This is an exception. So, at the risk of being completely obnoxious, here we go,
the pre- US Thanksgiving, obnoxious holiday sale!
You might also consider some holiday teeny tags while you're at it...:-)
Thursday, November 8, 2012
so obnoxious!
I love how Nordstrom posts about how the Christmas stuff shouldn't go up before Thanksgiving has happened, I so agree, and I love their attitude...however, if we wait, this inventory is going to be GONE.
This is an exception. So, at the risk of being completely obnoxious, here we go,
the pre- US Thanksgiving, obnoxious holiday sale!
Stock up, make a great Advent calender with lots of little boxes, use them to dress up your holiday table, package all your special little gifts in them...they are perfect, and, we are practically giving them away!
You might also consider some holiday teeny tags while you're at it...:-)
This is an exception. So, at the risk of being completely obnoxious, here we go,
the pre- US Thanksgiving, obnoxious holiday sale!
You might also consider some holiday teeny tags while you're at it...:-)
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Help us empty our warehouse!
email : nadine(at)bluedogzdesign(dot)com
or, just call us!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
laser beams and love
Here's something that I have been thinking about lately, it makes me feel slightly comforted and slightly depressed, but here it is.
What if, we all had little laser beams and when the time is right for us, we release our beams at people.
The actual targets of our beams might not have much to do with anything except that we are ready, they are there, and there is something that is drawing us to them (good looks, sweet smile, charisma, their smell...)
What if, when we are ready for something in our lives, maybe we just aim and shoot? Then, we go about doing what we are ready to do, in terms of learning about ourselves, surrendering, trusting, committing, or in so many cases, suffering. Maybe, because who gets shot, is, mostly arbitrary, in my laser beam equation, this leads to so much of our suffering, heartbreak, loneliness...divorce?
I mean, think about your failed relationships, or just some of the jerks you even fell for, the ones that really hurt, you were probably ready for something that the person you laser shot was not ready for, or maybe even not looking for...Then, we go around heartbroken and sad because we made this huge effort and perhaps spent years of our lives in it, we shot our beam at this person and we didn't get what we were shooting for.
We even go out to shoot new targets and tell these new targets about our bad past shots (or they tell you about theirs)! (a little fucked up, right?).
Think about that shot you had that cost you so much time and suffering, only to turn out to be a TOTAL waste of time...and yet, even though you know it, you still think about them, they still jump around in your head like target practice and all you want to do is shoot them, although not so much with your fancy little laser beam... I think that these shots, the ones we just can't let go of are probably because we had big shit to learn or try to learn, we were super ready for it and the targets were just dead wrong. Because other bad shots, well, they just don't haunt us. See what I'm saying?
Anyhow, it's not that I am not a romantic, or don't believe in love, au contraire, but seriously, does life need to be this intense?...
and, like magic, just as I typed this last sentence, a past shot, a LONG shot comes to mind. He was so un-intense, so un-passionate about me that I could have died a thousand deaths and he never would have even noticed, until, as a good friend recently reminded me, he noticed that my half of the bills weren't paid.
So, yes, I will take the intensity, I will aim again, I will shoot and I will see who gets hit with my beam and try and decide whether I should quickly throw it back in and let it go or take it home and figure out what it is I am supposed to learn from it. And I am not saying that it might not take a few shots at the same target sometimes, but, maybe every so often, two people target each other, simultaneously, both shoot, and both happen to have the same stuff to learn. And, then again, sometimes the short shots are pretty great too, don't you think?
What if, we all had little laser beams and when the time is right for us, we release our beams at people.
The actual targets of our beams might not have much to do with anything except that we are ready, they are there, and there is something that is drawing us to them (good looks, sweet smile, charisma, their smell...)
What if, when we are ready for something in our lives, maybe we just aim and shoot? Then, we go about doing what we are ready to do, in terms of learning about ourselves, surrendering, trusting, committing, or in so many cases, suffering. Maybe, because who gets shot, is, mostly arbitrary, in my laser beam equation, this leads to so much of our suffering, heartbreak, loneliness...divorce?
