Where has the time gone this year?

Hi People!

I know.. i know.. i don't blog enough for what is good for me.. but I will attempt again to make this sound worthwhile. I must say, this month I was completely taken off guard with the amount of BOOKMARK orders I received! I mean, they just kept coming in.. it was like a bookmark cult.. and they were from all over the country! I wound up calling it by "Bookmark Bonanza Extravaganza!" I think I have done 30 in all. I did several personalized notepads as well. My favorite being the CLEARLY notepad. The husband to whom this notepad is being given says, "Clearly..." all the time. His wife and I just cracked up thinking about how funny it would be when he opens this up. I had given the Queen notepad to his wife. I told her, this is what I want SooBoo to be.. just a lot of fun to come up with your ideas and make them into great, unique gifts! Here is the notepad~


Another fabulous design came from one of the bookmarks. SooBoo Designs has an animal print that is really cute in the typical browns and oranges and blacks.. but this customer has a daughter Liza and her favorite colors are pink, orange, yellow and red. Her request was for me to do Liza's bookmark in animal print in Liza's favorite colors. When i received this order, I thought, "What a super fun idea! Why not those colors?" I wrote the customer back and voiced my excitement over these colors for this style. So here is the final outcome. Is this not the cutest thing?


Another great order for me was a new sorority notepad for my niece who's at Iowa and joined a sorority.. Alpha Delta Pi. Online, I found the sorority mascot and hand drew it and used the computer to add the color for a uniform look. This is the notepad that was so much fun.

I also am trying something new to expose SooBoo Designs. I found this new artist's community called Artfire.com. They have a lot of things planned to make them well known for 2009 and beyond. The owner seems extremely dedicated to the artists and has a great staff, as far as I can tell. I don't have nearly what I have on this site, but here is how you find me.. http://sooboo.artfire.com OR if you want to see all the other cool things on this site, click here.

By the way, here is a cute idea for Valentine's Day!

The weather has been weird. It's been coldish, sunny, cloudy, windy, gorgeous, windy, rainy, really rainy, really cloudy, really windy and really pretty.. no wonder there's sickness all over the place!

I did my annual baking for Christmas. I gave to the one neighbor we like and sent to my family in Chicago. Mom said they arrived in perfect condition.. that's a first. Usually, the Greek cookies, koulourakia which are drenched in powdered sugar, drench all the other cookies in the tin. I finally smarted up and put them in a ziplock.. and then of course, my husband is an expert packer.. where he packed them at work and shipped them. This was Mom's gift from me....and of course Dad's as well and whomever goes to their home will experience a Greek cookie delight. I made another Greek Cookie called Koulourakia which are twisted little snappy cookies.. and another called Melomacarona??? I call them macaroons but they don't resemble any macaroons I have ever eaten. These are made with butter and OIL!!! lots of it.. and some sugar.. but are dipped in a simple syrup of water, honey and sugar.. totally outrageous! I took pictures of some which, when i figure out my new laser printer, I 'll get them posted here.. I can't wait. Oh.. the peanut brittle came out fabulously this year. I wonder if it was the Fisher peanuts or that i decided to stir the ingredients while coming to a boil for the entire 25 minutes! YIKES.. my achin' back. Anyway, it is ALWAYS worth the effort. I love baking, but am happy when it's all cleaned up, especially since I have the worlds smallest kitchen. I don't know how I would handle a big kitchen now! Everything, and I mean everything is at my fingertips.

I made this mid sized notepad for my husband, Jeff. I combined all three UNC logos/mascots in one notepad to show off his love for the school!


New Years Eve was fun with both the boys here. They love staying up late so it was easy. We watched U Party 2009 on Fox ...the cable station and Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly were great as usual. They were freezing, but adorable together. I bought the hats and horns at WalMart, where else?, and these poppers.. Little Tootsie Bella was freaked out and I hid her on the couch next to me under a fleece blanket with her little black nose peeking out. She finally calmed down. Rommel, the standard poodle, by the way, is fantastic to all who know and ask about him.... anyhow, he just got up from his bed and meandered into the computer room.. he said, "Who needs this noise?" He's so smart.

Through an old artist friend, Krista, who has a great business, I found this fantastic drug for Rommel that actually makes the cartilage regenerate! It's a series of shots, directly into his back thigh, twice a week for a month. At the end of the third week, Rommel was bup bup bup..UP those stinkin' 6 outside stairs by HIMSELF! We didnt have to carry all 75 lbs of him any more! His last shot was in September and we've only given him one since... as a booster. Strangly, but not surprisingly, my VET never told me about this miracle drug called Adequan. Krista uses it on her horses. There is an equine recipe and a canine recipe. Well, when I approached my then Vet ( I dumped her!!) regarding this subject and asked what they thought about us giving it to Rommel ourselves, we got a very negative response. We did it anyway and the results have been dramatic and miraculous to say the least. To think, we were seriously toying with putting him down. I look at him with such loving eyes now... thinking how sorry we would have been if we had done such a thing. His time was not up.. he was not ready.. we could see that in him, yet that Vet said that she would put him down today if we thought his quality of life was not good anymore. So, people, don't make hasty decisions regarding your pets. I happened to reconnect with Krista just a week or so before we were up in arms about Rommels future and she told me about Adequan. She was our angel. Truly.. and I thank you for being there, Krista! You Rock!

