autumn chill

01 leaves

02 sass face gwen
this face

03 mossy tree

04 mossy tree

05 mossy tree

07 super sass face gwen
no, this face

06 evergreen

08 squirrel dance
squirrel dance

09 woodgrain

11 coffee date
coffee date

10 foliage

It is well and truly fall now. We got up on November 1st and it was suddenly freezing out. My friend Mark made a joke on facebook this morning about all the people wearing scarves and North faces already but you know what? IT’S FRICKIN COLD. I almost got my own North Face out of storage last week and I think the only reason I didn’t have more to do with how much time I spent NOT going outside than any sort of “oh it’s not THAT cold” thoughts. I mean… your body becomes acclimatized to the weather/temperature of whatever place you live and when you live here, anything under 10°C is FRICKIN COLD, and really, why would you want to live somewhere where it regularly dips way below freezing. NO THANKS.

On Saturday we had a small family gathering to celebrate Symphony and Gwen’s birthdays. It was pretty low-key and OF COURSE I didn’t get pictures. I remember thinking to myself that morning “I have to remember to get pictures this year!” and I then I didn’t even take out my camera. I did instagram a pic of the cake, wowe these precious memories. Actually I was pretty happy with how it turned out; I made a tired chocolate layer cake with green icing and decorated it with green sprinkles, rosemary sprig “trees,” and little plastic deers, birds and mushrooms. I also managed to fit 17 candles (14 for Sym, 3 for Gwen) onto the tiny top tier which I thought was very impressive.

Now that Halloween and the girls’ birthdays are over I can dive right in to Christmas… except I have a bunch of stuff I NEED to do around the house and I made a deal with myself I wouldn’t put up any Christmas decorations until I finish them all. Although… I didn’t say I couldn’t BUY new Christmas decorations. Look, that little tree was EIGHTY percent off! And I don’t usually go to the store where I got the two baubles so it’s not like I can buy them later. And it wouldn’t really make sense to buy new things and put them in storage for like two weeks so I might as well just keep them in the house and so I haven’t REALLY put up any decorations… Nice loophole, huh?

SPEAKING OF THE HOLIDAYS if you want to get any banners or whatnot from the shop, today (November 9th) is the last day to place orders for Hanukkah decor/gifts and November 23rd (rapidly approaching) is the last day to place orders for Christmas decor/gifts. One thing that I think would make a great gift would be one of my “Red Lipstick is Black Magic” iron on patches! They are available for pre-order now and will be shipping as soon as they reach me, which will be soon as the manufacturer shipped them yesterday.
RLIBM etsy 3

november

november 2015 canadian small

November! I have three versions of this month’s calendar available: Canadian with Remembrance Day highlighted, American with Thanksgiving highlighted, and Simple with no days highlighted. You can download the full-size version of any of them here. If anyone would like a version with other holidays please feel free to ask!

I have some cool stuff going on in the shop rn. I’m trying to raise a bit of money to finance a new product so I have a coupon code available for orders paid with Paypal: 20% off an order of $10 or more with the code PAYPALONLY. The code ONLY applies to orders paid with paypal; if you use direct checkout with this code your order will be cancelled & refunded. Not valid on pre-orders or Sara M Lyons + Unicorn Parade products.

RLIBM etsy 1
I also have the new product available for pre-order! A three-inch round iron-on patch featuring my original “Red Lipstick is Black Magic” design, embroidered in black, white and red on a grey background. These will be shipping in mid to late November. The more pre-orders I get, the sooner they will ship, so if you like it, please pre-order! If you order any other items with this patch the other items will ship first and the patch will ship separately when it is available. Shop coupon codes are NOT valid on this item, any orders using a coupon code will be cancelled and refunded.

ADDITIONALLY the cutoff for holiday orders this year is November 9th for Hanukkah decor/gifts and November 23rd for Christmas decor/gifts. As always, please order as early as possible to avoid disappointment! Most of my items are handmade to order and take one to two weeks to make and then 4-10 business days for shipping, so it may take up to 4 weeks for your item to arrive.

cry now, cry later

CNCL banner full

CNCL banner ghost

CNCL banner back

GET READY because the new Sara M Lyons + Unicorn Parade “Cry Now Cry Later” banner will be available for sale in both our shops tomorrow, October 1st at 10am Pacific time. This banner features black glitter letters with a white & black glitter Sad Ghost at either end. They are hung on black satin ribbon and finished on the reverse with custom Sara M Lyons-designed patterned paper in a black, white and pink “ghost” motif. The letters are 3.5″ tall and 2.5″ to 4.5″ wide. The ghosts are 4.75″ tall and 2.75″ wide, and the full width of the banner is 78″.

