• giveaway,  Moody Blues,  place holder posts

    Winter Doldrums (and a calendar)

    winter-duldrums.

    Here I am, popping my shaggy groundhog head up to say hello after what seems like the longest, coldest winter ever. I know it’s not Groundhog Day, but it’s winter, and I’m in that awkward shaggy stage of growing out my hair. Bug says to wear pigtails because I look ancient now that the blonde is gone. I can’t win at this stage. It matches my mood.

    Things have been hard lately. For everyone I think, right? The flower business is on hold.  I didn’t sell enough t-shirts to get any actual t-shirts so those of you who bought them should get your money back. I have $126 going toward the brake job for Florita, but I don’t know when it will happen. I lost my shirt on the last flower pop-up, so I’m taking a break. Not forever. I do have some weddings lined up for Spring.  The cost-benefit analysis did not work in my favor to do one or two weekly deliveries.

    whirlwind-nye-in-sf

    I had a fun whirlwind visit to San Francisco to celebrate New Year’s Eve with Matt. We always have a good time together. I love dressing up fancy and going out to dinner in restaurants with luscious velvet chairs and pretty bottles all lit up in a bar.  I’ve lost my nerve to take selfies in pretty locations, but I try to snap a few random shots for Instagram.

    hemet-in-january

    I also got out to the sticks for a rare visit. The skies are so blue, and the desert is so welcoming. When I’m stuck on the coast in the gray winter, I sometimes forget that the sun shines in other places. It was good to see my parents. They were happy to see their grand dog.

    Other than that, not much has been going on. I’ve been focusing on work and not being very creative, which is unlike me.

    We will be celebrating Bug’s 18th (I KNOW!!!!) birthday this weekend with a bounce house and a pinata at the park, but Bug has been planning the whole thing herself and wants very little input from me, so I have no fun prep pictures to share. I’m sure I’ll have more to share when I’m baking 100 cupcakes this Wednesday.

    Also, here’s your fixed-up calendar. Only one person submitted edits, so if it’s wrong, it’s your fault.  Just kidding. I’m sure I can put out another version if there are some embarrassing errors.

    xo

  • Apartmentlandia,  giveaway,  my books,  Shop Talk

    Free Rough Draft SAJ Calendar

    SAJ-2023-calendar-1

    Get Your Red Pens Out! Here it is. The FREE pdf rough draft version of my printable calendar. Free for you if you help me catch all my errors. Then I fix my many typos and put the calendar in my shop for a dollar. What a deal!

    FREE ROUGH DRAFT CALENDAR CLICK HERE

    This year I’ve added some new holiday confusion. Actually, I’ve been confused about this every year. My google calendar no longer includes a bunch of holidays I used to always include. So I’ve been googling when is Spring Equinox? and puzzling over whether I should include the first day of Hannukkah and the last, and then if I do that, should I include Ramadan and how long that lasts? Purim? Kwanza? I don’t know anymore! Minor Jewish Holidays, Orthodox Catholic Holidays? What do I include, and what do I not? I don’t know. I want to be as PC as possible, but I just got lazy and included the minimum. If your favorite holiday is not on there (and I’m not talking about National Pizza Day or Puppy day, that’s a whole OTHER calendar), then message me, and I’ll consider putting it on.

    SAJ-2023-calendar-2

    There you go! Long live the old-school paper calendars that can go on the fridge! Do you guys still use these? I actually do. I have so many calendars. I use google calendar on my phone, I have a day planner at my desk, I have a journal and I still forget where to be on what day because I’m a completely distracted creative undiagnosed-but-very-much-like-ADHD sort of person. Paper calendars help! I like the paper version because it’s in my face and obvious on the kitchen refrigerator. I can’t get my milk for my coffee without looking at it.  I can put my big appointments and my shift schedule down for Bug because she’s almost a grown-up now, and we rarely see each other anymore. She has a life outside of her mother’s radius of existence, aka her boyfriend got his driver’s license. We are ships passing in the night these days, so a calendar is helpful! (Just teasing. She’s still around. But you know teenagers can be.)

    Since we’re talking about calendars, should we talk about the other holiday elephant in the room?

    SAJ-custom-holiday-cards

    Holiday cards! I’m not going to send one this year. I know. It’s hard. You know how much I love making my own holiday card. I just don’t know how to tell people with a mass mailing that they aren’t going to get the picturesque family shot of the Ponnays this year. It’s too much to explain, and do people even like those cards? They’re so posed and perfectly lit with the fall glow of sunset and cute outfits etc. Do we even like that?  I mean, I love making them, and if you need a photographer and graphic designer for your holiday card, please hire me! But for me, it’s just not right this year. It’s too soon. Too much tea.

    Bug and I thought up a few parody ideas, but I decided I’d rather save the money for my expensive rent instead. Another reason you should hire me to illustrate your holiday card this year! I can illustrate you in Star Wars costumes, I can illustrate your kids hanging from the chandeliers, and I can illustrate your pets. How hard is it to get a pet portrait for the holidays? Terribly hard! Save yourself the headache and hire me instead. My illustrations also make great gifts. You can get them printed on fancy paper and frame them. I’m up for custom orders! I’ve even dropped my prices. Shhhhh, don’t tell anybody. (I’m faster and better at illustrating than I used to be. One perk of being older.)

    SAJ-books

    Since we’re here in my shop I might as well tell you about my box of books. Not cheap but packed with love. Six books in a cute box that won’t show up weathered by the mail system because I end up putting it in another flat rate box because it’s cheaper. Weird, I know.

    SueBea-holiday-cards

    There are also SueBea cards! I almost have enough SueBea illustrations to create a calendar.  I’m starting a Redbubble shop with Sue Bea products, but I might not have it up in time for Christmas. Does anyone use Redbubble? I’m still clunking around in it and haven’t quite figured it out.

    LittleHoo-holiday-cards

    For now, we have Etsy! Look, Little Hoo Christmas Cards! A set of four.

    Merry-Christmas-Little-Hoo-book-by-BrendaPonnay

    Of course, I can’t talk about the holidays without mentioning my Little Hoo Christmas book. It’s like giving a mouse a cookie…

    I didn’t mean to make this into a Christmas Wish list or to push SAJ products down your throat but it is a good time to do a holiday round-up.

    knock-knock-jingle-jingle

    For the older kids (7-10ish) who like to repeat dumb jokes over and over, you might want to pick up Knock Knock Jingle Jingle.

    I also have a new book out: Goodnight Little Hoo.

    GoodNightLittleHoo

    Inside-Goodnight-LittleHoo

    If you have littles, you can always use another goodnight book. If you have friends and relatives with littles they’ll like it too.

    can-you-tell-which-apt-is-ours

    I’m done selling! So sorry about that. It’s part of keeping afloat in this internet world unfortunately. I’m supposed to promote my work at least once a week, but I hate doing it.

    I’ll leave you with a picture of my apartment complex from the golfcourse. Can you guess which window is mine?

    Go print out your free calendar!