Category Archives: redlinedesign

Welcome When I Grow Up Coach Readers

Today I am blogging over at When I Grow Up Coach. Special thanks to Michelle Ward for working with me on this post and for sharing our creative message with her readers.

Don’t Let your 9 to 5 Stall Your Creativity: Tips You Can Do Over Lunch

If you are stopping over from When I Grow Up Coach, WELCOME.

Making time for creativity can definitely be a difficult task when you are just starting out. By trying something for a limited time frame, you are giving yourself the discipline needed to begin and as you will see, it will eventually become habit.

Eric Maisel, Ph.D., in his book:The Creativity Book: A Year’s Worth of Inspiration and Guidance, talks about making creativity your religion. He says creativity can supplement already existing faith such as Catholicism or Buddhism or you can create your religion out of creativity. He also says: “…creating is soulful work. When a person loses herself in the creative act she suddenly participates in the mystery of life”. In order to create a religion or participate in the mystery of life, however, one must be willing to begin… So with the tips I shared on Michelle’s blog today I encourage you to just BEGIN….we are all beginners at various things in our lives and to begin again over and over I believe is part of this mystery of constantly defining yourself and living the life you were meant to live.

Have a great day everyone….

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Welcome to the new redlinedesign® website

After 18 months of design, copy writing and web coding, the new redlinedesign® website is finally here. The saying in the above photo is certainly true of this process for me. I have loved every minute of it and have quite a few people that I wish to thank for their support, their time and their friendship throughout the whole project.

First, Jo Klima of The Darling Tree. My work with Jo started in October of 2010 with small shop updates, new logo designs for Create Explore Discover and the culmination of all the design for this new site. Jo is incredibly creative and worked tirelessly on the other side of the world to make the site so beautiful. Thank you, thank you Jo this could not have been such an easy project with out you.

Second, Brigitte Lyons of Unfettered Ink. Brigitte and I met through several on line courses which led to receiving her help with copy writing and PR for Create Explore Discover. We have developed our friendship even more and our business relationship and she has been instrumental in constructing the copy and PR for the site. I have loved every minute of our working together and know it is just the beginning, so thank you Brigitte from the bottom of my heart.

Third, Ashley Russell and Aris Bevins of Team A Design. Ashley and Aris have taken the ideas created by Jo and I and developed them into a useable platform for all our users. Seamless project, hard work and all around fun experience define the experience working with Team A. Thank you for late nights and getting the work done….it means a great deal to me that you took such great pride in your work and our project.

Finally, a huge thank you to my family and friends for all your support, tweeting and facebooking about my business, coming to my programs and just being there…..you are all incredible and I love you dearly. I promise I am done asking you for things for the moment!

So everyone….”love what you do and it will love you back”….such a true statement and one that truly defines this project for my business.

Please let me know what you think of the site and have a fabulous Tuesday!

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Welcome Levo League Readers

We are visiting over at the Levo League today. Caroline and Elizabeth were kind enough to share my advice for artists just starting their careers so please stop by and read:

I Wish They’d told Me: Advice for Artists Just Starting Their Careers

If you are popping over from the Levo League, welcome to redlinedesign®. I blog here about three days a week on topics that include: creativity, art and design. If you are interested in jumpstarting your own creativity please take a look at: Ideas to Jumpstart Your Creativity; and definitely sign up for the redlinedesign® weekly creativity newsletter.

If you have any further comments or questions on my post at Levo League, please leave them below and I will certainly answer them for you.

Have a great day….

A special thanks to Caroline and Elizabeth for your enthusiasm about our post and for providing such a fun experience working together.

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ALT Summit 2012 – The Personal Connections

ALT Summit 2012….4 Days in Salt Lake City at the Grand America Hotel; 38 pages of notes; 3 keynote addresses; 2 evenings of parties and not much sleep = one happy, overloaded with information, completely inspired person.

(the girls with glasses and pinhole press party)

In one talk about successful collaborations, Joslyn Taylor of Simple Lovely said: “women banded together make powerful stuff”..I believe this and throughout the week can truly say I met some amazing women and men that I want to share with you here…If you have a moment stop by their blogs and websites and see what they are up to….there are some pretty creative things happening out in the world that we should all get excited about.

First and foremost, reconnecting with Marisa from Creative Thursday…always inspiring and always makes me feel like I have a long lost sister. Thx Marisa

Victoria Hudgins of a subtle revelry; a new introduction in the taxi cab from the airport and a new Reno resident…sweet, creative and down to earth…Welcome to Reno, Victoria.

Hello… Dottie..another of my taxi cab mates who blogs at modernkiddo.com with her friend and third cab mate, Alix. These ladies were fun..just check out their blog you will see why….

EZ from creature comforts….who I have wanted to meet for a long time and truly enjoyed. She is a lovely person with a great sense of style and graciousness.

Catherine Just of Catherine Just Photography; my words to describe Catherine are “female  “; we sat next to one another at lunch and talked like we had known each other forever. Our shared friend, as we found out, Andrea Scher…. we promptly sent a photo of the two of us to her as she painted in Mexico with Flora Bowley.

Tracey Clark of Shutter Sisters and Big Picture Classes. I have taken a few courses with Tracey that I have shared with you on this site over the last year and a half and was excited to meet her in person. Tracey, Catherine and I took a photo together that you can see on my instagram feed in the sidebar to the right of the post. Tracey was as kind and down to earth as she is in her courses and a pleasure to meet in person.

