Hello!! I’m thrilled to have Michelle from Creature Type on the blog today. I came across her blog one day while looking through Pintrest and I was hooked every since. I love illustrators, I think they are my favorite type of designers! Enjoy!

Name: Michelle Volansky

Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri

Turn Ons: passion, obsession, feminism, indulgence, silliness,
subversive cuteness, pop music

Turns Offs: pretension, agressive masculinity, disinterest

Favorite Color: This changes too much! Currently I’m drawn to grays
and all the trendy pastel colors!

Favorite place you have traveled to: Japan. Part of my heart will
always be left in Japan.

Favorite Albums: “If It Was You” by Tegan and Sara, “More Adventurous”
by Rilo Kiley, “Feed The Animals” by Girl Talk, “Ta-Da” by Scissor
Sisters

What Inspires You: women, fashion, consumption, pop culture

How did you get your start as an illustrator: I’ve been drawing and
identifying myself as an artist for as long as I can remember. At
first I wanted to be an animator, then an art teacher, then an
animator again, then a graphic designer, and then I realized that
illustration combines all those strengths!

What is your favorite design you had created? Oh jeez, what a
nerve-wracking thing to think about. The next one! Shouldn’t that
always be the answer? For now, I’ll say I’m really proud of the Big
Book of Cats project that I’m currently working on. I’m redrawing some
illustrations from my youth and I’m having a blast. It’s really
helping me to keep drawing everyday.

Who do you want to work with: I feel like saying them publicly jinxes
me! Haha, I will say that I dream of one day collaborating with some
clothing companies I especially love on a pattern or textile design or
something.

What part of your job do you find most challenging? Just sitting down
and doing the creative work! I sometimes struggle to move beyond the
sketching phase and complete things.

Do you have a Full Time Job: Yes, my day job is working as a
production designer at a local culinary magazine. I manage and design
ads for the magazine and handle a lot of web art, promotional
materials, etc. I love the energy of working at a magazine and always
having something new and fun to do and learn. It’s really motivating
to always have that monthly deadline and physical reward for our
efforts in the form of a gorgeous, interesting printed piece! I love
the security of having a day job that I don’t hate. It makes my life
more interesting, plus I love love food.

Any Advice for anyone who is just starting out in a career path
similar to yours? Work hard and never give up! It’s so easy for
artists to just stop after school when time and money get tight. Find
some motivating project or club or blog–whatever you need to do to
keep yourself creatively active. Also, always be nice, open, and
generous with others. It goes so far.

Thank you so much Michelle for participating! If you have time head on over to Michell’s website and check out more of her amazing illustrations! I hope everyone has a great Monday!!

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This years Oscars, I have to admit I didn’t watch all of them. I went in and out to see who the winners were. I was glad that Argo won for Best Picture, because I feel like Ben Affleck got the shaft on the Best Director side. But, he came back and won it all so that to me was Justice! There was one actress who I think stoke the show and that was Jennifer Lawrence. Now, I have to admit I haven’t seen the movie, Silver Linings Playbook, but I’ve been meaning too. I did see her first in, The Hunger Games and I thought she was great. I fell in love with her in that movie. Ever since then, she has been one in Hollywood who I enjoy reading about.

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During this years Oscars I feel that she was one of the most humble, and REAL, people out there. She looked absolutely beautiful in her dress and when she was walking up to receive her Oscar, poor thing tripped. I will say she came back gracefully and laughed about it.

The greatest thing about this young actress is that she can laugh at herself, and she is STILL a genuine person! Check out the video below where Jack Nicholson came to say congrats to her. I died when I saw it, thinking that she was truly starstruck!

I absolutely love her and I think she is one to watch coming up! I hope you all have a great day!!

Only a couple more days until the weekend! I hope all of you are excited as I am. I saw this the other day on Pintrest and I thought it was something that fit well into what I’ve been dealing with lately. Lately, I’ve been struggling to want more and more of material things. Why you ask? I think its this sudden need and desire to make the life around me more..me. Now, don’t get me wrong I love everything that we own, but there are certain times when I look at it and I want to take everything and rip it down and start over. But then there is this little thing called, money, that gets in the way. So I look through many magazines, online and in stores and dream of having those items in my home. *sigh* It’s these phases I go through where I want to revamp the material life around me. ha! Does this happen to anyone else? Well, I hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Hello! First of all I’m very excited to show all of you a little update to my blog! I thought it was looking a little stale so I decided to revamp and add a little bit more color to it and just add a little something to it! I am so excited to have Chelsea, from Lovely Indeed, on my blog today. I have been reading through Chelsea’s site for the past couple of months. She has some great inspiration on her blog along with some great DIY projects. With that said, I hope you enjoy her feature today.

