Cottage Industrialist

Still Crazy after All this Year

Cameron Blazer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:54:50 +0000

Blogiversary?! Last year this time I started this blog not sure where it would lead me. I never could have imagined all of the fun I've had, late nights I've spent, and friends I've made or reconnected with along the way. I have certainly put in a good bit of work, but what I have received in return has benefited me 10-fold.

So what do you get your blog when it turns one? Free printables, of course! I was so pleased with the way the tags turned out for my bake sale items last week that I thought I would share.

These come together quite easily--each sheet has 10 labels of one pattern. If you print them at 100%, you should be able to trim the top and bottom 1/2 inch and then cut in 1-inch increments (shortways) to get each tag. Then use a glue stick or sticker machine to make the back side tacky and wrap around the top of a cellophane bag or a gift bag handle. Or fold in half, make a two-sided tag, and punch a hole. If you come up with other nifty uses, I'd love to see pictures!

Each PDF is a fill-in. Of course, if you want to hand write your own message, just clear the fields with text and print them blank. Enjoy!

(As always, these are for personal use only. All patterns and files are copyright Cameron Blazer/Cottage Industrialist. Common sense and kindness should be your guide.)

Anytime tags - Even though these are not color coordinated, I used each of these for the items at last week's bake sale, and because each item was packaged the same way, that tied the look together and made it cohesive without being matchy-matchy. Of course, you can use one at a time, as well.

Holiday tags - Ok, I know! Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, and I'm cursing every time I walk into a store...in November...when it's still 80 degrees in SC...and I come out whistling "Sleigh Bells," too. Yuck. But if, like me, you dream of a completely handmade holiday, you know now's the time to kick into gear to avoid pulling an all-nighter on December 24. I will be making reusable holiday giftbags from my fabrics in these same designs (if you are as nuts as I am, you can purchase the holiday fabrics directly through the Spoonflower marketplace. Nifty, eh?!). At least that's the plan. If that doesn't materialize, at least I'll have some cute tags to attach to my brown kraft paper wrapping.

Whether you've been here all along or are just tuning in, I hope you know how much I have enjoyed sharing this corner of my world with you (I don't mean to sound like Mr. Rogers--it's rare that I express genuine appreciation sans snark, so just go with it!), and I look forward to what the next year has in store. Cheers!

Bake Sale

Cameron Blazer — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:13:56 +0000

Overboard.

I think that word sums up the bulk of my creative impulses. The tale that follows is no exception.

Today is the bake sale at my son's preschool. This is my first bake sale. The mere fact of this bake sale has me reeling a bit that I am someone old enough and responsible enough to be charged with providing goods for a bake sale. Wha?!

And, of course, any reasonable person would think to herself, "Hmm. What's the easiest thing I can whip up in the least amount of time?" But, surely, by now we have dispensed with the notion that I am anything approximating reasonable. So what did I do? I decided that it would be a good idea to make four (four!) recipes I'd never tried before.* On a weeknight. I adapted each of the recipes from Deb (first name basis? why not?) at Smitten Kitchen who had, in turn, adapted them from various cookbooks."To adapt," in my case this means "1. to read in haste; 2. to inadvertently mismeasure; 3. to skip or ignore ingredients and steps altogether." Which is why I usually don't use recipes. But in the baking arena, they are at least marginally necessary to me.

The citrus sablés are based on SK's margarita cookies. Since this is a kid-centric event, I thought it might be a wee bit inappropriate to offer tequila-laced cookies for sale. So I replaced the liquor with vanilla and lime juice. I did keep the margarita-esque cookie edges rimmed in sugar and sea salt. And added, inadvertently, an extra egg yolk. I think these would have been a less rise-y without the extra egg yolk, but I'm not convinced that it doesn't make the dough a bit more forgiving than it otherwise might be. These are by far my favorite of the recipes I made. Shatteringly crisp, ridiculously rich, and beautifully fragrant. A total keeper.