Megan Auman – roomie of my dear friend Brigitte Lyons; Megan is currently creating a video a day that she shares on her blog along with her incredible hand made jewelry. Samantha Barsky of noteify also roomed with these two. Samantha creates awesome handmade cards and paper products and is based in San Francisco.

Samantha Melvin a 4th and 5th grade art teacher that really inspired me during our conversations. While we were at ALT Samantha shared that she had won the National Arts Educator of the Year Award….

(art credit: fifiduvie; sponsored gift: cargoh)

I received this piece of art from fifduvie in a gift provided by cargoh at one of the lunches. These words really spoke to me and in describing the next people I met, truly bring adventurers to mind when I think of them.

Bradford Crowder founder of The Bedlam of Beefy. Bradford was kind and generous and knew my name….He also checked on me as I was worried about the fires here in Reno while I was gone. A true gentleman (thanks for being so kind, Bradford)

and last but certainly not least….the founders of Kinfolk Magazine, Nathan and Amanda. I was blown away by the creative genius behind this magazine and the generous and down to earth persona of both these individuals. It was a pleasure to meet you both and to view your incredible magazine.

(artists from minted)

In addition to the people I met, the speakers were top notch as well. A keynote from Ben Silberman of Pinterest; a lesson in videography from The Girls with Glasses Show and making art with sycamore street press were highlights of my time at ALT.

For me, while talking about the internet, blogging and business the main theme I gathered  is to be yourself, share unique content and a unique voice and most importantly something I have always believed in:

“In design, people want the person” – Maxwell, Apartment Therapy.

Get out there and meet your audience…..

Have a great week everyone and I personally can’t wait until my next trip to ALT…..

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Welcome 2012

2012 has arrived officially and we are now 1 and a half weeks into the new year. Last week I was on vacation in my home town of Chicago and really tried hard to put aside all technology for the week and enjoy friends and family. It was truly a relaxing and enjoyable week. During the week I was able to reflect upon the past year and think about my goals for the upcoming year, 2012. Do you reflect on your previous year and give yourself a pat on the back and a celebration of your accomplishments? I have learned over time that this is a very important practice especially when you are in business for yourself. No one will do it for you, so you must embrace it and CELEBRATE!

My word for last year was REST. I truly did that as much as I could and realized how important that is in my life moving forward. I feel that I have become better at allowing myself to take rest and enjoy my restful time.

In addition to rest, I truly ventured outside my box this year with new and exciting business ventures, painting courses and photography. I participated in the 2011 Sketch Book Project and my personal sketchbook traveled around the US with approximately 10,000 books from around the world. I painted and completed (4) paintings with Mati and Lisa through Get Your Paint On and have three more paintings started with a second round of classes. I developed my photography skills, through Super Hero Photos and Andrea Scher and also with August Break 2011 with Susannah Conway. On the business side of things my photography is receiving lots of local exposure through art fairs and online in my shop; I am also beginning to create some custom jewelry pieces with my original photography thanks to support of my friends Jen and Liz.

My most outstanding accomplishment of the year would have to be the inaugural year of Create Explore Discover Art Retreat. A culmination of 25+ years in the interior design field allowed me to combine all my disciplines and planning skills and develop a retreat that will be a solid force in the coming years. The location, the teachers and most importantly the participants left energized and excited for a little creativity and adventure in their lives and enjoyed a great weekend away in one of the US’s best kept secrets – Lake Tahoe.

As I move into 2012 my mind is shifting to the word HOPE. Hope means many things to me but most importantly it conjures up thoughts of doing amazing things for amazing people and giving back to a community that really is at the heart of this word. I hope you will join me on a journey of HOPE in 2012, step outside your box, help another achieve hope in their own lives and most importantly enjoy the process while doing so.

It is my honor and pleasure to have such wonderful, creative and spiritual people in my world and I am truly blessed to have so much support around me. Here’s to HOPE and joy in 2012!

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august break 2011 – day 31

Today marks the end of a month long photographic journey called August Break 2011 with Susannah Conway.  During this month, for me, it was a time of total photographic reflection, travel, new school year for my children and saying goodbye to dear family friends.

The beginning of month was filled with travel to San Francisco, summer swim meets and travel to beautiful New Hampshire. All shared here through my photos. It was also a month of chance moments with my iphone and how I could use  the instagram app as a tool for telling my story. Here is the story through my photos. August–a time for endings and new beginnings…..

group one: in my life: san francisco; swim meets; peace; reno; anthropologie; flowers; mountain living

group 2: in my travels: airplanes; more flowers; art and craft; good food; family games and thoughts over moonlit nights; good hair products and good hair salons;

group 3: in my heart: local festivals; tastes of good brew; the sky where I live; more flowers; more craft; back to school; reflecting on good friends and family, change and incredible sunsets…..

What will I do now with this collection of photos? I will be creating a photo journal that will be the basis of the class I am teaching at create explore discover this fall. I will also be learning more about how I see through a special class with Susannah Conway being held at the teahousestudio in berkeley, california. I’ll be telling you more about it in the upcoming weeks. Hope you have enjoyed August Break 2011 as much as I have…..

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