Cozy, Happy Letters (free download!)

I'm working on some fun, new products for the shop and in the process I've made some cozy, happy, free downloads for your letter-writing pleasure. Click on the image then right click or drag it to your desktop to save. Print them, write on them, mail them, pass them around! Just please don't sell them and please do link back here when possible.

Enjoy!
Arian

The Gnomes

I just added a new print to the shop! A cute little gnome couple requested by a friend a looong time ago (thanks for your patience, Lanna) : )

We've made our Christmas crafting list and are haaaard at work around here, making Christmas presents, creating a nursery, and making a home in our basement for our new housemate. Plus I have hopes of adding a selection of cute Christmas products to the shop....cards, gift tags, a 2012 calendar. I won't lie, I've shed a few tears of "overwhelmedness" recently. 4 1/2 weeks til my due date and still so much to do. 

Today I will take deep breaths, take a walk, be grateful for what I DO get done,  be gracious about what doesn't get done, order pizza if it makes things more peaceful come dinner time, and be thankful for sunny skies and lots of brights leaves still clinging to the trees.

Arian : )

Fall Goals

Fall is my favorite season and I always want to soak in all that it has to offer before the trees are bare and the snow starts to fall. I waited til October to do last year's list but, like I said, everything is getting a bit of an earlier start for me this year to make room for baby in December.  Fall is bumped up to now and Christmas bumped up to November so that December can be reserved for holding our new baby boy and his two fellow new December boy cousins : )

So here's this year's list!

1. Decorate our front porch. Since we've always lived in apartments/shared houses, we've never had our own front porch before! Its' a big blank canvas I get to make our own. Mums, pumpkins, a new fall wreath, and some handmade fall garland are in store : )

2. Pick our own pumpkins (like last year)

3. Take the boys to their first football game (complete with blankets, face paint, and hot cocoa)

4. Host a crafty ladies night. This has been on my to-do list for tooooo long!

5. Try a new soup recipe. (maybe this one)

6. Head to the country. (at least three times)

7. Take lots of walks (fast ones for exercise, slow ones for Jude)

8. Get a crock pot.....and use it.

9. Make good use of our fire pit!

10. Go on a fall-y date with Daniel.... pumpkin spice latte, walk through the woods, sketchbooks, and cozy sweaters.

That's it!  How 'bout you? Any fall goals?

Arian : )

Museum bench

 I finished up my project for the Cincinnati Children's Museum. Someone donated several old church pews to the museum to use at seating in their interactive kids play area. So the museum had local artists create murals to be attached to the backs of each bench. Pretty fun! Can't wait to see my art in its new home!

I've got lots of posts to catch up on so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Arian

In progress...

I'm wrapping up a project I've been working on for Cincinnati Children's Museum... pretty fun stuff! This is one of the last freelance projects on my to-do list before I focus all my creative energy on prepping my Etsy shop for the upcoming holiday season and our home for the upcoming December baby! With all the new paintings I want to do for my shop before the holiday rush, all the decorating I want to do in our home, and all the gifts I want to craft before Christmas, there is no such thing as starting too early!

Looking forward to it!

Arian : )

Hug print

I just added a new print to the shop. It's the piece I did for the art show at our home last week. The show was such a hit! Our little house was busting at the seams with friends,family, and people we've never met who came to listen to the music and check out the artwork that the 8 of us created. We'll definitely do this again soon as there are lots more musicians we'd love to feature and lots more local artists we'd love to host!

Good music, good food, good art, good people, and good weather made for such a great night!

Arian : )

The Garrels Are Coming!

SO! PUMPED! Today we get to meet the Garrels, swim in Josh's music live with 100+ friends and family, then hang out with the Garrels family over bagels, coffee, (and whatever else I can cook up) on our back porch in the morning. How cool is that!? It's been a frenzy of house cleaning and concert prepping and there is still lots to do!

If you're local to Cincinnati, come by tonight!! You won't regret it!

Yay!
Arian : )

Best Job Ever

I am LOVING the current music video project we are working on.  The musician is one of my FAVS so collaborating with him like this is so fun and such an honor!! Plus I love, love, love working with Daniel. And now we've got a new team member, our illustrating/animating friend, Luke!

(Sidenote: Check out this music video Luke created. He wrote the song, performed it, illustrated and and animated the video. Talk about multi-talented!)

We had our first team meeting via skype (Daniel and Luke at their office and me at home) to work out the details of the main two characters. Here's a shot of my screen during the meeting. It's truly a collaborative process with all three of us contributing sketches and ideas. Fuuuuun stuff!!

And Daniel and I spent our weekend evenings nestled in our cozy bedroom, listening to the song on repeat and painting/drawing away!

 And here are the stars of the video! I won't show you too much along the way so as not to ruin any fun surprises when the video comes out in June, but I thought it'd be fun to introduce you to our father/son duo.

I think we're gonna really enjoy working in this style....it's a fun combination of real painted textures and digital color. So I'll get to wear my paint smock and get messy with paint and big sheets of paper and all kinds of brushes.

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Arian

Home print

I finished the print I started working on last rainy Friday-- a cozy print to match a cozy evening.

It's available in the shop if you're interested!

Did you guys watch any royal wedding footage today? I have to confess, I spent probably an unhealthy amount of time pouring through the video clips and photos of the wedding day and teared up more than once. I thought I was pretty indifferent to the whole occasion. But it turns out I'm a sucker for a beautiful bride and her handsome prince.  It's not often that the headline news on cnn is a love story. Kind of a nice break from the usual wars and disasters. Blessings to the royal couple! May their marriage be loving, life-lasting, and full of children : )

Arian

Cases

Last weekend I left my iphone on top of our car and drove off. Luckily it was found the next day by a kind stranger, unharmed, in the middle of a busy intersection a few blocks from our home. It's an iphone miracle! This is why people like me need hard cases for all their expensive hand-held devices.

