Fox & Anchor Paper

Oh hey! Here I am again! Second blog post in two days! Way to go Jane! So, I feel like I have been mentioning this letterpress collaboration between me and friend Chelsey of Type A Press for a while now but haven't really formally introduced you to our line. Well if you were here in person I would wave my hand in front of my monitor and in a loud voice shout, "Fox and Anchor everyone!!" Then I would proceed to show you some of our photos and designs. The above pictures were taken by the lovely Carissa Gallo of Sea Chant (and the blog Andrew and Carissa) over Christmas break at our little "team meeting."

Fox and Anchor is a collaboration between me (Jane Reaction being the Fox and the designer/art director) and Chelsey (Type A Press being the Anchor and the printer/producer and all around awesome person). I met Chelsey online a few years ago when I did her branding for her - nautical ropes, anchors, sea flags and the like. It was a fun project and we meshed really well. She recently had her anchor logo tattooed on her wrist which you know, I thought was pretty cool! 

Anyway, growing this little side business together has been fun, a lot of work and a bit of a challenge for me as I have never really thought of myself as a stationer. We scrambled to get some things together for Christmas and New Years. We some how managed to get some coasters we made featured on the home page of Etsy and on a few different paper loving blogs. It was so fun and exciting to see how receptive people were to our designs right away! We almost couldn't believe it! Now we are scrambling to get some cute little tags and cards together for Valentines day. Is it just me or does everyone else feel like January just slapped you in the face as it passed you by?!

Along with the cards, coasters and tags that we have been mass producing we have also been working with small businesses, creative professionals and anyone else needing design work done (like, oh, I don't know...brides? hehe!). We have been making business cards, greeting cards, invites, menus... you name it, we've been working on it! Next up! Custom stamps! Gotta love some rubber stamps! Below are some shots I took of our Christmas line up. Can't wait to share more on the Valentine goodies soon!

The Brand Life Pt. 2

I'm excited to announce that I have a new contributor to the blog. Remember this post about Imogene + Willie called The Brand Life? Well Loren from the blog Little Gems is going to help me curate posts for this series. The idea is to find a brand and a product and match it with a well thought out lifestyle that represents that brand and the culture behind it. Fun, right? Also, check out Lo's blog Little Gems for more eye candy and fun design - you won't be dissapointed! 
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Dusen Dusen is an independent clothing line by the designer Ellen Van Dusen. Ellen works with unique patterns on basic, timeless cuts. Her spring/summer 13' line is inspired by the Italian design collective, Memphis. Its refreshing to see neutral colors paired with such bold patterns. The lifestyle, like the brand, is similarly a fusion of a modern and artful minimalism. I'd say these pieces are innovative staples, no? -Lo

Need Read Greed

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Today's Need Read Greed is by my lovely sister, Annie Johnson. I like my sister so much! She is pretty and funny and smart and good at all of the things I am not. The funny thing is: me and my sister can fight! Boy, can we fight! But it never stops us from talking on the phone every single day. About everything. I am not very good at forgiving and forgetting. It is a challenge for me to get over things and I often need my space in order to process and let things go. My sister on the other hand is so wonderful at letting things go. She really does forget too! She completely lets things fly away from her and only holds on to the beautiful and nice things. She is also above average smart. Some of you who have been reading my blog for a while have probably caught on that I am terrible at spelling and not always the most eloquent. My sister is the master of languages and actually speaks German fluently. I could go on and on but I guess my point isn't to compare myself to my sister in all of the ways that I fall short but more to point out all of the ways that she is perfect for being my other half. (Conor - you are my other other half haha!!) It is just me and my sister in our family so she is my oldest best friend, the person I tell everything to. The only person who can bring out my worst and then go ahead and still love me after. She's seen me through a lot and I love her for it. I wish everyone had an Annie! The world would be a better place. 

Also, I just realized that this Need Read Greed series is actually very similar to other series going on on other blogs. Why is it that when we see other people doing what we are doing we automatically want to say, "Well, I'm not going to do that ANYMORE!"? Or we want to yell at everyone "I thought of it FIRST!!" I guess it's because we so desperately want to be original and therefore special. We also don't want people to think we are copying and have not original thoughts. Well I must admit when I realized others where doing this series too I definitely said to myself, "No more NEED READ GREED! even though I totally thought of this first!" but I like this series too much to just stop because other people also think it's a good idea! Plus, it is sort of an age old saying... like; something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. I don't own it. So, the series will continue!! How do you react when you see someone else doing "your thing"? 

Short bread with Ganache and sea salt

SHORT BREAD: 2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 cup butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In one bowl whisk together flour and salt. In another bowl beat together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Fold flour mixture in gently. Roll dough out to about 1/4 an inch thick. Place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Cut out shapes. Place on cookie sheet and bake in oven for about 7 minutes or until golden. 

