Glowing Balls!

All photos via Brooklyn Vegan

Have you guys SEEN this video from Coachella last week?? It's amazing! I've been replaying it whenever I need an energy burst because it gets me so excited and brings a big grin to my face. The Arcade Fire dropped a gazillion glowing LED balls from the top of the stage during their "Wake Up" performance and it is SO MUCH FUN!   I wish I was there, but thank goodness for youtube!

Happy Friday!!

Happy Mom-Day!

Mother's Day is coming soon here in the US...May 8th to be exact!  These are two new cards added to the shop today for all your favorite Mom, Grand-mom, and friend-mom's in your life.  

Happy Mom-Day Card  

Teacup Succulent Mother's Day Card

In other news, I have been obsessed with making/painting/doodling little teacup succulents lately.  I will surely show you what I have done with this obsession soon...

Super-dee-duper Mailing List time!

Mailing List Signup!

Hello!  Happy Monday!  Thank you for all the birthday wishes last week! 

They made me feel all warm and fuzzy. :)

 I hope your weekend was swell!  Mine was nice and cozy, with a huge thunderstorm Saturday night and a gorgeous day on Sunday.  I love wandering around in the Springtime, taking photos, people-watching, and running into all the things that I love about NYC. There are a lot of things that I hate about it, but the good parts are what keep me here.  I guess it evens out?

So, I started a mailing list a few weeks back and quietly put up a signup on my sidebar here on the blog.  I'm a little touchy about receiving mailing lists myself, so I'm going to keep mine super-special and fun.  Like only sending them out 4-6 times a year.  I'm going to include little freebies and downloadables,  along with market schedules and news, and super-special sneak-peeks and sale coupons (for newsletter subscribers only.)  Anyways, I hope you will sign up!   xo, Michelle

NYC can be perrrty! View from Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Grate at Highline Park

Windows at Highline Park

I never understand the shoes on the line thing.  Nice (and expensive!) shoes too! Found in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Happy B-day to me

ZOMG Lemon Mousse Pie, tester recipe for Isa and Terry.  Seriously, this is the best pie I have ever had.

Hello!  Life is kinda crazy lately, preparing for so many things that are coming up in May and June.  Renegade Austin, in May, and Renegade Brooklyn, in June are heavy on my prep list, so I have been printing, creating, brainstorming, and planning for both of them.  I'm super-psyched to be road-tripping down to Austin, TX from NY with my sweet Mom and two sisters.   It will also be a family reunion of sorts, staying at my two uncle's homes and meeting up with other family members and a cousin I've never met before.  We are going to drive it in two days, staying overnight in Nashville, TN the first night, and we will be gone for about two weeks total.  I've never been to Texas before, so yeah, I'm pretty excited!

I turn 31 today, which has turned into a non-event really.  It's kinda a shame that birthdays turn into no  big deal as a grown up, but I'll prolly bake myself a pie later for some sort of hurrah.  Nik took me out to Blossom last saturday for some amazing early birthday food and wine. He's the best, really!

I mentioned my pattern-making marathon I had going on last week in my last post, and I thought I would show a few of them that I had finished.  I don't really show this side of my work that often, because it is so different, and really isn't my favorite part of what I do. But, nonetheless! I hope a company buys them and turns them into pajamas or something.   This is basically what I used to do at my old day job (which it has been almost a YEAR since I quit! crazy-pants!), and I still do on a freelance basis for design studios.   I could prolly make these in my sleep, hehe.

Spring walk

Happy Spring! It's really happening!  Even though it is cold and miserable out, I took some photos with my phone on my walk to the post office this afternoon. Spring is totally happening, whether the weather wants to cooperate or not.  Although, I am totally not leaving the apartment again today!  It is a drink tea, do work, cuddle with my kitty, and listen to The Cure kind of day.  

I can't wait to go visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in a few weeks, for the Cherry Blossom Festival. I'm excited to go during the week, when there will be less people there and I can bring my sketchbook and camera and just spend the day there.  I've been making lots of new pattern designs for Surtex (this is a big print show coming up in May.  I don't have a booth there, but I work with a design company that sells my stuff there).  Cherry Blossoms have definitely been on my mind and shows in some recent prints I have made. Perhaps I'll show some of those later in the week!

Warm, sunny Spring thoughts!

Rhino, waffles, and doodles

Hello! Hope there was lotsa fun this past weekend!  I stayed in mostly, except for a fun date with Nik Saturday night, going out to dinner for some yummy veggie sushi.   I finished a new print too, and managed to find some sunshine-time to photograph it!  I have had a few requests for Rhinos this past year, so I finally added one to the shop.

It was international waffle day, the other day, so of course I played along and made some for brunch. 

Some doodles

Spring-a-ling

Rain, rain, go away. 

Happy Spring!  I'm going to totally ignore that snow that we got here in New York yesterday, and just go on thinking about blooming flowers and anticipating some green things at the farmer's markets finally.  I've been keeping busy, working on lots of new illustrations and projects, and lots of pie-baking.   I've been contemplating printing some tote bags with some of my illustrations on them...trying to think of more products that would work with my stuff. Any ideas? Things you would like to see?

Some yumminess I have had lately:

Tofu Scramble-cious with some homemade tofu

Raspberry Lattice Pie!  Tester recipe for Isa and Terri's upcoming pie book.

Helicopter time!

Hello!  I hope everyone had a rockin' weekend!  There was lotsa sunshine and good vibes here.  Nik's friend hooked us up with a free helicopter ride over Manhattan this weekend, and it was so fun! I was like a little kid, all squealy and excited.   Helicopter rides are usually insanely expensive (like this would have been something like almost $500 for the two of us to go up for 20 minutes!)  Hooray for free! Ha, but seriously, this was so fun!  Lemme take you on a tour:

We got to sit in the front seat (that's the pilot on my right), so we got to see all the gadgets.

We took off from the Heliport at Pier 6, at the bottom of Manhattan and flew a little bit south first so that we could get a good view of the statue of Liberty. She looks so tiny! Manhattan is on the right and Jersey is on the left.

Manhattan on the left, and Brooklyn on the right.  The island in front of us is Governors Island.

Check it out! 

You can see Central Park in the middle there.

Traveling up the Hudson River, you can see the George Washington Bridge up ahead.

Upper West Side and Colombia University area.

Yankee Stadium

Queens

We turned around and headed back down the Hudson River. This is the George Washington Bridge and New Jersey.

Empire State building and piers on the west side of Manhattan.

Financial District. Those are the ferries that go to Staten Island and Governors Island.  Nik works in one of those buildings on the right!