Happy {early} Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is a little controversial, isn't it? Some people think it's a marketing holiday, all about getting people to spend money on cards and chocolate and flowers, other people think it's romantic and fun... I fall on the romantic and fun side. I've always liked Valentine's Day, even if I didn't have someone to spend it with.

My husband, on the other hand, falls into the other camp-- he thinks it's stupid (I say boo to that!) so I have to remind him every year that I actually like the sappiness of the day! We'll see what he comes up with this year. :) I'm surprising him with some made-from-scratch macarons from Crumb here in Atlanta, and I'm going to stick a little toothpick flag in each one, with my favorite things about him written on them. Cute, no? He's going to love it and think it's cheesy all at the same time! And that's the goal, my friends.

Also, I just wanted to show you these cute Valentine designs I've been working on the past couple of days. Aren't they fun? I especially like the middle one.
{Card companies, call me if you like them!}

So happy Valentine's Day to you whatever you end up doing on Sunday, and happy weekend in general, and I'll see you next week!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Friends. It's 2010!
What do you think about that?

Here is what I'm declaring.
- 2010 is the year I am able to financially support both myself AND my husband on my income as a self-employed artist/illustrator/designer. (He is in medical school, so we have loans loans loans...)

- January is the month that I let go of my addiction to checking my email. Productivity and focus, here I come!

- I intend to practice meditation and read a lot of books.

- I intend to deepen my connections with my family and dear friends.

- I intend to streamline and simplify. EVERYTHING.

- 2010 is the year of insane abundance and gratitude!

[What are you declaring for 2010?]

And my bliss list from my time away for the holidays:


- my brother-in-law and sister-in-law had a new baby girl, named Sophia, who I got to meet when she was just 2 days old. What a miracle babies are, no?

- I got a fabulous new gray coat that I'm in love with.

- My husband and I adopted a new kitten! Her name is Juneau. She is getting spayed today and will come home tomorrow, and we're so excited to discover her quirks and personality. I love kittens! Hopefully our your-old cat, Anika, will love her, too. I'll post pics soon!

- Visiting Pasadena, CA for the first time ever and LOVING it. I want to move there.

- Staying in for New Year's Eve and making a vision board with my husband of what we want our dream life looks + feels like. It was a nice way to welcome the new year.

***
I hope this brand new year is a refreshing, mindful, and inspiring new beginning for you!
2010 is going to be the best year ever. I believe it.

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: Day 2

Today I bring back everybody's favorite sale in my etsy shop-- buy one print, get one free.

Get one print as a gift, and one for you!
(Isn't that how Christmas shopping always goes anyway? One for you, one for me...) :)

Get thee to my etsy shop today only for this sweet deal, and come back tomorrow to see what new surprise I have in store.

{Please let me know which free print you'd like in the 'notes to seller' section when you're purchasing.}

jellyfish brooch giveaway!

My blog pal Denise is having a super cute giveaway on her blog right now that I thought you'd all like to know about-- jellyfish brooches!

I think Denise's work is so adorable, and I'd totally rock one of these brooches. If you want to enter, just head over to her blog and leave a comment! (The winner will be picked on Thursday, so you have a couple days left to enter!)

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS (12 days of giving!)

Good morning and happy Monday! Today is officially 12 days before Christmas, and while the 12 Days of Christmas were traditionally celebrated beginning on Christmas and going through January 5th, I thought it would be fun to celebrate these 12 days of Christmas leading up to the big day!

So, for the next 12 days here on my blog, there will be something for you, from free downloadable goodies and sales in my etsy shop to donations to charities and free shipping. Every day will be different!

So today, since I imagine many of you are still in Christmas shopping mode (and if you are like I am you may still have LOTS of shopping to do!), I have a little deal in my shop for you. If you spend $15 or more, I will send you 10 adorable gift tags with your purchase! Here's what they look like:


They'll make your Christmas presents looks so darn pretty, won't they?

Head on over to my etsy shop to check out the goods-- there's still plenty of time to order gifts and get them in time for Christmas. (I am very prompt in my shipping!)

