New Items to Show Off

Ok, People! I finally started some invitations before it was too late! These new July 4th SooBoo Designs Invitations are really crisp and fun and get your guests in the mood!

This invitation above is a fill in the blank flat card. The who when where and rsvp are outlined in blue and the core letters are red. It's really cute. When an artist can take advantage of color, then we must! These invites are a larger 5" x 7" size but can be made into the smaller 4.25" x 5.5". They come with white envelopes.

Above is the corresponding "Save the Date" card for the July 4th get together! It's got a white envelope and measures 6.5" x 3.125 and also comes with a white envelope! These are really a great item..

Above is a party favor tag. It's a clever idea to add these to your party list. stick them on sparkler boxes and hand them out when it gets dark to the kiddies and the big kids, too!

These two, above and below are also party favor tags. SooBoo Designs can match them to your outrageous invitations! They come in sets of 20 ... the same quantity as the invitations and save the date cards!
Below, another take on the fill-in-the-blank invitations. I love this flag incorporated into the words! The lettering is outlined in blue!

I love plaid and so it seems others do also... so instead of the humdrum plaids you see when they are computerized, I made my own and made 3 different hue variations of them. I added existing calling cards from past orders to make them into personalized note cards! I plan on making them calling card size, too. I hope to get a lot of takers on these unique creatures~



Ok.. just wanted to show off the latest and greatest on the SooBoo site before Dean and I leave for the Honors Band Concert tomorrow am.. I forgot to start the washer, so i thought this a great time to catch up on the blog.
Oh yes, THANKS to JODY for her great order yesterday for 19, yes 19 large notepads! It is unfortunate that I will not be here this weekend to finish them, but guess what? I got all but 3 done today! I worked like a maniac and boy, did it feel TERRIFIC! thanks loads, Jody! I know they'll enjoy them on Wednesday.. we should all be that giving..

Oh yes, Rommel update.. What is with this animal? He's so peppy and wants sooooooo badly to run around like Tootsie does.. she runs circles around him and he yelps like crazy wanting to chase after her. Ooops~ gotta go give him the nitetime pills~

Have fun living and thanks for reading...and looking!

Susie

Good Intentions

In keeping with the time of year, I realize that GRADUATION time is upon us. I have a nephew who is graduating this year from DePauw University and am very excited for him. I should practice what I preach (staying in touch!) and get my act together for all that is coming up in my family - 3 birthdays, and above mentioned graduation! Unfortunately, I don't live in the same state as my immediate family. Of course, I have every intention of sending off a card and giving a call, but as the time nears, my intentions seem to be forgotten. I am a bad person. My poor sister's birthday was in February, and I have yet to send her her gift. I get caught up in my own stuff. I need to make more lists...and either not lose them or remember to look at them! It's true, knocking things off a list is very gratifying. My gratification these days seems to come from making new items for my website and entering all the data, which I have mentioned in a prior blog, is painstaking. When I see the SooBoo items up there, though, I am thrilled and wish the best for myself in reaping the benefits of all that was involved in the process to get it on website.


I had a girlfriend mention to me if she could use a gift card/certificate holder for money/check for her monetary graduation gifts? I thought, "Why don't I have some of those money holders on my site?" So, I decided to make some for graduation and some will be coming for the holidays, birthdays, etc... so I INTEND!

I had a great time making a fun invitation for a repeat customer. Her daughter's 10th birthday is to be held at some place called The Bath Junkie. I love that name. Apparently, it's a place where the guests make fragrant soaps, bubble bath stuff, and maybe even lotions! I want to go!

Here is the invitation along with the coordinating party favor tags and personalized thank you
note cards. It was a fun project and I appreciate the repeat business.

Have fun, Sarah! Happy early birthday! These were a joint medium.. my watercolor and computer generated copy and circles.

Sarah's Mom is giving party favors for the girls attending the party and asked that I make matching favor tags! I added green satin ribbon for her to tie onto the favors if need be.
What a super fun idea!

Sarah's Mom was thinking ahead when she asked me to make some thank you note cards as well. In keeping with the tub theme, it was simple to come up with a cute card. I love that she is having her child write thank you notes! I have the HARDEST time getting my son to write them... he always INTENDS on doing it, yet sometimes, well, most times, it takes weeks.

