online classes with creativebug

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Well hello there! I realize that it has almost been one year since my last blog post, but if you follow me on Instagram,  you know that I try to post at least once a day. I like to think of it as my mini blog.  As you know I’ve been traveling quite a bit. In addition to my workshops in Hawaii, NYC and at Oh Happy Day,  I’ve traveled to Los Angeles, Australia and Japan twice  (yes, that’s twice in one year) and I am not sure how I did it! It’s a lot to juggle with the kids, deadlines for clients and an upcoming book or two (more on this later). In addition, the twins started kindergarten last September. I really enjoy volunteering as much as possible at their school, especially on the days that they concentrate on Penmanship. I am convinced that their school is one of the only public schools left in the United States that is still teaching Penmanship.

Last year I was  approached by a few companies inquiring if I would consider filming a video for my classes online.  I was really  on the fence about it. What I love about workshops is meeting and connecting with students in real life. I posted a question on Instagram about offering my classes online. There were a few people in a few cities, like Seattle, Memphis and Charleston that I would love to but have not yet taught a workshop. My friend Lisa Congdon immediately sent me an email and recommended Creativebug, the company that she worked with, and guess what- everything she said about how lovely it was to work with the Creativebug team was true! I enjoyed it immensely, which included designing my set to mimic my realy studio. Well, I can’t tell you how excited I am to let you know that the 4 part series premieres tomorrow, Feb 3, 2015 but you can really watch it any time, and follow along at your own pace.  If you already own calligraphy supplies, you are all set. But if you don’t, you can purchase my kit on Etsy by clicking here: and watch along with me by signing up and clicking here.

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workshop updates

photo credit: galina dixon

photo credit: galina dixon styling by megan morton

Hello lovely readers. This is just a quick note to pop in and say hello.  When I finally finished my website design  last year, I was so happy that I could easily post on my blog. Easier said than done. As you know, I am a busy mom of 4.5 year old twins, and they are about to start kindergarten in the fall. In December, we must have toured a dozen schools and I found only ONE school here in Oakland that still incorporates cursive handwriting in their curriculum. This is a subject for another post, but it makes me so sad that in our lifetime we may see this vanish from our schools all together. Based on the amount of students attending my workshops, it gives me hope that there are still many people interested in it, and they will teach their kids so on and so forth. I wanted to give you a brief update about my workshops since I last posted.

First, I am excited that the workshop that I collaborated with Elizabeth Messina  Mindy Rice, Elizabeth Colling, Mindy Weiss, Wiley Valentine, and Found Rentals last September will be published in Hearth Magazine  issue No. 3. You can order a copy of this beautiful magazine here.

In October I taught a few (eight) workshops in Sydney and Melbourne and I will be in Australia again this May 2014, including Brisbane at The School. A lovely gal by the name of Galina in Sydney attended my class and posted about it on her blog, Galina Loves. You can read and see her gorgeous photos on her blog post here. On my only day off in Sydney, I spent the most wonderful day with Jessie James of Supply Paper Co.  She took me to all of her favorite places, including Sibella Court’s  The Society Inc.  By pure coincidence,  I  ran into Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day and her husband Paul while they were in Australia!!! Maybe you remember, last January I taught a workshop at Oh Happy Day, sponsored by Bing. You can read Jordan’s post about her dream trip to Australia and New Zealand here.

In November, I was invited to teach a workshop in Portland at Schoolhouse Electric in collaboration with Egg Press along with Ana Mara Flowers at their wonderful warehouse. One of the attendees Lindsey Boccia took some great photos and shared it on her blog. It was an amazing day in a beautiful city and I cannot wait to return to Portland. In December, I taught a workshop at Makeshift Society with all proceeds to benefit the Red Cross Philippines Typhooon Haiyan. It was a workshop followed by silent auction and we raised over $3,000.

I took a break over the holidays with a trip to NYC and Boston with my family. January rolled around and I made a list of dream places that I would like to hold workshops. First stop on my list Los Angeles to one of my favorite places for workshops at  Poketo. I’ll be back in July 2014 along with an advanced workshop!

February was our first every “Petals and Penmanship” in collaboration with my friend Kiana Underwood of Tulipina . The workshop was held at Angie Cao’s photography studio in San Francisco. I shall share more about thatlater, for now here is a recap from Dressed in Orange. Kiana and I are planning  another workshop soon, more details later.

March (next week!) I am off to Tokyo to teach four workshops at Fog Linen and then Singapore with one of my favorite blogs ever Bloesem and her new venture:  Bloesem Class.  I promise I will be try to update this blog more often than I have been, but I need to know: Does anyone read this blog? What would you like to know more about?  In the meantime, you can see what I am doing every day on my mini-blog:  (my instagram feed)  and you will get to see snippets of  my journey to Asia.

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Pag-asa : Hope. a fundraiser for the Philippines

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Dear friends, my heart breaks for the people of the Philippines with the recent devastation of Typhoon Haiyan.  I returned from my workshops around the world (more on that later) to an e-mail from a very thoughtful artist friend Sonya Philip. She came up with idea to do collaborate on a fundraiser and reach out to other Filipino artists to raise money for the Philippine Red Cross.

I saw that my friends at Chronicle Books held a bake sale, which was a huge success, and they raised over $3,000 for this cause.  Coincidentally I ran into talented Chronicle Books designer and my friend Kristen Hewitt who so graciously allowed us to use the logo it for our event. While I was teaching my last class of the year at Makeshift Society this past Saturday I mentioned that I wanted to do something, didn’t really know how to go about it, they generously offered their clubhouse space so that we could hold a silent auction as well as a calligraphy class that I am teaching.

Pag-asa in Tagalog means Hope. I visited the Philippines with my grandparents (their homeland) a few years ago. If you have ever been there you know it is a beautiful country the people are so kind despite the hard life that they live. I hope you will consider donating this year to the Red Cross or if you are interested in learning Calligraphy all proceeds from my calligraphy class will go to the Philippine Red Cross. The class is on December 14, 2013  from 2-5 p.m at Makeshift Society. Followed by a silent auction at 6:30-8. You can sign up for the class by clicking HERE .

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