We're headed to the U.S. tomorrow to see my family in Georgia and for my good friend's wedding in Florida. It's not the longest trip from Berlin to Atlanta, but with at least one layover and a definite seven-hour stretch over the Atlantic it can still be exhausting. What is it about airplanes (and airports!) that is so exhausting?

We've done this trip about a million times. With all that experience going back and forth between the U.S. and Europe, I've learned a few things about traveling comfortably, minimizing jet lag and staying your awesome healthy self, even after hours spent 40,000 feet above Earth.

Here is a list of important things I've learned after doing it all the wrong way.



1. Pack light (meaning your carry-on) - the last thing you want to do after checking your baggage, going through security and walking ages to find your gate is struggle with your hand-luggage once you board the aircraft. Trust me, I've done it all the wrong ways: with an overweight rolly suitcase that I can barely lift to the overhead bins, to the massive backpack that I just know will fit under the seat in front of me (bc who needs leg room?). Don't do these things. Pack lightly, chances are you won't write in your journal, work on your computer or read through four novels on your flight, no matter how motivated you are. After all, they do show free newly released movies!

Now I travel with one book, one large bottle of water and my iPhone (for podcasts or music) - all stowed in a normal sized bag that actually does fit under the seat in front of me.

2. Get comfortable (the right way). Skip the travel pillow all together - I'm still not sure why they exist. You're already sitting in an uncomfortable upright position, why you'd want to put something behind your neck to further upright you is beyond me. I have zero positive experiences with travel pillows. Instead I like to wear a big scarf that I can bunch up or wrap around my head for comfort.

Don't cross your legs. This might sound weird but circulation is problematic when you're jammed into a tiny seat and crossing your legs can worsen the situation and make them fall asleep. It's also better for your back and hips if you stay in a neutral position.



3. Dress appropriately - you guys, once I was crazy enough to think that wearing a maxi dress (!) on a 14-hour journey was a good idea. It might have been the most uncomfortable I've ever been. I spent the whole flight fighting the scrunch and jumble of my dress and getting caught up on the seatbelt. Don't do this. Wear comfortable and sensible clothes for your next long flight. Now I opt for comfortable jeans/pants with a loose top and sweater. Layers are important bc you can go from burning up to being frigid cold in 2 seconds flat, and well, it's nice to have options.

Don't wear contacts. The air is recycled during flights and is dry - like desert dry. This is bad for your lenses and can result in irritated, itchy eyes. If you must forgo actual glasses, be sure to carry eye drops.



4. Plan to freshen up - depending on which airline you fly, you might get a small toiletry kit with things like earplugs, an eye mask and a travel toothbrush. A lot of time and money have gone into researching flights and what makes passengers comfortable. The toothbrush made the list for a reason. Nothing is worse than having the aftertaste of your chicken curry with 5+ hours until your destination. Go brush your teeth.

I also pack facial wipes which help me "get ready" for sleep - similar to how I'd wind down at home. It's also nice to use these shortly before landing to freshen up and feel awake.



5. Skip the booze and coffee, drink water instead. I know, I know. This can be a toughie when the cabin fills with that wonderful coffee-bean aroma or better yet, when your flight attendant asks if you'd like free wine - you'd be crazy to say no, right? Wrong. It's proven that flying dehydrates you. Even though the free, seemingly unlimited cups of Sauvignon Blanc are tempting, they only dehydrate you further. Plus, once the warm fuzzy wine feeling has dissipated, you're likely left with a headache and slight hangover feeling. This is because alcohol affects your body differently at different altitudes.

Stay healthy and feeling good by drinking water. I always get a large bottle after clearing security that I can carry onto the plane. It saves you from having to annoy the flight attendants for little cups throughout the flight.

6. Move around - stretch when you can and get up from time to time. I probably get up 4-5 times on a 7-hour flight. Walking around the cabin, or even just standing (where there is space) near the lavatories, can help with circulation and keep your body feeling good.

Those are my tips for staying healthy and traveling like a boss. Have I missed something? Do you have travel rituals that you swear by? Let me know in the comments below.

Whether you lazily roll out of bed or kick-start your mornings with bright lights and cold showers, how you start your day can affect how your next 8-12-16 hours unfold. Each week, with the troves of newsletters from sites like Greatist, Refinery29 and WebMD that find their way to my inbox come the countless tips for how to best spend your mornings - the "according to the pros" and "backed by science" secrets like how you should journal right when you wake up and start each day with a work-out. Ha!

Regardless if you take the advice or leave it, sometimes seeing how others spend their precious A.M. hours can help us assess our own morning rituals.

