Monday 31 October 2016

Meet the new design team - Suzi Blu



The best thing about the internet, besides videos of cute Shih-tzu doggies with round haircuts, is finding friends that share your obsession. My obsession is stationery, and if you are a Mrs. Brimbles fan, I bet yours is, too! Fat, chunky planners with tabs and puffy stickers make me giddy, like I’m 12 years old again, and there is nothing on earth I would rather do then play in a pretty, fat planner/journal!

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Hi! I’m Suzi, author of the beloved book Mixed Media Girls with Suzi Blu, Quarry, 2012, and I am super excited to spend the next year sharing my planners with you. My planning style may be a bit different than what you are used to seeing, and I believe that is why Anna Brim chose to include me. Mixed media prides itself on experimenting with non-traditional materials in new and exciting ways, and I bring that process into my planners/journals.

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To me, planners are journals: hand-made books documenting our lives. So many of us are compelled to document our every day experiences and what started as scrapbooking has merged with everything else. In my planners I have to-do lists and appointments, but also experiences and observations, thoughts, photos, dreams, and art. A real, physical place I can touch and curl up with and call my home.

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Yes, I consider journals to be my home.

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I never really had a great home. I grew up in a stressful Italian family in New Jersey (see Sopranos), and as soon as I turned 18, my motto was, “Anywhere But Here.” I have sought the geographical cure so many times that I have stopped counting. I have lived in Woodstock, N.Y., San Diego, CA, and Reno, Nevada, (just to name a few). At the moment, I live in a cute apartment in Eugene, Oregon, (rated the #1 city in America for hippies!) two hours south of Portland. I am unmarried and without children but live with my best friend, a one-eyed dog named ‘Buddy Love’ who rescued me earlier this year.

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In 2011, just months before the release of my book, my dad died suddenly from heart failure, and I fell into a long period of horrible anxiety and depression. Although I kept making and teaching art, I completely withdrew from being social outside of work. I had two dogs, Gigi and Finney, who were both very old, in poor health, and who passed away a few months of each other in 2015. I was inconsolable for months, but in April of 2016 I fell in love with Buddy. This little dog has saved me.

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Art saves me too. Helping women work through their insecurities about drawing and painting has helped me move out of my grief and back into life. I first came upon Anna Brim in a Youtube video and was delightfully CHARMED by her down to earth and spunky nature.

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I am thrilled to make journal/planner pages with the Mrs. Brimbles products for the next year, and help others see that no matter what one’s current artistic skill level, a planner/journal can provide a creative outlet and emotional support. I hope to inspire others with my work, and help everyone see the beautiful and healing parts of life!

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