Where did all the trees go? (Queue Tegan and Sara...)

Every year, right after Christmas in the park near where I live, there starts a mass tree grave that just grows and grows every time I pass by. People just bring their Christmas trees here to discard. It is so sad looking!

I took a nice long walk around the neighborhood today, enjoying the oddly-warm-for-December temperature and sunshine, while taking some photos. 

Happy Holidays!

Sister's disco ball tree

Apple-berry Pie, from Vegan Pie in the Sky

Hello! I hope your holidays are (were) great! I spent a long weekend in upstate NY with my family, with lots of laughter, good times, and yummy food. Hooray for family! I have a rather large family, so it's nice when we can all gather at once together. 

I'm really love this time of year, when I feel inspired and motivated for the upcoming year. I've been jotting down things that I really want to happen this year, business-wise and personal-wise. Places to go, things to see, things to make happen. The important part is following through with all my grand plans! 

Vegan Doughnuts!

So, um, yum! Dunwell Doughnuts just opened shop in Brooklyn recently, serving their amaaazing vegan doughnuts. So exciting! I went and checked them out today (it's like a 20 minute walk from my apartment, so exercise + doughnuts=yay!)  It was hard to choose, but I went with the jelly-filled powder doughnut, the lemon-lavender, and coconut (I gave this one to Nik later on, but I totally wanted to eat them all.) It's really adorable inside too, so I will definitely have to have a work/doughnut/coffee day there soon.

Waffle Sammich

So, a month or so ago, a new place opened up down the street from me called Waffle and Wolf. I didn't investigate too hard into if they had any vegan options or not, I guess because I assumed they wouldn't. Lo and behold, Nik did some investigating for me and they do! They have a buckwheat waffle that is both vegan and gluten-free! Whoa man. I stopped and got this beauty to-go last week and it was as delicious as it looks.  For the filling, I went with their "Wolf Sauce" (tahini + molasses), orange marmalade, strawberries, and almonds.  They have just lots of fruits and veggies for vegan filling options, and I'm hoping they add more vegan-friendly spreads (mostly just PB and jams now) in the future. I might have to try a savory waffle next time (ooo spicy tomato jam)! I quite like the concept of waffle sammiches.

BUST Craftacular!

Hello! For the 5th year in a row, I'll be at booth #167 at the BUST Craftacular this weekend! It's a 2-day event, but I will just be there on Saturday. It's gonna be a super-fun time, and I hope you come say hi if you stop by!

Details: 

December 10th and 11th, 2011Saturday: 11 AM - 8 PM; Sunday: 11 AM - 7 PM
82 Mercer St. between Broome and Spring, New York, NY 

Shop, eat, drink, and craft with more than 200 handmade craft and specialty food vendors at BUST Magazine's biggest and most popular event of the year -- the BUST Magazine Craftacular and Food Fair Holiday 2011! Join us for our first ever two-day holiday shopping extravaganza where you'll find the best handmade gifts, food, a craft beer garden, gift-making demos, DJs, and more.
Be one of the first 300 shoppers each day and receive a free goodie bag!
Admission is $3.

Coloring Books!

Maybe you have noticed this about me, if you have read my blog for awhile, but I'm kind of a big kid at heart. A 31-year old kid! Coloring books were one of faaavorite things as a kid, and I can remember spending lots of time neatly coloring in pages and pages of coloring books. Stubs of peeled crayons were piled in my art box (kinda like my current art box actually.)

I've been wanting to make my own coloring book or activity book for awhile now, and I finally invested in a heavy-duty paper-cutter so I could do just that! I'm starting off with these three coloring books, and hope to expand the line to activity books, and journals/sketchbooks soon. And maybe I'll finally start working on that children's book I've always wanted to write and illustrate...

Coloring books are in the shop!

Out and About

Mural on Karate Studio

 I bought a new camera recently (Canon Rebel T3i), and this weekend was the first I was able to properly play around with it. It is my first SLR camera, so I'm pretty psyched! I'm slowly learning how to properly use a lot of the manual settings. I'm really excited to use it when I go home for the holidays, to take lots of photos of my family. I've noticed that photos are lacking from recent years, now that we are all older (my youngest sis is now 19! the baby is not a baby anymore!) Time to remedy that! I'm also really excited to start painting a little larger and having the ability to photograph the paintings, instead of scan in pieces with  my crappy scanner. Hooray for technology not holding me back anymore!  Anyways, I took a walk around the neighborhood last night, right before sunset when the light was super-pretty.

Sunday waffles with dried cranberries and currants in them. (Raised waffle recipe from Vegan Brunch)

Sunset over Williamsburg Bridge

Christmas Trees for sale

More trees for sale

I accidentally photographed a dude (ghost?) peeing! I swear I didn't see him when I took the photograph! It was all black behind the gated door, to my eye.  I just thought the the gated door was pretty.  Maybe my new camera takes x-ray photos?! Either way, SPOOKY.

Goodbye leaves, see you in 6 months.

2011 Holiday Handmade Cavalcade!

Hello! I'm really excited for the Holiday Handmade Cavalcade coming up THIS Saturday.  Put on by The {NewNew} Etsy team that I'm on, it's always a super-fun event.  It will be at Public Assembly, in Williamsburg, from 10-6pm.  Maybe you can tell, but I designed the flyer this year! It was a lot of fun to make and I'm happy with how it came out. Woo!  So if you are in the Brooklyn area this weekend, please do stop by and say hi!

p.s. We are one of TimeOut NY's "critics pick" for the upcoming weekend!

I'll Sleep When I Die

I'll Sleep When I Die, new print in the shop!

