It's the end of the world as we know it - Patti's Recap Part V1

Happy Tuesday! Muahaha! Okay. I know some of you are all like "Tuesday? It's not Tuesday," and you're all confused, but this is a trick I've learned and it really works, so get on the train already!!

You know how, for some inexplicable reason, 4 day weeks seem to take forEVER To pass? Like, seriously. Is this a joke? I have a theory on how time warps work, but I've found a way to beat it on short weeks, and voila! It's like a fancy party at the end of the week.

I tell myself it's Monday on the day back from work. It feels like a Monday. It looks like a Monday. So I call it Monday. And then I tell myself all week, "oh my goodness... four whole sleeps until weekened" or, on 'Wednesday', "thank goodness it's hump day.. only two more days." Then, all of a sudden you find yourself at the end of the week and it's all "wait! I don't have to come in tomorrow?" It's like a SURPRISE day off! Which DOUBLES the benefit of the long weekend prior! Winning in every sense of the word! It makes the week fly by, really. Try it! And even though I've spent some time explaining this concept to you now - Happy Tuesday. I'm sooo good at tricking myself. 

I should market this train of thought. Really.

Anywho - back to the recap, and HAPPY TUESDAY!

Fact: As a graphic designer, I've encountered many different types of clients. Many clients who could be described as difficult. But throughout this process, I quickly learned that I was, in fact, the most difficult client I have ever encountered.

The pressure I put on myself! I figured that everyone would have an expectation of something super fancy because I'm a designer. That I could ruin my reputation and career if the design elements were not perfect. That the world would end if everything wasn't absolutely fantastically amazing!

I was stuck. Totally stuck. And not for a lack of ideas. In this case, my first-world problem was that I had way, way, WAY toooooo many ideas. So many ideas. Sewing! Glueing! Typography! Illustrations! Textures! Paper! Posters! Twine! Wood! Die-cuts! I didn't know where to begin, I had way too many different concepts in my head, and since I was the client, I couldn't decide what I liked most, and so, didn't know where to begin.

TheGuy was a champ. He tried to console me as I shared my devastation with him. I was going to have to change careers. I was a hack of a designer if I couldn't even design my Save-the-dates without a bazillion meltdowns. I may as well hand in an application to McDonald's, except that I was paralyzed by options and HAVE YOU SEEN ALL THE TOPPINGS YOU CAN CHOOSE FROM at McDonald's? The moment I'd been looking forward to for my entire graphic design career: designing my wedding invitations to the love of my life, became a crippling, game of: "that might look nice! NO, that's stupid! What about this? That's dumb, too." And time was running out.

In my career, I'm usually able to manage stress. I adore working under pressure, I do my best work when under the gun. I like being able to manage my time, prioritizing the needs of others - it's a thrill, really. And I've never missed a deadline. But this was just nuts.

TheGuy said that I couldn't postpone the wedding because I was over-inspired, and that the show must go on. He also let me know how sad he was that I wasn't having fun with it, because, really, shouldn't it be fun? I was finally able to regroup. After weeks of agonizing (ok - actually months, because I'd been thinking of marrying him for a long time.)(Okay, actually - years), I decided to just go for it. To design something for Ryan and I, and not for anyone else. And a Save the Date could be whatever I wanted to be - simple, easy. As the initial panic of the blank paper in front of me wore off, I figured to go with what I loved - typography, and hand rendered typography. So I did it. It wasn't fancy, it wasn't award winning, but it was us. And that was the most important thing.

So, I didn't actually have time to take a photo - so I just made this in photoshop. And that's not our real website address, because I feel like being sneaky.

Creative concerns - Patt's Recap Part V

I have to start out by saying how ridiculously proud I am that I remembered the roman numeral for 5. At least, I think 'V' is the roman numeral for 5. Either way, I feel totally badass and medieval (except that I had to use spell check to find out the way to spell 'medieval' for some reason and that cancelled out the original awesome so this sentence doesn't really need to be here. Moving on!).

So. my update is moving along pretty nicely, although I don't know that it's all that interesting, but whatever! The good stuff is yet to come. Happy back-to-work day for those who are back at it. And for those with children who are back in school, hooray, hooray!!!!

2011

At this point in the story, theGuy and I had been together for 11 years (ah!). We met in highschool, at 17, and let me just tell you, I was smitten like a kitten. He totally looked (to me) like a bad boy (let's freak out dad!) but he was so kind and nice and smart and awesome.

