Weekend Excursions

This past weekend my friend Sarah & I decided to take a little road trip to Eugine to visit a special hellebore nursery that was having an open day and plant sale. I turned out to be the most perfect spring day, with sunshine and everything! The nursery had wonderful landscaped gardens full of early spring flowers. It was a lovely day!




I think hellebores are nice, some people get really crazy about them, but I did end up buying one, it's called "Black Diamond".

Logo

I did this lettering for a coffee shop in Detroit some time ago & realized I never posted about it. I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to logos, like I don't know how to make text look very computer polished (anything I can do in photoshop I've taught myself, which only gets you so far), so I usually tell people they might want to get someone else for that part, but I love, love, coming up with ideas and working on them.

This is a little logo I thought up for a made up company. I wonder what they sell? Possibly brine shrimp.

Also, I wanted to let you know that I'm having a sale in my store this week: FREE SHIPPING on all brooches.

Drawing

I've had that little rhyme going round in my head for a while. It's from a 16th century ring inscription, and pictures of it keep showing up on my Tumblr and Pinterest feeds. I wanted to experiment with some things and this drawing is what came out of it, I'm pleased!

Also! I've added two new prints to my store: You can now get a print of "Couple" and "Babes in The Woods", hooray!

Green Things Valentine's Day Edition

It's been rainy again, the ferns love it.


Yard chickens. I live in kind of a fancy neighborhood and I like it that even here you can come upon a flock of chickens roaming the streets fairly often.

I started a ton of paperwhite bulbs. They're going slow because my apartment is North facing, but that's okay, they'll last longer.

I got the most wonderful surprise flowers from my Valentine! I love those red beany things.

Beautiful little film

out of sight from kynight on Vimeo.

Februaryness

There was a heart in my homemade latte the other day. It just happened like that!

While flipping though the latest issue of Anthology magazine I noticed a copy of Menagerie in one one of the shots of Chloe Fleury's studio. It's still exciting for me to see it places, I worked on that book!

Letters

Practicing some lettering for fun. I actually get asked to do a lot of logotypes & wedding invites, which has helped improve my hand drawn lettering, but I'd always like to get better. Plus it's fun. I always give myself a lot of grief for not doing "real work", so I never let myself just play around as much as I should. Even though I know that's how you grow and make discoveries and improve techniques. I'm trying to get better about that. The whole theme of this year is going to be "stop feeling guilty".

I've decided to start selling boxes of assorted cards, as well as single cards, in my store. I don't know why I didn't offer that option before now actually! At any rate you can now buy a box of six different designs, or a box of six Thank Yous.

Green Things & some shop news

"Green Things" is becoming a regular feature on my blog I think. I can't help it, I love plants, especially this gray time of year. The sun has been out & its been warm the past few days & it's been refreshing to say the least, I'm really excited for spring.

I've been starting every morning with a green smoothy: coconut water, mango, celery, spinach, kale, ginger. So good!




Down to business: I'm afraid because the Post Office raised it's shipping rates I too have had to raise my shipping. Domestic orders and orders to Canada wont notice much, but international orders have gone way up, and I'm sorry for that!

Monday Mornings

Because they are Aradan's days off Sunday & Monday have become my weekend days as well. This Monday I got up enough energy to make pancakes from scratch, and it turns out it's so easy, I'm never buying a mix again! Rather than syrup we used honey and blueberry-lemon-basil jam made by friends. I love leisurely weekend breakfasts.

The Enormous Tiny Art Show

I have some pieces in the latest Enormous Tiny Art Show (this is number Eleven!), at Nahcotta in Portsmouth NH. The opening is February 3rd or you can buy the pieces right now online!

Originals

I put a few more small originals in my store today, including this one.
You can find the others Here, Here, Here, and Here.

Happenings

A drawing of mine used in the January issue of "Piauí", a monthly magazine from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Also, I decided to put this little drawing up for sale in my store! I'm actually going to try to put a few more in my store over the next week, I'll let you know when they're there!

Buy it here.

