My Ninja Training

My ninja training came in handy as I secretly and ninja-ly snapped these highly illegal shots inside Anthropologie last week. (didn't know I was a ninja, did you-- of course not, that's step one in ninja training). I LOVE Anthro's style and just want to copy and paste the whole look of the store into my apartment.

Like how cool would something like this be above a bed as a canopy-type thing. It's fairly simple---strips of painted burlap, some netting, some strings of chandelier-esque beads, a little hula hoop wrapped in fabric...that's what's great about Anthropologie's visual style--it's made up of fairly easy, cheap materials....

...Like old books!--just hot glued and screwed together to make these sweet flowers...




Okay back to my future home--
I want a wall like this somewhere in my house. This wall had some texture to it..like they applied some plaster to it first that that it looked like slate. But I think a similar look could be accomplished with chalkboard paint and some dribbles of white paint.



And lighting---
I really like the industrial clip lights used in the foreground paired with the HUGE, elegant hanging swirl of silver balls and string over the central cash register area. I want to make a mini version of something like that over our dining room table to mask our ugly built-in ceiling fixture that looks disturbingly like a shiny, brass boob (sorry, dad)

Well, I'm off to clean and do some Halloweeny-type things. Have a good weekend!

Ghoulish Love

Still pluggin along on that project for Daniel's company (a little sneak peak for ya). And I've started some preliminary research and character design for a children's book project I'll be workin over the next few months.

I'm totally inspired by the illustration style of Gris Grimly. Although his illustrations are sometimes to gruesome for me to show Hudson, I LOVE his style. In the spirit of Halloween, we've been reading his book "Boris and Bella" -- a cute little ghoulish love story.






Alrighty, back to work for me!

Some More Photo Fillers

Hey! We're back from Ohio/Ky and we hit the ground running. I'm spending every possible hour this week working on a project for my husband's company. I can show you some of that later. I've also got some more new products to add to the shop that are perfect for the little girl in your life. And I've got some new prints to add. AND a long, long list of creative "to-do's". Til then, here are more fun family fall fotos!

Just Some Highlights

We're still visiting family and friends in Ohio and Kentucky but here are some photo highlights from the past week. Enjoy!

In The Nati

Hey, we're visiting family and friends in Cincinnati this week so posts might be sparse. But thanks for all the Birthday BOGO Sale love! It was a happy birthday indeed : )

And Don't Forget!

And don't forget the Big Birthday BOGO Sale currently going on in my shops here and here! : )

Seabird Shirts!

I just finalized some t-shirt designs for my new friends, Seabird, and they're off to be printed. I LOVE working with musicians on cd covers, band posters, merch, and the like so this was such a fun project. I'm hoping to catch their show when they come around this neck of the woods in Nov. Check out their tour schedule and catch them next time they're near you! (and grab a shirt while you're at it ; )

This Friday is my birthday!! 10th month, 10th day, at 10 til 10 in the morning. And what apartment to we live in now? That's right, #10! What's my "lucky" number?--of course 10! 10 fingers, 10 toes, 10 minutes til I've gotta start getting dinner ready... And how many kids do we plan on having? No more than 4. Seriously, gotta draw the line somewhere.

To celebrate I'm having a BOGO (buy one get one) sale in BOTH of my Etsy shops-- Font Supply and Arian. When you purchase an item, include in the "message to seller" which item of equal or lesser value you'd like. And it's good across the shops too. So if you buy from one but want your freebie from the other, just let me know! So help me celebrate my birthday AND get a jump start on Christmas shopping with some sweet deals : )

Burnt Cookies and the Women Who Eat Them

Yesterday was the SOWA Open Market Baked Fresh event--a good time: lots of people, lots of great vendors, live music, etc. Buuuuut as I sit here the morning after, still getting over the cold from staying up all night for LAST week's show, I'm starting to wonder if this whole "selling my art at art festivals" is worth it. Sure, I came home with a little bit of profit. But I came home to MOUTAINS of dirty dishes and laundry, an exhausted family I haven't spent time with all weekend, and a bare fridge. Breakfast this morning?---Hudson had an apple (not bad), Daniel had an omelet with the last couple eggs (alrighty), some questionable spinach, and dried out leftover rice from Saturday's dinner (hmmm), and I ate a chocolate chip cookie still sitting out from a party on Saturday--but only the top 1/2 cause the bottom 1/2 burned (yeah,ok, that's bad).



So I'm gonna take the day to try and get things back in order. But I did want to show you these bookplate stickers I made as freebies for the Open Market ("Pirating 101"). Hopefully I will have them available as a pack of 10 or so in the shop soon. Plus I'll probably toss one in with any orders from my shop over the next couple weeks.

(This book is one I had been eyeing for several weeks in bookstores all around--"The Little Yellow Leaf" written and illustrated by Carin Berger. Love the illustrations.)

Well, I'm off to pinpoint and remove the source of that foul odor wafting from the kitchen. : )

Free Music!

Relevant Magazine is currently running a special where you can get a free cd with every art purchase. Relevant carries several of my prints. So if you've been eyeing one and you like any of the music Relevant offers, now is your chance! Think Christmas presents : )

Balloon Man

I babysat our friends' daughter last night. And while she and Hudson jumped on the bed and Jude gummed some dollhouse furniture, I drew this. I'm really happy how it turned out : ) If I ever get to accomplish art goal #245, illustrating a children's book, I imagine the illustrations will look something like this.
If it speaks to you, you can pick it up in the shop for a mere 1,800 pennies (plus a pocket full of change for shipping) : )