What a month! We always try to pack in so much stuff right before the kids are back to school. We’re officially up one kid here in Cali — Kate moved out this way to go to school since she graduated early. Ethan and Kirsten went back to South Carolina, but we’re really jazzed to be doing Thanksgiving + Christmas in Cali this year. I’m a bit bummed about not being able to see quite as many people as we have in other years, but actually really excited about finally doing *our* Christmas. I mean, I’ve not been collecting gifts since last Christmas, and I definitely don’t have plans to design my own wrapping paper or anything. (I totally have been collecting, and I am totally planning on the paper. Just in case my facetiousness didn’t come through.)
Birthdays were celebrated this month — Aut turned 12, Kirsten turned 12, and my mom’s birthday happened, too! (We won’t say how old she is, right Ma?) Perhaps one of the biggest things that happened — for Autumn, at least — is that she finally got her ears pierced! And let me tell you, this kid was a badass! A little flinch, no tears, and they’re healing up beautifully. She’s rocking little sparkly studs now.
We officially have no kids left in elementary school — 2/5 have graduated, and the other three are in middle + high school now. Registering Aut for middle school was a bit of a cluster, but now that her schedule is all worked out, everything seems to be pretty good — we had to make changes to ensure she was placed in all honors courses possible, and also ensure she was placed in Math 1 since she took a summer math course to get ahead. (Math 1 is high school math here in the OC.) Aut seems to be thoroughly enjoying middle school — she emphatically said it’s way better than elementary school.
Meanwhile, I’m happy to not be at a school with massive parking issues like her elementary school had. It’s the little things, right?
We’re closing out August with a second vehicle (again, finally!), a small earthquake, and a new (used) fridge that is going to replace the old kegerator that went kaput.
Way to go, Beck — you still haven’t lettered a Concerts heading yet.
Well, we “traveled” to Irvine in August — a stone’s throw from here, really — to see some of our favorites play.
We took the entire family to the Shinedown + Godsmack show in Irvine at the beginning of August. For the younger three, it was their first concert experience. I clearly remember mine — I was about Auttie + Kirsten’s age, and my parents got tickets to a Brooks & Dunn show. I grew up a bit of a country girl…redneck…whatever you want to call it. JoDee Messina played, and so did David Lee Murphy. I got to take my best school friend, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I remember bits and pieces of it like it was yesterday, so I was totally thrilled to give my kids their first concert experience, too.
We had the same seats as we did the previous concert. I called it the “nosebleediest of nosebleed seats” last month, so I’ll stick with that. It was a good place, though, because it meant that we were out of the way, the music wasn’t as loud as it could have been if we’d been closer to the stage — so, basically, the best possible place for us with the kids. It was a bit more crowded this time around — a super good turn-out for the concert!
Our typical family selfie. Look at those babies!!
As always, Shinedown put on an amazing show. This was the fourth time that I’ve seen Shinedown. I’ll keep seeing Shinedown — to date, probably the best band I’ve seen play, and they’re always on point. Godsmack was equally as awesome, so I’ll always seek out a Godsmack concert from this point forward. Seeing Godsmack was another thing to check off of my Beck List, as well. Sweet!
I was supposed to see Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson just a few days ago, but decided to take a pass on that one. We had the tickets — we got them for free when we purchased the Godsmack tickets — but I didn’t make a schedule swap. By the time I remembered I needed to, it was a little too close to the concert, and with our trip coming up later this month, making a bunch of adjustments with Aut’s dad seemed silly when I could just hang with her. So, sorry, Rob Zombie. We’ll catch up later.
We didn’t travel much in August, but we did have a visitor! My mom came out for a long weekend — I bought her the ticket back in May for Mother’s Day, and surprised her with it. It was a pretty epic surprise that involved my dad, brother, and sister-in-law ensuring that my mom’s schedule was free and clear. I sent flowers about two weeks before Mother’s Day, with a vague note that said, “Happy Mom Day, Conf. # 0000000” with whatever her flight confirmation number was.
She was super happy with the flowers, but a little miffed at the note because it never said, “Love you!” or anything like that. When she called to thank me for the flowers, she tried to harass me a little, and I let her know that the confirmation number was her flight number. (Insert laughing-crying face emoji here.) All she could muster was, “WHAT????” Yep, pretty epic surprise. She’s been saying since then that paybacks are a bitch. I’m still waiting, haha.