I mean, think about your failed relationships, or just some of the jerks you even fell for, the ones that really hurt, you were probably ready for something that the person you laser shot was not ready for, or maybe even not looking for...Then, we go around heartbroken and sad because we made this huge effort and perhaps spent years of our lives in it, we shot our beam at this person and we didn't get what we were shooting for.
We even go out to shoot new targets and tell these new targets about our bad past shots (or they tell you about theirs)! (a little fucked up, right?).
Think about that shot you had that cost you so much time and suffering, only to turn out to be a TOTAL waste of time...and yet, even though you know it, you still think about them, they still jump around in your head like target practice and all you want to do is shoot them, although not so much with your fancy little laser beam... I think that these shots, the ones we just can't let go of are probably because we had big shit to learn or try to learn, we were super ready for it and the targets were just dead wrong. Because other bad shots, well, they just don't haunt us. See what I'm saying?
Anyhow, it's not that I am not a romantic, or don't believe in love, au contraire, but seriously, does life need to be this intense?...
and, like magic, just as I typed this last sentence, a past shot, a LONG shot comes to mind. He was so un-intense, so un-passionate about me that I could have died a thousand deaths and he never would have even noticed, until, as a good friend recently reminded me, he noticed that my half of the bills weren't paid.
So, yes, I will take the intensity, I will aim again, I will shoot and I will see who gets hit with my beam and try and decide whether I should quickly throw it back in and let it go or take it home and figure out what it is I am supposed to learn from it. And I am not saying that it might not take a few shots at the same target sometimes, but, maybe every so often, two people target each other, simultaneously, both shoot, and both happen to have the same stuff to learn. And, then again, sometimes the short shots are pretty great too, don't you think?
Friday, August 10, 2012
A Cocktail Party!
Yesterday my Mom called asking for a favor...could I please whip something up to send via email, for a cocktail party that she and her husband will be hosting...here's what happened! (if you ever need invitations, announcements, postcards etc, I would love to whip something up for you too)
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
100 years young!
This will be the first and only time that I have the opportunity to design an invitation for my grandfather's 100th birthday party, this September. What an honor. I kept it simple and sophisticated, in greys and black on a just-off-white card, and charcoal grey envelope (from one of my favorite paper stores in the world, Nota Bene). I printed them on my HP ink jet printer.
My grandfather is quite an amazing man, he grew up in Montreal, adored my fabulous grandmother Frances until she passed away, and told me just last week, that he lots of plans with her when he joins her one day. He played football for the very first Professional Montreal Football club and worked in the textile business selling fabrics for many many years. He had hip replacement surgery in his nineties and decided that it was a good time to give up his driver's license, 2 years ago (thank GOD!).
He still lives on his own, resents wearing his hearing aid and teeth, and is as sharp as a tack.
I only hope that I will have as long and as amazing a life as my grandpa Irving.
It should be quite a party :-)
My grandfather is quite an amazing man, he grew up in Montreal, adored my fabulous grandmother Frances until she passed away, and told me just last week, that he lots of plans with her when he joins her one day. He played football for the very first Professional Montreal Football club and worked in the textile business selling fabrics for many many years. He had hip replacement surgery in his nineties and decided that it was a good time to give up his driver's license, 2 years ago (thank GOD!).
He still lives on his own, resents wearing his hearing aid and teeth, and is as sharp as a tack.
I only hope that I will have as long and as amazing a life as my grandpa Irving.
It should be quite a party :-)
Friday, June 15, 2012
Adding a cool semi transparent shape to a photograph
Last night on Twitter, @beingmarci tweeted;
"See the pink circle here?? anyone know how to add to images? Thanks!!"
(this was the photo, and the pink circle with the "10 awesome party crafts" inside it)
I do! and it's easy. I can show you how. (ok, too much Dora with the toddler...)
