Sometimes I get really tickled at what I look like when I'm working late. Like tonight.

It's almost 9pm on a beautiful Friday night, and I'm sitting in front of the computer trying to finish some projects up.

Occasionally I'll flip on the Photo Booth and have a chuckle at myself, as I'm usually not wearing makeup, my hair is a hot mess, and my glasses are never on straight. Or maybe my face is just crooked.

Anywho, I thought I would share the chuckle.

I'm hoping to scoot away from the computer by 10. I wonder if it will be possible...

I recently launched a new site for Found Studio. Caroline, the brilliant designer behind this stellar vintage-inspired jewelry, came to me looking for a fresh new branding scheme and an online venue for selling her one-of-a-kind pieces.

She had few stipulations, and encouraged me to run rampant with creative freedom, but did want to incorporate this bee into her brand. It's a graphic that she has been using, and as she loved it, she wanted to keep it around. I thought this was a fabulous idea, as the little buzzer is quite cute.

The product of this freedom is seen above and below in the vibrant branding logo and matching website. I really am in love with how fabulous this turned out.


The website design was loaded into Business Catalyst to provide Caroline with the most comprehensive online business interface, and she was able to fill in all the content herself. I think the results are wonderful!

In honor of this exciting new launch,

Caroline has agreed to offer a gorgeous pair of earrings to one lucky giveaway winner!

Here's how to enter (be sure to leave your email address!):

1. Visit found-studio.com's fancy new site and find your favorite piece. Come back and tell us what it is.
2. Follow emmarieDesigns on Twitter, and come back and let us know.
3. Follow ShopFoundStudio on Twitter, and come back and let us know.
4. Reblog and/or Tweet this giveaway and come back with a link.

This giveaway will end at 11:59 pm est on Thursday, August 5th. The winner will be picked via randomizer.org and contacted on the morning of Friday, August 6th.

Best of luck!

It's no secret that I love wine. Not only do I love to drink it (because trust me, I do), I love the history, process, marketing, everything about wine. The bulk of my undergraduate research was in wine geography, which produced a paper that got me invited to speak at a national geographer's conference in Vegas. I love wine. And I've fallen in love with Wine That Loves.

Oddly, I'm not in love with this wine because it's tasty, as I haven't even tried it. What I'm in love with is the marketing idea. Seriously genius. 

The bulk of Americans are intimidated by wine. They don't know how to choose a wine, serve it, drink it... each varietal has it's own specifications, and even after my years of, dare I say, research, many things still elude me. I've taken a wine drinking motto after the Life is Good motto. I drink what I love, and love what I drink. I try not to be too picky about the fact that I'm serving Sauvignon Blanc with grilled steaks or a yummy Norton with alfredo pasta. (I'd drink Norton with cereal for breakfast if no one where watching. Yum.) But this is largely because I'm comfortable with my choices, and many people aren't.

This is where Wine That Loves kicks in. The front of the bottle isn't muddled with vineyard names, growing regions, vintages, or varietal names. Nope, nothing confusing. Just what food the particular wine is paired well with. Freakin' genius.

Of course, the first thing I'm thinking is where are all those things, but for a lot of folks, what they should serve a wine with is all they care about, and this fab company has jumped right to that gun and fires it in your face. "Serve this bottle with pizza!" Can't get much more straight-forward than that.

So, I'm in love with this marketing idea. (Brought to you by the same brand-ers behind Walmart, Nissan, and McDonald's.) I just wonder if the wine is tasty...

{image credit: Wine That Loves}

I love berries. And since the Farmer's Market has been overflowing with berries, and I can't seem to walk past a berry without buying it, our fridge is also overflowing. Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries. [And the snozzberries taste like snozzberries.] Ahem.

Well, the strawberries are actually from the grocery store, as their no longer in season here, but sometimes we have to bribe Lily with strawberries in order for her to eat her food or clean her room, etc. It works, so we keep them around.

So, in order to keep from throwing away this mountain of berries that inhabits our fridge, I've taken out the blender and made some yummy, and very good for me, smoothies. They're really easy, and you can just throw in whatever you've got on hand.

