me me me, blue purse

So last week or so I heard news that Spoonflower was going to a have Fabric of the Week contest with a 2010 calendar theme. Do you know about Spoonflower? They print your digital images onto fabric, it's awesome. So I uploaded my 2010 poster design and ordered a sample printed on a fat quarter-the print quality is amazing! I'm thinking of ordering some more fabric and hemming them into wall hangings.
Anyhoo.
Voting is now open! You can vote by clicking the "vote here" link here.
Also, I loooove the color of this purse:

Don't you?

featurific

Still no snow! I don't know why I am complaining. I guess I just like to hear myself type. I will just have to be content watching obese squirrels fall off trees for a bit longer. Because that's a fall thing.
Anywhey, onto the meat of the story. I sent along some dishtowel samples sometime last spring...and lo and behold a customer informed me that I had been featured in Do It Yourself Magazine!

There's my red poppy towel, hanging out on a clothesline in some good company:)

Thanks, diy mag!

In other news, we joined the YMCA last week, and last night I went lap swimming for the first time. I sure do love it! It's like, the best exercise ever, because you never feel sweaty. So I really like it, but I'm pretty sure I swim the way Phoebe runs in that one episode of Friends where Rachel abandons her because she's embarrassed of all the flailing. And I only know two strokes, the rest of them I copied from the lady 2 lanes over with a swim cap and prescription goggles. I am hoping that I will provide a source of amusement for the lifeguard staff.

Whelp, off to the Post Office!

snowvember

I just wanted to share a funny little something that I see out my front window every day.

When we first moved in, I thought how funny and stupid to have a sign with a picture of a fire hydrant next to the fire hydrant. Of course I can see that there's a fire hydrant there.

Until I realized that that really tall sign is there so that when the fire hydrant is buried in snow, you know it's there. Just so you know, I'm 5'6" and the sign is taller than me.
Lucky for me, due to seasonal Christmas cheer trickery, I am excited for snow anyway!

give-a-way

Heeellllo!
Just wanted to let you readers know that you can win your very own 2010 Desktop Calendar over at Off Switch Designs' Blog. Click here for details.

ttfn, mbmb

le poster

It's another rainy day here in Fargo...sometimes I feel like we moved to the pacific northwest instead of North Dakota. Not that I am complaining, give me a melodramatic rainy day over a sunshine dadydream anyday. But when someone like me starts to feel waterlogged, you know the weather has been pretty crazy! Anyhoo, it's supposed to snow boatloads tonight, so....there's your weather report.
On a day like this when there's no shadows and the light only changes from dark to gray to dark again, it's really easy to get sucked into a project and end up staring at your computer for WAY too long. This morning I took on the task of designing a new product-to 2010 poster calendar:


(I couldn't design which illustration would work best...so I just used them all).


(kennedy approves)

So, that's what I did today! and then I photographed it and listed it here.
And now I desperately need to leave this office! I'm off to a wine tasting (or shall I say a "wine-drinking?" That's probably more accurate).

whip it

I just had the best weekend...joj came to visit and all was right with the world for 48 hours. We shopped and ate out way through fargo, with super mario 3 breaks in between, and finished it off with a matinee of Whip It on Sunday. These are just a few of the things I loved about this movie:

1. That's Juliette Lewis above, playing a totally Juliette Lewis character for the first time in I don't know how long.

2. It reminded me how much I LOVE roller derby! I will definitely be making some trips to the roy wilkins auditorium this winter to see the minnesota roller girls. And I've also learned that Fargo has it's very own group of flat-trackers:

3. I want to take my 10-year-old niece to see this movie, even though I think it's PG-13. Because it embodies the most effortless "girl-power." It's girl-power without saying it all the time. It's girl-empowering, naturally. And if I had seen this movie at her age, I'm pretty sure I would have organized a roller derby in the parking lot outside my apartment building. Or at least thought about it....I was pretty shy.
4. It made me want to dye my hair fun colors and have cool tattoos. I said that to joj as we were leaving the theatre and she was all "I already have cool tattoos and badass hair." So I think for her, there was validation, and for me, longing.
5. Drew Barrymore is cool. Look at this dress she wore to something:


So, you should definitely go see it. On a tiny little side note, the only thing I didn't like about this movie was a scene in which there was product placement for "lash blast" mascara. It just seemed too obvious, like when tim gunn points to the macy's accessory wall and says to use it "thoughtfully." Get a new adjective, tim!

Sale + New Studio

Ok, first things first, I am having a sale from now thru Sunday, October 25th. I'm calling it the "Pre-Holiday Sale," you know, so you can get a head start:)

I'm offering 20% off of your entire purchase!

The code is "HOLIDAY09," and it's good through Sunday, the 25th of October, 2009.

To use the code on etsy:
place your order, and enter the code "HOLIDAY09" into the "message to
seller" box at the time of purchase. Then wait for me to send you a revised paypal
invoice before making your payment.

To use the code at shopmbmb.com: place your order, and enter the code "HOLIDAY09"into the "discount code" box. The amount will automatically be deducted.

*Please note this offer does not apply to custom orders, invitations or save
the dates, and cannot be combined with quantity discounts:)

I have been using MailChimp to send out my sale emails, and I totally recommend it! You can design a pretty lil' email and send it to your mailing list for a very reasonable fee:) Check out the sale email here.

So, now that that's out of the way, onto some photos of my new studio! As I may have mentioned before, In our new Fargoan abode, my basement studio is double the size of our Minneapolis duplex. It's huge!

So big, in fact, that everything has it's own station:

That's the screen-printing region. Sure I could have vacuumed the carpet. Sure I could have covered those messy boxes with some decorative fabric. Sure could have.

Here's the painting station. I thought about styling this shot more by putting a painting on the easel, but I'm not painting anything at the moment, and I don't want to visually lie to my readers!

And here's the "sewing" zone. Pretend those are air quotes around the word "sewing." Because so far I have mended a pair of pants. I do so love my sewing machine (thank you very much joj!), but my skills and patience are lacking. I do have a sewing project up my sleeve though, so I may master it yet....So, mostly I use this table for putting labels on things. And sometimes I just sit at and gaze at my miniatures, like the creep that I am:)


And finally, my most favorite place in the studio, the 1960's relaxing nook:

That floor to ceiling table/lamp had been in my dad's shed since I bought it at a rummage sale three years ago. I am so happy to see it standing! And then there's a crushed velvet chair. It's a great place for a sit. And sit I do.