2010 in My Rearview Mirror

It's been such an amazing year! My daughter came into the world, my son turned three, my brother graduated from law school, my husband got a new job that he'll be starting before long... and my shop has done me proud.

I don't know about you, but the last few days of the year always make me introspective. What went right this year? What didn't? What do I need to work on in the coming twelve months? What do I want to improve on?

I know my parenting skills need work. I lose my patience too often, even my temper sometimes, and I need to get better at maintaining my cool. I also need to take more time for Dano -- he's had a rough ten months, having to share his world with a noisy little stranger. I try to spend Mercy's morning nap time with him, doing whatever he wants, but lately I've been squeezing laundry or dishes or checking email into that time slot, which is not at all fair to him. Having my Mom here the last week and a half illustrated very clearly to me how much he's missing having lots of attention -- he soaked up her time with him like a happy sponge. Sure, all kids want more attention than they get, but I feel like I've been capitalizing on his ability to amuse himself too much lately. So no more multitasking during Mercy's naps unless it's truly unavoidable.

Creatively, I've had an awesome run. I've nearly completed my fifth novel -- one of my aims for January is to finish the first draft so I can let it sit for a few months, then see if I think a rewrite would make it viable, publishable material. Who knows -- by the end of 2011, I may be on my way to getting a novel published!

As for my more crafty creativity, I've done well there too. I've had satisfying sales with Huggermugger, I've created some new products, and I've got ideas for more. I want to collage more composition-sized notebooks, try out some new hat patterns, maybe even branch out into something altogether different. I'm currently crocheting a cardigan for myself, my first attempt at crocheted clothing if you don't count hats, scarves, and mittens. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy New Year!

Giveaway: Extraordinary Women Notebook

As promised, it's time for another giveaway! For my first giveaway of 2010, I'm giving away a composition notebook decorated with some of my original collages. It would make an awesome Valentine's Day gift for any free-spirited woman you might know... yourself, perhaps?

I'll draw the winner around 9am EST on Friday, February 5th. That means if you really do want to give it to someone for Valentine's Day, it has a good chance of getting to you before then, at least if you live in the USA.

This is a composition-sized notebook. It measures 9 3/4" (24.7cm) x 7 1/2" (19cm) and has 100 wide-ruled sheets (200 pages). You can write a lot in one of these! I use this size of notebook a lot myself because it can hold so much, and because it lays flat pretty nicely.

The front cover is a collage of pictures of six vibrant women, some of them famous (Halle Berry, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Shakira) and some not. It also has the words "extraordinary" and "decadent."

The back cover features more bold women, from Charlie's Angels to Catherine Zeta-Jones to Courtney Love, and more. The back collage also bears the words "exotic" and "playful."

Both covers are covered with clear contact paper to protect the collages from wear and tear.

I sell this size notebook for $19 in my store. How can it be your for FREE? As always, there are three ways:

+ 1. Leave a comment here listing your favorite item from my store, www.huggermugger.etsy.com , and either your email address or your blog so I can contact you if you win.

+ 2. Follow my blog. Leave a comment here letting me know you're a follower, plus either your email address or your blog so I can contact you if you win.

+ 3. Post about this on your own blog. Leave a comment here with a link to your blog post, plus either your email address or your blog so I can contact you if you win.

This means you can be entered up to three times!

Giveaway ends the morning of Friday, February 5th when I draw the winner, announce who it is here, and contact them to get their mailing address. Good luck!

Want to be a Rock Star?

The Etsy Trade-a-holics team has started doing a monthly design challenge this year, and the first one has the theme "Rock On." You can go here to view all the entries, or just search Etsy for the tag "tradeonjan10." Then if you go to the team blog here, you can vote in the sidebar for whichever store's entry was your favorite.

This is my entry. I call it the Rock Star Notebook. I covered it in pictures of musical artists from Elvis and the Beatles to Creed and Shakira, plus a few others.

