Lately

I'm sure every young mother goes through that moment where they have to figure out where their life is going to go.  I am happier than I have ever been playing with little Pen all day (though, an extra bedroom would be nice. When we finally have one, we will appreciate it that much more, right?) but I always knew no matter when we started having kids, I always wanted to continue my graphic design efforts.  I have always felt that it was a good choice of career, because it was more of a supplement to my motherhood, and could easily be done from home in my spare time.

I felt like I finally reached the point where I could continue my graphic designing without taking any time away from Pen, and so I have really started working on it full force.  I have been doing lots of work to pad my portfolio so I can start sending it to magazines and publishing companies.  See for yourself:

 and my handouts have been doing well.  I accumulate about 5,000+ views weekly!

 I have also been getting lots of commission jobs lately from Jeff's work, as well as a few commission jobs on the side.  I am so glad I have finally been able to revisit and develop my passion.

Now, the down side of being a designer.  For some reason, most of my potential customers think that I should work for free.  Perhaps people are just misinformed, but designing things is hard work.  I have to come up with a concepts, sketch, scan, then illustrate and assemble the design.  It isn't like I wave a magical wand and the designs appear.  Not to mention the years I have invested in learning these complicated programs, and developing my mouse control.  I do every illustration with the mouse since I don't have a tablet yet. I have had a few potential jobs in the last few weeks where people ask for my help with some illustrations, and as soon as I mention my price (which, by the way, is EXTREMELY good) I never hear from them again.  Or even worse, I actually end up doing the designs, just to have people change their mind and don't want the designs anymore, or even refuse to pay.  When you go to a restaurant, you can't just keep ordering food until you get something you actually want.

Also, NEVER justify your free designs by offering for the designer to use it in their "portfolio."  Not every single thing we do goes in our portfolio.  Does every single thing you do at work end up on your resume?

This graphic that I happened upon on the internet pretty sums it up:

The point is, if you want a good design, be prepared to pay.  If you want a terrible design made with little effort, then so be it.

Ok, end of my rant.

Now for fun things! My favorite thing about Penny lately is her ability to truly feed herself.  She can eat cereal and milk all by herself, I can just give her and apple or sandwich or most other foods.  It saves so much time.

She is also a blossoming artist!  She loves to color or "dwah" with crayons, markers, paints, and pens.  Yesterday, as she was coloring, I told her to draw a circle, and sure enough, she drew a very rough oval shape!  Perhaps I am rubbing off on her after all!  Pen and the triplets enjoy sitting on my lap while I sketch lately, and name the face and body parts as I sketch them.  Such clever children.

 We have also had lots of fun with mom and dad who were in town.  It was great to have more friends to play with through out the day.  We had fun at the Amish Market, saw a brilliant production of one of my favorite musicals Parade at Ford's Theater, ate some good stuff at Good Stuff, among several other fun activities.

A few more cute pictures:

 

 

Also, Emily posted the other day about the Target stabbing that we came upon minutes after it happened.  We pulled up just as the ambulances were leaving, but there was still pools and splatters of blood all over the pavement.  It was very traumatic, and more disturbing than I thought it would be.  I kind of never want to leave the house again, you never know what crazy lady is wandering free with knives stowed on her person.  What kind of sick world do we live in?!?  I try not to think about this, but it keeps creeping back.

To end on a happier note, Penny is cutely asking for snacks or "sphnaks!" so I best be feeding her that delicious lasagna I prepared last night.