VALENTINES

Remember passing out Valentines to your classmates in elementary school? It was always so exciting to get that sheet of perforated cards and figure out who to give them to. Should you sign your name or become a secret admirer?

I loved those memories and wanted to create my own for my Etsy shop. Print as many as you need and share the love.

HMM

I just read that Domino Magazine is going to be no longer. That's a serious source of inspiration and fun design out the window. What a bummer.

CARS

So, I've been looking at cars all weekend because mine is quickly descending into the depths of despair. I bought one on Saturday, and will pick it up on Monday so they can detail it. However I discovered a little snag. They told me it was all-wheel-drive, but I discovered it's really front wheel drive. I'm fine with that, except I was dickering over the price of an all-wheel. I may tell them I don't want it, as I haven't completed the papers. It's the principle you know!

Anyway, in celebration of a new car, here is a very cool Audi commercial. I love Audi's but not as much as I love this Audi commercial. (I didn't get an Audi : ) 

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.