What We're Thankful For

Our employees—Chris, Nick, Cody, Austin, Zach, Christine, Taylor, Katie, Samantha—we couldn’t do it without you! Our fantastic USPS carriers—you guys rock! iPhones—we couldn’t survive without the daily battle over the production room playlist Recycling centers that help us keep our carbon footprint more like a kitten heel than an Ugg boot Social networks—and my love/hate relationship with Twitter and Facebook Inspiration for our ‘coming soon’ line of new nursery designs—congrats Sami and Zak! The fall colors that were stunning but brief Mead, mulled wine, and egg nog—yum! The recent food and wine festival at Disney World—my feet are still sore! Hot bubble baths and soaking my troubles away after a long day The economy finally showing signs of life The growing Trading Phrases business that continues to keep us busy each and every day Our family, friends, and our fantastic customers—Thank you!

everyone!

That's Fontastic!

A funny thing happens to people who start working for Trading Phrases. People start recognizing fonts, or at least start noticing if something would be easy to work with or would be (now how do they put that… oh yes, now I remember) pure swoopy font hell.

Those pretty scrolly, scripty fonts that I love working with make our production crew whisper mutinous oaths. Plain text (boring in my opinion) fonts make them practically giddy. And the cutting machines also have their own ‘issues’. Just try to cut Passions Conflict font without the machine skip a letter or two out of spite. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

I’m working on a compromise font for a lot of my designs lately. Poetica is a fairly plain font, with Roman alternative capitals that add a bit of flair. I still haven’t given up the swoopy scripts entirely; I’m just trying to mix things up. However, if you start seeing nothing but plain text designs in the coming months please send help—the crew will have probably will have me locked in the storeroom far from my precious scripty fonts!

New Holiday Designs for 2009

Yes, I know, Thanksgiving is not here yet. I couldn't help myself. This year is going to be different. This year I'll shop early and avoid the last-minute crowds. This year I'll get those cards out early. This year I'll bake cookies and take them to the neighbors. This year I'll... Nevermind, I know myself too well, and I won't be doing any of that. I will, however, put up a bunch of fun designs for our holiday collection to add some instant cheer.

I love vinyl decals for holiday and seasonal decorating. They are beautiful, look like a hand painted stencil, and are easily removable when the season is over. If you want to reuse the decals from year to year, then apply them to a plaque, to a large tile, or even to a mirror or a piece of plexiglass that can be stored and used again. If you're got a personal message that you would love to create for your space, then contact us and we'll get that personal masterpiece started for you.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go take down a few Halloween decorations...