There has been a lot of talk over at Etsy about RME (Revolution Money Exchange). I've looked through it all and decided to offer it as a payment option for my photography and type goods. The main thing about it that interested me was that there are no fees for receiving money like Paypal. I've only heard good things about it and the only negative issue people have voiced was that it's only available for US residents and they require a SSN (which Paypal requires when you upgrade your account). It looks like it's a precauting for terrorism so it validates that you are who you say you are. I wasn't aware of the terrorism saftey precautions until I went to try and purchase an iphone a few months ago. Did you know you can't pay cash or write a check for a cell phone anymore? You have to use a credit or debit card so you can be tracked if your phone is ever used for a terrorist acts. Anyway, I'm getting off track...

They have a deal going on right now (until 5/15) where you sign up for free and receive $25 in your account. That in itself seemed a little fishy but it appears to be a marketing tacktit to compete with Paypal and be the new big thing. I signed up and received the $25 (from what I can tell, I can spend it with a seller accepting RME or withdraw it into my bank account). So why not sign-up and purchase those cool typography photography pieces you've been drooling over with the free $25 you get for signing up?

They also have a referral program too so if you click here and sign-up, I'll get $10, which will probably be spent on more type related things or handmade items as I am addicted to etsy:

Labels: etsy

Here's the Woog's desk this morning. More organized than me with everything still in reach

I've decided to start up a MEME that I think will be interesting. Just tag as many people as you'd like! I'll start tagging:

Penelope
Gail
Tamara
Roz
Jelene

Hold on, this is a long one with a lot of pictures!!

*Most of the pictures were taken from my iphone so they are a bit grainy.

Here's a typical day for me:

Up at 4:45 waiting for my alarm to go off at 5:00. I have a big day (like everyday) before me. The Woog goes to Mother's Day Out today so that should give me some time to get in the groove and get some work done. We'll see how it goes.

5:00 am
The first thing I do when I get to my computer is check out:

Emails:
There is a customer who ordered some of my type prints and they got a little creased in delivery so I sent her the insurance info to file a claim with the post office.

I ordered some clothes over the weekend and got the shipping notification emails so I track those and see when I'll get them. No status yet :(

Web peeks:
TMZ.com (I'm addicted to it and it is wrong)
Bloglines

I found a cute YouTube video via Drawn! and post it to my type blog and big and little art blog. You can see it here too:



5:30 am
I need to on my creative warmup. I put on James Taylor via itunes and start working. Here it is:



I'm participating in Old School over at Uppercase so I thought this would give me some inspiration.

6:01 am
I'm off to the kitchen and get some tea and start working on some junkadoodles size samples for a gallery in Boston. They want some 20x24 print s of my work. I do that and email it to them.

6:28 am
The Woog is up and tells me about her dreams: bugs in her bed and Max & Ruby. She then gets on "her" computer and starts playing her Noggin games.



6:30 am
Got another promising email about my work type work appearing in a really big (really, really big) store. This has been in the works since January.

6:40 am
Fix the Woog some breakfast and make her lunch box note for school today. Here it is:



During this time the Woog makes a note for her daddy (it's an elephant):



and myself (it's a map):



She insists my husband take his to work and show his friends because "they will love it."

Then I feed Do-Wop and she attacks her food as if she hasn't eaten in days:



7:45 am
Receive a rejection email for a book proposal/rough draft (I'm writing a book but it's not a children's book) so what do I do instead of sit and sulk? I email another publisher about it and get closer to that goal.

Receive an email from a client who I followed up with yesterday for a design project. It's on hold until the fall so I make a note on my September calendar to contact him again.

8:08 am
Upload some images to flickr and post about the "Day in the Life" coming later tonight.

8:29 am
Go up and get ready to take the Woog to school, go to the bank, and pick up my contacts from the eye doctor.



9:30 am
I'm back and ready for some uninterupted work. While I was out I sold some prints from my etsy shop so I've sent those to print and get the packaging all ready. I also heard back from the publisher I emailed earlier this morning and they want to see my rough draft so I'm emailing that to them now :)

9:45 am
I pop in the movie Rendition and watch it while I work. I start working on my big project with Barnes & Noble.

10:29 am
I email my rep back about something and gets me thinking about following through on the children's book ideas I have. I guess today is book day :) OK, back to Barnes & Noble work...

11:14 am
I make some hot chocolate and check my web stats. Back to work...



11:55 am
Rendition is over and I didn't get all of it - note to self, don't watch a movie with subtitles in it because you will miss a lot. I go up to the bonus room and pick out a light hearted movie:



I then email a friend back about coming to the High School art class she teaches and show them what I do. Should be fun!

12:04 pm
I hear back from a client on sketches for a book I'm doing for them about a dog and alphabet soup. This was one of the projects I worked on for Balogna and it got a good response so they're publishing it and I'm finishing out the interior.

12:16 pm
Eat lunch while I work (pb&j).