I started by tweeting back to her about Photoshop and then quickly realized that she probably didn't use Photoshop... It's a big program, and unless you need it, you likely won't be using it. This led me to free online photo editors, which, up until last night, I had never even looked at...They are FUN, FREE and I am impressed!
I took a look at two, pixlr.com and picmonkey.com the process was similar for both.
I randomly chose one, here's a how-to using picmonkey.com
1. click on "edit a photo" and, "upload a photo"
2. click on the icon on the side called "overlays" (it's the fifth one down where you see the 3 little icons together- a heart/starburst and comic bubble).
3. you will see lots of options in the "overlays" (geometric, hearts, arrows...), I chose "hearts" and then chose a basic heart from all the choices. once you click on it, it adds it to your photo and the fun starts. the circles in the corners allow you to make the shape bigger or smaller- click and drag in or out until you like the size. if you click in the middle of the shape, you can drag the entire shape around a bit until you decide where you want to place it in your photo. now, click around in the color pallet that presents itself and choose a color to try.
now, play with the "fade" slider that you see under right under the rainbow of colors, this will give you that special transparency, from what you see above, to this, less opaque, below:
if you click anywhere else on the page, you can start doing other things (like adding text). if you want to go back and adjust the heart later, just click on it and your overlay menu with return.
4. adding text: in the menu, click the P icon (text), again, lots of options will open for you. i chose the font sue ellen francisco and then typed in my text in the box at the top. (here's the text window)
Here's what it looks like:
*my text is 3 lines, and I have not found a way in this editor to adjust the line height. if this bothers you, and you want the freedom to move text around, simply make each line it's own text block and then you can move them around separately. like this
each line is separate here, you can make each word (or letter) separate if you want and play with the sizes, fonts and colors. there are lots of options, so, go crazy!
i will say that I had to do a little fiddling to get to my text when i started moving it around, because i seemed to be automatically selecting the heart shape, rather than the text. if you find you are having this issue too, just move your shape out of the way for a while and organize your text, then move your shape back in when you are done.
5. save your photo.
voila! cool semi transparent shape with text in it tutorial!
(take a look at all the cool stuff you can do with the picmonkey editor- there are a ton of cool things, from photo actions to frames, labels, paper scraps...essentially, like a candy store to bling-out your photos!)
"See the pink circle here?? anyone know how to add to images? Thanks!!"
(this was the photo, and the pink circle with the "10 awesome party crafts" inside it)
I do! and it's easy. I can show you how. (ok, too much Dora with the toddler...)
I started by tweeting back to her about Photoshop and then quickly realized that she probably didn't use Photoshop... It's a big program, and unless you need it, you likely won't be using it. This led me to free online photo editors, which, up until last night, I had never even looked at...They are FUN, FREE and I am impressed!
I took a look at two, pixlr.com and picmonkey.com the process was similar for both.
I randomly chose one, here's a how-to using picmonkey.com
1. click on "edit a photo" and, "upload a photo"
2. click on the icon on the side called "overlays" (it's the fifth one down where you see the 3 little icons together- a heart/starburst and comic bubble).
3. you will see lots of options in the "overlays" (geometric, hearts, arrows...), I chose "hearts" and then chose a basic heart from all the choices. once you click on it, it adds it to your photo and the fun starts. the circles in the corners allow you to make the shape bigger or smaller- click and drag in or out until you like the size. if you click in the middle of the shape, you can drag the entire shape around a bit until you decide where you want to place it in your photo. now, click around in the color pallet that presents itself and choose a color to try.
4. adding text: in the menu, click the P icon (text), again, lots of options will open for you. i chose the font sue ellen francisco and then typed in my text in the box at the top. (here's the text window)
Here's what it looks like:
*my text is 3 lines, and I have not found a way in this editor to adjust the line height. if this bothers you, and you want the freedom to move text around, simply make each line it's own text block and then you can move them around separately. like this
i will say that I had to do a little fiddling to get to my text when i started moving it around, because i seemed to be automatically selecting the heart shape, rather than the text. if you find you are having this issue too, just move your shape out of the way for a while and organize your text, then move your shape back in when you are done.
