My New Etsy Shop!

Well, I finally did it. Yesterday, I finished up my banner design, and today I took pictures of the products I have so far. I’m pretty excited about it, but nervous at the same time. I always get nervous when I show my work to the public.

I’ve been wanting to sell my craft items for years. I figured it would be a nice little side job. For now, though, since I’m still not all that fast at sewing, the products I sell aren’t going to make me much money. For now, I’m doing it because I really enjoy it. I love sewing and creating products just as much as designing, if not more. I guess it’s just another way for me to artistically express myself! 

>>Please visit my shop: Neutral Ocean Design :)

Home-made Curtains & Some Design Work

Last night I made the window curtain; it took me 3.5 hours hehe I don't think it's that bad considering I've never made curtains before! Well, I am very proud with how they turned out. Today I bought a curtain rod and installed the window treatment at the house. It took me a half hour to finish everything, including hanging up his matching shower curtain. I wish I would have taken a picture straight on instead of at an angle, but oh well!

Tubbs Pro Wallpapering Design Work
Over the weekend I did a lot of organic SEO and gave her some options for PPC campaigns. She hasn't answered me back yet. Today I designed a comment card for her to give to her customers to fill out. I recommended she have them printed by Overnight Prints. They are my favorite printing company; they're affordable and deliver quality work. I think the comment card would be a nice touch for her company blog, because all she'll have to do is scan them into her computer and upload them.

On a different note, I have a game tonight and am not really looking forward to it. Last weeks game was AWEFUL.. We had an awesome sub goalie but none of our good offensive players were there and we were playing the best team in the league. We were in our zone the ENTIRE game. Fortunately, we were able to have two lines of D or I would have died lol. We were already dying by the end of the first period haha. The forwards kept complaining because they only had one sub but I was like, "You do realize, this entire game has been in Our zone."... Anyways, now I'm done venting about that haha. That's not even the reason I don't feel like going tonight :D I'm just being lazy. In all actuality, I don't really care about winning or losing, but when your team sucks THAT bad it's not even fun anymore :( 

The Journey Has Only Just Begun...

 I decided that I really need to focus on expanding my knowledge and skills of design, so I'm starting with one of the programs that I learned in school - InDesign. I have Sandee Cohen's book, Visual Quickstart Guide: InDesign CS3,  and I really want to just go through the whole thing and learn everything about InDesign. I feel like my classes just skimmed the surface.

Actually, I feel like every single class I took just skimmed the surface, that's why I'm determined to start studying on my own now (which I should have been doing all along but I'm a slacker). I feel like I don't know all my programs like the back of my hand like I should. I've been using them since high school so to not know everything about them by now is just...sad.

So anyways, my InDesign book has 21 chapters. If I do a chapter a day that's only 21 days to go through the whole thing! Now, the problem right now is time and energy. By the time I get home from work (hanging/stripping wallpaper and/or painting all day) I am just physically and mentally drained. I mean, it's not like I'm just sitting in an office all day or something. We do hard work and we don't take breaks! Soon, though, we're going to be off since my mom is having surgery on her knee. And depending on how long it takes her to recover, we could be out of work for a good while. So this is my goal that I'm setting right now: Go through the entire InDesign book in 21 days, starting the day of my mom's surgery.

Projects In the Making


Ok, so I've come up with a couple different design ideas for the experience and to add to my portfolio:

• Design a sushi restaurant menu, I was thinking of naming it "Crane Style Sushi" lol. 
• Design an entire magazine (including "ads" for different businesses, just for the experience). I've been wanting to do this for a long time, I just wasn't sure what to do it on. So I decided to choose something that I'm passionate about, because this is a HUGE undertaking so I figured why not make it fun and something I would be motivated to do. So I chose music, each article featuring a band of my choice in an art style that reflects the music (I'm going to design the article while listening to the band for inspiration). 

The first one won't take that long, but that second one is pretty huge. Ugh I also really need to design my business cards...I keep forgetting about that.

Today's Shout-outs:

Dr. Prillaman, the surgeon who yanked out my wisdom teeth, for doing an awesome job. I highly recommend him: Paul E. Prillaman DDS: Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

Michelle Phan, professional make-up artist & designer, for posting all those amazing how-to's & DIYs! Check it out: Her Old Blog, New Website, & YouTube Channel.

Welcome to My Blog!

Thanks for visiting.

Some life updates:

Attended NekoCon over the weekend. It was my first con, and I have to say it was everything I expected- a big, fun, nerdy time! I dressed up as Shizune and then Dungeon Hero X. I wish I could have gone to more panels, though. Aand I also would have liked to go to the dances, but I who I went with kind of determined that.

Renovating the bathroom. Finished sanding and started priming today. We bought a new medicine cabinet, faucet, bowl, and cabinet. It's going to look really nice. The paint I'm using is called "Heavenly Waters" XD I guess that's perfect for the bathroom!

Back to reading my "design basics index" book again. Trying to work on my portfolio and stuff like that.. I also want to add some more to my deviant page. It's kind of lacking...