Friday, June 28, 2013

Shannon Reilly Creative Design

Some of you may or may not know that I am a graphic designer and I also have my own freelance business on the side. I mainly focus on wedding invitations, shower invitations, birth announcements and some logo design. I don't take on too many projects since I work full-time but I have definitely grown in the last year. I love invitation design since it is so specific to each client and their wants and needs. Everyone should have wedding invitations that show who they are and give a sense of what the wedding day will feel like. 

My first design was my own wedding invitations and they are honestly what made me want to start a freelance invitation business. I thought I'd give you a glance at some of my first designs! I just printed out a ton more samples of some of my most recent work which I'll post sometime next week. Enjoy :) [ 

oh and if you'd like to contact me for design work my email is shannonreillycreativedesign.com and my website is shannonreillycreativedesign.com ] 







 

I also did a re-design for an awesome photographer as one of my first design jobs and it is still one of my favorite logo designs!

A screenshot of her website which also displays the logo design and the background pattern I created.



All designs are copyrighted by Shannon Reilly Creative Design

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

36 Weeks





How far along?: 36 weeks 
Maternity clothes: Still mostly non-maternity with stretchy skirts and dresses. Loving this new red skirt I got at J.Crew a few weeks ago!
Best moment this week: Going to one of my best friends, Carly's, wedding this past weekend! There are four of us from high school that are still best friends (Carly being one of the four) and the other three of us were in her wedding party so we had a ton of fun and it was sooo nice to catch up since we don't get to see each other nearly enough!   
Symptoms: Still tired but getting use to it. I've also been having some pelvic pains which is my pelvic bone stretching and getting ready! 
Movement: He is so active and he doesn't really kick much anymore its just constant moving and pushing. And I love that I can really tell the difference between kicks and hiccups now, hiccups are so cute!
Food cravings: Nothing really, but I have to have my mint chocolate chip ice cream every night!
Have you started to show yet?: Oh yes! 
Gender prediction: It's a boy!
Mood: Happy that these next few weeks will hopefully fly by with all we have going on so he'll be here before we know it!
Looking forward to: Not having anywhere to go anymore! As much as I love to travel and I'm happy we have seen so many of our friends this summer, it is exhausting and I'm tired and all I want to do is just stay home, relax and nest!

P.S. sorry for the lack of posts last week, I had a ton of freelance to finish up and it took first priority!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the greatest man I know!
And since I shared a few things my mother has taught me on Mother's Day, I'm going to share a few things my father has taught me.


I've learned:
...how to listen
...to love
...to be calm
...to like good music [and the names of almost any oldies rock n' roll song/artist]
...how to talk without yelling
...how to take a good photograph
...to love craft beer
...to never stay at a cheap hotel
...how to book a good vacation
...my love of ice cream
...to love listening to NPR
...how a watch is made [ just kidding! it's a running joke in our family that if you ask my dad what time it is, he'll tell you how the watch was made since he explains things in a very technical way no matter what question you ask, but especially when it comes to computers! ]

And of course happy father's day to my amazing husband, I know our children have so much to learn from you and I'm so excited for this baby to come :)

Friday, June 14, 2013

Working Out While Pregnant Take 2!

I'm 34W5D pregnant and boy has my fitness routine changed since the last time I posted on it!

First, my shin splints are now pretty terrible no matter what. I still manage to run intervals of 2mins on, 2mins off but I am definitely more winded now compared to a couple weeks ago. I can only do about 20mins of intervals and then I walk for about 10mins. I tried just doing inclined walking, upping the incline by 1 every minute until I hit 10 and then went back down to 1. But even then I was getting pretty bad shin splints around 12 minutes. So back to intervals it was since its the only way I don't get shin splints.

Oops! Waaaay blurrier than I thought, but here ya go - me at the gym this morning!

I still lift, and I've even increased my weight from 6lb dumbbells to 8lb dumbbells.  But again I take more time in between sets to catch my breath and wipe the sweat dripping down my face! It's certainly a challenge because all I want to do is go for a relaxing run on these beautiful days and I can't because there is no such thing as a relaxing run anymore, ugh!

