hi 2014!

Now that the year is rapidly coming to an end I've been running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything ready to start the next year relaxed, organized and confident with my game plan. I'm sure that people who know me are aware of my planner obsession (I can't even function without one) and I REALLY take planning seriously. Think color coding, alphabetising, sticker coding and the whole nerd shebang, that's me.

I've been writing everything down on a piece of paper for the last 3 months because I couldn't find a planner that was exactly how I needed it to be and it's been a disaster. I am 100% sure that's why I've had the slowest couple of months in years lately. I can't seem to get everything in one place and I just forget to do things because I can't really see what needs to be done and what things are a priority. I've been loosing my mind and feel my brain and my whole body becoming lazy with everyday that goes by. I confess I haven't had one ultra productive day in weeks!

It seems to me that I was just prepping to launch my new collection weeks ago when in reality it's been a few months now, and now suddenly it's christmas and I need to get a million projects going for next year. I decided I needed to try and solve this situation. I tried using Evernote, Google calendar, even a sticky notepad and nothing worked so I took it upon myself to get through this year no matter what and look for a planner that would keep me from falling into this deorganized whole I've been living in.

This are my top picks:

1. Blue Sky's Sugar paper black confetti planner because who doesn't love a black planner with a twist?

2. Kikki.K Large Daily Planner is so pretty to look at.

3. The Simplified Planner by Emily Ley is THE most perfect, functional, inspiring, planner i've ever come across in all of my stationery loving life. Seriously kids, it's amazing and Emily's story is so inspiring. I browsed for hours and found that the has some hardcore fans and I could totally relate. She redesigned this years planner and is better than ever. I snatched this on CyberMonday morning while she was having a great discount but sadly it is sold out now. She will be restocking mid-december I think so there's your last chance!

4. Kate Spade 17 Month Planner is great! I mean look at that design. It screams Kate Spade. (Sold out on Kate Spade's website but constantly restocked over at bloomingdales so be sure to check that out)

As a bonus I just had to feature 2 other planners. They are different and serve to 2 different types of people.

5. Julia Kostreva's 2014 daily planner is so minimal and fun for the person that doesn't have a bunch of things to attend to and is looking for something simpler.

6. Whitney English's Day Designer Planner. Now I've been coveting this little one for years but sadly the shipping is a little over the top for international orders ($50, while the Simplified planner was just $24 for shipping) It is great for designers and other freelancers to really give a little more though about where do they want their business to go. It makes you focus on goal setting, project developing and prioritising. 

I will be sharing a post about how I color code my planner and stay on top of things with my planner later on.

What do you use to stay organised?

*This post does NOT contain affiliate links. I'm just sharing my honest opinion about something that is important for me.

My favorite corner of the web: Stationary edition

Well hello there! I'm back with another edition of 'My favorite corner of the world wide web' to let you all know about my latest obsession. I found Pei Design a couple of months back when I was browsing Pinterest for new stationary (seriously, how is this shop not super famous?). I specifically wanted a notepad and a small notebook to use for scripture study but was having such a hard time steering away from Rifle Paper Co notebooks. Now don't get me wrong I love me some Rifle Paper designs, specially the notebooks but I wanted something different since Ana Bond's designs are everywhere *ahemmm* copycats *ahemmm*

Anyways, I found this store and fell head over hills for it in a second. Everything is so femenine and colorful and pretty it makes me want to buy everything. I had literally like 20 tabs opened with everything I wanted from that store but soon enough I found myself thinking what I always think when I buy stuff online "I wonder what's the deal with their shipping? Do they sip internationally? How much is it going to cost?" I wrote them an email and this is what happened.

*instert angels singing* I got an email back from the owner herself a few hours later not only telling me that she did ship internationally but also that she would give me a 15% discount so I could cover shipping expenses and it wouldn't add up to an insane amount of money. I emailed her back to ask if I could pay via paypal (tough costumer, i know!) and sure enough a couple of minutes later I had completed the transaction.

A couple of days later I received my order. I can't even begin to tell you how in love I am with what I purchased. Not to mention the beautiful packaging! I die.

I whipped open the Confetti notebook (pictured above) and started examining it. I do take my stationary pretty seriously! It is 3.625" W x 7" H and has 188 pages so it's pretty portable and light. The gold foil on the spine and first page are divine. The paper is so white and thick, it holds the ink perfectly and the bleeding is minimum, It holds micron pen ink perfectly as well as colored pencils and soft water based markers. Washi tapes also hold perfectly! Stabilo point 88s do bleed a little bit though so I'm just going to keep it simple with my journaling materials. 

I will be sharing pictures of my journaling and the inside of this amazing little notebook soon here on the blog so in the mean time I urge you to go take a look around this amazing stationary shop and get something for you or for a friend. I can promise you won't regret it!

3, 2, 1 action!

Finally! I can't believe this day is finally here. I've been working so SO hard this past couple of weeks that I thought they where never going to end. Hello beauty sleep, I've never missed you so much, please don't ever leave me again. 

