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.

Here is a sneak peek at some other things I'm working on. Behind the scenes over here I had struggled with these scans (can you tell? fuzzy) until I realized it was a paper issue. Ive been re-drawing the small hoard of finished drawings from this month in the evenings when I'm able to set up at the light table. I feel happier when I know my night table is around- do you have tools like that? My bone folder, my favorite eraser, my Zebra mechanical pencil, and my beat-up light box I've been carting around for 13 years.

Am I on a tangent tonight? Probably just excited about setting up a work space again, daydreaming of that glorious afternoon of setting out my pencil jars and paint boxes. I'm sure you understand. Anyway, so these guys won't be the finished product for another couple of weeks. I'm also working on some framed small drawings and the Valentines in several other sizes. Have a great weekend, everyone!

"Two of a Kind" Valentine

Here in the Pacific Northwest we are under a thick fog, the low-lying clouds of winter's constant rain. I moved here for this, an ongoing rainy day that grows moss on all the stone and wood around town, the incredible moody mountain vistas that slowly fade in and out of view on afternoons like today. I love days like this, even though it is a challenge to find the right situation for taking pictures, and have enjoyed spending much of my day off walking about.

After my scenic voyages, I've been finishing some touches on the smallest set of Valentines. These are all original pen and ink drawings using pencil and MicronPigma 005 pens. I am drawing them all (there will be more sizes later) on Arturo stationary, an Italian paper with a nice watercolor-type tooth to it. They come with envelopes, so I'm not quite sure what to classify them under on Etsy, they're in now as ACEO. An ACEO is a small collectible original art card. I'll release the next size up as cards, and the larger will be in art as paintings.

Yes~ this means there are many more to come!
Gosh, I do love this job. :)

You are my...

I love that Etsy has added a Vacation Mode. I'm tempted to go on "Vacation" just to try it out. A lot of shops are temporarily closed right now- and that's wise if you had a busy Christmas. I had a good holiday season this year but will be taking an actual vacation mid-winter. I'll save the learning experience of Vacation Mode for that.

My hope is that today I'll be able to come out with two new cards. I printed them last night & have them prepped and ready to go this morning. I'm even up, drinking my coffee and furiously typing away at 6 a.m. because I'm so giddy about having new items for the shop! Next week I'll introduce new designs, too. Definitely *not* in vacation mode over here.

Other than the drawing, scanning, cropping, printing, cutting, scoring, packaging, mailing that goes into the card making aspect of ouou, I've been changing around my freebies once again. The winter, spring, summer, bunny tags I made last year are perfect little give-aways... and after some awkward packaging phases I think I've found the one I'm sticking with. Now all I need is a new set of Moo cards and I'll be golden.

tweaking

It appears the beginning of December is big on "brainstorm" mode. Between Thursday and today I've thought of countless versions of new ideas I want to try out in the shop, filling the corners of my tiny notebook I carry around for on-the-bus scribbles. This is encouraging for my whole relationship with the shop- it feels really good to have a longer view of being back on Etsy than just Christmas.

Right now projects have different levels of involvement since the shop is still in it's early stages of being back in circulation. Some of you may remember the mobile I made for my sister when the boys were first born, I would love to try out a few of those for ouou the shop. Involvement = high. Other things, like adding some 4 card sets to the currently only 6 card set stocked shop = manageable. It is the things in between, those just out of reach, that really have my imagination going these days...

I'm picking up on wholesaling to Brick & Mortar stores this season: more on that later. With the handy coincidence of working in the letterpress industry I've learned what I like to see on cards/ art, the value of having fun with design, and a thing or two about exceptional, minimal design. With another logo-avatar already inked I hope to have a small logo on the back of my cards on upcoming batches soon. Some designs that never quite flew last year, as well as a few that did but I never really felt were finished, are having small-detail makeovers before returning.

That's the news for tonight~ things are still in the works around here, behind the scenes. Before I go, let me just add that my sister absolutely made my day by bustin' out one of last year's iron-on ouou gear onesies. Shoghi is above sporting just such a design that never made it into the shop... not half bad! Thanks, sister... hopefully he'll fit this for more than a few seconds (smile). I'll be bringing the iron-ons back in full force any day now. Ah, sweet sweet encouragement.

More Autumn color tonight, this time from a neighborhood walk some days ago around the Mt. Tabor area. What is this amazing bush that has these wonderful purple berries!? I was so glad I had my camera at the ready (and it wasn't raining. this is Portland, after all).

I have been sketching, I promise... and here's a sketch to prove it. Things may be really up in the air for me right now but it feels very good to have a goal of increased creative output, the first most immediate goal being new designs for the Gocco. More sketches to come, both here and on my Flickr. Short post tonight... it's my Friday!

recent sketching (going through a voice bubble thing)

Friday nights are not for Etsy, I learned that last year. And so, though I have looked at my page at least 5 times since coming home an hour ago, I'm letting it go for the night by posting on my blog and then (hopefully) closing my computer. Hello blog, I have missed you.

The other goal I have for my night is to get some drawing done. I'm not using markers as much as I was last year- hopelessly devoted to pencil as I always have been, it was only a matter of time before I was picking and choosing from my Prismacolors (yay) without a second thought of the Sharpies (boo). But, anyway, I like the pen-pencil combo I've been coming up with lately, still bulky cartoony now with the softness and texture of pencil too.

recent inspiration, Banyai's "The Other Side"

No such drawings have become "items", followers of the blog and the shop may have noticed I'm beginning my shop with the same stock as last year: Gocco prints, pen-and-ink notecards, some ACEOs and onesies thrown into the mix. In fact, more ouou clothing may get added before any new card styles. Right now I just am not sure where to find a scanner for all my scanny needs. Still, its right and good to keep on drawing until I resolve those initial just-opened, new-town issues.

Okay, back to work!

more sketches

Hello again from a Monday off from work. After a 6 day week, its very very welcome. So welcome, in fact, that at 11:38 am I'm snuggling with baby Shoghi on the couch and we are still sporting our pajamas without a spot of guilt. Go me!

Here are the other sketches I promised last night.

...and some with pen (and a little wrinkled corner)!