Cover Reveal: The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls!

I recently had the privilege to illustrate a MG novel called The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, written by Claire Legrand.  This was such an amazing project!!  Claire, is a super inspiring person that works like crazy and is hilarious.  She also fluffs my ego making me feel like a princess:D  Lucy Ruth Cummins was the Art Director that I worked with and she rocks.  I had so much fun.  Lucy had some awesome ideas for the finishing on this, I can't wait to see the cover in person.  It will be out in August this year.  I am geeking out today!!

Go check out the big cover reveal at The Story Siren.  There is an awesome giveaway, and you get to read an interview with Claire!

I will post again later with interiors and the finish when I can.  Thanks for reading;)

quick DIY: creepy storybook animal

I thought it would be fun to share one of my morphing projects.  When I was a kid my dad taught us to take something that is sort of cool and make it awesome.  I thought this rabbit had such a great silhouette but was a little too sweet for my home decor.  So I made him creepy in about 15 minutes.  Spray paint it black, paint its eyes a random cool color, and tie a bow tie around its neck.  You can find neat statues of animals at hole in the wall junk stores, and the same with the bow ties.  Go make a creepy animal, your kids are sure to love it;)

Also, I have two inspiration Tumblr's floating out in the internet realm. 

 One is called The Dusty Skull: a catalogue of dusty treasures in my house and in my world using instagram earlybird. 

 The other is Ghastly Manor: the imaginary haunted estate of Sarah Watts.  Follow them!  I am so inspired this year I could puke.  ;)

New Prints in Shop

Hi there,  I just wanted to share the new prints I have in my shop for your house!  each are 11x14, a standard frame size.

A bunch of us down here are beer lovers and I refer to it as beer snobbery sometimes, so I thought that would make a good print!  Atlanta has massive beer lists and many local breweries, I will never be able to try all of them.  A lot of my good pals from Ringling share this love with me too.

The cornbread piece is inspired by that movie Life(my favorite), and also it is what everyone says when they eat all of their cornbread and there is none left. 

 Then the Atlanta piece is for those fancy southern people who love Atl... ;)

I always forget to update my Etsy since most of my sales are local, but I think I need to reach a wider audience so it's time to try harder!!  Haha.  Oh, and there is a masculine/feminine version of the beer snob print.

always learning and practicing

I will always draw in my sketchbook.  Something valuable that I learned in college at Ringling: Always draw, always keep improving.  I want to forever be a student of life.  Why should the awesomeness of college stop when you leave?  Like Steve Jobs said, "Stay hungry, stay foolish."

So, for fun, learning, and enjoying life, here is some sketchbook stuff, embroidery and pictures of my life lately, some from the awesome Instagram, now that my phone is fixed. I've also been taking classes for sewing and everything between through the Atlanta Institute of Stitches and Crafts.  Those girls rock.  I love love the art of taking time out of the psycho internet realm (that I adore) to do something old school that involves a special craft. There is a lot to be said for stuff that takes a lot of time to finish.  With the product and surface design world that I am in, things are always going with trends and needed fast.  It's nice to slow down.  Last Sunday was one of the best days ever, because we all sat in a sweet lit up loft space, embroidering my drawings and having a good conversation.  Anyway, here are some random pictures and scans.

Pretty people from the fields.

Dmv, Having kids is haunting, pattern ideas.

Embroidery practice from Stitches and Crafts.

From my sketchbook while in Costa Rica.  Flippin' love that country. Scott and I saw all this and more. I think I discovered my naivety again in Costa Rica, which was really nice.

                                       

More embroidery.  This is going to be a larger piece.

This sparkling wine comes in a can with a sippy draw.  Awesome. 

These girls embroidered my drawings too.  They were smart youngsters. 

One of my biggest inspirations: Scott.  No matter what happens to him he pops back up and keeps moving and making and doing.  I love it so much. 

This tower is part of our apartment complex  Pretty neat.  Shot from the rooftop.

My current sketchbook cover.

Sam and Emily, fiddling at the embroidery get together.  This loft space was sick.