1:07 pm
I go out to do a couple of errands before I go pick up the Woog. I'm sure she'll want to see her daddy so we'll stop by and see him then we need to go to the post office to mail the type order from earlier today:




3:08 pm
We're back! While we went to go see my husband I picked up approval for a freelance job I'm doing for them so I need to add that to the list. Heard back from the gallery I emailed this morning and they want to move forward with prints - YAY! The Woog has had a snack put on her leotard for her gymnastics class at 5:00 and has decided to watch Muppets Take Manhattan on "her" computer - not a very good movie by the way. I prefer the Great Muppet Caper myself since I remember it as a kid.

3:49 pm
I tracked down all the images for the gallery pieces, check some blogs, my stats, the news, and flickr, so now I'm back to work on the Barnes & Noble project. The Woog has moved on to do her "artist":



4:27 pm
Stopping for now to get ready for the Woog's gymnastics class. Hopefully we can leave afterwards without fussing today :)

6:13 pm
We're back with only a little it of fussing!

6:22 pm
I start dinner. My husband is working late, so our dinner is not as “balanced” as it usually is:



The Woog won't eat Manwich so she's having chicken fingers instead.

While I cook dinner I start my "hour of power." I usually do this earlier in the day (while to Woog is napping) and it's more structured but since today is a little different I won't take the whole hour.

I start out writing down my ideas for children's books. I've been thinking about this throughout the day and even though I felt earlier in the year that I think I was over writing one, I might need to reconsider if I keep getting ideas. I think the most taunting thing for me is 32 pages! I just need to keep telling myself it doen't have to be a novel, just a story and if it's reliant more on the illustrations than the words, I can do it - I'll just keep telling myself that and see what happens.

I do my daily devotional (Living-Free from crosswalk.com).
I review my goals for the year. No more to add at the moment.

6:55 pm
Now it's time to eat. And American Idol is almost on!

7:15 pm
American Idol is on so I've moved to my laptop to get an email interview together and sent off for Holly DeWolf's new book.

American Idol: Walker's favorite (an mine) was Michael Johns but since he went home (to start a fabulous music career I bet!) now it's David Cook. I have downloaded some of the singles from iTunes and she always wants to listen to them as soon as we get in the car. “We will, we will rock you!” She is so into it that I think we'll actually go to the AI tour this summer even though the closes one to us is like 3-4 hours away.



7:30 pm
Finally the interview has been emailed. Poor girl, she asked me about it in January! I kept starting and stopping on it and just never found the time to finish.

7:40 pm
Walker chimes in: “Why is Jason singing again and why does he have on the same outfit? Wait, I think it's a different one. He changed him's clothes I think.” This seemed to really bother her. Two songs? That's just crazy! And I don't remember the clothes he had on before so I don't know if he changed or not?

7:55 pm
The Woog fell aspleep on the couch.

8:10 pm
Bedtime is 8:00 in the house (which makes it better to get up at 3:00 or 4:00 if you know you go to bed at 8:00 everynight) so I'm to pulling in my images for the day and get this blog post up.

8:15 pm
The Woog is snoring big time! Gymnastiucs weares her out.

8:20 pm
I'm getting everything together for this post.

8:40 pm

Posting now and going to bed. I'll check all the links and spelling tomorrow. I'm too tired tonight.

When I shut down my computer here's how the rest of the night will go:

Get the Woog to potty, bruch her teeth and put on her PJ's (if I can get her awake). We'll read a book and say her prayers and then she'll tell me she's thirsty and to put some water on her table (which she will still have the same amount of water in it when she wakes up in the morning). We say good night and I go take my shower, get in bed, turn on a movie and about 20 minutes later I'm out!

A lot days are so much more hectic than this one but this shows a typical day for me - and I'll get up and do it all over again tomorrow!

Labels: a day in the life

I've decided to start up a meme that I think will be interesting. Documenting a "Day in the Life." Check back tonight to see how my day was. I'll also be tagging a five people, so see if you're one of them!!

Labels: day in the life

I almost hated to see the cold weather end because I knew the Woog wouldn't be able to wear this cute pea coat anymore. So for now, it will live on in the dining room.

I just got back from being out of town again and am trying to get caught up on my to-do list and emails. I have so much work to do I'm finding it hard to get motivated to start. I think I need to do some just for fun pieces to get me back on track. Above is a piece I did as a baby gift for a couple who are singers. I love cut paper!

The W party went great! Here's a picture of her cake. All the w's are chipboard pieces that I bought on etsy.

Oh, and Happy Tax day to those in the US (or at least try and make it happy)! If you work at the IRS, my check will probably pay for your entire salary this year :)

Well, I was the illustrator for and Addy Award winning promotion video. A few weeks ago I googled myself to see what I've been up to that I didn't know about and I came across a newspaper listing that said I was the illustrator of a John Deere, Johnny Popper kid's boot promotional video. So, I emailed the AD I worked with and she sent me a copy of the promo. I wish I could show it here but I can't seem to find it on the web anywhere, so I guess I can't. It's super cute and my illustrations are animated. Pretty cute! Above is the boot box illustration I did for them. Now I just need to find an image of an Addy Award so I can print it out and make a little one for myself :)

Today's studio view (via iphone photo). I just hope all the pollen doesn't blow in. Tomorrow will be full of yard work out there and I'm determined to keep flowers and plants alive this year!

Today's woogie wednesday can be found here.

Labels: woogie-wednesday