Craft Fairs + My Future In Paper Goods

Yesterday, I participated in my town's annual craft fair and sold stationery/greeting cards that I've made. (If you want to see them, here's my instagram video of my table.) I've been making my own cards since I was a grubby eight-year-old who wanted stationery so I could write down all the names of my imaginary friends. My mom let me use clear ink and embossing powder to let me put my name in puffy gold on old pieces of her scrapbooking paper. And I've loved paper and stationery ever since!

Of course it helps that I'm a big letter writer + go through cards like none other. For a long time, I made cards myself, just because I was picky about the designs on my cards and disliked so many of the cutesy fluffy hallmark designs. But for the first time, this weekend, I decided to see what other people thought! 

(photo)

At the fair (which is very small as far as fairs go), I set up a table, which I shared with a friend who paints canvas shoes. On my half, I set up a board with samples of my cards and stationery options, along with my prices--$3/1, $5/2 and $6 for a set of four personalized notecards.

Overall, I found it to be a very fun experience--though I don't quite have the process down enough to really make much of a profit on the cards. With all the time that I put into them, I made about $8 for every hour I spent on them.

I'll admit. I'm not a professional. I don't really know what I'm doing. I just printed the cards at my house, with my plain-old printer, on plain-old cardstock and cut it up with an x-acto knife and a ruler. There are many ways in which my paper goods need to improve and lots and lots of room to grow. 

But what I did learn was that I want to continue doing this in the future. I have potential. People's comments were honestly the nicest. "You are so freaking talented." "I can't believe you made these yourself." "I don't even want to write a letter on this, can I just frame it?" and "When these are on etsy, I want them. All of them." (That one was my dear Victoria on my instagram.)

As I'm thinking about the future, I know I want design to stay a part of it, along with a career in science. I was talking to H the other day about my dream of opening a brick-and-mortar stationery store and I realized that this is the first step. I can't wait until I'm a total professional to start designing and selling and marketing this. 

I don't know how it'll work, living in a very small dorm, with a very low-quality printer in the fall. I'm looking into using a professional printer rather than printing myself. If any of you are more knowledgeable at this than I am (which doesn't take much), your advice would be appreciated. In the meantime, I plan to continue designing cards. 

So this isn't an official announcement, just know, there are more paper goods in the CMS future. 

Thanks for being so supportive, you guys. I love this blog and this community and you. 

Long Term Goals + Dreams

As I'm getting ready for a big new stage of my life (college), I've been thinking a lot about my future. These days, it feels like every choice I make is going to determine the rest of my life. Where I chose to go to school, who I choose to live with, what major I choose to study. To make these choices, I'm having to look to the future + know towards what destination I want to aim my life. It's not something I do very often, but it's been really eye-opening + I think valuable. I find that I have a lot of dreams that just aren't compatible with each other. But I still think they're worthwhile dreams to maintain, since any one of them could be in my future!

I also think there's tremendous value in sharing your dreams with others and so I thought I'd share my dreams with you. If you'd like to share your long-term dreams with me, please link up below! I'd love to read them.

+ Graduate from college first! My plan is microbiology or biotechnology with a concentration in botany. 

+ Get an advanced degree, at least a masters, maybe a Ph.D. I wanna be smarttttt. 

+ Work in a research field for a little while or pursue graduate teaching. 

+ Grow this blog until I earn a little income off it. I don't dream of making blogging a job, but I am inspired by the idea of getting financial encouragement to continue this hobby. I haven't decided whether I will offer sponsorships in the future, but it's definitely an option. 

+ Grow a family. Whether it's just a husband or a husband/child (I can't handle more than one!).

+ Do freelance design part-time. I don't want to get a degree in design but I'm motivated to use the skills that I have, particularly for new + smaller bloggers to have an option for custom designs.

+ Open a stationery shop with my own designs. This one's a big one + might just be a dream (I've never confessed it out loud/in a post!--but that's okay). I keep coming up with ideas for cute cards with confidently quirky-cute designs and want to make them so badly! I am very interested for now in getting to make some cards for myself, just for fun. If anyone has any tips on designing for print/where to print things like that (I've heard StationeryHQ), give me a holler!

+ Become a master calligrapher and do a little freelance calligrapher for friends or family. At the very least, I'd like to continue the practice and become comfortable with (pointed pen) gouache, brush and india ink calligraphy while experimenting with different papers.

+ Write a book on science for the average person that doesn't include "cliche" science facts. I want to talk about technicalities in fungi and genes and proteins. I want to teach anyone, especially people without a science background, that the biggest beauty in our world is not because of it's colors and aesthetics, but because of its complexity. 

Now link up your dreams, pretty please, so this link up isn't all lonely!