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Ele Annand and I went to high school together, and both spent a lot of time in the art room. She was about the second person I’d ever met named Ele (pronounced the same as my name), and was such a talented artist that I really looked up to her. After she graduated, I didn’t hear her name again until about 5 years later, when I picked up a beautiful print at a printmaking conference in Washington, D.C.

I was in line to buy it when I flipped it over and saw Ele’s signature, and I about fell over. Of all the prints (thousands) at that conference, it was so weird that the one I chose to buy was from Ele from high school. More than once I’ve tried to find Ele online, sure that she was up to something great. I never found anything, so imagine my surprise to find an email from her in my inbox this morning! She’s currently at Penland, and has a few gorgeous prints up in her etsy shop, Go Away Winter. They’d make great Christmas gifts, y’all!

You can find more work on her blog, Go Away Winter.

Clover & Bee is a wedding planning resource specifically for Midwest couples, but the site is full of vendors and ideas that would be useful for any couple planning a wedding. Be sure to check out C&B Daily and C&B Best of Midwest for vendor guides and lots of wedding inspiration!

Photo credits: top: Cathy and David Photography, bottom: Red Ribbon Studio (invitation design by Patrick and Meghan)

Thanks, Clover & Bee!

If you’re interested in becoming a Mint sponsor, please email me at mintdesignblog (at) gmail (dot) com for more info.

Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Margot will be here on Mint each Monday, and Ellie will be over on Pitch Design Union at the same time.

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Hello my friends! How are you this week? I got a real kick out your comments, and a new idea from Kate Miss’s suggestion on Pitch that I’m going to try. She says to tidy your work area at the end of your day, to which I slapped my forehead with astonishment. I can’t believe I totally never considered how important that is! And I know it will help me get in the groove faster the next day. So, high fives for that!

So, this week I’d like to talk about saying no. (Don’t worry, this isn’t some creepy lecture on morals, hahaha!) It seems to me that everyone has a different response on what they do when faced with a somewhat undesirable project, budget, client or due date. I don’t particularly have any hard and fast rules for this either. I seem to just say yes to everything that comes along in the interest of making money or if it’s a cool project, regardless of the client OR my existing workload. I’m still trying to decide if that’s the right approach for me. This interesting book I just picked up in New York, Art/Work, Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Career in Art offers a set of criteria which seems interesting:

1. Is the Money Good? (Let’s be honest, it can suck.)
2. Does it bring anything new to my skills or body or work? (Probably at least a few lessons.)
3. Is it personally fulfilling? (Seems to be either extremely fulfilling, or…meh)

The book says ideally you should try to strive for at least 2 of these when considering a new project. By this logic I’m pretty much operating off only one of these at a time. And there have definitely been some moments with clients when I regret the work a little, or I know I’m being way underpaid (grrr). I’m thinking I’ll slowly get better at gauging situations when this could occur, but I’m curious what your take on this is too. Maybe it’s best to do projects for free or only charge full-price? Have you experienced circumstances with a client that you’d now consider a deal breaker? Have you ever way overbid on a project thinking they’ll balk only to score it for a decent budget? Do you follow the “fast/good/cheap” model? Any other approaches that I’m missing?

Until next week, keep on keepin’ it real dudes. Real, real…

{Photo Credits: Oh How I Love You and Untitled from flickr user 9000.}

Chon emailed this weekend with such pretty photos from her wedding! I especially loved the centerpieces, which she made herself using painted Manzanita branches. This photo shows the centerpiece used as a place card holder. You can see Chon’s wedding blog with more of her wedding photos here, design blog here, and portfolio (with her invitation design) here.

Photo by Marcin Harla.

I hope you all have wonderful weekends! I’ll be going to a friend’s wedding (with Hello Tenfold programs!) and catching up on some design work. Here are some of my top picks from the blogs this week:

+ Sfgirlbybay found this pretty new vintage shop, Mushroom and Moss

+ Katie of Chellé Paperie made the most beautiful Thanksgiving party invitations. You can see photos on flickr, or the Oh So Beautiful Paper post.

+ I feel kind of silly even linking to these Design Sponge posts, cause I know you’ve seen them. But didn’t Amy Sullivan’s quilts (especially that top one) make you want to start quilting? And isn’t this DIY birch flower basket the cutest?

+ Bloggers/Designers Two Brunettes, Yes Please, Bumblesea, EVale Design, For Me, For You, Boooooooom, Chakra Pennywhistle, and A Cup of Jo kindly contributed to my Howdy Do It post this week on Pitch. The topic was how to get through the overwhelmed/stuck moments when you’re self employed (and there’s no one else to motivate you). Everyone had great tips! Margot had a great post here on Mint about guilt.

+ Sheaff: Ephemera made the blog rounds this week with pages of beautiful vintage ephemera to look through. Via Oh Joy.

+ I’m always crazy about the work from RIFLE, and this new invitation set is no exception!

+ Love these alphabet posters by House Industries via FPO.

+ Fun web design from Erik Marinovich via Design Work Life.

+ The beautiful photos above are by Whitney Deal of Darling Dexter and Oh Darling! Photography. Whitney’s found her true passion (fashion!) and is headed to New York to pursue it. She’s taking her photography business with her, so if there are any NY brides out there, be sure to get in touch!

+ Last week I fell behind and didn’t get to You Can Afford it Fridays on OK Great. Oops! To make up for it, I’ve got double the under $50 stuff this week, with a roundup of great hostess gifts and items for your table this Thanksgiving.

Last week I found out that my photographs are going to be shown on the Durham Art Walk next weekend, in Heather Garrett’s shop! It’s been a long time since I had a “show” with actual artwork, so I’m really excited about it.

Since I needed my photographs framed on a tight budget, we took a day trip to the Charlotte Ikea. It’s humanly impossible to leave Ikea without a few odds and ends, and these are the things we picked up in between framing and the register.

A few yards of fabric, some fabric scraps (for ornament making?), Christmas twine, some weird little Santas nisse and a string of beads for our very first Christmas tree.

I was checking out the galleries on the New York Times website today, and ran across a gorgeous one of architect Roald Gundersen’s home. I’m a little queasy about posting photos from the NY Times (sigh) so instead I looked up Gundersen’s architecture firm Whole Trees Architecture. These photos are not as good as the ones in the slideshow, so hop over and check it out.