When I decided to close my shop a month ago I did so honestly because I was bored. Bored to death with my job and in desperate need of some reconnecting with myself and what I love. And yes, I did a lot of that. but at the same time I felt the urge to do something that even in a tiny bit, still resembled work. I got to study designers and their styles and techniques made me even more aware of my own style and technique. I was flooded with ideas and I now NEEDED to work. 

I had the greatest time designing and testing my memory skills. Honestly I can't keep a CSS code on my mind for longer than 4 seconds and that kills me. Thank God for cheat sheets! Even if mine is one big fat mess of something that used to be CSS. I learned so much along the way and felt inspired every single second that it amazes me how much my brain grows -in knowledge- when I'm creating. Yes, even last night when I was rushing to finish a million things with a back ache and 100% sure I wanted to give up.

I feel so proud of everything that I've accomplished! I so hope that you feel the same way about what I'm doing. So please feel free to ignore my 3am ramblings and take a look around my blog's new design! Let me know how you feel. Its always nice to hear feedback from the things that you work so hard on. Also remember to click on the Premade and Custom tags on top to see more of what's been keeping me so far away from my bed late at night for the past month. I miss sleep! and my bed! and cuddling with my man. 

Lastly, don't miss the 10% discount we are offering to people buying directly from this website instead of Etsy (sorry Etsy buyers!). Discounts are applied over all marked prices and no code is necessary.

I think that's it! So if you'll excuse me I'm going to go rekindle my love affair with my bed. Ah, bliss!

A little update

Now that I have my new computer and am super stocked to be back at work, I will be focusing my time and efforts into turning in projects I had pending and developing some concepts I've been working on for a while now. My mind is racing with ideas and so much needs to be done. I will fully update my shop in no more than two weeks and will retire some oldies to bring in the new.

I will be sharing a couple ideas and previews here so you can let me know what you think!

Also a big thank you to every single person that I've had the fortune to work with in the past 8 months since I opened my shop. 8 months -WOW- I can't even believe how time flew by. I feel like it was a month ago that I was racing, nervous and trying to figure how Etsy worked. But I also feel like it's been such a long time and had the opportunity to have enough time to work on some amazing projects and meet wonderful people. So thank you everyone that supported this projects since the beginning. I never imagines being able to do what I love, from my home and share it all here on the world wide web!

I will be updating the blog regularly and will let you know if anything happens.

Have a lovely day!

The truth: Being a freelance designer, sickness and my new working space

I guess now is a good time to come clean about what's been going on with me on the last couple of months both personally and professionally. Since April I've been feeling a little burned out and lacking on inspiration. I had some jobs that still needed tending to and deadlines coming in dangerously close. I worked hard at shaking the sillies away but nothing seemed to work for the longest time. Not to mention someone was constantly sick in this house and most of the time it was me. 

Being a freelance designer and working from home have proven to be two of the most challenging but rewarding things I've ever had to do. I spend a lot of time by myself which lead to a mayor self-discovery season not too long ago, I had to learn about time management the hard way and most of the time sometimes comparing myself and my work with that of others around the web (both good and bad depending on the way you look at it). I also don't have anyone telling me if what I do is good or not, but then again that IS a good thing. I've been able to find myself and express myself freely, find where my happiness comes from and give back to those that feel connected with what I do.

Creating a routine for me was the hardest part. I get a couple of hours of peace to work in the morning while Amelia goes off to school and once I dropped her off all I wanted to do was to go back to bed, watch a bad movie and pray and hope that whatever sickness I had left my body once and for all. I tell ya... Forcing yourself to get out of bed and dragging your heavy icky body to your computer when you are sick is HARD. I almost felt like quitting.

But I did it. I somehow managed to work even for a couple of hours a day. and it was so rewarding! But then something else happened. My beloved macbook died on me. It just wouldn't start one morning. After two hours of yelling and abusing the power button it turned on. But what I saw it do was really scary: Opening Itunes would make it freeze, photoshop made it restart and Chrome made the screen go black for ten seconds. I had it checked out and the diagnosis was: Nothing to be done. Change computers.

From that moment I had the worst two weeks I've had in a long time. I absolutely hated apologising to customers, turning down projects I would've love to be a part of and refunding money to people when I couldn't meat deadlines. I was miserable. I felt so unprofessional and needless to say I cried every single day. 

Fortunately for me I had the opportunity to go out and purchase a new iMac. Hellooooo! My dream come true. I hadn't work on a big screen like this since I was in college. I'm over the moon and was just the type of motivation I needed. I couldn't wait to set it up. Install photoshop and Illustrator and go at it. and that is precisely what I did. I've been feeling so productive and active this past couple of days. Just yesterday I finished two projects. TWO! A couple of months ago that would've taken me two weeks.

My productiveness has also started to show in my personal life as well. I redid my entire office/makeup space in just 3 hours yesterday, organised my work schedule and tackled my inbox in just 2 more. I've also been great at keeping an energy-filled routine: I get up early, get lunch ready for my man to take to work, make breakfast, get the kiddo ready for school, drop her off, come back home and work until noon when I have to go pick her up again. I then manage to have some me time or even more work time while she naps and have lunch ready by the time she gets up. I've been so surprisingly upbeat and happy this week and it feels awesome!

