Logo Design

New Web Site: Launching in December

Certain aspects of this design will be changing, but for the most part, here it is, and it's a huge improvement over the current site.

Holiday Graphics

This is one of my favorite things about my job: getting to make cute stuff like this for the holidays!

Great Art

By Mary Budan

Currently In Production

Web site for my favorite band:

I Moo'd Again!

I'm trying to figure out an inexpensive and versatile way to create a printed portfolio of the logo designs I have done. I had Moo mini cards printed, but I think they may be too small. I'll check the quality, and if it's good, I'll get greeting cards printed (one logo per card) and then cut them so they're non-opening; just plain cards with a centered logo, that I can place into a simple brag book or small photo album.

Adorable Idea

Slider moving cards from Night Owl Paper Goods

New Print Ad

Save the Queen!

I admit it -- I'm becoming somewhat of a boutique shopping freak. It's a shame my budget doesn't match my taste.

Here's the beautiful Save The Queen dress I bought earlier this summer:

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Shipped!

My Laptop Lunch bento box shipped yesterday!

Business Accessories

I just bought this killer Janine King bag at Etsy:
...and this great bento box kit from Laptop Lunches:
I'm going to be one happy working girl!

Non-Tech Savvy

I took the coolest picture with my phone the other day -- sunlight beaming in big brush stroke-like blocks, graphiti-style, against a wall of corrugated steel.

Bud damn it if I can't figure out how to get the image off my phone!

I Just Moo'ed!

Sticker book, baby... arriving in approximately 10 business days.

I can't wait!

Trend That I Wish Would Die #2

Skinny jeans. Specifically, skinny black jeans. I don't care if they're from the Gap and modeled by dead movie stars, dressing like Jerry Seinfield is not attractive.

This Weekend's (hopefully) Ideas...

If everything goes according to plan, I'm going Goodwill Hunting for flatware. My idea is to create a set by collecting different white porcelain plates. My only guide will be to match the whites, and shoot for a full set (dinner, salad, dessert, bowls).Get the idea? In the words of Stacy from What Not To Wear, "They don't match; they GO."

I'll probably not find this amazing plate at the Goodwill, but I may have to splurge and purchase it. You know I love skulls:

(From Studio Job.)

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Idea number two comes from my favorite home store, Z Gallerie. These kick-ass faux-twig table runners are on sale for $10 each. I'm buying five and using them as wallpaper.

Three from Anne Taintor

It's not a coincidence that they're redheads.

Trend That I Wish Would Die #1

Ballet flats.
Not cute. Not cute at all.

Goodwill Hunting

I love my local Goodwill. They have the most amazing selection of stuff. Sometimes I just go, and browse, and get ideas and fill my head with color, pattern, shape and line.

Saturday, I went looking for a vase and found the perfect one (99 cents):
I would love to volunteer at Goodwill as a display artist. Once when I was there, I was on a picture frame kick, and as I combed through their ample supply of frames, I made "collections" and put them in sections. My favorite were the weathered white frames, so that's where I put my focus. I didn't have the money to buy the collection that day, so I left it. Two days later, the entire collection was gone.

Which brings me to my latest-greatest idea. I'm going to ditch my red dinnerware and instead create a dinnerwear collection from mismatched yet coordinating white relief-embellished porcelain. I think it'll have character. And it'll be really fun hunting for them.

Found: Wall Art

I take the dog for a walk, and end up fetching my own stick, so to speak.
Ever since I painted this particular wall bright chartreuce, I wanted a way to draw more attention to it. I think this killer branch did the trick.

Four

D-ville

(Taunting:) I-i got a me-dal, I-i got a me-dal!

Finally! After five years of racing the Downieville Classic, trying desperately to break 3 hours, I did it. I knocked 22 minutes off my fastest time, for a commanding 2:44, second place in Sport Senior Women. The chick who beat me was like 19 years old, too. She's only gonna get older and slower as the years go on, while I -- a late bloomer -- am barely hittin my prime.

The Downieville Classic is like a roller-coaster. You work up the courage to do it, axiety yourself silly at the starting line, can't believe you're actually doing it while you're actually doing it, and then the second it's over, you can't wait to do it again. Here's to next year!

The Ol' Disappearing Coin Trick

Risk

When I leap into the unknown, usually the fear of failure isn't so overwhelmingly great. If I fail, at least I tried, and at least I will have learned something. What scares me more is if I succeed -- because then I have something to lose. I'm holding this valuable piece of life that I don't want to let go, and the risk doubles.

I'm in double risk right now. I need to decide whether to let it go, or to put down my purse, hike up my skirt, and hold on tight.

Queen of Kismet Dance

My sister is a dance and music professional and afficiado. The above photos are from a couple of performances. She rocks.

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Notes from Canadia

After a rousing couple of days in Canada's capital city, I'm back and ready to rumble. Check out this fantastic pattern on a tavern wall:

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Porn Star

I just spent the most amazing night in the hot tub.

Oh. My. God.

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New Print Work

"It's a Jump... to conclusions mat!"

The classic movie Office Space was on the other day, and noticed something I hadn't really paid attention to before: Peter's apartment. This might be because I recently joined the ranks of single apartment-dwellers who work in the IT industry. Anyway, the layered decor on top of apartment "neutrals" was hilarious and nauseating at the same time.

Which brings me to the Jump To Conclusions Mat. You know, I have quite a few brilliant money-making ideas of my own: Der Puzzlemacher, the FridgeFrame, the riveting family fun board game Iconoclash... Sure, I think they're brilliant, but to everyone else, are they just more Jump To Conclusions Mats?

Sometimes Art Just Happens

Three crayons and a NASCAR race

My living room wall was looking a bit bare, so I drove down to the local art supply store for some oil pastels. The store owner took me out back to show me "Birdie" and her friends, an unkindness of cautious ravens that he feeds every morning above the trout-filled creek.

Pastels in hand, I comandeered a pattern from a B+N wall panel and went to town.


One NASCAR Busch Series race later (congratulations Carl Edwards!) I had a wall that was no longer soul-sucking white-ish.

My First: Post

I got a great idea for a line of children's books along the "My First" lines. They'd be starkly Libertarian and unflinchingly propagandic, yet funny, in a "it's funny 'cuz it's true" kind of way.

Some samples:

• My First Look at the United States Treaty with Tripoli
• My First Protest: Why it's a good thing Che Guevara's dead
• My First Campaign Against Socialism
• My First Anti-Faith-Based Initiative Book

and from my brother, always the wit:

• My First Dividend: Mommy why is corporate income taxed twice as income and then a third time as a distribution?

I think there really could be a market for these... as soon as I have kids, that is.

Welcome to Calico Whitney.