Snow Night

The other night it snowed more than I've ever seen in Portland! Of course it turned to rain by morning and disappeared, but it was magical while it lasted. Aradan and I just sat by the fire, with some wine, working on our Excel sheets. Exciting aren't we? But really it was a perfect evening in, cozy and productive. The snow made it so bright, we took these pictures at around 11pm but it was bright as day.

Back To Work etc.

You can spy my print of "Sky Pack" in this December issue of the Danish magazine BoligLiv. I think this is in a gift guide for children? It's a really nice magazine, I wish I could read it!

I've been back in Portland for a few days and I'm hard at work trying to get organized, working on commissions, and working for some shows I have coming up. One of my main goals for this year though is to not get stressed out over little things, to worry less, and to enjoy my work (which is something I totally forgot to do most of last year), while still being productive. My thought is the happier I am the more productive I'll be, these tiny daffodils are helping with that.

Green Things

Starting almost immediately after the New Year I begin to get obsessed with the thought of spring and the need to see green things. This is when I unwisely buy too many house plants (I already have too many) & start planning what veggies I'll grow this year. Luckily while visiting my family in extremely cold/snowy/gray Michigan I also have the option of visiting the botanical garden conservatory, so that's what we did yesterday:





Ahh, it felt so nice to recharge for a bit in the green, steamy atmosphere. Afterwards we went out for delicious hot noodles:

I'm going to go ahead and think of Jan. 2nd as the real start of my new year since I was feeling so unwell on Jan. 1st and yesterday was so enjoyable!

I'm still out of town/on vacation until Monday but I do have a piece in this show that's opening in Portland on January 5th at Compound Gallery, so if you're in town you may want to check it out!

New Year

I just wanted to pop in and wish you a very Happy New Year!
(These photos are from a trip to Greenfield Village on a trip home last summer, I love that place)

2011 Booklist

It's that time again! Time to excitedly tally up the books I've read this year, to mull over favorites, and think back to what was happening in my life around the time I was reading each book. (I can remember years better when I can look back and see what I was reading at a specific time.)

I have to say that this year my list is...not that impressive. A lot of things happened this year that were stressful and when I'm stressed I don't read very fast. I also did a lot of re-reading of books that I've read before, which I almost never do! I guess I've always felt sort of guilty doing that when I think about all the great books I haven't read yet. But this year it was so nice reading the new Murakami novel that I had to go back and read a few of his older books again, and it felt good. Sometimes you just have to read the books you're craving.
My favorites this year were Just Kids, The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #1, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, State of Wonder, 1Q84, The Marriage Plot, and especially The Tiger's Wife.
What are some books you read this year?

Just Kids by Patti Smith
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature by Alison Lurie
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #1: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #2: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood
Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino
Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
Villette by Charlotte Brontë (I don't know if this was a favorite but it's definitely one I keep thinking about)
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me compiled by Kate Bernheimer
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov (another I wouldn't call a "favorite" but one I can't get out of my head)
The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
The Twelve Chairs & The Golden Calf by Ilya Ilf & Yevgeni Petrov
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (Re-read. First read when I was 13 and I liked it to much better this time)
Wildwood by Colin Meloy
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Re-read. First read in 2009)
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (Re-read. First read in 2009)
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Woolgathering by Patti Smith
The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach (Currently reading)

Eve

Happy Holidays to you and yours!


Currently I'm in Michigan relaxing with family but before I left Aradan and I did our gift exchange and I was a very lucky lady this year because I am now in possession of a tiny original drawing by Evan B. Harris!! It's framed in a specimen case which is (completely accidentally) appropriate because Aradan has given me butterfly collections for my last two birthdays. Also pictured my new Classy brass pencil case.

Stay tuned for my end of the year book list!

Pictures from Last Spring

I found some pictures from last spring on my old camera. I like my new apartment, but I sure do miss my old view of Mt. Tabor. It was one of my favorite things to look out at the mountain a hundred times a day to see what the weather was like over there.

That snow fall was maybe back in March? It's almost time for snow again! Or rather, I'm about to head to the land of snow ie Michigan to spend time with my family for the Holidays. I can't wait!


Delicious savory pie I got in Seattle.

Springtime.

Hothouse oranges.