Happy New Year!

Ok, as a rule, I do not really make New Year's resolutions. I think if you want to make a change, you should plan for it and do it. You know, Just Do It. But, sometimes you need a start date to start rolling out changes, so I figured Jan 1st, 2011 is as good a start date as any!

My first change to OSD is a new Etsy banner. I have a lot of wonderful and kind repeat customers and I think changing up my banner and blog layout once a year is the least I can do to keep it fresh and keep them interested. My husband and I brainstormed for a long while on what my new Etsy Banner should be. I envisioned Sir Olaf McOwl (didn't know he had a name did you) dressed up as the Red Baron in a sweet biplane with goggles, a pilots hat and a scarf waving in the wind. He'd be my little advertising Owl, pulling a banner with "Owl Say Designs".

So my sister-in-law is my amazing graphics artist. She initially designed Sir Olaf McOwl, so I asked her if she could make me a new banner. Sometimes your initial vision is hard to capture in great detail when you are limited to a 100x760 pixel size. The rough draft was awesome, but about this time my husband and I had been brainstorming on introducing new friends to OSD. So, when  my husband saw the initial layout, he suggested my SIL elongate the plane and add a Bluejay, as the pilot. We laughed hysterically. I loved the idea of Sir Olaf being piloted around and sort of as a stationary, unchanging symbol (like the Traveling Gnome). Plus, goggles, a hat and scarf were hard to pull off on a weeble-wobble Owl and at least 2 out of three just needed to be somewhere in any plane graphic. I think it's a rule.

So OSD would like to officially welcome Captain 'Bullseye' Bluejay. Captain Bullseye is a diabolical military strategist and tactician and has been known to commit daring air raids divebombing unsuspecting humans while mowing their lawn.  Although now retired, his military career is impressive having climbed up the ranks to Captain in half the time of his fellow enlisted Bluejays. He now works as the head of Security Detail for Sir Olaf McOwl.