Real Simple November!

I am so excited to finally announce that I will be part of an article in the November issue of Real Simple magazine. The article focuses on four women who have taken unusual and creative paths to preserving their family history! This is my first national publication and I had a great time doing a photo shoot back in September. The photographer was Johnny Miller, and his work is gorgeous. He traveled all over the country to each of the four womens locations and took our portraits. I have never done a photo shoot before. It was all very surreal!

Here a few polaroids from the shoot! I can't wait to see the issue. It should be out in the next week or so. You can be sure that I will post about the spread when it comes out!

Recent Commission

Here is a quick shot of a recent commission. This piece was a wedding gift given as a gift certificate so that the couple could choose their own subject matter and I was delighted when they sent me photos of the Brooklyn Bridge! The couple lives in Brooklyns DUMBO neighborhood, located just by the bridge overpass. I am pretty excited about the finished piece. I am still in the process of sealing it, but I cant wait to see shots of it in the happy couples new home!

Desiree

Here is a new Halloween-ish piece, Desiree, I uploaded to my shop this week. I have been saving that skeleton page from this great old dictionary for a while now! I am so excited when I finally use pieces of paper that I covet and they work well in a piece! It is a great diagram!

SPC-Imperfection Wk 2

I have been totally stumped all day as to what to post as my imperfection this week. I realize that I am censoring myself because it is hard to share your less than stellar sides with the world! That made me realize that my self censorship defeats the whole purpose of participating in the Self Portrait Challenge. I am human and the whole point of this excerise is to be honest, and sometimes honesty is not pretty! And man oh man did I get a wake up call when Hannah sent me her pics from out day at the Rose Bowl! Yikes! Not only is my posture like that of a 130 year old, but I definitely need to have my jaw wired shut, and fast! And why am I making that face! Don't I know that I am in public? So there you go, a full body profile. I will think of this image the next time I let my shoulders down and my back slouch!

BTW- I was the featured Sunday Slice last Sunday on SPC. Thanks Bekka!

The Rose Bowl rocked!!

Just a quick note tonight to share photos from the Rose Bowl Craft Fair Hannah and I participated in this weekend. We had a blast! Our canopy was the best investment ever! We met tons of really cool people and some awesome vendors! I would have to say that a fine time was had by all!

To see the photos I took at the event, click here.

AIDS Walk LA

The AIDS Walk is next weekend in Los Angeles and I will be walking with some friends. It is kind of last minute, but I had no idea that this event was going on until today. I have been in my own little art world lately!

If you would like to make a donation to help my reach my fund-raising goal, that would be fantastic! I am so excited to see what I can do!!

It isn't too late to register! If you are in the LA area, check out their site for all of the info!

Illustration Friday: Trouble

Who doesn't like to get in a little trouble every now and then?? I know I do!

This weeks Illustration Friday theme is trouble. I love this photo. His name is Jeremy, and he has a look on his face like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He has that "Who me?" kind of expression. So devilish! I love it!

Rose Bowl this weekend!!!

Once again Hannah and I are participating in the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, CA. The last event was tons of fun, and we have since invested in a canopy so no more strategically rolling the umbrella based to protect the lip balms and artwork every 10 minutes! I will, however miss the end of day tan line surprise! You never know what funky line will be burned into your skin!

Our space is number 843B. The map above is a rough outline of where the space is. The image is a screenshot from the new Flickr Map feature! Have you seen this?? You can find the location that a picture was taken on a huge Goolgle World-like map and share and search via locations! Pretty cool! Now you can click on the link and figure out the directions to the Rose Bowl! Again, if you do make it, please come by and say hi!

Dont Duck a Breast Exam!

October is Breast Cancer awareness month, a time for all of us to be reminded that early detection is crucial in the fight for survival. We all have to be conscious of our bodies and make sure that we have our yearly check ups and physicals!!

The wonderful Munchkin Inc., a company that creates fun baby products that anyone with their own munchkin is surely familiar with, is working hard to make sure that women "Don't Duck A Breast Exam" by introducing a pink ribbon inspired rubber ducky like the one above. To coincide with their mission to help raise awareness Munchkin Inc. has started Project Pink. There are lots of fun ways to help support a good cause, and this is no exception! Oct. 1-30th Munchkin is auctioning off celebrity decorated pink ducks on ebay! Celebs such as Allison Janney, Stacey Keibler, Reese Witherspoon and Martin Sheen designed one of a kind pink ducks to be part of the auctions. 100% of all of the proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

By the way, these ducks are awesome! They have an indicator on the bottom that lets you know when the bath water is too hot for your babies skin! Love this concept! So smart! So go bid on one!!

SPC-Imperfection wk 1

The Self Portrait Challenge theme for the month of October is imperfection. Lovely, lovely imperfection. I give you my thumb, once clean, and now marred with a jagged inch and a half long scar that was gained from an unfortunate and stupid run in with an Exacto knife. Of course. With the frequency that I handle an exacto, I am amazed to have all my digits in place!

Aaah, lovely lovely imperfection. How I do bask in all of its glory! This is going to be an interesting month!

Happy October!!

I am so glad the Fall is here! Hopefully our heat will now go away, and it will be pleasantly cool around here! Yesterday, October 1st, was the first rain in a long time. The sky was gray and the air was slighty crisp. YAY!













