Hi, I'm Estelle and I love color and all things whimsical.
I was always an artistic kid, drawing all the time and winning several art contests along the way. And my favorite color has been red for as long as I can remember.
In addition to art, I also loved structure and organizing. As a teen, I cross-indexed and carefully filed my Seventeen Magazine articles according to topic (ex: nail polish tips, hair care, talking to boys, etc.). I loved my secretarial job during high school, though my army green desk (in the army green office in the army green North Bonneville WA Army Corp. of Engineers building) always featured bright red flowers desk decor. :)
I followed my left-brain interests and graduated with a B.S. degree in Business Information Systems Management (nothing remotely artistic but my excellent indexing and organizing abilities came in handy!) from Utah State University and worked in that field for a bit, but eventually ended up on an artistic work path doing graphic design.
(Update - as of late 2022, I've 99% retired from graphic design to focus on going back to school soon to earn an M.S. degree in Emergency & Disaster Management - a long-held goal of mine!)
Graphic design by lucky accident.
I was fortunate enough to land a job doing typesetting at a small Houston TX newspaper during a 6-month college break while earning that afore-mentioned B.S. degree in Business. I found I absolutely LOVED doing computer design work and learned quickly. After that, nearly every job I've held involved some element of graphic design work and I was able to slowly gain more experience, and then I started doing freelance graphic design and left the office life behind!
Then came kids. Not by accident. Well, maybe one of 'em ...
So college was ... ummm, a few ... years decades ago and I've been doing graphic design ever since, though for the past 15 years or so I've been doing it mostly on a volunteer basis.
About the time I was slated to begin a Masters degree (in Library Science), along came kid #1 so that plan was put on hold. Also with the arrival of kid #1, I "retired" from most graphic design work. And while I do love being a full time homemaker and stay-at-home mom to 3 kids and multiple pets, it's still fun for me to have creative outlets and volunteer projects and I'm always thrilled when they come my way! I do still occasionally take a few paying design jobs here and there.
Other creations came along ...
After the *endless* diaper & preschool stages finally ended and my 3 kid were in school full-time, I had time to explore other creative pursuits, so I started playing with interior design of children's rooms (soooo very fun) and trying some new sewing projects, which are also featured on this website (more creations).
Future plans - a stunt driving shop owner?
I DO harbor a fantasy of opening up a shop called "The Shop of Glorious Things" selling unique, whimsical and colorful home goods, with a black & white striped awning and a cat (or two) in the window. However, I would most likely BUY all of the things and never make any money in my Shop of Glorious Things, so for now I am content shopping at other people's Shops of Glorious Things and designing and decorating my home with Glorious Things full of color and whimsy!
In an unexpected twist, though, despite my interests in art and design and business maanagement and library science, I believe I was truly born to be a technical stunt driver. Yes, seriously.
Dear readers, I can DRIVE. And I freaking love it.
When my kids are all FINALLY gone, I'm trading in my people-hauler SUV for a performance BMW M240i. Although to finance that car, I'll probably have to start doing paid graphic design work again (hence the need for me to keep an updated design portfolio)! Unless Hollywood is hiring 50yo stunt driving women? Vin Diesel, if you're reading - call me, dude.
Where it all started for me ... a lucky job break uniting me with this magical little guy, kicking off my neverending love affair with Macs & graphic design.
Why Red Tulip?
Well, because red tulips are the most glorious & beautiful & happy flower on Earth, of course!!
I even named one of my cats Tulip!
BUT HERE'S THE THING ABOUT TULIP THE CAT: When we adopted Tulip, she was supposed to be my Mothers Day cat but she instead adopted my oldest son as her favorite human (despite me giving her the BEST name ever) and yeah, I'm kind of bitter about that. Shoulda named her Jerk.
So call me maybe ...
If you have any questions or would like to contact me, please send an email to stellir@gmail.com. You can also find me all over the web at the social media links down below (although I'm not much of a Tweeter and I only have Snapchat & TikTok to spy on my kids).
