If you're feeling so inclined... Vote for my design!

Invitation design is so much fun to do. This last week I entered a birthday invitation into one of Minted's design challenges. This is the first time I've ever entered a Minted design challenge and I'm excited to see how it goes. Here is my entry:

The theme was "Oh Happy Day! Kid's Birthday Party Invitation Challenge. We were tasked with creating birthday invites especially for younger children. It was a fun challenge. 

They decided what to sell on minted based on the votes the designs receive... so

I would love it if you would follow the link below and vote for my design. Voting is open from today until Saturday March 29th. Thanks!

minted.com

A New Year and New Resolutions.

So it's a new year! (I know I'm a little late and January is truly almost over...) but Happy 2014! This year is going to be awesome I just know it. I have a lot of big goals & some crazy plans to achieve them. 

I love the beginning of the new year. I love setting goals and working towards them. I love writing them down and being able to look back and see what has been achieved. A few of my goals for this year are:

1. Develop my art portfolio, get my art out & into the world and find a market and a niche/job that fits what I want to do. (even if that means doing/starting my own thing.) Make more patterns, improve! I want to learn all of the in & outs of Illustrator, Photoshop & Indesign. 

2. Exercise at least 5 days a week. Scott & I are working on this together. It's going quite well. We bought passes to the Provo Rec. Center and we wake up at 5:30 every morning to work out. It's been good and as much as I really don't like waking up that early, it's been really nice to work out and feel healthier. 

3. Take lots of pretty pictures with our new camera! Scott and I spoiled ourselves, and used the rest of our wedding Target gift card money to buy a nice Nikon SLR Camera... and I love it. Here are some pictures from a Sunday adventure a few weeks ago:

It was a beautiful sunday afternoon, and oh how I love the light and how it just makes everything glow.

4. Learn lots of good things at my new job. I started a new job at the beginning of December at American Crafts. I work there as a designer on their marketing team. We do everything from catalogs to web, and packaging design. Some of it's really boring... (haha) but overall it's been good and I'm learning how to be better designer.

5. Travel to Europe- this has been on my to do/wish list for forever, and we've finally figured out a way to make it happen! Saving! We've been saving for the past year and we've made our goal. We are thinking we will probably go for a couple of weeks once the semester ends for Scott... so maybe May? I'm SO very excited for this adventure, and if you have any tips for traveling in Europe let me know!

6. Run another half marathon... and maybe a full if we put in the time to train. Which one? That I also need to decide. I'm excited for it to be decently warm in the mornings again so that Scott & I can run outside in the mornings. Spring needs to come faster.

7. Read & study all of the standard works- Book of Mormon, D&C, Old Testament, New Testament & Pearl of Great Price. Also read nightly from the Book of Mormon with my cute husband. We've recently started doing this, and it's amazing how quickly doing something that simple can invite the spirit. I love it. 

8. Post on my blog more... more art and maybe some crafts! Maybe I will also learn some basic coding for website design if I'm feeling really ambitious. 

I love making goals, and I hope to achieve all of these things and more this coming year. It's going to be great! :) I'll keep you updated along the way as to how everything is going.

Sunday Quote

Yesterday I had the opportunity to help my mom make this cute handout for her Young Women's lesson. This quote is from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. He said, "The most effective way to preach the gospel is through example. If we live according to our beliefs, people will notice. If the countenance of Jesus Christ shines in our lives, if we are joyful and at peace with the world, people will want to know why. One of the greatest sermons ever pronounced on missionary work is this simple thought attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” Opportunities to do so are all around us. 

I really love this thought. I want to live my life as a witness of Christ and share my testimony through my actions and words. I try to live righteously every day, and I know that I am blessed for doing so. 

Day 16 - Confetti Dots!

Here's day 16. This patterns colors match day 15. I like making companion patterns- maybe one could go on the front & one could go on the back of "my paper."

Day 15 - Flower Patch

Here is day 15 Pattern... about a week & a half late. I started a new full time job this last week at American Craft! It's so exciting and my life is about 10x busier, but that's alright. :) Im happy. I'm still going to finish out my 30 days of patterns and make up the ones I've missed. So here is the first make up.

With all the snow in Utah, i'm wishing for warmer weather and flowers...

Day 14- Just some stripes.

Just a few stripes to go along with the triangles. :) Not too exciting, but I worked all day today and made dinner... isn't that good enough?

Day 13! Just a few little triangles

Day 13- Inspired by quilts maybe? and "fallish colors"? :) It didn't quite line up along the bottom, I'll post a fix on it after I figure out how to make it line up.