:: a calendar of my very own ::

flummoxed designer seeks someone to tell her
how to hang her awesome new poster-sized calendar. please help!

recently while sprucing up my studio walls with some yummy goodness (some embroidered art i did when i started up up creative, artwork by illustrators i admire, etc.) i realized i needed a big-ol-calendar on the wall next to my desk and decided it was time to take a few hours away from work-for-others and do a little bit of work-just-for-me.

i present: the result. i love it, printed all large (13x19) on this delicious 100% cotton paper i have and all. but i can't for the life of me figure out how i want to hang it. a simple hole at the top, hung over a nail? a bulldog clip holding the paper? two holes and some string? i just. can't. decide.

thoughts?

:: winter wedding 2011: sneak peek! ::

it's not ready for prime time quite yet, but here's a little sneak peek at the 2011 winter wedding collection soon to be released in the up up shops. i was trying to add 12 designs to the 12 already there, and in fact designed more than 20 in the rough-draft stage, but i can't seem to weed out two of the fourteen pictured here. so maybe it'll be a plus-sized collection?

as usual, there's a bit of whimsy, a bit of snark, and a good, hearty helping of bold. there are a few julie green original illustrations (i'm quite proud of the orchids) and some other fun stuff throughout. can't wait to show off the whole thing in a few weeks.

whee!

:: thoughtful is the new black ::

"I'll give you all I can" by brandon christopher warren on flickr

so here's the thing: i'm not having a black friday sale. or a cyber monday one for that matter. i've hosted my fair share of very enticing sales in the past and without fail they have generated not one single purchase. no one has taken me up on my free shipping sales; no one has ever gone in on a 50% off everything sale.

that and i am so freaking annoyed by the barrage of emails and facebook posts i've received touting Specials! and Savings!

and honestly, as much as i rely on my customers for my family's actual livelihood (your purchases from my shop make a real difference in our lives, and for that i'm so very, very thankful to you), i'm just really turned off by the whole concept of black friday. the thought that companies lie in wait all year just itching to earn your big christmas-spending dollars on the friday after thanksgiving just makes me want to turn in my official entrepreneurial spirit card.

with each year that passes my gift giving becomes a little bit more personalized. something about the confluence of having children, and my husband taking a huge pay cut in order for us to move home to new york, and home ownership and, yes, being an indie business owner has just made me think so differently about the holidays and about gift-giving all year long.

the last year i shopped at a mall for christmas was 2006. i remember it well because i was in my first trimester with evan and the pregnancy migraines were so bad that all i wanted to do was walk and walk and walk because it sort of helped, so hubby and i hoofed it from end to end and back again at the local mall one november night (before thanksgiving, even -- my crazy-sick bubble-gum-sticky memory is pretty sure it was november 18th) and by night's end we'd covered most of our christmas list.

but since then i've taken a different tack: i buy fewer gifts, for one. i suppose i also make fewer, which is to say that i try only to make things the recipient will not only love but also use (or happily display, if display applies). i don't knit scarves for people who won't wear them, don't stitch pillows for people who won't put them on their beds or couches. maybe because i don't want anything extra around my own crowded house i just can't bring myself to give gifts simply for the sake of fulfilling a gift-giving obligation.

none of this is to say that i eschew traditional mall-type gifts if that's the kind of gift a person really wants the most. if my sister has been saving all year to buy a nook (the barnes and noble e-reader) then heck yeah i'll give her a barnes and noble gift card. but giving a barnes and noble gift card just because i can't think of what else to give someone? i just don't do that anymore.

and as far as my own shop goes? well, i guess i've just come to know that the people who shop from my store aren't shopping there because the prices are the cheapest or the sales the shiniest. they're not people who will see that i'm having a sale and just impulsively click "buy." they're people who want to give a friend something personal. people who can't resist buying that card that so perfectly sums up the state of their love for someone else that they must have it, minimal shipping cost be damned.

so i'm not having a sale. i do hope you'll shop at up up creative this holiday season if you think your gift recipients would love what you can get from my shop. if you'd like some gift giving ideas i can even help you out with those, and i'm always happy to do custom stuff if that's what you need.

so happy friday, black or otherwise.

"share your toys" by john w. golden on etsy. we have this print. i think you probably should, too.

this year i'm starting a new tradition with the kids. i'm going to have each of them (perhaps with a little bit of my help) choose some of their toys to donate. since evan's three, he'll get to choose three. emily will choose one since she's alllllmost one. and then we'll take them and drop them off somewhere.

and then we'll go shopping together and each kid will get to choose one (moderately priced) brand new toy to give to the kids at the hospital (the idea that kids are at the hospital and can't go home for christmas almost broke evan's poor, sweet little heart yesterday morning over breakfast).

i really like the idea of starting new traditions with my budding little family, and i particularly like this one. (it's nice to do nice, but man oh man do i also really love the idea of purging even a little bit of stuff before christmas brings in new stuff to crowd the toy bins.) evan is a little skeptical about the choosing three of his toys part, i think because he's afraid he's going to have to give away three of his mostfavoriteever toys. it's like he doesn't even realize how many ihaven'tplayedwiththisinmonthsandidon'tcare toys he actually has. i bet once we start looking through things together, he'll find more than three things he can bear to part with.