Me and theGuy - young and in love. And for the record, my hair was very cool at the time (as far as I was concerned, anyway).

 
At 17, we were creative, misunderstood dreamers, and dream we did. One of those dreams was that, if we were ever to get married, we would have a camping wedding, where all of our friends and family could camp with us and we could get married in nature (I also wanted to have bunny rabbits hopping around freely, because I thought that would be super romantic, and I was young and stupid).

I don't think that either of us thought that would be a reality, but when we booked our venue in 2011, we saw our teenage dreams come true We found an amazing venue with two cottages (built mostly from materials found on the property), campsites nestled along the Saugeen River, a beautiful pavilion in the center of it all, and even a labyrinth area in the forest, with beautiful row-planted trees that could act as my aisle. SOLD. The first place we saw, it was better than we could've dreamed of, and the casual but beautiful wedding we wanted to have was beginning to come together.

The signs I had IMAGINED myself making were already THERE!

This got me started for the wedding planning! A rustic but beautiful space where I was only limited by my imagination (oh yeah, and money).

I adore planning parties. Absolutely. However, I have a tendency to get a little wound up - once I get hit by creativity, my mind spins a million miles a minute and it jumps from one idea to another. The closer I get to any party I've planned, the higher around my ears my shoulders sit, the stronger my inability to sit still, and the higher my voice goes (which is already pretty high, so this is not attractive to anyone, except the neighbourhood dogs). It totally consumes my thinking, and I become more and more consumed as my sleep-bank wears thin due to the midnight inspirations swirling around in my head.

That being said, I love it. Hallowe'en consumes me and I love it! I get stressed, I get amped up, I get wound up, but man, I get creative. Once those creative juices start flowing, it's like someone turned on a tap and they come at me everywhere. Something as simple as walking down the street could lead to a whack of ideas, and they swirl around and around in my head, driving theGuy insane [I haven't seemed to be able to grasp the concept that 1. He doesn't live in my head so when I say "oh my god! We can totally do that paper thing in the corner by the room, and it'll bring the other things together" he has NO idea what I'm talking about. 2. He loves me a lot, but he doesn't really care about colours and textures and decorations (or so he says - "Those wedding colours look like bathroom colours" - thanks!).]. Basically, party planning makes me ridiculously, absolutely, blissfully CRAZY. I love it.

With the wedding planning, I knew that I was going to have to watch it. I knew that I would get worked up at least for the 2 months before the wedding, but I wanted to take it easy and put off the crazies as long as possible (I did, after all, want to make it down the aisle). So in January I decided that it was full steam ahead. We'd lost so much time because of the previous summer and fall, and I didn't want to let a second go to waste. I wanted to enjoy as much of it in as calm and serene-like state as possible. I wanted to be the poised, gracious bride who had it all figured out and looked good in the process. I wanted to start with designing our save the dates.

There are Zombies - Patti's Recap Part IV

Well, it's a holiday Monday here for me today, but we've been working away like crazy! New paint in the kitchen, fresh paint on the door, sanding, sanding our stuccoed cabinet doors (who stuccos cabinet doors? Gross!) and painting them, and making a painting for the living room! We're nothing if not ambitious.

So, Pickle (our feathered child), is sitting on my shoulder, more than a little mad that he's been cooped up in the office for a latex-free quarantine while we did the work, and I thought I'd get back to the recap!


The last few months of 2011 were kinda crazy. There were some family things going on that required a lot of time and attention, and life as I knew it was kind of flipped up-side down. We did manage to throw our annual Hallowe'en soireé!

The guy and I have never really done a 'couples' costume before, but the year prior, theGuy declared that from that Hallowe'en on, he was only going to dress as John Goodman in different roles. I was super stoked to hear that because, no matter how organized I try to be for Hallowe'en, and no matter how hard I try to get him sorted out for his costume (he hates all of my ideas), it's always like, the day or weekend before the party, when he's all "I don't know what to be... " and I have to decide for him.  I couldn't understand why he was so enthusiastic about having me be a part of it until I realized that he wanted me to dress up as Roseanne! Really!?

If Hallowe'en is a chance to be anyone you want to be, even the least vain of us would doubtfully choose to be Roseanne. Really, dude?

I'm nothing, if not creative, so I convinced him that Fred and Wilma would be a better match. I rolled up my sleeves and learned how to sew - a skirt for me as Wilma, and his bright orange Fred costume.

