it's a happy friday...

It seems that everything in my life is an event. I can't just get something done on my first try, there are fiery hoops I have to jump through to get something done. Needless to say this has been a long time coming. The cards I put my jewelry on in my gift boxes have been a pain in my rear since I came up with the idea. However, I love them.

It is a really long process to make these little cards, I start with the bronze metallic card stock in 8 1/2 x 11 and I cut the paper into 6 - 3 3/8" squares. Then, I use a custom made rubber stamp. Sprinkle gold embossing powder, heat it up and voila beautiful cards! Like the old adage, beauty is pain. It was getting to be rediculous though, I was spending more time making my cards, than actually making jewelry! (I will post pictures later tonight of my card-making process).

I have spent many hours brainstorming other ways to make this easier on me. I have tried printing them myself. But the card stock is so heavy I broke a printer...oops! I have contacted numerous printing companies. But the response has been horrid and truly makes me wonder about customer service:

• one company told me they wouldn't work with a small company.
  
• another made a meeting with me and then when i got there she wasn't there.
  
• the third and last company scheduled a meeting, spent 2 hours with me and then never got back to me with a quote. even after numerous emails from me, to which I started to feel like a stalker. hmph!

I found one company, Imagers, that was very helpful and was working with me but they didn't have the capabilities to do thermal printing which was what I really wanted. So, I went to Sam Flax. I ordered my first business cards with them and was super happy with them, plus I have been purchasing the bronze metallic paper from them. The only thing that kept me from going to them first was the cost. I broke down and set up a meeting with the Paperie, which is Sam Flax's wedding invitation and paper department. It was a wonderful experience. I was told with normal printing methods I could not print on the color card stock I had been using, but they offered to help me find something that works better. They brought me paper samples and we figured out something that I was really happy with.

Yesterday, I got an email saying they were ready. hello. i love you.

I have to say these turned out better than I even expected. They are beautiful. I can't wait to ship off the order I am working on with this new packaging!

better late than never

I love to read. I love getting immersed in the story and imagining what the characters look like.

But between working at JFF Jeweler Supply from 8 am - 5 pm and then working in my studio at night, I really don't have any free time to read. To deal with this, I have started listening to books. I started with the Twilight series in November and have been flying through books ever since. I really didn't realize how much time I spent in my studio until I went through a 20 hour long book in 1 week!

This past Monday I started Julie & Julia. I have been dying to read it, I have had the actual book sitting on my shelf for almost 2 years! So I decided to break down and buy the audio version. It is a really great story so far. I can't wait to finish! And then go see the movie, of course!


Now, my one complaint with listening to audio books is the background music they play sometimes...it's really cheesy. I can't imagine someone was like, "ooh I think this would really make the story." Next thing you know they are going to have books that when you open them, they play music...like the hallmark cards. Speaking of the Hallmark music cards, every time I pick one up and open it, I know music will play, yet I still jump a little. I don't think my brain is quite ready for this technology. I digress.

hello. i love you.

So I am on a quest to make my bedroom a haven. A beautiful, comforting, vintage- yet contemporary-inspired, cozy room. (I'm sure there are more adjectives I could use, but I will spare you)

It all began with a mirror I spotted at Anthropologie a few years ago. It was a beautiful mirror. Full length, lean against the wall, rich dark wood, framed mirror. Shockingly it had a really reasonable price tag and I was saving for it. I went into Anthro one day and it was gone...I was in mourning over that mirror and mad at my lack of self discipline that I couldn't stop myself from buying another pair of Kate Spade shoes instead of putting that money toward the mirror. So ever since then I have been on a mission to find a similar mirror.

Fast foward to one month ago. I found this fabric at Beehive Co-op that Deborah from Whipstitch carries. "hello. i love you." was my reaction to the fabric.


I heart this Amy Butler fabric. I finally decided to purchase a yard of it to bring home so I can figure out where in my room I want to put it. I have been laying across the bed (should it be a duvet or shams?). Should I make curtains? Should I frame it? I have even wrapped it around myself to see if I should make a skirt or a dress too! I don't know. I love it so much I want to see it everywhere! So in my indecisiveness, I'm still not 100% sure.

hello. l love you. moment #2. I haven't been looking at my usual websites (Pottery Barn & Crate & Barrel) for the mirror recently and yesterday I thought I should do a quick check. I found it! Needless to say, let the saving begin again!


But to make things even more exciting, Boyfriend and I will be moving out of our one bedroom apartment at the end of September. We will be moving, hopefully, into a house. My check list for this house includes:

• all hardwood floors
• big windows
• a room for a studio with access to a sink (I'm tired of my hallway I call my studio with no sick but the kitchen)

on a quick side note...
I reached 900 "hearts me" on my etsy yesterday! When I get to 1000, I think I'll do another give-away!

MOO cards

In preparation for my next two shows, East Atlanta Strut on Sept 19 & Oakhurst Arts and Music Festival on Oct 10, I have been going back through my notes from my first festival back in May.

I noticed a lot of people would take my business card and on the back of the card jot down the item they liked the most. So I thought if I had some smaller business cards with a photo of my most popular designs with my contact information on the back making it very easy for people to just grab and go. Then two days, weeks or months later when they came back across the card, they had a photograph of the item they really liked to jog their memory.

I ordered these mini cards from www.moo.com. They are so cute and the paper quality is fantastic. As soon as I received them in the mail I ordered some new business cards.

