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How the Happy Birthday downloads came to be

If I were to select just one symbol for each month of the year, which ones would best match which month? If someone were to look at my calendar book, could they tell which month it was by these symbols? Of course my experience of seasons is in the Northern Hemisphere, so I realize everyone south of the Equator does not have the same experience of weather and seasons. I played around with some ideas from journal writings, my own feelings about the months, and came up with how each one has its own personality. The Gaelic calendar year starts in Na Samhain (November). What happens in November? Cold weather; the trees lose their leaves pretty much. The moon is clear in the crisp autumn air, life is slowing down. So November became a leafless tree in front of the full moon. na Noliag (December) Winter begins. Snowflakes were the best fit to go along where the cold, long nights take over. Eanair (January) starts the new year as most of us know it. What better symbol than a beautiful star to represent the dark month.

Symbols for each month is hand drawn and colored with one and two strands of embroidery thread in two analogous colors (next to each other on the color wheel). These then harmonize with the colors of each month next to them.

Febhar (February) is the month of love and hearts everywhere. But the month is usually very pink and red and that did not fit with the rainbow I was creating. Oh, well. I didn’t want Autumn to be pink. Marta (March) has the most iconic holiday of St. Patrick’s Day when everyone is Irish for a day so that became a shamrock. A Blue one. Oh, well. 😀 And so on, and so, some of the Irish in me came out as a pretty, little handmade book. The entire year then makes a complete rainbow gradation.

I used regular cardstock paper and bound it by hand, sewing it to oilcloth as an accordion book. I made two books. One I kept and one was swapped at Puget Sound Book Artists; make a book, get a book. It went to a lovely person with a matching shirt. 😀

The first installation of this now enormous project “Winter Series” is ready for purchase here: December Birthday Digital Assets for your own projects. Small trees and moons, stars, and snowflakes feature in the background of each. I will continue to work on January assets in time for your projects. To Be Continued…

In this post I help you navigate the Spoonflower platform so you can easily shop for products.

What is Spoonflower?

Spoonflower is an on-demand, digital printing company that prints custom designs on fabric, wallpaper, and home decor. It is based in Durham, North Carolina and owned by Shutterfly. (Yay, Made in USA!) The Spoonflower community has hundreds of thousands of independent designers and artists from all over the world. We earn a commission from each sale from our shop, usually around 10% of the sale before taxes and shipping. So, when you buy from one of us, you are directly helping us with our creative businesses. Pretty cool, right?

For sewists and their projects, there are numerous kinds of fabrics that you can choose by the yard, fat quarter, or swatch. For those non-sewist, the home decor items are sewn in-house by Spoonflower employees. I have heard that some think Spoonflower’s prices are too high. I absolutely disagree. The quality of the fabrics and the labor time it takes to print and make your items is giving someone a decent living wage, right here in America. I am all about that. They are skilled at their work and deserve every penny they earn. If you want cheaper items and fabric somewhere else, be my guest. But, be warned. There is a lot of design theft and cheap, fly-by-night shops popping up all over the internet. They steal someone’s design they have no copyright to, offer it on products or fabrics, take your money, then disappear. And you just got robbed. Design theft is rampant right now and I will be doing a blog post about that soon so you know what to look out for. So, feel confident when you shop Spoonflower. Know it is a safe platform where you won’t be taken advantage of. I’m there, what more do you need? 🙂

I have found the quality of their fabrics, printing, and craftmanship to be exceptional and have always been very happy with my swatch proofs and purchased items. Another interesting thing to know is that digital printing has very little waste, unlike conventional textile manufacturing. There is less use of electricity, waste of fabric, and they inks they use are water-based.

One of the things I love so much about Spoonflower is that it gives me the ability to share my creativity with the world in a pattern that can then be available to all of you. That was always a Dream and I am making that dream come true by having my own shop on Spoonflower! I started it back in 2010 and I didn’t do much with it until two years ago. Some of my first designs were atrocious, but I have learned so much and absolutely love making fabric patterns with my art. So, if you are ready to dive in, here is my tutorial for finding my designs on Spoonflower for your projects and home.

1. Finding my shop

From your web browser, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Duck Duck Go, etc., type in Spoonflower’s URL address: “https://spoonflower.com” (leave out the quotation marks). Once you are there, at the top of the page in the Search Bar with the little magnifying glass, type in my shop name, “villaparkhearts” (leave out the quotation marks) and hit Enter. See example below circled in red. This takes you to my designs.

2. Let’s go to my shop page

These are my available designs. To get to my shop, in the screenshot below notice the red circle and arrow pointing to, “by villaparkhearts”. Click this link. Each design has the same link to my shop, so pick any of them.

3. Yay! You found me! When you see my shop banner and cute face you’ll know you are in the right place.

Notice the page URL address in web browser is https://spoonflower.com/profiles/villaparkhearts. At any time if you get lost, just use this address to get back to my shop. Or type “villaparkhearts” in the Search Bar again.

4. Select a design. Click on any and a new window will open.

I clicked on my “oh, those 70’s daisies” design for this tutorial. From here is where you can shop for fabric options by the fat quarter, yard, or swatch. To get to all finished products, we will follow the link to Home Decor, bottom right of the image, circled in red with a red arrow pointing to it.