And be sure to come back tomorrow to see what Day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas will bring!

CYBER MONDAY SALE!

Good morning!

I hope you all had a relaxing and food-filled weekend. I came back from a few days away (and a few days of lots of eating) to pants that are somehow looser than before I left, so I am a happy lady today!

And in honor of Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year, I am having another sale. YES! It's true.

All day today in my etsy shop, you can buy one print and get one free.
(This includes my 8.5x11" prints, screen prints, and gocco prints.)
Just let me know in the 'notes to seller' which print you'd like included as your freebie. :)

What a deal, right? Now you can stock up on holiday gifts for your art-loving and inspiration-needing friends and family. The prints are just begging to be put in frames, wrapped up all pretty, and given to special people.

Now get to shopping!
Have a fun Cyber Monday- I'm off to browse the virtual shelves myself!

DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING SALE!

Happy Day After Thanksgiving! (aka: Black Friday)

Have you awoken from your food coma?

If you have and you are in the mood to shop, you will be very happy to see that I'm having a sale in my etsy shop. BUY A CALENDAR, GET A FREE PRINT! (Buy 2 calendars, get 2 free prints, etc.)

Click here to start shopping, and just let me know which print you'd like me to send along with your calendar when you're checking out.

Enjoy this day o' crazy sales! {and ps, there is another sale happening in 3 days for Cyber Monday...}

Happy Thanksgiving (what I'm grateful for)

It's amazing to me that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and that means the holidays are officially here again. Tomorrow I'm going to Asheville, NC with my husband for a few days, and we're going to have Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, which I've never done before. I'm a bit sad we won't be with any family, but I'm grateful to be able to go to a new place and have a brand new experience. I think it will be fun! And with any luck, I'll eat just as much as I always do on Thanksgiving, and I'll be lying on the floor in a half-awake state at the end of the night, moaning about how full I am, and then going to eat some more pie. :) Isn't that always how Thanksgiving goes?

Anyway, since Thanksgiving is all about gratitude, it feels appropriate to tell you all what I'm feeling grateful for right now. (And since I skipped the Bliss List this past Monday...)

• My husband. I am so lucky to share my life with him. He's the best snuggler in the whole world, he believes in me to no end, and he can make me laugh like no one else.
• My Spring ladies. (Our video post will be up later today or tomorrow!! I'll be sure to let you know when.) Wow, these ladies rock my world. Smart, sassy, opinionated, motivated, positive forces in the world.... I'm honored and grateful to be creating with them.
  
• That I'm self-employed. The simple fact that I get to structure my days exactly as I please and do the work that I feel compelled to do is beyond magnificent.
• All the people that read my blog(s), comment on what I write and draw and paint, send me words of encouragement and thanks and artists I might like... I could not do what I'm doing without all of you. You amaze me, endlessly.
• That I have enough. Money, time, love, clothing, food, an apartment to live in, friends, family...
  
• My life coach, Michelle Ward. She helped me to pull myself out of a funk and start being more grateful for my life and my world. And for that, I am forever grateful.
• Everything that makes my life easier-- my car that runs well, my computer, my lights that turn on when I flip a switch, the refrigerator that keeps my food cold... I take these things for granted, but wow, life would be harder without them.
• My warm bed. I love my bed so much.
• My cat, Anika. She lights up my days and keeps me company when home alone working. She chirps when she runs and always wants a treat.

I hope you all have a terrific Thanksgiving and that you think about all you are grateful for!

halloween 1989

Oh yes, that's me above. Halloween, 1989. Nine years old. Notice the remnants of my crimped hair-- I lived for crimped hair back in the day. My friend Kristen (picture below) and I made an alien and spaceship costume together, and for some reason she got to wear the papier maché spaceship that we jointly made. Probably because she was taller. And cooler.

We had these awesome purple 2-toed feet that my mom made, which you can see in the photo of Kristen, and these killer 3-fingered silver gloves that Kristen's mom made. We tie-dyed the shirts ourselves. Kristen and I were very crafty together.

