Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Looking for something for your mother or her baby to be? Check out the Blue Buildings Etsy shoppe for pacifier clips, plushies, vintage-inspired coin purses and more!

Etsy Shoppe is Open!

Over the past few weeks, I've been sewing, designing, printing and painting in order to prepare for the opening of my Etsy Shoppe. I'm proud to say that it is now open for business! Here is a small sampling:

Website Launch | NW Best Meat Company

I launched the new website for Northwest Best Meat Company this weekend. Here is a preview, but you can view the full site here. The best thing about web design is that there is always something new to be learned. I certainly enjoyed building this one, and I hope you enjoy it too!

NW Best Meat | Brochure

Front Cover

Back Cover

Inside

I had a lot of fun with this design and am very pleased with my experience with an offset printer! That was one heavy box of printed material! I can't wait to get going on my next projects. Thank you to all of my clients for making this such a delightful journey!

New Client: NW Best Meat Co

One of my favorite things to design are logos. It's a lot of fun to get to know a new company and then create the "face" of that company, which is the first thing a customer will usually see! I love that it can set the tone for services, and also become a familiar reference over the years.

These logos were created for Northwest Best Meat Company, a Spokane door-to-door meat delivery service. The "flame" logo was used to create magnetic decals for their delivery van, and the logo below was used to create brochures, business cards, and will even be used on their website, which I have scheduled to launch on January 28th!

Tune in tomorrow for photos of the brochures and business cards!

Logo for Van Magnets

Simple B&W Logo for all other Branding

New News That's Newsy

I'm pretty darn excited to be able to announce that my new website is up and active! I'm also sporting my official brand identity as Blue Buildings Design with a new logo. I suppose you could say that I'm open for business!

Blue Buildings is a wonderful opportunity for me to not only sport my freelance skills, but to learn, grow, and inspire. Creativity is a unique gift that anybody can give themselves, and I feel it's extremely important to love yourself enough to give that gift of happiness to a very important person - YOU. Not only that, but you have the option to give your art away and let others enjoy your super-awesome-joyful-overflow.

What amazing creative creations have you been working on?

Aside from getting Blue Buildings going, I'm working on writing a children's novel as a NaNoWriMo participant and am about to hit my 5000 word mark. Granted, writing isn't about the numbers, but it's certainly a great motivator, and a lot of fun to be around other writers shooting for the same goal. Writing a novel was a childhood dream of mine, and I'm happy to have this time to get it moving!

Reception Invites

I had fun making these reception invites for a friend of mine (personal information has been blurred out for privacy). The project started with her favorite colors: brown and blue, and the goal was something simple, yet elegant. I drew the vines myself and flourished them up with some understated typography. Given a limited budget, we decided that postcards would be the most cost-effective, yet engaging, approach.

Now I'd like to make some birthday invites or baby announcements; that would be so much fun!

 

Updating an Oldie

One Christmas, many years ago, I received a pine hope chest. The blank slate was too tempting, and I decided to paint it up when I was about 12 or 13. The result was a very 90s celestial style top and a dreamy sailboat on the front. I've been lugging this thing around for years, hiding it in storage and finally decided to give it a new, more neutral, look. The result is very refreshing, albeit....neutral. Perhaps if inspiration strikes again, I'll add more to it, but for now, at least it can be displayed again!
(Sorry for the poor photo quality. I seemed to start and finish this project when daylight disappeared.)

Before (Front)

Before (Top)

After (Outside)

After (Inside)

Tuesday Doodle

By all means, it makes no sense, but it was fun. :)

Apples & Oranges for Lemons

Pasta Dinner

For dinner, I made a Spinach Pasta with Heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil. I love colorful dishes, and this one needed its picture taken!

Basil Plant & Heirloom Tomatoes

Sliced Tomato in Deep Reds

Spinach Pasta with Fresh, Colorful Ingredients