Whew! From learning new skills, exploring Manitoba, and experimenting with my business, 2018 has been a busy but exciting year! Below you’ll find some of my fav highlights and interesting moments!
JANUARY 2018 was off to a full start with lots of changes to my website including the launch of my new online shop (greeting cards, art prints, and digital downloads!) and a new blog full of wedding stationery tips, inspiration, and digital design freebies! We upped our newsletter game too and planned out a full year of content for our newsletter pals receiving our updates at the start of each month! I had “Attend a calligraphy class” on my bucket list for a longggg time, and one real late night up brainstorming (I swear this is when all my best ideas come out, ha!) I came across Nor De La Cruz (www.instagram.com/nordelacruz/) and her Modern Calligraphy class at Collective Workshop (www.collectiveworkshop.co/) and knew I had to sign up! So literally 3 weeks later there I was learning calligraphy and I couldn’t have been more excited!
MARCH I was asked to create the annual event program for Winn$tock - a Battle of the Bands kind of event run by The Movement Centre of Manitoba (http://movementcentre.ca) in Winnipeg, Manitoba that aims at raising money to goes towards improving the physical health of children and adults with physical disabilities. This year the organization raised over $1 million dollars and it was so great to be a part of this milestone with them! I managed to get my finger stuck in a stairwell fire door and had to get 3 stitches (grosss). As my stitches were on my dominant hand, had a foam finger of a bandage (which was kinda funny), and since the majority of my design work is computer based I wasn’t able to work on any of my creative projects for several days (definitely a bummer), but luckily I had no major deadlines that week!
MAY As a way to seek out more wedding stationery clients, I became a vendor on Wedding Wire and joined a bunch of other awesome creative businesses who aim at helping couples create their amazing wedding day! Brendan and I attended a “Table for 1200 More” event organized by Storefront MB with 1198 other people all at the same long table at The Forks here in Winnipeg – talk about a unique dining experience!
JULY
As a gal who loves sweets, I was pretty pumped to check off another item on my bucket list this summer – a Winnipeg classic, BDI Ice Cream! An inflatable pool was also purchased for the backyard at my house (I won’t say who purchased it, just kidding... #bestadultpurchaseever) and I spent the majority of those hot summer days out there lounging around occasionally doing work!
AUGUST Two of Brendan’s and my pals, Nicole and Garrett, got married at the Old Mill in Toronto, Ontario and we were able to make a visit to our hometown, Hamilton, Ontario, to see our families too. Brendan and I both had the honour of helping to contribute to their special day - Brendan was the best man and I designed their wedding stationery and day-of details! Nicole is from the USA and Garrett from Canada, so it was super fun getting to incorporate elements of where they’re from into their stationery design!
SEPTEMBER I participated in a few webinars and continued to learn, learn, learn about all the things this Fall! I came across Biz Birthday Bash (www.bizbirthdaybash.com/) by accident when planning out our client experience, and my oh my, have I enjoyed learning from these two ladies! I also got to hang out with the cutest little piggies at Pineridge Hollow in Winnipeg – this is by far the definition of self-care for sure!
OCTOBER I decided to offer illustrated family holiday cards for the first time ever this year! I was just so dang excited to get your cute little faces into illustrated form – I even illustrated my first pet too! To continue with some business experimenting this year, I switched over our newsletter platform from Wix to MailChimp to help improve our client experience.
NOVEMBER My inner Hogwarts student (Hufflepuff House, of course!) was pretty pumped when Brendan and I decided to host our very first Harry Potter themed party – butterbeer, wands, owls, the Quidditch Cup, and all! My sister even flew in from Calgary to attend (and see us I guess!)
DECEMBER To wrap up the year with some gratitude, I sent out my first ever client gift – a set of 4 of my greeting cards – to all of my 2018 clients as a way to say thanks for the opportunity to work together! The website even received a tiny brand update, and our purpose and services we’re defined a bit more - we’re now even offering custom illustrations on an ongoing basis!
I can’t wait to see what 2019 will hold for Lauren Baker Print & Design! Here’s our 2018 Top Nine for Instagram! Follow along on social media for more of our business adventures!
INSTAGRAM – www.instagram.com/laurenbakerpd FACEBOOK – www.facebook.com/laurenbakerpd PINTEREST – www.pinterest.com/laurenbakerpd