My poor blog and Twitter have been put by the wayside this week in order for me to focus on this week's two launches. The first of which, which wrapped up on Wednesday, will be released in a month or so. The second is above, a wonderful site, and maybe my new favorite project, that will be released on Monday.

What a wonderfully productive week it has been!

But, goodness. TGIF.

On Monday I wrote about my investing dreams and the first steps, and on Tuesday I discussed our method for choosing a online trader. Both of these were pretty easy, and the next step was basically a repeat of one of the previous.

Signing up for Scottrade was a lot like signing up for that online business savings account once I realized what I was supposed to be doing. It was the realizing-what-I-was-doing that took a bit.

When David made up his mind about which we'd go with, I immediately set up a Scottrade account, and almost immediately found out that that was wrong.

Lesson of the day: don't sign up for a personal account if your business is an LLC. There's a whole other account type and process for that.

You don't want to use a personal account for tax reasons. For several tax reasons, and as I'm hardly a professional, I won't even try to explain. Just don't do it.

Luckily I figured this out quickly, so I hadn't transferred in money or done anything dumb. I called my local Scottrade branch and talked with a real, live North Carolinian about opening up an account for business investing. I had forms to fill out (and in a very specific way, so ask questions!) and proof to send in. Unlike that savings account, scanning and emailing them in wasn't an option. Only fax and snail mail, and as I don't have a fax machine in the studio, I got to support the postal service, and this meant I had to wait.

Multiple calls to the branch prior to sending my packet of information enabled me to send everything correctly in one whack. Huge time-saver. 

Several days later, I called to confirm they had received my info and I was given my account number and temp password to my official business account (which I did receive in the mail a few days later). I was so excited, feeling all professional and grown up, but also jumping up and down like a child.

I signed in, and... roadblock. I couldn't transfer funds straight from my bank account; one of those great IRS perks of being a business owner. I had to support the postal service yet again by sending in a check. So, I wrote a check and sent it in.

I checked back everyday until my funds were in the account, and then - finally - I was ready to start trading.

I am writing this Small Business Investing journey series for those of you who are as clueless about this process as I was. Also, I really wish I had had someone spell out the process and the speed bumps to me.

Check back next week for info on how I chose my stocks.

Are you investment-savvy or just dipping your toes? I'd love to hear from you!

Yesterday I posted about how I began my small business investing journey with opening a high-yield savings account and saving money with earnest.

Once I reached a comfortable amount of funds in my savings (for me, comfortable is enough to support my family and I for 2 months, plus the money I wanted to initially invest) then I hired a financial consultant. I hired David.

I'm quite aware that I'm lucky to have someone like David as my partner. Not so much that he teaches Lily bad things like burping with her mouth open or the fact that he quite often has toilet-seat-up relapses, but definitely lucky that he is both willing and capable of helping me out with my business finances. I'm also quite aware that he's no professional, but he's cheap and he's learning. And I'm ok with giving him this role in my business, even if he loses it, as you can't grow without a little practice.

I feel I must interject here that I wanted little say in this part of the process. And that's kind of a big deal for me, as I'm a micro-manager and complete control freak. But I honestly told David to choose whatever he thought would be best, and having the ability to trust him with this decision made my life that much easier.

His first task was to find an online trader. David has invested in mutual funds before, but went straight through the fund, not through a trader. This was new ground for him and he spent weeks being meticulous (trust me, this is in his blood) about where we should put emmarie's money.

David's process: ask questions.

We (read: he) was in between Scottrade and ETrade, two very popular online traders. To choose, he chatted with them. Each site has online chat support, and he sat and talked with both, asking a gazillion questions, from fees to sign-on bonuses. That's one thing I love/hate about David: he's not afraid to kill you with questions, as long as he gets the information he needs.

In the end, we went with Scottrade. They offered the lowest fees and the greater number of mutual funds, which is something David found important. If we had had a larger initial investment, we might have went with ETrade, as they have a no-fee bonus when you sign up with an initial deposit of some certain amount, but we wanted to start out a little smaller, as we're both feeling our way into this.