Name: Chelsea Costa

Hometown: Modesto, CA

Turn Ons: Kindness, humor, and creativity

Turn Offs: People who are just a little too in love with themselves.

Favorite Color: Sunshine Yellow

Favorite place you have traveled to: My honeymoon trip to Tahiti was pretty off-the-charts amazing.

Favorite Albums: Anything by Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, Ingrid Michaelson, or James Taylor. I’m also a fan of turning on an Original Broadway Cast album of just about any musical ever.

What Inspires You: Travel! Seeing the world is eye-opening in so many ways, and has been responsible for some of my most creative times.

How did you get your start in theater: My mom let my sister and I choose what extracurricular activities we wanted to do from a very young age, and I was always attracted to dance, singing, and acting. I can remember being in my 6th grade play and just feeling like it was the absolute best thing ever. I did local theater all through high school and college, and made the decision to move to NYC to pursue musical theater in my 20s. My very first professional gig was a Nickelodeon national tour of Go, Diego, Go — it made me fall in love with children’s theater, and turned out to be a gateway to so many more professional highlights.

What is your favorite part you have acted in: I loved playing Nancy in Oliver. I think she’s such a brave woman, and both strong and tender. It’s a challenge to tackle that role, and I was honored to be able to do it.

Who do you want to work with: I’ve never had a list of specific people that I’d love to work with, but I always wish for kind, generous, humble people when I’m cast in a new show.

What part of your job do you find most challenging?: Making it into a living.

Any Advice for anyone who is just starting out in a career path similar to yours: Decide whether it’s going to be a hobby or a career. It’s extremely difficult to make a full-time living as an actor, because the bottom line is that not everybody is going to be famous. In fact, most people will not be famous. So you need to decide why you’re doing it: love, money, accolades, or whatever other reason there may be. Decide and pursue it accordingly. Once I realized that, my love for and joy in the art of musical theater increased tenfold.

Thank You Chelsea for sharing with my readers! The greatest thing about her is that she is multi-talented. With her amazing blog and theater experience she is a very inspirational individual. To see more on Chelsea head on over to her blog and check her out! I hope everyone has a great Monday!

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Yay! We all made it through the week! Its finally Friday and we can all look froward to the weekend! This weekend will hopefully be relaxing. Poor Dave has been really sick with the flu and hoping that he will start to feel better soon! I hope you all have a great weekend!!!!

This morning I came into work and my friend, Lauren, had sent me this video to cheer me up. This kid is so freaking cute I had to share the video. Thanks Lauren!

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Please tell me other people have this problem? There have been a lot of things on my mind when I found out we were pregnant. All the “what if’s” just starting to pile on and on and on..making me stress out. I have somehow developed a permanent right eye twitch. I was already a stress case before I found out and now I feel as though I have become even MORE of a stress case. I’ve talked with many of my friends who have already had kids and their go to line for me is, “You always find a way to make it work.” So, I try and keep that in the back of my mind until something I think about scares me and makes my wheels start spinning and my eye twitch racing. I found this online one day and thought it fit perfectly into how I think. My poor husband has had to reassure me I don’t know how many times and I have had to try to learn how to cope with my stress, for my health and the health of our baby. With all of that being said..I hope that everyone has a stress free Wednesday! Look at it this way..its almost the weekend!!

Sorry I can’t remember where I pulled this image

Lately, I have been sort of obsessed with Globes. Remember as a kid having one of them in your classroom just collecting dust? Well, at least ours did. I find the look of a globe so elementary, but yet so fun at the same time. I have been seeing many people starting to accessorize their small spaces with these great nostalgic items. I love it!

source: 1/ 2 / 3

I think for the babies room I want to add a little globe so she can start to imagine all of the places she will visit! I hope you all have a great Tuesday!