Now, the deviled brownies. These are based on SK's baked brownie, spiced up. I called them "deviled" because "baked" also sounded potentially inappropriate for a kid event (even though the "baked" in the title refers to the bakery, baked, which has one of its two outposts here in Charleston). So, the thing that makes these brownies spiced up is chipotle powder. I know, right? But I was fascinated. They also contain espresso. So whatever kid-centric benevolence I demonstrated by forgoing the tequila and changing the name of the brownies is clearly out the window now. Because, friends, this really is a spicy brownie. I mean, not a burn the skin off your lips kind of spicy, but definitely not something you can ignore. Hoping no parents buy these and give them to their kids. A point in the "test-your-recipe-before-you-foist-it-on-an-unsuspecting-public" column. Here's hoping I'm not run out of the PTA for this one.

I also made SK's salted, brown butter crispy treats. Because everyone hates the original recipe. Or not. I used an organic brand puffed brown rice instead of the well-known blue box option, and I think they were a little bit drier than the standard puffed rice cereal. They taste fine, but I'm not totally wowed. My husband, on the other hand, is more of a crispy treat aficionado than I, and he has proclaimed them an important new development in the world of food, so don't take my word for it.

The fourth item, cheese straws, are not pictured here, because I was packaging and sending them out the door as soon as they came from the oven. The recipe is based on one by the Lee Brothers, also known as people-I-actually-do-know-on-a-first-name-basis. Their recipe is perfect and very authentic. (Matt and Ted are lovely people and great writers. They have a new book, Simple Fresh Southern, which promises to be just as good as their first book, for which they won a coveted James Beard award. Check them out!)

Once I was finished baking I headed to the computer to hash out a label for each of the recipes. I am really happy with the simplicity of this solution: 1-inch strips of paper printed with some of my patterns and with white space on either side. One side has the name of the item, and the other side has an ingredients list. I ran each strip through my Xyron create-a-sticker (best $10 ever!) and wrapped them around cellophane bags secured with twist ties. The tags cover the twist ties and stand up happily on their own. I am definitely going to hold on to this packaging method for the future.

A wise counselor advised me on Wednesday night before I embarked on all of this nonsense, "Back away from the inkjet printer and baking sheet." She was probably right, and yet I had a lot of fun doing this and would probably do it all again. With slightly less chipotle powder.

Atwitter for fabric

Cameron Blazer — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:47:15 +0000

As a lawyer, I fantasize about one day having a chance to argue on behalf of a client before the Supreme Court (I am not SO egotistical that I fantasize about winning before the Supreme Court--yet). When I get home and can don my creative hat, I fantasize about being a fabric and surface designer with my own line of paper and fabric goods. I can't say I've used twitter to connect to other lawyers--I see enough of them every day. But I have used it to connect with designers, especially women fabric designers who, like me, have to juggle work and family and space to follow their dreams and meet their goals.

You might think that by getting a group of people together who all share the same entrepreneurial goal you'd be fostering a sense of competition. But in fact, the designing ladies of twitter are as warm, welcoming, and supportive a bunch as you could ever imagine, always ready to answer a question, critique a design, or comisserate over a perfectly planned day all gummed up by reality. And to top it off? They're hella talented, too. By way of their twitter accounts and their newest releases, I'd like to introduce you to three of my favorites:

Beyond the Sea © 2009 Cloud 9 FabricsMichelle Engel Bencsko is the creative force behind both Cicada Studio and Cloud 9 Fabrics, and she also licenses her work to Henry J. Glass. Through her Supermarket store, Michelle sells the Cicada Studio fabrics by custom order (though you can, for a very short time, still pick up shorter cuts through her etsy store). Through Cloud 9 Fabrics, Michelle recently launched her newest line of wholesale fabrics (that means you can ask for your local fabric or quilt shop to carry them!), Beyond the Sea.