I have also been working on making my packaging a little more gift like. I found this red & white twine from angela liguori. I like it better than regular baker's twine because it's a little heavier. I wrap my gift boxes in some aqua tissue paper, wrap the twine around and tuck a business card and mini moo card...voila!

every season j. crew has something that i crave. something that i'm not sure if i can live without (although typically my wallet is screaming, "no, no, no.")

this season is no different. these boots are amazing. i already have outfits picked out that would be perfect for these boots. and a little spot in my closet for them.

j. crew, you never cease to amaze me!

hint hint boyfriend...my bday is around the corner!

new(ish) design!

check out my new(ish) design:
the circle of friends necklace
new design! sterling silver & 18k circle of friends necklace

i designed the original version of this necklace for my good friend, malia. when i first made her this necklace i didn't own a torch & had very minimal tools. i have recently updated the design...check it out!

please note: so far i only have the 18k and sterling version photographed, an all sterling silver version will be on my site in the next few days!

Facebook Giveaway!

I'm having a Facebook fan giveaway this week - the first of many if this goes well! Become a fan of Christina Kober Designs on Facebook and be automatically entered into my first ever Facebook giveaway! On Friday, August 21, one lucky winner will be chosen from all of my fans to receive a free sterling silver initial necklace! So spread the facebook love!

What a great day!

This weekend had a lot of potential because I had off work on Saturday. Usually when I'm not working on a Saturday it's because I am going out out of town or have a show. So this was super exciting as I had NO plans!

First on the schedule was to hit up to Morningside Farmers Market. This market has local grown organic produce, herbs, flowers, & soaps. My friend, Julia Daniel of Lush Designs, lives in the neighborhood so we walked down to check it out.

The market had a really great vibe. There were a lot of people there, waiting in lines to get fresh tomatoes, rosemary, peppers, you name it! They have demonstrations of how to cook various products also, this week it was using eggplant. I was most excited about the flowers, but I waited too long to get them and ended up only with a photograph! However, I did leave with a huge bag of fresh edamame, rosemary, and some local honey. I have a feeling I'll be going back.

Boyfriend and I spent the afternoon scouting boutiques & then I came home to work in my studio. We decided to go to my favorite mexican restaurant in Atlanta for dinner, Panchos. And I was thrilled to see a mariachi band!

Boyfriend said the fajitas were the best he ever had. Score!

(If you look closely in the photo of me and the mariachi man, you can see a new design I'm perfecting. Hopefully I'll have more information about it later in the week)

We ended the evening at my friend, Miranda's, for her 25th Birthday. I made her a custom fortune cookie lariat. I think she was pretty excited about it! A great day all around!

friday humor

I just received this forward and I was laughing so hard I had to share. I highlighted my favorites in blue. Please note it is quite long & funny, so becareful you might out yourself on not working!

Random Thoughts for Smart People Like Me...

I wish Google Maps had an "avoid ghetto" routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

That's enough, Nickelback.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the fck was going on when I first saw it. (UM, hello Grease?!)

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro."

Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories.

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

I think that if, years down the road when I'm trying to have a kid, I find out that I'm sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must beat least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner!

A couple days ago I was driving home from work and I see this weird colored bus thing, it had an orange rounded top and a yellow bottom...I thought to myself...can it be?!

Oh yes, it's the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile!

I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Weiner

That is what I truly wish to be
'cause if I were an Oscar Mayer Weiner
Everyone would be in love
Oh everyone would be in love
Everyone would be in love with me

EAST ATLANTA STRUT!!

I wanted to post a short blog today letting everyone know I have been accepted to my 2nd show! I'm really excited because I have now purchased my own tent and tables! I can't wait to show everything off for the first time!

East Atlanta Strut will be Sept 19 from 10am - 8pm

Come support local Atlanta artists at the East Atlanta Strut. Pre-shop on my website: christinakober.etsy.com

The East Atlanta Strut is a community organized, one-day festival featuring music, art, and events to raise money for neighborhood charities & organizations and support local businesses.

I post a reminder blog post, tweet, facebook message, etc when it's coming up!

I am loving...

My boyfriend of a year and a half (our 18 mo anniversary is today, actually!) is allergic to dairy and eggs. And since we have started dating, I have stopped baking except for making rice krispy treats...not really baking but honestly what can you bake without eggs and dairy?!


Dan's (that's the bf's name) 30th birthday was last weekend. During the planning phase of his party had mentioned that he would like to have an ice cream cake, because he thought they always looked so yummy.

So my thought was, ok there is soy ice cream, I can handle that...but what about the cake part?! So after discussing my dilemma with my friend Betsy, she told me about Cherrybrook Kitchen. This is a company that makes bake mixes for food allergies. There are cookie, cake, brownie, frosting, and pancake mixes just to name a few that are dairy free, nut free, egg free, some are even gluten and wheat free!

I still couldn't imagine how it would turn out but worse case senario, the cake would be dry and we would be right back in the same place as we were before! I decided to go with a brownie cake bottom and Trader Joe's cherry chocolate chip soy ice cream on top. Like everything else I do in life, I waited until the last minute to make the ice cream cake, leaving limited time for the ice cream to refreeze, so I went with a cupcake version of ice cream cake. I made rice krispy treats as a back up plan. Ugly as the cupcakes turned out...they were seriously DELICIOUS!!!! Mission accomplished!