Wilma Flintstone, Scary Witch, Medusa & a Nerd.
(Sorry - this photo is a screencap from my phone)

 I don't have a photo of us because we always seem to be at other sides of the house when we host a party, so that photo will have to do!

The party was a blast and got me excited to plan our wedding, booked for July 21, 2012. I knew that we had to wait until after the Christmas rush to really get into things, but I was getting excited and was very much aware that there was a lot to do. I decided I really wanted to have a "Do It Yourself" wedding. TheGuy and I had been together for so long and were clearly committed, so we wanted to throw a party that was more about our guests than us (although it was still clearly about the two of us). I figured if we made it as D-I-Y as possible, the guests would get a sense that we put effort into ensuring that they understood how much we cared for them and appreciated them.

I don't think I had any idea what I was getting into.

Finding Me-mo - Patti's Recap Part III

Catch-up. Jan-December, 2011.

So. I've been trying to catch you all up on the stuff that's happened to me over the last two years by writing about it in first person, as if it's happening right at that second.

But my forté is really more creatively related than it is about following tenses and all that jazz, so I figure I'll just write as I chose and fill you in to the best of my abilities.

I was busy. Between booking our wedding venue, finding the dress, and falling in love with theGuy all over again (hey! This is my blog, I can be mushy if I want to), I also left my job (totally a "Hey, everyone - you guys are great, and I'm engaged! YAYAYAYAYA! Be so happy for me....Oh yeah, and um.. here's my two weeks' notice.. I'm an asshole" moment), started the new one, and got moving on freelance stuff.


I love graphic design. I really, really do. And part of working in a corporate environment meant that I had the freedom to pursue the jobs I wanted to pursue, in my spare time. It meant that I didn't have to take jobs that I didn't want to, and that I could really flex my creative muscles when I wanted to. I had a blast. I worked way too much, but it was great.

One of the exciting projects I got to work on was working with a team of super bright guys who wanted to develop a real estate magazine. It was the beginning of an awesome relationship, where I was able to design a lot of logos, design and direct the overall look and feel of their magazine, and work to create ad, etc. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed their vision and creativity.

It kept me busy. No time to update blogs, no time to socialize. But I felt totally stimulated and creative, and like I knew what I was supposed to be doing with my life. It was a fantastic feeling - I could see my future ahead and it looked so bright (it still does!). For the first time in my life, I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be, and that was a totally amazing feeling. Life was looking up!

Christmas, Christmas time is here - not really: Patti's Recap Part II

It's December 24, 2010.

Christmas Eve has come.

And I'm seriously in outer space, so thrilled to have something new and exciting to look forward to (my new job). My mind is racing with freelance opportunities I want to pursue in my spare time. I can't wait to see where this will take me.

And it's Christmas Eve! The gifts are wrapped and under the tree. I'm packed, I'm dressed, and I'm waiting for my guy to get home so that we can begin our Christmas traditions!

TheGuy and I have been together for 10 years. In those ten amazing (and difficult and challenging) years, we have always had our special Christmas Eve traditions (which is the beginning of our CRAZY Christmas marathon. Like, seriously - it's intense).

First - we meet theGuy's mom, step-dad and brother at Dragon Court, our favourite Chinese restaurant which serves the most FANTASTIC Szechuan EVER. We eat. And eat. And eat. It's fabulous.  I'm still on air. I got a new job! All smiles, all happy. It was a long road to get here, and I'm smiling between mouthfuls of string green beans in hot pepper sauce. Perfect!

Second - we go to church. I'm not a church person. In fact, churches make me feel like a weirdo. I'm super spiritual, you could say, but I'm not into the whole industry of the church. That being said, there's just something about the Christmas Eve service. The smell of pine from the big tree. The twinkling lights. The smiling faces. The Christmas carols. Being there with MyGuy, his mom, his brother.. it's fantastic. Magical. And I can't help but tell everyone that I see that I GOT THE JOB, so it's extra smiles and giggles from me (what can I say? I'm a little obsessive!)(And I really wanted this job).

Lastly - my favourite tradition with theGuy ever - we go to look at the lights. Christmas Eve gives us a chance to reflect on the past year; what we've overcome, what we've achieved and how we've grown as people, as well as a couple. I'm excited about my job, the new place, and theGuy... this gets very mushy (you know I love it!!) so I'll spare you the gritty details.

