Getting personal (A Collection a Day summer blog tour)
July 6, 2011 at 6:00 AM 
I'm definitely a collector at heart, which is why Lisa Congdon's A Collection a Day blog in which she posted a special arrangement of one of her many collections throughout 2010 was such an inspiration. It was so inspiring that I asked Lisa if we could collaborate and turn the web project into a book!
What you might not know is that I procrastinated in contacting Lisa for quite a while. I was expecting a baby and just figured Lisa's idea was so good that surely a big-name publisher would just scoop it up! My entrepreneurial and design drive weren't yet dampened by late-night feedings, so I emailed Lisa with my book proposal. I was honoured that she preferred to work with me rather than any other publisher and that we shared a similar vision of what the book could be.
Since Lisa would be busy completing her online project until December 31, 2010, I figured that when the time came for me to design the book, I'd be accustomed to motherhood and it wouldn't be too difficult to get it all done. I'd design it late that year and just add the final pages in January and off it would go to the printer! Sounded simple enough.
What I didn't anticipate is that after the initial getting-to-know-you months of having a new baby, and the few months of exquisite babyness in which they lay happily on the ground and stay in one place, is that the growth and development rate is incredible! I would just get used to one stage, and Finley would quickly be on to the next one... rolling over, crawling, standing... walking!
Designing the quarterly magazine plus committing to publish four books (The Elegant Cockroach in October 2010, Work/Life 2 and A Collection a Day in Spring 2011, and The Suitcase Series Volume 2: dottie angel for later this summer) and being a new mom has been a challenge and then some. I'm still in awe that I'm getting the job done—and proud that everything that I've released is very high quality, unique to UPPERCASE and most definitely a labour of love.
A Collection a Day and its collectible tin are highlights in my career as a designer and publisher. I hope you'll decide to add them to your own collection of books. (Available in the online shop here.)
There have been some late nights (and some crying), but the first 16 months of managing a business and mothering a baby have gone pretty well. I think a lot of newcomers to UPPERCASE don't know that it is still essentially a one-woman operation. (But believe me, I'm exhausted.) Over the next months, I hope to get more help in managing the logistics side of publishing—distribution, circulation, subscriptions—since there really is way too much work for one person to handle, especially since I don't have as much time as I used to. UPPERCASE is my baby, but it's getting too heavy to hold on my own.
Anyway—back to A Collection a Day! We're having a summer blog tour! What better season to start a collection or two? With flea markets and garage sales (and more time for eBay?) now's the time to add to your collections or start a new one.
Thank you to the following blogs who are part of the tour so far (email me if you already have your copy and have posted about the book and you want to be part of the tour!):
July 6 Design for Mankind
July 13 Cafe Cartolina
July 20 DesignWorkLife
July 27 Poppytalk
August 3 sfgirlbybay
A Collection a Day can be purchased right here. thanks!
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