For my mother’s birthday last week, I produced a coffee table book of our last trip to Paris in December of 2008.  I designed the pages in Photoshop and uploaded hi-res JPEGs to Shutterfly.  Click on each page for a closer look…

Oh ~ I almost forgot!  Everyone who left a comment on the giveaway post will receive a card in time for Mother’s Day giving!  Send me your address!  I really enjoyed everybody’s stories about their moms.  As you can see by the photos below, I love traveling with my mom ~ we always have a great time.  That is followed by our love of shopping!

A million years ago, when I was in college learning graphic design, I made my mother’s birthday card by hand one year.  She immediately insisted that all her birthday cards from then on be handmade.  I am told she keeps these in a box somewhere that will be fun to go through one day.

Above is her card from this year ~ which was the first thing I did in my newly revamped art studio last week.  I’m working on some photos of the new space to show this week!

Hey ~ don’t forget to leave me a comment about your mom by tomorrow morning (on this post) to receive one of my colorful Mother’s Day cards from Leanin’ Tree ~ just in time for Mother’s Day!

This weekend was more fun than should be allowed :-)  Tall ships, tall tales, great weather and great friends.  Last weekend was spent revamping my art studio (photos soon after I do the final touches, I promise!) and planting flowers.  This weekend my back said Enough! so I vowed to lift nothing over 12 ounces :-))  Click here for a few pictures of our weekend on Adios!  I’m still rockin’ with the boat!

This is what the back of our Murano looked like on Friday afternoon after I stopped at the nursery…

We got them all in the ground Sunday morning.  I used my artistic eye to arrange the color pattern just so and can’t wait to see them start to fill in and create that beautiful riot of color in front of my house.  I’ll post a pic once they’ve started to fill in and the mulch is down. I also have them dotted in pots all over the back yard.  The little smacks of color here & there always make me happy.

The art studio make-over is coming along & keeping me busy ~ I will soon be sharing pics.

Now for that give away!  Leanin’ Tree did these lovely Mother’s Day cards, adding glitter to the front, making them really cute.

I’ll give away 5 of these ~ one each to 5 winners.  In your comment, tell me what your favorite thing to do with your mother is.  I’ll have Captain Hubby close his eyes and root around in a hat full of names to draw the winners on Wednesday, April 29 ~ so leave your comment before 7:00 am EST!

p.s. I apologize for the less-than-stellar depiction of this card!  My scanner has decided to make itself inaccessible to me this week (another mystery to solve…) so I had to snap a pic.

I just got back from a leisurely 3-day sail to and from St. Augustine over the Easter holiday.  I hope everyone had a nice holiday.  Although a little nippy on the water, we couldn’t have asked for a lovelier weekend.  As some of you may know, I love taking pics of fun shop windows and St. Augustine has plenty of them, as well as charming little courtyards & corners, secret-looking streets, beautiful flowers and historic architecture.  If you’d like to take a stroll with me, click here…

I had been hoarding a couple art magazines ~ Studio, Cloth Paper Scissors, Artists’ Cafe and Artful Blogging ~ to take along for the ride (it is 10 hours on the water each way).  I really enjoyed the nearly non-stop down-time to indulge in these magazines.  (I say nearly non-stop because I had to do galley wench duty as well as take the helm now and again :-).

Since I started sewing I’ve been trying to figure out how to leave my machine out and have enough room to work and not be in the way otherwise.  This excellent issue of Studio magazine inspired me to reinvent my art room and reorganize some of my storage in the computer suite.  So look for some new studio pics here down the road!  Oh, and that is Melissa Averinos’ “yummy” studio on the cover!

And I learned a lesson on this journey: Never, ever go anywhere without your sketchbook!  I didn’t forget my sketchbook ~ I decide that I wasn’t going to take it, I was going to give myself the weekend completely off.  All day Sunday I kicked myself as my creative spirit had been refreshed and was rearing to go!

And last but not least, I’ve been presented with the Breeze Award by Diana Evans ~ thanks for the sweetness!

I absolutely love it when UPS rings the bell and leaves me a big box out of the blue.  Samples!  Yay!  It is like Christmas morning no matter what day it is and a frenzy of tape cutting, box ripping & packing peanuts flying ensues.  I adore unpacking every piece and carefully checking it out ~ especially looking for ©BJ Lantz!

But once the buzz wears off, I am left with the reality of a table full of products that have to be stored.  (Captain Hubby literally groans when he sees these piles ~ which is carefully & quickly followed by oohs & ahhs of all my lovely babies)

The other day just such a box arrived from Creative Converting filled with my new Stafford collection.

I was so pleased when they not only chose my fine china-inspired design for their anniversary collection, they also decided to blow it out on a variety of products ~ plates, napkins, invitations, place cards, table coverings, cups, balloons, banners, and even thank you cards.  And, even better, they did it in three color-ways for 50th, 25th and 40th anniversaries.

Now I know I am not the only one with this “problem”.  What on earth do you do with all your samples??  I give loads of them away, which really is fun, but some things are not easily given away ~ such as the above ~ or you’ve inundated everybody you know with as much as they can take.  Really, there is only so much you can give away.  I have also given some to my mother-in-law and friends for fund raising sales.  I myself find it hard to toss any of this stuff ~ they embody so many things from them just being my artwork, to verifying that I am indeed working and succeeding in this industry.

A few months ago I decided I needed to do something about the samples that were over-running my studios.  I bought a whole bunch of plastic storage bins with good locking tops and made space on some shelves in the garage.  Nine of these bins are full and taking up all the available shelf space and this one ~ the 10th ~ is bound for the attic.  I like them being accessible in the garage so that I can open them up to pull stuff to give people when I need to.  But as for this stuff ~ I won’t need it until my in-laws’ 50th anniversary in 2011….

So tell me, what do you do with all your samples?