Let me start out by saying that I have 15 minutes to write this blog post.  That is not my 30 Day Challenge specifically, but it's how I'm going to initiate it.

(Okay, I just failed the first day of my first 30 Day Challenge because my office roommate just lured me away with a massive container of free sushi... I couldn't help myself!  But I'm back - fresh new 15 minutes starts now!)

Routine creates habit.  Did you know that?

(Crap, I just checked my email... this is harder than I thought!  My to-do list is screaming at me...)

Apparently, say the wise-women who I am lucky enough to know, if you schedule something for 15 minutes on your calendar, every day, for 30 days, it is believed that the routine you create for yourself will eventually become habit.

This theory seems to be a 1st cousin to "fake it until you make it" and maybe a 3rd cousin once removed to "dress for the job you want, not the job you have".

So this morning, in my bi-monthly business group, we were asked to take a 30 Day Challenge of our own choosing.  We had to identify something in our lives that needed attention, but that we rarely make time for.

Some of the women in my group were quick to determine their answers, knowing that they needed (wanted) to spend 15 minutes every day writing, or furthering their relationships, or getting outside for a walk, or working on their business pipeline.

For me, there were 3 items on my list:
1. Exercise
2. Read design and/or fashion magazines
3. Work on my Semi-Custom invitations (the new business I am hoping to launch later this year).

Exercise is important, and I never have time (nor make time) for it.  And exercise allows you to feel healthy, productive and calm; all which lead to being a better person/designer/mom.

Reading design and fashion magazines feels like a luxury to me, because I NEVER have time for it and the monthly issues of about 12 different periodicals pile up, like wobbly recyclable skyscrapers, in every room of my house.  Plus, reading magazines is a great way to get inspired -- I love seeing what other designers have done in the world of architecture, interior design, weddings, organization, packaging, fashion, etc.  I'll confess, I somehow manage to read US Weekly every time it shows up in my mailbox, but it's the only one that really isn't going to inspire me for my work!

Working on my Semi-Custom invites would help me get a head start with this new business that I have the intention of launching later this year.  Starting to identify concepts I want to create, sketch out ideas, pick out color palettes, dream... this is something that I keep pushing off because "I'm too busy with work" but if I continue to be too busy I'll never launch my semi-custom concept.

While exercise is crucial, it's just going to have to wait until my next 30 Day Challenge!  For now, I'm going to spend 15 minutes each and every day working on my new line of semi-custom invitations and announcements.  And, wouldn't you know it... I think I'm going to need some design magazines in order to help me do it!

In a month's time, I hope to be able to share some wonderful progress and news, but for now my 15 minutes is up and I have to get back to my real to-do list!

If you were going to make one of your routines a habit, what would it be?  And, most importantly, what would making this decision (making this 'thing' a habit) do for you?

30 Day Challenge, Day 1.  Check!

I was born in 1975.  My parents were fairly certain that I was going to be an "Abby Michelle" or "Michelle Abby" but at the last minute, "Jennifer Allison" won out.

I think this must have been happening all around the country because in 1975, it is statistically proven that 99.7% of all baby girls were named Jennifer.*

*That statistic was conveniently procured & created by me, about one minute ago, but my art-school math is solid when it comes to being very exact and scientific about things.  I would like to credit the Pulitzer prize winning, new york times bestselling, smash hit, naming book of 1988 titled "Beyond Jennifer & Jason: The new Englightened Guide To Naming Your Baby" for my bold assessment.  Also, I should just note, that my brother's name is Jason.  I tell no lies!


At any rate, I was Jennifer Allison White, until I married Brad Topliff, and became Jennifer White Topliff.  Unfortunately my new last name offers it's own set of challenges (I get mail to Jenn Topliss every day, no matter how many times I say "f as in frank, f as in frank") but I'm still stuck with Jennifer.  


I'm getting to the point, I promise!