Thought you'd enjoy a little blast from the past this morning-- I hope you have a fantastic Halloween tomorrow, whatever you might be doing. :)

See you Monday!

a mississippi wedding

I wanted to share some quick pics from my dear old friend's wedding this past weekend in Mississippi-- I'd never been to Mississippi before, and oh boy was it pretty! The wedding was in an amazing old barn (equipped with a kitchen, bathroom, and everything necessary for a good old-fashioned party), right next to a lake, and it was so unbelievably gorgeous, I was ready to move in and live on that land right then and there.

The weather was perfect, and I was a crying mess. :) And who knew that you can drive to Starkville, Mississippi from Atlanta in less than 5 hours? Amazing.

I love these two blurry photos below. Clearly I'm quite the experienced photographer- ha! I love them anyway, despite my lack of skill. I love weddings so much. It's a good thing, too, because I have another old friend getting married in 2 weeks, so I get to do it all again! Whew. It's been a busy few months for me as far as knot-tying goes. :)

Renegade Craft Fair THIS WEEKEND!

Good morning! As you are reading this, I'm on my way to Chicago for the Renegade Craft Fair, and I'M SO EXCITED!

My friend Christy, her hilarious husband, and I left at 5:30 this morning to drive from Atlanta to Chicago. We'll be meeting my friend Kurt (who is also my boothmate) there, and then having a rockin' weekend at the Fair.

Are you in Chicago? Close by Chicago? COME SEE ME! I'd love to meet you. Plus, I'm going to have tons of goodies for you to oogle. :)

If I don't see you in Chicago, I'll meet you back here on Tuesday, with stories to tell and pictures to share. Deal?

Have a great weekend, and cross your fingers for me that the rain doesn't drown us again like it did last year!

it's my birthday + a sneak peek

good morning! today i woke up to a kiss on the forehead from my sweet husband (boy, it's weird to write the word husband!) and a paw on the face from our sweet kitty, the best way to wake up on my birthday, i do say!

today i'm the big 2-9. yikes. that means next year is the really big one!

i'm excited today because ryan bought me a flip video camera, which i've been wanting for a while now-- unfortunately it didn't arrive in time, so i don't have it yet, but it'll be here soon, and then i'll be able to record videos to my heart's content! YES. i can't wait.

also, i wanted to give you a sneak peek at my 2010 calendar, which will be available for pre-order SOON. stay tuned for details in the next few days about how you can win a FREE 2010 calendar! it's going to be a goodie, people. Patterns galore!

honeymoon pics!

whew, i think i'm finally almost caught up from being gone for 2 weeks! and i finally got a chance to go through the photos i took on our honeymoon-- we had such a great time!

the above photos are from charleston, south carolina, where we started our trip. we stayed in the most adorable little hotel right downtown, and one day we went to the audubon swamp at the magnolia plantation. do you see that spider? those were all over the place, and they were HUGE! i was not a fan. but we saw 2 alligators as well, and that was exciting!

{oh- you can click the photos to make them bigger!}

next we drove to north carolina and camped for a night on bear island. it was beautiful, and very isolated. we hardly saw any other people the whole time, and it was extra romantic because there was a full moon that night. we got lots of bug bites, too- eww! we hoped to see some nesting sea turtles as well, but alas, we did not. we did see a few cute yellow crabs, though!

next we took a 23 mile ferry ride, car and all, to the lower tip of the outer banks of north carolina, called ocracoke island. what an amazing trip! the ferry ride was a highlight for me. :) and the oter banks couldn't have been more beautiful. i want to go back there for a longer vacation! we camped on hatteras island for a night, and then went to kitty hawk the next day to visit the wright brothers' national memorial. from there we went to chincoteague, virginia, which was a long drive, and we ended up not liking chincoteague AT ALL. my aunt vicky drove down from annapolis to meet us for the day, and we had the worst dinner any of us could've possibly imagined! i won't go into it, but i will tell you that if anyone ever tells you that chincoteague is a great town, don't believe them, because it IS NOT. in my opinion at least. :) the beach on assateague island was pretty, but MAN, the town sucked big time. so then we changed our plans a little (since we were planning to stay there longer but decided to just leave!), and we drove to washington DC and annapolis, maryland for a couple days!

