Umbrella Drinks and Printing

Coffee in the Atlanta skyline mug, "Power of Two" by the Indigo Girls on iTunes. Dave not only made the coffee, he also picked the mug, filled it and gave it to me. He picked Atlanta. It's a sign: Be Happy Where You Are... and I am. "The Power of Two" was randomly chosen by iTunes and couldn't be more appropriate--it was the song our friend Andrea sang at our wedding. Life is finally slowing down and it is Really Good. Dave took Jessie to Zoo Camp this morning so I have a little extra time to sit in the early morning relative cool (it's scary when a Montana Girl thinks 70 degrees is relatively cool) in the sky chair on the front porch to post.

All that's definitely on the plate today? Three kiln loads--two of which are already ready to slump just waiting for the kiln to cool and a third fuse that's cut and ready to lay out when that kiln cools. Today I guarantee you I take summer hours. I think Carol is coming this morning, though I haven't heard from her. If she does, I have tasks for her. If she doesn't it may be time to go find the stone for the pond and the boulders for the yard (I can just hear my father laughing at me for buying ROCKS).

Sadly, making morceaux hurts Sophie's back so I won't be getting any further ahead on that project. But summer hours I said. Today at 3:00 it's my goal to be back sitting where I am now in a sky chair, but this time I'll have an umbrella drink in my hand.

I am so tired this morning I ramble. but it's a good tired. Yesterday I was still exhausted from lack of good sleep since before the wedding in Austin and I was crabby with the world. Last night we saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and didn't get home till 11:30 (Jessie and Sophie too) so I still didn't get much sleep, but finally what I got was solid and dreamless. Today I am sluggish, but much happier.

I did, indeed, get my artist info cards done yesterday. I did a couple of versions and now I just need to choose one and figure out where to get them printed. Professional printing has not been easy for me so far.

My first foray was postcards with a little local printing company. They couldn't read my files, lost my files, didn't answer my email about the receipt of my files, had machine failure that caused a multiple day delay in my order, didn't have the postcards cut when I went to pick them up so I had to wait about half an hour while they cut them... They *were* very nice, but it was stressful and effortful enough that the experience wasn't a success.

Then I took the plunge and tried Modern Postcard online. Their required format and layout are *extremely* complicated, and the color came out crappy (they warn that the best way to get correct color is to pay more, have a color sample taken, and mail it back and forth... like I have time for THAT). Besides the difficulty of my last experience, I don't need a postcard this time. Or do I? Maybe a postcard is the best format for the artist info cards.

I am tempted to try the local Kinko's or a similar chain this time. Anyone else have any printing wisdom to share? How about what other people put on their info cards for galleries and in what format? C'mon artist lurkers, I know you're there. Come out and play and SHARE. Doug, I know I can count on you...