:: treadmills & half pipes ::

no fun today, by sunface13 on flickr

just set the space heater in my attic studio for four hours, which means i've got about five hours to work before i'm calling it quits for the day. everything is so busy these days i feel like i'm on a treadmill sometimes -- if you repeat the word work over and over in a drony voice it sort of even sounds like a treadmill, doesn't it? workworkworkworkworkwork... try it with me.

i did find time yesterday to spend a little time with my mom and sister -- they force me to stop working once a month or so to meet them for lunch and, often, some window shopping.

at the shop we visited yesterday i saw a stationery set by a woman i know (an online acquaintance only, i still consider her a friend) and it threw a lot of what i do into perspective for me. if i want to have my friends in far-distant places to see my stuff in their local curio shops, there are some things i need to do a bit differently. i need to spend less time on the treadmill and more time constructing a ramp.

today i've got a few treadmill-type things to do, but then i'm getting out my blueprints and my hammer and nails and getting to work on that ramp. perhaps i'll build a halfpipe? that would make my husband pretty happy, metaphorically and literally.

:: brain glimpse ::

while i've not yet decided to part with my newspaper clippings or dissertation notes, etc., i did this morning recycle a whole pile of other notes from grad school -- stuff from the secondary english education years and stuff from the english ma and phd years.

i felt little while tearing apart the notebooks for the recycling bin (can't recycle those wire spirals as far as i know) save amazement.

i always knew i was neat and all, but holy freaking cow. my notes are so organized and hierarchical. it's like i was practicing to be a graphic designer. or a phd student, i suppose. my notes present such a clear division of information, ideas, and even labor. my own thoughts during the course of reading or sitting in class are clearly separated from the notes i'm taking on others' thoughts. 

plus there are the doodles. those were always part of my strategy to pay attention, believe it or not. if i could keep the wandering part of my brain occupied with swirls and swoops, then i was better able to focus on what was going on in class. (teachers take note: not all students who draw in their margins are lost deep in their own thoughts: some of us simply need to occupy the right brain while the left brain's busy.)

i'm not sure why i feel the need to post all these notes pictures here. i just feel like seeing them all laid out in front of my on the (nasty green rug of my) basement floor was like a primer in understanding julie's brain. and the evolution of my adult life, for that matter. 

in case you were interested.

:: holiday card giveaway ::

i mentioned that i was going to do a majorly huge giveaway this month, and here i am to finally announce it: the long-awaited  sapsucker™ holiday card giveaway. and oh, baby - it’s a good one.

there will be 3 winners:

GRAND PRIZE: 50 (holy crap, fifty? yes!) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop PLUS one custom Sapsucker card. (Total package is worth $170)

1st RUNNER UP: 20 (whoa! still pretty good!) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop (worth $60)

2nd RUNNER UP: 10 (hey, it’s a start) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop (worth $30)

YOU MUST VISIT MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE TO ENTER. FIND DETAILS THERE.

WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2010. entries close at noon EST.winners announced sometime that afternoon. winners will be chosen randomly from all entries. you may have up to two entries total (see “extra entries” above) but you may not win more than one prize.

:: two years ::

[ watercolored balloons, by stephanie kac on flickr ]

it's the two-year anniversary of the up up creative opening. last year i totally did this great week-long celebration. this year, well, i don't have anything like that planned. i had it on my list of things to do, but there it sits, all un-crossed-off.

oh well.

it's pretty amazing to look back at how much has changed in two years. how much my business has grown, and how much i've learned.

sales in 2010 are projected to hit more than 250% of 2009's sales, a fact that in and of itself makes me sit back and just marvel. but so much other amazing stuff has happened this year: press inquiries from martha stewart living, brides magazine, and cleo magazine (in australia), an invitation from snapfish to become one of their designers. this is big freaking stuff. it's no wonder i'm sitting here all unprepared to celebrate this anniversary -- i'm too busy working!

i think my anniversary gift to myself is going to be some time over the next few weeks to just sit back (maybe take a walk) and fantasize about the coming year: dream away about all the possibilities for up up creative's third year in business, see what reaches my wildest imagination can take me to.

:: tired bones, or, running a business is freaking hard ::

by nine a.m. sunday morning, the printer was going. at 10 p.m. sunday night, it was still going and would continue to print until it ran out of ink, or paper, or both.

about 8 of those 13 hours i spent working right alongside -- sometimes going a bit faster than the printer, sometimes playing catch up with it.

it was great but at the same time it wasn't.

i've got more of the same to do today, and probably again tomorrow and possibly again on wednesday. but i've only got ten hours of sitter time over these next 3 days. sometimes it just seems too impossible. i mean, i don't have even a quarter of the business i'd like to see myself generating in the future -- i have big things in mind for up up creative -- and i'm already working myself to the bone.

last night i had to stop working early because i was just too. freaking. tired.

and it's not about prices, and it's not about exposure. it's about scalability. it's about figuring out how to do more with less -- less time, less redundancy... less of me, perhaps. this business stuff is hard, friends. so very hard. it's freaking awesome when you achieve certain things or surpass your own expectations, but a lot of the time it's just bone-tiring hard.

:: yet to come, now available ::

here's november's desktop wallpaper for you. another little inspirational gem, eh? for someone who would rather be accused of being cynical than sappy, i can't seem to shake these inspirational little sketches when the time comes to create a wallpaper drawing.

it's just that if i'm going to have something on my desktop for a month it better damn well make me feel like a hotshot.

so there.

maybe december's will simply read: I AM A HOTSHOT.