It's Star Wars Day. May the 4th Be With You.

The best way to spend this day is to sit down with some friends and enjoy the watching the saga all over again. There is nothing like seeing X-Wings take off over the jungles of Yavin or Jabba the Hutt's sail barge be blown to smithereens in the desert of Tatoonie. Enjoy!

We are members of a little zoo in Atascadero, California named Charles Paddock Zoo. The zoo is quite small. So small in fact that recent visits lasted around 15 minutes as my children blew by all the exhibits without so much as glancing at the animals. They've seen them plenty of times, but I wanted them to really take a look at each individual animal. I also wanted to make the trip to the zoo last a little longer and add some more interaction. I decided to make a booklet featuring animals specific to the ones at Charles Paddock Zoo.

When someone shared with me the Stars Wars snowflakes featured on Matters of Grey we were excited to make them. They turned out great, but we wanted to create more. The design seemed easy enough, so I got to work. There are so many rich characters in the Star Wars universe, the possibilities seem endless. I created a few designs based off of characters that I liked or thought would have a cool look as a snowflake. I recommend getting a very sharp x-acto knife for the inner details.

My daughter really enjoys Star Wars. Like many other little five year old girls my daughter also likes Disney Pricesses. As parents my wife and I like to encourage both. So when it came to planning a birthday we opted to try a little combination. Why not? Nothing says that a Disney Princess can't get along with a Jedi or a princess from a galaxy far, far away. In steps our friend Trisha Patterson, a creative superstar when it comes to making cakes. We asked her to make our daughter a cake knowing what interests her most. This is what she came up with. Nothing beats the look of a little girls face when she sees two things she loves to put together on a cake made just for her. Check out the pictures, then see more of Trisha's cakes here.

A year ago we took a trip to Sequoia National Park. I wanted to excite my daughter while being in such amazing surroundings. Being the Star Wars geek that I am (so is she), I told her that this is where the Ewoks live. She spent a good chuck of our time hiking keeping a lookout for any Ewoks. Coming home I can't say that she wasn't disappointed that we didn't find any. I had to explain that they are extremely shy and hardly ever let anyone see them. After we got home, and after I had a little time alone with the photos, I told her I thought I saw something strange in a few pictures. We viewed them on the TV to get a larger image. You can imagine how surprised and excited she was when we discovered that we didn't see any Ewoks, but they saw us, and had certainly taken an interest in her and her little brother. Maybe I'm a little wrong for lying to her and falsifying the pictures, but I don't care. She'll never forget the time she spent in the big woods with Ewoks.

I'll never forget when my son was born. I'd spend hours just staring at his precious face. His movement's seemed so spontaneous. Everything he did was a new movement, a new facial expression, a new war cry. If your lucky and quick enough, you can capture one of those perfect moments with a camera, and think to yourself, "Hey, that's kinda funny looking". After that I just can't help myself anymore, the designer takes over.

About a year ago, a good friend of mine showed me some Joseph Ducreux memes. Being a fine arts major I immediately questioned why I have never seen these brilliant displays of 18th century life captured so casually on canvas. After my letter to the art history department of my Alma mater pleading with them to expand their course catalog, I began to think of the meme's marketing value, not so much as a selling tool, but as an ice breaker.

I have had the great opportunity to design multiple private wine labels.I really enjoy it when I get to completely break out of the mold and go a little crazy with it. After all, living in a very popular wine region, I am continouesly surrounded by all sorts of labels variying in design. From classic and elegant to mordern abstract there is a lot to become inspired from. Here are two labels I did for private events that I was allowed to completely have a good time with. They became a center peice of conversation at the events. Cheers!