Archive for October, 2010fridayFriday, October 29th, 2010Congratulations to Mickee in Amercian Canyon, CA. You have a free seat in Anna Aspnes’ online class! Email anna_aspnes@yahoo.com and she’ll hook you up. ……………………. Hope everyone enjoys a lovely or productive or relaxing or exciting or playful weekend … whatever you’re hoping it will be. For Halloween, I’m thinking about being a two-headed something with David, based on this inspiration by Claire.
graphic design contestThursday, October 28th, 2010I know some of you are already thinking about your holiday cards. And if you weren’t already, you are now. ; ) If you were around here a year ago, you might remember that we offered FREE digital templates here on beckyhiggins.com. Remember these?
I’d like to keep the tradition alive and offer you free digital holiday card templates again. All you have to do is digitally drop in a favorite picture and that’s it! Hooray for simplifying some things in our life, right? So here’s the twist: I’m opening this up to YOU. If you are a graphic designer, or even if you have enough experience with Photoshop to know what you’re doing, I’d love for you to come up with one of our newly offered designs! If your card design is chosen, you’ll win: 1. Project Life 2. Spotlight on my blog 3. $100. That comes in handy this time of year, no? Are you up for the challenge? Do you know someone with design skills that would be interested? (Direct them here.) This contest is open to anyone and everyone, no matter your industry or experience. I just want to see your best holiday card design. The winning 3-5 designs will be the digital holiday card templates that are offered on beckyhiggins.com this year. They’ll be available as free downloads for everyone to use as they wish. ……………. { the nitty-gritty } 1. All artwork must be original art. You can’t use any paper or embellishments from digital kits. 2. Each design must be submitted as a 5×7 and 4×6. {Added note: Thanks to reader “Lori” for also adding that Costco will print custom JPGs in their special 6″ x 7.5″ greeting card prints. Sooo … please submit in that size as well!) 3. The orientation can be either horizontal or vertical. 4. Include the year (2010) somewhere in the design and perhaps a title or caption that is holiday-related. 5. Files must be saved as 300 dpi png files. 6. You must leave a blank space where the photo is to be placed. The photo should be prominent in the design. 7. As for style, well … that’s up to you. You’re the designer. But since I will be personally choosing the winning designs, I’ll give you a tip on what will likely stand out to me: Clean and uncluttered. 8. The deadline for submissions is November 6th; that’s next Saturday. 9. Email submissions to submissions@beckyhiggins.com 10. No more than two designs per person. …………….. All that said, I seriously can’t wait to see what you come up with! Good luck! Added note: I have no rules about who you are and if we know each other. This is open to everyone. So whether you happen to be a personal friend or if you’ve never even heard of me before today … you have equal chances. I just want the coolest cards to share with my readers and my bias is only about the design itself. : ) Another added note regarding fonts: Please be mindful of copyrights. Your safest bet is to use generic fonts like the Arials, Helveticas, Geogias, etc. Be sure to save your layered files for any slight changes you may be asked to make. san franciscoWednesday, October 27th, 2010David and I just spent a few days in the San Francisco area. A bit dreary and rainy for part of the time (matched how I felt … been under the weather). But there was also some really lovely sunshine. All of it together felt very … Fall. I looove Fall.
Speaking of an airplane view, this was my reading material for the flight there. If you missed it before I’ll say it again, I really like Seeing the Everyday magazine. Like — so, so much. I appreciate how it focuses on relationships and how little moments mean so much and how it uplifts the reader to be a better contributor to a happy, rich family life.
Anyway … back to San Francisco.
If you happen to be in the area, and if you happen to like Indian cuisine … we recommend Little Delhi on Eddy St. So delicious! And easily the best naan we’ve ever had. Ever.
We rented a tandem bike and ventured off for a couple hours. I had to get over the feeling of not being in control of the bike (not a natural feeling). Once I fully trusted David, who was in front and really controlled the steering and pedaling … it was actually a lot of fun.
We biked on the Golden Gate bridge and enjoyed incredible views and beautiful weather.