GANACHE: In large sauce pan melt half bag of semi sweet chocolate chip cookies. Add 2 tbs butter and 3/4 tsp corn syrup. Stirg until smooth. Drizzle or dip your cookies and then sprinkle with sea salt. 

I had a lot of fun making these cookies with Henry before the holidays and giving them to our neighbors. He loved it, way more than I thought he could or would. He now loves making cookies with me. It is one of our new favorite things to do. This weekend we had the flu so we are still taking it easy today. Hope everyone has a great week planned! 

New Year / New Goals

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For the last few years I have been visually mapping out my new year goals like this. There used to be a rhyme and reason to the placement, color and categories but now I just make it how I think it will inspire me the most. View 2012 here.  

Goals:

1. Finish our house. We finally finished painting all of the rooms just before Christmas and now is the fun part! Decorating! Since we moved from Hawaii to California to Texas our house is pretty empty. We don't have a lot of stuff which is nice but also sorta sad. I miss having little collections of things here and there - those little things that make a house feel more like a home.

2. First, check out more of these amazing animal photos here. They are so beautiful! So Conor and I have been talking and we want to get a pig. Or Chickens. Or a goat. We can't decide. Maybe all three? I think we might start with chickens but DAMN that pig is cute!

3. As some of you might know I have been working on a letterpress line with a friend called Fox and Anchor Paper. My goal for that is to create a few more items for our line, get a shop up and running and get some customizable stuff in the mix too. We are excited to get our etsy shop up and running before Valentines day! 

4. Write more. I want to write a book. I want to write, design and publish a cookbook. HAHA! Now, I don't know if I will be able to do that any time soon but I want to write more! 

5. Be a good mom. I have not decided on something specific I can work on for this one yet. I know I just want to be more patient, more loving, more attentive and more devoted. Sometimes I think I couldn't be any of those things ANY MORE than I already am! But I know there is room for improvement and I just want to be the best mom I can be. 

6. Get bikes and ride them together. Conor and I want to get some bikes and go on rides in the morning together. I feel funny even posting a picture of a bike on my blog because I am so not a bike person. I want to be but I'm just not. It will be fun to get in to a new hobby (and with my husband - something we can do together).

7. Meal Planning. Eat Better. Eat less meat. I am all about meal planning! I started this last month making meal plans and sticking to them and only buying the things on my list that I need for that week. It has been amazing how much less we waste and how much money we save. I want to get better at this and also learn how to make really good, HEALTHY meals on a budget.

8. When my mom was young apparently she was entered into a contest called "make it yourself with wool". I don't know what she made or if she won but whenever we are sewing wool she always talks about the "make it yourself with wool" contest. I have this little idea that has been burning a hole in my brain for the last month and I want to give it a try. It requires lots and lots of wool felt - a textile that I am pretty obsessed with right now. So my goal is to order a bunch of it, try to make this little creation I have in my head and then... I don't know. Give them away? Sell them? Not sure yet. 

9. Be a better wife. I have a few goals set for this category but they are a little personal ;). Maybe I'll let you know how it goes. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We are headed to Portland for Christmas to enjoy family and friends. We seriously can't wait to get up there. We hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas and a wonderful new year. I probably won't be blogging for the next week while we are gone but I just wanted to say that I have been writing in my journal like a mad woman - planning all of my New Year goals and exactly how I am going to execute them. It feels liberating to make plans... is that crazy? I love when the new year comes because I feel like it is a chance to start all over again. I like to think that I can completely re-invent myself if I want to. I can do and be anything I want! What you are goals? Plans? Who are you going to be this year? 

PS -Have you checked out the Hey! It's Christmas! play list yet? Do it now! I have been listening to #10 on repeat while gazing into my boys' eyes and thinking about how I am the luckiest girl on earth. Hint - Wake up early, put on your most festive pajamas, make pancakes, play this song loud and tell your family you love them. IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!

A Family Christmas Wish List

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So, like I said before these wish lists are not our reality. We will be getting one or two of the things on our wish lists. We (and by we I really mean me) just really like to daydream and put together visual wish lists like this for fun. So Henry really is getting the cow this year. I took him to the toy store and let him play around with a few different "walkers" and this was by far his favorite, plus I guess the horns taste pretty good or something because he kept going back to have a little lick. :) I also recently discovered that my baby boy LOVES making cookies. He is proficient at mixing and excellent at taste testing. Since we last made cookies together he has been dragging my hand mixer around behind him by the cord everywhere he goes like he is walking a dog.