This notebook is bigger than the journals I've been selling before -- it's a composition notebook, the kind some schools require. It's 9 3/4" (24.7cm) tall and 7 1/2" (19cm) wide, and has 100 wide-ruled sheets (200 pages). I'm going to be adding more notebooks this size to my shop soon, so stay tuned for those.

Don't Forget Mom!

Mother's Day is less than two weeks away -- have you gotten your mom a present yet? Or at least a card? Or are you one of those buy-whatever-is left-at-Walmart-that-morning types?


Well, inspired by my own cool Mom, I've just added a new journal to my shop. I call it my Invincible Mom mini-notebook. Every mom needs to be invincible, whether her battles be with tantrum-throwing toddlers, cranky cashiers, or the occasional fire-breathing dragon. This journal celebrates Mom's strength, but it also recognizes her need to daydream once in a while, if only to escape her battle zone for a bit.

Like all my mini-notebooks, this gem is only $5. Would your mom love to unwrap this on May 10th? Better buy it before someone else does!

"Revolutionary Woman" Journal

I just uploaded a new journal to Huggermugger. As you can see, it's covered in pictures of the character Amidala from the three Star Wars prequels. I think Natalie Portman is lovely, and her character is a strong, spirited woman, so I thought she would be a good subject for a journal.

I did something new with this journal. Instead of covering it with contact paper, I used a water-resistant sealer called Collage Pauge that I found at Jo-Ann Fabrics last week. I had been considering switching from contact paper to Mod Podge, because I thought it would look more professional, but I knew Mod Podge isn't water-resistant. I've used it on tables I've collaged on in the past, and I found I had to spray it with an acrylic sealer after the Mod Podge in order to make them water-resistant. I didn't want to do that with journals, because the acrylic spray would get on the pages too and that might make them weird.

But I discovered Collage Pauge last week and tried it out on a journal I made for a friend, and it seemed to work really well. Two coats make them as durable as contact paper, as far as I can tell, and they look much more professional. I'm so happy with this discovery!

Once Upon a Time Journal

Like most writers, or at least most fiction writers, I am an avid reader. A bibliophile, even. I love books. That's probably why I became a writer, really -- I wanted to make more of what I love!

This journal's collages are inspired by that love of reading. I found pictures of peaceful places to read, then added a shot of a young woman reading under the open sky, a picture of a woman's still-slippered feet next to her morning paper, and the phrase "Once upon a time." For me, this journal evokes feelings of peace, relaxation, and enjoyment, as well as a little nostalgia. Once upon a time, I could spend all day reading if I wanted to. Now, between caring for my toddler, writing, listing things to sell on Huggermugger, and trying to keep my hubby fed and our apartment reasonably clean... I don't have loads of time to read anymore. Sometimes it takes me a month to get through a single book.

But enough griping! I love this journal -- it's another one I'm tempted to keep for myself. It has so many possibilities, not just for journaling or writing, but for keeping track of books I've read or want to read, writing down particularly good passages or lines, or writing down my thoughts on different books as I read them. Yup, keeping it for myself is very tempting indeed.

A Custom-Made Journal

I made this journal over the weekend and thought I'd share it just cuz it turned out so well.

Last week, I sold the "Write Where You Are" journal I blogged about a while ago, but someone else liked it too, so they requested I make them a similar one. So I did! And just between us, I think it might be a teensy bit cooler than the first one! I'm especially fond of the back cover's arrow and little cartoon woman reading in the bubble bath. That makes me smile every time, just because it's kinda fun and unexpected.

And yes, I will do collages on journals or notebooks by request! I might not be able to fulfill every request ever -- I'm a little limited by what pictures I have available to me, but I can probably come up with something for almost any theme. My own favorite subjects are classic Hollywood, modern Hollywood, writing, reading, food/cooking... the things that I enjoy in my own life :-) So those are the things my own creations revolve around, but if someone requests something focused on another subject, I'd do my best to come up with something that fit. If you'd like to request a custom-made journal, contact me here or on my shop via the "contact Huggermugger" link and we'll discuss your wishes and ideas!