This is my favorite time of year! All of my senses are happy! The weather is wonderful, and the scents from the kitchen are more heavenly. I am inspried by the stories and traditions that each holiday brings. October is a month of fun with great imagery and spooky stories! Halloween is upon us, and in honor I have created a few pieces to commemorate the season! Both prints and the originals are available in my Etsy shop.

Illustration Friday: Quiet

How I do love quiet, which happens to be the theme for this weeks Illustration Friday. This is Camille2, a piece I finished yesterday. This is the kind of image that makes me think of complete peace. The kind where your mind is so empty that you find yourself noticing the dust that is floating in a ray of sunlight, like little dancing granuels of pixie dust or something. I like those moments. I imagine that this photo was probably taken early on a Sunday morning, before the neighbors are up making noise. I can envision the steaming mug of coffee on the table in front of her, and imagine the smell of eggs and sausage in the air. TGIF!

Stephanie

This is a piece I just finished. Her name is Stephanie. She is on a super deep 2 5/8" canvas which is awesome, in case you were wondering! It gives the piece such great weight and presence. I am so excited by the finished image! My favorite part? On the upper right hand side is a piece asking How much longer will you have to beg? Ha!

SPC-With Someone-wk 4

I am sure that everyone and their mother has now played around with the new Photo Booth feature that comes with the new Macs. A friend of mine recently got a new iBook and we decided it would be fun to experiment. This is a photo of me with my friend Lanas neighbor Chas. I never knew my head could be quite this square!

This is my post for week four of the with someone Self Portrait Challenge theme. Can't wait to see what the new theme will be for October!

Designers Who Blog

Thank you to Designers Who Blog for featuring my blogs in the last couple of weeks!

Lovely Collection!!

Have you seen the Etsy homepage today??? There is an awesome collection of collages, and I think the page looks fantastic! So colorful and vibrant! There is a lot of movement and expression. And yes, that is Helen peeking out in the center of the bottom row . . . but I am not biased! ;) All of the artists are really great and I am proud to be listed with them!

Illustration Friday: Phobia

It is so funny that todays Illustration Friday theme is phobias! Yesterday I was working on this piece, Claire, and thinking about how close to the hedges this poor woman is standing. I kept thinking about how there were probably 100 spiders about to jump on her, cover her in their webs and drag her off to their dungeon! I HATE spiders, any bugs really. Insects are one of my main phobias! I have stopped gardening carefree ever since I started noticing 2 inch long meaty grasshoppers in my roses! It is sad. And then last night, on the 11 o'clock news, there was a whole segment about how the spider population is booming this year because it has been so friggin' hot out! Ah! So yeah, it is funny that today phobias is the theme. . . .

You could be a winner!!

Jessica over at Funky Finds is holding an awesome contest. If you leave a comment on her blog between now and her 500th post you will automatically be entered in a drawing to win really cool prizes!! I am excited to say that a couple of my products will be included, as well as goodies from Insurgent Muse, The Black Apple, MaryMo, M. Patrizio and The Paper Princess!! Sounds like a super cool way to discover new indie artists and designers!! (Thanks Jess!)


I posted about the first ever decor8 contest on Creative Swoon last week. Holly, in conjunction with Fabulous Stationery, is holding a workspace contest!!!!! They want to see where you do all the things you do! There are fantastic prizes and there is still time to enter! You have until Sept. 29th. Click over to for more details!

SPC-With Someone-wk 3

My week three with someone portrait for the Self Portrait Challenge is a quick shot of me with my cat Charlie. Although not the only cat in the house, Charlie is my pal. He loves laying in the sun, but as the heat has been so crazy here this summer, Charlie will lie with just his paws, or the tip of his tail in the warm spots of the sun. He is dark brown, so I am sure he gets too hot very quickly. On days when my brain is over loading, and I need a few minutes to gather my thoughts, I will go and lie down next to Charlie. If my hair isn't pulled back, he will roll around in it and tug on the strands. It's too cute!

I feel like I am now one step closer to being the crazy cat lady! Oh well, at least they are entertaining!

Happy Client!

Today I got a wonderful email from a client in the UK. She recently purchased 6 pieces while on vacation in LA, and sent me these wonderful photos of the work in their new home! As you can see, she has a wonderfully ecclectic space, and I am so excited to see how she has chosen to display her new art!


I have been a little hesitant to make this request, but I am so darn (censored for blogland) curious to see where my art ends up, that I am going to throw caution to the wind! I have been thinking about this for months, and now have a great idea!! I have mentioned in previous posts about the Art In Your Home group of Flickr. I would love to see were my work ends up hanging, leaning or resting. If you are up for it, and have purchased on of my pieces, please add a snapshot to the group! This is almost a morbid curiosity, because I may find that no one offers up a glimpse, but, I wont know if I never ask!

I figure that if people are already on Flickr, this will be easy! If not, then maybe you will be inspired to join and share. Either way, one day I might get a surprise when clicking through the groups pool, and that possibility is exciting enough!!

Notice the yummy Henry Road pillows on the bed?? They are lovely!

(All 3 photos courtesy of Debbie Smail)