My dog's attitude is much better, but still has those nasty hip and knee issues. As the weather gets lovelier and lovelier here, his desire grows to be outdoors. This means carrying him up those dreaded six stairs to our house when he needs to come inside. Since it was so nice out yesterday, I thought it the perfect time to butcher off his gorgeous coat so he wouldn't pant so much and be more comfortable. I INTENDED to do this, and actually made it happen, seizing the warm weather opportunity. To my surprise, my husband volunteered washing him..outside... after the haircut.. a first for Rommel who seemed to bask ( I just looked up the spelling of bask and was delighted to see that I was correct! But what I loved was the definition; 1. To lie in pleasant warmth. 2. To enjoy something. He basked in royal favor. This was my Rommie... He delighted in the warmth of the sun and as the breeze blew threw his cream and apricot colored long ears, he seemed a glorious royal being. What a dog!

Ok.. my INTENTION for this blog was to introduce you to some more of my designs. I hope that it worked.
Thanks for reading. I hope to be back earlier this coming week, although, my son and I will be traveling on Friday to Winston Salem to bask in the pleasing sounds of clarinets, trumpets, flutes, french horns, saxophones and percussionists for the All State Honors Band.

By the way, I will toot my own horn...my son received straight A's once again. That one B (his first) last semester MUST have been a mistake! hee hee

Bask in the joys of life!

Susie

Decision Making 2008

Do we realize in a day how many decisions are made? Recently, our family has been back and forth with the deeply immense decision to put 9 years of faithful, fluffy, smart standard poodle to rest. Since Rommel's decline due to his now double issue with his hips, and now one knee, my husband and I have struggled daily for the past 2 weeks deciding what to do. Is the dog in pain? Well, we give him two pain medications; one acts like morphine and the other I have no clue. After 9 days of routinely, skillfully and sneakily hiding pills of different sizes in his american cheese slices, his attitude, I will call it, is noticeably brighter. Even though we must carry him up the 6 stairs to the house - of which he goes down as easily as ever - this is what we must do as pet owners. There is nothing wrong with Rommel other than his walking issues. I will leave it at that. The first week his head hung low, he was seemingly conscious of our discussions of the inevitable. He didn't even like to lift his head. Funny though- two days prior to our "cut off" day, he obviously made the decision to lift his head and get back in the game. He became more in tune with all of us. He started reacting to noises like he used to. He began to be interested once more in his life; accepting it for what it was now. He made the decision for us. We will wait, keep him on his medications and see how long he can go without injuring his hip or knee further. His decision led us to our decision for life. And the decision to do this was an enormous burden off our shoulders. It just wasn't the right time. We discussed this with every person we could find and all of them had experience in this predicament. "They will let you know." Not ever having to put down a pet, I was weary of this sage advise. I didn't know if I wanted to let our gorgeous 75lb beast to have to tell me how sick he was. But, alas, we will wait for that day.

Other decisions included in our lives the past several weeks have been either family oriented or work related. Family decisions have been: What shrubs were we going to find to work in our drought spent flower beds? What nursery would we go to? What kind of fertilizer do we use for our sorry excuse for a yard that has not been green in 4 years due to water restrictions? When should we get that 20,000 mile car inspection (the mechanics have been telling us for the last 3 oil changes we need to change the transmission fluids). What hotel to get for my son's All State Honors Band Concert? When will my husband meet up with us? What should we do with the dogs? Who should take care of them? What is for dinner? What grill should we purchase? The list goes on for EVERRRRR~

The work related decisions are not just mine, but my customer's as well. I ask, "What do you need your invitation to say?" Then they have to make the decision, which apparently is not too easy. Then, they have to decide if my design is what they want. It goes back and forth. I sit here and am deciding right now if what I am writing really matters to anyone out there? Or if it's just one of those insightful blogs that brings attention to our grinding, sometimes, boring, typical daily decisions, albeit tiny or life changing.

Should I start to write about my website?. ugh. duh! YES..so..

