dear dave,

cards are done!!!!!! At least the samples are done!!!!  At least the samples are sent to the printer!!!!

fingers crossed.  i put a lot of work into them-- but I really think they will be great.  Work will pay off.  I think cards are a natural fit, and I think I've found a good path - printing, paper, envelope, size, quality, content, uniqueness, packaging.  It should all be there.

In the end, almost everything depended on envelope size.  Funny.  I was full steam ahead with PSP, then realized their sale was pretty sucky, their sizes didn't fit regular envelopes, and it was an all or nothing deal -- less designs, much more money upfront, tons of money for proofing, and no (cheap) way to reorder.

So glad I found my way out, and back to VP.  Once I made the leap to the smaller size card, everything else fell into place.

Feel good about adding more designs, and growing it out.  There are TONS of possibilities.

Should be getting samples next week.  I'm super excited to move forward with them!

THANKS to all my focus group members (if you even read this blog)!  They were very helpful in deciding on designs, and finally steering away form all the bear, owl, wilson ones.  In the end I realized I wanted the cards to reflect my prints and shirts.  VARIETY!  So that is happily where I went.

I need to quickly note the earthquake, so years from now I can look back and remember.

I was at my desk, and felt the building shake.  I made the leap in thinking the building was collapsing, and ran out as fast I could.  I remember stumbling down the stairs.  It was so surreal.

Once out, we all looked back at it, then around, and realized everybody down the street was outside too.  Then news of the earthquake came.

SO WEIRD!  Took me 30 minutes to calm down.  My body was flooded with adrenaline.  I never ran so fast!