some nerdy drawings

Hee hee. get it? Some nerdy drawings? Of nerds? Ha, i'm hilarious.

Anyway, here are 2 silly drawings i did a couple days ago-- I got an email about Threadless' newest t-shirt design challenge, all about nerds, and I got inspired! I think I'll keep just drawing nerds, because I love it as a theme, until I create one that would look killer on a t-shirt.

The bottom one is inspired by a boy I knew grewing up who always used to squat down like that, and he *LOVED* dinosaurs. He hummed all the time, too. We made fun of him. But we liked him at the same time-- he was a very nice boy.

2010 calendars are here!

Happy September! Can you believe it's almost fall? I'm excited, because fall is my *favorite.* And with fall comes calendar season!

I'm excited to unveil my 2010 calendars, which are available for pre-order TODAY. The best part? There are THREE for you to choose from. Three!

{above: the 12 months of patterns featured on the large and small calendar}

First: the large pattern calendar (8.5x14"), which features my original and colorful patterns:


Second, the small version of the pattern calendar (5.5x8.5"):


And third, the 'Make Your Year Abundant' calendar (5.5x8.5"). This calendar features illustrations from my abundance blog, Pecannoot.


And now, if I haven't tempted you enough, do you want to know how you can win a free one?

From now through through September 30th, every person who pre-orders a calendar from my shop will be entered to win a FREE second calendar! That means you can keep one and give one as a gift, or keep one at home and take one to the office. And the best part: I'm going to pick TWO winners! Fun, right?

The winners will be announced on October 1st, and then they'll begin shipping on October 5th.

My etsy shop is all stocked up, so head on over to check out the calendars.

inspirational gocco prints become screen prints

i have exciting news, people.
you know my inspirational gocco prints? well, since gocco has been discontinued and the supplies are ultra expensive now, i decided to switch it up and start screen printing, yes screen printing, them. fun, right?

and look! new colors and everything. it's much easier to clean these screens due to the water-based ink (the gocco ink is oil based and oh so messy to clean up), which means i can make prints in a whole new range of colors! the rainbow is at my fingertips now.

i'll be adding these to my etsy shop as i create prints in new colors- head over to check out what's in there now! i'll also be listing new sets of 2 and 4, so keep your eye out for those as well.

white box by makoto yabuki

White Box from makoto yabuki on Vimeo.

Hello Monday. Here you are again.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend-- mine was busy busy, in that good kind of productive way.

I just watched this video over on Reuben Miller's blog, and I thought my dear readers might like to see it, too-- it's quite lovely! Just the thing for a sleepy, gloomy, going-to-rain morning, I'd say.

ps- our wedding photographer, ashley thalman, posted some photos of ryan's and my engagement pictures (which we took the morning before the wedding, ha ha) on her blog, and they are even better than i could've hoped for. you can pop on over if you'd like to check them out...

ben the illustrator (ummmmm, completely AMAZING)

I don't even know what to say. I'm absolutely and completely blown away by Ben the Illustrator's work. I love love love it.

If you're looking for a way to procrastinate today, I'd go check out Ben's website and flickr page. Oh.my.goodness. Gorgeousness! You can follow he and his wife, Fi, on twitter, too. Oh and you can buy prints, wall paper, cushions, and more in Ben and Fi's online shop, called Wish You Were Here. Do these two ever stop?

Have a happy weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

new pattern: butterflies

butterflies!

just a little pattern to start the morning. :)
it's super rainy here this morning, so i think all the butterflies are sleeping. do you ever wonder where all the bugs go when the weather is yucky?

hmmm. these are the things i think about!

animation: Black Cat by the Broken Hearts

This video is crazy and awesome. The song is Black Cat by The Broken Hearts. It was directed and animated by Zac Ella and Rob Flowers.

{found via Lost at E Minor}

new painting: 'let me mend youur damaged heart'

My dears, I'm painting again! It feels really good. I'm trying to get ready for the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago in a couple weeks (by the way, did I tell you that I'll have a booth there? I think I forgot! Shoot. Well, I'll be there, so if you are in the Chicago area, come say HEY!), so i'm busy busy here in my little studio. Here is a flyer for the show:

But about the painting now, it is called 'Let Me Mend Your Damaged Heart.'
I'm reading No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July right now (so good, btw), and she had a line about damaged hearts that was so touching to me, and this image popped into my head, so i thought i would paint it. If you don't know of Miranda July, you should. You really should. She is amazing, and her films and books will move you. At least they move me. And I figure lots of you are like me out there, so I think you'll love her, too.

illustration: hey heysu

What fun these illustrations by Heysu Lee are! Do you ever wonder where people get their ideas? I'm definitely wondering about that top image.