Check back tomorrow for info on signing up with Scottrade.

I suck at finances.

It's not that I blow all my money, or I don't pay my bills, because I don't blow all my money, and I do pay all my bills, it's that finance, particularly investing, makes my face hurt.

Early this year I resolved to make business investing a top-of-the-list priority. emmarie Web Design is growing. A lot. I wanted to be smart with the money that was coming in and do grown-up stuff with it. Like open a high-yield savings account and [wait for it] buy stocks.

Really, finance is not my thing. But, lucky for me, at one time it was David's.

Though David is Hard-Core Science Man now, at one time he was Super Conservative Finance Man. Before I pulled him over to the geography dark side, he was a Finance major. And still received his finance minor, with his actual BS being in Business Geography. Who'd'a thunk it from Mr. Tree Man, himself?

To begin, several months ago, I opened a high-yield savings account. Returns on savings accounts these days blow. That's just how it is, so it will take some looking. Chances are: you're local bank isn't going to have fantastic rates. Mine didn't. Look elsewhere and forget about loyalty. Loyalty won't pay out in this case.

I went with ING, the online bank. David and I have had a joint personal account there for years, which is good considering how much we've moved around in the past 5 years, and how much we'll be doing so in the future. They also have fantastic returns (I say fantastic as in better than any I've found, not so much that you'll be getting killer returns) on savings accounts. So, I opened a business savings account there (they do not offer business checking) and that's where I've been stowing the extras.

A few things about opening an ING Direct business savings account: it's not easy. At least not as easy as walking into your local branch and talking to the sweet lady that's been depositing your checks for the past ten years. You have to gather paperwork - all of it - and fax/scan it in. If you have a DBA as I do, get ready for some extra legwork. Make sure your umbrella name is on your checks, statements, forms. I don't have my LLC on my checks, just my DBA, so that required extra paperwork and proof. Good news: they're phone support is astounding. Oh, and those returns are worth it.

Getting that savings account was critical. I now transfer money into it (and this will take up to a week or so with ING, as holding your money a few extra days is how they offer such great rates) whenever I get a chance, and am watching it grow.

Watching it grow until I got to the next step.

Check out tomorrow's post on my next step: choosing a stock trading service.

{image credit: ZokuHome.com}

Believe it or not, regardless of the title and the date, this post has nothing to do with Harry Potter.

It has everything to do with the coolest kitchen gadget on the face of the planet: the Zoku Quick Pop Maker.

I spotted these for the first time several months ago at Williams Sonoma. I left the store with new cookie cutters, but stared at the Zoku box with envy in my heart. Envy for anyone who could justify buying such a thing. And then I left without it.

Then I thought, "Screw reason!" I wanted one. That's reason enough.

I decided I would make myself into a Zoku owner. And then I kinda forgot.

Then it came birthday time and David wanted to know what I wanted. I keep a list of things I want on the computer. Things I run across online and things I run out of in my life. Like perfume (J'Adore by Dior for anyone interested in restocking me) and a keyboard (I'm ready to start teaching Lily to play musical instruments). Oh! And a fondu pot. A good one. And Zoku. I still wanted insta-pops.

A few days after my birthday, I got boxes in the mail. And in one of those boxes was a gift. And that gift was a Zoku Quick Pop Maker. And I sort of squealed like a little girl. A 25 year old, very little,  squeal-y girl. Don't tell David.

We've used it once already. David and I made strawberry pops after we put Lily to bed the other night. Pureed fresh berries up with a bit of sugar and water, poured them in, and had pops in 10 minutes. And they were YUMMY.

Then we stopped by a produce stand yesterday for kiwis and a large cantaloupe.

Popsicles anyone?

Edit: We made some after lunch, and Bug loved them. Strawberry teeth and all.

Strawberry puree with slices of kiwi. Perfection.

Several weeks ago I was approached by Bridget, a super-sweet lady who wanted a branding logo for her new food news site. We worked, and quickly found a branding logo that she loved and would suit her new site well.

We paired her logo with a fancy and super-simple new business card, still going with her news-y vibe.