One more thing I guess before I bore you to death anymore.. My husband decided to bite the bullet and get me a spankin' brand new HP color laser printer! The blacks are black and the colors arent pixely any more and I could go on and on.. I am thrilled with this gift.. the gift of great color and speed! yipee for me!

OK.. thanks for listening..
happy NEW YEAR to ALL! May it bring all better things... constant health, patience, lots of laughter, good feelings and inspiration for a better life; a better you. or me!!

Susie

Thank you, People!

Hello People!
SooBoo Designs truly believes in the designs on the website. I have decided to add a new format to some of the designs already on the gift tags and some new designs as well. I have been looking at designs online and also in stores and see that a bit of a larger and square format is popular. Therefore, I have incorporated some designs onto 3" x 3" white square coverstock. I love that there is room for the "to". These are personalized which is a huge selling plus. Gifts have been popularized by making so many of them either monogrammed or with the recipients name on the gift. Of course, I specialize in paper products which continues to go with my desire of keeping friends and family in touch more often.


I have found a new "Connector" as he's been deemed by other cousins recently. He is one of my younger cousins who's from Europe who carries the same interest as I in the web. He is way more knowledgeable than I and has a keener sense of what he to accomplish in his career. He has generously helped me to change some things on the sooboo website not long ago of which I appreciate greatly. It could have stopped at that, but I certainly didn't want him to think I was taking advantage of his services. I wrote one day and he responded quickly. We have kept the emails coming on a regular basis, feeding into our Mediterranean culture of love of family. I know he loves to teach and I need to learn, so it's a great reunion and discovery of lives across the world!
Thank you, Cousin. He has a fabulous website of his own called 3rd Element. It contains wonderfully informative, easy to watch and listen tutorials.

So, back to new artistic formats! I have made a couple new holiday designs.
One is happy holidays and the other is Merry Christmas. I am so crazy about these two new designs. Old wording, funky designs. When ordering, the to and from/love fonts can be decided by you. I simply chose a font which I believe best suits the design. You may also leave off the personalization so the tags may be used by anyone in the family. Whatever you decide, SooBoo gives you options. And that is important these days.

Here are some examples for my fabulous Jewish friends...

Here are some examples for everyday gift tags.. Great for gift giving, or to stock away in your wrapping station for any time usage!

Here is an example of a baby tag and a baby announcement that's new~

Here is an example of a thank you tag. I will be making more of these. Great with a wine bottle!

I recently got an order from a wonderfully creative woman in Los Angeles. She let me know that she is an Event Planner. I was thrilled to make a connection with someone in that field. She works with a woman who has twin girls who are graduating high school and off to different colleges! And guess what? They are both going to colleges I attended! U of A and Indiana U! What a small world. When I asked what colors these girls might like to see, she informed me of what brands they wear. From that, I was able to Google the brands to see what's "hip and in" and go from there. It was exciting and a bit of a challenge to decided what colors to use with what girl/school. I believe it turned out well. She also ordered a very popular item, the school's logo / mascot note cards. This customer wrote me when she received the goods and said the girls will love them. Mission accomplished!

I have also had requests to do non-name art luggage/bag tags. One of them I did twice. We decided that the name art might be too immature for this 18 year old young man off to college. Above is the sample with "name art" and below is with computerized font.

The other samples are for a junior row crew team off to their competition in Ohio this week. Best of luck kids! So, as you see, SooBoo is more versatile than what you see on the website. Just contact me and ask if it's possible. Easy!

I'm making a Greek recipe today.. even though we're in the low 100's today ....again!! It's nice for the boys to have a delicious option when they have worked hard in the pool all day with their friends! I'm making Greek Chicken with Orzo in tomato sauce and chicken broth. It's out of this world~! Want the recipe? Just ask.

Remember, people, your family is always there to help you and your friends are always there to listen. Start your summer out right by taking care of your loved ones by giving them vessels with which to communicate.. SooBoo paper products! Do it! And pass the word!

Thanks to all my customers! Each one is a delight!