I have had some real fun making a special order invitation for my old sorority sister for her Kentucky Derby Run for the Roses Party. She asked me at our reunion in NOVEMBER to come up with an idea. Yikes, it has taken me that long to decided what to do for the design! Imagine! Fortunately, I was straightening my barn/studio (more like watching a cartoon where all you see is stuff that's not needed being tossed out the door!) and I ran across these great 8.5" x 8.5" white envelopes! They're in perfect shape and immediately thought of Dena's invitations. I love big invitations, especially for something as fun as the derby! I went online to locate mint julep cups, as I have never had nor seen one before, so I could create a rendition for this invitation. I found that these fabulous cups are all silver and have pretty beading below the rim and above the base, usually. So later, I started on the idea. I have loads of inks I use for my art. I dug a little further and found a pearlescent off-white..sort of silver-like ink. I mixed it at times with black and with chartreuse and i got this goofy looking, trying to be metallic piece of half-baked art. I thought it was going to be a redo for SURE. But, I made the decision to see how it would look to be scanned, and Photoshopped and made to size on that square format on which I was so interested and determined to put it! Well, my decision paid off! It looked pretty darned good for starting off as a mess. I added "beading" to the rim areas via Photoshop and cleaned up edges of which were not borders before. I added shading and a sprig of mint leaves and copy and as you can see for yourself, it's a lot of fun. It has power, just like the horses who run. Dena said she liked the pink and the red type and will use those two colors for the roses she will vase during her party.
I also wanted to make tribute to my all time favorite musical artist, Dan Fogelberg, who died of prostate cancer December 16, 2007. I will do so, with Dena's permission, on the back of the flat invitation. I am thrilled to be able to do this. I would like for you to click here to go to the Fogelberg Living Legacy website. It's incredible what that one man meant to so many. I have never experienced better concerts than his. My decision to remind us of this great musician, is a conscientious one, and one of which I am proud.
I guess I'll leave you all with this..

We all recognize making decisions is part of every day life. Make smart decisions-use your gut- it never lies to you. Smart decisions are learned from experience, mistakes, finances, and love. Teach your children how to make the wisest decisions they can and practice what you preach them! So now, I will wind this down quoting lyrics from Dan Fogelberg's old tune Lessons Learned:

Lessons learned are like bridges burned
you only need to cross them but once.
Is the knowledge gained
worth the price of the pain?
Are the spoils worth the cost of the hunt?

See you all later and be smart with the power of decision..it can make you or brake you.

Susie

People Who Need People

Hello People!

I had a teacher in grade school who used to loudly blurt, "Attention PEOPLE!" I thought her use of people was a bit odd back then, but now I believe it was a forward thinking term... a unisex term to use for her entire class. It worked! We listened. I use it today whenever I need the attention of a group! Who knew?

OK, PEOPLE! Back to business.

I had a conversation with an old college friend today on my way to the home improvement nursery. I hope I didn't come across to her as too crass, but I just don't seem to fully grasp why many people I consider my friends and even members of my own family are too busy to pick up a phone, to pick up a pen and a piece of paper (or SooBoo note card for that matter!) or to just peck away an e-mail to keep in touch with each other (She always keeps in touch). Although, I am just as guilty in getting this done instantly with e-mails rather than a hand written note, I still try to maintain friendships and even good acquaintances during some slower times in my week. I have times where I am busy rushing kids around to soccer, dogs to the vet, grocery shopping, washing, ironing (when I do my deepest thinking), vacuuming, dusting, making beds, baking, cooking and feeding everyone, calling parents, teachers and even a principal now and then, straightening my hair (anyone who knows me knows this takes a while!) and of course, sitting at this computer pounding out ideas to add to www.sooboodesigns.com, creating them in my studio, scanning them, editing them, putting them together with my graphic software and then entering all the data that I need to sell it on my site. All of this eats up time. Yet, why do I seem to be one of the only ones who makes the effort to keep the friendships alive? I wonder when an e-mail will get answered. I wonder when a phone call will be returned. How do I have time to spend with my family and sit in front of the television at night and relax with my latest favorite prime time shows and still think of those I care about? And to think, if I was truly organized, I would write a note in long hand because I KNOW what a delight it is to get a letter in the mail. If we enjoy simple pleasures so much, why don't we make it so? Maybe this is why I love to make note cards, notepads and flat note cards. Paper and pen. Thoughts. I love to connect with people and I like to believe people like to connect with me. We are too busy. We are causing our own A.D.D.!!! When I see a blue tooth contraptions stuck on people's ears on a Saturday or Sunday, I just about want to yank it off their heads and say, "What are you thinking?" I do NOT have a traditional full time job, but I have a way of life which fulfills me and affords me time to do what is important at the time. I am one of the lucky ones. I know a lot of the lucky ones, but yet, I guess, these old college friends have found friendship beyond what I can offer them. I believe that everyone has time at some point in the week... if not to just say "hi...thinking of you." Sadly, people don't even write in their holiday cards anymore. A picture suffices. When a friend remembers a birthday these days, it's a form of a miracle. Anyway, let's think about incorporating keeping connections in our lives. Doing so creates fun, new ideas, new ways of thinking.