We arrive at my favourite spot in the park, the gazebo on the island, and we pause to take it all in. TheGuy takes my arms (really tightly!) and I'm blown away when he drops to one knee and reaches for his pocket. When he speaks the words "Will you marry me?", and pulls out the ring box, I think I stop breathing! I can't talk (if you knew me, you'd know this is amazing in itself)! I can't even see the ring for all the tears. I haven't said yes. Oops! I toss my Bailey's on the ground and babble "Yes, yes, yes!"

This isn't the actual proposal - but we re-enacted it for our engagement shoot in the exact spot it took place. Except he was facing the other way, and it was night time. But still. I'm sure theGuy LOVED having to do it again, in public, in daylight, with an audience.

A little dazed, I make it home, (is this even my life?) there are candles, roses, champagne and a bridal magazine (such a smartie!) waiting for me. We spent an amazing evening giggling and smiling, drinking, giggling and smiling. It made for an interesting Christmas morning (a little hung over, okay, maybe a lot hung over, but still absolutely thrilled and excited and giggly), but I couldn't believe it. I'm not lucky like this. Things like this don't happen to me! How was it possible that in less than 48 hours my life could have such big amazing changes take place? What a Christmas gift!

Baby got back - Patti's Recap Part I

Well, I haven`t posted anything in like two years, but I have good reasons.

It's been a very busy couple years and I have so much to share! I miss putting my thoughts in cyberspace. So I'm going to start by sharing where I left off.

 In Sophia, from Golden Girls' voice:

Picture it. It's December 23, 2010. Patti has been shopping, shopping, shopping, in order to prepare for Christmas, mixed with working on her portfolio and attending a series of interviews for a new job. A new job that's going to be THE job, because it would allow her to pursue her own freelance. It's in an industry she loves, and it seems to good to be true. She's beside herself with hope and anticipation:

 I'm sitting here at my desk. It's the last half day of work before Christmas holidays, and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to find the time to fit all the exciting holiday festivities into the week that I have off. IHOPEIGETHEJOB. Between parents, step parents, the Guy's parents, the friends.. will mom like her gift? IHOPEIGETTHEJOB. Will theGuy be excited? Will it be nice weather? JOB! JOB! What will I wear? JOB! JOB! I'm exhausted already and the crazy antics of the Christmas season haven't even started.

 "Okay! You guys can take off now!" That's my boss. I go to close my browser window where I've been hitting refresh on my email all day, waiting to hear from the potential employer, and I see that there's something waiting for me. Can't look now, it's time to go home.

I run. I really do, I run all the way home. Don't get too excited; I'm not a graceful runner. More of an arms flailing runner. I'm like a cartoon of the most uncoordinated run put into motion. The whole time, in between trying to catch my breath while simultaneously attempting to look like I'm not totally having a heart attack and trying not to slip on ice, I'm thinking "you got the job! NO! Don't get too excited! They could be letting you down gently! You got the job! Don't get your hopes up, Patti. This could be IT. But don't get excited."

I get home, check my email.

They'd like to extend an offer.

WHAT!? I got the job. I got the job! I GOT THE JOB! And I start two weeks after the Christmas break!

I'm walking on air. I got the job.

Things are going to change around here.

Haunted by Halloween!

Oh yeah. I have been meaning to post the logo I created for the Townhouse of Terror, which is what we branded our Hallowe'en party with, but I kept forgetting to.

Life's been busy!

So here's a low res version of the logo this year. It was a blast!

It was a great turn out, with tons of great conversations and it was a great mix of people. I think we're growing up, it was almost a cocktail party! With crazy costumes, that is. I went as a clairvoyant this year. Contacts are a riot.

My mind has been completely filled with everything social networking and beyond lately. It's incredible how much things have changed in this new digital age, and how many opportunities there are to reach out to audiences if you want to put the effort into it. My gears are turning and the creativity is flowing; I hope to have more to share with you soon!

Trying to appear athletic..

Spending a lot of time shopping for other people this year for Christmas has had me stumble across this beauty:

 And OMYGOD I neeeeed it! Oh, imagine how cute it would be to carry my lovely camera in. MUCH better than the lunchbag-looking one I currently possess. Santa, I've been very good this year!

The camera bag is by ACME MADE out of San Fran, and I think they're kinda brilliant!

I have a coupon code, even (psstt "MILLER50") for 50% off (which applies to all their products, shoppers!). We'll have to see how Christmas goes this year. This may be something I'll have to get myself! :)

Subliminal Messaging

My coworker showed me this video of subliminal messaging and how it works, and I thought it was so neat, I just had to share it! So, please enjoy this video!