Heysu is an illustrator that lives in New York, London, and South Korea. I think her work is terrific. You cansee more of it on her website and her blog.

dogs dogs dogs

not my usual posting, but i'm working on a project for a client involving greyhounds, and i liked the way these looked as line drawings. especially with the shadows of the other drawings poking through behind the dogs (because i drew on both sides of the paper.)

i'll be sure to post about what happens with these dogs-- some color is definitely in their future!

Hope IS the new fear, isn't it?

Do you feel it?

I feel it.

{image by raw toast design on supermarket}

stuck

my dears, good morning! did you have a fantastic weekend? mine was lovely-- it began with the crazy awesome lightning storm and pounding rain on friday night. i got to drive home in it after hanging out with some friends, and the lightning was the most amazing i've ever seen. inspiration.

i'm feeling a bit stuck these days. do you ever feel this way? it's actually sort-of been a few months of feeling stuck. i have some old thoughts i need to let go of that for some reason i just want to keep holding on to. i've been feeling unfocused. i've even been feeling sort-of afraid of creating artwork. i can find any distraction so i don't have to buckle down and work through my blocks.

what do you do when you're feeling stuck? do you have any useful words/phrases that help you refocus and reinspire? do you have a go-to person that always helps pull you out of a funk? i'd love to hear your stories!

new pattern: tilt

so, this isn't the most exciting pattern, but i think what inspired it worth sharing, because it's so random!

When Ryan and i were on our way to California last month, we had a layover in Phoenix, Arizona. I was looking out the window as were landing, and I noticed we were flying over lot after lot full of trucks! I've never seen a big group of parked trucks from that height before, and the pattern that the truck tops formed was quite amazing. The rectangles all in rows, slightly misaligned, all varations of color, got me really excited in my window seat! It looked like some sort of strange landscape out of a children's book or something.

I also really love seeing farm land from that high up in the air-- it's so geometric, and I love all the circles and squares of growth on the flat flat land. My dear husband, who always has answers to my questions, informed me when I asked that the farm land is often circular because the sprinklers rotate in a circle from the center of the field, and that way they can reach all the crops. Interesting, yes?

Have a lovely weekend, my dears! I'll see you on Monday!

manuela strano

want. love. swoon.

these are pretty darn fabulous, yes? and don't you want to go to the Mooks store below, with manuela strano's mural above the doorway?

head on over to flickr to see more of manuela's beautiful work. sigh.

the first new illustration in a long time!

one of the best things about being married is not having to think about the wedding anymore. ha! that's not to say that i didn't LOVE planning it, because i absolutely did, but i feel like there is a space in my head that got filled with wedding stuff that is all of a sudden opened up again. and that space can be filled with ART again! this is the first illustration i've completed in a while-- i was thinking about succulents earlier and how much i love the variety. ryan's mom recently dug some up from her thriving garden of flowers and succulents, and i carefully toted them home in my bag on a plane, and i'm happy to say they're doing well here in the humid georgia environment. they look a little bit like the ones above, but without all the stripes, of course. :)

you can snatch this print up in my etsy shop if you'd like!

smilebooth

check out this photo. amazing, yes?

you may want to check out our labor of love to see more. it's pretty incredible. it makes me want to get married all over again so i could have a smilebooth like this.

WE ARE... a collaborative etsy coloring book

This is one of my favorite projects that I've seen in a long time! Yael Fran, artist extraordinaire, has put together a monthly coloring book by etsy artists called "We Are..."-- each month has a different theme and different participating artists, and my goodness, the group artists she's gathered are too good to be true! Each coloring book is 4x6", which means you can cut them out and use them as postcards when you're done! Or stick them in little frames and cover a wall.

Pictured above are the August (we are... happy) and October (we are... scared-- you can pre-order this one for halloween right now!) issues, with a couple images from inside the coloring books below. look at those amazing bat wings on that lady! love it.

I'm also thrilled to tell you that I'll be participating in the september issue of "We Are..." -- big thanks to Yael for inviting me! I'll be sure to post about it once it's for sale in her shop.

And if you're not familiar with Yael's work, you'll definitely want to check out her shop. She's incredible!

***
ps- do you like my new blog header? i made a new website header and etsy shop banner, too- check 'em out!

laura fayer: paintings

i'm very excited today to be back to regular blog posting-- namely oohing and aahing over artists. oh, how i've missed it!

i saw laura fayer's work over on dear ada and couldn't resist posting about it here-- it's too lovely to pass up. these paintings are big, which makes me wish i could see them in the flesh. i bet they are stunning!

more can be seen on laura's website. (and she's had some fabulous commissions. think borgata, atlanta city, ritz carlton, and other fancy hotels-wow!)

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!