Call Me Sassafras on Instagram!

I know I'm a wee bit late in announcing this, but I just wanted all y'all to know that I finally made an instagram for Call Me Sassafras! The account will share behind-the-scenes snapshots of the blog, my calligraphy/paper art/design and my life, not to mention music that I'm currently listening to. Here are a few examples of things I've recently posted.

You can follow me on Instagram here or from your phone via the instagram at @callmesassafras!

 

 

1 / My behind-the-scenes process of making cards for the fair earlier in the summer.

2 / A gorgeously designed tea tin found at a Goodwill--and happily purchased for 25 cents!

3 / Sometimes I doodle my feelings (while I should have been packing).

4 / Delicious kiwi gelato with my family.

5 / Proof that YES, Lake Michigan is wavy enough to surf in. 

Leave a comment here or on my instagram + say hi!

Goodbye July: a month in favorites

(Death to the Stock Photo)

Can you believe it's August already?! I feel like I say that every month but especially this month, it just feels crazy. May both feels like yesterday and a year ago. Funny how time can do that.  

July has (obviously) been the busiest month of my summer. Between working full time, working on four design projects, designing a tattoo, selling my stationery at a craft fair and H coming to visit, I've been going-going-going, but doing all good things! I can't wait to see what August will bring (namely, college!).

I've mentioned it before, but I got a new laptop at the beginning of the month, which is fantastic. My old one was dying a slow, agonizing death. But the one thing I haven't figured out/gotten productive enough to try to figure out is transferring my iTunes library. So I just haven't quite been as focused as usual on music. I've been using spotify, 8tracks and songza (my three fave music sites--pandora is a close fourth) for the most part. Trending in my head these days are the 60s, but also soft acoustics. So good. A couple good playlists from 8tracks (with the exception of the first, the titles mean nothing):

Songs to Dance to / 60s rock

Self Portrait / acoustics

For When Words Aren't Enough / indie folk, singer-songwriter

This month, as I mentioned a few days ago, I largely read books I wasn't totally interested in as part of my library's adult reading challenge. I did however, really enjoy two books this month. One, called The Poisoner's Handbook was just amazing. It's a story of forensic medical examiners in the Jazz Age and different cases involving Prohibition-era wood alcohol and poisons. Very, very interesting if you're at all into medicine or chemistry (or even just US history!). The second was Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Although the main part of the book is super well known (everyone dies one at a time until there are..none. You guessed it.), I still thought it was super well written and I never suspected the ending. 

This month, I focused more on design/my life than I have in the past. I'm constantly tweaking, but I'd love to hear what you think. Do you like more design, life/productivity, music or science posts? Anyways, I really enjoyed the first installment of my new series, the Color Files, starting with Tangerine. Ever since I got my tablet, I've been obsessed with digital handlettering, but in this DIY Design, I showed you how to make a font from your own handwriting. Finally, I always enjoy a good Missing Links (science for normal people) post. This one features articles on jellyfish that age backwards, the possibility of printing a human heart and a mind-blowing infographic on the depths of our oceans.

What was your favorite post that you read or wrote this month?!

5 Design Resources for Bloggers

Hey dollfaces. As you know, I'm on vacation(ish) in the NC mountains and am a little too busy for this blog right now. But don't worry, I've got Kate here to give you some tips on designing your blog. She's giving away all my secrets! :) 


Hey friends! I'm Kate from over at Diaries of an Essex Girl where I talk about travel, health, love and all kinds of random nonsense. I am excited to be sharing something with you all today on Allie's blog, isn't she just a pretty cool lady? I'm pretty sure we can all admit to thinking dinosaurs are pretty rocking - amiright?

Blog designing is something I've actually been into for years but as times have changed, so have blogs and although now it is less time consuming - it requires a lot more tools that just Photoshop and somewhere to code. In fact, you don't need either of those things anymore if you don't want to or know how to use them. I've compiled a list for you of the 5 top resources you need to start using now to make your blog designing that little bit more seamless and the best part is - they are all free!

1. Design Seeds

Design Seeds is an awesome website for designers because it has thousands of colour palettes to choose from. Each palette has six colours that compliment each other beautifully and are inspired by different themes or images. Some of my favourite categories are Flora, Autumn and Nature. No matter your blog niche, writing style or personal colour preferences - you will find the perfect palette on Design Seeds!

2. Browserling

Have you ever coded an awesome layout and then had someone tell you it looks crappy in XYZ browser? No? Well it sucks. Browserling allows for cross-browser testing so all you have to do is type your URL in and it shows you how it looks in all available browsers. This way, you can spot an error BEFORE you share the blog design with the Interwebs and have someone tell you your design sucks for them. Winning.

3. Image Maps

If you already know how to Image Map, that's awesome. If you don't, let me tell you how and welcome you to the world of prettier designs! All you need to do is upload your image, create a shape around the part you want to link, enter the link and then move on to the next shape. Done. This can create lots of different links on one image without them overlapping - great for pretty navigational bars and social media icons.

4. Design Your Way

When browsing Google one day, I stumbled across an incredible page - Big fat collection of free resources for designers. I mean, the name alone sells it right? This page is full of textures, patterns, brushes, themes, fonts, social media icons, vectors, EVERYTHING you could possibly want. All for free to download right this very second. Happy browsing!

5. Pic Monkey

Maybe I'm a little late to the party with this one, as I believe Pic Monkey is pretty popular with bloggers. However, I really think it's an important one to share because it shows that you do not need Photoshop to create pretty images for your blog. I've seen some amazing tutorials online for Pic Monkey on how to make navigational bars (with Image Maps!), advertising buttons, bio images and page headers. On their blog, Pic Monkey shared the Top Ten Tutorials for using their service to pretty much design your whole blog. Can't ask for more than that can you?
Here's hoping I've shared at least one tool with you today you didn't know about - unless you are a total blog designing superstar and in that case, lets hear about your favourite design tools!

What tools do you use to design your blog? Sharing is caring!