Summer Recap '23

Well... I had every intention of keeping up with the monthly recaps and then Spring hit. Aka trade show season, followed by hosting back-to-back Wanderful Retreats in Italy, then traveling to Israel/Jordan, coming home to catch up on all the things and diving into prepping for the Holiday season. 

Since things are still hectic right now as I head into another Holiday season, I decided to put together a little summer recap on little things that have happened since the last recap in March. 

April:

Oh man. April was a blur. In prepping for my trade show, I painted a few dozen new cards and got my Holiday cards and 2024 calendars all ready so I could debut them at Noted in SF. I also got my first official catalog printed (with the help of my sweet sister friend Amal). The Noted show was.... just okay. I have since gotten a good purchase order from a buyer I met there so we'll see how the rest of my long game follow-up continues.

It was SO fun to see so many stationery friends in person, especially Kate (Bean Horse Car), Danella (McKinnon Collective), Ali (Love Through Letterpress), Emily (Pedaller Designs) and Sarah (Goyangii). These gals all saved me in one way or another and kept my spirits up during a few wild days. And a huge thank you to Amal who put together my catalog and helped me make SO many of my booth elements!

 

May:

The real kicker of all the trade show prep was that I left for Italy 10 days after wrapping up in San Francisco so most of my Italy retreat prep had to happen in April alongside the tradeshow prep! I was binding sketchbooks for my guests in between editing and painting all my 2024 calendar designs. The Wanderful Retreats were a blast! I had two very sweet groups of gals. The weather was a little funky during the weeks for it being early summer but it's always so fun to show folks around my two favorite spots in Italy. The little pool tucked on the right corner in the photo is at our private villa outside of Castiglion Fiorentino. 

June:

I kicked off the beginning of June with flying to Israel from Rome to meet my husband Louie for a little vacation! I've never been to this region so it was fun being the tourist for once and having Louie show me around his favorite neighborhoods and restaurants. And then a quick <48 hour trip to Jordan to camp in Wadi Rum, ride camels and visit Petra! I'll put together a larger post on my sketchbook Undici but you can see flip through videos of the first half in Italy and the second half in Israel/Jordan on Instagram. 

July: 

What actually happened in July? It was nice to have a calmer month. I scheduled a market right when I got home to help fight jetlag. I ended up being in the middle of an aisle but I love how the booth set up ended up! 

August:

Louie had to leave for his start up work mid month so it was mostly me and the cats. The month kicked off with Cat Con in Pasadena which was a blast! I was working on lots of custom client work this month too. 

September:

If I thought the summer was crazy... September said hold my beer. I had a lot of travel scheduled going into the month... and THEN I had a giant order from a stockist I met at Noted get placed so I had to figure out getting that processed and shipped in between being gone so much. I had a trip to Chicago for a wedding, then Utah to visit family and then up to the Bay Area to see Louie's start up pitch at the SkyDeck Demo Day. I wouldn't have been able to pull the order off without the help of Lisa (Rosie's Academy Foster Cats) and Evan (I Never Draw). They cat sat for me and helped assemble all the boxes for the boxed card sets while I was gone. ANGELS!

At the end of the month I got to meet Christina (Hello Harlot) for lunch and to grab a really fun new addition to my booth that I can't wait to bring along this busy holiday season once I get it repainted and filled with fun goodies :)