Hello & happy Friday to you! I want to start by thanking all of you for your sweet and encouraging words regarding the twins news. I feel ever so supported and loved and that is totally what I need right now. I have loved hearing your experiences with twins, and just about babies in general. I really appreciate all of it.

Here is the final addition to the May release that made it by the skin of it's teeth to the Stationery Show! Emily, our production manager had to draw a hard line with me on this deadline as I couldn't really get my stuff together. She cut me off and said this would have to go in the July release...then she saw it.  (or that's how it went down in my mind)

This card has been needed for so long and I can't wait to send it to about a hundred people. It's pretty straightforward, and goes out to all of your bright and shinys.

My mom paid me perhaps the highest compliment ever by saying: "Oh honey! I would have written this for you! This is your 'daughter' card." It made me cry (but really, what doesn't these days...) and realize that I have not been able to write the much-requested 'daughter' card because I don't have a daughter...but my mom does, and now I will soon!

So whether it reminds you of your daughter or a dear friend or some other fabulous lady in your life... I hope you find a hundred ways to send this...so Emily will be able to sleep at night.

I would love to know what you think!
xo

Hellooooo! Here is another addition to the May release. Yes. I know, it's May.

Don't judge me.

I am so fortunate in my life to be surrounded by people who love food. My dad and brother are excellent cooks, several of my close friends are solid enthusiasts, and a few are professionals. Together we share a love of nurturing and building our tribe with food and around tables. Though, as you probably know by now I love to eat, the thing I love most about these gathering times is the other stuff. The sharing of stories, the passing on of family history, the laughing and the wishes made over clinks of a glass. These things make even the most regular food taste better.

This one goes out to my Dad, who would wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, and to my friends and their tables...wherever they are.

Who is this about for you?

xo

Hello! Here is the next addition to the May release, fresh from the studio. This release is taking its sweet time for some reason. Apart from all that has gone on in Boston recently to distract, I feel generally scattered. I am sure it has something to do with pregnancy, but I have really intense moments of inspiration, clarity and focus, that are heartily offset with an inability to focus on much of anything and a slight feeling of detachment. It's strange. So, I am trying to go with the flow, and really capitalize on the moments when the energy is there and let myself drift a little in the rest of that space.

This one is a little cheeky, but it is meant to speak lightly to the idea that what we need, we will get. The concept of abundance and non-scarcity is big for me in this year of "plenty" and I tried to distill that concept into its simplest form. Lemonade from lemons. Cake from the rest.

It is also about making delicious things out of the most basic ingredients. There is art in there.

Hope you enjoy it...love to hear your thoughts!
xo

Happy April Fool's Day! I don't have any tricks for you today, but I do have a big 2nd birthday wish to (big)  Marmalade ! We opened our Belmont Center location on April Fool's Day two years ago and have so enjoyed every moment of it. The community, the space and just the general vibe over there is just about exactly what we are going for. Thanks to my marvelous Marmalade girls who help pull it off every day and for our amazing customers that support us and make it all worth doing. We will be celebrating with cake and champagne this Saturday at the store, but I wanted to shout out on the actual day.

In other news, here is the most recent addition to the May 2013 release. I think it might be my favorite one of all time. It just might.

It needs little explanation, I think you can all relate. It is true of each and every one of us and is hopefully a reminder of the wild, extraordinary that is inside. It is also in honor of a friend who I recently got to watch get her feathers... boy are they beautiful and boy, did she earn them!

Would love to know what you think!

xo

Here is the second installment to the May release. I had so much fun with this one, painting the flowers and imagining this wild place where everything I dreamed up would grow (my green thumb is more of a chartreuse...).

This one goes out to all the women in my life and yours who know what it takes to get things done. The roll-up-your-sleeves, finish-your-row, this-life-ain't-gonna-live-itself girls. They teach us what it means to flourish, and grow and be involved in your own getting there. Because, in the end, no one is going to do the work of becoming you for you.

And it's true. This life ain't gonna live itself.

Who would you send this to?

xo

I have been working away these last several non-spring (sigh.) days in the studio getting ready for May releases. It is really for the best that it has been not warm and not springish outside. I would have a very hard time focusing if that were the case. So, you can thank the groundhog for this next series of sneak peeks!

This one is a little bit of a reminder to myself, and to all the little voices inside all of us that say we can't or shouldn't or have no business being. I wrote this awhile ago and created the artwork several days ago, but today I was reading this post on my friend Andrea's blog and I realized that what she is talking about is exactly what I meant to communicate. Only my job is to distill it into three lines or less.

This goes out to the biggest, shiniest, brightest, sparkliest, limitation-free versions of yourself. Be reckless, sometimes you must.

