Last week I participated in The Lab, a monthly gathering of Seattle’s creative community hosted by Velocity Art and Design.

Each month The Lab hosts a speaker discussing a theme. In this month’s case, there were a few of us speakers with a very simple theme - Bring & Brag! You can see the list of speakers who brought their creative work and bragged - it was quite the eclectic bunch and very fun.

Even better, you can download and listen to the podcast. There were some very entertaining presenters, especially right at the beginning. You’ll find me at the very end - time stamp 1:02 or so. I talk about how I started my business, the moment I became a designer, my first big custom project (complete with a tear-filled night in my workshop!), and a few of the books I’ve done.

Thank you to John and the Velocity team for a very fun night! I had a blast!

(Oh, and thank you to Megan from Not Martha, for your kind words about my brag session! Martha Stewart Weddings? Sign me up!)

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I’ve been a bit quiet on the posts this week but it has been anything but quiet around here. So here’s a bit of an update.

I met with a lovely local photographer yesterday about working on wedding books together. I feel like weddings are all around me these days! I handed off my first wedding book Tuesday (to a local client so I got to hand off in person…a rare treat!) and am itching to share photos of the book here. But I’m refraining. For now.

Instead (drumroll please) you can see it here during Wedding Book Week this September/ October! (exact date tbd) I’ll feature a wedding book a day - all very different styles - to get the creative juices flowing for brides past and present. I’ll even have my own wedding book done by then! (My husband says he’ll believe it when he sees it….) But really, I will.

Oh, and another fun book in the works…a 50th anniversary book. The family is making it for their parents, and we’re keeping it simple. The concept is 50 favorite memories + 50 photos. Simple and sweet. Very doable, even for a busy family.

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I just got back from a wonderful week in my very favorite place on earth: Tofino, Canada. (photo is me, overlooking Tofino)

You’ve heard me ramble about my family. Well, this place is the heart of us, thanks to my grandparents. My grandpa bought property here 45 years ago when it was considered a foolish thing to do and it took 2 days to drive here on bumpy unpaved logging roads.

But the whole family loved it. Especially my Papa. He relished the opportunity to live off the earth (fishing, crabbing, shrimping, clamming) and especially loved sharing this special place with others. Growing up, my brother and I spent countless hours with him learning to harvest the ocean while my Grama worked on her beautiful carvings.

 
(my Grama, Papa, and Aunt Christy with her homemade driftwood Tofino sign)

 
(and the sign, a bit weathered, but still hanging today!)

Tofino is where we family (yes, family as a verb!) and I was even lucky enough to get married there last summer (you can read a bit about our wedding here).

So now you know…I love Tofino!

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I just got off the phone with fun Liz who did a beautiful book of her mom’s story last Christmas. (her mom is one of the enthusiastic young ladies in photo)

We were catching up and I told her about this genealogy conference I’ve decided to exhibit at (my first ever) and how I’m kind of nervous. I mean, what is a genealogy conference like? Who goes to these things? Will I meet people who like my work? And I picture sitting there all alone at my little table, ugh.

Fast forward 2 split seconds…fun Liz agrees to attend the show with me! One more split second and we’re scheming about booth design, which restaurants to eat at, and how we’ll get started on her Dad’s story while we’re there. FUN!

That makes my day. My month. And the best part? I’ll finally get to meet this fun Liz. Until now, we’ve been phone friends only.

I love my job.

p.s. In case you’re interested the conference is in Philly, September 3-6. And yes we’d love to see friendly faces there. Am pretty darn sure Liz and I will be among the youngest there, so am now recruiting my other clients!

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(photo of ny public library via flickr by T.SC)

Am sitting here at NY Public Library for a final hour before heading home.

Something about a library just calms me. And, in today’s case, cools me. I’m hot and tired from lugging my heavy books all over town like a crazy book lady!

We had a fun trunk show last night and I met some great ladies I’ll get to make books for in the coming months. Very excited. For those in a shopping mood, here are some of the talented women selling their wares last night:

www.tracymatthewsdesigns.com

www.livandfig.com (am especially loving her personalized dogtags)

www.sobella.com

www.cakehousedesign.com

And of course, it was so great to see my lifelong friends while I was here. There is nothing quite like an old friendship.

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I’m taking a mini break this week in California to visit friends and remind myself what sunshine is all about!

I’ll be back in Seattle next week.

- k -

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