When my old college friend wrote me and said she had a great idea for graduation gifts using SooBoo note cards, I was so happy! My email to her must have inspired this idea. Good for both of us~ So, I started thinking that her handsome, talented son who's starting in the fall at Rice on a baseball scholarship might enjoy a quick flat note card instead. I made some of these and let her know that I offer this now, too, at SooBoo. Keeping in touch, as I said, gets you thinking, and gives you new ideas! I also recently realized that a lot of people for graduation receive gift cards. There are an abundance of these on the market these days. You can get them everywhere! So why not wrap your gift card in a SooBoo Designs gift card holder? Try Graduate, Thank You or coming up, Happy Mother's Day gift card holders. You can even order a personalized gift card holder by entering your name, style and colors you wish for me to use. OR, you pick a SooBoo gift tag from the gift tag category on the website and I can place that on the card holder! There are so many from which to choose. Holiday card holders are a great idea. You can never get those too early. Supplied with the fold over gift card/certificate holder is a piece of "snot glue" like what you see when you tear a free sample out of a magazine and there is this crazy sticky stuff which holds the product well, yet rolls off the product rather easily AND a round clear adhesive dot to place on the bottom of the holder to keep it closed. I chose to use these dots because it saves paper and is more cost effective for the customer and for me. We like that.
Well, I have to get ready for the Elite Eight NCAA Basketball Championship game - UNC vs. Louisville. It really is exciting to see these 18-21 yr olds in action. If we could just obtain an ounce of the energy they possess and use it toward communicating with old friends and relatives in any way that pleases you, surely, it would please that old friend in return!

By the way, one fascinating childhood friend of mine, Marianne McGovern Priest is one of the most creative, self taught, insightful, intelligent, giving, caring, loving and sweet women I know. I have added her website of her gorgeous, quiet, soft, warm. cold and intriguing photography, one of which I am proud to say I own, to my favorite links. Please take time to check out her talent from wintry Elk Rapids, Michigan! http://web.mac.com/mpriestphotography . I love her dearly and wish great things for the rest of her life.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Thanks for reading~ Susie

Patience is a Virtue!

