This week has been all about creating new designs for Spoonflower tea towels. My latest two are for the next two weeks of contests’ entries, next week is Grandma’s Kitchen, and I created this design to go with a yummy recipe my late gran used to make. This dessert may go by other names, but on the original recipe card, it was written “Virginia’s Dessert”, Virginia was a long time friend of my gran.
Tea towel recipe design and illustration by me! Find it on Spoonflower here, it will be available for sale shortly!
When my gran made this dessert for family dinners, my great uncle Art would take the empty bowl once everyone was done, grab a wooden spoon, and take a chair to the middle of the living room where he would loudly proclaim his joy at licking the bowl, and it was all his, no sharing!
The following week’s theme is “Home is Where the Heart Is”, and this is my design for that contest entry:
Home Is Where the Heart Is tea towel, you can find it on Spoonflower here and it will be available for sale shortly!
A cute love-filled garden and hearts. I added a subtle distress/stamp texture to the background and some of the design elements, just for a bit of a retro feel.
I’ll post when links for voting are up! I have one more design to finish and upload, the very hot competition of the Calendar tea towel design. Very exciting!
So now in other news. I’m so fired up about this!
I’m usually a very early morning person, and like to get up around 5:30-6 am, have a quiet coffee, check social media, read emails, and get organized for the day. Lately for some reason, I continually wake up, and wide awake, brain buzzing, at about 3:30 am every. Single. Night. I’m starting to get used to it. I still get up super early too. It’s a wonder I don’t fall asleep mid-day, it’s tempting sometimes. It’s very weird. Anyway.
Last night was a huge epiphany idea-fest and I realized a few things about my work and things going on that I need to get done.
I’ve been in the design industry now for 25 years, whoa! I’ve seen and done a lot over those years, and I have no plans to stop any time soon. Our clients have changed many times over the usual course of life happens, retirement, moving, changing course, whatever the reason, things change and it’s all normal and good. Lately though I’ve noticed quite a drop in new design projects coming in, and, just so I know it’s not just me, other designers I work with regularly have also been noticing the same drop with their own client lists and businesses. Many I know, or knew, in the business, have given up, or gone and gotten a job elsewhere, or changed gears or professions to fill in the gaps. The market is changing really fast, and with the advent of those el-cheapo design sites, not naming any names, you gotta step it up or step out.
I’ve also realized that as I build my art and sewing, fabric, pattern services, a lot of people don’t realize that I am a graphic designer too! Need a logo? Magazine ad or design? Website? Call me! Wink!
So last night at my usual 3:30 am wake up call, I realized dayum. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, people! I had been feeling some disconnect with all of this over the past year, but I finally boiled it down to the simple fact that I love design. I love what I do. I love creating and working with my wonderful kind-hearted clients who love what they do, and I want more of that! So I am changing things up.
Over the next month, I’ll be moving all of our”work work” projects, portfolio, and offerings to our new division, Creative by Studio 25 (logo to come, domain registered, and site to come!). I’ve come to the conclusion I am a creative and design lifer and I want to help like-minded kindred souls discover great customer service and excellent, intuitive, creative design, made totally custom and unique to them. No cookie cutters, no pre-made templated designs. Never. (Not that I ever did that before but just so you know now! ;D ) I’m working on a tagline this morning, part of it also appeared last night, something like “Hand-crafted creative for your business’s soul” or something along those lines.
I’ll post more about it as it happens, but, if you notice any weird changes or things on this site acting oddly, it means we’re working on the back-end of the site, nothing to worry about! And, we’ll also be continuing to refresh this site with more new shop goodies, patterns, projects, and art, especially pre-holiday shopping season! Stay tuned and thank you for your on-going support and love, it means a lot to me!
