Nocturnal Cat

Cats love to roam the night in their stealthy, but always adorable way.  I'm always amazed, being a dog owner, how quiet they are compared to my beagles.  They can sit and stare at something for ages without moving, as if they are in a trance.  Perhaps cats are deep thinking and philosophical animals.

Master Bedroom

The house we own was built in 1940 and has charming wood floors and great light being perched on a gentle hillside.  The master bedroom has these terrific corner windows with views of the bay and the city of San Francisco beyond.  What the room didn't have is color and we like color here at our house!  So, I designed a fabric for the headboard (which we made on a Sunday afternoon) on Spoonflower.com with the gray and citrus yellows and greens that we are so fond of.  We had purchased several vintage pieces of furniture with the intention of painting them lemon yellow.  We used a high gloss alkyd which was, to be honest, no fun at all but it looks terrific!  The china cabinet was transformed into a freestanding closet of sorts thanks to the mirror that replaced the glass in the doors.  The granite gray walls allow the furniture to take center stage and it works thanks to the light and clean power of the white duvet, ceiling, trim and chandelier.  We are giving this old house some new attitude with color, color and more color!

LoLo's Laboratory

I met Laurel Nathanson through a licensing artist group that I am a member of and wanted to share her blog  with you.  She has a really fun sense of color and creates everything from jewelry to clothing adorned with her fun and edgy characters.  Check it out here!

Scratch and Sniff Stickers

Peaceable Kingdom has introduced a line of scratch and sniff stickers that I illustrated and kids are going to love them!  They are packaged at retail in a colorful red display box containing 36 separate packs that sell for around $2.50 per box.  Each little pack contains 6 feet of 80 stickers in scents ranging from strawberry, chocolate, grape, banana, bubblegum, as well as pizza.  I love the terrific products that Peaceable Kingdom continues to produce.  Hopefully you will find them soon at a retailer near you!

I'm back to the blog!

Boy, have I been lazy about this blog lately!  I am doing new work constantly, but as I'm sure you understand, it's difficult to keep up with everything.  Thanks for hanging in there with me while I took a little break.

I thought I would post one of my recent designs.  Painted phrases are always popular and right now they seem to be everywhere again.  We all have favorite phrases that we use in our daily lives or some that bring back fond memories.  Do you have a favorite phrase?

An unveiling of sorts

My website has a whole new look and I am really happy to unveil it here today!  It has been a long time coming.  Out with the old and in with the new!  Take a look here.

Wisteria

The wisteria in our back garden burst forth with abundant blooms last week and is looking amazing today! When we moved here last year, this gorgeous vine was blocked from view by some huge juniper bushes.  We tore those nasty things out and now can see this from our new deck.  I am looking forward to planning and planting a newly redesigned back garden at some point in the near future.  Enjoy the beautiful spring weather and all of it's amazing color!

Fly Butterfly Fly

I am working on some new greeting card designs at the moment. I will share more later.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope your day is terrific!

Update on Haute Look

In my previous post, I forgot to mention my wall art for sale at Haute Look was only featured on their site for a few days and is no longer available. The manufacturer is marketing them to other retail outlets, so we are hoping to see them elsewhere soon.

New Wall Art on Haute Look

I recently licensed 16 new designs with a company that prints art onto wood forms that are ready to hang. All 16 designs are now available on Haute Look. You can sign up to receive their daily sales. Check them out here. My designs are the first 16 in the list.

Lost Puppies Board Game

The new board game I illustrated for Peaceable Kingdom is now out in the marketplace! It is one of a new breed of board game for kids called a cooperative game. Instead of competing against one another, kids work together to reach a common goal. In the case of the "Lost Puppies" game, they have to get all of the lost puppies home before dark. It was a terrific project to be a part of. Peaceable Kingdom does such beautiful and well concepted products. You can find out more about the game here!

Happy New Year!

I am looking forward to seeing what 2011 has in store for me! I hope it is a good one for you as well.

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!