Being on the back of the bike also meant I could easily juggle the point & shoot camera with one hand. (No dSLR for this trip.) And that resulted in a self portrait. On the back of a tandem bike. Yeeee-haw! I’m such a dork.
giveaways & winnersTuesday, October 26th, 2010I just got home from a little place you might recognize as San Francisco. More on that tomorrow.
But first — Today it’s down to business. A little housekeeping. (And fighting a nasty head cold.) We have some winners to announce from the past couple of giveaways! …………….. Winners of Rebecca Cooper’s photography eBook: FIVE winners, actually! Very cool. PS – If you haven’t stopped by Rebecca’s blog, it’s super delightful. Plus she just did a guest post over at eighteen25 with Halloween picture-taking tips. Perfect timing. 1. Anneleen in Zwevezele, Belgium 2. Pam in NW Arkansas 3. Melinda in Fessenden, ND 4. Kate in Singapore (but posted from Australia) 5. Jackie in Raymond, AB Canada Winners, email cooper.rr@gmail.com. …………….. Winner of a ticket to attend the Creative Estates conference in April: Heidi Ferguson who “sews and quilts”. Congratulations, Heidi! We’ll see you in April. Send an email to creativeestatesconf@gmail.com. Be sure to check out the agenda, which is now posted. …………….. Heck. Let’s do another giveaway today! Anna Aspnes is re-running a popular class, AlbumMagic, at ReneePearson.com next month (November 8 – 28) and wants to give away a seat to one of my readers. The class teaches the process of putting together a cohesive album. You can read the full details about the class here.
Is this up your alley? You know the drill. Leave your name and a brief comment and someone’s going to get a free seat in Anna’s virtual class. back from vacationFriday, October 22nd, 2010
Our family is just back from a little getaway to Disneyland. Met up with some of our very favorite people there and had so much fun. It was cool and overcast the whole time (my favorite weather) and rained quite a bit on one of the days. In fact, it’s hard to tell but we are soaked from the knees down in this picture. But the rain — We didn’t mind at all. Shorter lines, not crowded, going on rides over & over … what’s to complain about? Answering questions I know are coming: 1. That bag I’m wearing is a Marimekko bag that my sweet mom sent to me from Finland for my birthday. (My birthday was this week.) I did a search on Amazon to see if I could find the same one and … this is it. Different fabric but still cute. I seriously loved wearing this bag around the parks. Light weight, simple, roomy. Just right. Thanks Mom. 2. I’m 34. I feel 34. Not older or younger. I love 34. I embrace 34. 3. Favorite Disneyland ride? Always a tie for me: Soarin’ over California and California Screamin’. 4. No, I wasn’t blogging on vacation. When I’m going to be out of town or taking a break, I write posts and schedule them to go live while I’m away so you still have new content when you stop by. (Thanks for stopping by.) 5. Yes, I am due to announce some winners from our last couple of giveaways here on the blog. Look for such announcements on Monday. You know how it is when you’re back from being gone. So much to do. 6. Yes, that’s a hole in Claire’s leggings. The girl knows how to work the leggings. They’re officially retired now. 7. Laundry is calling my name. You weren’t going to ask that but … I gotta go. Dear Santa.Wednesday, October 20th, 2010I have nothing to add to this. I am busy trying to pull myself out of a mushy puddle on the floor.
photography book giveawayTuesday, October 19th, 2010The very talented Rebecca Cooper, professional photographer and mom to some seriously gorgeous children … has written an eBook on taking better photos. And don’t we ALL want to take better photos? You’ll love the visual inspiration and as promised — the tips are simple and solid.
To learn more about this book, or to purchase it (at just $5.99, this is a steal) go here. For a chance to get a FREE copy of this, leave your name and where you call home. We’ll randomly select 2 winners. porter’s saleMonday, October 18th, 2010Speaking of creativity + entrepreneurship (yesterday’s post) … Porter recently got an idea of how he could earn some extra money. He woke up early, got out his paper and markers, and nearly finished his sign before anyone else was even awake that day. You know that feeling when you get an idea and you’re so excited about it you just run like the wind with the idea? That was Porter. He starting pulling little toys out of the play room and labeled them. Fifty cents for this. Ten cents for this. Everything under a dollar.