"Out of the Darkness" Notebook

Last night, I spent a couple hours doing something I haven't done in over a year -- I collaged a notebook for myself. Although I won't be selling it in my shop, I wanted to share pics of it, because I love it sooooo much.

I'm hoping to go to a couple of NaNoWriMo write-ins this month, and I wanted something new and groovy to write in while I'm there. I watched The Princess Bride last weekend, and while I watched it, I remembered I had clipped an ad for the special edition dvd once. If I'm tossing a magazine, I go through it and cut out everything I think I might want to use in a collage someday. That way I don't have to keep a closetful of magazines around, but I don't lose cool pictures or words.

So I got out my clipped pictures and a fresh notebook and got started. I decided to make the words on the Princess Bride ad the theme for my collage, and found other movie couples to go with it, like Roux and Vianne from Chocolat, Paula and Charles from Random Harvest, Satine and Christian from Moulin Rouge!, and Rudolph Valentino by himself, just because he's Rudolph Valentino and I lurve him. And really, he's still a pretty major symbol of love, eighty-two years after his death.

I continued the theme on the back, with the quintessential movie lovers, Rick and Ilsa from Casablanca, taking center stage. I added Inman and Ada from Cold Mountain and Jane and Eddie from Someone Like You, and then I started searching for some words for the back. Words can make or break a collage, and I narrowed it down to four possibilities from my clippings before I finally decided on the phrase "Out of the Darkness." I like it because it works on lots of levels -- finding love can bring people out of their own personal darkness; movie images come at us out of the darkness of the movie theater; we create stories out of the dark nothing of our imaginations.

So there you have it, my new favorite notebook. Sorry I won't be offering it for sale, but if you really like it, you can contact me here or on my shop and we can discuss me collaging something similar for you. I can't wait to start using mine -- hopefully at the write-in tomorrow!

Oh, and if you're wondering what NaNoWriMo is, or what a write-in is, I'll explain quickly. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, a world-wide challenge to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. Write-ins are get-togethers for participants in specific areas to meet up in a public place and write together. For more info, visit my writing blog and NaNoWriMo.org.

"Write Where You Are" journal

To kick things off, I thought I'd post pictures of a journal I uploaded to my shop yesterday and tell you a bit about how I created it. I decorated about eight journals a few months ago, which I'm adding to my shop, and this is my favorite one. In fact, I'm tempted to keep it for myself. As a writer, I use a lot of notebooks to work on stories or jot down ideas, and I also keep a daily journal, so it sure would come in handy. But I'll give other people a chance at it too ;-)

The idea behind this pair of collages is that when you're a writer, you can hone your craft wherever you are. You don't need a specific setting or a lot of fancy tools -- if you've got something to write with and something to write on, you're all set.

I built this idea around the top picture on the front cover, the person writing on a folding table by a canyon or some other mountainous formation of some sort. I think I found this picture in an old National Geographic -- most of my collage pieces come from magazines, although I do get a few from other sources. Anyway, I loved that picture and what it said to me, so I found other photos of unusual, somewhat exotic places where you could write too. I've never tried writing in a canoe or a kayak, but I'm sure you could, especially in a canoe.

After I found the pictures I wanted to use, I started looking for words. I hunted through probably a couple dozen magazines before I finally found all four words for the front cover. The phrase "Write where you are" encourages you to be in the moment, to write from what you are experiencing here and now. On the back, I put the simple word "Discover." Whether you're discovering new places to write, or learning new things about yourself and the world around you, it's important to keep growing and experiencing new things.

Once I was happy with this collage, I signed it, and when it was dry, I covered it with contact paper to protect the collages from getting scuffed or dirty, and to keep the different pieces from getting ripped. So now it's ready to be written in, wherever you are!