think about what that means. And I've decided not to think about the money either. Just like Scarlet, "I'll think about that tomorrow." 

I LOVE PAPER

Paper is awesome. It's so versatile and extremely cool. For example paper flowers are WAY more cool than silk flowers. So if you think you're hip, and you have silk flowers in your house, you might not be. I'm just sayin'.

Now I feel bad for saying that. . . I once told a roommate that if your jeans rubbed together when you walked you knew you were gaining too much weight. That was a mistake. I have never seen anyone agonize more about the fact that her jeans rubbed together. The fact is, everyone's jeans rub together when they walk and no matter how many times I tried to recant my jean rubbing statement, she would never let it go. She had other issues as well though...

So don't throw out your flowers. If you have silk flowers you can probably pull it off because of your extreme hipness!

Speaking of large hips, these paper wreaths done by Haru are to die for. She has a real skill in putting them together. I love how she has made the bottom a little thicker than the top on some of them. Nice touch.




I might have to try and make some of these.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

I've been so busy this year, that I decided to buy a fake tree. Hmmm. The thought of getting a real tree and chopping off the bottom and remembering to water it, was almost overwhelming so, a fake pre-lit tree it was.

I'm not sure if it was easier though. That thing is heavy, and I got the floor model so we had to stuff the whole thing in my car. In the process breaking a wire. So I had to hard wire some lights together. I'm thinking it could be a potential fire hazard. But I'm willing to risk it for the lights. I haven't even bothered to decorate it yet, but I'm enjoying the glow from the many little lights.

So, in remembrance of my real little trees in Christmases past, here is a couple photos of one of them.

POSTAL CALENDAR

It occurs to me I never posted my new Postal Calendar. I love it. I'm waiting for some to be delivered this week to sell, but a lucky girl in New York got my prototype. 

TAKE NOTES

I often teach a woman at work a lot about her computer design programs and she religiously takes notes on scraps of paper that inevitably get lost the next day and I end up going over the instructions again because she says she can't remember. Which is great because it gives me an excuse to talk to her. If you knew her, you would want to talk to her also.

However, over a month ago, I told her I was going to make her a book. No more scraps of paper. And here it is. Orange to match her hair and personality and I only gave her two tabs for computer notes and work ideas. Keep it simple.

I thought other people might like to make this book for themselves or others so I put it in my Etsy shop. The blue one will go up tomorrow.

SO LET IT BE WRITTEN

So let it be done.

Christi Shanks, you are the lucky Glittering Tulip Chandelier in a Box winner! How exciting! I think I use too many exclamation points in life. But sometimes it's just too dang awesome not to.

I'll e-mail you to get your address.

Thanks for participating everyone.

HOLIDAY SHOWCASE

This is the first time I have ever done a showcase. What a crazy amount of work getting everything ready. Then I think of the women getting the beautiful house ready where the Piper and Chloe Holiday Showcase is being held, and how much time they've put in. It's amazing these things get launched.

So, I took a photo of my setup. It's not like I originally planned because they wanted to hang the my mini chandeliers from their real chandeliers. Kind of a fun twist.

Using the ladder was Renae's brilliant idea. She's a genius that one. I think it looks cute, if you can tell through the horrific photo.

Don't forget the Glittering Tulip giveaway tomorrow. You still have time to enter.

CUPCAKE STAND

I saw this beautiful stand on Etsy's front page today. I think it is dreamy. There is not a better word for it. You can find it at Whitney Smith's Etsy site.

Oh and Andrea, it's time for you to go home ; )

HAPPY DECEMBER FIRST

For the first day of December I'm giving away. 

Now I have to say, I consider myself reasonably intelligent and I'm somewhat computer savvy. But truly, I'm an idiot when it comes to figuring out how Technorati works. I don't think it does, it can't be me. There are a lot of you with links out there and I'm so HAPPY for them and I've seen lots of people check out my blog through your links. But they just don't show up in my link searches and I've spent waaaayyy too much time trying to figure it out. (If you know something I don't please tell me)

So, onward and upward I will select from the messages. Which means, if you didn't submit to the Chandelier in a Box giveaway because you don't have a blog, here is your CHANCE!

I've picked my random number from Research Randomizer . 

CATHERINE THIS IS YOU!!!! I love winning stuff. Congratulations. I'm going to try and find your e-mail address right now. If you don't see anything in your e-mail, contact me.

I JUST CAN'T STOP

Hey, I've received some awesome responses. The power of Kristina. Don't you LOVE that she's doing a virtual card club now.

The giveaways are still underway. The PDF one will end tomorrow night and you still have until next Friday for the Glittering Tulip.

To answer some really great questions I've gotten:

I cut the chipboard with a laser cutter. And no, I don't own one, I pay LOTS of money for a really nice company to do it for me. I wish I had a laser cutter. Someone want to loan me 16 thousand dollars?

As for how to make the wreath, it's really simple. I bought a green foam wreath. Used long pins and pushed a pin through each star and into the foam wreath. I tried to layer them, then I filled in the empty spots with the vanilla pearls.

Debbie, I want to see a photo of your paper stars!

Here is some new stuff I posted to my Etsy shop this weekend. It's a busy time, but super fun!

The Shooting Star - Chandelier in a Box



'Tis the Season PDF Tags


The Lengthy Calendar PDF

A BLACK FRIDAY GIVEAWAY

You can never have too many giveaways!

Let me tell you, I am surrounded by some really wonderful people in my life. I get such great encouragement for my Etsy shop. If you don't know who you are, I'm not doing a very good job letting you know.

One of those people is Kristina who is crazy talented and wanted to get her hands on the Sweet Tweet Chandelier in a Box to see what she could make of it. I haven't seen it yet, she's posting it on her blog later today.(Seen in now,  and I love it) I'M SO EXCITED, so I'm doing another giveaway. For Black Friday, I'm going to giveaway the Glittering Tulip Kit. It sells for $45 and is adorable.

To enter, post this link http://talkottown.blogspot.com/2008/11/black-friday-giveaway_28.html into your blog and please comment here as well. Then I'll use Technorati to determine the winner from your links. Seriously though, comment here as well. I want to be able to see if Technorati is actually showing me your posts. If it isn't working, I will randomly select a winner from the comments. Whether you link this site or not : )


The Glittering Tulip Chandelier in a Box giveaway ends December 5th. Check back here to see the winner!

Don't forget to enter the pdf giveaway here.

PAPER STAR WREATH

The PDF giveaway is still going on the next post, so you should enter.

But, here is the paper star wreath I talked about a few posts ago. It definitely took a while and was a great project to do while watching TV.

I'm really happy how it turned out. Just like I imagined in my head, which never happens. I'm considering adding ribbon. I might have to buy that great chocolate felt ribbon that Stampin' Up sells, but I'm kind of liking it without ribbon too.



If you want to make one too here is Christy showing how to make the stars.

I made it mostly out of Stampin' Up's paper Juntos. The mellow moss and always Artichoke colors make a nice base. For good measure I threw in a little saffron colored designer paper which makes it nice and warm. Then the vanilla pearls. I remember Martha Stewart doing a beautiful cranberry wreath all out of glass beads a long time ago and thought these vanilla pearls might give a similar effect.