My weekend, despite being filled with awesome, was still pretty low key. My husband and I picked our horses (this was his second year in a row to pick the winner, my horse came in third), went grocery shopping, did some gardening, made tacos, and watched movies in bed. All in all, it was a pretty nice time. How was your weekend?

You know some days when everything you try to say comes out not quite good enough? Today’s one of those days, so I’m going to let the image speak for itself.

I haven’t blogged at all this week because of the bombings in Boston and the fertilizer plant explosion in West. I can’t stop thinking about the souls lost, the injured, and all of the lives that are forever changed now. I’m not too proud to admit that I’ve shed many tears this week and haven’t been sleeping the best; my heart is breaking for these people, my fellow Americans, my fellow human beings. It seems like death is everywhere lately and I hate it. Apparently, April is notorious for horrible things happening, so can someone please wake me when it’s May?

I think sometimes we all need to realize this, even though it’s hard and no one starts out doing something aiming to fail. If we never fail we never tried, but more importantly, we never learned how to get through when something bad happens. Failure isn’t required before success, but in my opinion a lot of tiny failures on the way can make you better prepared for it. A/B testing for an email subscription list, those new flyers you weren’t quite sure about, or a misstep when calculating how much time something will take – all of those tiny failures you can learn from. Knowing what works and what doesn’t is highly beneficial regardless of what you choose to do with your life! We all just have to take that leap into the unknown and take a chance, we have to know that it’s okay to fail sometimes or else how would we ever have the courage to try again?

Playing with some illustrations today, specifically this little origami jackalope. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!

That up there is from one of my calligraphy practice sessions. I can’t wait until I’m comfortable enough to take on full calligraphy projects, especially wedding related. My burn-out on all things wedding seems to completely go away when it involves calligraphy, so hopefully that’ll happen soon. If you’re interested in working with me I’m going half-price for my first calligraphy client (and it doesn’t have to be for something as important as a wedding!), so shoot me an email.

If you’re learning calligraphy, or are a master already, have you found any tips that are helpful? The biggest one for me has been to use Bristol paper – WOW what a difference it has made since I switched!

Are any of you as excited as I am that it’s finally Friday? I feel like a warm, sunny weekend at the park or getting my garden ready is just what I need to cap off this week. Unfortunately for me, my to-do list has other plans. I promise to at least take some time to just breathe though, to enjoy what I have at the moment and not fret about the past or future. The weekends aren’t for stress anyway! What will you be doing this weekend?

PS. That image up there doubles as a wallpaper, so feel free to snag it!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it! People normally start rethinking things and making resolutions around January 1^st but for me it seems to have come around Easter instead. My time off from blogging has made me reevaluate why I write, who I write for, and what I’m hoping to get out of it. Admittedly, I still haven’t figured out all the answers, but it’s a work in progress – just like me.

One of the things I have narrowed down, however, is that I want to start putting up more of my hand-lettering and calligraphy practice. I spend most of my day designing or editing wedding and party invitations, my evenings working on branding & identity work, and almost all of my spare time on lettering or calligrahphy, so I figured that quote that goes something like, “what you do when you’re procrastinating everything else is what you should be doing,” may have hit the nail on the head. Don’t get me wrong, I love helping couples get the invitation of their dreams, but I think I’m getting burnt out on it. I want to do more lettering with a human touch, I want quirky illustrations and watercolor paintings, I want brands that I’m passionate about – that the client is passionate about (which they should be really, as it’s their business!)…I am still quite the sucker for cute stationery though. As I said before, it’s all a work in a progress. I hope you’ll follow me on my journey, and that you’ll enjoy the ride as much as I aim to. Success or bust!

If you’re celebrating Lent, what will you be doing this season?