Good Ol' Texas

Texas o Texas! It's always nice to come back for a visit. I'm on day 7 of a month long vacation away from home and away from brian. It's all been a beautiful time so far. I was in dallas celebrating mother's day, my aunt's birthday and catching up friends that we've missed seeing as often now since we moved away. I have been hanging out in Austin for the past few days. Austin is where I spent most of my days in college. South Austin folks in particular live by the motto "Keep Austin Weird" and yesterday was no exception for one man that I saw strolling down the sidewalk in nothing but a little white thong! Portland lives by the same motto, but I've yet to see a man walking down the street like that! I love it! I didn't get a picture of him, I'm sorry, but here's a lovely picture of lots of boots that I saw at New Bohemia while shopping on South Congress. Tonight at 3am, I'll be departing Austin with 8 other girls for a road trip down to Destin, Florida for my friend Cara's bachelorette party! Super excited! After the bachelorette party, my mom will be picking me up in Florida and we'll be doing some traveling in Florida for awhile ;) I am so ready for the beach, sun, sand, and sunsets!

I love color!

Brian and I went camping on the Oregon Coast this weekend. Although the beach was only a few minutes walk from our campsite, it was quite an interesting journey to get there. We walked over a small wooden bridge, thru a tunnel which was under a bridge under construction and then under the old highway bridge still in use and finally over piles of rocks to the tranquility of the ocean waves. Brian took the photo of me above as we exited the tunnel. A few of my favorite rocks we gathered from the evening and arranged for a photoshoot at sunset. ;) New images just added last week! I must have had the beach and a sunny location on the mind. Perhaps because I'll be vacationing in florida may 9 - june 10. I'll still be selling thru my etsy shop and shipping once or twice a week, but custom orders will be on hold starting May 2.

Nautical Chic

I'm happy to see anchors + stripes make another come back. And I was even happier yesterday to see one of my adjustable nautical bracelets in the ETSY Storque Trend Spotlight : Nautical Chic! You can find great articles to read daily in Etsy's Storque!

Screenprinted creatures

Here they are! My first limited edition series of screenprints using my illustrations. I will only be creating 150 of each. Every print is hand-printed onto a recycled, acid-free paper and painted with watercolors to get the solid color behind each creature. The final print size is 4 x 5.5 on an 8.5 x 11 size paper. I'll be adding them to my etsy shop next week.

Transformation

I have always been drawn to butterflies. Lately, they've been present in my life in several forms. It wasn't until today that I actually did a little research on their symbolism. I liked what this site in particular had to say. I found that butterflies symbolize transformation and metamorphosis. They represent a need for change and greater freedom and at the same time represent courage. Butterflies are also a symbol of joy and are a reminder that life is a dance and not take things so seriously. They have long maintained their standing as a symbol of the soul and rebirth.

I feel that I am on the verge of exciting transformations in my life, both for myself personally and with my love, Brian. I've not shared this in my writings here on my little blog, but i suppose now is an appropriate time to share the happy news. ;) I'm engaged! Brian designed this amazing wedding ring for me too! one of my favorite details is our initials that he drew to create a butterfly and had engraved on the inside of the ring. My mom loves butterflies too! I created this painting last week to give her after surgery that she actually had yesterday. She's recovering really well and we'll already be going home tonight. I'll be here in the great state of texas til monday visiting my wonderful family and getting my fix of tex mex and sunshine! I stayed at the hospital last night and was happy to discover that we had internet access in the room! I was up late reading some of my favorite blogs and came across an interesting post at Creative Thursday about Oprah's new book club. I've heard a lot of talk lately about the book, A New Earth : Awakening to your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle, but I hadn't yet taken the time to look more into it. Last night seemed like the perfect time. I watched Oprah + Eckhart's discussion about Chapter 6 online and it got me really excited about reading more of Eckhardt's teachings. I feel that I've really been searching for something like this in the past few months (or maybe it's just been adjusting to the winters in portland?) but no time is beter than the present for a litle soul searching!

2 more of 4 sea creatures

A jellyfish + octopus! These were created in the same way the previous post explained. I've got more surprises to share using the same sea creature illustrations that I'll post those in the next day or two.

2 of 4 : Sea Creatures

I've been busy on a few new projects over the last month. I wanted to share 2 in the series of 4 sea creatures that I just finished painting. I feel like this was the first time that I've created a painted 'series'. They wouldn't look even half as good without brian helping me out with the backgrounds ;) I illustrated the different coral varieties and the seahorse + fish with a very fine tip pen. Then to create the paintings Brian added layers + textures and the most beautiful colors to my black and white drawings. And last, I painted my illustrations onto the wood surface to end up with these beauties! I have lots of ideas for these 4 creatures. Next step, preparing the paintings to make into jewelry. I'll post the other 2 paintings tomorrow!

Rediscovery

My first experiences with formal art lessons began with watercolors. When I was in 5th grade, I took weekly private lessons from an artist in her home. One memory that I have was painting a large panda based on a national geographic photo. I recall making a grid on the photo in the magazine and then making a grid of 1" squares on my watercolor paper. Next, I painted that panda square by square. I'm sure that it took weeks to finish, but i don't remember that part. So last month I decided it would be fun to give the watercolors another try. I've been thinking about them for quite awhile, but you know how that goes. I illustrated these 2 owls, drew them out in ink and then tried out my paints. I think the hardest thing for me was adding water. And now that I'm thinking about it, I do recall having that same problem in my lessons. I would often daintily dip my brush into the water and be told not to be 'scared' of it. I've got a lot more experimenting to do, but here's my first painting after the rediscovery. It's for sale in my etsy shop, It can be yours if you'd like it.

Work in Progress

I've been working on new artwork and wanted to share. They are taking longer than expected, but I'm excited with the outcome so far. Brian took my black + white drawings and created these beautiful paintings for me! I love him ;) Next step will be painting my creatures. 1 down, 3 to go! I can't wait for you to see the finished pieces...next week.

Easter Fun

Easter was full of wonderful surprises. Our friend's family was kind enough to invite us into their home for the day. One of my favorite surprises were all of the cute little canaries. Last time we visited there were 4 birds, now there are 10 big birds, 2 babies, and 5 eggs. I learned that the male canaries are the ones that make all of the beautiful chirping. They have favorite songs they like to sing to as well. There were also all of these adorable cookies! I've never eaten such cute and yummy cookies. I enjoyed the frosting tail with coconut most of all. Their yard is full of all sorts of plants and flowers that I had never seen. I love this purple. Thanks for all the Easter fun!