5. Choose your category item with the design mockup

On this screen you can see all the products with “oh, those 70’s daisies” on them. Navigate to wallpaper, kitchen and dining, bedding, and home and decor options.

Choose Kitchen & Dining

Choose Bedding

Choose Living & Decor

Choose fabric. These takes you back to fabric yardage options

6. After choosing your item, click “Add to Cart”

Then, you can and see product in your cart. Top right below with red arrow and circle. Click the cart icon.

7. Choose Check out or Continue Shopping

If you are all finished shopping, Click the black “Check Out” button to complete your order. To shop more of my designs, Click the “Back” button twice to go back to my All Products page. Both options are circled in red and have red arrows pointing to them. The “Continue Shopping” button takes you to the main Spoonflower home page, where you can type in “villaparkhearts” in the Search Bar again.

8. Fill in Your Shipping Information as a Guest or Create an Account

9. Receive a Thank You Message from me!

Once you complete your order, Spoonflower sends me a notification. If you shop as a Guest, I won’t know who made a purchase, and that is ok. If you create an account and shop I will then have the privilege of knowing you shopped in my store. You will receive an email confirmation that your order was placed. They will give you an estimated time when it will ship. I hope this blog post is helpful. Please contact me if you need help with anything. xoxo

This post includes cybersecurity and tips on protecting your online accounts from “Bad Actors”

I’ve had a love-hate relationships with online platforms for years. You know the ones, I’m not going to spell them out; fb and ig. See my previous post lamenting my life with mindless scrolling here: https://villaparkhearts.com/on-social-media/. I’ve spent hours and hours chasing followers, chasing dreams, chasing some thing. I’m in the hunt for new customers, new opportunities, yet never catching them… all of which has left me feeling empty, exhausted, and unsatisfied. I have seriously considered closing my accounts. But, I haven’t. I can’t seem to pull the final plug. Nevertheless,

I’m also being hunted. Cyber hacks and “bad actor” activity has increased more than you may even be aware of. These jerks are getting really sophisticated at fooling us with spam emails, texts, requests in DMs, and stupid phone calls about our car warranties. They are using company logos and getting better at spelling English. The deceit is deep and they are after me, and you.

One of my design friends, Dana Batho over at Peacock and Fig was the victim of a recent ig attack where she lost access to and was completely locked out of her account for days. She shared as she was going through it in real time on one of our groups and it was horrible to witness; she tried everything she could and still did not receive any help from the platform. Dana wrote about the extremely stressful experience to help others and she has some things for you to think about. What she went through motivated me to write this blog post to show support and solidarity with her. Go check out her blog post about it here: https://peacockandfig.com/2022/04/why-instagram-hurting-your-art-business/. And note that she makes some really amazing art, too!

Cyber security is a constant battle. We just don’t see it. A lot of smart people in our work places, government agencies, and military branches have teams of people working hourly monitoring and attempting to keep attacks at bay. I receive a weekly cyber security news update from SANS Newsbites. You can read them here, or have them sent to your inbox: https://www.sans.org/newsletters/. I’m telling you, Microsoft, T-mobile, Google, Elementor, to name a few, have all been attacked within the last four months. It is up to each of us to be diligent and not fall for the bait (phishing). Here a couple things to keep in mind as you go about your day. Memorize these and do them.

Tip #1: Don’t act in panic. If you receive ANY communication that instantly sends panic or urgency through your body, STOP, PAUSE, and give yourself a few minutes to think. The tactic is to frighten you into instant reaction. Reread the communication, think it through, and remember that if your financial accounts were compromised, you won’t get the information through an email, a text message, or direct message in any one of your apps.

Tip #2: Rethink the immediate need to “help”. Bad actors play upon your sympathies; they aim to take advantage of your good nature. Never click a link in emails or text messages. Never open an attachment from someone you do not know. Read the message or email over for misspelled words, wonky word phrasing, or leading phrasing that is trying to make you panic. Then see Tip #1 again.

Tip #3 Set up all of your online accounts with two-factor authentication. I know it’s annoying when you log in and then they ask to send you a text message or email with a code that you need to enter, but do it anyway. This extra step protects you from getting hacked if someone were to get your password(s). Just do it. Ask Dana. You’ll thank us later.

To wrap up, I’ll continue to encourage people to reach me here on my own website and Spoonflower shop. My power is in my own hands. I’m not chasing anyone to follow me or try to convince them to give a shit about what I’m doing. You are here, and you are part of my circle, and that is enough. I am so grateful to you. Thanks for reading. Now go be safe out there. xo -Angela

Shop my fabric designs on Spoonflower: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/villaparkhearts

Become my patron and watch me design on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/angelayoder

Yes, I know you are scared. It’s ok. But look back. There is a lifetime of being afraid. It has kept you safe, buy you have not experienced all that you’ve wanted. You have missed out. Plain & simple.

I can’t always be in the place of giving. I need to take, take time

I need help

I need a break

I need love

I need courage

I can’t always give

I need attention. I need to give myself attention. I hug myself with attention.

Hi.

You have beautiful ideas. You make such good art. You are capable. Feel into your energy. Keep having fun. Yes, you can do this. It’s going to be more amazing than you ever thought.