In a word? LOVE. This is one of my favorite color palates of all time. It makes me wish I owned a house at the beach. Can you not see these fabrics splashed all over the pages of Coastal Living? I swear, I think that if you put the "urchin" fabric up to your head, you'll hear the ocean! Since I won't be owning a house at the beach anytime soon, I'm readjusting my expectations and thinking of a few pillows for my bedroom.

Learn more about Michelle and her companies at her blog: Cicada Daydream.

Art Journal @copy; 2009 Bari J.

Bari J. Ackerman has just released the first glimpses of her second collection of fabrics available through Windham Fabrics. Her first collection, Full Bloom, was a big hit, and her newest release, Art Journal, promises to be as well.

Do you not just want to scoop that little bird up and put her in your pocket?! I do. I don't actually wish I had a little girl (my little boy is just right for me!), but this collection makes me wish I had a little girl's room to decorate--complete with an old painted iron bed. Oh, and quilting skills. Because this fabric is begging to be quilted, don't you think?

Bari is an inspiration to me because she decided she wanted to break into this field, and she just went for it! Learn more about Bari's story and her work at her online journal. She's also featured in a lovely book you may have read, Blogging for Bliss. Swell!

Geo Grande © 2009 Daisy JanieJan DiCintio is, as she describes herself, "the underpaid workaholic behind Daisy Janie." She also founded the fantastic site, Scoutie Girl, that scouts out independent design finds all over the world. Jan has built her fabric business from the ground up, all while keeping it as green as possible. Just last week her business met a new milestone when she made her newest collection, Geo Grande, available for wholesale (yep, you can ask for it by name, too).

Jan's designs always have a sense of motion, and this collection is no exception. Can't you see these fabrics updating some mid-century arm chairs? Craigslist, here I come!

I really do hope you'll check out the work of these three women. I am proud to know each of them, if only virtually.

Will tweet for friends

Cameron Blazer — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:56:10 +0000

This Internet contraption is clever and swell, no? I made my first website back in 1999 (and lo, it was ugly), intermittently kept online journals, and even worked as a software engineer for a few venture-funded dotcom bombs. So it's not like I think of the Internet as a curious, pulsing mystery. I mean, I have a slightly better than basic understanding of how it works. And yet, it still manages to amaze me.

Really, I guess the "it" that amazes me isn't really the technology at all. Rather, it's the people. There was a time when the technology presented a much higher barrier to entry than it does today. So if you made "friends" online, they were mostly fellow nerds who were willing to stay up all night reading the CIA World Fact Book or futzing with hex codes or javascript to get their sites looking just right. And that was cool (or whatever passes for cool among the preternaturally unhip). But for people like me whose nerdiness goes so, so much deeper than mere computers, the democratization of the Internet (by which I mean the ever-increasing ease of entry as a user, generally, and to blogging and twittering, particularly) has meant that nerd communities (I think marketers call these "affinity groups," but I've been a nerd long enough to know that I yam what I yam) of every subtle stripe can form and gather without regard to technical ability or geographical boundary.

And the way it works, especially with twitter, is so nifty I think. It's like the whole internet is a cocktail party: you walk in, and there are conversations happening all around you. You can walk around, picking up on snippets, throwing out a bon mot here and there (whether you know the other guests or not)--if you hit your target the circle of conversation widens a bit to let you in, and suddenly you're making friends. The best part? There are no high heels!

Of the many geek clusters I have found, inserted myself into, and been welcomed by, there is no doubt that my favorite has been the entrepreneurial, designing women I have met through twitter. They are talented, knowledgeable, and gracious. They offer feedback, encouragement, and a hearty dose of sardonic humor in real time at all hours of the day and night. (For a hopeless insomniac, having online friends 3 or 4 time zones ahead and behind me has been an unbelevable boon.)

Stay tuned—in my next post I will feature the work of three of my favorite twitter friends. They will rock you!