This particular one had a handful each of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, followed by about 1/4-1/2 a cup of milk. Blend it up and yum!

So, go blend you up some yummy berries. Cheers!

Here are some of my most recent creations... 

From top to bottom, left to right:

1. Beck-n-Call Errands found me on Etsy and originally wanted a caricature logo with lots of details and elements, and after some consulting and taking another look at their business plan, we decided on something that was a bit more professional than their original vision. The logo is still as fun as their personalities, but instead of caricatures with date books and grocery carts, we have a simple understating logo with elements of the DC skyline (an unfaultering element) and bright colors.
2. J for Julie is a logo for a handmade jewelry line. The client wanted to incorporate a tree, with a bit of a whimsical feel.
3. SugarStitch is a children's boutique with one of the best visions I've seen for a children's boutique in a long time. This logo was so fun to create, and I'm starting some coinciding print objects this week. 
4. Addy's Way is a custom photo jewelry line. The logo was inspired by vintage road signs and the client's love of Tiffany's. Such a fun project to work on.
5. Design Your Life Simple is a line of planners that have customizable elements. The vision is spectacular, and giving the new line a face was a really fun project for me.
6. The Teacup Tots project was more of a tweak than an actual design. The client came to me with a hand-drawn logo and I turned it into a vector brand, with added touches. I'm also working on some print products for this project.
7. Fresh Sugar Cosmetics makes mineral cosmetics and came to me wanting a brand solution that was fresh (obviously), and yet had a bohemian feel. The product was a logo with fresh (can I say it again?) typography and a hand-drawn flower.
8. The Lucy Diaries is one of my favorite creations to date. Mostly because it is unlike anything I've had the chance to do. The Lucy Diaries is a bath and body product line with a clear vision of who Lucy is (I actually got a character sketch, and I loved it). It was my job to portray Lucy, and thus the line, in a branding logo. The result was this fabulous logo with intertwined cherries, dark colors, and typography with a slightly vargas feel. Luscious.
9. Our Little Beehive is a logo for a blog and Etsy shop that's been in my arsenal for a while, and had yet to be released. OLB is a diy home makeover blog for a couple who are, wait for it, making over their home. It's a fun blog, and the shop is pretty awesome too. The logo needed to be simple to translate through both the blog and the shop. So sweet.

Told you it wasn't pretty. For weeks I worked from a wire rack with zero storage and sat in an old computer chair that David still can't let go of (though he's considered it after seeing my shiny new one). I honestly almost lost my mind and practically ran to the desk section of IKEA when we were finally able to return to retrieve the forgotten desk.

Now I have a shiny new bookcase, desk and chair, and a space that's all my own. Well, mostly, until I have to chunk some lingering thing of David's into the closet. Ha! I have my oil paintings from Parisian street artists on display where I can see them everyday, my birthday orchid and my Karen Faulkner print all on display. I have a desk big enough for my favorite piece of technology, my iMac, and my office is right beside the patio door so I get tons of natural like, which I enjoy as much as the orchid.

I thought that living in a house whose interior is entirely of wood would be a huge designing challenge. Especially with my long-lived desire to paint everything I can get my hands on, but it's definitely starting to grow on me. My love for my studio is proof of that.

David spent a little over a week earlier this month on a research trip to Montana. Being a geographer definitely has it's perks, and traveling is my favorite. Since beginning our geography-ness, David and I have been able to travel to some places that we might not have ever had a good enough reason to travel to.

For example, a couple of summers ago David got to spend several weeks in Costa Rica, last year we got to present research at a conference in Las Vegas, and then earlier this month David got to go to Montana.

Here are just a few photos from David's trip, including my favorite: the bear scratch. I'm glad he didn't photo the bear poop as well, because I very well may have posted it.

Freakin' yum, right? My latest completed project was definitely the yummiest I've ever worked on. A very fantastic lady from Velvet Cream Bakery contacted me some weeks ago to create for her a custom logo design, as well as a new business card and Etsy package.