Rosemary & Thyme TV Series
I’m finishing a marathon of one of my favorite British TV series: Rosemary & Thyme. I’ve watched the complete series several times now and it’s rather like visiting with an old friend: some parts are familiar yet I always seem to notice something new.
The show is a nice mix of drama, light comedy, and some snippets of romance. The stories are good and the mystery is usually interesting but it’s the scenery and characters I enjoy the most. There’s something quite appealing about English gardens and beautiful manor houses and cottages. And the two main characters feel real to me.
The show was one of my mom’s favorites as well and we watched it together when she was ill and confined to her bed. We spent as much time discussing the lovely gardens as we did the mystery stories!
I do love a good English cottage garden and think my backyard would be the perfect spot. Alas, my thumb is not as green as it needs to be so I’m still experimenting. Right now, I try to see past the flourishing weeds and envision my perfect cottage garden. Until it appears in real life, I’m content getting inspiration from good ol’ Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme.
Tags: review
Darren’s Zen Samurai
Bethany’s “Ahhh…decaf” Penguin
Allyson’s Woodland Fairy
Exciting news: We’re branching out our product line in our Darcy Place Studio Etsy store to include 1-inch pinback buttons.
So far we have about 24 different designs including funny sayings, my cute animals in different poses, billiard and dart designs, and unique art by my brother Darren and my niece Allyson.
It’s not easy designing for such a small space and I must admit that the designs appear to be quite small when printed on my printer at home. But the final buttons look amazing and the designs actually look great even from a few feet away. We’re currently working on more designs and really enjoying the collaborative creative process.
Tags: Designs, etsy store, penguins
In my day job as a graphic designer/website designer, I’ve been quite busy the last year or so developing a website for a local private school, Seattle Country Day School, that finally launched last month! Check it out!
About a year ago, in my annual tax-time quest to be more organized (to help make next year’s tax time less painful), I stumbled upon a fantastic online tool for keeping track of information: Evernote.
I can store pretty much anything (text, pdfs, web clippings, images). Then use the search function, keywords or tags to find what I need when I need it. And, best of all, access the information on all my computers (Windows and Mac) or, when I’m away from home, via any browser or my iPod Touch.
Screenshot of My Evernote
I can also share my notes with friends or colleagues. It’s been quite helpful with sharing research and images with my business partner.
I started out with the free version that allows you to do quite a lot but soon found that I needed to upload more than 40MB per month and wanted my business partner to be able to edit as well as read my notes. I also wanted SSL encryption so I could store more sensitive information. All that I can do now with the premium version is completely worth the $5 a month.
Oh, and did I mention that Evernote can find text within images and search within pdfs? Very cool!
I tend to store information I’d want to access on the go (usually when I’m working offsite or traveling). Here’s a short list of some of what I store:
- notes on books I’m reading
- client and project information such as style guides, print specifications, etc
- list of books to read (and books I’ve read)
- articles about everything from css coding tips to getting rid of slugs in the garden
- recipes
- receipts from online shopping trips
- product photos and descriptions for my etsy store
So, was tax time this year less painful now that I’m somewhat more organized? A bit. I didn’t store tax information in Evernote (still nervous about having sensitive information out there in the ether) but it was helpful to have easy access to my research about tax prep and managing a small business.
Tags: business
Cherry Blossoms
I have always loved seeing the cherry blossoms bloom in the spring. The Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. was one of my favorite spring activities when I lived in the area.
This cherry blossom photo was taken in downtown Seattle in the mid-90s. I stood under the tree and shot the fluffy white umbrella of blossoms from below. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day but the blooms are still quite lovely.
Tags: photography
Sheep Loves Tulips Journal
I’ve recently developed a new animal character: a sheep.
In this scene celebrating spring, the sheep holds a bouquet a orange, pink, and yellow tulips next to a basket of cut tulips.
Right now, this cute design is available on a blank journal/notebook in my etsy store. We just recently started offering our designs on journals…they are about 4.25″ wide by 5″ high and have 50 blank pages made from 100% post-consumer recycled pages.
It’s been fun working with our new binding machine. It definitely takes some practice to have everything line up properly.
Tags: Designs, etsy store
Sketch – Yoshi’s giant egg by ~Yamoshi on deviantART
I love this piece of Yoshi fan art I found over at DeviantArt.com. He looks so proud of himself after laying such a huge (and useful) egg! I like the sketch-like feel of the rendering…lovely. And Yoshi’s expression is perfectly done.
Tags: yoshi