P.S. Thanks to everybody who gave me feedback on my "favor" post--you guys rock, and I am taking all of your ideas/advice to heart. Two posts in one day? Can you dig it?!

Fire Drill

Cameron Blazer — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:02:36 +0000

Photo © 2009 David Mandel // Ampersand IndustriesSo my brilliant plan last year to craft a Halloween costume that would get two years of wear was dashed this year when it became clear that the kiddo was determined to be a fireman for halloween. Grr.

My new job, coupled with a startling and uncharacteristic flash of clarity on the subject, meant there was no way I would be sewing a fireman costume from scratch this year. But. (There is always a "but.")

First, I caught a lucky break back in September when Target had fireman rain boots on sale for $10. This was a total score because he needed rain boots anyway. Or so I rationalized.

Then while my husband and I were on our first vacation in, like, EVER, the kiddo's grandparents took him to the local fire museum (who knew?) where they GAVE him a fire hat. Come. On.

So now I had to do something about the jacket, right? But, I will admit, I just wasn't inspired. I perused some web sites with handmade costumes, though, and got some ideas. And then I looked up and it was Friday. October 30th. And I had done nothing. Well, not nothing. I had shopped for a black sweatshirt and for yellow duct tape. I couldn't find the duct tape so I bought yellow vinyl used for walls (Wall Pops, I think they're called). But they'd lain totally ignored for days, and now the big day was nearly upon us.

Once again, I caught a lucky break, and got off a little early from work on Friday. I cut off the cuffs and hem of the sweatshirt and up the center of it. I added a yellow felt collar, and then I cut out strips of the vinyl to seal the edges and make stripes around the arms and jacket. It was a little dodgy to do because the vinyl is repositionable (nifty!), and so I was a little concerned about the jacket holding up through a full day of Halloween, but I thought it looked pretty good. When my son got home, he thought it looked pretty good. He was TOTALLY satisfied. And yet.

Yesterday morning we went out for coffee with my mom and a friend, and I let him wear his fireman jacket and hat, even though Halloween (which I am pretty sure he was convinced was a mythical place I was cruelly preventing him from visiting until dark) was hours away for all practical purposes.* Everyone said it was cute, and it held up surprisingly well during my son's constant squirming and wiggling at the coffee shop. It even survived his blueberry muffin. And yet.

It just needed something. While the kiddo napped, I ran out to the fabric store. Which is to say, I drove half-an-hour, because I live in the boonies. I wanted to pick up some cool fasteners and a patch or two. For which I was willing to spend an hour in the car (I drove the hybrid, I swear!). Now, my distaste for the Hancock Fabrics in Charleston, SC, is legendary (legendary distate? Believe it), but I gotta say that on this day, the Hancock was treating me right. I found these super-nifty metal fasteners for $2, and they had a very nice American flag patch. And then there, in the back of a poorly lit aisle, at the very bottom of the rack, nestled between the replacement bra hooks and the snap tape, I found the Halloween Fireman jackpot: yellow and black reflective ribbon, iron-on variety. You know, the kind that runners and bikers use to make their clothing reflective for when they run and ride at night? Yeah, me either. I have been known to run, but in the dark? Oh no no no. This stuff was a revelation to me.

Anyhoo, at this point, if you are a reasonable, rational being, you are thinking, "well, but you already have cool stripes for the jacket. Why spend another $6 for additional stripes?" Lucky for me, I am not encumbered by reason, though I am powerfully in command of the skill of rationalization. Did I mention that it is now 3PM? And I have a half-hour drive home? Yes. Well. I rationalized that I needed to get the reflective tape to ensure the kiddo's safety. Plus, I'd have thirty minutes in the car to figure out how to make it work.

