Mary, Mary, quite contrary… How does your garden grow?

Hi Dear Friends! I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! You’ll never guess what I did… Yes! I planted. Last summer was my first official garden, (I did it all by seedlings!), and this year I’ve been longing to do it again! I have started a little late because of school and such, but as I had a free weekend, I went to our local nursery and got my favorite flowers as starts. Lets look at the choices, shall we?

I got purple Clematis, which will climb and have BEAUTIFUL 7-8″ blossoms, I got three varieties of strawberries including a pineapple-crush strawberry! Do you like the teeny one in the picture? And red and purple Sweet Peas, white Lily of the Valley (my birth flower!), pink and red Icelandic Poppies. AND I am planting Mammoth, Dwarf, and Red Sunflowers from seed! Oh I am so excited.

And that’s my kitty, Truman: A grouchy soul who loves to nap and eat both greenery and flies. He was watching me plant at a sneaky distance!

If you haven’t noticed, practically all of my posts lately have spoken of summer. I ran a search of the word on my first page, and I’ve found that I’m pretty much obsessed with the thought of long sunny days, all day art making, and the peace that comes with quiet days. :) Both last year and this year, gardening has given me that peace. It gives me a patience and an excitement, which is an excellent balance, as I tend to want to rush the last of the quarter.

Above is a photo of last year’s zucchini seedlings. So that’s what’s been new with me! :) Do any of you garden? I’d love to hear about your green thumbs!

Have a restful Monday!

All you need is a little Perspective…

For the last five weeks, I have been very busy in my Perspective class. We have been studying vanishing points, orthographic views, isometric views, and lots of smart goodness. Our first project is due today, and it is all about Paraline Drawing. We were each to create a chest/drawer/wardrobe, and I chose to create the plans for a mini wooden castle.

Of course I added some froofs and frills to girlie it up! Here is what the top paragraph says”

“Tiny chambers are hidden within this wooden chest. It is a place that can
hold the scarcest of whispers, the smallest of hopes, and the secrets so significant,
they are unbreathable. The deepest compartments can hold the memory
of a song, and even the beautiful dreams that are not to be forgotten.

Originally, these wooden castles were given to every girl when they turned
ten years of age. This is because the longer one possesses the chest, the more
it can hold. However, the tradition was abandoned years ago, and the Secret
Castle’s have been long forgotten.”

There’s my narrative coming out! Anyway, I must be off to get it printed on parchment paper!

Wish me luck!

Enchanting Artists who Inspire

Yesterday during class, my dear friend showed me a wonderful photographer on Flickr. We were swooning over the pretty color choices and feminine beauties. For some Tuesday inspiration, go see the colorful photos by Courtney Brooke (who is a photographer for Mama Stone Vintage).

Also, for more fun, check out my new favorite book! I bought it off of Amazon for only $4! That’s so reasonable for being such a treasure! Sendak’s illustrations are so darling, and I about laughed through the entire book. So fun!

Also, my dear friend mentioned above came over this weekend, and took some beautiful photos of my cozy room! Go see Moorea’s blog for some lovely photos and a peek into my world. (She was the singer/songwriter of Mr. Head and Ms. Heart on your Penny Playlists!)

I hope all of you have a wonderful day being creative! I have a huge project under my belt, that hopefully I will be able to share with you sometime this week!

Until tomorrow!

Good afternoon!

Hi there! I hope you all had restful weekends. Today’s post must be a little short -like myself, I’m afraid. ;) Mondays are my absolute busiest days!

For some fun however, please check out Keepsake Couture and her wonderful blog! She posted a little interview with me, about being an etsy seller. So to find out more about yours truly, please do check it out. And give Emily some love too!

(More fun will come tomorrow, including the source of this fabulous illustration from Maurice Sendak.)

Until then!

…And Rainy Mornings

After all those Summer wishes, you would think a bit of sunshine would peek through my window this morning. On the contrary, the rain is helping the budding flowers grow. (And yes, some snow flurries are in the forecast for tomorrow!) Today I am going to have a nice quiet studio day - filled with tea and painting. Perhaps I’ll go out on some outings, though I am quite cozy with my tea.

My windows have been capturing my attention lately because they are warped with age, making the nicest foreground to the blossoms out my window.

Thank you for sharing all of your fun summer memories! I guess we can all anticipate those warm nights together. Do you know that I have never seen a firefly before? I know! Hopefully this will be the year….

Here’s to a lovely weekend full of thrifting, collecting, painting, sewing, imagining, musing, loving, and giggling! Whatever you do, enjoy it.

xoxo

Summer Nights…

My Secret Summer Dreams:

Stay up late in the backyard
Fly kites in bare feet
Catch a fish
Pick blackberries
Take a train somewhere
Find an abandoned tire swing
Wear a red ribbon in my hair
Find myself on the top of a ferris wheel
Sip iced tea out of my favorite pink glasses
Jump into a swimming hole
Read with the one I love until dusk
Watch the sky for new stars
Tell stories near a campfire
Climb old trees
Press flowers

This little Shadow Puppet Print has nestled itself into the Shop.

For a detail of the print…

Tweet!

I have been a good little girl lately - keeping up with all of my schoolwork and commissions. It is a bit of a challenge sometimes to balance Etsy/freelancing and schoolwork (quite difficult at times!), yet when it all comes together, I feel very rewarded. I am so glad that my work and play are so easily interchangeable .

Here is a commission I am ready to ship off tomorrow! I wanted to show you all before he flitted away to a new home. I’m quite pleased with the way he turned out.

Along with being disciplined in school and work, I have been longing for a good studio day! My sketchbooks have been getting so full of new ideas…. SO! I do think that this Friday will be dedicated for some new prints! Would you all like some new prints in the shop?

I am so longing for summer days…..

Meet Loretta Lux

For all of you who love whimsical, mysterious, beautiful imagery, I would like to show you Miss Loretta Lux. Her compositions are a combination of photography, painting, and digital manipulation. You can definitely see a painterly aspect to her finished product. I am so in love with her color palettes!

Do you have any fun artists to share?

And Anthropologie’s
summer dresses are getting more gorgeous by the day! Sheesh! Too much pretty!

Have a wonderful Tuesday afternoon!

And the ships came from….

Hi everyone! First off, I just want to say a huge thanks for your sweet responses!! You guys have given wonderful advice, and I am very excited to get to work!! I will definitely keep you updated! :) And thank you for waiting patiently for another post!

On other notes, I have been a busy girl making art - though, not much of it for the shop!

Here is the reason for my ship post the other day:

My Boy’s dear friend who is also a musician wanted me to do a little recital poster for him too! I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. :) I wanted to capture a similar style, while branching out a bit. What do you think?!

Hope you all had lovely weekends! I am looking forward to reading all of your blogs!

XOXOXO!

Summertime Goals…

Good morning all!  
As you probably know, I am going to do Etsy/blogging full-time this Summer.  Since I have a year left of school, I want to test the waters of freelancing and being a full time artist before I graduate.  I am so excited for what this time will bring, but I know that I need some goals to keep me on track and productive.

So!  What do you guys think?!  I want to hear everyone’s opinion, so I am going to leave this post up this week, in order to get maximum advice.  Sneeky. ;)

Things to consider:
How often to blog
Shop updates
Kinds of illustrations/paintings 
Different kinds of merchandise?
Studio time
New series?
Different subject matter?
etc.

 

 

(Be honest!  What do YOU personally want to see?!  Anything goes!)