But for the rest of you more responsible folks, may I suggest GelaSkins! They've got hundreds of amazing images to choose from or you can upload your own. We got one for Daniel's mom's ipad for Christmas customized with this picture of my boys playing piano (she's a pianist). She loved it!

And my lovely friend, Mandy, used my "Snowy Night" print for her ipad. I think it turned out great!! Thanks for the photos, Mandy!!

If anyone else is interested in using any of my prints for their smart phone or ipad or nook or whatever, let me know! We can work it out! As for me, I will be sticking to hard cases for now : )

Arian

Just Around the Corner

Sometimes making art is more restful than sleep for me. So I traded in a couple hours or so of sleep and ignored the packing boxes tonight for the chance to do a little "just for fun" sketching. It's just a little scene from our busy day.... a moment when we stopped to smell the newly blossomed flowers.

I came across this video about a month ago (I'm probably the LAST person to see it, it's been around for awhile!)  But it reminded me to take heart! I love winter but this one has been a particularly hard one. My heart is ready for a new season, new growth, fresh air!

Well I guess it's finally time to crawl in bed with sleeping beauty back there ; ) Shhhh...

Good night!

Arian : )

Museum Bench

I have a cool opportunity to have my artwork in a museum. Granted, it's a childrens' museum and my art will be on this bench, not hanging up on the wall. But that still counts, right? : )

The museum staff wanted something that fits with the "my neighborhood" theme of this section of the museum so this is the illustration I came up with---colorful and sweet : ) It was a lot of fun to work on. And in a few weeks I'll paint the real thing. Fun stuff!!

I hope you had a good weekend! We went to our first ever roller rink wedding reception. It was pretty awesome. The boys had such a great time! Hudson's determination to learn to roller skate was astounding. He'd fall and cry and get back up, fall and cry and get back up. He was so sweaty and bruised but would not take his skates off til the last possible minute.

My little roller studs : )

We're knee deep in boxes and still have so much to do. It's hard to believe that, two weeks from now, this won't be our home any more!

And keep praying for the hearts and lives in Japan. I've spent 3 years of my life there and have a deep love and respect for the Japanese people. They are incredibly hard-working, loyal, and generous. Seriously...they are amazing people and the images we're seeing on the news are heart breaking to say the least. Our first apartment as a married couple was a tiny one-room apt near Osaka with a two-burner stove and a twin bed.  Love that place.

Arian : )

Noah Video!

I finally get to show you our latest music video. We've been working on it on and off for awhile so I'm glad it's done! It was a lot of fun to work on!



I did the illustrations in pen then scanned them in and colored them in Photoshop. Then Daniel worked his animating magic with Adobe After Effects. Fun stuff.

We went to Hudson's kindergarten music concert today. It's moments like that where it really sinks in that I'm a mom of a school-aged kid. He's 6!

And he had his second little violin recital over the weekend. Proud of my boy!

Hope your week is a bit more relaxed than ours is!

Arian : )

Mr. & Mrs. Beaver

 My good friend, Laura, requested this print for her husband's Valentines Day gift because beavers are his favorite animal. A cute beaver couple for a cute human couple : )

Mr. & Mrs. Beaver are now available in the shop in all their adorableness!

Hope you have a fun, relaxing weekend it store! We're gonna be spending the weekend with family as part of Jude's 3rd birthday celebration. He's gonna be THREE! Not sure how I feel about that. Being two has suited him very well.  I'm hoping he'll be just as cuddly, sweet, funny, and good-natured at 3!

Happy Friday!
Arian : )

Candy Bar Wrapper

 Here's another fast, free Valentine's Day printable for you. Pick up a candy bar that has a foil wrapper (this one is a giant Hershey bar) and remove the candy bar's outer wrapper. Click on the image below for the full version then right click or drag to your desktop to save it. Print it, trim it to the right size, tape it in place, and there you go! I embellished this one with a cute little ribbon, a metal rim key tag (got mine at an office supply store) and a heart sticker.  And there you go! A quick, easy, little Valentines Day gift : ) You could even write a message on the inside of the wrapper if you wanted.

Do you have any Valentine's Weekend plans? As much as I love my husband and celebrating holidays with him, I get just as excited about doing fun things for our boys. I bought their presents awhile ago. I've got a fun Valentine's Day breakfast planned and we're going to have a fancy, family dinner at home on Valentines Day evening. Good stuff. Hope your weekend is special no matter who you spend it with!

Arian : )

Valentines Day Cards!

I just added little Valentine's Day cards to the shop! Get a set of 8 (2 of each design) with 8 round, white stickers to seal them closed for $8. OR, get a set of 4 FREE WITH ALL PRINT ORDERS THIS WEEK!

So if someone you love has had an eye on a print (or if you want to treat yourself to a little art this Valentines Day), hop on over! Your print and cards will be sent out Friday : )

Arian : )

Love Letters

I love Valentine's Day! Even before I had an official Valentine to share it with, it was a day to exchange cute cards and chocolate with friends or buy myself something pretty) ; )  So here is some Valentine's Day cuteness I made for you guys!

Click on the image below then right click or drag to your desktop to save it. Print as many as you'd like and start writing some love letters! I've got more Valentine's goodies for you coming soon!  So check back!

We spent the weekend on a couples retreat with a bunch of great friends. It was so refreshing to get away and spend some time with Daniel and other adults sans children. I feel blessed to have so many couples/families/individuals in our life who love us and build into our family regularly. It's very good for my heart : )

Arian