And then the project was over. Or was it?

Just after sending the final files, Bridget asked if I could help her out with her site. Well, of course.

I've spoken several times about working with clients that I love. Clients who appreciate design, appreciate my opinion, and meet deadlines. Finding those three things in a client is like finding $20 in your pocket. Times a million. And Bridget is one of those $20 million clients, so when she asked for my help, I jumped to it.



And we created her a website. The requirements weren't much as far as design, as she still wanted to keep it clean, simple, and very much like looking at a newspaper. My job was the functionality, and boy did I pull some fun CSS tricks out of my sleeve for this. I used Adobe Business Catalyst's blogging feature, pulled feeds and formatted each one according to where it would be placed on the page.

Doing this gave Bridget easy site management, which was priority number one, and let me flex my coding muscles a bit more than I'm usually required. Now I get to add a fun site to my portfolio and I have a fantastic new client that I'm excited about working with again.

Check out The Daily Platter for yummies. And sign up for her newsletter. [I might be designing it next. wink wink]

Work has taken over my life the past few weeks. This summer I told David that I didn't want him working (there's nothing for him to do here in #podunkUSA anyhow) so that I could "haul buggy" on the fabulous projects I had booked.

So, work. Lots of work. And finally at the point where I can start sharing these with you, as I haven't had any big launches in several weeks. But they're coming.

This first launch is a branding scheme that I did for Form and Function, a landscape architecture business in California. We went through lots of design ideas before coming back to the very first one that I did. We tweaked the colors and fonts, to come up with the final project, and then paired it with a simple double-sided business card.

Very fresh. I like it.

Last May I made a list of 25 things that I wanted to do by the time I turned 25. Well, this weekend I hit my quarter century, with a birthday consisting of snuggling and watching cartoons in bed, and little girl mani/pedis. A whole day of laziness with Lily.

But now it's time to look at my list and see just how successful/unsuccessful I was. A recap:

1. Read 100 books.
2. Conquer standing-foward bend. Thank you, P90X.
3. Curly hair.
4. Lose 15 lbs.
5. Maintain my container garden.
6. Camp in the cold. Never going to happen.
7. Find a "house wine".
8. Volunteer/sponsor 3 local events.
9. Bake a cake from scratch.
10. Train for and run 3 5k races.
11. Go gem mining.
12. Bike the hill in front of our house with ease.
13. Visit every winery in a 100 mile radius. That's probably about 40+.
14. Completely organize my office/studio.
15. Buy more local food than grocery store food.
16. Rock climbing.
17. Minimum twice-weekly yoga. Better. P90X 6 days a week.
18. Find a signature drink that isn't wine or vodka.
19. Buy a bedroom suite.
20. Begin a serious European vacation fund.
21. Make a good wine.
22. Support a local artist with the purchase of a large and fabulous piece.
23. Mountain horseback riding.
24. Mat, frame and hang the watercolor Paris scenes I got from street artists in Paris... 7 years ago. It's time.
25. Kayaking.

My justifications:

1. I came pretty darn close. This has been a yearly goal of mine for years, and I always reach the 70s range. This year was no different. I have spurts where I'll down a book a day for a week or two, then I'll have a month or so when I hardly have time to read emails, let alone whole books. So I didn't quite reach this one this year, but I won't stop trying!

4. This is a touchy subject. I have struggled with my weight my entire life, and I honestly have the metabolism of a slug, which is hard when I live with a walking stick who downs a pint of ice cream a day, and then whines when he loses a pound. I may not have lost 15 lbs, but I did lose a lot of inches. I've lost fat and gained some muscle. Tony Horton is to thank for that.

5. The container garden didn't make it, but it was so not my fault. The garden made it for several months, going strong, until I spent three weeks in Alabama in October. I came home to crispy plants because David failed to water them. A single time.

6. This is just never going to happen. I hate the cold, and I'll be damned if you ever find me voluntarily sleeping in it.

8. Oh gosh, I tried. People in this town do not know how to answer emails or phone calls. I tried to sponsor Christmas in July and a disc golf tournament, both of which flopped. I'll try this again when I live somewhere with return-correspondance etiquette.

