Mint

incredibly beautiful modern ceramics by French artist Nathalie Dérouet.

{via king studios via elephantine}

Did you check out my DIY business cards post over on Pitch yesterday? Lots of good ideas, and as promised, here are my handmade business cards! They’re digitally printed on some paper left over from a past project, and then patterned masking tape and string were added afterward. Looks like I’m ready for Alt!

{These will be added to the shop next week, in case you’d like a set of your own!} Sorry, these are no longer available for sale!

© Ellie Snow

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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I’m so excited that you guys like the mixtape idea! I definitely tried to stay true to it as much as a I could, though a few times I found it hard to clear the noise enough to buckle down and give it my best for 40 interrupted minutes. I’m sure the urge for distraction will always persevere to infinity, but I think I managed to keep it in check for the most part.

For example, this week I:

- Sent out 4 proposals for new projects (fingers crossed for me buddies, my February’s looking grim otherwise).

- Cooked 3 new recipes from this book: the most delicious garlic bread I’ve ever had, refried beans with cinnamon & clove (made excellent burritos), and white beans with rosemary on greens.

- 1 inedible attempt at these pancakes. 2nd attempt with a different recipe yields ok results. Apparently I have issues with pancakes!

- Wrote only 4 blog posts.

- Spent time with friends & boyfriend.

- Probably far too many hours internetting, iChatting and emailing.

- Slept 12 hours, two times. I can’t decide if that was indulgent or necessary.

- 2 loads of laundry and kept the house mostly clean.

- For the first time, reached over 1000+ posts in my google reader. It stops tallying once you get past a thousand. I had no idea!

- Discovered the continuous play button on Hulu. Um…Countless hours catching up on 30 Rock and The Office.

- I started running again after a 6 month hiatus. (HUGE!) Ran a total of 9.6 miles. Outside. In 30 degree weather.

- Worked a total of 32.75 billable hours.

Overall I think I did pretty ok! Can’t win ‘em all, but I did manage to accomplish some stuff I’m proud of and kept a good balance between everything. I’d say a high five is in order right?

What about you? How did your week turn out?

{photo credit: Happiness in Business by Bud Caddell}

Who doesn’t love a good ampersand? Now you can get your daily fix here, on this new daily ampersand blog. (Just click on your favorites to find the typeface they came from!)

Mint’s newest sponsor, Up Up Creative, is an esty shop full of pretty paper goods. If you can imagine it, Julie makes it… from wedding stationery, to cards, hangtags, calendars, address labels and more. You should also stop by the Up Up blog for fun, behind-the-scenes reading.

Thank you, Up Up!

If you’re interested in becoming a Mint sponsor, please get in touch by emailing mintdesignblog (at) gmail (dot) com, and I’ll be happy to give you all the details.

This has been a long, but thankfully, busy week and I’m so glad the weekend is almost here. We’re hoping to finally buy a new bed and to tie up some loose ends before heading to Salt Lake City for Alt Summit!

Durhamites, maybe I’ll see you out for tonight’s 3rd Friday art walk?

+ Thank you to Know What and Where for interviewing me and including me in their stationery directory.

+ Carolynn of Two Brunettes generously offered a Valentines Day card download over on Ruffled!

+ My You Can Afford it Friday round-up is live on OK Great. This week, calendars (many of which are on sale!).

+ I love the vintage compacts Please Sir found.

+ How I’d love my house to be as minimalist as this one on Mustard & Sage. Speaking of interiors, I’ve been gathering some favorites and adding them to a flickr set. Fun to see them all in one place.

+ Margot gave us a mix tape for this week’s Howdy Do It! If you missed it, you can find it here.

+ I did it. It felt kind of silly, to be honest, but I took a picture of today’s outfit for Bloganistas. I’m wearing a new, hand-me down dress & belt and feel cute if I do say so myself. (By the way, I highly recommend clothing swaps with your girlfriends. The best shopping trip is a free one!). You can see Darling Dexter’s Daily wear here (I always look to her for creative clothing inspiration!) and more bloganistas here.

+ Kim Ludy found Truck Furniture. We both wish we could furnish our entire houses from this place!

+ I love Jessica Hische’s new blog, Mostly Useless Things I Want.

+ I want to vacation (OK, live) in these treehouses Joanna found.

Hope you have wonderful weekends!

[photo via lonny]

hmm, speaking of beautiful pottery…

hannah of honey & jam takes gorgeous pictures of pottery and other things. you can purchase them from the honey & jam etsy shop.

{via genuine jackie}