I was fully supportive. Heck yes. Porter is always so charitable and giving and this is his first real entrepreneurial endeavor. The marketing? He made a list of all the families he wanted me to notify about “the sale”. I happily sent the email. I suggested he sell some original handmade coloring books in addition to the toys. He created all the art. I took care of scanning & printing. He collated. I stapled. It was beautiful team work. (Let’s just say the apple didn’t fall far from the tree here.)
I also suggested that he sell homemade treats. Just trying to make his shop even more marketable. Claire got involved and helped me make Chex Muddy Buddies and Pretzel Hugs. Porter wrote the treat names. I scanned, printed, cut and stapled the bag labels. We all participated in snacking on the scraps. : )
We set up shop on this past Monday since there was no school (thank you, Mr. Columbus, for giving us an excuse to have a day off). The shop was B-U-S-Y. So many supportive friends & neighbors came.
It was so busy, in fact, that we blew right through all the snacks and decided to take pre-orders … 9 more packages of Chex Muddy Buddies which we delivered later in the day. (I had to explain the concept of pre-orders to Porter.)
…………………… [ My TOP TEN notes-to-self from this experience ] 10. Porter learned how to take a little idea and carry it out in a big way. Yay for that. 9. The boost in self-confidence is priceless. Porter was beaming about how many friends came to his “Sale”. 8. Wear tennis shoes for an outdoor sale because chasing after Crew down the street 7 times in flip flops isn’t the best idea ever. 7. Sell water bottles. 6. Make more treats. Have samples available for those who want to taste-test. 5. Encourage Porter to start working on his next coloring book. 4. I love where we live. 3. I love shade. 2. Being a mom is the best ever. 1. Taking the time (it was a chunk of time) to guide Porter through this process was totally worth it. We are so doing this again. engaged.Friday, October 15th, 2010Here’s to two people realizing they are absolutely, positively supposed to be together for the long haul. Here’s to love. Here’s to laying flat on my belly in the middle of a warm street to get some pictures because I love these people.
Congratulations, Jason & Kyra. I love you guys and am so excited for this new journey you’re headed into … together. a conference for creativesThursday, October 14th, 2010Today I’m announcing the winner of the Whippy Cake adorableness … and … doing another giveaway! Because it’s fun. So first … congratulations to Leslie Alexander in Monticello, IL! Shoot an email to wendy@whippycake.com and she’ll hook you up. You will love adorning your head with some Whippy Cake. ……………….. Last month I did a post (“Creative Ambition”) about those who have creative ideas and entrepreneurial spirits. One person I mentioned is SheyB, the camera strap girl. She recently came up with the idea of bringing creative entrepreneurs to one place for a big conference. This idea is becoming a reality now and registration for Creative Estates is open. If you’re interested in reading a little about Shey’s inspiration, check out this blog post she wrote – “A Conference Dream Becomes a Reality”.
What is Creative Estates? Anyone with a creative mind would enjoy this conference. Scrapbookers, photographers, sewers, knitters/crocheters, painters, general crafters, blog designers, jewelry artists, writers … anyone with a creative side that loves to do something with it. Those who are in the business of selling stuff they make or offering services to others. Or those who are thinking about embarking on a journey such as that. It will be like one big block party with crafters of every kind. Held in April 2011 in beautiful Arizona — lucky for me, that’s my own backyard. There will be speakers and classes and workshops and yes — a Handmade Market, which will feature many amazing handmade shops. I am sooo looking forward to that. I will be there. I have accepted the invitation to speak at Creative Estates and look forward to meeting some of you there. Which brings me to my next point: YOU. You may be feeling that you need to be at Creative Estates. Many of my readers fit in this category and so I imagine many of you would love the opportunity to come & learn & be inspired & gain insight from other creatives. Be sure to visit the official Creative Estates blog for all the conference scoop. Shey is giving away a ticket to Creative Estates to one of my readers! The ticket includes admission to the conference, 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, a dinner/party, and Creative Workshops. Leave a comment with your name … and … mention your business or craft or area of interest. Link to your site or blog (if you want) if you have one for your business. Not because it has anything to do with being chosen (that will be totally random), but because I’d like to get to know you a little better. I’d love to know what you’re up to. Or what you’d like to be up to. ; )
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