Hi Creative Ones!
My weekend was gladly filled with work for notepads and a cute design for a do not disturb door hanger. Everything turned out as expected...colorful and fun!
I am trying to decide on some new animals and different items I can place along with children's thank you notes, notepads and note cards. I have been trying to think of a great design and wording for a clam bake invitation. I would love to get orders from the New England area since this is where all the clam bakes usually are! This might lure them in. Also, I need to come up with some more designs for baby, wedding, showers, things like that. So keep looking at www.sooboodesigns.com for new things. I know how important it is to keep things fresh, but still keep the same design elements with the new items.
I have been having some hardships with my web designer/host. I will forego, naming names because that might just upset me again. I needed some page titles changed so my search engine organizer (SEO) can get my site seen by the major search engines, i.e. google, yahoo, aol, much easier. This is NOT an easy task.
My Web Host/Designer doesn't seem to take kindly to phone calls. Everything is done through e-mail. This infuriates me at times when I truly need to hear a person's voice to figure out what in the world they are talking about. So, I have gone through some 8 frustrating e-mails instead of one phone call. I begged, but to no avail. What is that? Patience is a virtue.. I mostly understand now what the e-mailer is talking about (I say e-mailer because I do NOT know if this is a man or a woman!). My SEO (3rd one now) is really great. He ( I can talk to him over the phone if I wish) is my third seo and seems to really be genuinely interested in getting my site more viewed. After all, it's all about being seen! He has given me instructions as to what I needed to do to enhance my visibility and now, I wait. wait wait wait! BE PATIENT! I keep telling myself.. Something good must come of it after the length of frustrating e-mails.
What I need to forewarn people out there is this: DO YOUR HOMEWORK! I thought I did. I really liked this group of individual in Florida. They offered everything I thought I needed. I loved their design of my website and thought it was an easy process. I learned a lot in the few months I had to enter all my data into the site. Again, patience paid off. I adore the ambiance of my website. It incorporates the colors of my business cards and also has a background I have used in the Early American Designs Note Cards. So, this was all great. But the longer I get into this process, the more I wonder if made the right decision. Hindsight. I have an e-commerce site which entails a very important shopping cart. It took a while to straighten out the flush right copy in this area. I didn't think that should have been an issue in the first place. Some of the copy was yellow and I e-mailed repeatedly to change this, and finally they did. I even had to purchase a wholesale "module" where I could enter wholesale pricing. I have just started this process and surely there will be issues with this area as well. What I did find out was that I even need a more detailed module for what I really want this aspect of wholesale to do. Gosh, I wish I had the patience!
Well, just beware. Even my SEO company has not lived up to the great service they claimed on having. I also researched this and made 4 phone calls to would be happy customers. They were, they all had a huge increase in business, but I, not yet. They coupled me with seo's who were either going to be fired or who just decided that they weren't going to do their job by not calling customers back. BUT, I feel that my new seo is the answer. All this time since August 2007 has been wasted. I don't get much empathy from the seo manager, either. I feel jipped for sure, and it's not over with yet. Hang tight, Susie, you must be patient!
Another story of patience paying off is this: for two days I have been playing around with a bandana design for a BBQ Invitation since summer is approaching quickly. Well, I did my little drawing then painting thing like I do. I scanned it into my Photoshop, of which going forward will be my enemy for the duration of this paragraph! Now, Photoshop is not an easy piece of software if you don't have a CLUE what you're doing. I fortunately know just enough to get me by for what I need. Well, I knew there was a way to erase the white background of this design so when I go to rotate the item to make my card design, I won't have overlapping white squares! Get it??? Well, for those two days, I must have scanned, erased and saved a zillion times, only to put it into Illustrator and see that the white squares are still there. ARGH! So, I thought, "What in the WORLD am I doing wrong?" I decided to save the image in a PSD (Photoshop document). HELLOOOOO! It worked. Later that day, I saw a gentleman who knows his Photoshop and I told him the story with my head hanging low... and this is what he said to me, "Well, DUHHH!" So patience paid off for that and here is the outcome.
Enjoy the rain!
Susie

New Items!

Hi Everyone!
I am excited to let you know that I have been working on getting some summery invitations on the www.sooboodesigns.com website. Also, there are plenty of new Thank you notes, Flat Note Cards, and a few Greeting Cards. Pair up any of the SooBoo Personalized Paper Products and your gifts will scream that you care and you are creative!
I am also preparing to be seen on www.writeexpressionsstudio.com in the next month or so. I am truly excited about this retail expansion to my site.

Well, yesterday I had another "what the?" days with my computer. All the connections seemingly were working, yet, I could NOT connect to the internet. After time with my ISP and the Geek Squad Rep, I lugged the hard drive to the Best Buy where the thing was purchased a few years ago. They said it was working. I brought it home and it worked again. I have no idea what happened. It was a frustrating day, yet it all worked out. If I could just grin through the aggravating times, I know it will all come out good. Think POSITIVELY!

Ok, added to the SooBoo Designs website are:
BBQ invitations,
Cook Out Invitations,
Congratulations Graduate Greeting Card,
Over the Hill Greeting Card,
Keep on Smiling Greeting Card,
Children's Thank You Notes,
Flat Note Cards,
some new Personalized Note Cards and
some new backsides to Personalized Bag Tags.