10. I've done a lot of training, but have had issues finding races that were within a reasonable distance, and weren't held during a time when we were out of town. This is going on my next list, for sure.

12. I tried this a few weeks ago and almost made it. I certainly made it much farther than ever before, but still couldn't quite make it. Arg.

13. I blogged about this one here. 

16. Still on my list. I've rock climbed before, just haven't had time in the last year to give it a go. But I'd sure like to see what these Hulk arms can do now.

18. No. It's vodka. The end. My favorite drink is a water and vodka with lime. Period. Second favorite is a raspberry mojito. So, rum, but vodka still wins.

22. We've done this, more or less. When I set this goal I had a $1200 artisan dining room table in mind, but we ended up getting a different dining room set, but have supported numerous local artisans on a smaller scale. Like the framer I paid $300+ to frame my paintings from Paris, and the leather guy I've given lots of business to for myself and lots of Christmas gifts. Or the photographer we commissioned to do some photos for David's research.

23. I had kind of forgotten about this one. I don't even know that I've seen places for me to do this. Maybe I'll add it to my next list too.

So, I completed half with flying colors. I half completed several more. Now on to my new list. What should I challenge myself to do this year?

I shared my favorite summer cocktail over on Piccola's After Hours section today. Trust me, this one's a keeper.

About 2 months ago I posted about my tattoo dreams. I wanted a tattoo and finally felt like I was a place in my life and with my decision that it would never be a regret. I have issues with making big life decisions (I don't even dye my hair, folks), but I felt I could make one, even if that decision was something as silly as getting a tattoo.

Whenever I thought one day several months ago about getting a tattoo, and came up with the idea of getting a compass, I knew that was it. A compass tattoo would be perfect.

But I didn't want some gaudy nautical compass scrawled across my arm. I wanted something somewhat delicate and feminine. A compass, but understated.

So I began designing, and came up with these:



I started doodling them on my left wrist, which is where I had planned on getting it placed forever, and everytime I doodled it got bigger. And bigger. And slowly started moving up my arm.

I knew at this point that it was time for me to talk to a professional.

As a picky designer, I searched states for the perfect tattoo artist. I googled tattoo artists in every state in the southeast, and must admit that I even googled Las Vegas, because, come on, how cool would it be to jet-set to Vegas to get tattooed. And then go see Thunder from Down Under.

I ended up going with an artist in Mountain City, TN, only an hour from here, at his studio called Mark of Cain, because he did the most amazing line work I have ever seen. And he has a respect for his craft that I really can appreciate. I mean, he won't even tattoo you without coming in for a consultation days before you get inked. He also does everything free-handed. No stencils at all.

I went over 2 weeks ago for a chat, looked at his portfolio and studio, and talked about what I wanted to do. We talked about shading options, as I was completely into either getting dotwork or an engraving style. He tried to talk me into getting regular shading done, and we talked about the overall design.

I went home that night, and for the next few days, designed and researched obsessively. I realized fairly quickly that I hated traditional shading, but didn't want the dotwork or engraving to age badly. And I came to the conclusion that I just wanted some really awesome, simple and delicate linework, and this is what happened: 


I took this into him last Thursday so giddy about the design, and full of carbs after pigging out on Cheetos to curb my anxiety. I sat for 3 hours while he drew this on my forearm (totally freehand) and then inked it with the smallest needle I've ever seen. He reinked 2 or 3 more times to thicken the lines. And he did a superhero job. I never in my life knew a human's hands could be so steady and accurate. He could probably be a fantastic surgeon if he ever desired a career change.

And so, I'm inked. And I'm so in love with my arm that I can't stop staring at it. It's the perfect size, in the perfect location, and was perfectly done.

It's a perfect visual representation of who I am. It's my branding logo, if you will. Part designer, part geographer. Mostly designer. Delicate, but in a place that, you have to admit, is a little daring and bad-ass. All very me.

Now the question that I keep getting: will I get another?

Most definitely. I don't know where, or of what, but this is not the end of my tattoo dreams.