* All photos courtesy of Edyta Szyszlo *

Name :Eunice Moyle

Hometown: Hmm – tough call – born in Silver Springs, Maryland but grew up all over South East Asia and Africa. San Francisco feels like my hometown now.

Turn Ons: Great design and illustration, a really amazing baguette, cheese, Europe (France particularly, but I love the European lifestyle in general), traveling, people with can-do attitudes, adventures.

Turn Offs : Rude, mean people, mediocre design, poorly executed illustration, purple most of the time (but not always!), the fonts Papyrus and Curlz, guilt, lousy attitudes.

Favorite Color: Turquoise is a tried and true – but my tastes change all the time – right now dove grey, combined with muted dusty pinks, sea foams and mustard-y yellows and neons (I’m a child of the 80′s, what can I say, I’m so loving that neon is back!)

Favorite place you have traveled to: France – I love France, I try to go there whenever I can – Paris in the fall, the south anytime.

Favorite Albums: Tough call – it changes all the time! Some with staying power: Pretty much anything by the Beatles, though I particularly love the White Album, Arcade Fire – Funeral (they are the most amazing band live), Coeur de Pirate, and Hayes Carll – Flowers & Liquor. Right now I spend a lot of time singing with Jude (my two year old son) – current favorites are the Weepies, Kanye West, Jessie J, and Plastic Bertrand – Ça Plane Pour Moi (with accompanying 80′s metal style head banging).

What Inspires You: My son Jude and Sabrina’s kids, James & Alex – they are real characters and the things they are into / do are great fodder for card concepts, party ideas, and all sorts of general hilarity. And right now I’m really into French/Japanese children’s clothing, textiles and interior design – greys, dusty pastels, organic textures, stars, splashes of neon, naive doodles…

How did you get your start: I initially fell in love with letterpress printing after taking a class at the San Francisco Center for the Book. At the time I was working as a web designer, and loved the idea of going back to a tactile print medium. I printed a few cards on a whim and sent them to Kate’s Paperie in New York, which placed an order. Sabrina had just graduated from business school and offered to help turn the project into a business, and it took off from there.

What is your favorite design you had created: Probably our father’s day bbq card with anthropomorphic food (http://www.hellolucky.com/bbq-parade-hl-734.html). My favorite moment was when one of our employees, Kelly, called me from the bus to say “oh oh oh! what if the corn is shucking off his husk like he’s pulling down his pants?” (this said with accompanying hand gesture and weird looks from fellow bus riders. I also really enjoy the spork playing croquet with the fork and the knife and the ice cream cone licking himself…it makes me chuckle every time.

Who do you want to work with: I love collaborating with other artists – Carson Ellis or Grady McFerrin both of them are just amazing. Anne Benjamin, Camilla Engman, the list is miles long!

What part of your job do you find most challenging: Staying fresh and creative while keeping up with the demands of our customers and fans. We operate in tough, competitive industry. Anyone can decide to be a card designer and lots of people dream of starting their own creative business. Not to mention, there are a large corporations with deep pockets that can out-do small studios like ours in terms of product variety, lower prices, and making it super easy to order online, which has become critical as people get used to the instant gratification of the websites and apps we use every day. It’s hard to keep up with all these demands while continuing to develop our unique design perspective – which is, after all, one of the things that people love about us!

Any Advice for anyone who is just starting out in a career path similar to yours : It would probably be to slow down and stay small. There is a lot of pressure as a business to grow and to rush to keep up with the competition and the changing environment. Don’t stray too far from what you love and remember that small is beautiful too.

Thank you so much to Eunice for taking part. I am just so fond of Hello Lucky’s work. They have recently launched a DIY section on their blog with letterpress printables, free signs, and pattern paper for brides who want to DIY more of their weddings. There are many great crafts on their blog as well, so head on over to check it out!

Website: Hello Lucky

Blog: Hello Lucky

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So, I am a dork and realized this morning that yesterday was Thursday and I had posted my “Wednesday’s Words” on Thursday. Ha! So I apologize for my brain fart! Any who, last night was my companies Grand Opening Party. Dave and I love a photo booth so we headed on up to it and took some pictures. I love that my husband is so much fun to hang out with He makes me so happy! I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!