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This year I want more things for my home than ever before. Probably because this is the first year that we have actually had a real home of our own. I want to decorate! I want to clutter the place with my little collections and make tons of food in this house. I want a million plants and a million art projects. I want Henry's toys to have a home in every room. I can't wait to wake up one day and look around and feel like I can say to myself, "Yes! We really made this house our own!" It helps that as I type this Conor is painting the office. Behind me over the ugly blue/teal walls in fresh crisp white letters he has painted, "I love you!"1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

And then there is Conor. He is really simple. Just get him some pistachios and Dr. Pepper and this guy could be happy all year! God bless him! I'm excited for him to get that American Flag and frame it and hang it in our office. It is going to look really good. Oh, and for the record Conor did not tell me he wanted a hose. I told me he wanted a hose and then proceeded to pick out the perfect color. I also can't wait to see him watering our plants! :)

Eating Dallas

I started a new feed on Instagram called #eatingdallas. If you are in the Metroplex and you happen to be eating something really tasty share it with the rest of us! I've said it before and I'll say it again - I am here for the food. "Here" being pretty much wherever I am. I love eating out and trying new restaurants! So, let me know where and what is the best in Dallas! I plan on periodically doing some instagram mash ups of people's photos as they start to tag them.

Also - I just can't not say anything on my blog about this last Friday's tragedy. It's got me in a real funk. I know I need to continue to look for the beauty in the world and not give in to despair but that really made my heart hurt. Something that I learned from my best friend after she lost her baby to Cystic Fibrosis is that you cannot compare grief. While this situation is definitely very horrible and more visible than a lot of other situations - everyone is fighting a hard battle and we need to remember to be kind to others. Love. Love and forgive as much as we can. That is where the beauty is. And that is how we can do our small part to help in the healing process after such sadness. That is what I will be working on this week. More than I'd like to admit I need to forgive and forget and let the tiny beautiful things that life has to offer shine. And just love.  

Freelance Mama II

Remember this post back in October about being a Freelancing Mother? Well, some time has past since we moved to Texas and I thought I might be ready for installment #2 of the Freelance Mama series. Up front I just want to remind everyone that this is simply me documenting my journey at figuring this all out. I have few (if any) tricks at how to get it all done. I just know that when reading other blogs I am always very excited and intrigued when anyone writes anything about how they are managing it all. Posts like that often inspire me to pull it together or reassure me that I am not the only one.  

Recently I was flying somewhere... gosh is it really that hard to remember where I was going? Yes, for the life of me I can't remember where the flight was to or from... regardless... I was on an airplane reading the complimentary sky magazine in my seat front pocket when I came across an interview with Alanis Morissette. Yeah, I know, what does that angsty queen of the 90's have to do with balancing work and family?! Well, I used to still love her music and was very interested in what she might be up to these days and wouldn't you know, our favorite tormented rock star of the aforementioned decade is now a well adjusted mother and wife raising a baby. In her interview she said something that struck me -

"I used to have a personal life and a work life—these little lives in little boxes. Now, I go into a room to write a song, breastfeed my son, talk to my husband, cook dinner, go do a show, return to my family. Not a moment too soon, my life has finally become integrated. And it has been a huge blessing."

Since starting down this design path a few years ago (before Henry was even an idea) I was taught that you need to keep your family life and your work life separated. To combine the two was to bring dysfunction and frustration on everyone. I have attended workshops on this very subject. Everyone's attitude toward motherhood and working (especially from home) has been similar. Keep them as separate as you can. Well, when I read this quote from dear old Alanis I almost laughed out loud! How could she be happy with this integration stuff?? And then I started to think about it! Maybe part of my frustration was coming from an unreal scenario I had created in my head. I was frustrated with how much my life didn't fit neatly into two boxes. In order to get any work done I thought Henry needed to be happily playing far away from me with some kind of adult stranger watching over him. Or I thought that telling clients I couldn't get back to them right away because I was taking care of my son all day was basically like telling them I was incompetent. 

I just thought you you you oughta know that since reading that interview I have given it a try, I let the two worlds overlap, and I like it. If nothing else, I at least feel relieved of all of the pressure to keep things neatly separated into two boxes. I now don't feel terribly guilty when I respond to emails with Henry on my lap and two windows open (one is my email and the other is Netflix playing Yo Gabba Gabba). I don't think I am a bad mom when I check my email while I am on walks with Henry and he is happily munching fishy crackers in his stroller. I don't feel that I need to hide that Henry always comes first and always will. I also let Conor take Henry to work with him one day a week so I can get projects done. It's been really nice to have that break. We are both overlapping and it feels good. Conor and I both work for a couple of hours in the evening after Henry has gone to bed so that we can enjoy him for a few hours in the afternoon with out thinking about work. It's not perfect but I like the idea of saying goodbye to the boxes and just enjoying the moments as they come.

Family Christmas Card

Here's a little sneak peek at our family christmas card photo session. Yes, with everything being so crazy around here we just got around to taking our family pictures yesterday. We did them ourselves in our living room. Every year that Conor and I have been married we have built a fort in our living room for Christmas and on Christmas eve we sleep in the fort. Well this year (because we still don't have a couch) the fort went up a little early and we have been sleeping in it quite a bit. I'm not sure our cards are going to make it on time to be merry Christmas cards so they might just have to be happy new year cards instead. But how appropriate? because this year as been a doozy! and I am so ready to bring on 2013!