The Rain

My watering can has been a little sad this week... My garden doesn't seem to miss it much either... The plants are loving the rain! I haven't quite decided how I feel about it yet. I am looking forward to some sunshine though.

New for June

My blogging isn't what it used to be... Here's a new June background if you'd like. : )

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I'll get back into it soon, I'm sure.

Snot Faced & Soaked to the Knees

The all too common occurrence of my boy lately. Luckily I'm a laundry pro, and he's so dang cute!

May Desktop Background

After a long break from blogging, here's a desktop background I made for May.

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Enjoy!

Friday Font Favorites

A quick look at this week's favorites: Thanks for looking. Have a great weekend!

Dingbats and Typeface Design

Dingbat fonts are fun and useful. Here's a list of a few great sets by Think Design:

Cool & Useful Dingbat Fonts

Ever wondered what goes into creating a typeface? I have! : ) Here is a simple tutorial by VectorTuts+. All font designers have their own styles and techniques, but this tutorial demonstrates one way it can be done. The final product on the tutorial isn't the most pleasing typeface I've seen, but the lesson itself is very helpful.

Designing a Typeface, With Illustrator and FontLab, from Start to Finish Part 1

The second part of this tutorial hasn't arrived yet, which is okay for me because I have a feeling this will take a while... But the "A" is a start, right? P.S. I'll post part two here also when it's up.

Reduce your footprint: Ecological Footprint Quiz by Redefining Progress

How to Put a Chicken to Sleep and more

A couple quick tutorials this week. I don't know how useful this will be to anyone, but it's quality knowledge from Martha, as always.

Martha Stewart - Putting a Chicken to Sleep

This next post is one I am excited to try. I have been collecting jars for supplies for some time now and hadn't even thought about how to label them. Now I know!

Etched to Order from ReadyMade by Claire

Short post this week. First week of new classes... Busy. Busy.

Top Drop Caps and Typefaces of the Week

tarting off this post with my favorite letter of the week! Each time Jessica Hische adds to her sites, I love her work even more. The "S" she illustrated yesterday is so beautiful, I couldn't wait to add it to this post. You can see all of her work here and Daily Drop Cap is a fun site where she posts an illustrative initial every day.

Favorite Font of the Week: Magesta Script

Bonus: The Mix weight of the Font is free on MyFonts.com The following two links are from WDL and feature some great paid and free fonts. Thanks WDL for posting these!

20 High Quality Free Fonts for Designers

As soon as I laid my eyes on this original post I quickly downloaded the "Folk" font (above). It was just what I was looking for and is very versatile.

30 Fonts Perfect for Vintage and Retro Style Design

This Matchbook typeface is wonderful. Also, featured in the post, is Ballpark. It's not as complete of a font, but the lowercase letters have been a long standing favorite of mine. Happy weekend everyone!

Tutorial Tuesday: Get Dirty & Clean Up

This week's tutorial theme is a two for one. I've got some down and dirty finds and also a couple that are clean and simple. Dirty First:

This first one, from design*sponge, will get you physically dirty. Especially if you let your kids help, like I did. Starting seeds indoors is a great way to get your garden growing.

Starting Seeds Indoors My Seeds

I'm excited to finally have a garden this year. I can't wait to transplant these outdoors and get gardening.

This following tutorial is a great way to add a grungy effect to your photos. You'll stay clean but your images don't stand a chance.

Easy Photo Grunge Effect

Ok time to get cleaned up and decorate some simple and neat Easter eggs!

Ukrainian Eggs Made Simple

The BBB Craft Sisters are to thank for this project also posted on design*sponge, it uses a traditional technique to create graphic designs and monogram initials to use as decoration for a spring party or as place settings and favors. And last, but not least, a great tutorial on how to save good, clean images for the web.

The Comprehensive Guide to Saving Images for the Web

This article covers, not only beginner tips, but also an in depth look at optimizing images to get the absolute best results.

Photoshop CS5- Content Aware Fill

Can you guess which one is the real deal?

Fav Fonts & Text Tips

Friday Fontday: A couple quick, but very useful tips: Great facts about fonts: And a look at my favorite font of the week: Especially good looking in italic and how could you not love that asterisk! As with most of my posts. Click the pics to get the real deal. Have a great weekend all.

Spring Tutorials for Home & Design

Tutorial Tuesday! This week the focus is, of course, spring. My interests are wide, as are the tutorials I reference. From design to crafting, gardening to jewelry, kids projects, etc. Here are some of my spring favorites:

How To Make Sidewalk Chalk

by: ArtMind

This is an older one but very fitting since my kids have recently came across the game of foursquare (which was a daily sport for me at their age) and we are getting tired of taping off squares on the living room floor and also are in need of a larger court. The snow is almost gone in our neighborhood and the bikes are littering the yards and chalk is decorating the streets.

How To Make a Vintage/Retro Picture

This is one I just love. It is always fun to download actions and apply them to your photos, but sometimes I don't realize how to get certain effects. This is a quick, easy way to get a vintage look and be able to make adjustments to fit your photo perfectly.

Organic Spring Lettering

This is a VectorTuts+ Premium Tutorial It's got spring in the name! I found this tutorial to cover many cool tricks and so many ways to make lettering your own. Premium members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, it's well worth it, Join Now!

Portable Salad Table

This tutorial is one I plan to use in the coming weeks and grow my own greens. The tutorial includes instructions for Salad Tables & Salad Boxes.

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Spring Color Week: Blue

Blue is the color of the day.

My girl.

A design of mine.

Some from etsy.

I had fun posting colors this week. Thanks for hosting the Spring Color Week Poppytalk for hosting the Spring Color Week and thanks to all the other bloggers for posting such great photos!

Spring Color Week: Purple

Spring Color Week Blogging a color a day

Thanks Poppytalk for hosting! Here's one of mine. My husband and I painted our bedroom wall random purple and blue stripes a while back.

My little guy.

Some great fabric styles from a favorite shop of my by a fellow Duluthian.

Fabric Shoppe

Tomorrow's Color: Blue (my favorite!)

Spring Color Week: Yellow

Spring Color Week Blogging a color a day

I am joining Poppytalk and many other bloggers and blogging a color a day this week, you can do it too! : )

A design of mine done for a class.

Express a song you love.

A photo I edited from a little trip my husband and I took to California last fall.

Chess Park on Venice Beach.

And of course, some of my esty faves. I could browse for hours...

Click for links to shops.

Tomorrow's color: Purple