my sister and her fiancé live in DC, so we spent an afternoon with them and then had dinner together, and then we stayed at my aunt's house in annapolis (she was out of town, so she left us her empty house!) on the last day of our honeymoon, we did some touristy things in DC (smithsonian museums, checking out the white house, etc), and had the most wonderful dinner on the chesapeake bay in annapolis. it was so so lovely.

then we drove all the way from annapolis to atlanta, and that was that. wedding and honeymoon, officially over. and now we've been married for almost 2 weeks already. WOW.

and now it's back to reality!

i'm back! and i'm all married now.

hello hello! i'm back! 2 long and exciting weeks later, i'm all married and honeymooned and good and relaxed. can you believe it? our wedding was absolutely fantastic, and it feels very strange that it's over already.

these are a few picutres that various people took at the wedding-- i haven't seen ashley thalman, our photographer's, photos yet, and i'm practically jumping out of my chair at the thought of them! she took hundreds of photos, and i'm so excited to see how they turned out.

(i have to tell you, too, that ashley was the most wonderful photographer i could've hoped for-- she was so charming and easy to be with, and just a joy to be around. also, her assistant meghan was there and was also fantastic. what incredible ladies! if you are looking for a photographer, i recommend ashley whole-heartedly. my sister, who is getting married next summer, wants to hire ashley now, too, because she was so great!)

anyway, the top photo is my brother walking me down the "aisle" (ie: across the sand), then the second photo is ryan and i kissing at the end of the ceremony and my dear friend caroline who married us and who made that fabulous canopy, then a photo of my brother and i hugging after the ceremony (ryan's 2 brothers are on each side), my sisters, cousin, and i (in a blurry photo, but i love it anyway) , ryan and i cutting our delicious cake, and then a picture of my sisters, brother, cousin (who is like another sister) and me from the night before the wedding.

all in all it was really a wonderful occasion, and i'm thrilled to be married to ryan, the love of my life. awwwwww. i'll show you more pictures soon and tell you more about the wedding! the fabulous band, the food fiasco..... and i also have to go through my hundreds of honeymoon photos today, so i'll show you some of those later today or tomorrow.

*update: oh, and for those of you who are commenting about the bridesmaid dresses, my mom made them! they looked beautiful.*

i missed you all and am so happy to be back!

new website + a short goodbye

good morning, sweet readers! was your weekends delightful? i hope so!

my new website went live on friday afternoon, so i figured i'd wait until this morning to share it with you, since friday afternoon is not usually the time that most people are sitting on their computers browsing blogs, eh? for me, at least, i'm dreaming about what the weekend holds on friday afternoons and trying to finish up as much work as i can! (or on this partiicular friday afternoon, i was at the gym, getting suckered into signing up for personal training sessions with mario! hot abs, here i come. sore arms, you are already here!)

so, if you get a moment, i'd love it if you'd check out my new website and tell me what you think! it's similar to my old one, but more stream-lined, i think. i'm using squarespace, which i really love so far. i recommend them highly, if any of you are looking for a template-based website building platform. so good.

my other bit of news is that this is going to be my last post for a couple weeks, as ryan and i are leaving tomorrow to go get married, and then we'll be honeymooning from august 4-11. OH MY GOODNESS! and when i get back, i'll officially be JESSICA SWIFT. no more Gonacha! can you believe it? i'm not sure how i'll do the switchover business-wise yet, but it's going to happen, slowly but surely.

so, i leave you with this wedding image by the photographer who will be capturing my big day, ashley thalman. i'm SO looking forward to meeting her in person and seeing her photographs after the wedding! i'm sure i'll have some fabulous ones to share with you. (and yes, i will be sharing indeed!) check out ashley's blog, too-- she's a real gem, and her photographs are just deliciously wonderful!


i'll leave you with this image, too, of the outer banks of north carolina, since this is one of the places we're going on our honeymoon road trip. is that not the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? i cannot wait!!

