One of the first {and most important} pieces of advice my boss gave me when I shared with her my & Mish’s idea for poorandpretty.com was to “find a unique voice” or, in this case, voices. I read bunches of different blogs to try and find each blogger’s voice, but the person I watched closest was Alissa Walker, of gelatobaby.com fame.

Now, talk about finding your own unique voice! Alissa Walker has three main passions: writing, walking and gelato. She lives, writes, walks and eats gelato in Los Angeles {lucky!}, and she is just one of the coolest, smartest, wittiest, bloggers/freelance journalists I have ever read. Now that I’ve become acquainted with her writing {much of which is about design, crafting, eating, & sustainability}, it’s easy to spot anything she’s penned {typed?}. She’s sharp, funny, crafty, endlessly upbeat — and always herself. In everything she writes, even when it’s for major online and print publications like Design Observer, GOOD, Fast Company, and Core77, she always slips in little funny snippets of her personality that make you go “Oh, yeah, that’s totally Alissa.”

Case in point: When I first began reading her stuff, it was back in February. I was reading up on Compostmodern, an annual sustainable design conference held in San Francisco, which Alissa Walker liveblogged for Core77. After the conference was over, she put all of her posts together on Core77 and called it “Compostmodern 09: Urgent Reflections and All Posts In One Place.” In reporting about windpower advocate and inventor {and founder of Instructables.com!!!} Saul Griffith’s lecture at Compostmodern, Alissa said:

…Griffith rocks back and forth on stage, flapping his arms, pointing at facts and figures with a laser pointer. He’s going to school us, literally. And he’s going to start with some basic education that we might have missed while we were so busy learning about design. This is a man who has invented several products, started several companies, plus he’s a certified (MacArthur Foundation) genius, and has multiple degrees in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering including a Ph.D from MIT in Programmable Assembly and Self Replicating Machines (what does that even mean?). Luckily, he’s funny.

She just cracks me up. She can give you the news in a way that is entertaining and still meaningful. If Alissa Walker were a TV news anchor, I daresay I would actually watch the news on TV, rather than reading it through social news sites like reddit. I mean, honestly, how can you not appreciate her just for her awesome business cards alone? Alissa’s “unique voice” is that of an extreme gelato-lover, right down to her very business scoops {right}.

Seriously, though. If you read nothing else of Alissa Walker’s, please, to understand why I love her, and her hilarity, read her inspired-by-Easter post, “A time to Peep,” in which she relates the story of her strikingly humanlike Peeps and their very bad behavior. If you don’t laugh, there is definitely something wrong with you. :)

Christmas this year seemed to have come and gone very, very quickly. Too quickly! But not too quickly for good times to be had, and merry to be made. My favorite event, as always, is the big family get-together at my Uncle Tom’s house, which happened yesterday. It’s pretty much the only time when all of my Dad’s family gets together all in one place. It’s always so much fun because, as I mentioned in my post about the Christmas tree, Christmas for us is mainly about family.

Though everyone in my family is a bit whackadoo in some way or another, we all have amazingly different personalities that seem to somehow work together nicely. My Uncle Tom, for instance, is ludicrously smart, an excellent photographer, and the only one in the family who has ever been good with money (he could give Mish & I a few tips, eh?). My Uncle Bob is hilariously obnoxious and uncensored — some of the best stories come from him. My Aunt Kathy is quick-witted and good-natured (which was good since Stan somehow broke two of her serving spoons over Christmas dinner, which he will never live down), my Uncle Dave (who lives in California and couldn’t make it yesterday) is patient and thoughtful, and my Dad is a combination of all his bothers and his sister (minus Tom’s trait of financial savvy). I wish I could explain to you how awesome my family is to be around, but you just have to experience it. One day, I’ll video tape a day in the life of my family and you can see it first-hand! I may add some family photos into this post later, though, if I can steal some from Uncle Tom.

All in all, holiday ‘09 has been great. I gave and received some really great gifts. My favorites were some of the books I was given, including the entire Harry Potter collection in paperback from the most awesome boss in the world. Even though I have read all of them, I have been wanting the entire collection in paperback since the 7th came out! I will be reading them again and again… I’m currently reading the 7th to Stan, but I’ll be reading them to my children, my children’s children, and if I’m still alive, their children! I know, I’m a bit of a maniac. Mish got me “Cute Stuff” by Aranzi Aronzo, which shows you how to make all kinds of, well, cute stuff! Dad got me DIY: Design It Yourself by Ellen Lupton, which is a graphic design book that provides tips on designing your own t-shirts, business cards, blogs, and so so so much more. Stan got me Color Design Workshop by Terry Lee Stone and AdamsMorioka, the masters of color. Another amazing graphic design book, this one teaches you how to use color, and which colors are most effective in different scenarios.

I love everything and I can’t wait to start designing and making cute stuff!

{edit}: I can’t believe I forgot about the milk frother my Dad got me! I made my own chai tea lattés with frothy milk and they were delish! :D

Since before we even began to think about the logistics and design of Poor & Pretty, we knew we someday wanted the possibility of t-shirts, stickers, and maybe even our own line of cosmetics. Now, all of these things are still goals that we have yet to reach, but we also realized that a first step in reaching these goals was to design a kick-ass logo.

We had several get-togethers just brainstorming about our logo. We love cupcakes — should we incorporated cupcakes somehow? Mish, the artist among us, would picture and sketch things like a penny sitting on top of a cupcake {penny = “poor”}, or Abe Lincoln on the penny with a bow on his head. I, the HTML & Photoshop wizard, would piece things together, making banners that would incorporate cupcakes, makeup, money, and text, but something wasn’t right. Maybe we were trying to force the whole cupcake thing, or make the “poor” and “pretty” idea really obvious…

And then, after looking for inspiration from my favorite design firm, AdamsMorioka, and reading their blog, Burning Settlers Cabin, I thought, WWAMD? {what would AdamsMorioka do?} Of course, the only way to find that out would be to actually ask them.

So, I did. After writing, deleting, and re-writing, I finally sent an e-mail to Sean Adams, Partner, AdamsMorioka, explaining how much I admire them {I own two things designed & signed by Sean Adams to two other women I work with, who only parted with them because they knew I would take very good care of them}. I explained that I knew we could never dream to afford a logo designed by AdamsMorioka {we are “poor!”}, but if I hadn’t asked, I would have regretted it forever.

Two days later, I received an e-mail back from Sean Adams with an attachment: four new logo designs to choose from. I felt like my 12-year-old self at a Backstreet Boys concert, I was so ecstatic.

So, here it is. Our new kick-ass logo and our blog re-design to go with it. Sean Adams, you are our hero. We could never thank you enough <3.

Hey, faithful readers!
Poor & Pretty will be down tomorrow {Monday, December 21} from about 5pm-7pm EST, to give us time to incorporate our new blog design, modeled after our brand new logo, generously designed by my design hero, Sean Adams {AdamsMorioka}!! Mish & I are super stoked and we can’t wait for you to see it & give us some feedback!