Book Review: Essentials for Life

True enjoyment in life is found by focusing on the essentials.

A growing number of people recognize their need for a reliable guide for their life's journey. Essentials for Life fills that need by helping readers get back to the basics of what matters most with a fresh perspective on four core essentials of the Christian life:

Essentials for Life offers fifty daily or weekly readings that each include a key life-guide principle, scripture and quotes, meditation, an interesting fact, and a unique application suggestion. Each discussion offers hope and a sense of peace and well-being by focusing on life with an eternal perspective.

The content offers spiritual truth while the interior graphic design, which includes sidebars and visuals, enhances the readability and the impact of each core essential. (description from BookSneeze.com)

In Essentials for Life, the author has explained 50 most important essentials of life (daily devotionals kinda format). It was amazing to read all of them and apply them to my daily life. Every "essential" has a unique meaning and each include a key life-guide principle, quotes and an interesting fact. This book has become a staple in my library and will continue to reread it when I need a pick me up! I recommend this book to every person that would like to better their life.

***I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program.***

Fun & EASY Teachers Gift Idea!

So it's that time a year again when you think... "what am I going to get for the teacher that has been so wonderful to my daughter all year?"

Well we came up with an idea that I think is useful and gets your child involved.... not to mention the fact that we did two of them and it cost less than $10!

The only things we bought were the plants and the pots. I created a tag that says "Thank you for helping me me grow". Than glued it onto scrapbook paper (we had some, you could just use color paper or whatever you have around or print something) than glued a skewer between two pieces of paper.

My daughter painted the posts with acrylic paint and had a GREAT time doing it.

Put the plant in and you are DONE!

Creativity Boot Camp!

Need a little creativity kick in the butt? This looks like it will help you {me} out!

Creativity Boot Camp is a two week intensive e-course designed to take your creativity to the next level. The course will consist of daily creative conditioning exercises to shift your life patterns allowing for a full embracing of your creative selves leading to higher levels of creativity. And it is FREE!

{CLICK HERE} for more info...

FREE Build Your Own WordPress Site Guide & Website Magazine

Build Your Own WordPress Site Guide

I am super excited about this one... I am DYING to learn how to customize and build my own Wordpress Templates. {CLICK HERE} To Receive Your Complimentary Guide NOW!

Free subscription to Website Magazine - A free magazine offering practical advice and helpful tools from industry experts to help any website achieve Internet success. (US)
Click Here

Terry White's Top 5 Favorite Features of Adobe Illustrator CS5

WOW!!! The new Adobe Illustrator CS5 looks AMAZING!!! I want to PLAY!!!!

This is Terry White's {worldwide design evangelist} favorite top 5 new Illustrator CS5 features. Make sure you visit Terry White's site {HERE} and he has an amazing blog {HERE} ENJOY!

Being a Tourist in Your Home Town

We had a great week {break} in my home town. It was the first time that my daughter was old enough to appreciate and enjoy the local attractions. It was so much fun walking around Newport, Rhode Island. We hit Cliff Walk behind the Breakers {aka: the castle as my daughter calls it}. Makes me wish that I made an effort to visit at least once a month when I lived there for 25 years.

Silly Disguise Kit Free Download

So I am reading my favorite blogs this morning and came across a silly April Fool's FREE printable. It is from the Project Girl. ENJOY!

What do you do if you suffer for creative block?

So for the last couple of days I have been having stuck with no creative ideas. So what to do... well I search the internet. Yesterday I found a great site to stir the inspiration.... Creattica. Creattica is a gallery of great design and inspirational imagery. Anyone can submit their work for consideration and voting on items is open to one and all. The best work is accepted and featured in the gallery which receives thousands of visitors every day.

They have work separated into categories, web design, logos, ads, etc....

So if you ever need to get your creative juices flowing make Creattica one of the places you start looking for inspiration.

Bivens Arm park in Gainesville

I am so fortunate to have the City of Gainesville Nature Operations Division as one of my clients. They are a delight to work with and I LOVE the photography that they give me to use. The flowers, trees and animals... I forget that Gainesville has some really amazing natural areas to visits.

I just finished up a sign for Bivens Arm park in Gainesville. The size is... 59" x 34". After working on it on my little computer screen I am super excited to see it printed and installed in their sign. I also cannot wait to visit another place in Gainesville I never knew about.

Friday Inspirations...

Ok... I admit to being a font addict. I think every designer is. I can get lost in the search for the "perfect" font for a project.

This photo is taken from illustrator Jessica Hische site {HERE}

You can visit her site {HERE} for her Daily Drop Cap project {an illustrative initial cap every day}

ENJOY!

Free Pantry List Printable....

Do you go to cook something and realizes... I do not have "whatever". Well I created a FREE printable so to fix this problem! It is a list of pantry items {the "Staples"}. So when you run out of a spice, baking soda, etc... check it off on the list and when you go shopping you can add it to the list.

{CLICK HERE} to download yours... Please leave a comment and let me know if you like it or if you have any suggestions!

***Check back, I plan on offering printables as I do them.

New Birthday Line!

I have added another line to my Etsy Shop... {CLICK HERE}. "The Ages" is fully customizable: colors, picture and wording.

My Etsy Launch!

I am excited to announce the opening of my Etsy Store {CLICK HERE}. My idea at the moment is to offer {design} custom party invitations, cards, party items, etc... It is a bit of a process so please stay tuned for new items arriving daily.

So far I have two "party packs" available. The princess & monkey lines. And MORE to come!



For everyone that has never heard of Etsy here's what it is about... Etsy is an online community where people that make homemade goods can open an online store. It is kinda like Ebay but not... there is no bidding on products. There are some AMAZING products on Etsy so if you have never been there, you NEED to check it out!

Feedback is ALWAYS welcome! Let me know what you think!

Come Out for a GREAT Cause!

If you live in the Gainesville area come on over to Miracles Maternity Boutique in the Thornbrook Village this Saturday from 10 am to 3pm. Giggle Magazine will be hosting a bake sale to support our March of Dimes walk. There will be tons of yummy goodies, face painting and a silent auction to support this great cause.

If you can not make it and would like to contribute. {CLICK HERE} any donations would be GREATLY appreciated!

Welcome to my Blog!

I am super excited to FINALLY have my website up and running.

about me

I moved to Florida 7 years ago from Rhode Island and was fortunate to start my own graphic design company shortly after that. I have ALWAYS incorporated design in my other jobs. Jumping at every chance I could to design an ad or a poster or a postcard, etc... I NEVER thought the day would come that I would be able to do this full time. And certainly didn't think I could work for myself.

To say the least I really am doing my dream job and loving every moment! I have an amazing partner in crime... {just kidding} we work amazingly well together, ying and yang like. And without his support I never would have been able to start my own business full time from the start. We have a "princess" named Mimi who is amazing. And I find she is the subject to many of my Photoshop experimenting!

about my business

My main focus for the past 7 years has been corporate design. I still plan to keep my clients {and hopefully gain a few more!} I am excited to take my business in a new direction. So make sure you check back often to see what the "skinny" is because I have lots of plans in the works and I am so excited to get them out there!

****DISCLAIMER.... just so everyone knows I am a designer, not a writer! But I just had to have a blog to share my latest creations with the world.