Giveaway Winners, #365Patterns, Life

First things first, a few housekeeping items:

Rachel Rothstein was the winner of the French Blue Designs game pads!

Sarah Margaret was one of the Fitbook winners, and Anne Faraher was the winner of the other!

All winners have been contacted and prizes are shipping! Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks to French Blue Designs and Fitbook for providing such fun, spiral-bound products. (I do love a good spiral binding, don’t ya know!)

Now, on to some other randomness: the above image is my rare contribution to #365Patterns on Instagram. I actually have a handful done–I love, love, love making patterns, and I can knock out quite a few in one sitting. I need to be better about posting them, both here and on Instagram.

Thank you again to everyone who has left a comment, or emailed, in the past weeks. So many people have said such kind things, and it really does help the whole thing go down a little bit easier.

Despite the fact that I’m not running a stationery company anymore, things don’t seem to have slowed down in my neck of the woods. I feel like I keep trying on different hats, trying to see what will fit–some things are working, and some things aren’t.

Authenticate calls are working. Almost every single person I’ve done a call with has sent me a note saying how much it helped. YAY! Emily McCarthy and I have teamed up on several clients to provide both strategy and graphics for several clients, and that’s going really well (and it’s fun as well–stay tuned for some awwwesome brand launches in the coming months!). Emily and I have worked together for years, in several different capacities, so this is a fun new joint venture for us. We’re also really enjoying getting Kate‘s expertise on the web development side of things.

Intentionally generalizing, things at home aren’t working really well right now. My husband and I are both burning the candle at both ends, and we know this pace is not sustainable. We just don’t know what to do next. Neither of us can work any harder than we are at the moment–so the demand is to work smarter. Which, of course, like all good things worth pursuing, is easier said than done.

School for Kiddo is working. His speech improves when he’s in school, and I get a couple of hours to squeeze a conference call in. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to get both boys into a summer program, because frankly, as much as I love my kiddos, three of them for long periods of time is THE. MOST. EXHAUSTING. THING. I’VE. EVER. DONE.

A shout out, round of applause, standing ovation, and bravo to my sister, who has four. And to Karen, who has eight. I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT.

If I was to summarize what I think there needs to be more of in life right now it’s LESS. Less stuff, less people, less overhead, fewer responsibilities, fewer commitments. I look at my to-do list on a daily basis and ask myself what can be crossed off. There is a major, major, major fear associated with letting things go, turning down opportunities. There is a fear in saying that I want less, because I think fewer people might email, or ask to collaborate, but I know that something has to change.

On that note, the daily hustle has begun. I must run. There is a kitchen to clean, a hungry three year old to feed, and an inbox to empty. Life can be glamorous another day.