P.S. This is also a tip of my hat to the graduating classes of 2013. Some of whom are near and dear to my heart and are already giving their limits a nudge. Go get 'em girls!

xo

Hey all! Happy 12/12/12!! Here is the 6th and final new release for January 2013!

When people ask me what my favorite card is in the line, I usually say whatever is newest. I am fickle like that... new shiny things catch my attention easily. But it is also because I have recently spent time with them and they are near in my heart and mind. This one falls into that category. But I think I love it most because it perfectly encapsulates a part of my personality that I have worked hard to earn.

The pointy end.

That's not to say that I crave violence (though, I always did relate to Jo in Little Women while admiring the inherant goodness of her parents, sighed: "but I rather crave violence") but the feisty part of my personality has become a good tool for me. It has allowed me to know my own mind and stand by it. It has allowed me to learn to negotiate and state my opinions. It has helped me learn to stand up for myself and what I believe in.

And most of all, it doesn't take any crap.

It is not a finely tooled mechanism just yet... my 'spirit'  has gotten me in trouble before and I am sure it will again, but it has accomplished more than it has destroyed and I am proud of that.

This one goes out to your moxie. Wherever you may keep it!

Hello there and happy Friday! I can't believe how fast time moves sometimes. Don't blink!

Here is another January Sneak Peek for you! It was inspired by a conversation I had with my dear friend Kelly Rae Roberts one afternoon. Though she and I live on opposite coasts of this huge country, we get to see each other a decent amount and periodically spend a good chunk of time on the phone just basically unloading on each other. We both lead lives and careers that give us cause to be exceptionally grateful but those lives and careers are also a lot of hard work, an endless amount of juggling and decision making and a huge amount of responsibility. Responsibility for our livelihoods, our careers, our family's livelihood and responsibility for our art and voice and soul's purpose. We have that stewardship in common, and though it is a blessed journey for the most part, it is not without it's frustrations and limitations and just plain crappy days.

So, when I get into a pickle, or state of mind, or have an issue that I am having trouble navigating, Kelly is on my short list of people to call. The day of this conversation, it was her turn. She was suffering from a restlessness about her purpose and career and the 'next step' and all the energy that goes with that. It can be profoundly unsettling, and I totally got that. She wrote about it here, The feeling of everything feeling a little bit harder than it should, like too-tight pants (another feeling I am familiar with unfortunately...) everything feels a little off. Or a lot off in many cases.

"It just doesn't feel joyful" She said, in her lovely way.

And in my usual, somewhat overly pragmatic way I replied: "No, but it's useful."

I am a firm believer that "what doesn't kill us, make us smarter". There will be bumps in every road, things that suck to go through, that challenge every part of us (even parts of us we didn't know we had) but in all of those moments, those non-joyful moments, we will make tiny adjustments. We will bob and weave and stay afloat and use that discomfort to navigate our best path.

For many of us, and if you have found your way to my blog, I am including you as my "us", which is to say, I am assuming you are a seeker and an adventurer and lover of life (not to put too fine a point on it....) for us, it is not about smooth sailing all the time....it is about testing the sails, and building a better boat. This card is dedicated to Kelly, and to all of you boat-builders.

xoxo

Another sneak peek for you! These sneak peeks will be available as cards mid-January 2013 and other product later in the year.

This one is in honor of our furry friends that bring so much love and light and companionship to our lives. I am a total dog person (though Coach and I had a cat, Chancellor, when we were first dating who was a gentleman and a scholar) but I know many many cats lovers that would be way underserved if I did not include thier feiline masters in this category. So voila!

It is with love and understanding that I dedicate this card to my dear friend Lacy and her husband and their lovely little "Hinge" who was recently called home. Thinking of you guys!

Do you have a devoted beast that this reminds you of!?

xoxo

Have you ever pressed up against a deadline so closely that you could see your breath fogging up the glass? That is becoming familiar territory for me. I just put a bow on our January 2013 introduction and the catalog has to go to print today!! I am feeling a little worn down with this and the season at Marmalade (we had a Midnight Madness event last night. Til, you guessed it....midnight!) so might have a nap in my future, but I wanted to share the next few cards with you.

I love this image and think it is going to look smashing as a canvas. This one speaks for itself, I believe it to be true.

I feel like the idea of 'living your dream" is a tad out of control in our society today. Perhaps rather...out of context.

Now, you know me, I am no dream crusher! I love dreams... I have them all the time! Sometimes several times a day! But I think the trouble is when we expect them to happen. We are entitled to do the dreaming, not to have them come true...that part is up to us. And dreams are hard work....and risk and trust and failure and try agains...and failure...and try agains. It's big stuff. In fact, the bigger and more personal they are, the harder they get. But the more magnificent also.

So, this lovely little reality check is brought to you today by Curly Girl Design and the road less traveled. Get on out there!

Let me know what you think!

xoxo