Five years of Aprils

Another look back at my calendar designs through the years. Five years of Aprils. Marches are here, Februaries are here, Januaries are here.

Our home in Cottage Style

It's so strange and fun to see: Our little log home is in this spring's issue of Cottage Style. They found us from the article posted on Houzz a while back and shot these photos in August 2013. Here's a look at the article.

 The issue is available in grocery stores and bookstores nationwide.

Hour Detroit illustrations

I worked on a series of spot illustrations for an article about summer day camps for the April issue of Hour Detroit. I such fun with these goofball campers!

Studio Space!

I can't even explain how excited I am about this! I've rented a small studio space about ten minutes from our house. I'm maintaining my office and inventory at home, so this will be strictly a creative space — not for office work. Yippee! I'm so happy to have this dedicated space. I had an illustration job with a tight turnaround right after moving in, so it made me jump right in and work there without worrying too much about the setup. I think it's the best thing that could have happened.

Five years of Marches

Another look back at my calendar designs through the years. Five years of Marches. Februaries are here, Januaries are here.

Daily Sketchbook

My talented illustrator pal Cheryl Oz and I have been teaming up for some daily doodling and sketchbooking. We've been playing around and holding each other accountable for daily doses of creativity. Here's a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from my sketchbook over the last two weeks.

VLNTNSDYMRKT 2015

Reminder: Tonight's the night! VLNTNSDYMRKT in Hamtramck from 5 to 9 p.m.

VLNTNSDYMRKT 3

I'll be one of over 30 vendors at next Friday's third annual VLNTNSDYMRKT hosted by Pot & Box at Eight & Sand at 3901 Christopher Street in Hamtramck. We'll be sharing the love from 5 to 9 p.m., Friday, February 13 so come find something sweet for your Valentine!

Five years of Februaries…

As promised, another look back at my calendar designs through the years. Here are five years of Februaries:

I'm having fun learning the correct plural formats for the months in this process! You can see the collection of Januaries here.

Shop talk

The latest news in my Etsy shop:

2015 calendars are on sale for 50% off 

I've reorganized the sections and listings in my shop so that you can now order any available size of each illustration from within one listing. I had been wanting to do this for a very long time, so I hope this makes it a bit easier to find the print best suited for you.

My Black Sheep Valentine is in stock at last.

I've also been adding some long overdue prints, like my School Supplies piece and Cuckoo Clock print.

What are you reading?

As the regulars around here may have noticed, I love to read. I love to take some quiet time in the mornings when everything is still and lie in bed with a good book. In the winter months in particular, there is no better way to start my day.

In 2013 I signed up for a challenge to read 50 books over the course of the year and enthusiastically dove in head first. However, let it be known that I am also a huge procrastinator. The reading challenge came into perfect alignment with my procrastination and I used reading as my number one procrastination device. (I also have an extremely competitive nature. Oy.)

I told myself, "How can reading be bad?" Well, there's a limit and I found that as I neared the end of the year, there were things I wished I had made time for over reading. I stopped the challenge in December with just three books to go.

This lead to my paltry reading of 14 books in 2014. I told myself that I could start a book on Friday, but had to be finished by Sunday so as not to get in the way of my work. This worked for a while, but I hit a string of disappointing books midway through the year and my reading of books dropped away almost completely.

Well, I'm ready to approach 2015 with a better attitude. I don't plan on fifty books this year, but I think I can find a healthier balance. I have a better handle on my daily work routine and habits and feel confident in my ability to stem procrastination. But I find myself a bit out of the book loop and am looking for titles to try. What have you been reading? What do you recommend?

I continue to keep my reading list here on the blog. Won't you follow along?

The Sewing Party illustrations

One of the biggest illustration projects I worked on in 2014 was a live, online event called The Sewing Party. Created by Singer Sewing Machines and SVP Worldwide, the event was a day of learning and live classes lead by bloggers and educators from across the country. I got to think about my dream craft room scenario and draw it a hundred different ways, explore all kinds of crafty sewing imagery and work with some amazing people in the craft community. I couldn't reveal much of this work during the process, so I'm thrilled to post it all together here at last. It all began with the logo and included so much more. All of the environments attendees visited on the site:

The landing page of the event site

 The Classroom

  

The Lounge

The Library

I worked with ten sponsors to create custom booths for the Marketplace:

Etsy

Jo-Ann Fabrics

Inspira Studio

Singer

Pfaff

Simplicity

Pellon

BurdaStyle

Embroidery Software

Husqvarna Viking

As well as three generic booths for other Marketplace sponsors:

There was also this fun t-shirt that is still available on the site.

What better project could a crafty illustrator gal like myself ask for?!?