When I got home, le kid was, amazingly, still quiet. I grabbed his fireman jacket and boldly started ripping off the vinyl hems and stripes. I had bought a package of black tape and another of yellow. I had not paid ANY attention to, you know, the critical detail of just how long this piece of ribbon was. As it turns out, each color came in one-yard lengths in three widths. And as it turns out, I am one lucky girl, because the circumference of a Hanes Youth Medium sweatshirt is almost exactly 36 inches. There was much quickening of breath before I realized that I had not just destroyed my son's costume with less than 2 hours till the parade we'd promised him he could attend. Oy. At any rate, this reflective tape is wonderful--it feels pretty stiff when you take it out of the package, but once you hit it with the iron, it softens right up, while still adding some body and heft to the sweatshirt. By the time I'd gotten all the hems re-sealed and stripes re-applied, it was time to head out to the parade. For once, the fact that we live 40 minutes from my mother's neighborhood (where the parade was being held) turned out to be a good thing: my husband drove while I sewed on the nifty fasteners. I finished up with about 5 minutes to spare, and the boy was on the job with no time to spare. The best part is that thanks to the iron-on tape he now has a nice, sturdy jacket to play in. I think it was worth the extra $6.

*Can I just say? I think that Saturday Halloween is a cruel joke on parents. I mean, your kid wakes up at 7:00 ready for Halloween. Because you told him that Halloween is today: so let's get this Halloween party started, mommy! Far better that real child professionals be on hand to deal with overcharged three-year-olds; Halloween was clearly meant to be on a school day, no?

A favor

Cameron Blazer — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:10:20 +0000

Favor Box © 2009 Cottage Industrialist // Cameron BlazerSo here's the deal. I have made you a favor box for your Halloween treats. In return you owe me nothing. BUT. If you like my little box and the other things like it that I share on this wee blog, I have a favor to ask of you in return. We'll get to that in a minute.

So. Teeny take-out boxes. They are cute, non? Well. I am going to level with you. They are kind of a pain to cut out and make. But if you have a free evening, say, while you watch the best two hours on television,* you could whip out a bunch of these. They are the perfect size for just a couple pieces of candy. Or a tiny toy. Or a monocle. Because...monocles? Awesome.

© 2009 Cottage Industrialist // Cameron BlazerAnyhoo, if you set out to make these, don't say I didn't warn you about the drudgery factor. Still, I think the end result is cute enough to warrant the effort if you're having a small party or want to limit the nutso candy consumption of your small-but-mighty child at Halloween time. Or maybe that's just me.

If, in spite of my entreaties to the contrary, you want to make these little guys, download the free, printable PDF here. All the instructions are in the printable file.

***

Now. The favor. If you're not really the you-scratch-my-back-i'll-scratch-your-back type, just skip this and go about your freebie business. Seriously, I don't mind. But. If you read this site with any regularity and are of a mind to help a sister out, I would love your advice. See, I have changed jobs recently, and though the work is generally the same, I have had to up my game in every way for this new playing field. It means that I don't have as much time to doodle and fidget and take pretty pictures. But I want—no, I need—to keep this blog going strong. And, truthfully, it's not that I am at a loss for content--I have OODLES of printables just waiting to be packaged up and shared, recipes that have been road tested and kid-approved, and nifty projects that are ready for prime time.

If, at this point, you are thinking, "So, then, what's the big problemo, señora?" you are probably one of those reasonable people who adjusts sans drama to the changing of the seasons and does not have a crisis of confidence in the face of complimentary valet parking. You are one of the lucky ones.

The point is that I sweat this stuff. I fret over photos and pixels and color schemes. And even more? I fret over the words. A lot of times I think people don't really read my blog but just pop in the way I pop into Whole Foods for the free cheese. But the words really matter to me. I don't just want to post braggy pictures of whatever goofball thing I've just made. I like to share the story behind the pictures and projects. But sometimes that impulse keeps me from posting because I don't have time to explain why I just came up with a printable baby announcement (i.e., no, I am not having another baby, mom). And, on the flip side, sometimes I have things I'd like to talk about that aren't connected to a cool project and that don't fit into the 140 characters I regularly exploit on twitter.