So here's a peek at how my days start:

• 7:30 - Wake-up with D and make coffee, listen to German news on radio.
• 7:45 - Get ready for day, includes shower, dressing and make-up (!) - this is such a crucial thing for me, when I stay in PJs, I'm less likely to get my day started in the most productive way. Getting dressed for the day helps me prepare physically and mentally (especially for the days when I stay home).
• 8:15 - See D out the door, make breakfast and second cup of coffee.
• 8:30 - Check emails and social accts, make note of to-do list for day. I'll admit that I fall victim to social media in the mornings. Chalk it up to the time difference from friends and family in the U.S. - I feel like the mornings are when I "catch up" on all the things that have happened on the East Coast while I was sleeping. I also use this time to send any important emails that need to go out. 
• 9:00 - More coffee, start studying German: when I ride the train to class I'm either reading a book or listening to the Being Boss podcast - an awesome podcast for creative entrepreneuers. When I stay at home I try to avoid all distractions and often listen to Coffitivity - an amazing web app that simulates coffee shop noise! 

I study German until the afternoon, then I have lunch and the rest of the day proceeds with my freelance gig, followed by projects for Etepetete Design Co., and finally, working on this blog. Miscellaneous appointments like my painting lessons, fitness classes and various coffee/wine friend-dates pepper my week, but the mornings are generally the same.

What does your morning routine look like? Do you have any tips or tricks for maximising your productivity for the day? Let me know in the comments below!

I'm a sucker for new fonts and typefaces. It's a nerdy obsession that I distinctly remember developing when I was gifted my first word processor in 1998. I lived in my mom's small apartment in the suburbs of Atlanta at the time. With Robyn blasting from the CD player, I would sit in the room I shared with my sister and type things. I'm pretty sure my prized word processor only had Arial and Times New Roman but it didn't matter, I was hooked - typing whatever came to mind and being wowed over and over with the perfectness of my words.

Fast forward to now and I'm (hopefully) a little less dorky but not any less excited about new fonts and that's why I'm introducing a new feature series here called Fab Fonts. A triweekly installment, I'm thrilled to bring you new (maybe sometimes old) and free (but sometimes not) fonts and typefaces. I have a lot of fun curating these lists and hope you'll enjoy them too.

Fab Fonts #1:

Archive | Bukhari Script | Voga Medium | Ohmega Sans | Madina Script | Bergamot

Do you have favorite fonts that you use on the reg? Are you searching for particular fonts for specific projects? Let me know in the comments below!

Many people think that branding is about having the perfect logo or using just the right tagline. Although these things are important, there's actually a whole lot more to branding than that. It's not just about the look and feel of your business or yourself, it's also about the impressions you make, how you make people feel and overtime, what they'll come to expect from you.

I'll be the first to admit that branding takes work. A lot of thoughtful, considerate work. It's an ongoing process that evolves continuously. In fact, I'm always thinking about and sourcing new ideas for my business and have about a million rough sketches for a new logo. Although I'm certainly no branding expert, I do have experience in sales/marketing and have learned several helpful tips for branding your business or yourself.




Contrary to popular thought, getting a logo is not the first step. You can't decide what your brand should be about before you do the homework. You have to think about the purpose of your business, about the importance of your products, services, etc. What is your mission? What do you bring to the table? What is special about what you're doing? What qualities and values do you want associated with your business or yourself? Knowing the answers to these questions will help lay an intentional foundation upon which you can build an authentic brand that is represented throughout your entire business, not just your logo.

This is also when you brainstorm names for your brand. You want the name to be coherent with your product/services. This is an exaggeration but if you're selling organic products you don't want the word "fake" or "synthetic" in your brand name. Keep an eye on available domain names. You'd be surprised which URLs are already snatched up.



After you're clear about your purpose, the values you want to represent and the motivations that drive you, you can get to the fun part --> logos! And colors, fonts, embellishments and more! There are loads of tips about designing a logo: you want it to be simple yet memorable, it should utilise the right colors, be vectorized, saved in different file formats, etc, etc. Those details could use a whole post on their own. For now it's just important to know some basic guidelines, mainly that it's important to develop style standards for your brand. This means picking 1 or 2 fonts that you'll always use and committing to a color scheme that is in line with your overall brand. It might seem like common sense at first, but trust me, once your website is covered in Brandon Grotesque and shades of blue, it won't be so easy (or look very good) to suddenly start using Josefin Sans and bright pink.



This is a critical stage where you determine the tone of your business. Do you want to come across as outgoing and friendly? Professional? Formal? There aren't any steadfast rules for this - except for consistency. You have to be you and go with what feels right, but in a way that is consistent and authentic.