Being that I was not the only Jennifer in my class/grade/school, I was one of those kids who was always referred to by both her first and last name.  I was never just "Jenn" or "Jenny".  If I called someone and told them it was Jenn or Jenny on the line, they'd likely have to think for 17 minutes about all the Jenns, and Jennys they knew, to figure out which one I was.  So my whole life I was always either "Jenn White" or "Jenny White".  


When you go to Starbucks, and order a drink, they ask you for your first name to put on the cup.  This is to avoid having to call out "Double Tall Soy 1-Splenda Latte" at the top of their lungs.  Instead, they call out your (likely short) name and you know your drink is ready and the day can proceed!  However, when you are at Starbucks, and someone puts a coffee drink on the bar and calls out "Jenn, your drink is ready" - do you know what happens?  It's like the running of the bulls in Italy... 1,453 Jenn's rush the espresso bar and try to pick up the same drink.  I kid you not.  It's hard to get out of that fight unscathed, and with your espresso drink in tact.


So, my good friend Matt once suggested that I pick "a Starbucks name".  His criteria for this name was:
a) it had to be easily identifiable 
b) it had to be unique
c) and most importantly, it had to be easy to say & spell for the person taking the drink order


It didn't take long for me & Matt to agree that "Lincoln" was the perfect Starbucks name for me.
For one, it was my dog's name (who I love and adore) and if someone called out "Lincoln" I was already used to turning around, assuming they were talking to me.  So I wasn't going to stand idly by, while the barista at Starbucks called "Lincoln" over and over again, not realizing he was talking to me!  Secondly, the name Lincoln isn't too common - so running into multiple Lincolns inline for coffee was probably not going to be an issue.  Thirdly, and most importantly, Matt said... "everyone knows how to spell Lincoln because he was the President".  It was beautiful and logical and from that moment on I became "Lincoln" every time I ordered my coffee, or needed to give a name to a lunch order, takeout meal, etc.


Matt was right about almost everything... the name is awesome, unique and I never have to compete with anyone else for my drinks.  But I always laugh my pants off when someone at Starbucks writes my name as they do below - which SOOOO SADLY happens more frequently that you'd imagine!

How do you keep a monkey in suspense?
I'll tell you tomorrow.

I've been waiting months and months and months to be able to share a little secret.  In fact, nearly a year now.

As some of you know, I *might* have been involved in designing a celebrity wedding invitation, in recent past.

While none of the exquisitely beautiful work (if I do say so myself!) has been documented yet, I thought I'd let the cat out of the bag slowly...

Here a few pics from Australia's New Idea magazine to get the curiosity ball rolling!

Pics, and blog posts, and fanfare (of my own making!) to follow shortly.

At some point over the last few months, I developed an obsession to perfect the Macaroon.  Not the newfangled sensation, the Parisian macaroon.  But rather the old-school, kosher for passover, coconut Macaroon!

This obsession turned more than a few days of proposed "cookie-making with the kids" into more of a "touch my batter and I'll kill you" sort of experience!  But what resulted from my many, many attempts to mix the 5 necessary ingredients in just the right quantities, is a sumptuous, ooey-gooey, not too sweet (but just sweet enough!) mound of coconuty goodness.  Dipped in chocolate, of course, for that dark velvety contrast in every bite!

I'm feeling generous in this new year, and thought I would share my findings with my readers (and the 30 other people that have already asked for the recipe!!)

Wishing you all a sweet new year.

Jenn Topliff's Smashed Haystacks 
(aka: Coconut Macaroons)

You will need:

2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups flaked or shredded, sweetened coconut (I prefer flaked, and buy the packaged, private label brand at Safeway.  It is usually on sale, and very inexpensive.)
1 cup unsweetened coconut (I buy it in bulk, at Whole Foods)
1 bag Guittard or Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips (this is optional)


1. Preheat oven to 350º F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large metal bowl whisk the eggs (using a whisk or a fork) until well beaten.  Stir in the sugar, salt and vanilla, and mix well.  Finally, stir in the coconut (both sweetened & unsweetened) and mix the ingredients together until you are certain that all the coconut is completely moistened.

