[i] LoveLife

All hydrated + stuff.

I wasn't all that artistically productive yesterday, but what I lacked in that area I totally made up for by drinking 30 litres of water from my wickedly cool ADD-LOVE SIGG bottles* and brainstorming all kinds of new ideas in my small brain. And making gluten-free corn bread. And doing laundry. And playing playdough. And toboganning with two toddlers and two dogs. And working with Penn on her walking. Oh, she made a lot of progress when I finally figured out the right bait. With Pilot - we used to hold up telephones and remotes and blackberries to get her motivated enough to walk to us unassisted. I'd been trying the same thing for Penn without much luck. UNTIL I TRIED MARSHMALLOWS. Watch out! She was running at me full tilt with the promise of a sweet treat (her + Norman both). Go Penn!

*Today is the deadline to donate to the Red Cross and have your donating matched my the Canadian government. (Thanks for the heads-up Jenn!)There were (at this moment) ninety-eight ADD-LOVE water bottles sold. I was really, really hoping to hit at least 100 bottles so that's kind of a bummer, but the good news is that I donated the proceeds ($200) and feel really good about that. There's still time - so buy a water bottle and I'll keep sending the $2 profit from each water bottle sold to the Red Cross Relief Fund for Haiti.

If you don't drink water, but you have an iPhone - you can also purchase an iPhone case designed by me and every ounce of the proceeds go to helping out in Haiti. All the proceeds. That's pretty cool. Uncommon is exactly that. All this goodness is making me thirsty. ;) (Touch + Blackberry Storm cases coming soon.)

BE-AWESOME YOGA MAT UPDATE: Ooooooh, they look GREAT! In about 6 weeks they will be printed on a new fangled awesome mat material and available for sale right here. I'll keep you posted. I am SO EXCITED. April 1st is the date to watch for.

Other good news: Maile's camera bags are IN and rolling! Yay! I am so excited about this!

Today: Oh, Friday. I am going to be rocking an errand circuit and eventhough it's dangerous I'm going to brainstorm good ideas while I drive around checking off important things on my TO-DO lists. Lots of cool projects coming up and I can't wait. My mom is coming to visit tomorrow. 2010 is officially radical and destined to get better. Three cheers for the Olympics! Three cheers for salty hot chocolate and snowflakes. Three cheers for the (long) weekend.

GO!

This is uncommonly awesome.

Let's talk about being inspired. January always finds a way to inspire my designer muscles. I love it. I have been having SO MUCH FUN with my ADD-LOVE collection of stuff. Heart really does make everything awesome. Desktop wallpapers, iPhone and Blackberry wallpapers, SIGG water bottles, pretty, pretty CUSTOMIZABLE ADD-LOVE prints. Love is for sharing. Oh, and the iPhone cases from UNCOMMON. Too cool.

Let's talk about the cases. I fell pretty hard for their site. It's beautiful. It's easy. It's $39.95 (US) for a beautiful case and they are so fast you will not believe it. But, what I really like about UNCOMMON is that I ordered a case (pictured above) and when I totally got SHAFTED on UPS brokerage and duties fees - UNCOMMON CONTACTED ME TO MAKE THINGS BETTER. Not only are they starting a new shipping system for Canadians (thank you UNCOMMON), but they are going to make MY above design available in their HAITI RELIEF COLLECTION (as soon as I get the proper stuff uploaded). ALL PROCEEDS TO HAITI RELIEF (through the Red Cross). No proceeds to me. No proceeds to UNCOMMON. VERY, VERY, VERY AWESOME. I heart companies that get it. Thank you Ryan from UNCOMMON.

THE GREAT NEWS: Watch for my design to show up in their HAITI RELIEF COLLECTION. Please buy it. Please help. If you don't have an iPhone - buy one anyways. You must know someone that does and it would make a great gift.

THE ALSO GREAT NEWS: Ryan from UNCOMMON has kindly, kindly donated an UNCOMMON + K.BARTESKI iPhone case for me to giveaway. (If you don't have an iPhone - now would be a good time to get one.) His generousity made me want to give stuff away, too. I will announce the ADD-LOVE BIG TIME giveaway officially on Friday. You seriously don't want to miss that.