*see you all on august 12th!!*

my first attempt at long exposure photographs

good morning, dears!! gosh, i had such a fun weekend-- what about you? i think the 4th of july is such a fun holiday, and i really love watching fireworks. so this year, inspired by the photos i posted on friday, i dragged my camera and tripod with me to the fireworks display and tried out some long exposure shots. i'm pleased with how they turned out! don't get me wrong- all i did was turn off the flash and click the button on my digital camera (no manually adjusting apertures or anything), but i'm still excited about the photos!

ryan and i barbecued and went to a baseball game for the evening of the 4th, and it was so fun! it doesn't get more all-american than that, my friends. :) some other things i did this weekend: sun-bathed (i'm determined to get a tan!), ate watermelon, made 7 green & white beach blankets for my upcoming wedding, and worked on a whole bunch of sparkly, sculptural type decorations, also for the wedding. all in all, the weekend was a success.

tell me about your weekend! did you see fireworks? did you relax with friends and family?

happy 4th of july!

who doesn't love sparklers? they've always been one of my favorite parts of the fourth of july. and these photos by grey bunny are just amazing. i think i might take my tripod and camera with me to the fireworks display tomorrow night to give some long-exposure shots a try.

i might actually try it tonight, because my little atlanta-suburb town celebrates the 4th of july on july 3rd, with a big fireworks show, a band, skydivers trailing colored smoke..... it's very strange. it's a fun night, but why don't they just do it on the 4th of july, like normal people? so weird.

i hope you have a lovely holiday weekend complete with lots of sun, sitting by a pool, hot dogs (or tofu hot dogs if you are vegetarian like me!), and lots of sparklers.

i'll see you monday!!

{ps- as you may have noticed, my posting is a bit lighter lately.... i'm going to be posting a little less than i normally do this month as i prepare for my wedding on august 1st- there's so much to doooooooo! and lots of work-work on top of it. you understand, i'm sure.} :)

Indie Craft Experience this weekend!

good morning, my friends!

first off, THANK YOU for all of your unbelievable comments about my animation yesterday-- you truly made my day!! i'm so glad you enjoyed it. our invitations are being sent out today, so hopefully everyone who gets the silly little movie in the mail will like it, too. :)

secondly, if you are in the atlanta area this weekend, you will not want to miss ICE (the indie craft experience)! i have a booth and will be selling all my goodies, and this is seriously just a fantastic show that should be checked out of at all possible. be prepared to spend some money, though--- it's impossible not to with all the amazing things people make and sell there! it's like the renegade of the south. YES!

i hope you have a marvelous weekend, and i'll see you here on monday!

i'm back!

hello hello! i'm back from boulder, and goodness, it was so nice to have a little break and see my family. i thought you might like to see some pics from my little sister's graduation... i am the oldest of 5 kids, and she is the last one to graduate from high school ( we all went to the same high school, so it was a big deal.) and it was the first time in about a year and a half that all my siblings had been together, so it was an especially nice weekend!

from left to right above: my cousin danielle, me, my sister jill, my sister bizzy (the graduate), my sister britt, bizzy's best friend stephanie, and my brother marc. i love this picture because my brother looks like a giant compared to all of us! he is 6'5".

and this is bizzy and me. she's so cute. :) (jill is in the background making a funny face.)

i hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend-- i didn't realize it was memorial day weekend until thursday last week, so i spontaneously took most of yesterday off, to get back into the swing of things from being away for a little while. now it's back to it today!

i'm going on a mini vacation!

my dears, this will be my last post for the week, because i'm going home to boulder, CO, for my little sister's high school graduation. i'm so excited for a mini break! and i haven't seen my family since christmas time, so it'll be really nice to see them all.

i hope you all have a fantastic long holiday weekend, and i'll see you here next week!
xoxo

(the illustration above is from national geographic adventure, from an article about the top 5 green cities in the USA, of which boulder is one.)