some endings, some beginnings

Oh what a crunch, getting everything into the shop before Valentine's day! How is it going with all of you? I hope everybody is having a good week, and looking forward to tomorrow's historic inauguration.

Yesterday was Sunday, and on Sundays I like to take advantage of the slow and quiet nature of the day~ going into work hours early (I'm a weekend worker) to paint and draw. These are leisurely hours with a whole building to myself, and one of the more anticipated parts of my week. I usually camp out in the printmaking studio, or in the back at the Production desk, listening to music and slowly nursing my coffee. After a little reading or doodling, this week it was straight into painting, those final touches on the originals I've been posting about these days. Finally finished!

Tea 2

Today was much more focused on home & Etsy. I finished all the painting I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks and took tons and tons of photos. Although it is windy and blustery here, we are still enjoying days of sunshine. From there is was hours of fun-filled photo editing, breaking up the monotony with some cleaning & organizing of the house. From there it was packaging the rest of my outstanding orders and posting my framed pieces! All of this as a build-up to tomorrow, my last day before vacation.

In order to make sure I'm still able to fulfill orders within the 3-5 business days I've promised in my Shipping section, I have decided to go on Vacation Mode for this time:

Wednesday January 21st to Friday January 23rd

Just a small string of days, and by its end I will still be in MA and can figure out at that time if I should wait out the remainder of my own vacation or open back up.

In this, my first year in Portland, it has been 8 months of moving (three times now!) ,transition, new friends and new family. Leaving for Massachusetts kicks off the end of yet another chapter in those months and the beginning of an all new adventure once we get back. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming months where I intend to~

1. get myself a studio space in our new home
2. learn letterpress and hopefully new skills in silkscreening
3. explore the state of Oregon and take a trip to California, too
4. grow some potted plants (oh how I miss you)
5. get back into reading, knitting, sewing and *cooking*!
6. begin serious work in freelance illustration

...and that makes up for not having posted a New Year * New Leaf post here on the blog. I'll be home with my family in a matter of days, catching up on all of the changes my nephews have gone through in the last month (the words "crawing" and "teething" and "laughing" are still too hard to believe). It has been heartwarming spending the last months in the company of the R Family, being a part of their day to day pattern of living. I'm so completely grateful for all of the help and friendship they have shown and all the new friends I've made in this exciting new city. A break will be good, seeing family will be great, and then taking the next steps into becoming established in Portland will be all the beter with these sweet people in my heart.

Thank you friends, thank you readers, thank you Etsy, and happy new year.

Everything Day & What Inspires You?

Today has been one of those Everything Days where it seems like every 30 minutes to an hour I'm off doing something different. Let's see if I have the attention span to get a blog post done:

Today's listing in a week of listing (forgot yesterday, so maybe I'll sneak one in tonight after my internet cut-off) is a collection of Gocco printed envelopes. I think I mentioned my serious addiction to paper goods a few entries ago... well it actually has worked out in my favor, really it has, since I've been using those precious papers for "extra ink" printings. I've amassed quite a collection by now and listed a grab-bag type collection today in the shop. I figure someone out there still writes letters. yes?
...yes?

This girl and lion have been kicking around my room for months. She was actually going to be the beginning of my alphabet series, but then I decided to watercolor those. Its weird because I have a strong desire to see this pattern on a pillow* but may offer her as an iron-on in the shop along with other not-on-card designs.
(*this information is useful later) Still need to broaden that DIY section, as the secret project for it won't be unveiled until late summer or fall. What do you think... is she iron-on material? Hmm...

Other than that today was more mailing and further sketches for a sticker project that is way off in the distance. In the afternoon I spontaneously went along with my sis to Philadelphia for one of her doctor visits and am lucky I did because we got to see another ultrasound! Thats just the most amazing thing.

I came home to a wonderful email from Amy over at Pikaland, who has set up a barter system for her ad space that I think is a great way to get people involved. I'm participating in a more free-form version since I don't yet know when my shop will re-open but still have all the proper information to fill out. One of her interview questions is "What inspires you?". I thought this would be a fun addition to the blog. I've spotlighted artists and Etsyians here before, but to take maybe a subject instead?

So this week I'll begin in textiles, with embroidery. Embroidery is something I've been wanting to get back into for the past 2 years. Its showing up everywhere in the fine art world and a beautiful canvas for the minimal art people are creating currently. Above is Littlebonbon by Takashi Iwasaki, whose images set off all those energized synapses in my brain.

Flickr has tons of groups for the embroidery nerd in me: check out embroidery and science! But one with a bright future is Children's Embroidery, where I got the above picture from. Check out this guy- I love it that children's embroidery ends up looking the same as their Crayola drawings. Way to be! Embroidery would also be a fun project to get that girl and lion on a pillow- but I'm gonna need some granny glasses before agreeing to that mission!