2013

shelves, finally!

We're nearly 3 weeks into the new year and I'm just now getting into the swing of things.  The last month of 2012 kind of kicked my butt and I'm sort of feeling the same way at the moment about the first month of 2013.  But I've been slowly organizing spaces around our house.  Yesterday, I put up shelves in my studio/printing space after contemplating it for only about a year!

And after the holidays, some much needed new storage was needed to house all of Whitney's toys in our living room/play area.  I decided on these babies from Ikea (of course) and my sister was generous enough to gift them to Whitney for her Christmas/birthday present.  Some Lack shelves above work great for additional storage and to display prettier toys.

Speaking of birthdays, we celebrated Whitney's 3rd one last Sunday after a brief week of planning.  I almost decided not to do the party thing this year, but our little girl had been talking about her themes for the past 6 months or more, that I wouldn't have felt right to not have one.  She finally settled on Dora and so Matt and I got to work on decorations, activities, treats and food.  I found this adorable printable party kit which wasn't too gaudy and planned the party colours around that.

Here are some snaps from before and during the party.

The main room - night before

Main Food Table - night before

Treasure Hunt

Cool kids

We had a brunch menu with waffles and quiche as the mains.  The waffles were a hit and we've been using our new waffle maker almost daily. 

The Birthday Girl, pre-party

That's all for now.  Be back soon with more sneak peeks of our home.

My Messy Desk

Been working on a new book with Dragoneagle Press.
My studio still needs some serious sprucing up. Just a peek at my messy desk here.

Think Pink

I've had pink on the brain lately, so I'm loving this pretty treasury that I'm currently featured in, thanks to this sweet seller.

And I finally bought the first few baby clothing items over the weekend, including these oh so adorable sneakers from Old Navy, where I've done quite a bit of my maternity shopping. I've been resisting the urge to buy everything cute in sight, but I couldn't resist these.
I promise to share some photos of the finished shoji doors soon. They are mostly done, but we are wanting to add some castors to the bottoms to make them easier to slide back and forth. Another trip to Ikea is planned for later in the week for more baby-related items and more office and studio gear. As usual, I'm looking forward to it.

Bye for now.

Studio Peeks & Work in Progress

Despite the long weekend, it's a working weekend for us. Here's a peek at my button and magnet making station around 8:30 this morning.

And here are some more peeks around my home studio from this morning.

my button & magnet making/shipping station

some completed button and magnet sets

my clothing stock (on the left) & the not yet completed "walk-in closet" ( it's going to be enclosed with curtains)

And here's how things were looking mid-afternoon...



Matt decided that this was the weekend he was going to build the sliding shoji doors, mentioned in a previous post. So after a trip to Home Depot this morning, and several hundred buckaroos later, work began and is still going as I type.

Needless to say, our place is looking and feeling a bit chaotic at the moment. Most of our downstairs is a work in progress, really. But once these doors are up, and after another trip to Ikea in the near future, I think our place will start looking and feeling a whole lot better. Fingers crossed!

Recent Work

After a fairly lengthy hiatus from doing portrait commissions, I picked up my paintbrushes again this past month and here's the result:

I was also contacted recently by the president of the Cat Welfare Society in Singapore and asked to produce a design for one of their t-shirts, pro bono, to help raise funds for the cat caregivers. As she liked my Love Cats image, we decided to go with that, with a little addition to the heart. I believe the final design will be available on a black tee, so the kitty and letters will be in white, but here's a peek at how the design looks right now.

Other than that, been up to my old tricks of rearranging stuff around our place, packing etsy orders, picking up a few shifts at the design firm I work at from time to time and working on a few new illustrations, both personal and commissioned.

I will hopefully have some photos to share of my "walk-in closet" and revamped studio soon. Both still need some finishing touches and furniture/accessory additions to complete them. They're getting there though.

And tomorrow is the last day to enter my September giveaway. Winners will be announced on Thursday!

Sneak Peeks

I mailed in my One of a Kind application yesterday and just received word that it was received. Yay! Keep your fingers crossed for my friend and me, that we both get in! We'll both be novice artisans at the show then.

That's a peek at part of my booth sketch above, a combo of drawing and PhotoShopping.

I had a bit of a scare when I was on my way home from the post office, realizing that I had forgotten to include something on the application. They say that if you forget anything your application won't even be looked at, that it will just be sent back to you. Luckily I was able to retrieve the envelope before it was sent out and add what I needed. Then I got all paranoid that the stuff would fall out of the envelope because I didn't reseal it properly. And later in the evening... well, you get the picture. I can be a little neurotic at times.

I did remember to include some photos of my studio, so here's a little peek at what it's looking like these days. Matt snapped these photos for me the other night.




I just moved my old table/desk behind the sofa the other day which is great because now I can watch the tv when I'm making buttons and magnets.

Next on my to do list is taxes. But I'm hoping to get outside this weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather too. So we'll see if I'm able to finish them this weekend.

Have a great one!