3. Using a small ice-cream scoop (or tablespoon measure), scoop densely-packed mounds of the macaroon batter onto the baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  I usually fit about 8 macaroons on one baking sheet, but your baking sheet might be larger/smaller!  Just make sure that you leave at least 2" in between each macaroon.  If using an ice-cream scoop to form your macaroons, use the back of the scoop to smash down the top of the mounds a little bit, before baking.  In my testing, this seems to help make them cook a little more evenly in my oven, and results in less burnt coconut on top.

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the coconut is a little toasted (but be careful, they can go from toasted to burnt quickly, if you don't keep a close eye!)

5. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 20-30 mins.

If you want to dip the bottoms of your macaroons in chocolate, you will need to melt your chocolate slowly, while your cookies are cooling.  A double boiler is fine to use, but I normally use a stainless steel mixing bowl, over a small saucepan filled with about 2"-3" of water.

Bring water in saucepan to a boil and place mixing bowl (or double boiler) on top of pan.  Reduce heat under the saucepan to medium-low.  Pour the chocolate chips into the mixing bowl and stir constantly, using a wooden spoon or silicone, heat-proof spatula.  When chocolate is completely melted and silky smooth, it is ready to use.

Lay a sheet of parchment paper down on your work surface (any table, countertop or cutting board will do).  Working quickly (so the macaroons don't fall apart in your hand) dip the bottom of each macaroon in chocolate, then place firmly down onto the clean parchment paper.  Let chocolate harden, before transferring cookies.

I have not done any tests on refrigerating the cookies vs. keeping them out to cool/harden.  I also haven't tested whether putting them in tupperware, tin foil or ziploc baggies is the best way to store them (but I have used all three methods with rather similar outcomes!)

So bake away, and enjoy my version of this timeless treat!  Oh, and be sure to let me know how they turn out!

It is likely that in a box, in the basement, under the stairs, underneath another box, is a piece of mail that changed my life forever.

In this box, in the basement, under the stairs, underneath another box, is a pile of illustrations, photos and mail that I collected, and coveted, while working at my first 'real' job out of school.  I worked for a company called SBG and we designed super big, commercial packaging and branding programs for companies like Starbucks, Nestle, Aquafresh, Nestle and Nestle!  Did I mention Nestle?

Anyway, back in the day (in the late 90's) we used to get bombarded with direct mail from illustrators and photographers who thought we had the ability to hire them for potential jobs.  Being that we worked for companies like, say... Nestle, we usually weren't able to do anything too creative, awesome or otherwise - so it was rare that we got to hire a new, fantastic illustrator for a project.  But that didn't stop the mail from coming.  Every day, envelopes and postcards arrived at my desk, and it was great.  For someone like me, who loves mail so much, this was a real treat!

One day, the most amazing thing happened.  Amidst a pile of glossy postcards with mediocre illustrations, there was a smallish, flat glassine bag with my name on it, sewn shut with red thread.  You could sort of see through the glassine material, enough to see that there was a stack of postcards with beautiful images on them, but I can't tell you what was on the postcards because I never opened the envelope!

At this point in my life, glassine only meant one thing to me: cookie or candy bags.  In fact, I learned about glassine bags thanks to my very dear friend DB, who redesigned See's candy packaging for a class in school.  She introduced me to this beautiful, milky white, semi-translucent material that was great for packaging because the wax coating on it ensured that cookies or candies wouldn't stain it with oil, like they would a paper bag, for example.

Anyway, this glassine bag/envelope sewn shut with red thread was pretty much the most amazing thing I had seriously ever received.  It was SO different from everything else.  It was a quiet powerful.  It was intriguing and engaging.  And I couldn't bring myself to open it.  I didn't want to disrupt the beauty of the package.  I put the glassine bag on my wall and stared at it.  Every day.

