Running on Empty?

I knew that working - and working hard - while being sick would take a toll on me, and it has. About a week and a half ago, my body revolted, and I just could not get myself to work. I'd been working without a break for over two weeks at that point. Since then, I've been working more slowly. It's slower than I'd prefer, but I'm still getting the orders done in reasonable time.

Latest news: I signed up for StitchLabs, which I hope will help me keep better track of my orders and invoicing than my current system, which is entering orders on Excel and then transferring them to Word. Very "I'm working out of my basement", I know. And it turns out that I was consistently leaving things off of invoices - which is why I switched. Mitya said to me, "It's a good thing you don't have a boss!"

I've also been researching charities because I've wanted for a while to donate some of my profits to charity. I prefer small organizations because I feel that my money can make more of an impact there. I'm considering donating to the following: the New York Aquarium (which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy), Elijah's Promise (a NJ organization that runs a soup kitchen, pay-as-you-wish cafe, and offers culinary training and cooking classes for families), and the Tanzania Heritage Project (a non-profit in Tanzania dedicated to preserving Tanzanian musical heritage by digitalizing many years of archives of Radio Tanzania). If you have any suggestions for charities, please send them my way!

Koalas

We had a three day weekend this week due to Canadian Thanksgiving, so Mitya and I went to the Laurentians to see the leaves change color. (The Laurentians are about an hour's drive northwest of Montreal.) We drove through country roads lined with fiery red, orange and yellow trees ("fiery" in the metaphorical, not literal, sense), took a ride on a ski lift to the top of a mountain, and sampled treats from St. Donat's bakery and one open restaurant. We came back to Montreal Sunday night, and I spent Monday working on this little koala, another card that was inspired by my extensive stuffed animal collection. This particular toy was given to me by Mitya's aunt, who just came back from Australia.

PS - here's some of what we saw in the Laurentians:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I can't believe it's October already - I feel like I was only starting getting used to the fact that it was September!

The trip to Toronto went well, I made lots of sales and even got into a new store, which made me very excited. The downside, though, was that I caught a cold which seems to be morphing into bronchitis. I also seem to have developed an adverse reaction to Robitussin, which resulted in two very unpleasant mornings that left me feeling weak and drained. I'm not even sure if I should be working now, but I'm going to try.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a Christmas card that my mom made recently of a little yellow cat sitting by the Christmas tree. These cats have been popping up in some of her other cards as of late and they are a big hit with our stores. I find it all ironic considering the fact that my mom doesn't even like cats!

Santa Lucia, the wheat of Santa Barbara, and other Christmas traditions

It's been a busy month. I've managed to knock out six wholesale orders (I think I'm getting faster at making the cards?) and am working on two more. I stopped by Puces Pop today (I didn't apply this time, since it's in the middle of my wholesale season, but I wanted to check it out), and then I'm going to Toronto on Tuesday for a whirlwind trip to visit and take orders from my wholesale customers there. I'm excited, although I'm not looking forward to the midnight bus trip there - especially with Quebec roads being as bad as they are. Last time, I woke up with blurry vision in one eye. I found out that one of my contacts had fallen out of my eye while I had been sleeping - not fun.

So by now, you're probably wondering what that green bushel is. As some of you may know, I love learning about traditions in other countries. I also love illustrating them in my cards, but apparently I'm the only person who likes them. In spite of this, I did decide to forge ahead with a Provencal Christmas tradition, the wheat of Saint Barbara. These seeds are planted in a small saucer around December 4th and reach their peak at Christmas. You're supposed to tie a red ribbon around the wheat as well.

I also like hearing other people's personal stories behind these traditions. My friend from Marseilles told me that she did this often when she was young,and one year, she decided to continue growing for the wheat after Christmas. By summer, she said, she'd grown a whole ear of wheat!

Another friend of mine from Sweden also told me about the time she was chosen to be Lucia for Christmas (the Santa Lucia card, below, was one of my first Christmas cards. Basically if you've read the American Girl you know what it means, but it's a Scandinavian Christmas tradition where the oldest girl in the family brings her parents buns and hot cocoa Christmas morning, wearing a wreath with candles and singing the Santa Lucia song). Anyway, my friend told me that she was supposed to sing a song, but she was so nervous with the hot candles and dripping wax over her head, that she ended up bursting out in laughter!

Hand-lettering

Rather than scour the internet for a left-handed calligraphy nib, I've decided simply to redo all the strokes with a micron pen, which I'm sure puts new meaning into the word "hand-lettering." I've been practicing this summer and have been happy with the results. I took a calligraphy class when I was 13 and loved it, and even though I haven't used a calligraphy nib since then, I've still managed to retain the fundamentals. However, I think my fonts are a mix of Italic and Unical! (I did hear, though, that you should create your own fonts, so there you go.)

I also thought that hand-lettering might be quicker and more efficient than peeling off and gluing tiny pieces of letters spit out by my Silhouette - which is why I hand-lettered the above card - but after going through six of them, I'm not so sure anymore!

Penguins!

I'm not quite sure where the idea came from, but sometime last week, I got it into my head that I had to make a card with a baby penguin. I love baby penguins - they're so cute and adorable with their fluffy gray fur, much more so than their adult counterparts. I sketched out a few versions, and then I went to work! PS - I've decided to share the sketches as well, so you have an inkling of my process!

Year of the Snake

I should just resign myself to the fact that, each year, I have to go one month without blogging. Even if I don't write that often, a month-long drought still feels like a travesty. After a hectic and successful spring, I decided more or less to take the summer off. It gave me a lot of time to think about Chelleline Cards and where I want to go with it. I've decided that I do want to participate in a trade show next year - though the earliest I can be ready is in spring 2013. It basically comes down to either the National Stationery Show, the NYIGF in August 2013 or the NYIGF in January 2014.

With that, I wanted to share with you one of my latest creations - the Year of the Snake. I normally end up designing Chinese New year cards in a rush after the New Year's and end up not selling any of them, so I decided to get a head start on it this year!