Christmas cards

Can you believe that it's nearly Halloween which means it's almost Thanksgiving which means that Christmas is just around the corner?! Craze, I tell you. Now's the time to start thinking about Christmas/Holiday/New Year's cards. And if you're dreaming about one-of-a-kind cards that don't involve taking out a small loan, I have good news for you...

I'd love to work with you on creating a beautiful and festive card! Contact me for more information.

announcing...

Warning: this post may contain shameless self-promotion.

Ever since I was little, I've loved to create, color, and design. Growing up, I would spend a week at Grandma's house, and each year, we dedicated a day to painting with her oil paints. I was the little girl who on Halloween was handed a pumpkin and asked if I could carve shapes instead of a scary face. I used to (and still do) rip out pages from magazines that were subjects of interesting compositions or colors. Art is something I've always loved and appreciated.

I was recently going through a box of my old grade school year books. In 6th grade, my answer to what I wanted to be when I grow up was "designer", which may seem like an obvious answer for a girl, but it's something I've always known I would do in some form. But it wasn't until college and my first 100-level graphic design class with Professor Edman that I realized that design was, and is, my passion.

Since then, my dream has been slowly building. I immerse myself in blogs and magazines about paper and design and weddings and parties, and it makes me so giddy thinking of contributing to the beauty. But how? How do I take that step? I still don't totally know the answer, and I'm terrified even as I write this, but it's time to finally walk the walk, so to speak. Because it's what I love to do. I've thought about this and prayed about this and talked about this for years and it's time to make the leap into whatever lies ahead, no matter how many excuses I can come up with.

So with that, Erica Miller Design is open for business! No, I don't have an Etsy shop (yet!), but I'd love to work with you on whatever your project may be, whether it's wedding invitations, birth announcements, or custom stationary. Below is my latest project, a wedding suite design for one of my best friends from college (congrats Jenna and Bubba!). It is one of the most favorite things I've done yet and would love to work on more weddings!

You can find more samples of my work, projects, and photography under the PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN link. Cheers!

the tree

Fall in "northern" Minnesota is spectacular. For the past week the trees have burst into awesome mode and have donned vibrant hues of orange, yellow, and red. Since this is our first fall in our new house and new neighborhood, we had no idea what sort of color we would be surrounded by. But let me just tell you, it's better than I expected! There's one maple tree in particular that I love. About a week ago, its leaves started changing from the top down, making it look like someone had dunked it into orange paint - half orange-yellow, half bright green. And just this weekend it made the full transition to its fall coat.

I love everything about fall - the leaves, the colors, the soup, the coziness - but I always feel like it's a little bittersweet. It is such a fast and fleeting season that begins with vigor and vibrancy, but after a few weeks the grass has turned brown, the trees are left bare, and the frosty mornings warn of the winter slumber to come. There's a sense of urgency to immerse myself in the height of autumn's beauty because I know that even over the course of a couple days, a tree's fiery leaves will loose their color and float to the ground, eventually winding up in one of many yard bags or compost piles.

So immerse myself I did. The drive up to Alexandria this past weekend was one of the most beautiful fall drives I've experienced. The highway and county roads were bursting with burgundies, oranges, and golds. The Painter really knows what He's doing.