I'm feeling good as new and I can feel deep down that this is going to be the start of great great things for me. 

I'm ready to take on the world

So bring it!

I've been working on some branding

I had the fortune of working with some lovely ladies that contacted me a couple of months ago about developing a brand and logo for a new business they were in the middle of developing. 

This is what Maria Teresa, one of the ladies and co-founder of the line told me about it:

11:11 Los Angeles is founded by Andrea & Maite in Los Angeles, California. They both fell in love with the LA life and were constantly inspired by the style and essence that is seen in LA. In 2011 they decided to team up and create 11:11 Los Angeles a brand that would be launched in Lima, Peru their native country. 11:11 Los Angeles will specialize on contemporary women’s apparel and accessories, for fashion forward savvy women. Andrea and Maite share a fresh and fearless aesthetic. They believe in individuality, creating perfect timeless & effortless fashion pieces.

 So off I went brainstorming and came up with a simple but powerful concept. Black and white were the colors agreed on that would make the logo bold and fierce and a clean looking font with enough power to stand out by its own. We did a couple of corrections on the font and placing and we we're done! 

I had such an amazing time working with these awesome ladies and continue to be amazed at everything that they are doing (on their own) and everything they've accomplished in such a short time. So thank you so much Andrea and Maite for letting me help you grow your already amazing brand and I'm excited to see where this journey is going to take you.

If you want to know more about 11:11 Los Angeles or want to keep in touch with to get the inside scoop please follow them on Facebook: 11:11 Los Angeles Facebook and make sure to follow their instagram account to find out more about whats going on behind the scenes and other goodness at @1111losangeles.

Ps. How gorgeous is their model? I mean geez louise I sure wish I looked like her ;)

I've been working... *HARD*!

So, a lot of things happened during this last few months. A lot of hard, heart breaking things seemed to happen all the time. In the mean time I had work, and lots of it. I had the honor of being contacted by Hannah of Fancy, Fun & Free Me. She wanted a blog make over and I was trying to get things behind and focus on work. We hit it off real fast and had the type of communication that you have with people you already know. I felt really really comfortable during this entire process and was pleased to know that she was really supportive, understanding and encouraging of everything that was going on.

I decided to work EXTRA on a special design for Hannah and I think we accomplished something great here. We created something intimate and feminine that I actually loved. I'm over the top happy with this project.

Thank you Hannah for being such an amazing customer and all around great person!

Ps. Please visit Hannah's etsy shop Hanmade for some shabby chic fabulousness and drop by her blog because she has a lot of things in store for all of you. 

The online alt summit crowd

Well yes, it's me, one of the people who didn't get the chance to go to Alt summit this time. One of those people that live very far away, and don't really have the time to travel for a long weekend to a gorgeous hotel on a gorgeous snowy city. I didn't have to go through outfit selection (that knowing me would've been a week long affair), didn't get to meet some cool bloggers (i'm probably too shy for that anyways), and didn't get to meet Jessica Alba but guess what? I had an awesome time at Alt Summit this past weekend.

'But you just said that you didn't go!'

 I didn't. But thanks to the magic of the internet I was kind of there and most importantly I learned a whole lot. This year I was determined to get the most out of the opportunities presented by this cool group of people and I did. I signed up for 3 of the 4 free online classes and just went at it.

I got to learn about advertising and sponsorship on blogs, for brands and for individuals from the amazing and talented creator of Passionfruit ads. That class was so interesting! So much stuff I didn't think of.

The next day sadly I was late to a class due to some scheduling problems but I got to review the notes and talk to people that where there and I still got what I wanted.

Later that day I attended "Please like me". A class about social media and blogging. The teacher? The amazing Natalie Bowman from Bing.com. This was by far my favorite class. I actually didn't expect much because I use mainly Instagram, Pinterest and this blog as tools for my business and keep my twitter personal and just for friends and family. I learned so so much from what she said. She really knows her stuff. I started applying most of what she said a brand should do and try to read the notes I took as much as possible and I already see the positive results.

But the single most important thing I learned this weekend si that creating community really does matter and I got to witness and be a part of it. Seriously, I went to that first class super shy and conscious about not knowing a lot of people in the bloggy world but I left with a ton of new friends and an inbox full of kind words. I got to meet so many great people, explore and follow some great blogs and will continue to do so for a long time. 

I've already stablished great relations with some of the attendees and even email back and forward with some girls several times a day. I've helped a couple of people and received help from others too!

All in all I'm really grateful for what I got to experience this past weekend and for all the people I met.

If you want for me to share my notes with you please leave a comment below of email me at foxarrowdesign {at} gmail dot com

Also, a big THANK YOU to every single person that has helped me out by reading, sharing and emailing me about my last post. THANK YOU so so much to every single person that purchased something, donated money and sent prayers. I urge to to continue doing so and helping them in any way you can.