I really am getting to the favor part of this blather. Just stick with me for another minute. The favor is really simple—I'd just like to get your feedback. If I post more frequently without projects or freebies, will you tune out? If I post random freebies without the cute story behind them, will you still tune in? Do you think I should invite guest bloggers? Would you like to be one, or do you have one to suggest? Any suggestions, words of encouragement, rotten tomatoes, or golden eggs are welcome in the comments. Cheers, and happy Halloween!

*Wednesday nights: So You Think You Can Dance and Glee. Obviously.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Cameron Blazer — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:49:18 +0000

I accept the coming of Fall only reluctantly. Though my ancestors all hailed from rainy, gloomy, Northern climes, I was born for sun and heat and Summer. Still, even I can acknowledge that fall does have its charms. Leaves changing colors. Glorious, glowing harvest moons. The incomparable coziness of the first sweater of the season. Those are nice. But, let's face it, for me to get excited about the Fall I have to focus on the food.

Sunday afternoon was crisp and cool and sunny. While le kid took an increasingly rare nap, I was gripped--gripped, I tell you!--by the need to make pumpkin muffins. There were a couple of reasons for this. One? Pumpkin + spice + cake-y, muffin-y goodness? You really need another reason? Well, alright then. See, I was feeling guilty because for most of the past week I had been sending the kiddo off to school with nothing more than a crummy pop-tart (organic! non-frosted! he calls them "pastries!") in his belly. By Friday I was feeling guilty, and I made eggs and bacon before leaving for work. Realistically, though, eggs and bacon just aren't going to be a regular week-day occurence in our house. Did you know that the sauté pan does not magically clean itself while the rest of the world toils away? Enter my new friend, pumpkin muffin.

I reasoned that if I enriched pumpkin (practically a superfood, no?) with whole wheat, I could feel really good (bordering on smug) about my food-based parenting skills. But everytime I've ever made muffins with whole wheat flour they've come out leaden and sawdusty. What to do? After some tinkering, I came up with a recipe that is very heavy on pumpkin and combines whole wheat flour with white cake flour (compromise, people!). The result is, if I may say, gloriously moist, light, and chockablock with pumpkin. I also used a mixture of white and brown sugars. The little bit of molasses from the brown sugar, combined with the ginger/cardamom/cinnamon gives these a gingerbread-y taste, too, of which I am very fond. Also? They come together easy-peasy and make a minimal mess. I'd say these are a keeper.

If you'd like to download and print the recipe, I've made it (as well as three blank recipe cards) available as a printable PDF.

Also? I cannot guarantee my accuracy (as my calculations are based on information gathered from calorie counters all over the Internet), but I think the nutrition info for these muffins breaks down like so: 220 Calories • 3.6 g protein • 6 g fat • 2 g protein.

---

Do you have a favorite autumnal recipe? Are you looking for something you can't quite put your finger on? Head over to the new discussion board (!) to share. Triumphs and failures welcome!

It's a stitch! binding tutorial

Cameron Blazer — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:54:46 +0000

Calendar © 2009 Cameron Blazer / Cottage IndustrialistWhen I posted the school-year calendar pages at the end of August, I said I'd post a binding tutorial later that week. Yes, well. Real life sort of inserted itself, and it's taken me until today to take photos and write it up. The good news is that this binding works for more than just calendars, so if you've already printed yours out and put it together, you can still try this out.