I often think of this phrase, during super-busy times (which seems to be all the time lately...) A bit morbid maybe, but when the days go by without enough hours in the day to get all that I want to accomplish done, I can't help but find sleeping just getting in the way! Don't get me wrong, I lovvvve to sleep (and I do it well!), but I also love what I do for a living and sometimes I just have so many ideas on the table and so few hours in the daytime. I'm sure you can relate, right?

I want to thank everyone who bought something from me during my holiday sale this past weekend, or at anytime in the past. I really appreciate it and am super-grateful to be able to do what I love for a living and to make people happy and smiley with my work. Warm fuzzies!

Penguin Ornaments!

I'm super-pysched about new Penguin ornaments this year! This 'lil guy is rocking his hot pink scarf! I printed them through Spoonflower, and they are hand-sewn and the 'lil scarfs are crocheted.

DETAILS:
+Fabric: 100% Cotton fabric. Digitally Printed via Spoonflower
+Stuffing: 100% Cotton
+Yarn: 96% Acrylic, 4% Metallic Polyester
+Dimensions: Approximately 4" x 2.25", plus 2.5" hanging ribbon


Don't forget I have a Holiday Sale going on this weekend!  Enter the coupon code KITTYPARTY at checkout to save 15%.  Sale ends Monday 11/28 at midnight EST. 

Annual Holiday Sale!

It's that time of year again where everyday seems to go at warp-speed, as the holiday season starts and speeds up. Or at least, that's how it always feels to me! I'm having my annual holiday sale to help you jump-start any shopping you were planning for friends, family, loved ones, (and yourself.)

From Fri. 11/25 - Mon. 11/28, save 15% by entering, at checkout, the coupon code: KITTYPARTY

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow to my USA pals; eat lots of yummy food!
xoxo,
Michelle

Holiday Cards!

Available here

Hello!  I'm pretty psyched about my holiday cards this year.  I think my favorite is the fox (also, I want a stripey scarf with those colors), but then maybe the penguins are my favorites too.  I brought back my cutie-cat Hanukkah card also (spin, dreidel, spin!)   

This is always such a busy time of year for me, and I really tried to get a jump on it this year, but here we are, two weeks before Thanksgiving!  I might have something secret cooking up for a day after Thanksgiving sale, so make sure you're signed up for my mailing list if you want to be in the know!

Season's Greetings Fox is available here

Happy Holidays Penguins are available here

Holiday Bears are available here

Season's Greetings Cat is available here

Hanukkah Kitty is available here

Zippered Pouches!

So in the midst of 'MoFo madness last month, I made a bunch of new things but failed to mention them here.  First up, is my latest Spoonflower endeavor!  I created these illustrations (based off this Woodland Jamboree print) to go on these fun zippered pouches.  They are printed on linen-cotton canvas, and hand-sewn up into a mega-cute pouch. I use mine to hold pens/pencils/markers/erasers/etc., but they could totally be used to hold makeup, sewing supplies, etc.  I don't really consider myself much of a seamstress, but I'm totally proud of these and how they look all sewn up. Woo!  Available here, in the shop.

VeganMoFo: Happy Halloween!

Super-happy about this charity project this month!  I've raised $310 so far for the sanctuary!  Thank you SO MUCH for all the kind words, comments, enthusiasm, and to everyone that has helped out this month.  All the remaining painting will remain in my shop and I will donate the money as they are sold still.  Cupcakes for everyone! 

Happy Autumn is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

 So the end of MoFo is here, with sadness of course, so I decided to go all out with super-orange and pumpkin goodness.  Oh, and Happy Halloween!  I didn't dress up or really do much, as we had a freak snowstorm here (seriously, we have so much strange weather here this year...earthquake, hurricane, heat wave, snowstorm in October...).  Nik and I hibernated all weekend, watching scary movies, carving pumpkins, and baking up lots of pumpkin goodness.  Perfect!

Pumpkin Pancakes, from Vegan Brunch

I was going for a cute bear, on the left, but the bottom line kinda looks like a mouth instead of the bear's muzzle. Oh well!  Nik made a super-scary one!

It looked like this outside on Friday...

...And like this on Saturday!

Miles was confused too.

VeganMoFo: Apple Cider and Bear Claws

Angry Bear is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

I've been loving apple cider* season lately. Buying a gallon every weekend at the farmer's market, and savoring every sip.  Someone told me recently that apple cider is not a universal thing, and that the cider in Seattle tastes like apple juice, but they still call it cider.  What!  I hope that this not true, because that would be really really sad.  The cider here tends to be really thick (you can't see through it!) and strong (and sooo good warmed up!), but NY is a big apple-growing region so it's taken pretty seriously.  Apple cider is so much better than Apple juice (gross! reminds me of hospitals!) They filter all the good stuff out!

*not the alcoholic kind, because Wikipedia tells me that "cider" in Europe refers to the hard stuff. And that makes me sound like a lush, buying a gallon a week. :)

I have this wonderful vegan diner near me, called Champs, that is pretty amazing. Like, if you are coming to NYC to visit, you should go out of your way and go there (and it's not really out of the way at all; Brooklyn is the best anyways!)   I go there a lot, 1. because they are awesome and 2. because they have really great baked goods, and 3. they serve breakfast all day, and finally 4. they have really tasty sammiches (and I love sammiches.)

I picked up a bear claw the other day AND IT WAS FILLED WITH MARZIPAN.  Pretty much making it the best bear claw ever.  On the weekends, they have gigunda magical cinnamon buns and sometimes they have vegan almond croissants!

I have lots of love for Champs.