Today: We are sitting amongst the remnants of yesterday's big blizzard storm. Snow everywhere. LOTS. The temperatures have plummeted. The girls and I are going to head out later on an adventure this morning. But, first - we are going to hang out in our pajamas and watch Winnie The Pooh so I can finish my coffee and get fully prepared to meet the day.

The first round of ADD-LOVE prints have shipped. AMAZING. They are so beautiful.

SO many good things happening. Next week is gearing to be amazingly creative around here. GO!

ADD LOVE part 5.2

  Yes. ADD-LOVE part 5.2. Two things to add to PART FIVE:

• PART 5.1 - MORE SWOONING. I had a design hard-on yesterday. I was basking in the afterglow of the SIGG bottles - and by glow I mean totally euphoria that something like that can be done (because COME ON THAT IS SO COOL). I heart the internet. I have been totally taken by WHITE lately so the white SIGG custom-printed bottles was a total gift from the Universe. Yesterday I stumbled on a ridiculously cool site (called UNCOMMON) that let's me print my own iPod Touch, iPhone or Blackberry Storm II cases I NEARLY HAD A HAPPY-STROKE. Pure, beautiful white cases just waiting for the perfect art. ART MAKES EVERYTHING AWESOME, don't you know? Thank you UNCOMMON for totally getting that. (At the moment - I'm not sure how to get my own designs available for sale without the buyer being able to manipulate the - so I'm not doing it. BUT IF THAT SHOULD HAPPEN - this might just be the best technology-meets-design find of the decade. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile - if you really, really have to have one - email me.) The image above is the case I design and ordered. I should probably mention that less than two hours after I designed, ordered and purchased the case - they sent me a YOUR-CASE-HAS-BEEN-SHIPPED email. Seriously. My heart melted a little. Check them out. (No, they are not paying me to say this. I'm just that jacked.) Props to UNCOMMON.
  
  
• PART 5.2 - CHARITY. The site that creates the sweet ADD-LOVE SIGG BOTTLES allows you to add a 'mark-up' to your products when you sell them publicly. The mark-up on the ADD-LOVE SIGG bottles is $2/bottle (not much), but I'm not in this for the money. SO. I WILL DONATE THE PROCEEDS FROM THE SALES OF THE BOTTLES TO THE RED CROSS RELIEF FOR HAITI. Hopefully that's motivation to go buy a few more bottles and spread the message and ADD-LOVE to the lives of a few more people. Do it. (As of last night - the donation total is $100. Very cool.)

Today: BUSY, BUSY, BUSY DAY. I'm working on ADD-LOVE print orders. (Order yours SOON because I'm only taking orders until 12:01am February 1st.) I'm trying to keep myself focused because I really, really want to scour the wild interweb for someone that will do custom-printed RUBBER BOOTS. Oh, that would kill me with love-happiness. First things first - breakfast with two inspiring women and a little work on my core. SWEET DEAL.

Happy birthday to the BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD! We've got a date tonight!

GO!

ADD-LOVE part five.

All of this LOVE is making me thirsty! I guess I need a tall drink of water from a very cool SIGG water bottle with the ADD-LOVE project designs on them. COOL. I can't decide which ones to get! I certainly wasn't intending on offering water bottles, but when I saw how nice they were - I had to do it.

Thank-you Sarah. She sent me an email yesterday and said 'you should design some water bottles because mine is so ugly' and I was off to the races. It felt good to be fired up and racing around. WATER IS SO IMPORTANT. You can find out more about the bottles (which come in two sizes) - and order them here. I am in love with the world wide web and all the insanely awesome things you can do these days. Thank you internet.

Today: We are going to the Children's Museum to rock around. We might go out for lunch if the mood strikes us and no one is having meltdowns. I am going to have a tall travel mug of coffee and soak in the moment of having two small, awesome girls. And then I am going to rehydrate from my ugly SIGG that will be replaced by awesome. Oh, I just LOVE January.

Order a bottle! Spread love.

GO!

ADD-LOVE part four.

Oh, LOVE! I got bit by two bugs this week. LOVE + DESIGN. I love design. I love LOVE. Those two things started snowballing and the love was flowing HARDCORE. I also love to share. The ADD-LOVE project has five parts - this is number four: a couple of KICK ASS customizable prints with all kinds of options and delights. Including FREE SHIPPING. [Above print: HIM+HER. Frame not included - but it's cool, eh?]