The premise is quite simple: when you sew paper together, it puts little holes in the paper. So, as you sew, you create perforations. This is perfect for a calendar, no? Well, for the tutorial I'm demonstrating it on a little notepad.*

Materials
Paper
Sewing Machine
Heavy-duty thread
Glue stick (or Xyron)

Line up your pages (I've done as many as 16 pieces of text-weight paper with no problem) and use a binder clip or two to hold them in place. If you are using scrap paper, turn all the already-used pages in the same direction first. And if you have odd-sized pages, don't worry. Just line up one straight edge. If you want a sturdier notebook, use a piece of card stock for the last page.
Using your binder clips to hold things in place, trim your pages to whatever size you want your notebook to be. If you have a rotary cutter with snazzy blades, you could trim the bottom edge with a deckle or scallop blade for a little extra pizazz.
See? These are scraps from my patternmaking obsession. I am happy to finally be putting them to use. But you could use any kind of spent or plain paper, really, so long as it didn't have weird personal data on it.
Now, with the binder clip still holding the pages together, you're ready to sew! My best results have been with a ver sharp needle and heavy-duty upholstery thread. You want to make sure that you start the sewing as close to the edge of your notebook as possible—this makes the perforation part work better. And until you know how your sewing maching will handle the pages, it's probably easiest to use your wheel to manually move the needle. There's no need to backstitch at the beginning or end--you're going to take care of that later. I used a 1/2" seam allowance, but you could do a larger one—whatever floats your boat.
The bound notebook ready for embellishing.
Now, trim a piece of pretty paper to the width of your notebook. It doesn't really matter how long it is unless you want to get all perfection-y. You just need it to be long enough to wrap from the edge of the seam over the top of the notebook over the seam on the back.

I used my Xyron machine to put a thin layer of adhesive all over the back of my piece of paper, but you could do this with a glue stick or sticky dots, too.
Here, I have already pasted the paper to the front of my notebook.

Before folding the paper over to the back, gather the loose ends of your threads with one hand and hold them in place as you smooth the paper over them—see, no loose ends!
Voilà! Admire your finished notebook.
Write yourself a little note, tear it off, and go!

Seriously, putting one of these together takes all of 10 minutes. And there is something soooo satisfying about perforation, n'est-ce pas? And if you take a stab at these, how's about join the new cottage industrialist flickr group, and upload some pictures?! Yes? Swell.

*As an insomniac, I lie awake night after night making mental lists of all the things I need to do, but I'm thinking that if I can jot them on a little scrap of paper, and tear it off in the morning to take with me, it might help me chill out.

So early it's scary!

Cameron Blazer — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:04:34 +0000

Holidays have a way of sneaking up on me. I love them in theory, but in practice I am all too often caught unawares by the calendar. But last year I actually planned ahead for Halloween and began sewing my son's costume in September. Good thing--I finished appliqueing the stripes on his tiger costume at about 2 AM the morning before he needed to wear it.

In a funny way, that costume was the catalyst for me starting this blog. I had spent so much time imagining and testing and crafting the costume that I wanted some way to document it for posterity. Of course, I didn't get around to starting the blog until November, so that impulse only got me so far, and I never posted about the costume. My excuse is that all the fuzz from that *&@#! fleece was clogging my brain. Plus I was still really tired from sewing all those things that weren't rectangles together.

But back to the present and this Halloween. I never really cared much about Halloween until I had a child, but now it's something I really look forward to--and actually have the presence of mind to see coming on the horizon...sort of. By coming on the horizon, I mean that when I sewed the costume last year, I made it 3 inches too long so he could wear it again this year. Brilliant, no?

A few weeks ago I was jolted into the holiday season by a custom design order for a CHRISTMAS card. People? It is still 80 degrees here! Christmas? And yet, this is apparently what normal people do. It is called planning ahead. Weird.

The order came from my new blog friend, Kate. She and her husband are spending a year in Paris while he apprentices in several restaurants. Dreamy, no? You really should check her blog out--if Paris isn't enough for you, she also has written this sentence: "I have of course found interesting ways to avoid the actual business of packing, not least among them a renewed love of the sartorial arts." Done. Anyhoo, Kate wanted to send a special Christmas card from Paris this year to all of her friends and family back home in the states. We came up with a twist on old-fashioned striped air mail envelopes, and a snappy little Eiffel Tower Christmas tree. Wanna See?