Lucky for the woman who sent me the bag, she was smart enough to put her name on the outside of the envelope!  In all caps trade gothic (a font) she wrote her name; Leigh Wells.  Who was this woman of mystery?  Who was this woman of mystery who had sent me the first piece of eye-opening, thought-provoking mail I ever received?

As it turns out, Leigh Wells was an incredible illustrator.  She didn't know me, so she never knew that I pitched her illustrations to my bosses for every single project I worked on!  She didn't know that her little mail affected me that much, and that I spent months and months designing around her artwork, so that I could HOPEFULLY reciprocate the awesomeness of her mail, and hire her to do a job for me.

Cut to December 2010.  Sitting at my computer, designing some fabulous wedding invitation or something - likely being sent out in some sort of bag, sewn shut with thread (hypothetically speaking) and I get an email from one of my favorite interior design stores in San Francisco.  Notice anything amazing?

Earlier this year 13 Creative leased it's very first 'Company Car'! How exciting, no?

When my license plates arrived in the mail a few weeks after I got the car, I was pretty bummed out... not a 13 in sight! Usually, as luck would have it, there is some version of the number 13 in the addresses of the places I live or work, or my license plates, drivers license number, health-insurance card, you name it! I might be a total nerd, but I love finding my lucky number anywhere I can.

It could be the number 13, or it could be a 4 & 9 (next to each other) or some other combination of numbers that add up to 13. I don't discriminate... if it adds up to 13, it's good by me!

Sensing the disappointment about my lackluster license plate, a friend suggested that I get a personalized license plate for my new ride. "Maybe it could even say 13 Creative" she said! I thought it was a fantastic idea and immediately wanted to share this news with Brad (husband, 13 Creative cheerleader, fanclub manager and chief cook and bottle washer!)

When I told Brad about this genius plan, he looked troubled. He told me that there was no way I was going to be able to register a license plate that said 13 Creative. I asked why, and that's when he told me...

(wait for it, wait for it)

... that he'd already applied for that license plate for me, the week I got the new car! Surprise!!

Several weeks passed and no plates showed up, but one day a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles arrived. The letter informed us that the DMV needed more information in order to approve our request for these plates. Apparently, the license plate 13CRE8V seemed questionable. Questionable? Huh?

So, Brad responded to the letter and attached one of my business cards, with a further explanation of my business, reiterating that this license plate spelled my company name, and that it didn't mean anything more than that. And then we waited. Waited and waited... still no plates.

Not long ago, I hired a photographer to shoot some of my recently completed wedding invitations and  announcements.

When I'm not designing wedding invitations and announcements, you can usually find me hard at work designing food packaging and other more commercial design projects. When art directing photoshoots for food packages, the shoots are really challenging because food doesn't usually stand up well under the heat of the lights so you have to work very closely with the food stylists to achieve a result where the food you're shooting actually looks delicious and appealing! And, to be honest, a lot of food products just don't photograph well at all, so you have to use alternative food items, or non-food items that look like actual food... which makes things even trickier. I'll tell you this - never once has a piece of grilled chicken actually been grilled in order to get those perfect grill marks you see in photos. They don't come from anything even resembling a grill, I promise you that!

But I digress; and luckily enough for me, wedding invitations and paper products do stand up to the heat of the lights!

While I was overseeing this photoshoot of my work on this particular day, and while the photographer was setting up a few of the shots, I took some quick pictures with my iPhone to document our work process. It wasn't until after I got the final professional pictures back that I marveled at how fun it would be to do a side-by-side comparison of what some of the pictures looked like 'behind the scenes' versus what the camera actually sees and what turns into finished photography.

The pictures are beautiful, and I am so happy - but it's really funny to think about what's "really real", versus what's sort of "fake real". One of my favorite quotes (that I think I made up myself!) is "Perception is reality" and I think it sums this up perfectly.

So, without further ado, here are the ol' before & afters... or Reals & Fake Reals!

