3 Necklaces

I took some pretty pictures of a few necklaces & matching earring this evening. Then, I dropped my camera and the screen broke! Here's a few to share pre-breakage. They're now available in my etsy shop! $30 for a large necklace & free matching earrings ;) I'm off to West Palm Beach tomorrow for a visit with my family and to become a Godmother to my sweet little niece! I'll be back next week. Enjoy your weekend!

Home Sweet Home

Recently, I've been trying to get back into making art and rediscovering my illustration style. This has proven to be a difficult task for me with everything else I already have started and need to stay focused on. I've spent many hours in the past couple of weeks drawing out different ideas and working with different mediums. So far, I have 3 different series that I want to work on. I think that I'll probably just work on all 3 at the same time because that's generally how I work. I'm a multi-tasker, but also a bit unfocused at times because I have so many ideas that I want to execute! We've also been spending much of our time searching for a home to buy. The painting above is the first in a new series that my husband and I have started together. A 'home' related theme seemed to make the most sense for the time we're experiencing in our lives at the moment! I look forward to sharing many more in this series and others in the coming weeks! Above & below are a couple of baby shower invites that I recently designed for friends bringing cute little babies into the world this month!

We're a Work in Progress

Today I am procrastinating. I made good progress on the taxes yesterday, so I'm back today to share a little collaboration happening in our home right now. Our first art-related collaboration happened at the end of last year when we designed our wedding invitation together. We also worked together on a logo for Cafe Au Play. There's an interesting challenge that happens when two very passionate people are working together on something that they are each so passionate about. Each one of us has our own unique ideas, styles, & processes that we're bringing to the situation. In my case, I'm bringing a non-planning kind of process of just making it happen along the way in whatever way ends up happening. I don't really think it all through when I'm painting, sewing, building and it drives Brian crazy. In the general everyday, I'm usually the over-planner and brian is the under-planner. I'm enjoying these discoveries about myself and my husband and our processes that it takes to work together to be happy with the outcome. I hope that everyday continues to bring a new challenge because it's pretty fun to learn new things and create art together. There will be many more works in progress happening in this home soon to be revealed, but here are a few for now.

february fun

It looks like I'm going to be spending my last week of February sorting thru paperwork from 2008. As the days pass, I tell myself this year I'll be more organized! I hope that it happens. Before I'm off to work on that, I wanted to share a special gift that i received last week from my love. It's the first painting that anyone has ever painted just for me and i adore it (and him too!) I just reworked the front page of my site and wanted to let you know, that now thru March, I'll be offering FREE MATCHING EARRINGS w/ every necklace! I hope you enjoy the rest of your March!

My new friend : the sewing machine

I spent some time on the sewing machine last week and I think that I can now say I know how to sew! i'm no expert, but I did use it without cursing which was fun! Maybe sometime soon I can try out a pattern from this amazing site called Burda Style I made some new badges! Earlier last year, I hand-sewed some similar ones and I have enjoyed wearing them on jackets and purses. They've received a lot of attention, mostly from guys asking me what I did to win that award! To create the badges, I heat pressed my image onto a light canvas, chose a fabric piece (from my recycled upholestry samples) to match each image, and then a ribbon or zipper to match each as well. Here's a peak at a few badges now available in the shop! Thanks to sweet Jena also for already giving the badges some love on the oh so fun modish blog!

Coraline Premiere

We had the opportunity to experience the premiere of Coraline last Thursday. It was a beautifully, magical and amazing evening! The movie was so happy and sweet and i thought Coraline was so adorable. I've included some pictures below from the night. All of the handmade sets from the movie were on display at the after party as well as the creative minds behind the characters. They were there with their work stations which was incredible to see as well. 72 seconds of film per week...i cannot imagine - and it's in 3d! very admirable work!

Snail Mail for Charity

I sent in a handmade valentine for Fred Flare's Snail Mail for Charity and it's up for sale now! 100% of the proceeds will benefit Elder Craftsmen. There was also a coaster included inside! Send some sweet thoughts (& a coaster) to someone you love! There's a very similar card available in my shop

Organizing the portfolio : Hangtags

I've been spending some time lately working on gathering and shooting past design projects for my portfolio. It's in need of an update and I think I might be in need of some more projects to occupy my time during the slow months. Yesterday I shot hangtags and labels that I designed during my time working at Fossil. I remember these being some of my favorite projects to work on because we were able to run wild with materials, processes, and techniques - a designer's dream! Hangtags created for various denim fits. Materials used : T-shirt fabric, felt, canvas.Type was embroidered and printed. Handbag hangtags designed & illustrated. The tag on the left is embossed leather. Left : Hangtag for winter down-filled jackets. Canvas was the material used - artwork was printed onto canvas & the bottom canvas was also tea-stained. Right: Extra button hangtag. Artwork was printed onto vellum and sides were embroidered to create an envelope to hold the extra button for each garment. These hangtags were created to go along with the different fitting pants in store. Printed canvas and a light tea stain. Top: Hangtag created for garment dyed items. Canvas was printed and embroidered. Bottom: Extra button hangtag. Artwork was printed onto vellum and sides were embroidered to create an envelope to hold the extra button for each garment.

Reflecting

I've been spending the day looking back thru disks of past design projects. I'm in the process of putting my design portfolio together. I found this and couldn't resist posting immediately - it's kind of emabarassing! This must have been something that i sent out to people in the very very beginning a little over 4 years ago. This little business has come a long way! The past week has been full of sunshine and happiness

Poppytalk Handmade : Love Transforms

Valentine's Day isn't too far away! This month I'm participating in Poppytalk Handmade's LOVE TRANSFORMS virtual market. The site is filled with some of the most beautiful and creative handmade products and i'm so happy to be a part of it I'll be posting new items throughout the month, including cards and new magnet sets. Visit my table!