There are three different themes - so that means three different prints that you can customize to your liking. You can even choose the SIGNATURE PINK/RED or the SIGNATURE TREE. WHAT? YOU DON'T LIKE PINK? REALLY? Fine then. You can pick blue or grey OR EVEN ORANGE. I don't care - just add love and get LOVING. [Above print: YOU + ME. Frame not included.)

  Big SMOOCH. Love comes in all different kinds of shapes and forms. It's big and small. It's loud and quiet. It has names and I don't need to get into how important I think it is to see your name in vibrant, glossy, awesome print. Or in my signature brush strokes. cool. LOVE. It's there for the sharing and I want to help. [Above print: YOU-ARE-LOVED-BY-ME. Frame not included.]

ORDER ADD-LOVE CUSTOMIZABLE PRINTS HERE. Learn more about them. Oooooh, pick your own colours! Cool. I am only taking orders until the first minute of February 1, 2010. I am only taking orders until the first minute of February 1, 2010. I am only taking orders until the first minute of February 1, 2010. I'm not sure if I mentioned it -  but, I'm only taking orders until the first minute of February 1, 2010 so that I have time to create, print and ship before Dan and I GO ON VACATION TO KAUAI. (I also love Hawaii.)

Go here for details and options. Let's start giving love. Send this link to your girlfriend's husbands, boyfriends and lovers.

Today: I am just about done ADD-LOVE part five. It's all about SIGG. Oh, I just love love.

Big thanks to Elise + Paul for letting me use their love and names.

GO!

 
Today: I'm getting ADD-LOVE part four ready to roll so I can post it. Check back. ;)

ADD-LOVE part three.

GIVE MORE + MORE. I could never forget about the computer monitors desperate for some love motifs. PART THREE of the ADD-LOVE project is a set of graphics to get your screens glowing with love, too. Cool. Since there are literally 20 different sizes of monitors I decided to go with what Google told me was the "average screen size" and leave it there. Play with it on your monitor to get it right for you. Clicking on one of the graphics below will take you to a full screen option that you can save to your computer desktop and set as wallpaper. Voila!

 

And for the Blackberry users out there - wallpapers for you, too! This one was a little more complicated because of all the different sizes of crackberries. I also had no way to check that the good stuff didn't get covered by words and junk. So I did my best (these will probably work for other technologically inclined devices, too. Whew.) I don't know anything about Blackberries. Ask Dan - when his starts a buzzing I just freak out. 'WHAT DO I PUSH!!? WHAT DO I PUSH!!? "

For the 72xx series...

For the 71xx and 8100 series...

For the 8300, 8700 and 8800 series...

Good luck. For tips on how to set these files as your Blackberry wallpapers - go here.

Today: we are sledding and enjoying the outdoors. It's nice to be able to hang as a family - dogs included. The fresh air is awesome.

Tomorrow: ADD-LOVE part four. It's awesome.

GO!

ADD-LOVE part two.

LOVE SHOULD BE SHARED. I am a HUGE fan of Valentine's Day. Maybe not so much for the traditional mushy-gushy-boy-girl love stuff... but for the idea that LOVE IS SOMETHING TO GIVE. Totally. I can't help but think that the more we give + share - the more we make everything better. I'm also a HUGE FAN of the iPhone and iPod Touch so I'd like to GIVE + SHARE a couple of wallpapers. Feel free to use the following files to jazz up your phones (I'll try to get some formatted for Blackberry users, too!). Just click on the file and start loving (if you're not sure how to apply the wallpaper - instructions can be found here).

Today: we are here and there - running errands, having naps. I've got two more parts to this ADD-LOVE project that I will be posting this weekend. Check back.

GO!

ADD-LOVE part one.

HEART MAKES EVERYTHING AWESOME. This is just a small peak at a new mini print set called ADD-LOVE. It's a modern, edgy, happy set of small and large prints available for a short time around here. Cool. You can get a jump start by ordering here. I didn't get everything I wanted to get done yet, but I'm still rocking. Watch for a few additions to this project on the weekend. My favourites: watch for a customizable print, some cool wallpapers for your desktops and iphones and a whole lotta love. I heart Fridays. I heart winter. I heart coffee. ;)

Happy Weekending.