Click here to go to youtube, sorry, it won't let me embed it)

This is Hallowe'en, Everybody scream!

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. My daily design challenges have become very un-daily, but I am definitely working on getting some time to myself to it again. Or at least once a week!

I've got some stuff in motion, because Hallowe'en approaches, and we're excited to be hosting the "Townhouse of Terrors" at our place this year!

So.. here we go - branding, invitations, etc. I'm getting very excited about all the ideas that I am waiting to put into motion.. let's see what we can accomplish this year.

Dollar store, here we COME!

Better Together

I am so excited to share with you the project I have been working on for Family and Childrens' Services. It was a capital campaign called Better Together, and I got the wonderful job of branding it in its entirety - from logo to print pieces.

This brochure can also be found here, as an online .pdf

Unfortunately, life's been busy so I haven't had a chance to photograph these pieces for you and the computer mock-ups just don't do it justice, but I'd like to share with you anyway!

It's called Better Together, because it's based on the concept that families operate when they can learn together. They want to build a family center, so instead of splitting up families, they can enable and encourage everyone to work together as a team, with classrooms and courses - to give families tools to stay together and create healthy environments. It's pretty awesome. Click here for more details about it!

If you're looking to make a donation, this is such an excellent cause, and such a wonderful team. I can't wait to see the completed building. It was such a pleasure to work on something that is so wonderful.

I don't know how to do 'jumps' on a blog yet, so I'm sorry to drive you bonkers as you wait for these to load, but here are a couple more pieces:

Signing off!

Last Fling

My lovely friend, Di, is getting married - as one of my other 'daily' design challenges shows. So, I've decided to throw her the bachelorette party, which I am super pumped about!

So, today, I created this - in order to come up with the theme and colours of the party - based on the birch theme that she and her fiance will be using for their wedding.

Love you, Di! This is sure to be a blast!

Smize!

Oh man, am I a lucky girl or what? My brother and my Nana (awesome, awesome lady) decided that for my birthday, a week ago, they would get me a Wacom Tablet!!!!!. I have to be honest. I thought I would pick it up and voila, I'd be a regular Monet in no time, but it's quite a bit more difficult to adjust to than I had thought, which made things very intimidating, and ended up with me letting it sit on my desk this week, for fear of failure!

I like to be able to pick things up quickly, this was not going to happen overnight!

So today I figured I'd try that graffiti application on facebook with it, and voila:

I've got a ways to go, but I'm starting to get more of a feel for it. This could quickly become an obsession.

In other news, I am also now the proud owner of a Schwinn Veracruz:

TheGuy decided to spoil me. I'm tricking it out, so imagine it with a wicker basket and some pink streamers - more to go, but that'll come! So I've been ripping around town, and I can't even tell you how much FUN I've been having with it! What a summer it's been so far - keeping me away from my own design challenge, but I'm getting fresh air and sunlight, and lots of laughs, so I think it's okay!

Stay tuned - hopefully I will have more wacom delights to share with you soon!

I wish I invented this

How freaking cool is this?

I'm going camping this weekend and stumbled across this little beaut. How COOL is this? So small, it can be towed by a small car - can hold up to 800 lbs of stuff.. everything folds and packs away making this a terrific trailer for towing ATVs and stuff like that - also, bike racks can be mounted on top. And there's room for a King and a half sized bed in there  - mattresses can fold down, or two singles - plus they're flip to be a table! What a sweet little trailer for a couple of camping enthusiasts! I love the look and design, and I love how spacious it is inside!

But.. sigh, money doesn't grow on trees, and so, this won't belong to me any time in the near future. But still, so cool. Y'know?

Wanna read more? Click here and you'll see pics of it, too!

Braceface

I always thought it would be cool to come up with a line of cards that are for the not-so-everyday occasions. I figured it would be ten thousand years before it was possible, but with this zazzle business, I can get to work on it right now!

Braceface by pattiatti
Browse all other greeting cards available at zazzle

So, there's the first - a congratulatory card for new bracefaces - whether it's from a family member or from a dentist, I think it'd be pretty handy. More stuff is floating around this head of mine, so we'll see what the outcome of that is.


In other news, it is hotter than blazes here today - I've just been laying low, sipping lots of water, trying not to generate any body heat. Ah, summer. All I need is a pool, and life would be perfect!