Me after the gym at 30 weeks before doing 5min on, 2min off intervals for 35mins. What a difference 4ish weeks makes!
I'm just hoping that all the women who tell me that working out while pregnant makes for an easier and faster labor and delivery and a quicker recovery weren't lying to me!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

34 Weeks




How far along?: 34 weeks 
Maternity clothes: Still mostly non-maternity with stretchy skirts and dresses. I got a new stretchy red skirt from J.Crew and its so cute and I can wear it after so double plus!
Best moment this week: Going to Maine for our best friend's wedding! All of our college friends were there and we had a TON of fun all weekend catching up.   
Symptoms: Still a little tired but not as bad as before, but still pretty exhausted after a long weekend in Maine. 
Movement: So active! Tom even saw my stomach moving for the first time since every time I saw "look my stomach is moving!" he stops moving and Tom can't see it!
Food cravings: Nothing really.
Have you started to show yet?: Oh yes! Everyone at the wedding was so nice and said I was all belly and looked awesome - making a pregnant lady feel great even if it is a little bit of a lie!
Gender prediction: It's a boy!
Mood: Happy that these next few weeks will hopefully fly by with all we have going on so he'll be here before we know it!
Looking forward to: A relaxing weekend. Tom has to work this weekend but I have nothing to do but nest! I have had the urge to nest a little but I'm exhausted at the end of the day so this weekend the house will be getting a deep clean!!!

Tom took some maternity pics of me on our way to Maine when we stopped in Ogunquit, ME and went to the beach. My dad grew up in Maine and went there as a kid a lot during the summer and I can see why! Here are a few more of the pictures!







Tuesday, June 11, 2013

7 Things About My Job

Here are 7 things about my job as a graphic designer for a newspaper:


1. The average age of the employees where I work is 30. Yes, you read that correct! The owners are young (the editor is 5th generation editor and isn't even 30 yet) and ironically everyone who works here is young too. This also means we have a very fun office with lots of lunch time conversation that would be inappropriate anywhere else. 

2. I can't ever take off Monday or Tuesday from work since Tuesday is the day we go to press and Monday is layout day. Monday and Tuesdays are also long days since I get in at 7am and leave around 5 to make sure everything is set to go to press. 

3. The newspaper business is not going anywhere! National publications may be failing but local papers are thriving. Another plus of working in a young office for young owners is that they want to do more and grow more. So we now have a mobile app that is state wide and we do more magazines every year and take on new projects all the time. We are trending up and not going anywhere but up!

4. I love my job. I get to do what I love everyday and for the most part be pretty creative. Yes, I have to deal with some crabby clients who want to use Comic Sans for a font and a million bursts but overall it's pretty awesome. 

5. I have some of the most understanding bosses ever. If you need to take a sick day, they will force you to take it because they sincerely want you to get better and don't want the rest of the office sick. They want everyone to use up their vacations day because too much work isn't good for anyone. If you work a 60 hour week one week then take some mornings off or go home early when there is not much to do. They are the most reasonable people I know and because of this I definitely work harder for them. 

6. I am the head designer for a yearly 100 page magazine we publish and work 50-60 hour weeks for about 3-4 weeks when it is due and work until about midnight the day it goes to the printer. It's exhausting but at the end of the day that magazine is mine and its such an amazing accomplishment. 

7. My job is stressful. I work deadline to deadline and can't miss one. I can't say that I need more time to finish a project - it has to be done one time or the printer will refuse to print the project as we have screwed up his schedule and he can't fit us in anywhere. 


Wednesday, June 5, 2013

33 Weeks

I think this is the last wear of this non-maternity shirt!

How far along?: 33 weeks 
Maternity clothes: Still mostly non-maternity with stretchy skirts and dresses.
Best moment this week: Seeing my parents and family friends when we went home for a wedding.   
Symptoms: The Calms Forte seems to be working better and I am definitely sleeping more in a night but I'm still waaay more tired than I had been in the second trimester but not quite as tired as I was in the first. 
Movement: Oh geeze I swear that this week he's been waaay more active and seems to never stop moving. All of those stories about women not knowing they were pregnant until they gave birth make me laugh now - I mean did they think their intensities and organs were moving around in there or what because this is crazy movement that definitely does not just feel like digestion anymore!
Food cravings: Nothing really other than wanting one of those cheese biscuits when we passed a red lobster this weekend but then again who doesn't want one of those?!?
Have you started to show yet?: Oh yes! I am straight out and all belly. I've had a few people tell me I look way bigger than 33 weeks but I have measured exactly on at every midwife appointment so its probably because I'm straight out and not to the sides at all.
Gender prediction: It's a boy!
Mood: Happy that these next few weeks will hopefully fly by with all we have going on so he'll be here before we know it!
Looking forward to: Going to Maine this weekend for the wedding of our two best friends (who also happen to be the baby's God Parents)! We leave early tomorrow and come back Sunday so it will be a long weekend with lots of college friends that we don't get to see nearly enough and we can't wait. We're going to stop at a few places along the way since its a 5.5hr drive and there's no way I can make the trip without multiple stops. I'm excited to stop at the Ogunqit Beach on the way where Tom is gonna take some maternity pics for me since we can't afford legit maternity pics right now. It will be gorgeous and I can't wait :)