Getting and giving and thoughts on motherhood...

Getting...
I've been rolling this entry over in my mind for a while. This may be the last post I get in before Sprout puts in an appearance in a couple of weeks and there's been more than a few thoughts i wanted to put down on the blog just to get 'em out there. First I'm facing something that I have never had to do before in all my professional life and I just can't believe it: i'm.... i'm .... i'm having to send store-bought Christmas cards this year.

The shame is hard to comprehend I know.

Its just that every year since becoming an adult and counting my/our popularity by the number of cards I/we get in the mail I have ALWAYS been creative and made my own. First I would actually print cards to send to friends and as promos, then as my promo mailing schedule became more streamlined, I just handmade cards to send to friends and clients. But this year with everything being done for the baby I just don't have time to hand-make cards. My usual schedule of promo mailings is going out and I do have something special in the works for clients ... but friends and family.... well if I have time to do cards (and thats a big if), they are just going to have to tape up whatever Walgreens has on special. Which brings me to the same dilemma I face every time I buy a birthday card (which is often because i gave up handmaking birthday cards like a decade ago): do I choose based on the illustration or the message? C'mon you illustrators out there know that no store-bought card is as good as you could draw/write yourself, when standing in the aisles you think "why didn't think artists make the moon just a little bit more contrasty, thats what I would have done" or "what a great image, too bad the writer completely missed the mark with that sappy turn of phrase." So wish me luck as I jot Christmas cards on my Kroger shopping list, that I'll find something that will at least honor my tradition of always being the cool creative friend that sends hip hand-made cards.

Giving...
So as I mentioned I am doing something special for clients this year. I always do client Christmas gifts, it's fun, I think it's nice to say thank you for working with me, and I always try to do something different. Over the years I've sent everything from cakes to iTunes cards but this year I am giving something I've never done in the past: I'm buying a sheep. Yes, literally. No I am not taking a herd of sheep around to, what I am sure would be very surprised, art directors, I have made a donation to Heifer International in honor of my clients. We got the Heifer catalog in the mail and after looking at it and thinking about how much I've spent in the past on iTunes cards I realized I could buy a whole sheep for some deserving family out there. And with economic times being what they are, i think it's easy to forget that there are people in the world a WHOLE lot worse off than those of us who are just tightening our belts this year by shopping at TJ Maxx instead of Dillards. The Heifer folks give the sheep, and training in its care, to a family in South America or Eastern Europe and the sheep provides a living (selling wool) and the family can also use the wool for their own clothing, as the sheep has lambs the business grows. It's essentially teaching a man to fish so he can eat forever. Anyway I'm making a cute sappy little card to send clients explaining why they don't have an Amazon gift card but they will be getting a warm fuzzy feeling. Here's one of the illos for the card:


thoughts on motherhood.....
ok well this is just going to have to wait as it is now 2:45 and time for me to go get Small Fry, but suffice to say 2008 has been a year to reflect on creation in my life both from what I do as an artist, to the little one kicking on my liver, to the ongoing task of changing Small Fry from a baby boy into a good person. This one promises to be good ya'll so check back in a couple of days. In meantime here's a pic from Small Fry's 3rd birthday, he's the one stuffing cake in his mouth: