New commission finished (!)

A woman asked me to create this for a friend’s baby shower. I get so excited when strangers contact me. I think I’ve mentioned before that of course I love when family and friends show their support but somehow, when it’s someone I don’t know, I feel like “they must really like my work…not just pretend to since they know me.” Terrible thought, I know. I can’t help it.

Anyhow, I loved doing this piece. Thank you for asking for it, great customer. Now I need to do a bunch more because my stores are pretty well cleaned out and what remains is looking a little stale to me. Tell me to get on it, will you?

The Moment Jars

Merry Christmas to you!

Please take a moment in this hectic holiday season to place a memory in a Moment Jar.  I am so honored to have been included in this wonderful collaboration (in its eighth year!) with some of my favorite people on the planet.

Have a wonderful holiday with your friends and family.

Handmade Arcade 2009!!!

This is it – tomorrow is the big day. It’s time for another Handmade Arcade and I can’t wait. Hours and hours of meeting new people and being surrounded by so much handmade awesome. I’ll be at the L2 Design Collective booth showcasing our holiday cards and banners, totes and gift tags and whatever else we happen to make today (this morning I’ve just put the last coat of varnish on these little test print boxes, for instance).

Stop on by (and I wouldn’t be too too upset if you brought a cup of hot chocolate with you) and say hey.

And here’s one more little idea – this Christmas when you’re thinking of how to spend your money, think handmade.

Texture

This new old house is filled with texture. Cracked plaster, new plaster, sanded wood, stained wood, cracked paint and on and on. Overall the feeling of the house right now is a little bit mayhemish but there are these tiny bits of beauty that I love. I think they keep me focused on what this place will be for us. I think it’s the first place we’ve lived in that we truly see ourselves living in for – well, a long time. Recently I clocked the distance to the high school (there are no buses here. Kids walk to school – gasp!) to make sure it’ll be manageable for the boy. He’s almost three. So we’re thinking long term for the first time. I love the calm I feel about this.

 

Little Orphan Blog

When I started this thing my husband said “just don’t let it become an orphan.” And then I did just that. To my credit, in the past six weeks we packed our whole house up and moved to a new fixer-upper and then tore out some carpet, removed some walls, pulled out 4356 nails, get the floors redone, had plasterers camped out for three days, balanced buckets all around the basement to catch the surprise leaks, met some new neighbors, applied for permits, got bids and everything under the sun and played a lot of trains with the boy. 

So, I’ve been too busy to paint or draw or print or make any art. And certainly no time to take pictures of it and throw it up here for six people to see! I do miss it. I am so guilty of looking at other peoples’ work and being green with envy – not necessarily at their image making or talent or anything – just jealous of the fact that they made the time and DID IT. I need to get back on the horse. I’m too good at making excuses. I need a deadline.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of what life looks like at Camp Foxbury.

Keeping Secrets

I have been printing journal covers for the last few days. I’m pretty sure my favorite part of printing comes at the end of a run when I’ve successfully printed my stack of paper and filled my drying rack and I start looking around for anything else I can throw on the table and pull a print on. I have printed the walls and posts in our basement. I have printed cereal boxes, shirts, aprons, cardboard boxes, envelopes, shopping bags – anything that’ll take the ink. A couple of weeks ago I printed the tractor on a wooden “box” frame. I liked it so much that I’ve decided to keep a stack of boxes handy. I started printing bits of the screens I’ve been using for my journal covers and out came this test print box!

I love the test print randomness.

I’m throwing a few coats of varnish on this and giving it to my best big brother for his birthday in a few days. He flies in tomorrow so don’t say a word. Swear to it.

Aging Farm Equipment Love

Have I mentioned that I love printing? I think I have. A friend liked the tractor art I did for the Fresh Fridays at the Northside Farmers Market and asked me to do something for her son. My practical nature makes me love an assignment so I tried printing the art on a wooden “box” frame. Not to toot my own horn but I love the way it turned out. It makes me excited to print more things directly onto wood. Maybe collage the background and overprint an image? We’ll see. I’m supposed to be packing for the big move in about six weeks. In the meantime, a quick shot of the tractor print on wood. If I can steal some time I plan to print a couple more for my etsy and supermarket stores.

Before and After?

So I mentioned that we’re selling our house and eyeing another fixer upper (WHAT are we thinking!?) and a friend suggested that we capture the process on film (but not really film – just little digital blips of zeroes and ones that magically turn themselves into photos that people can see on their computers a million miles away – yeah, that). So I’m thinking about it and I wonder if I can be that organized. I tend to jump into a project and a third of the way through realize that we’re completing a total transformation and should have really snapped one simple “before” shot.

Still thinking about it.

Once we’re slightly further along in the process of buying this place I will post some of the MLS listing photos which will suffice as “before” shots. And in honor of this undertaking, and because I’m ambivalent about leaving the place we’re in now and have called home longer than any other place, I will post a couple of before/afters to tide us over.

More to come.

Early morning with the boy

Every once in awhile I get  good night’s sleep and I get to wake up early with the boy and it’s heavenly in the morning. We’ve been having unseasonably cool weather this summer so it’s actually chilly this morning. Jeans, sweater, coffee, etc. We’re up on our third floor watching some Thomas. The windows are open and the birds are singing. I love moments like this. 

It’s about to get super crazy around here. We sold our hulking, Victorian rowhouse in the city and we’re eyeing a 1910 red brick in a small town. The next few months (and years!) promise hours and hours of sorting, cleaning, packing, dumpster filling, sanding, painting, tiling, etc. What are we getting ourselves into? We just finished five years of all of the above. I can whip myself into a panicked frenzy in no time.

But for now we will just sit and listen to the birds and the persnickety British trains and enjoy this morning.

Illustration Friday! – “Worn”

Worn.

I love this week’s topic. I am drawn to old things that show their history. You can’t fake age as gorgeous as the frayed edges of this book cover.

Check out all of the other submissions here.