In 1994 I graduated highschool, and moved to Chicago to attend The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.  While at school there, studying bookbinding and papermaking (and sort of attempting to be in the graphic design program) I made a good friend named Sara.

Sara and I were great pals... we had a lot in common and were in love with the same things; namely art and paper products.  And boy, did we know how to make a good mess! Papermaking is not exactly a neat and tidy process.  Nor a dry one!  So we would spend days in wet, messy clothes, making beautiful paper and binding it into precious books.

One day Sara and I were talking about how we wanted to live when we "grew up."  We both decided that when we graduated school and had a real "life", with a real apartment, that we each wanted to have a "white room" in our homes.  A room that was so clean, and organized, and white!  The white room symbolized so much to us - it symbolized a sort of success.  The success of having our own place, of having a place that was clean, that was minimalist, but that was uber design savvy.  It meant being a stylish grownup.  It was the opposite of how we lived as students.

We talked about our white rooms ad nauseum!  Then Sara moved to Japan (to teach english and further study Japanese papermaking techniques) and I moved to Pasadena to continue restart my graphic design education at Art Center.

Over the next several years, Sara and I had a pretty awesome penpal-ship!  We would write fantastic letters and send awesome packages to each other around the globe, and every now and again, Sara would send me magazine clippings of some furniture or home decor that she saw, that we had to put into our white room!  Our fantasy white room kept growing and evolving, never too far from our minds.

I'm a very lucky girl... because after living in nearly every corner of Europe & many different cities in America, my very dear, longtime pal Sara recently moved to California, and lives no more than approximately 2 miles away from me.  At our advanced age of 35 (!), and now each with 2 kids, we have the knowledge and understanding that our dream of having a white room is likely never going to come true.  But that doesn't stop Sara from clipping out pictures of our fantasy white furniture when she comes across great ideas in magazines.  And it doesn't stop us from talking about our fantasy white room... and what a funny fantasy that is nowadays!  We both tend to end our white room discussions with "One day Jenn..." or "One day Sara..." and attempt to keep the dream alive, holding out hope for some time after the kids grow up, and are out of the house... when the words "please don't color on the walls" aren't part of our everyday vocabulary!

Anyway, that's a long preamble to help you get into my head, so that you can imagine how I felt when I saw an email in my inbox this morning, from the Martha Stewart Wedding magazine people, talking about white centerpieces, and other white components for a "White Wedding!"

Wow!  This is like the ultimate realization of Sara's & my white room fantasy.  And, you could even achieve this while having kids at home!  This concept doesn't even require a cleaning lady every day to keep things white, and or a furniture budget of $100k!!  This would be a fantastic way to bring to life our white room by way of a party (wedding or otherwise!)

So, here are some of the great pictures, courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings Idea of the Day, of ways to make your party white!  I think this could get a little overdone if all the guests wore white, but imagine how festive, chic and gorgeous this would be if you requested guests to wear bright colors!

Gotta go now - have to call Sara and tell her that we have a new, slightly modified white fantasy to start clipping pictures for!

Up until Brad nearly lost his marbles recently, and insisted on a new bedtime story to read to Grace, Grace was usually very quick to pick one of her many "Pigeon" books for daddy to read to her every night.  Each and every single night!

The Pigeon book series is a fantastic collection of books written and illustrated by Mo Willems.  The Pigeon, and his friend Duckling, often find themselves in a bit of a power struggle... over things like driving a bus, eating a hot dog, or staying up late!  You know, every day Pigeon & Duckling argument stuff!



In the case of "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus", the bus driver says very clearly on the first page of the book "Whatever you do, DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS".  Then, on the next page, the Pigeon looks directly into the reader's eyes and says "Can I drive the bus?"  While most children would answer "NO" (just like the bus driver told them to) Grace usually didn't follow orders so well and was eager to give the Pigeon all the bus-driving freedom in the world.  She would shout out "Sure, Ok!" when the Pigeon pleaded his case.



