San Smith

Happy Valentine's day!

I saw these super cute "paperless" Valentine's from Kate Spade online yesterday and I loved them so much I wanted to post one for you all <3 I appreciate everyone who has stuck with my blog over the years and wanted to wish you guys a Happy Valentine's day!! 

I'm currently working on new content ideas and updating my site for 2013, and I look forward to sharing that soon! <3 Thanks for joining me on this fun journal sharing journey :) It wouldn't be the same without all you awesome people sharing along with me!

PS: You can send a Valentine like the above at paperlesspost.com! Spread the love!

A little life update + Ni no Kuni!

I'm currently on hiatus from social media sites (twitter, tumblr, facebook, instagram and pinterest - the only way I'll be using these is through direct update when I post on my blog) so I thought I'd take a minute to update my blog and let you guys know what I'm up to!

First of all - Happy new year! A little belated, but worth stating. My 2013 got off to a rough start with my uncle passing away, but I'm going to try to be inspired by his life and our great memories together to make this year an amazing and memorable one.

On that note, I've been taking this month kinda easy... Trying to figure out things with my job since its changed a lot, figuring out my new life goals for the next 6 months, focusing on my health and spending time with my family. It doesn't sound very exciting, but I have been enjoying myself!

In between all of that I started playing Ni no Kuni, the new Studio Ghibli video game!!

I really like it so far - the art work is AMAZING! I wish I could crawl into this world and live there with all the beautiful green landscapes, cute homes and interesting creatures. 

If you like Studio Ghibli and have a PS3, I definitely recommend you get it! Here are some iphone pictures I took during playing:

 

 

Such a good game. Seriously, go get it!! I wish I could have gotten the special "Wizard Edition" that came with a tangible version of the game spell book... but maybe they will end up selling the book indvidually soon. :)

I've also been working starting a podcast with three of my friends here in Atlanta! We are still working out ideas and figuring out recording, but when it is ready I'll definitely link to it here!

Well, that's it for today! Not the most exciting update but I'm sure I'll think of more things as I have time away from Social Media sites. :)

 

Excitement over new Sailor Moon coming in 2013!!

So if you haven't heard already, there is a new Sailor Moon anime series coming in 2013 in honor of it's 20th anniversary!! Also, all the SM manga is being re-released in America right now with better translations and formatting. Annnnd the Sailor V comics have finally been released in english for the first time!! Its an exciting time for Sailor Moon fans!! Rather than copy and paste some of the news I've read about all of this, I thought I'd just link to some great resources: 

• Great video explaining the New Sailor Moon anime in Summer of 2013! 
• And more info here!!
• New Sailor Moon Artbook – Coming Soon in 2013!
• New Sailor Moon Figures – Announced at Tamashii Nation 2012 - I love the chibi one!
• Codename: Sailor V on Amazon! Volume 1 and 2 - Such a cute story!! I'm so glad it's finally been released in english! If you aren't familiar with this storyline, its basically the intro to the Sailor Moon series. :) You can read more here about it.

I've been so so excited about all of this that I've ordered all the manga available, and then I even picked up a little necklace from etsy. (above) There are a ton of amazing fan creations on the internet right now too that have popped up lately - these are my two favorites:

• Jewelry shop "Kuma crafts" which makes amazing necklaces based on the lockets and wands in Sailor Moon! I got my above necklace from there. She's currently sold out of Sailor Moon stuff but puts new items up every couple of months so keep an eye out! 
• Lunacy magazine - an online fan made magazine all about Sailor Moon!! This is like a dream come true! It's put together so professionally and covers a wide range of fan interests. Below is a screen cap from one of the issues where they go over how to recreate outfits from the art! Too cool!!

 

 

I've really been enjoying reading the manga again. I think the last time I read it was around 1999 when it was first being released in America... Some of the manga has changed and the overall quality and translations are wonderful in this re-release! (I found a lot of the changed details *so* interesting that I actually scanned a ton of pages to go over it and I'll be sharing that in another post.)

My favorite thing about rereading the manga is remembering how much I adored the relationship between Mamoru and Usagi - the love and friendship stories in Sailor Moon are so magical and touching. As a teenager I always hoped to find someone as wonderful as Mamoru to be with. I loved how he and Usagi worked as a team and supported each other. :*)! So lovely!!

 

And now for a trip down memory lane... When I first read Sailor Moon, it was actually in Smile magazine! I was in 9th grade and I was a huge fan that I bought all the issues I could get of smile until it went under, and then I started collecting the graphic novels as they were slowly released. My girlfriends were really into Sailor Moon too, and we would all print out stories we found online that weren't translated in America yet, and also lend each other different artbooks and collectibles we got a hold of! We were pretty obsessed at the time. Due to this, the Sailor Moon stories are something very special to me because it reminds me of these fun times when I was a teenager. :)

Obsessed with Q-pot jewelry and cafe!!

