Fifteen more days until our wedding. Yippee!! I still can’t believe how much is left to do though. I thought the last few weeks would be all about relaxing before the big day. NOT! My todo list still has about 10 items waiting to be scratched off. Anywho, I’ve got some goodies I found on the web this week to share with ya’ll. Hope they are useful to you. =]

1. Exiting Visual blog: A collection of the greatest Art/Design everyday. Check out their stationery category. Great stuff!

2. Rose Barrettes tutorial: These happen to be THE cutest hair pieces and I can’t wait to make some for my girls.

3. How to make bags from envelopes tutorial: Over at the Etsy blog. These would be great for a kids party.

4. Craft an Original Character in Illustrator tutorial: Over at Computer Arts Mag. Now you know I’m all over this.

A bunch of fun for this weekend. I have to make sure to actually get things done and not just learn how to do them though. Have a great weekend guys. See you here next week. I’ve got a nice surprise I’m hoping to unveil next week. A project I’ve been working on.

This is what I’m dreaming of in the coming weeks. Going to the Mother Land, La Republica Dominicana to visit family and friends as well as stealing away to an all inclusive resort for a few days. Let’s hope all works out better than planned. =]

Remember this invite? Well, I was at the celebration this weekend and I must say, mom really knew how to pull all the elements together. I so loved the decor and the invites just worked so well with everything else she had. And the cake was just tooooo much. I felt bad to see it cut, but boy was it delicious. Enjoy the pics! (My camera was acting up so the pics could be a bit fuzzy. Sorry =[  )

Ive been so busy this week. My wedding is in exactly 22 days and I still don’t have everything in place. OMG!!!

I’ve been really focusing on developing myself as an artist and designer, getting ready for what is to come. In doing so I have found some fabulous blogs, tutorials and resources. Take a look and have an awesome weekend. Maybe you’ll get inspired as I did. =]

1. Orange You Lucky Blog: Illustrator, designer and mother of three. This lady really gives me encouragement.

2. How To Make A Repeating Pattern Tutorial by Julia Rothman over at Design*Sponge. Love this!

3. Que Sera Sera card from HereMyDear over at Etsy. What an amazing design!

4. Inspired Papertry blog. Beautiful, sophisticated design.

There’s more where that came from, but you’ll just have to wait until next Friday for the next lineup. I’m brushing up my skills and want to start putting up my illustrations soon, but please keep in mind that I’m not a pro…I am truly an amateur.

My beautiful city!

I’m going to try to enjoy my city a bit more before the cold weather comes in and I’m going to have to stay locked in my apartment all day. Enjoy my view guys.

Have a great weekend guys!

Pilu

Jamila, Victoria, Brauly and Samir

Anyone who has read my About page will know that I am the proud mother of four children. Raising my babies is by far the hardest “job” I have ever had to do. On my best days I am worn out and sleepy, on my worst, ungrateful and annoyed. To top things off, my husband was born and raised in the Dominican Republic while women were still viewed as “slaves” while men were the slave owners. What this means is that he expects me to be “barefoot and pregnant” all the time. But God is such a humorous person, I married an old fashioned man, but he got stuck with a VERY modern American woman who speaks her mind and does not allow ANYONE to dictate her life. I say all this because on top of all that I have to take care of, I also had the bright idea of quitting my day job and running my own business (smart huh?).

I’m constantly reading mompreneur articles on the web and one thing mostly all of them have in common is the fact that in every mompreneur’s life something has GOT to give. Unfortunately for me, that something seems to always be my business. I have been moping around and throwing business pity parties for myself everyday as I do my usual runs through some of my favorite mompreneur sites (you girls rock!) when suddenly, I got an epiphany today: I can use this time to really sharpen my design and illustration skills. If there is one thing that really did give once I had my babies it was my illustrative practices. I was teaching myself to draw for years and I was getting so good, but stopped once I became a mom and am not happy with my illustrative level. I realized that since I can’t completely submerge myself in business, I can use this family rearing time to practice my drawing. That really made my day. I have so much to share and so many ideas to develop, with my second baby starting school next month and my third next year, I know the time will come to “raise” Studio Piluca as well. So, no more pouting. Joyce Meyer says it best, “You can be pitiful or you can be powerful, but you can’t be both.” I choose to be powerful. How about you?