Susie

Let SooBoo be part of your life

Hello People~

This week I am going to go a bit into my skills as a graphic artist. I have always loved the art of placing things on a piece of paper to make it look neat, refined and interesting. I don't always like plain, same ole, same ole, so I try to add a bit of jazz into my designs, yet always follow the customer's desires. I also take into consideration the client's personality or the event's personality. A while ago, my gal pal here in town needed church function tickets for them to sell for their one and only fundraiser for a ski trip this past winter. They were having a spaghetti dinner and she wanted the tickets to portray a fancy Italian Restaurant. So, with lots of information to put on the ticket, I was limited to the art's size I could incorporate into the ticket stub. I found this perfect border with forks wrapped in spaghetti and meatballs! How apropos!
Then, of course, the font is the most important aspect, in my opinion, of the design. If the font doesn't say it with feeling, then the entire piece falls flat. I used an easy to read script font for the "Italian" worded title. I also went to some place online for an English to Italian dictionary. It was fun to do. I have no clue if I worded it correctly, but I don't think there were any true Italians at this function to critique my translation! Anyway, I made a cute full page flyer that was sent to all the church members via email regarding this fundraiser dinner. The tickets were easily sold, the dinner was a success because the kids raised enough funds for their trip! It felt good to be a part of it.

Below is the way in which I start my designs. Since I do love font styles, I begin with the business name and just start typing it out from the computer in any font I think MIGHT be suitable for their company. Given a few choices from this group below, the client adored one of the two I thought were best, also! It's on the top left with the gray watercolor looking swoosh! I was so pleased. When the business card was made, I used a plain, sans serif font for the client's information that was easy to read at the smaller point size. She was very happy to replace her old logo/business cards with this new version. Again, it felt good to be part of it.

It's truly great fun for me to design business cards, logos, brochures and so many more things.
I love color, as is obvious from my website. Placement is a big deal, too. If you don't have the right negative space thing going on, it can make the design too crammed and hard to read. It needs to flow. Hey, these are really basic things, but they are the foundation for a great design.

More great designs. come in the form of simple notepads. I sell these notepads at my website that seem to be my best sellers so far. Just about all my orders have at least one pad in them! People ask me all the time, "How are notepads made anyway?" I take them to a little place I know at the local university and have them glued at the top. They cut the paper for me to exact specs, back it with chip board and place it in a humble old wooden contraption that is pretty small actually. It is then put between two blocks of wood and clamped down to keep the paper stack from moving and to get a nice tight notepad. It is then literally hand brushed with a special white glue. It's then left to dry for at least 5 hours. They then unclamp the stack and tear off the top sheet of plain paper they added to the top so that the notepad will have a clean top sheet with the SooBoo name art design on top! It's very simple, just like the designs. Here is the latest pad I have done. This is a gift that will be given when this customer meets with them this next weekend. I was also asked to make gift tags with the recipients first names on it. They can attach these to wine bottles, or tuck in a gift basket or stick in a plant when giving those gifts. It's a wonderful gift to give to friends. How nice is it to get unusual but useful gifts like these! Again, it's warming to be a part of it. A bit of me goes into every design, and to know that others love it like I do enough to give to their friends and family is very special to me.

This notepad is 5.5" x 8.5" and 100 sheets thick.

This is the gift tag which measures 3.5" x 2" which is business card size.

I am also going to show you some more gift certificate holders. These can be used for those handy gifts that come credit cards sized to any store imaginable! There are tons of holidays for which to give these things, yet, I LOVE YOU is one that is taken for granted. You don't even have to put a gift card in it, you can just write a little poem or sweet nothing inside for that great night that you two just had!

These holders come with a "snot glue dot." Sounds icky but it' s just what you find in the magazines that have little give away things inside their issues. It's really super sticky but not permanent. I also add a clear adhesive dot to close the card. This saves on cost for you and me by not using an envelope AND it saves on paper. SooBoo is all for that!

Birthday wishes come in the form of folded gift card holders as well.

Speaking of saving paper, I found this website, in one of the too many magazines to which I subscribe, called, Peaceful Company. I found these terrific items called Euro Cloths which supposedly save on paper towels. They claim that these last the equivalent to 17 rolls of paper towels! Well, I just had to purchase some. I decided that I would give them as gifts as well. The Republican that I am does not deter me from understanding that waste is bad. My son even has broken me from a life long habit of running the water when brushing teeth and washing dishes. NO MORE! It's very sad to me that recycling is not a way of life here in the rural areas of the south. When I first came here, I felt sick to throw away a plastic bottle or a can in the regular garbage. If these things are not picked up on a weekly basis curbside from your home, then it's very difficult to acquire a weeks worth of these recyclables in bags and boxes around the home. So.. we wait. Anyhow, I have been using ONE euro cloth for several weeks now to clean the counter tops. It really works great and to clean it, it can be either thrown in the dishwasher or can be boiled. It does NOT fall apart. I love it. A little Peaceful Company has come into my home. Just like I have come into others homes with my SooBoo designs!

There are definitely tons of influences that have come from our family members, best friends, websites and communities. We are all intermingling and aren't even fully aware of it. We touch each other's lives in ways we have no idea. To me, these are life's greatest and free gifts of all. Take time to recognize who's touched YOUR life for a while. (Especially Mom!) It's inspiring, absolutely!

Enjoy the warmer weather~
peace out!

Susie