Our weekend was relatively low-keyed — Mom was just happy to hang out for a little while, and we took her to a few of our favorites — Ballast Point, Backstreet Brewery, and Hoparazzi. She quite enjoyed herself.
Can you believe, only one font released in August?? I have folders full of stuff that needs programming, cleaning, at every stage in the design process. I made the decision to take August off for releasing fonts + SVGs, but couldn’t resist releasing Resfeber Script. The lack of fonts in August was partly because I offered a limited time bundle on Etsy and a few other sites I sell on, which was an “entire shop” bundle. I figured it would make my life easier to not release anything new for the month of August to keep from having to update the bundles. I just pushed back the release date for Resfeber on those particular marketplaces, and pushed it out on my own website and Creative Market.
I was right, by the way. It seems that the bundle was a hit. Note to self: do that again.
It also did a lot for me mentally, having a bit of a break. I think it’s easy to get burned out, and I definitely went through a few weeks of hating everything I kept looking at as it related to the fonts I have in my queue right now. It’s easy to feel uninspired and like the people you compare yourself to are out-doing you or are doing so much better. I suppose sometimes they are, and sometimes they aren’t.
I had to do a little attitude adjusting for myself — every other designer has a unique perspective and a unique ability & style. I fall into funks once in a while where I wish I was more like ______ (fill in the blank with someone who seems to have it all together) or wish that things were different, better, or whatever. BUT, I didn’t get into font design to be like the next guy. I did it because I wanted to, because I enjoy it, and because I want to push out fonts + little projects that make me happy. I want to set goals for myself and meet + exceed them.
I told my hubby when I started making sales on my Spring Market font that I was going to buy a house by making fonts — a nod to our years-in-the-making-still-being-made move back to the east coast, wanting to build, and talking about all of the things we want to and hope to do out there. It’s easy to lose sight of the goals or feel discouraged (especially when you’re all, “LOLZ I WANT TO BUY A HOUSE.” because that’s not lofty at all, right?) so I needed to get myself back to that.
I think I’m there, and I have some awesome stuff planned out in my head…so now it’s actually time to get it out of my head and into a notes file, because that’s how I roll. I’m already thinking about goals for 2019 and nurturing this little side gig, slowly but surely, into something that pays like a full time job.
For a start, I re-branded Spring Market.
Spring Market was one of my first releases, and as time has gone on, I feel like I’ve gotten a better handle on how to present my fonts and show their versatility. Part of my plan to up my font game is to really examine the branding that goes into each and every one of these fonts, and make it better. It’s a really simple, painless change that makes a LOT of difference.
One thing coming up for my website is adding a preview for fonts — you know, that handy-dandy field where you can type your own text, and it displays what you typed in the font? Jeffrey figured out how to make this a reality, so each of my font listings will be getting this little upgrade!
So, I have a trip coming up (more about that below) so whenever I finished up Resfeber Script, I knew that Resfeber was the perfect name for it. I see those “beautiful travel words” pins on Pinterest all the time, and Resfeber doesn’t *sound* beautiful (to me) … but I love the meaning of the word. It’s Swedish in origin, apparently. (I can’t confirm this, I’m not Swedish?) It basically means the crazy beating of one’s heart as they’re about to embark on a journey.
That’s been me for the last few months, because…SCOTLAND!!!
Next month marks our 5th anniversary, and we’ll be celebrating by going back to the UK. We’ve got an awesome trip planned out, including my first visit to Wales, and Scotland… There’s so much to see and so much whiskey to taste that I don’t even know which way is up…but mostly, I’m really excited to set foot in another part of the world and lay eyes on where some of my ancestors came from. Years + years before my Gram passed, she was a genealogy fanatic, so we have some really awesome records to go off of…and what’s even more awesome is that the Ancestry DNA tests that my parents took seem to corroborate the majority of the records she turned over. I have a massive binder in my bedroom that goes back 14+ generations in some cases. It’s mind-boggling. I think she would be really excited to hear about my plans.
I am beyond jazzed to set foot in Glasgow, where my great, great grandmother was born…but who am I kidding? I’m excited for the entire trip. That burning, yearning pull that I feel in my chest when it’s time for me to see new places has been ever-present lately…so you can imagine that I’m thankful to have this trip in place.
I’ll be taking plenty of pics, sampling plenty of whiskey and delicious (I hope!) food. I’ll cover some awesome details of the trip, what we saw, and where we stayed. I’ll probably be dropping all of that in separate blog posts after the trip, so make sure you keep an eye out!
Happy September, y’all!
