Doubly Happy

Back in November, I submitted a Save-the-Date design to Minted.com, and in January, the Minted crew sent me an email, informing me that my design had been selected for sale (Wahoo!!) and letting me know I had 2 weeks to resubmit the design in Illustrator in 3 different color ways. (Ahh!!) Panic set in. My Illustrator skills were severely lacking. So after some intense Illustrator lessons with a friend of mine, I submitted the fronts and backs of the card + skinny wraps and envelope liners within the 2 week deadline. Wahoo again! I owe my friend a HUGE thank you for all her help and education! So, thank you!!

The colors I chose were neutrals (white and gray or gray and navy) since neutrals go with everything, but staying true to the traditional Chinese wedding colors, I chose red also. Plus, red is fantastic.

Then, last week while on vacation, the Minted crew sent another email with a link: the new Save-the-Dates were up! YAY!! I now present my official design which can be found here:

This link in the picture (above) lets you preview the 3 color ways (seen below),
the front of the skinny-wrapper, and several of the backer options .

The 3 colorways. The backer has a large double-happiness character in the middle.

I am so excited about this! I've been playing with paper and doing art for so long--and plus I have a strong fondness for cards and other "happy mail." It's wonderful to see something I made for sale by a company that makes such wonderful products.

Relax and have a go

On my latest trip to Switzerland, most of my trip was spent in a breast cancer conference, which was interesting. But I spent my free time relaxing with my colleagues, for dinners and a half-day-trip to Zurich, and a little on my own, for a stroll around Rorschach. My lack of German knowledge wasn't a problem--not because the people all spoke English (they didn't)--but because people have the same expressions everywhere. The miming was fantastic and wonderfully humorous.

After the conference, I made a decision to take time to relax and have some alone time. While taking Sunday afternoon to stroll the waterfront, I saw two men walked out of the Bodensee into the town of Rorschach, Switzerland in their scuba gear. I used hand gestures to ask if I could take a picture of them. They immediately laughed with themselves, making pointing motions with each other to their ridiculous gear, and moved into a posed position.

Scuba men from the Bodensee

On my stroll, I also questioned a woman as to where she got her ice cream; I offered to take pictures of groups of people and asked them to take pictures of me; I giggled over puppies and dogs and interacted with their owners--all without words. It was so happy. It was a beautiful day, and people were in the mood to enjoy themselves. We all appreciate being appreciated, and most of us, it seems, enjoy friendly interactions. A smile, hand motions, and "thank you very much" in the German took me a long way.

Spring springing on the Bodensee

Zurich was lovely, and I look some pictures there too. Four of us had a mini-excursion into the city between checking into the airport and flying away. Upon arrival, we saw a dominating stone wall across the river and determined it had to be from a castle. So after eating lunch and finding a museum, we ventured out on our castle ("Schloss") hunt. I went around asking for the "Schloss." This confused people as there was no castle but a wall and a park on top of the hill. "But it used to be a castle," one excited man told us. I'll take "used to be a Schloss." So we climbed up the (very) steep hill and found the park that used to be a castle where we took pictures on the foreboding wall. There were giant chess sets that were occupied by locals as well as a set of swings that was occupied by no one. My self-imposed rule about swings is, "if I see swings, I must have a go." And so I did. Sadly for the others, no one else joined me. But I had a wonderful time.