Big Woods Creative bio picture
  • “All the things I love is what my business is about.”

  • Welcome to Big Woods Creative, the home of my freelance graphic design work and landscape photography. I'm glad you're here. I have finally found a little place to call home on the web, and I am loving what I can do with this blog-site! Have a look around. You'll get to know me and the type of work I like to do.

    I love beautiful things in print: publications, cards, especially books. My love for the outdoors, beautiful scenes and great skies nurtures my interest in landscape photography. I love my boys, and they are my inspiration for keeping most things quiet and simple, since they provide the clutter, noise and daily surprises.

    Scroll down and you can see what I've been up to recently. I hope my site helps me stay in touch with friends and past clients with the work I am doing, and also help introduce myself to new clients and friends as well. Please, share a comment, and say hello!

Solitude Out West

It’s been awhile! My design work has been quieter this summer, keeping busy with my roles at Oak and now Miller’s too. I have some book projects brewing for fall that I’m excited about. It’s been a fast moving summer, filled with lots of opportunities to work on photography. Many with my growing boys, and their many critters: fish, frogs, caterpillars and butterflies. (a post to come). Here are some recent shots from a short hiking trip “Out West.” I will always have a heart for landscapes!

This is Lost Cabin Lake. It is one of my favorite places in the world. A hidden lake in Montana’s Tobacco Root Mountains, you can get here only on your own two feet, on a horse, or as I learned with amazement this trip: on two wheels (mountain bikes!) This photo is my favorite view of the lake, taken in the morning as the light began to move across the water. Our campsite was in the trees on the right side edge of the photo.

A view from the slope behind the lake. The hike to Lost Cabin brings you 5 miles through the trees and valley in the distance. Numerous high peaks (10,000 feet+) guard the lake on its remaining sides.

An evening storm rolling across the North Boulder River Valley. This was only rain we saw, making it my first backpacking trip that I didn’t even put my rain jacket on. What a treat! Many more photos to sort through, but at a quick glance, these were my favorites.

Sweet Vada

Meet Vada Olson! This adorable 2-year-old Yorkipoo belongs to my cousin and her husband. They rescued her from a puppy mill and she is adjusting to a happy life in her new home! I couldn’t help but take some pictures of her last weekend when she visited over the 4th of July. Her many colors are so pretty. A certain 2 1/2-year old at my house thoroughly enjoyed leading her around the yard on her leash and Vada was such a good sport about it! She also liked relaxing in the grass and shade while my cousin and I visited.

She’s a city girl, but I look forward to seeing her on all of her trips out to the “lake!”

Tags for the World’s Best Slippers

A friend of mine knits the best slippers in the world. They are boiled wool, made for men and women in fun colors, molded to fit your foot, and heavenly to wear. I created these cards for her, to tie to her slippers that are for sale. The cards show a variety of the colors she’s using at the moment, but her palette is endless. On the back side are instructions for care. The pair on my feet as I type are mint green. They make me happy every morning and every night of the week. I take them with me when I travel. I love to give them as gifts! And I am convinced, they simply are, the very best slippers in the world.

The Old Tree

This old tree is a fixture for those who regularly or annually (like us) walk the Lighthouse End beaches of Sanibel Island. It is in front of my grandparents home, which they built in the late 80′s. For my lifetime, it’s roots and limbs have changed, but it has always been there.

I love this tree. I love this beach. I love this place.

Loops by Lins

“Lins” is Lindsey – my wonderfully talented sister-in-law. She started crocheting hats for her son, my boys and friends of hers, a few years ago. It didn’t take long for friends of ours, and others who saw her hats, to ask if she would make more. Now she’s selling them, and I’m so excited for her new venture “Loops by Lins!”

When a local business offered to sell her hats, she came up with the name and we got talking about a little tag to tie to her hats. She uses beautiful colors, and I pictured a variety of tags that she could coordinate with boy/girl/and gender neutral hats. I chose a palette of colors with her name in a fun (and yes, kinda “loopy”) font for one side of the card. I liked it, but it was the image I chose to use on the other side that made me truly LOVE her tags.

This is Lindsey and her daughter Harper, taken by Tiffini Kiebel (Tiff Photo), when she was born. Lindsey had made the hat and blanket in the photo for her before her birth. It was after Harper joined the world that she started making a lot of hats, and the photo (which is a precious one of mom and daughter) stood out to me as the perfect choice for the other side of her cards.

Her work grows cuter by the day. Ear flaps, tassels, and now embellishments like flowers and buttons on the girls hats. They come in three sizes, and they are SO warm.

She just got her tags, and tied them on this week. Here is a pile of some of her adorable hats, ready to go!

Love your hats Lins! Happy selling! { Got a little head to warm? Email loopsbylins@hotmail.com }

Bighorns 2010: Photos from the Journey

I love books. Always have. I love new books, old books, book stores, book sales, the smell of books, the feel of books in my hands, and especially giving books as gifts. This Christmas I gave those that I accompanied on an extraordinary August backpacking trip in Wyoming, a photographic journey of our trip in the form of a 10×8 hard cover book. It was approximately 100 pages, filled with full color photographs taken by our group, portions of our topographic trail map, and captions to record the locations, elevations and memorable moments of our hike. I am in love with ImageWrap covers, and was very happy with how these turned out. The smooth matte finish paper is beautiful and the finished book that has a wonderful, high-quality feel.

This trip and book project gave me a chance to do something with a quote that I had torn from the newspaper many years ago and have had on my refrigerator since. I used it on the back cover along with individual photos of each of us, who collectively decided on a cold morning at 10,000-some feet to not turn back and leisurely hike out the way we came in, but to instead continue onward the way we intended, to Florence Pass and down the East side of the range. We chose what certainly seemed more challenging at that moment, and it came with great rewards.

The quote, a favorite by John Muir, reads: “Few places are more dangerous than home, fear not, therefore, to try the mountain passes.”

Miller’s Holiday Flyer

A timely holiday piece to share! The season’s first snowstorm is supposed to arrive tomorrow. Everyone is excited about that. Wonder what the ten puppies here will think of the sticky white stuff? The little guys were spotting lights and decorations while through town today, and I’m beginning to think “Christmas” as I work on some holiday cards and special projects that will be gifts.

This project arrived today ahead of schedule, a nice surprise, but one not unexpected coming from a local printer that I love working with!

This flyer for Miller’s Jewelry, an 11×17 sheet that folds to 8.5×11, and printed on a gloss text weight paper, is a first time job for me. They approached me earlier this fall about designing their holiday flyer with interest in incorporating a number of  vendors lines into the one piece. This is something they hadn’t been able to do in the past, using flyers provided by just one company and tied with inventory purchases. This year they carefully selected styles and pieces by a number of different designers, their favorites this season, and now have a holiday flyer customized just the way they like.

The shopping “season” in Annandale kicks off tomorrow with the Holiday Amble. I hope to visit some of our favorite local businesses and start my lists. With snow falling, it shouldn’t be very difficult to feel a bit of Christmas spirit by the end of the day!