Happy Holidays!

We are heading home to the Midwest tomorrow to spend the Holidays with family. It is a great time of year to spend with those closest to you and we are really looking forward to it! Happy Holidays to you!!

Christmas Giftwrap

My festive and colorful giftwrap of Christmas trees on a saturated pink background is available this year at Walmart.

Snowman Pyramid Flag Available at Lowe's

My stacked snowmen design is printed on a decorative flag and for sale at your neighborhood Lowe's Home Improvement store this Holiday Season!

Converting a greeting card design into a repeat pattern

A fabric manufacturer recently asked me if I could take one of my designs that was licensed for a greeting card and turn it into a one color repeated pattern. I accepted the challenge and this is the result. I first converted the full color design to black and white and added white space where the black intersected itself to keep the definition and shape of the original design. I then turned the design into a single repeat like a puzzle piece (I have not shown that stage here). The original birds were flipped and added to the design for a bit more variety and I added a new branch for them to perch on as well as more of the flowers. Now I just hope I will see it printed in several different color options on fabric soon!

Bay Area Sunset

It has been an incredibly beautiful weekend here considering it is mid November! The sunset tonight was amazing with the city of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge set off by it's orange glow. It's always nice here in the East Bay to look across the bay and see the city lights. I wish we had a better camera to really zoom in on the details of the scene.

Hibiscus

I have been busy in the studio painting some tropical flowers like this hibiscus. This week will be more florals and some sketches of ice cream cones for another project I am working on.

Guest Room

We had a little guest room that was so sad and depressing and decided it was time to inject some comfort and color. Although the room is tiny, (less than 10 by 10 feet) we wanted it to feel special and cozy. We took our cues from the happy color palette of the comforter without making it look like a teen bedroom by blending the neutral and nubby fabrics for the curtains and headboard. We made the headboard in an afternoon. The corner scoop cutouts were a bit of a challenge because the fabric just really didn't want to make the curve smoothly without a lot of coaxing, but we persevered and are happy with the result. It was just a piece of plywood with 1X6 legs and a roll of batting wrapped around several times.

The chandelier was an old brass one we found in the basement of the house when we moved here. Some red lacquer spray paint transformed it. The little floating night stand shelves were from IKEA for only $9.99 each. The room needs some work done on the closet and some new carpet is somewhere in it's future, but I can honestly say that it now says "come on in and stay a while."

Magic Murals

My designs are now for sale at Magic Murals. They have licensed 20 of my designs for wallpaper murals, some of which are as big as 8 feet by 12 feet. Here are a few of them. Check them all out here!

Dream Big

These are just a few of the paintings I did recently for a little gift book project focused on the hopes and dreams of graduates. These three particular designs were also picked up a few weeks ago as greeting cards for another company.

A Taste of Summer

Watermelons immediately make me think of summertime. I designed this plate and platter for a company that is going to reproduce it on melamine dishes. That way, it can be summertime all the time at dinner time!

New Front Door

We have been living in our house now for about 4 months.

When we first saw the house we knew if we bought the place it would need a new front door to really say welcome with a nice color or two. We chose a traditional four panel wood one that we knew would work well with the lines of the house and added sidelights on either side to add more light and charm. Although it was original to the house and is a nod to the Art Deco era, we are not fans of glass block so we were happy to give it the old "heave ho". The door color is "blackberry" and the trim is "soji white." If you look closely in the lower right corner of the "after" photo you can see the color we are thinking of painting the main body of the house. It is an ochre yellow called "alchemy". The new windows will be a "pebble grey" and trimmed in the "soji white". Can't wait to see it all come together!

Onwards and upwards!

Safari Friends Kids Pattern

I created this pattern out of some animal characters that I had done for various other projects.

Cupcakes: A Big Stack of Deliciousness!

This is from a recent greeting card project. I wish I had a big platter of cupcakes right now!!

Colorful Flowers

More flowers from my recent greeting card project.

A Casual Bouquet

Working on some new designs for a greeting card company and this is one of them. I debated about making it more dense with leaves and blooms, but chose to keep it simple and fresh.

Ladybug Art Licensed to Michael's

Everyone likes ladybugs. They just seem to make us smile. This ladybug painting of mine will be featured on a flag at your neighborhood Michael's store. I loved working with the vibrant reds of the ladybugs. It makes the design very graphic and bold.

Peaceable Kingdom Scratch and Sniff Sticker Packs

Peaceable Kingdom continues to expand their offerings and have just added six new sticker packs that I designed for them. They are all scratch and sniff stickers and feature these scents: strawberry, chocolate, grape, vanilla, pizza, and popcorn. I enjoyed working on such a colorful and fun project.

Sweet Shop Sticker Tote at Barnes and Noble and soon at Target

My Sweet Shop Sticker Activity Tote is now available at Barnes and Noble stores and will soon be available at Target!! The people at Peaceable Kingdom are doing a terrific job of marketing their products to new stores and shopping outlets. It's always really gratifying to see one of the products I have designed in a store when I am out and about.

Fruit Treasury on Etsy

My pear art print is currently featured in an Etsy Treasury. Michelle at Silverhorsephotos did a terrific job of selecting pieces that compliment each other. My print is at the bottom left. You can check it out in my shop here.

Wish Granted Birthday Cake

I'm not sure where, when, why or how the tradition of blowing out candles on a birthday cake began, but it is nice to blow out the candles and make a wish. Hopefully when it's your turn, all your wishes will be granted!

New Project With Adorable Puppies

Everyone loves puppies, right? Well, I just finished up a project featuring lots of sweet little pups . Here is a sneak peek at them. The product is a bit of a secret, but will be out next year and I will post more about it then.

Happy Mother's Day Butterflies

Today is a day for celebrating all of the amazing things that our mother's do for us. Have a great day!

These Dogs are Bored

It's raining here today and our dogs Ruby and Olive are very bored. The pictures say it all. I can't believe how good they are at looking sad.

Celebrate Collection with Merritt International

Last year I partnered with Merritt International to develop this line of melamine dishes featuring ice cream and cupcakes. The dishes will be in stores soon, so here is a peek at how they turned out as well as a picture from their catalog. I am really happy with the way they look!

I Made it to the front Page on Etsy

Once in a great while, my Etsy prints make it to the front page of their site. Today is one of those days and this was the print they featured.

Graphic Flowers

Spring is here and it's all about flowers. I wanted this particular design to be graphic and spontaneous without looking messy and overworked.