Here's an example of brand voice that is particular to my experience in Germany, but you'll get the gist: when I wrote my original website copy (in English) it was relaxed, fun and friendly. Definitely not formal and definitely not overly professional. Several months later I wrote and launched the German part of the site. I used the German formal "Sie" instead of the informal "du" bc that's what I've learned in my German classes. But when I showed it off to my German friends, they were really confused bc using the formal "Sie" made it sound unnatural and kind of weird. There was a disconnect between my product/style and my voice which confused my brand. So be careful not to undervalue the importance of a consistent and appropriate voice.




Once you've thought through your brand, visualized it with graphics and further developed it with a distinct and unique voice, you have to integrate it. Use your brand everywhere. Everywhere! Register your social accounts, distribute your email address. Tell your friends and family. Tell strangers you meet. Make business cards and hand those babies out. Make flyers. Get your brand out there in front of others.

This isn't always an easy thing to do. If you're like me, you prob care way too much what other people think and it can be scary to put yourself "out there." But the more you promote your brand the more natural it will start to feel, and soon enough you'll be an advocate for your own, legit and awesome brand!


Finally and perhaps most importantly, you have to walk the talk. Is your brand based on high-quality, great value products? Excellent customer service? Or maybe a no-bullshit approach to something? No matter what it is, you have to fulfill what your brand promises to deliver. In the same way that your voice needs to be consistent with your brand, your actions do too.

If you tell people that you'd "love to hear from them" but when they reach out you're unfriendly or slow to respond, they'll recognize the disconnect. Nothing can undo all the hard work you've already put into building your brand faster than falling short on your brand expectations and promises.


So that's it! I hope these tips help you when developing a brand for your business (or yourself). Do you have others tips/tricks when it comes to brand development? Let me know in the comments below!

I met my friend Heather in one of those crazy only-see-in-movies ways - on a plane! We were flying from Atlanta to Europe (her for a layover to India and me to my future husband, although I didn't know at the time). We learned after several plastic cups of wine that as fate would have it, we would soon be living in the same city and have been great friends ever since. So when she announced her engagement to her guy Matt, I all but threw myself at her with not-so-subtle requests to design her wedding invitations. Luckily, she's such a good friend that she humored me and we worked together to create the most beautiful wedding invitation suite I've had the pleasure of designing.




Heather has always had impeccable taste and her invites were no exception. She had a distinct vision from the beginning. She wanted whimsical calligraphy with soft organic colors to reflect her outdoor wedding, and natural torn-effect paper to tie it all together. She appreciates the importance of presentation and opted for non-traditional varying paper sizes. The results were fantastic!




Lucky for me Heather also appreciates details - and that made designing her invitations particularly fun. With a number of wedding weekend events, I got to play around with fun embellishments and different design elements on inserts like the rehearsal dinner invitation and info card for the post-wedding beach party.






There's no doubt that Heather's wedding invitations are whimsical, classic, fun and unique - and I'm certain they reflect the exciting celebration to come.

Want to learn about my wedding stationery services? Check out my website at www.etepetetedesignco.com or write me directly here.

Paris, Rome, Amsterdam. Some cities epitomize that "European" feel more than others and high on that list is the beautiful city of Barcelona. The capital city of Catalonia and the second most populated city in Spain, Barcelona has loads to offer. It's sandwiched between the Mediterranean Sea and the Serra de Collserola mountains giving it an edge over other cities with both fun things to do and amazing views.





I recently travelled there with my husband on a business trip. And thanks to airline strikes in France, our 4-day weekend trip became a full week of travel experience. Since it was my first time in Barcelona, I decided to put together this beginner's guide to the city.

Sleeping 

With Valentine's Day just around the corner love is in the air. I'm gonna go ahead and challenge all the cynics out there who claim that Valentine's Day is the absolute worst because it's a whole day dedicated to love (!) - and we need more days like that. Days that celebrate our love for our partners, families, friends (and ourselves!) Because I'm a sucker for any excuse to design something new, I made some lovely little gift tags and a printable post card to share with you!

Love it or hate it, Valentine's Day is upon us and if you're anything like me, you also get in the gift giving mood regardless of the holiday. Whether it's that special someone, your BFF or even a gift for yourself (which is totally allowed!), here are some great options.

For her: 1) Olive Wood Serving Spoon Set from Poketo, 2) Himalaya Hat from Baba Souk, 3) Pink Spinel Claw Stud Earrings from lief, 4) The Transport Tote from Madewell, 5) Cats Meow Card from Etsy.

For him: 6) Novelty Duffel from Herschel, 7) Monogrammed Copper Mug from Terrain, 8) Firewood Man Candle from Etsy, 9) Funny Card from Emily McDowell Studio, 10) Southwestern Socks from J.Crew.