Friday At Last

Well hello Friday. Hello weekend. I plan to rock the hell out of this weekend. Here are a few items on my list:

1. I plan to have at least 1 cocktail, more if I so desire.

2. I will paint my nails.

3. I will sleep in.

4. I will accomplish at least 2 of my work/business goals.

5. I'm going to the delta for the 1st time, on a boat!

The rest is unplanned. Just how I like my weekends. I hope you all enjoy yours!

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SF Living :: Family Detour

I'm blogging my way to a better place! I found this little Instabooth strip from yesterday and it instantly made me smile. This girl takes after her mama in the silly department and I love it! Yesterday we found ourselves taking a little detour just for the heck of it. Don't you love unexpected adventures? We found ourselves up in Marin at Rodeo Beach and fell in love with the serene and quiet little retreat. This is a place I definitely want to revisit.

Stories :: Feeling Overwhelmed

Yup. Overwhelmed. Most of the time I am full steam ahead and I do try to look at the glass as half full, but today I feel discouraged, overwhelmed, and exhausted. Building a business is damn hard, and raising 2 little ones at the same time is even harder. Put them together and you have one exhausted mommy/entrepeneur. I have this image torn from The Bear Deluxe Magazine, another awesome find at SCRAP, up on my inspiration wall--boy do I need it today. Looking at this I feel like I could float away and come back when every problem in my life is fixed and ready for me to tackle. I will just picture myself lighter than air, nothing holding me back and maybe it will come true. Ahhh, I'm already feeling more positive.

{art: The Bear Deluxe Magazine, image + layout: Keely Reyes}

New Work :: The Bark Magazine

If you caught The Daily Show this week than you may have seen a certain plug for The Bark Magazine, which I am very excited to have contributed for! It was my first editorial illustration and for a magazine I have always enjoyed. I was approached because the article concerned humping behavior in dogs, and the creative director had remembered my humping dog illustration from a previous personal project. I tweaked it a little bit and even added some hand lettering. Check out page 2 of the article, this one is my favorite. I feel a little bit bad for the teddy bear :)

Thanks so much to The Bark for allowing me to contribute!

{Photography: Will Reyes}

Stories :: Being Bold

This weekend was very busy, but the weather was nice and we got to spend it with family. Though I did have a bit of work to do, we carved out some time to take M to see her first movie in the theater. She got to have one on one time without her little brother, this doesn't happen very often! We took her to see Brave and she loved it. She stared up at that giant movie screen just snacking away her M&Ms and popcorn, so involved in the story. It was a fun day and we can't wait to take her again, it seems there will be lots of cute kid movings coming soon.

And now it is Monday, time to put my head down and get back to work.This week my inspiration is from Kate Spade. I splurged and got myself a sale item from good old Kate and included in the lovely packaging was this awesome postcard. I have lots of goals for my business in the coming weeks and it can be easy to get discouraged and not follow through. It is so hard to keep putting myself out there, I want so badly to succeed and make this business work. I have been coming up with some goals that are a little scary, but if it isn't scary than it isn't worth doing, right?

I need to set my goals and stick to them so I hung this bright postcard right up over my desk as a reminder. If nothing else it is hot pink, and that always cheers me up!

Have a great week everyone!

Stories :: 3 // Pop Up Shop Recap

I have officially gotten my feet wet in the craft fair world. It was kismet that I was asked to be in the SF Design Week Pop Up Shop because I had just started fostering the idea of participating in some kind of fair this year. And then, Boom, I was asked and I thought it is meant to be!

{Photography by Will Reyes}

For a newbie I would say the night was a success in learning how to set up my table, talk to customers, work my Square app, and smile, A Lot. Thankfully my best friend Julie was there to help out and that made me feel a little less nervous. Will was a big help and photographed the show for me as well. He also got us some delicious fried green beans and mashed potato balls from the Voodoo Van outside. While I didn't make a lot of sales, I do hope that people enjoyed my table enough to visit my online shop in the future. Exposure can never hurt, right?

Another fair is in order so I am scouting the next opportunity. I'm thinking maybe Treasure Island Flea, or maybe even the big and scary Renegade in December. Scary thought, but exciting too.

Mix It Monday :: 4

After a couple of weeks off from posting, I was swamped with projects, I am back with a new Mix It Monday post. I have been a big admirer of illustrator Christina Couceiro. She does amazing collage style images that are both graphic and organic at the same time. She brings so much life to the images with pops of color and pattern. Inspired by her use of found images and photography with geometric patterns and shapes, I decided this week would be about mixing photography with geometric patterns. Photography doesn't have to stand alone and a few graphic touches can bring life to an image. They end up feeling rather poetic, don't you think? I rounded up a few fun examples for you, enjoy!

{ Images: 1 + 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 }