I had developed a “pilu head” a while back that my brother loves because she looks just like me and I have been wanting to start using her in my products and branding, but I haven’t had the chance or the practice to develop her body or find a way to include her. Her name is Piluca, Pilu for short and she is my alter ego. I’m thinking I should start using her in my signature starting today. Friends, here she is. Enjoy! =]

Hey there, first time here? Go ahead, take a look around. If you like what you see, how about subscribing to my feed, joining me on facebook, and following my tweets? So glad you can join us!

====================================================================================

Notebooks. What can I say, I love them! They are the ultimate functional item that allows for endless beautification. I don’t know when I first became obsessed with them. I suppose it all started when I realized I really like to write. There is nothing sweeter, in my opinion, than putting your thoughts and ideas down on paper. You can go back years from now and reread what you were thinking then and see how much you’ve changed inside with time. You can’t do that with a picture or painting. Words are another thing that I love. Words are so powerful, beautiful, melodic. They can be funny or sad, happy or angry. They hold within them the power to change and to create. Words are a wonderful thing. Words and journals, notebooks, sketchbooks, jotters, pads (however you want to call them) go hand in hand. They are best friends you know. And no matter how digital our would gets, paper will never go out of style. Here are a few bold and beautiful notebooks and stationery sets that make me swoon.

Note: If you didn’t know, you can order custom notebooks from my shop, saddle-stitched or spiral bound. Your design on the cover. Don’t have a good design? That’s ok, I can help you with that. Check out my custom notebook cover listing for all the details.

Links:

1. Ecologiks – OneLittleTree.com

2. Jumbled Notebooks – HappilyBecky

3. Red Tango Stationery Set – Red Tango

4. Come on Sweet Catastrophe – Pandaloo

5. Stardust Journal – Earmark

6. Snail Mail – Kristen Ulve

Do you write? Know someone who does? Who’s your favorite author? Favorite book? Were you any good in English at school? Do you love words? Let me know in the comments. Come on, don’t be shy. I know you’re reading. Google Analytics tells me so.  =)

Have an awesome weekend!

Pilu

It took me a while to get these out here, but I finally found some time.

I had no clue wedding cakes were so expensive, but they are so worth it. Works of art they are. But as a creative I of course couldn’t just pick a cake and stick with its design, I had to piece about 5 different cakes together to create my dream design. Here are the finalist. Can’t wait to see the final piece (and taste it). I pulled all these off of The Knot website.

I love all of them, especially the white with black detailing and the 2 huge flowers. So exquisite!

I’m down to the last 40 days before my wedding day and I must say that all the pieces are coming together nicely. My colors have definitely evolved since I started planning, finally I have settled into a wonderful combination that celebrates all of nature. Here is a sneak peak of what I’m working on:

I finally got the centerpieces down to what I want them to look like, of course with the help of my awesome decorator and sister-in-law. It’s amazing the wonderful things people can come up with when there’s not a lot of money and you have to be resourceful. I’m so loving how everything is looking. Can’t wait to keep exposing little pieces of the puzzle until the big day arrives and I can post all the pictures. I’m so excited. There is more to this story than meets the eye, in a future post I’ll give you my wedding testimony. Good night ya’ll!

Pilu

Pilu

The Etsy shop is officially on vacation until further notice. I really need to focus on my wedding and my family. I’ll keep blogging. I love to blog. So, catch you here.

Pilu

Howdy there, are you new here? Go ahead, take a look around. If you like what you see… jump on the Studio Piluca life and business building wagon by subscribing to my feed, joining me on facebook, and following my tweets! I’m all about progess so “LET’S GROW TOGETHER!”