Swamped.

You know, I really thought I would have had more time to post more items. Between my son, my custom clients, and preparing for the National Stationery Show, I have learned one very important thing.

I am not Wonder Woman. I am not Superwoman. I cannot do everything.

The list that I made in October when I decided that 2011 was the year Joie Studio would be going to the National Stationery Show seemed so idealistic and doable. And now as I'm under 2 months before my crate leaves for New York City, everything is inching forward at what seems to be a snail's pace and requires more attention than what I feel I have time for. Ack! Luckily it means everything is progressing forward so things will be done roughly at the same time instead of tiered as I had hoped.

Here are a couple highlights of things that are going on right now -

• Booth Building - The executive decision was made pretty early on that Joie Studio will have hard booth walls at the Stationery Show. At first we talked about just buying the booth walls from the official National Stationery Show vendor. Then the sticker shock set in and we figured out that it was cheaper to build booth walls here and ship it back and forth from Pasadena to New York than to have temporary foam walls zipcorded up for us. I kid you not. One of my best friends and I drew schematics back in October and said, "How hard could it be?" Famous last words... Luckily my friend Chris has taken over booth building and he has drawn up some fabulous plans where my booth walls will also double as the shipping crate. Not to mention the meeting with the companies who are going to handle my booth graphics. After a lot of second guessing, my husband reassured me that my booth design would be great and not to worry about it anymore.
  
• Custom Wedding Albums - My friend Jennifer is hand-making my wedding album binders for me. Joie Studio had over 40 designs and it was so hard to condense it all into one collection that we're actually going to introduce two collections while working with our friends at SHOP TOAST to create a separate collaborative custom collection. It's an ongoing struggle to make sure that the albums have a good balance of colors and differing color combinations as I have my favorite color combos that tend to repeat itself a lot when I design.
  
• Joie Studio's Catalog & Such - I hate to say it but this product catalog has been something like 3 years in the making because I never really needed one. And now, I do. I really do. You might have noticed that the website got a little bit of a makeover as well. It's an ongoing process. I just ordered order forms and other assets for the show and finalized the letterpress promo mailer that will go out about a month before the show (holy crackers that's in one month!). I am also working on a mailing list for the NSS promo which is about 300 stores long at the moment.
  
• New Products - We have a bunch of new products being produced right now that I will share with you closer to the date. Since we're so close, I am trying to get a couple friends to come in to help me finish letterpress printing everything.
• Current Workload - Oh, don't think I was smart enough to stop business while I prepped for the Stationery Show. I mean, I have to pay for the show and Joie Baby's daycare somehow (and believe you me, it is costing quite the pretty penny to exhibit at the National Stationery Show). I have some major custom projects going on right now that constitute a full workload even without the Stationery Show looming. No more letterpress business cards until after May 19th. Sorry!
  

Thank goodness for friends and family. Without them I'd be cooked. They are the ones that are going to get Joie Studio to New York looking fabulous. Now, it's back to work with me! I'll share when I can!