Engaged!

Did you hear? I am getting Married! You might have heard because I have shouted it from basically every platform I know of except my roof.




My man is very romantic. When he finished building our new shed in the backyard he called me out there in the morning to 'check it out'. I thought it was a little odd, since I was working and he very rarely bothers me while I am working (good man) and I had seen the progress of the shed being built. I went anyway and he LOCKED ME IN THE SHED! It wasn't for very long but long enough to say 'enough joking around let me out' in my very stern 'not playing' voice. When he did open it up he was holding a small black box and told me (what I remember of the speech) how much he loves me, how much he wants to spend the rest of his life with me and how he wanted everything to be just perfect for the proposal. However since nothing can ever be completely perfect he decided today was the day. Finally! We have lived together for 2 years and have been inseparable for 3.

I can't wait to start the wedding planning. Destination wedding here I come. Please let me know if you know a good vacation wedding planner!

Defying Gravity

Again another musical rendition of my state of mind:

Rock version of course.
"Time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap..."

A lot of great projects popping up this week as well as keeping up with the old ones. Busy busy, I love it.

I went to my first Secret Handshake - The Winnipeg Creative Society Meetup this week and it was a lot of fun and very interesting. I am still getting over my own shyness when it comes to networking events but booze and practice helps. Let me know if you have any tips!

I had my photograph taken by Stephen Gray and the At First Sight Crew in their 'photobooth' at the meetup. Great idea but the lights really heated up the place, I felt bad for the few who sported the suits. I have been following the work of At First Sight photography and videography work for over the past year and I am just blown away by their overall creative visions and quality of work. They also have amazing equipment that makes me a little jealous. I am a video gear junkie honestly. So check out their amazing work.



I also want to congratulate Nichole Glaw for Art Land Inc's new web design! Looks great and I can't wait to start teaching in a few weeks.




New Media Manitoba, a group I am involved with in the city just launched a new page with a directory. A fantastic way to keep in touch with colleges and the new media industry itself. As I already told Kevin Hnatiuk, the Executive Director, in a personal email:

"You are like the Dumbledore of all us new media magic makers! So keep up the amazing work! The community you are helping build in invaluable."

In honor of that thought I just made this cool yet slightly creepy creation.



Smash-Art is now listed as a business in the New Media Manitoba Directory. If you have a new media business please join up, it really is a fantastic community.

So as I wrap up this work week and look to what is on my plate for next week, a 8 page fashion catalog design and print, a new brand and logo concept, two joomla website designs, a zen cart design and a drupal website design. I can handle this no problem. BRING IT.

Art Land Inc.

I am so excited to announce that I will be teaching with Art Land Inc. starting in September. Art Land is a new child creative arts studio opening in Winnipeg Manitoba. They offer a variety of different children's art classes through out the week. Each class is designed for each age group and skill level from 3 years to 17 years old.

Smash-Art will be teaching classes Tuesdays to Thursdays, sign up here to take a class with me.

I've started to become friends with the owner and creator of Art Land Inc. Nichole Glaw. I really have to give her credit on many levels, she has had the dream of Art Land since she was a pre teen and now it's finally coming to fruition. The amount of constant hard work and good hearted energy she is putting into the new studio is so highly commendable.

Nichole is also an emerging Girl Geek! She started by developing her own registration form with PHP and moved on to learn and develop Wordpress code for the new Art Land Inc website. Having little to no knowledge of web code before hand it is fantastic to see how fast she was able to lean and how professional the site looks. Great Job Nichole! I look forward to working with you more and more.

Women's Enterprise Centre

I have been working closely with the Women's Enterprise Center since around April of this year. I did take their business plan courses in 2008 when I first started Smash-Art but didn't develop a solid business plan that could expand the way I needed it to.

The WEC set me up with my new business adviser Maurice McCarthy. Maurice was able to pull apart my flimsy business plan, educate me in what areas needed improvement and told me how to find the answers I was looking for. I couldn't have asked for a better friend and mentor. Thank you so much Maurice and the WEC!

The Women's Enterprise Centre also was awesome in helping out Winnipeg Girl Geek's Dinners. Angela Hilland a Business Advisor at the WEC came out to the August meeting and delivered an intimate presentation to a small group of young women providing information on the Centre and giving us a low down on entrepreneurial resources available to women. Thank you Angela for a fantastic evening.

Everything's Coming Up Roses

A lot has happened in the past month! Before I get into the wordy update here's a musical rendition of how I feel right now!

The Womens Enterprise Centre has helped me finalize the plan for expanding Smash-Art and has approved my micro expansion loan. I have been busy busy on the new website and selecting my new hardware equipment.

Smash-Art.com is finally updated and redesigned with the help of Sherillyn Gould of Starbrite Studios. Please visit Smash-Art and critique the heck out of it for my sake! I would love to hear everyone's honest opinion.

I could not have come this far without the amazing help I get from all my family, friends and business associates. I have been making contacts everywhere and am surrounding myself with positive people with amazing energy. I'd like to thank and highlight a few individuals. In no particular order:

Anna and Antonio Almonte of River City Stone.

Antonio has real world business experience and tells it how it is, it was his excitement, guidance and expert business knowledge that helped me really mold my business idea to what it is now.
Anna is always available with an open ear a big hug and addictive laughter. Her encouragement has been invaluable.

River City Stone has been an amazing Smash-Art Client. I have designed, re-vamped, printed and painted several creative and challenging projects with their company. The overall attitude and high approval of my work really gave me confidence to push forward in the industry.

For those of you that don't know I painted a 'Wall Talk' mural for their amazing new showroom in the fall of 2009.



Smash-art has also done their business card designs and prints and is currently working on their River City Stone Experience booklet.