Top 5

Here's my top 5 things I'm excited about right now :)

1. Balloon flowers
It's officially June and it's almost unbearably hot, but some plants are enjoying the warm weather. Like my balloon flowers, they are one of my favorite flowers because purple is my favorite color.
I love their happy star shape :)

Not many flowers look this cool before they bloom...it's like floral origami!

2. My garden is growing

 My squash is going nuts, we had to give it something to climb on.

 I'm also getting quite the tomato harvest from my garden, nothing like fresh tomatoes in a pasta salad :)

3. Dorthy Perkins
Thanks to scathingly brilliant I have recently discovered Dorthy Perkins. An awesome shop from the UK. They've got everything covered: classy and chic, relaxed and trendy, and cutesy and retro!
I ordered a couple dresses, and was very impressed with the presentation, and the price. The quality of the fabric and the construction are impressive, even the polyester, and I normally have a no exceptions polyester policy.
I wish I had paid more attention to the sizes though, as I had to return them but I plan to order from them again :)

4.

Moonrise Kingdom is Wes Anderson's  latest film. He is one of my favorite directors, his attention to detail is inspiring. The character quirks, the costumes, the set design, the cinematography, right down to the soundtrack choices, he's pretty amazing in my opinion. I will have to a summer movie review post very soon.

5. Zinnias
I'll end this post with my Zinnias, I guess I like them so much because they are a bright pop of happy color when everything else has given in to the summer heat. I tried planting some from seeds this year and just when I had given up that they had taken root, they started popping up :)
These are the smaller variety

there's even little blooms around the center of the large bloom...pretty cool huh

What are you excited about lately?

animal companion

I have been so busy lately, I have definitely neglected my sewing projects, the last animals came with their challenges especially the bunny ears. But now I have a new simplified bunny ear technique that I'm going to try soon......

ear-less bunny beginnings

I been thinking about getting another pet for a while now. I am for the most part, a dog person but lately I have been gravitating toward cats in my drawings. When I was little, I had an orange cat with green eyes and so I named her Pickles. I guess this drawing came about in my recent recollection of her.

 green and brown eyes :)

This is my other cartoony cat, that you may remember from this post.
 I wanted to celebrate naps as they are a luxury these days!
YAY for sleeping in the laundry basket, nothing like fresh warm laundry to snuggle into.

Naps can be categorized as a hobby right?

I also have plans to get back to baking, I miss it, I like making lovely things to eat. That and I have been watching a lot of Ace of Cakes  lately. Oh to be a talented cake decorator :)
Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Theraputic Doodles

I was working on something and got stuck, so I went back to my go to doodle. You know that doodle that you draw when you're on the phone or supposed to be paying attention in meetings. I really needed a burst of color, it's amazing how color can lift the spirit :)
I'm working on some different painting styles too, hope to share those soon.

On a more fashion-y note when it starts getting hot, I start thinking about the perfect summer dress.

Lands' End has some fun silhouettes and prints, the really cute ones are $100 and you know with their quality you get what you pay for, so I might have to splurge.....eventually ;)

Getting There

I have been experimenting with different brushes and setting in Illustrator, it has been fun and challenging. I have wanted to create patterns for quite a while so I have been messing with that too.
I love fabric :) and a great tool for fabric lovers is Spoonflower, where you can create your own or buy other people's custom designs pretty darn awesome.. especially when you consider the alternatives. I have been starting out with flowers....which are actually pretty difficult when they aren't quirky and cute. Then I decided to draw some birds and this is what happened.......

 

She's fun and stylish with her hat

Here is the crazy pattern that has the same flowers as the bird with hat 

So I'm  not really happy with the repeat or lack there of or the colors but it's a start.

Then these are the quirky flowers I did just now with 2 different background colors.

Maybe I will do a little "how to" post and show you my pattern making process :)

As always I'm working on a few different things at once, I get easily distracted/frustrated so new projects are always in the works. I hope to be done with a new drawing by next week, I'm quite excited :)

We shall see.....

Have a Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Spring Shoes

Spring is here.......so let's celebrate with cute shoes!
I love fun floral, watercolor prints and bows are always fun.
What trends are you excited about this Spring?!

1. Floral Flats from  Anthropologie
2. Loafer Flats from Dolce Vita
3. Leather Flats from Ecco
4. Cork Accented Sandals from Clarks
5. Watercolor Floral Sandals from Naturalizer
6. Retro Kitten Heels from Seychelles

Art and Hunger Games

One of my most favorite things to do especially when I'm burnt out is go to art museum to be inspired.
One of my favorite genres is Impressionism which I got a wonderful dose of yesterday at the Kimbell.
I don't know what it is about Renoir and Monet that resonate with me so deeply but every time I get to see their work it makes me so happy. Like a conversation with an old friend you haven't seen in forever.
 I mean not many people can make onions beautiful and interesting at the same time.

I guess I am comforted by the fact that they struggle and were not always happy with their work. Like this painting by Degas for example, he painted the leg of the ballerina (tending to her stocking) over and over, numerous times until he got it right.

So I got swept up in the pop culture phenomenon that is the Hunger Games. I really like Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Lawrence, even though she is young and hasn't been in many movies, I think she has a really commanding presence and is going to do more awesome work in the future. I basically started reading the books because she plays the main character in the movie and because my friends that normally don't read young adult sci-fi stuff were reading it. I thought over all the series was kind of sad and dark, granted it's about kids fighting to the death and war so there you go. Anyway after I finished reading it and saw the movie, I wanted to do something happy to counter all the craziness that is the book series, so I drew Katniss and Peeta, together and happy in a tree. I was going to tweak it and color it digitally, but then inspired by the great artists of the past I sketched it out quickly and let it be. There's something about a 4B pencil that makes me giddy lol. I might color it later but for now here's my sketch.

just a nerdy side note she's wearing the pearl he gave her as necklace ;)

On a hilarious note, even if you don't want anything to do with the Hunger Games you have to watch this amazing version done with Beanie Babies! I'm not sure what's funnier their attention to detail or the fact that it's Beanie Babies! If you want to laugh you need to watch this
Ok officially done geeking out over hunger games. Thanks for bearing with me.

Joy in the small things

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter! I started drawing bunnies a few months ago and began experimenting with different shapes.

Pudgy and petite

Then I started thinking about an elongated bunny with a oval head and bangs .

peculiar but cute

and of course he needed a friend......

Bunny and Cat

 I have been thinking a lot lately about finding joy in the small things. When everything is going crazy and it's hard to find joy try to focus on the little things that make you happy.

Like spending time with friends and eating cupcakes :)

 

I hope to create more fun adventures for these two soon!