Like (seemingly) everyone else in America, I don't really care about Valentine's Day. I do enjoy being super cheesy and celebrating all kinds of loving relationships, so Husband Dave, Sister Alenni, and Me Emily did some  new-fashioned love-locking for funsies!

In various parts of the world, couples decorate padlocks with their names and professions of love, lock the padlock on a fence or chain, and toss the key away as a symbol of their everlasting commitment. Because I work at the coolest place ever (Felicitous Coffee & Tea) and because my boss Rani is unbelievably adorable, she created a spot for lovelocks around a beautiful tree in the shop's backyard.

Dave and I are of course madly in love, and my lil' sis Alenni was visiting from Blizzardville, MA when Felicitous unveiled the lovelocks. I painted a lock for me and my sister as well as one for me and Dave.

Sissy is a talented songwriting highschooler, and she can play a ton of instruments. Our lock has music notes and a paintbrush (for me). Dave's soul shines when he is playing bass guitar, so fitting a bass clef and a rocket together was the perfect icon for us! The other loves of our lives are Nemo and StarFox, our faithful cat and dog, so they also make appearances on our lock.

Dave insisted that we put our lock on BEFORE ANYONE ELSE, because hey, if he is going to do anything even remotely romantic he is going to do it all-out. The night that the chains were installed (a few days before Valentine's Day) we ran to the store and snapped our lock on. Alenni attached our symbol of sisterly love shortly after.

Although that would have been enough celebrating for me, Dave surprised me with a little Valentine's gift this morning: and after-dinner mint found in his coat pocket. Awwww...that's love!

As you have learned on every single page of my new website, I am Emily. And I am an artist and a designer. SURPRISE, I am also a BLOGGER now. woah.

While I have done a lot of advertising and marketing for other people and businesses, I've just never done it for myself at all. I love to think up new creative ways for people to get their name out there. But my own name? My services? It feels weird to me. I may be the least put-myself-out-there human in America. I don't have a lot of ambition for professional success or building a career.

I recently made some business cards for myself. They are my first real-official-serious-adult-professional business cards, but now I have a hurdle to face: I am incredibly awkward talking to people, and I am even more awkward trying to tell others about myself and why I could possibly help their business through design. Most of my clients find me because of word-of-mouth (I have happy customers who are AMAZING at talking about me, thank goodness), and I wanted a way to thank them for sharing my name while representing my skills and uniqueness with my possible new clients.

Each envelope contains five business cards and a business-card-sized original drawing as a little "thank you!" to the card hander-outer. It's my little way of saying "I appreciate you!"