A GREAT SOURCE FOR FONTS AND GRAPHICS: CREATIVE MARKET

I've got a wonderful little something to share with you today on Font Friday! Enter Creative Market, a great site to find graphics, Wordpress themes, templates, Photoshop brushes and actions, web icons and of course - FONTS! I usually look to blogs to tell me what amazing design goodies I can find around the web, sometimes even Pinterest, but this site from the COLOURLovers founder, is an great colleciton of tons of goodies I would actually use. I have a specific taste and style that I like to use for graphics and having to filter through the garbage and junk to find the great stuff, well it's a pain. Creative Market seems to have some kind of AWESOME filter that I can't help but want all of it. They just think"beautiful design should be accessible to everyone". I love that I can download the great designe elements quickly and easily so I can get my posts up fast. Here are a few of my favorites:

BOURBON FONT // SEAMLESS SUBTLE GRUNGE PATTERNS // NARWHAL FONT // LABELS AND DECORATIVE VECTORS // VINTAGE CIRCULAR BADGES

Another great thing? Every week Creative Market has three FREEBIES up for grabs. I got amazing watercolor brushes last week so go check out what goodness in the Free Goods of the Week section this week.

Don't forget to check out my font friends!

ALEXANDRA  {THE AERIALIST PRESS}

ALISON {ALISON OWEN DESIGN}

JEN {BLUSH PRINTABLES}

STEPH {BUBBLEROCK}

SOFIA {BRANCOPRATA}

CATHERINE {DESIGN EDITOR}

CHELSEY {CHELSEYEMERY}

ALLIE {HONEY BEE INVITES}

LAUREN {LAUREN ELISE CRAFTED}

JENNA + ELIZABETH {LITTLE BIT HEART}

LAUREN {PALM PAPERS}

KERRY {SUPER SWOON}

VICKI {VICKI.DESIGNER}

WENDY{WESWEN DESIGN}

FOLLOW #FONTFRIDAY on Twitter!

SPRING ENTERTAINING BASICS: KATE SPADE SATURDAY

EEK! It is here! I saw bits and pieces of the Kate Spade Saturday line when they had a preview sale a few weeks back and I was kicking myself for not scoring any. Saturday has a great collection of clothing,  jewelry (pretty striped studs anyone?) and housewares (you know new dishes gets me crazy) and they are all remarkably priced! Spring tends to be all about pastels and it can feel a bit dated and ho-hum.  I have a brighter approach to Spring, adding a bright and bold pop of color with a little classic black and white. Adding black and white home decor is a great alternative for a neutral in your home! If plain white dishes seem a little too bland and you are in need of a little pop of style, might I recommend these graphic lovelies?

I am mildly obsessed with the housewares and might need to grab the entire line. An entire party based on these? Holy awesomeness! The grid line glasses are my favorite, or maybe the mugs? Either way, it's a simple as black and white - you need a little bit of awesome everyday, not just Saturday.

HAPPY SPRING AND BLOGGER BURNOUT TIPS

Happy Spring everyone! I'm knee deep in craft supplies, trying to sort the chaos before shooting some of the great Spring DIYs I have coming. So, if you are reading this you are probably wondering - what? Why do I mention blogger burnout? Because it happens. Because I am fighting it. But it isn't what you think, let me explain.

I never wrote my epiphany post after Alt. In fact, I never wrote much about Alt at all, but it doesn't mean that I didn't love every minute of it, especially meeting my favorite people in person, FINALLY! It means that I have been going full speed since then. Well, really before then. I have been going like crazy since holiday started last July. I am not sure if this happens to everyone, but as a DIY blogger I can say that things get a little crazy. Little is an understatement, of course.

DIYs take time, a lot of time. If you are new to DIY blogging wondering how to get started or have been doing it for a while thinking you might be doing something wrong because it takes so long, don't worry. It takes time to come up with a new idea, to shop the supplies, craft the project, to shoot and edit the photos and then to do all the copywriting to make sure your steps are something someone somewhere can actually follow. Then you are formatting and coding (I don't do this, but maybe I should?) the post itself and promoting and pinning it. You are creating original content - the entire thing from start to finish and that takes time. One of the things I have learned from Alt, and working with Alt, is that there is no shortcut. Seriously. The work is there, no matter what.

I busted my butt through the holidays (a DIY blogger's crazy season) and kept going through Alt. I had two parties to decorate for the Wednesday night dinners- TWO! It was nuts, but so awesome. I am so lucky to have the opportunities that I get (and super lucky for the friends that help set up for those parties). Each opportunity is so amazing that I feel immense gratitude and wonder how they even know who I am. I sometimes get overly excited and say yes to too many amazing opportunities. I had so much going on, including craft styling for a book? What?!? I am just now currently really planning out the year for Hank + Hunt. By the way, did you know March is almost over? Wow. So, it got me thinking, how did this happen? What could I have done better? 

The key to staying creative and retaining a smidge of freetime?

As you bring in new opportunities, let older ones go. Don't get me wrong, I love love love contributing. I am good at it. But there is only so much time in the day and when you start to get those great and fabulous opportunities, you HAVE to let go of others. The only way to make more hours in a day is to organize and prioritize.

I have loved every place I have contributed to, but I just can't keep them all. It happens and admitting to myself that it is okay, well it has done wonders. Contributing is a great way to get your name out there and dive in to the wonderful blogger community, I wouldn't change anything I have done. It has made me have the success that I have. I whole heartedly recommend newbies to do it. I just know that the time is right for me to start forging ahead.

It is okay to go back to mainly focusing on your content and your opportunities (and regaining a bit of a life back). If it isn't okay and I am breaking some sort of blogger law of success, oh well. I'm doing it anyway. Now, let's bring on Spring!

EASY DIY PAINTERLY WALL CONFETTI

A fun little twist on wall confetti, a painted version. Since you can customize the colors, this would work for a variety of events - from bridal showers to birthday parties. This wall decor can also be used as table scatter or grouped to form a table runner. Speaking of table runners, what if you made a coordinating runner out of a roll of black butcher paper? So many options! I love taking a simple technique and applying it to new things.

Check out the full DIY over on Julep!

A GREAT MODERN CALLIGRAPHY FONT: MATCHMAKER

Happy Font Friday folks! How are you? I'm super excited because I am finally feeling a little better. Which means today is the first day I have not started coughing the second I woke up. I've been coughing since Alt (no joke) and am a little worn out. But I'm thrilled because I get to meet Tristan, of Besotted, and Michelle, of creatocrat, this very Sunday and not scare them to death with my cooties. We will go gallivanting around the Fremont Sunday Market and it will be so fun! (yes, I have lived in Seattle forever and never, ever been) So the font I chose today is simple and gorgeous, much like the work by these ladies. Enter Matchmaker, a great new font by Angie Baldelomar, that also happens to be on sale.

It has great swashes that you can add to the end and beginning of each word, but the even better part is that it is 30% off right now! Take a look at the super long ones...I love this! Oh, and nice is pretty nice too.

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