So, I think I mentioned recently that I went to Hawaii in October... (I still need to blog about that epic trip) While I was there I did a little bit of shopping, and one of my favorite shops I went to was Q-Pot! If you aren't familiar with Q-Pot, it's a Japanese jewelry and accessory store where everything is food or ghost themed (the ghost is their mascot!). The jewelry is so well crafted that most of it looks like real food!! As you can imagine, the majority of the food items are adorable pastries, cupcakes, candies and other sweet items. They even sell teeth themed jewelry to go along with the concept of sugary stuff. ;) 

Above is a picture of the Hawaii storefront I took - the decor in this store is AMAZING. You aren't allowed to take photos inside unfortunately, but you can still see the whipped cream handles on the doors, the white chocolate display counters and the milk pitchers turned upside down for lights! They also had a special Frankenweenie/Halloween set up going on! (The broom by the door would dance around the shop on its own moving in the way a roomba does. So cute!) Below are some photos of the cute store decor from their offical facebook page:

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A close up of some of the Halloween items they had on display in the shop window. I really loved it all and I wish I could have taken everything home with me!! Unfortunately, Q-Pot items are a little pricey and the holiday items were even MORE pricey, so I could only get a few pieces of jewelry and went with some of their basic items:

I picked up a Hawaii exclusive macaron necklace and phone charm (which I might also turn into a necklace!), a fancy macaron purse charm and then a strawberry cupcake ring. For those who don't know, Strawberry cake is my favorite kind of cake!! 

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Ever since I visited the shop I've been obsessed with their brand - its all SO CUTE! On top of having stores in Japan, they also have recently opened a Q-Pot cafe where you can eat all the pastries and chocolates that the jewelry is modeled after. How awesome is that?! Above is a photo from inside the Q-Pot cafe!

Below - Edible treats on the left, and the real jewelry on the right!

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I haven't been to the cafe myself, but I hope to go when my boyfriend and I go to Japan next year. Until then, you should check out these two blog posts for some amazing photos: maisassygirl.blogspot.com and otajo.jp !

 

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Have any of you heard of Q-Pot before or are as obsessed about it as I am?! If you are hoping to obtain some of these adorable jewelry treats and live in the US, then you are in luck: Today Q-Pot launched their US online store - EXCITING!! Here is a link to the new US Q-Pot store: https://shop.q-pot.us/index.htm

You can also find out more about Q-Pot here:

• English site
• Facebook page
• Japanese site 

 

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Why I changed jobs recently

from Highgroove's flickr

So, I got this email in my inbox today:

Hello San,

I have a question about your work, if you do not mind me asking. I noticed you became an office manager at Highgroove, which seems kind of different than freelance illustrator. I was curious why you made that career move. I myself moved from programming to the arts so I found it remarkable. Anyway, I hope you update your blog soon, I enjoy reading it very much and keep up the great work! :D

Kind regards,

Susanne "Sushy" van Schaik
http://modobase.nl

 

And I realized I still hadn't really addressed my job change on my blog. I mentioned it publicly on LinkedIn and Twitter last month, but that's about all I've really said... 

So yes, I changed jobs recently! I now work as an Office Manager for Highgroove Studios, which is an amazing and super fun tech company in Atlanta. I didn't exactly apply for this job though, it just sort of happened... 

The view from my desk! 

To explain: at the beginning of this year I knew I wasn't really enjoying freelancing anymore, but wasn't sure what to do next. (You can't really quit your job when you work for yourself! It's tricky!) I finished up most of my contracts in April, and decided to take May off to figure out what I wanted to do next with my career. Next thing I knew, my boyfriend told me his company, Highgroove Studios, needed a part time personal assistant and did I know anyone who would be interested - and I was like, heck - I'll do it!! I was only going to be working 4 hours a week, but it turned out they needed a lot more help around the office and before I knew it the little part time personal assistant job grew into an office management position.

Some of my cute office supplies. <3 

The craziest part is I LOVE IT. It's so very different from doing freelance illustration, and to be honest even I'm surprised how much I enjoy this job but I feel incredibly lucky to have fallen into it. My job is different every single day - I'm constantly running around, doing online and local shopping for the office and my coworkers, keeping the kitchen stocked with delicious food, scheduling travel and hotels, coming up with ideas to make the office flow better, building things, mailing things, etc. etc. It's very mentally stimulating in a way that drawing wasn't, but it doesn't drain me creatively and pays me much more than I did freelancing. It's also very exciting and rewarding to know that all my hard work goes towards helping build a better company that my boyfriend and friends work at. They have an amazing company culture here - everyone is awesome and so nice, the whole company wants to create amazing things and do their very best which is a great enviornment, you can bring your dogs to work, there are free bikes and razor scooters to ride, we have a personal trainer and our own gym, lunch and snacks are provided daily, schedules and dress codes are up to you - I could go on and on. It's really the best job ever.

Fun Halloween decorations I put up in the office. 

It's also really wonderful that I'm finally starting to feel like being creative again. I think a lot of people think the best way to make a living is making money off of what you love - which is exactly what I did for a long time... But I don't believe that works for everyone because sometimes it can turn you to hate and be stressed by the very thing that brings you happiness. I was really beginning to hate drawing - it was a source of constant stress and fiancial worry for me - but now I think I can finally draw for fun again. 

More decorations. It's hard to capture it all in photos! 

I don't know where my career will go next, but I will always be open minded and try new things. I might start working here full time soon, and if so I will be putting my freelance career on indefinite hiatus and just drawing for fun and my blog. I might sell stuff with my artwork on it still, but it will be based around what *I* want to draw rather than taking freelance requests. I think this will ultimately be the better balance for me with work and art.

More stuff by my desk. 

So I hope this clears things up! If you have any questions about this that I didn't address here, leave them in a comment below! I hope you guys enjoyed the photos inbetween all the text - I love our space!!

And for the curious - if you'd like to work at Highgroove Studios too, they're hiring! ;) You can see the available jobs here. They are also giving away free wolfbrain tshirts right now, click this link for more info!