You can also still get the Whatever Forever, Out of the World and Best Buds banners!

chill

… as in there’s one in the air, and it’s also all I wanna do rn. I have a lot of stuff to do today, but first for a little Monday morning treat: you can stream the new CHVRCHES on NPR, and bless their hearts, it’s not geolocked like the Beach House First Listen was (of course, I got around that in the end, but it was still annoying).

01 taylor & gwen

02 white flower

03 squirrel tree
I feel that a lot of squirrels must live here.

04 moss tree

05 green coat gwen

06 new boots
My beloved Kodiak boots have finally disintegrated so I’ve been wearing this pair instead. I’ve had them for a while but never wore them because the soles leave scuff marks everywhere. Maybe if I get them resoled I’ll like them more?

07 green leaves

08 cedar branches

09 white berries

10 gwen thru the trees

Taylor has been working days for the past week and it’s been weird but nice. He’s been getting up at like… 5am, working for a couple of hours at home, going into the office for 8 and getting home by 2 or 3 most days. I think tomorrow or Wednesday he goes back to working nights, but he had his review last week and the HR department expressed some concerns about how many hours he has been working (ie TOO MANY). It’s been decided that unless there is a super serious systems administrating emergency he has to leave the office by 9 each day. He actually used to leave that early (or even earlier) most days- there was a year when he came home by 8:30 three days a week so he could walk Sym to school. It’s kind of amazing to think he will be coming home every day in the morning and theoretically getting more than 3 hours sleep a day.

I’m still working on getting used to using this camera of Taylor’s. My camera is tiny and has a wrist strap, so it’s strange not being able to fit it in my pocket, or hold it easily in one hand (especially with my sprained finger, ow). I do think it takes better pictures though? Probably it would be even better if I could be bothered to ACTUALLY learn how to use it properly, but ughhhhhhhhhh. I wish there was some way to combine Taylor’s technical knowledge with my artistic eye and steady hand, but other than my actually reading the instruction manual (LOL NO) I don’t think there’s a way it’s ever gonna happen.

FINALLY I should prob stop releasing new things on the weekend bc it seems like no one is on the internet but O WELL I’m just a very impatient person (I actually have my October calendar page finished and it’s making me bonkers waiting until the end of the week to post it) but I listed a new set of hand painted wooden blocks on Saturday. I actually made these ones for myself as a ~desk accessory~ or w/e and have them in a little wooden bowl by my computer. They are in a forest/woodland theme and the set of twenty-one blocks includes seven blocks painted in shades of green with leaves on one side, seven blocks painted in shades of brown with two metallic sides (one copper and one bronze), three blocks painted red with white spots, and four blocks painted as animals: a dark brown bear, a medium brown deer, a red-brown squirrel and an orange fox.
woodland blocks pyramid
Get a set for yourself here.

all new

A big update to the shop today! I’ve removed all the out-of-stock colours and added NINE all-new colours:
magenta, a super-hot pink
carnation, a medium metallic pink
bubblegum, a light metallic pink
pumpkin, a bright metallic orange
brass, a bright metallic yellow
lavender, a metallic pale purple
deep purple, a super-dark purple
forest, a cool dark green
leaf, a bright metallic green

Some of these colours are available in very limited quantities and once they are sold out I may not be able to get more so don’t miss out!

glitter colours 09 2015

Additionally all three Sara M Lyons + Unicorn Parade banners are back in stock in my shop, and in the next few weeks we’ll be adding a new banner to the line so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Screen Shot 2015-05-13 at 5.03.44 PM

Speaking of Sara, I’ve been working with her to completely redesign the look of my ~brand~ and over the past weekend I’ve updated the look of all my social media, my shop and my blog. My last redesign was done when I was suuuuuuuuper depressed and was pretty stark, so I’m really happy with this change. Please click thru to check it out!

