Just a little update on where Hearts and Laserbeams has been, and where it’s heading. And then we’ll get to the giveaway goods – be patient! Jeez, you’re so pushy!

While the newest incarnation of the Hearts and Laserbeams website has been live for a couple of weeks now, we haven’t had the chance to properly celebrate and break it in. The focus of Hearts and Laserbeams has shifted with the arrival of our little boy Phil. The job I had when I went on maternity leave changed drastically while I was out. The changes weren’t good; three overstressed tear-filled days back on the job later, (and  a slew of emails and calls to friends, family and previous employers) it became obvious that the best move to have a drama-free life again was to jump headfirst back into fulltime freelance graphic design.

Freetime with a newborn is a precious commodity, something that doesn’t avail itself too often. As time went on after Phil was born, and holiday craft show time rolled around, I found myself completely uninterested in pursuing the crafty side of Hearts and Laserbeams anymore. What was the point in spending hours and hours of free time making things to sell when to be brutally honest these things weren’t selling? Thinking about making things for craft shows started to almost fill me with dread. I began to feel like if I was going to use my free time doing creative work, it was going to be creative work that was paying bills. People would say how cute my stuff is at shows, but I’ve never sold much more than booth fees. The truth is crafts have never paid my bills. But my mad graphic design skills totally are.

I still love handmade, and I still LOVE all the friends Josh and I have made through our crafty ventures. When I’ve got a little more free time, I’ll pursue doing more paintings for art shows. I’ll do some one-off crafting for the Etsy site. But spending hours and hours at a booth at a craft show to just barely cover booth fees, I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore.

That being said, let’s talk turkey. What is Hearts and Laserbeams now? It’s your go-to graphic design service. I’ve worked with large corporations like OshKosh B’Gosh and Kohls, I’ve worked for small companies like Meringue Bakeshop and Backyard in a Jar. Take a look at the portfolio area of the site, it’ll give you a better idea of the broad scope of services I can provide. (Not those services, sicko. Let’s keep the minds outta the gutter.)

SO. Let’s celebrate the new direction Hearts and Laserbeams has taken with a big ol’ fatty week of giveaways! Chronicle Books has been nice enough to sponsor this week’s giveaway extravaganza, and by the end of it 10 lucky winners will… win! There’s a myriad of ways you’ll be able to win:

1) Leave comments. Comment as often as you like on blog posts dated 5/29/11 through 6/3/11 – every legitimate comment will count as a giveaway entry! Note I said legitimate. Commenting on a post with spam will get you disqualified. Commenting fifty times with 1 letter or 1 word comments will get you disqualified. Commenting on the fact that my son poops too much will probably get you a high five. Six of the lucky winners this week will be chosen at random from all new blog comments.

2) Join the mailing list! Two of the lucky winners this week will be chosen at random from the people on our newsletter mailing list!

3) Twitter a link to our site! To be counted, you MUST include @hrtsnlaserbeams in your tweet or else I won’t see it. Two lucky winners will be chosen at random from twitter links.

Here’s the legal mumbo jumbo. Contest entries will be accepted from 5/29/11 through midnight on 6/3/11. This contest is open to residents of the continental US only. Sorry, postage is ridiculously expensive. If I email you that you’ve won and I don’t hear back within 5 business days, I will pick another winner. All winners are picked by www.random.org. All prizes have been provided by Chronicle Books. That’s pretty much it. Also, if you spam comment to win you will be disqualified. Keep it real folks – stay tuned, I’ll show you all kinds of great stuff you could win from Chronicle Books all week long!