5. save your photo.
voila! cool semi transparent shape with text in it tutorial!
(take a look at all the cool stuff you can do with the picmonkey editor- there are a ton of cool things, from photo actions to frames, labels, paper scraps...essentially, like a candy store to bling-out your photos!)
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The Head of the Class!
I have done some fun little jobs lately, like immediate gratification for a designer.
As much as I love the big jobs, sometimes the little ones are just, well, refreshing!
Both were to design new website headers.
The first was for the adorable and talented Nicole Cohen of www.sketch42blog.com
She was a dream client, really knew what she wanted and could communicate it beautifully (sounds like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how hard it can be for some clients to tell you what they want!).
Plus, I was using her gorgeous painting as the header's backdrop...hello?, again, makes my job easy. She told me what she was thinking, I proposed some ideas and, as she is so adept at doing (read her blog!) she took it to the streets for opinions...In the end, chose the typography that she liked the best. I think she chose very well and am proud to say that I helped her design her new header. I am a fan of her blog and her work, take my advice, spend some time on her site.
The next header was for my fabulous friend, writer (can't-believe-we-met-through-twitter-because-she-feels-like-freaking-family!) www.nataliekarneef.com She, knew a little less, what she wanted, but, she did know what she liked, again, a good starting point (read on). My challenge was to find the thread that brought all the things she liked together (or some of them). Here are some examples of what she liked; vintage-ish, turquoise, red, brown, green, granny wallpaper, flowers, black and white photographs, good humor, drinking humor (she'll appreciate me sharing that!) and naturally, as you'd suspect... old maps, typewriters, motorbikes and scooters... (this was not the entire list) but, let's face it, it's pretty obvious, right?
Here's what she got,
Ok, it might not have been that simple, we went back and forth a few times, hey, I am a designer, not a psychic, but seriously, want to know how much fun is it to go back and forth and throw around ideas about headers until the cows come home with someone you adore?...you can't even put a price on that kind of fun!
Would I sound super cocky saying that I freaking love the result?..oh well.
Oh, and, get familiar with Natalie, and her writing, you will be happy you did!
Need a header? get in touch. Headers make me happy. (that sounds wrong)
As much as I love the big jobs, sometimes the little ones are just, well, refreshing!
Both were to design new website headers.
The first was for the adorable and talented Nicole Cohen of www.sketch42blog.com
She was a dream client, really knew what she wanted and could communicate it beautifully (sounds like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how hard it can be for some clients to tell you what they want!).
Plus, I was using her gorgeous painting as the header's backdrop...hello?, again, makes my job easy. She told me what she was thinking, I proposed some ideas and, as she is so adept at doing (read her blog!) she took it to the streets for opinions...In the end, chose the typography that she liked the best. I think she chose very well and am proud to say that I helped her design her new header. I am a fan of her blog and her work, take my advice, spend some time on her site.
The next header was for my fabulous friend, writer (can't-believe-we-met-through-twitter-because-she-feels-like-freaking-family!) www.nataliekarneef.com She, knew a little less, what she wanted, but, she did know what she liked, again, a good starting point (read on). My challenge was to find the thread that brought all the things she liked together (or some of them). Here are some examples of what she liked; vintage-ish, turquoise, red, brown, green, granny wallpaper, flowers, black and white photographs, good humor, drinking humor (she'll appreciate me sharing that!) and naturally, as you'd suspect... old maps, typewriters, motorbikes and scooters... (this was not the entire list) but, let's face it, it's pretty obvious, right?
Here's what she got,
Ok, it might not have been that simple, we went back and forth a few times, hey, I am a designer, not a psychic, but seriously, want to know how much fun is it to go back and forth and throw around ideas about headers until the cows come home with someone you adore?...you can't even put a price on that kind of fun!
Would I sound super cocky saying that I freaking love the result?..oh well.
Oh, and, get familiar with Natalie, and her writing, you will be happy you did!
Need a header? get in touch. Headers make me happy. (that sounds wrong)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
