{moo minis}

I'm one step closer to opening an Etsy shop: I got the cutest batch of business cards this week!

For those of you who are unaware of the awesome website {moo}, here is your chance to check it out, and my chance to extol its virtues!

You have your pick of all kinds of professional business cards to create: standard size, "moo minis", postcards, Facebook cards, greeting cards, and even stickers and labels for your products!

I'm tempted to get some stickers, myself, in the future, but for now I went with the moo minis. They are $20 for a pack of 100, and printed full color front-and-back on professional grade laminated cardstock.

The process is as easy as downloading whatever artwork/ photographs/ graphics you want to use, customizing the back with your info and a logo, and sending it to the printer! The website said it would take 7-10 days to ship to my apartment (it was traveling from Rhode Island to Oregon) but two days later, my cards were in the mailbox!

They even come in a sturdy little box for a cool presentation. I used my artwork from {this post} to decorate my tiny little cards. Let's oooh and aahhh together, shall we?

If you're interested in making your own cards, use this {referral code} to get you and me a 10% discount! Happy creating!

{new craft room}

Tanner and I finished setting up the craft room (finally) with the shelf I've been wanting to install for ages. Tanner was a total rock-star and made two trips to IKEA to make it happen (we got the wrong size shelf the first time) and then spent all afternoon locating studs in the wall, lining up the shelf just right, and putting in all the screws. My hero!


While he had fun playing with power tools, I organized my craft supplies and labeled pretty boxes from IKEA and Michael's for things such as stamps, photos, card supplies, magazines (for cutting out pictures) and scrapbook magazines (for reference).

Now everything I need to craft and play is in one handy space! I'm so excited!


I also love my little craft station on the desk: it has all my colored pencils, scissors, pens, glue, erasers, and sharpeners, and the awesome magnetic spice rack on the wall holds little things like paper clips, push tacks, binder clips, and more!

The final product: ta da! Many hours since have been spent here, crafting away!

{winter adventures}

Our first winter storm of the season hit the Pacific Northwest last week, and it dumped 98 inches of snow on the mountain. Though snow on Mt. Hood means rain in Portland, it's hard not to be excited about a fresh layer of powder to play in, only one hour away...

In anticipation of getting up to the slopes on my next day off, here's a recap of this season's ski trips via photo journaling:

{etsy find: witty buttons}

I was lazily browsing Etsy the other day (as usual) when I stumbled upon a homemade category that I have never noticed before. It's called "Geekery." Utterly befuddled and intrigued, I perused its contents. I soon discovered that "Geekery" is abundant with hilarious sci-fi references, video game inside jokes, funny electronics cases, and Harry Potter paraphernalia. Basically, all the things that make me geek out a little. Apropos.

At any rate, while I was busy giggling over the storm trooper Abbey Road shirt, and silently wishing I had my own Hedwig necklace, I came across a seller named {bean forest} who makes milk-snorting-ly funny pins and magnets for a mere $1.50 each. In fact, he has over 20 pages of product, and once I started reading them, I couldn't stop. I must have spent a good hour snickering over each and every one.

I've tried to narrow down my favorites to share with you for this Etsy find, but really... you should go check them out yourself. It's totally worth your time. :) Click on the links to read them close up.


     Personally, the pinata one cracks me up every time. And that one about the tacos is totally the kind of joke my sister and I tell each other on a daily basis.

     I even found a button for Tanner! Story of my life right here. ;)

 

     Ok, I'm going to go giggle at this shop a little more. Word of note: if you want a couple of your own, they're super cheap AND if you buy ten or more, you get free shipping! Woo-hoo!

{colorful owls}

I had three days off this week due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, and while I waited for it to snow in Portland (I was given false hope every day, as it would blizzard for an hour and then turn into rain. Damn yooooou Pacific Northwest!) I spent a good deal of time being crafty, too.

While Tanner put the finishing touches on our craft/ guest room (more on that later), I organized craft supplies, did some sketching, and worked a little more on that Etsy shop I've been trying to open for ages. I'm getting there, folks!

In the meantime, here's another print I enjoyed sketching and coloring. Don't you just love owls? They're so much fun to draw!

{blog lovin'}

Are you a dedicated blog reader? A year ago, I would have said I read no more than three blogs on an infrequent basis. Now, with a blog of my own, it's completely addicting to check in on my favorite design sites and see how my fellow bloggers are doing. Having read their adventures and creative stories daily for so long, I feel like I know them. The blogging world is a fun community of crafters, writers, artists, and inspiring people that drive me to do what I love most: create.

I spend entirely too much time on Etsy, Pinterest, and my favorite blogs, but it's the highlight of my day to be inspired by these posts and photos.

So, if you are someone who is equally inspired by blogs, what's your favorite platform to read them? Now that I have built up quite a collection (over 30, in fact, and I keep adding to the mix) I find that my favorite place to see them at a glance is {bloglovin}. You can easily add blogs to your queue, and they show up daily on your reader board, with a photo and a short blurb so you can choose whether you want to read the whole post or just skip on to the next one. You can also add your blog to the mix and track how many people follow your daily adventures. And, based on your interests, bloglovin recommends similar and popular blogs you may not know about so you can keep broadening your reading list. Give it a try! It's free and easy.

Or, if you want to see what's on my reading list, here are a few of the blogs I'm obsessed over (I'm sure you've already heard me raving about a lot of these in posts past!):



And don't forget to check out my blog on bloglovin! Click {here} to follow, or click the link in the right hand side bar below the "find me here" links.