And here’s the to-do list that got me here:

My instagram feed is filled with photos of people setting up their NSS booths today, but we aren’t starting our setup until tomorrow. I’m sharing a booth with Igloo Letterpress, who are currently driving from Ohio with all our stuff — and I am sitting here in my friend’s apartment waiting for UPS to show up with the 300 catalogs I sent to myself from Los Angeles, trying not to freak out about the fact that I forgot to write down the tracking number before I closed my browser window. Which means I have no way to know if the catalogs actually made it onto the truck for delivery. For all I know, they could be sitting on a loading dock in Dallas. I do know they’re supposed to arrive today, in the super-convenient window of 9am to 7pm. So here I am, not setting up, trying not to freak out, and trying not to compare my humble beginning to other people’s established businesses, beautiful hard-wall booths, and organized, written-down tracking numbers.

If you’re coming to the show, I’d love to meet you! We’re in 2854. Hopefully I will have some catalogs.

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I’m good with Facebook. Decent with Instagram. Pretty crappy at tweeting. And terrible — terrible — at maintaining this blog. I need to do that thing where I connect my site to my Facebook page. Maybe that will help?

I am practicing being okay with being bad at blogging. Because really, it’s not like I’ve been sitting around for three months. I’ve been making work. Lots of it. And as much as the internet would like to convince me that my social media presence is The Most Important Thing, I’ve been focusing on actually, like, making stuff.

I’m launching a wholesale stationery line at the National Stationery Show at the Javits Center in NYC a little more than a month from now. That means 48 different greeting cards, plus all my existing prints. It’s a big experiment, and to be totally honest, it is sometimes a little scary and overwhelming, because guess what: I’m kind of making this whole thing up as I go! This process is requiring more trust (in myself and the universe), confidence, and belief in my own work and vision than anything I’ve ever taken on. I’m learning a ton and having a lot of fun, and the stress feels like healthy stress most of the time — unlike, say, ad agency stress. For example.

But some days, like today in particular, I feel like I’ve talked my way into the pilot’s seat of a 747, and as the plane is hurtling down the runway at a wobbly 200 miles an hour, I suddenly realize that I have about 15 seconds to figure out how to take off and get airborne before we plow into the fence at the end of the tarmac.

I wrote a version of that metaphor as my personal Facebook status today, and a very wise friend commented, “The fence is an illusion. Keep going.”

The fence is an illusion. Pretty good way to look at it, right?

On a more concrete note, a lot of you have asked if I’m going to sell my cards on this site (the shop is 99.5% ready to go, and just between us, it’s driving me a tiny bit insane) or on Etsy. The answer is: I don’t know yet, but I’m leaning towards no (with the exception of boxed thank you and holiday sets) just because it’s so labor-intensive to sell individual cards online. I’ll be updating the Stockists tab regularly with retail shops that carry them, though, and if all goes according to plan/hope/dreams, they’ll be widely available.

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So I did that tonight. And it turns out 2012 was pretty monumental.

A year ago, I’d just opened an etsy shop and was tentatively calling myself an illustrator in a very quiet voice, although I was much more comfortable with the phrase “Sometimes I draw things.” As I write this, I’m sitting here on Hour 7 of feeding paper into my Epson, printing orders for my 3-day feature sale on Fab.com.

That doesn’t mean I’m sitting at the top of some gigantic illustration empire or anything – far from it. I’m still in my beginning! An illustration baby! But something significant happened for me this year, in addition to working my ass off. At some point — I can’t say when — I experienced a shift in my story. You know: the story each of us tells ourselves about who we are, what we’re about, and what we can do. For a long time, I referred to the story as “reality.” But now I’m not so sure. The story is changing, because I am changing it.

My motto for 2013 is “Surrender and show up.” (I’m sure it’ll make it onto a print at some point, if for no other reason than I want to look at it every day.) I have big goals and dreams for next year, but at the heart of them are those two things. Surrender to the person I really am, to the plans the universe has for me, to the knowledge that everything will be OK. Show up authentically and honestly for myself and for others; show up because nothing happens unless I get off my ass and do it.

I made business cards today. They list my position as “illustrator, designer, truth-teller.” I look forward to living up to them in 2013.

The post Thoughts on the old year, and the new year. appeared first on Emily McDowell Creative.

The great thing about the iPad (and what finally tipped me over to the dark side) is that I can draw something and post it super quickly, or while I’m traveling, without having to have a whole setup with a scanner or a Cintiq or what-have-you. Plus (and this may be one of those things everyone in the world knows about except me), I got this amazing app called Procreate that is basically Photoshop, except it cost FIVE DOLLARS. Sorry, Photoshop.

I am notorious for not having my shit together at Xmas and therefore running around like a crazy person from December 21-24, and this year is no exception. Cost Plus World Market saved me yesterday with their amazing stocking stuffers. Everything from bacon salt to fancy soap to weird toys. And, of course, the misfit ornaments.

The post Getting Sketchier appeared first on Emily McDowell Creative.

Second: I drew up a set of cute, chalkboard-style, printable gift tags to jazz up your holiday presents, available for FREE at Poppytalk Handmade! The small version is below, but you can download the hi-res printable over at Poppytalk.

Third: I’ve got a new Design Mom Collection print, this one from Peter Pan. Check it out. Sweet? Sad? Beautiful? Or a little of all three? …Maybe that’s why I like it.

Things are going full speed ahead towards the holidays over here, and I’m trying to breathe and be mindful and present in the middle of all the craziness, which I’m sure sounds familiar to many of you. Soldier on, soldiers of love!

And here’s my latest Design Mom Collection print:

The post Bits and Pieces appeared first on Emily McDowell Creative.

…and then I don’t have to say “cyber” again for another whole year!

The post Cyber Monday & Tuesday Special! appeared first on Emily McDowell Creative.

The first time I saw this Eleanor Roosevelt quote, I was young, and my brain kind of exploded. I wish she was born later; I think she’d make a pretty kickass President herself.

This is now in my shop, in three sizes.

The post My 365th Etsy sale, and an Eleanor Roosevelt quote. appeared first on Emily McDowell Creative.

These quote illustrations will be posted on Fridays over at Design Mom (not every Friday, necessarily – but some Fridays!) and are available as prints in my etsy shop in three different sizes.

Here are the first two, from two of my personal favorite books: Little Women and The Secret Garden.

The post Introducing the Design Mom Collection! appeared first on Emily McDowell Creative.

The contest will close on Sunday, November 18th at 5pm, so get on over there and enter!

The post Effortless Anthropologie Scarf Giveaway appeared first on Emily McDowell Creative.

I’m thrilled that we’ve been featured on Refinery29, as well as one of my personal favorite blogs, Erin Loechner’s Design for Mankind. Hooray!!!

We’ve reached our funding goal, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t back us if you want a scarf, or to give one as a gift — in fact, it means you SHOULD back us, because now that we’re fully funded, we’ll definitely be fulfilling our rewards for backers. AND, even better, backers get scarves for 20% less than they’ll be retailing for once the Kickstarter campaign is over, so you have 9 more days to get one at a discount.

Also, as a special reward for Kickstarter backers ONLY, starting at $25, you can get archival pigment prints of the scarf designs. These will not be for sale anywhere once the campaign ends! Limited edition, baby.

Okay! Now on to the fact that I’ve been a terrible blogger! I’ve been so busy with so much good stuff, I haven’t had time to post ABOUT the stuff. But exciting things are happening on the illustration front, including a collaboration with Design Mom that I’ll post more about soon. YAY!

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