We all know seniors who are graduating from either High School or College, so gathering up your grad gifts ought to be on all of our busy minds. When paired or grouped, SooBoo's Personalized Notepads, Personalized Note Cards, Bag Tags and Personalized Calling Cards make great give aways. I'm telling you, the impact of pairing some SooBoo items is so dynamic and different from other computerized only websites.

Also, Mother's Day is coming up fast and I don't know about you, but Mom has everything and never wants anything... so I think an elegant gift is a set of your choice of 12 SooBoo Freehand Note Cards. There are so many from which to choose. You can choose all the same design, or any quantity combination of Freehand Note Cards. They come in a clear box. They are a lot of fun to send out because they are all hand done, then reproduced on very lovely 80lb smooth white cover stock.

For any of you out there with military Dad's, Mom's or siblings, SooBoo has the perfect camo style for them. Don't forget Father's Day ... maybe Camouflage Style in their 'name art'!

I had a request by Marnie, my business minded partner, to create some fill in the blank children's thank you notes. I have been meaning to give this a stab, but then I was forced to and the result is adorable. Girl's styles will be coming shortly. Check out the Flat Note Cards that are new, though, too. Lots of design choices there.

Looking forward to the warmer weather and a pretty summer. Many of my friends and relatives have been couped up in their homes due to one of the snowiest winters ever that I can recall! You're all troopers in my book!

Also, take a look at www.SuperSibs.org They are looking for donations to this very unexpected cause. I have sent a dozen greeting cards to them so they can send them out to the brothers and sisters of children with cancer. A great cause. I plan on sending more out very soon.. like the keep in smiling greeting card! You go Beth!

Enjoy your weekend!

Susie

First Day of Play

Hi Everyone!
Welcome to my new blog.
I always wondered where the word blog came from. I am not a big fan of the word, although, it's a way to get my website name out there in the world and hopefully increase business for SooBoo Designs! This is my first day of trying this out. It was recommended by my SEO (search engine optimizer) for whom I am grateful! Thanks, Tim~ I am feeling a little intimidated by it all, so I'll do my best.
Last week I played with a few new styles. I am aware that lots of spring and summer events are upcoming, so I need to add new designs for these events on my e-commerce site. I am trying out a bit more computer generated designs for party invitations. For instance, I entered a few BBQ invitations for summer parties. I like all of them since they are so different from each other in terms of color, placement and font style. I wonder though, if I should offer these invites in a larger format. The size as they are now is a standard A2 size of 4.25" x 5.5". I know a lot of personalized invitations are at least 5"x7". People like to find the biggest and fanciest, but my feeling is, as times get tougher, it makes better sense to go a bit smaller and save a bit of money. After all, one of my favorite quotes is, "If you show it, you owe it!" So, if anyone has feedback on this size thing (does size really matter?), please respond!

I have a wonderful and insightful friend who is trying to help promote my SooBoo personalized note cards and small personalized notepads as a package. Grouped together, these items create a very impressive and personal touch to give to new homeowners given by either their builder or their realtor! She came up with this great idea and I just love it. Like she says, builders and realtors are trying anything to keep business moving. A little personal touch added for new owners will help when a reference is given. "Oh, you should see what our builder left for us! I never thought they would have thought of something like that!" It certainly is WAY better than a pen with the builder's/realtors name on it, instead of the new homeowner's names! That is thinking out of the box! Thanks, Marnie! You are always challenging me and adding your two cents in, both literally and metaphorically! You rock!

I also want to let you guys out there know that I have done some business card and letterhead design. They turn out lovely. If you know anyone who needs a service like this, please pass on my name and or website; www.sooboodesigns.com and we can go from there.

On a personal note, my talented clarinet playing son was accepted to play in the North Carolina All State Honors Band this April in Winston-Salem, NC! We got the amazing news last night and are so so so proud of him and his new accomplishment. His nerves are getting steelier daily when it comes to playing for auditions. I surely could not have done it at his age of 13. We love you, Dean!

Ok...I have to go and visit with his band director at school to make plans for WS. Thanks for reading and talk soon~ Susie