Being that we were reading the Pigeon books every night, and Grace had mastered his bus-driving pleas, we thought it would be a great halloween costume for her.  We also thought (back then, when apparently I didn't have anything else going on in my life) that Hazel could be the Duckling, Lincoln could be the Hot Dog, and maybe Brad could be the Bus Driver.

Anyway, seeing as how I only had about 42 projects on my plate, was learning Spanish at night, and was trying to be super human, I decided to buy a new sewing machine, take sewing lessons, learn how to sew, and MAKE the above-mentioned costumes.

So, I bought a new amazing sewing machine.  I took lessons from the amazing Sherri at AAA Sewing & Vacuum in San Mateo (free sewing machine lessons for life if you buy a sewing machine from them) and 6 weeks + many trips to Joann Fabric later, I finished my first ever costume.

My eyes were much bigger than my stomach, and the Hot Dog, Duckling and Bus Driver are all going to have to fend for themselves tomorrow night — but Grace debuted her Pigeon costume at the Preschool Halloween party last night and it was a big hit.  It would have probably been a bigger hit had the hat not been such of an issue (read: if Grace would have kept the hat on for more than 3 seconds!) but I'm very proud of my accomplishment and am sharing it with all of you as a pseudo 'pat on the back' to myself!

MY HOW TO

I started with a toddler duck costume that I found online, for really cheap.  I laid out the duck costume onto my own fleece fabric and traced it; making my own pattern pieces.  I then sewed, ripped apart and re-sewed all the pieces together.  A few times!  I had to make the Pigeon 'tail' removable, so that Grace could sit down if she wanted, so I made a separate triangle pillow, stuffed it, sewed it shut, and then sewed velcro on it so that it could attach easily to the rear of the body.

Truthfully, the costume really only looks good in profile, but I'm gonna just be proud that I finished something that actually resembled the Pigeon and that didn't disintegrate within 5 minutes of wearing it!

Here is a feast for your eyes (and if you don't have this story for your kids, run out to get it - it's a really fantastic read!)

The Pigeon costume components in all their glory!

The Pigeon head/hat

It turned out that 2 little pieces of velcro wasn't enough to hold on the tail at first, so a last minute addition of a long strip of velcro, along the entire width of the tail, was necessary!

Grace modeling her costume at preschool, before the party.

Grace realizing her tail was 'removable' (aka: the first of approximately 108 times that she removed her tail during the course of the night!)

The Pigeon shakes her booty!

Yep, it's still there!

Happy Pigeon!

A very TIRED pigeon, towards the end of the night!

Well, somehow instead of putting the finishing touches on my logo presentation due tomorrow morning, I got sucked into my {oh so poorly designed} blog tonight.

You know how when you spend a ton of money on the most beautiful, high-thread count bed linens in the world, that you are just 'that' much more excited to get into bed at the end of each night?  Well, I felt as though my previous blog design was equivalent to 3-thread count sheets that had been washed with bleach and ammonia one hundred times.  The kind of sheets that look clean (too clean!) and that feel as scratchy as 1-ply toilet paper... you know the ones I'm talking about... like the ones in the hospital!

Anyway, I just couldn't bring myself to want to write more blog posts, and more frequently, unless my blog got a bit of a facelift.

So, with a little help from my IT guy (aka husband) along with some Starbucks instant Via coffee, I think I can safely say that this blog no longer has hospital corners... and I hope that my high-thread count design makes you feel as happy reading my thoughts, as I am writing them.

On that note... time to pull the covers up over the day and recharge for tomorrow.  (Well, almost... first I suppose I'd better finish that presentation that's due in 10 hours!)

Out with the old... and in with the new. In more ways than one!

Rest in peace my sweet, first blog design. You may not have been on  this planet for long, but you made an impression on everyone around you. You may not be missed, but you will be remembered fondly.

Well, the time has come to put away my "going out clothes" (the ones I used to wear before the baby, the ones that I almost got back into after the baby, but then got pregnant again and now, not so much!)