Instagram April/May

Here are some highlights from my instagram from the last few months. I'm trying to post more interesting pictures than just flowers, but it's still mostly flowers, I just can't help it this time of year! I am still thinking about that cupcake, it was salted caramel chocolate (from Saint Cupcake). I think for my next birthday I'm going to get a dozen and eat them all myself!

I'm safe and sound in Michigan at my family's house so I think I'm going to take a little break from blogging for the next week. I wasn't originally planning to but now I'm just really feeling like I could use the break and I know this week is just going to fly by!

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Lepidoptera

This is my piece in All Things Bright And Beautiful. It's kind of a re-working on a theme I've done before, but I do that all the time, and I like this version a lot!
Even if you missed the opening last Saturday at Flower Pepper Gallery you can still check out the show until June 7th!

I'm heading out tonight to spend about two weeks with my family. I'm so excited to see them! And help plant a garden! And see my cats and dog again! I am not a very happy traveler though, so the next 12 hours are going to be filled with anxiety (sigh). If ever I become super rich I plan to travel in my own rail car. At any rate, after the actual traveling part is done being home in the country for a while is going to be just the relaxation I need right now and I will hopefully be doing a lot of what is pictured in the above drawing.

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Music

I just got this cd in the mail the other day from Shishido Hinata, a musician from Japan. I'm so proud my drawing "A Closer Look" is on the cover! Shishido's music is great and you can listen to some of it right here.

Also, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be going out of town starting on Wednesday, so I'm closing up my shop starting this evening until May 27th when I get back!

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Stars

A few more recent pieces.

Have a good weekend!

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Shadow Green

My latest favorite color to use in my drawings "shadow green", it's beautiful.

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Show & Print News

I have two things I wanted to let you know about today:

Firstly I have a piece in this show at Flower Pepper Gallery in Pasadena, CA. If you live in the area I hope you will go and check it out, it should be a good one! (I can't wait to show you my drawing for this show, but that will have to be after the opening)

Secondly, I am going retire a few prints so I put them on sale and when what I have left of these is sold I won't be printing any more. It's time for a new round of prints!


I'm planning to update my shop with new prints the last week of May! I'll let you know here, on Facebook, Twitter, etc. when it's all updated

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Chocolate

Let's talk about food for a minute:

I saw this recipe for earl grey truffles on Pinterest and knew I had to try it. I love anything to do with earl grey and I've been a chocolate fiend lately. I've actually never tried to make truffles before because I thought it was complicated and I just didn't feel like bothering. There are some very complicated recipes out there, but this one is extremely easy. And look how pretty they turn out!


This is my go-to chocolate cake when I am desperate for cake. It's so easy I can make it at 10pm and have cake in 30 minutes. It's fairly healthy too so you can pretty much have a slice with every meal...

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Behind the Scenes

This may be kind of boring to some, but I've been wanting to show off my shop storage area for a while. It's the kind of thing I'd be interested in seeing in someone else's blog since I live in a one room apartment and I love seeing how other people solve living/working space issues. My place is actually a good size for a studio apt. but there is no shutting my work off in another room at the end of the day (I'm sure a lot of you can relate). I'm pretty obsessed with organization anyway, but living in such tight quarters with my work means that I have to have things organized and look nice, for my sanity. The materials I use for actual art making are pretty simple and contained, but all of the stock for my store, printers, and shipping materials are another matter. I got this wooden shelving at Ikea and I love it because all the shelves are adjustable, it's tall (sometimes you have to go up when space is limited), and it's quite affordable. I decided to enclose the whole unit in curtains that I hung from the ceiling so I can tuck it away when I want. They don't totally cover everything, but I think they make the shelves seem more like part of the room, rather than something industrial and out of place. I also sprung for the slightly more expensive storage boxes, since I have to look at them all the time I think it's worth it. Tucked away on the side behind that curtain is also a ream of the paper I use for painting, which comes in huge sheets. I also have my scanner, my printers, and all my bookkeeping stuff right there. I try to keep everything labeled and keep the labels up to date so I'm not frantically looking though boxes too much.
Anyway, if you too live and work in a small space I thought you might enjoy seeing how I dealt with it!

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Sketch/Drawing

Another recent drawing and peek into my sketchbook.