new etsy custom listing

gone soon

sale promo Aug 2015

Just a quick lil post to let everyone know this is the FINAL WEEKEND of my big summer sale. Visit shop.unicornpara.de and use code SUMMER25 to get 25% off everything. This sale ends Monday, August 31st so don’t miss out!

do the hustle

01shoreline

02rocks

03seawalla

04gweninstrollera

05seawallb

06gweninstrollerb

07gweninstrollerc

08bridgeandplane

09gwenpicnic

10leaves

Last week I received the sad news that Gwen’s lil friend, who has been coming to my house for daycare since he was about 10 months old, is moving to a group daycare. He’ll still come for the first three weeks of August, and after that I’m hoping that we’ll get to see him for playdates because he really is Gwen’s best friend. I’d hate for her to lose him, since she’s so shy and doesn’t make friends easily.

Now, before I had Gwen a daycare kid leaving would be nbd, or only a msd (medium-sized deal?) because when I was licensed I had 3-6 other kids, but since his family were my only clients… yikes. Ever since I found out I’ve been working hard to find more work. I had already taken the first step towards getting my childcare license again in early July, but it’ll be weeks IF NOT MONTHS before I see any results from that. In the meantime I signed up on care.com to try to find some new clients. I’ve had a couple messages already but so far nothing has panned out. I’m still hopeful though!

With my day job turning into day unemployment I’ve been working extra hard on my side hustles. Right now everything is the Unicorn Parade Shop is still 25% off with the code SUMMER25 (sorry but I will be posting about this A LOT), and on the weekend I set up a Society6 shop as well. Right now I have a couple new prints available, as well as Symphony’s Fawn and Mecha Fawn which you might remember from back in the olden times. I think these were some of the first things I sold in my etsy, before I ever even made my first banner! Anyway from now through August 9th you can get free shipping worldwide*, as well as $5 off laptop sleeves. WHAT A DEAL** TBH. Get yourself a SORRY MOM print today!
SORRYMOMsmall

*Free Shipping offer excludes framed art prints and stretched canvases.
**Please note that when I’ve ordered from Society6 with free shipping myself I’ve had to pay duty when receiving my item.

you blockhead

New in the shop this week, three unique sets of hand-painted wooden blocks…

Each set includes twenty-one 3/4″ wooden blocks, hand-painted with water-based paint and sealed with a beeswax & jojoba oil polish. While their small size make them unsuitable for children under the age of three, these make a fun little gift for kids 3 and up. The cool colours and unique designs also make them a great decorative element, displayed in a bowl or stacked on a coffee table or shelf.

Night Sky
night sky blocks jumbled
Deep navy blue with stars, comets and galaxies in metallic gold and silver. No two blocks are alike.

Luxe
luxeblocks1
Every block has two sides each in metallic gold, silver and copper.

Beach House
beachhouseblocks1
Every side of each block is painted a different pastel colour, with varying combinations of blue, aqua, green, yellow, coral, pink, purple and a few with metallic gold.

daydreamin

forest and sky

gingko leaves

stream and ducks

blackberries
The blackberries are INTENSE this year.

The other week I FINALLY took the first step towards getting my childcare license again, and even though it’s prob gonna take forever to get it (I have to go through the whole process again, beginning with an orientation session that isn’t for another month) I can’t stop daydreaming about what I’m gonna do when I have money again. Pay off my credit card! Redecorate my side of the office! Start saving for Gwen’s education! Finish painting my apartment! I’ve even been pinning things I want to buy for the house- like I’m up to ELEVEN pins now, it’s out of control.

In the meantime I’m going to try and find another little kid to look after (I’m allowed two without a license) AND in spite of my recent post about how pointless my online existence is I feel somehow galvanized to try harder to make it successful? Funny how that works.

I have been working on some sample banners for a kind of exciting new collaboration, spent several hours organizing the listings in my shop AND added some new items (ok, ONE new item, but I have more in the works!), and am working with one of my fave illustrators on a complete redesign of my branding. I even changed my twitter & instagram usernames to be more ~on brand, although I couldn’t get the name “unicornparade” on instagram because it’s already registered by a totally unused account. I’m going to keep stalking it though, instagram periodically removes inactive accounts so if it becomes available I’m gonna scoop it up.

sunlight

Hmmm I like how I titled this post “daydreamin” but it’s actually mostly about working? Just shows my dedication to the hustle igss.