Fast-forward. I am lately having insomnia on a nightly basis, which is a good time to think about spooky things. One 3AM last week, I was rifling through the eleventy billion open Illustrator windows on my computer, and I landed back on Kate's Christmas postcard; I was inspired by the darkness all around to whip up a little Halloween printable postcard/invitation based on the air mail idea--scare mail! Get it? Air mail, scare mail? I kill me. Anyway, at this point I've probably maxed out my capacity for planning ahead, and I don't think I'm going to have the wherewithall to throw a Halloween party myself, so I did a plain postcard version, too. Both are linked below.

Download the card front here.
Download the invitation back here.
Download the plain back here.

A couple of printing notes: First, I know that's a lot of black ink, so I made it a dark grey, rather than a full black to try to conserve--just plan accordingly. Second, I broke with my usual practice of leaving .25 inch margins on everything, and instead I designed this to print to the edge of an 8.5x11" page. If your printer can't do borderless printing, you can reduce the size (for most printers 92% is the magic number), and you'll just have to trim the edges off. Be sure if you do it this way, that you tell your printer to center the image, or else your fronts might not line up with your backs!

As usual, these freebies are for personal use only, and if linking, please provide a link to the post, not just the downloads.

P.S. In the meantime, le kid has informed me that he is not going to be a tiger this year, but a fireman. Expect the sleepless nights to continue.

It's my birthday, and I'll err if I want to

Cameron Blazer — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:34:59 +0000

Perfect is the enemy of good. I really do believe that. I have had it drilled into me by professors who just wanted something, anything from me rather than more endless nattering about how my thesis/story/drawing/sculpture/brief would never be good enough. Because, of course, something is better than nothing in almost all things.

But I struggle to square this principle with my equally firmly held belief that if you do something you ought to do it well. So when I accidentally put MLK day on the wrong day in January or declare Valentine’s Day February 18th*, I feel like a total dope. Like, what clock was I racing against when I put up a calendar with errors? Which is to say, if you have already downloaded Dec-Feb, you may want a redo. If, like me, you have already printed out those months and begun scribbling your obligations on them, you may be inclined, as I am, to accept that Feb 18 is just as good as Feb 14 for Valentine’s Day. (It is easier to get a dinner reservation that night, and flowers and champagne are cheaper.)

Also, I seem to have a block about how to link the giraffes--I have fixed the link twice now, and I hope I will not need the third charmer try. So if you’re waiting on your life to be complete with unnaturally patterned giraffes, the original entry has been updated.

***

Did I mention it’s my birthday? Yes. Well, today I am 34. Not exactly a milestone birthday. And yet, in a funny way, it does seem like something of a breakthrough. See, I have always had a love-hate relationship with my birthday. As something of an attention sponge, I can’t help but appreciate the no-strings ego stroking that a birthday offers. Still, growing up and its cousin, growing old, have always struck me as exceptionally overrated. My mom tells the story of finding me glum and weepy on my sixth birthday: she asked me what was wrong, and through sobs I answered, “Well, it’s just, I’m six now, and I’m not gonna be cute forever, and...” Yeah, seriously. I offer that story for a couple of purposes: 1) it is succinctly illustrative (so rare!) and 2) it is evidence that as carefully crafted my peculiar brand of crazy may seem to those around me, it is actually rooted in something deeper and more organic, a kind of fundamental suspicion that the best days are behind us. If that were the end of the story, though, this would be a pretty depressing birthday meditation.

In the last few weeks, I have been nothing short of besotted with good things. And with each new piece of good news, I have instinctively looked to the sky--looked for the giant ACME piano that I just knew must be waiting to fall on my head to offset my unreasonable good fortune. And yet. I keep waking up unflattened.

So this year, on my birthday, I am just taking it all in. Grateful for my family, my work, and my friends. And committed to enjoying today, looking ahead. Not up. Or back. Even if I do, occasionally, have to rewind to fix a mistake or two.

*My ego is big, but not so big that I have begun intentionally reassigning the dates of holidays. Yet.