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Comforting Phrases

A couple more pieces from Thicket.
I've set aside some time to work only on my own projects for a few weeks and I'm really looking forward to it! I've had some ideas that I haven't been able to work on because I've had commitments to other people that come first, which is fine, but it's led to feeling a little burnt out. I feel like some time of doing absolutely nothing is good for inspiration and general happiness and I plan on doing some of that this weekend!

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A Documentery Or Two

I love putting on a good history mini series while I'm working, especially ones from the BBC. I discovered this one hosted by Lucy Worsley a few months ago and was completely charmed. Lucy Worsley is the chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, she has the best job and she makes the best shows! This series is about the history of various rooms in the home, but she has a bunch of others you can find, all mostly focusing on daily life and how regular people lived. I'm most fascinated by that view of history, and she presents it with such a sense of fun, you can really tell how much she loves what she does.
(If you like this you can definitely find more of her series on Youtube, they have magically not been removed yet!)

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Thicket

I have a small show opening this Thursday at a cute store here in Portland called Abrhams & Duffy. They've asked the lovely people from Antler Gallery to curate some shows for their walls and I'm thrilled to be the first one. The opening is part of Last Thursday happens on Alberta from 6-8 PM, so if you live in the area you should come by!

Thanks so a commissioned piece I've been working on recently I have blackberry thickets on the brain and many of the pieces in the show reflect that!

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Rain Sun Rain

I wanted to share something about my favorite drawing tools of the moment, but I'm just going to post a few random photos and a very random page from my sketch book because I've been too busy to get it together! I really hate it when people talk about how busy they are, I think it's boring and kind of braggy, but I really have some deadlines coming up so it's been a push. I have another small show opening next Thursday (more on that on Monday) and a big wedding project I've been working on for a year is wrapping up.

I hope you are all well and have a nice and safe weekend!

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Twig Foxes

Because I still haven't finished posting the drawings from my show last month here are few more Twig Foxes and a deer.

If you ever see a piece here that you would like to be able to buy as a print in my store please let me know! I'm going to do a big update of prints in my store in the near future and I'd love your input on what to offer!

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Fern & Frost

I did this nice little custom blog header recently for a very sweet woman on the East Coast. Please take a look at her photography blog Fern & Frost.

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Spring Planting

Relating to my post on Wednesday here are a few spring planting related drawings from recently. 

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What's Happening In My Garden

Here are some rather soggy pictures of what's happening in my own balcony garden right now. If all of these flowers on my blueberry bush turn into blueberries that would be amazing! I've got some seeds going but this year I've been having serious squirrel problems, they keep digging up containers just as little seedlings are starting to come up! You can see some anti squirrel measures in this first picture; I found those mesh bags that onions come in make great little screens as long as the plants are small.

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What Delilah Did Logotype

I just finished this lettering and design for the cross stitch designer What Delilah Did and I'm so happy I can share them almost right away because they're some of my favorite things I've ever designed!
The main scissor design for shop headers and things came together extremely quickly since I think Sophie (the proprietress of What Delilah Did) and I have pretty similar tastes. I usually send several rough sketch designs to clients, but I always have a secret favorite, and I knew this was the one!
The second design is for promo and I think she's going to use it on packaging eventually. I'm really happy with how it turned out and I had a lot of fun trying different things while designing it.

Please visit the What Delilah Did shop and Blog to see some of Sophie's gorgeous cross stitch designs!
What Delilah Did and I have another project together that should be done later in the year. I can't wait to post about that one either!

The images below are some of the scrapped earlier designs for the round logo that I still kind of like pieces of.

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Playlist For Spring

I thought it would be fun to share a little playlist I've been listening to recently, especially while driving, with the windows open. I know a lot of you aren't quite there yet, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway. Putting together this mix was also a good way to avoid work for a few hours! As much as I usually enjoy what I do, sometimes I just don't feel like doing it. I'm sure you can relate.

Listen to playlist with 8tracks

1. Drifting in and Out Porcelain Raft
2. Fireshrine Purity Ring
3. Under Your Spell Desire
4. Two Weeks Grizzly Bear
5. Ungirthed Purity Ring
6. Want It Back Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra
7. Something Good Can Work Two Door Cinema Club
8. Losing You Solange
9. Ride Lana Del Rey
10. Live in Dreams Wild Nothing
11. What You Know Two Door Cinema Club

Enjoy the weekend!

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Papercraft

I'm really inspired by scissors lately. I've always liked them because they are both useful AND they can have beautiful and pleasing designs.

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