Freebies! Holiday Bear Gift Tag!

I've been busy finishing up things here before I head home to celebrate the holidays with my family, but I still wanted to put together some little gift tags to stick on those gifts. I made a little freebie that you can download and print yourself to spruce up your wrap-job.  Just download the template (right click-->save as, and then open up in Acrobat. The print quality is better printing from Acrobat versus your web browser for some reason.) Get some white card stock and print away! I just cut them out and taped them onto my packages, but you can also use a hole-punch on the top to attach a festive string to tie to packages. 

If you end up using these, I would love to see! Share with me via instagram or twitter or just link in the comments below. Also, feel free to pin these (and please link it back to me)! 

***I hate to even mention this, but you know, internet. These are for personal use only, not for resale. Thank you!

279: Sun Bear

One of my absolute favorite animals! 

365 Days of Animals
279: Sun Bear
Pen/Ink/Digital

207: Polar Bear

Polar Bears are my Mom's all-time fave (Hi Mom!) 

365 Days of Animals
207: Polar Bear
Pen/Ink/Digital

New Plushies!

New plushies are up in the shop!  It's been a few years since I have made plush, but I have been meaning to bring a new line of them into the shop. I'm pretty excited about these and it's hard for me to pick my favorite. I like that they are kinda sad-faced; it makes them all the more huggable! 

They are printed digitally, via Spoonflower, and are stuffed/sewn with love here in Brooklyn. 

Custom Poloroid Portraits!

I have a fun little Valentine project I have been working on; custom portraits! I made these four different ones to choose from, and they can all be customized with your names, adding/subtracting glasses, making them girl/boy, girl/girl, or boy/boy, and changing colors. They come in a 5"x5" print format and are available in my shop.   I'm SUPER excited about them! 

More Valentines goodies coming soon. xoxo

Bear Portrait

Fox Portrait

Kitty Portrait

Penguin Portrait

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

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.

VeganMoFo: What bear doesn't love pie?

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone so far!  I donated $100 this morning to For the Animals Sanctuary, and I'm hoping to donate more at the end of the month.  Completely warms my heart.  This has been super-fun painting everyday too.  It's been awhile since I have regularly painted and I think I might want to stick with this habit after the month is over too.  Oh! And did you see there is a giveaway up today to win either two of my prints or some of Jeanette's amazing pottery??  Super-great!  

Bear with Pie 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! 

Lemon Mousse Pie

Now, onto some pie.  I'm pretty psyched for Isa and Terri's Pie book to come out!  I was a recipe tester for them, and having pie around all the time was downright awesome.   I posted some pies earlier, but here are a few more of my faves (Lemon Mousse wins for the all-time best pie in the world!)

Peanut Butter Brownie Cheesecake

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

VeganMoFo: Eggplant Parm

His specialty is Eggplant Parmesan!

Mister Bear Chef is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on heavy 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! 

Oh eggplant parmesan, you are my ultimate comfort food.  Childhood dreams and all that jazz. I'm pretty specific about how it's put together though...

Requirements:  

1) Must salt eggplant beforehand to soften.  It's true. Skipping this step will result in chewier eggplant, and no one wants that (right?) Salting makes the texture dreamy.  Let your eggplant sit in a colander with salt tossed around on it until you are able to take a slice, squeeze it in your hand, and water drips out. If it's still stiff, resists bending, or just breaks in half, the salt has not finished it's magic yet. 

2) Breading makes everything better.  Whether you bread/fry or bread/bake the eggplant first, it makes the end result DELICIOUS.  I used a crunchier panko breading, with added italian spices to the mix. Also, peel that skin off the eggplant for maximum breading area!

3) More sauce is better than less sauce.  Not much is sadder than running out of sauce and having dry eggplant!

Best part: leftovers!

Sneak Peeks!

A little sneak peek at some things I have been making lately...

Shooting Stars

Shooting Stars

8"x10" Print available in the shop.

I miss the stars a whole lot, living in a big city. Every time I visit home, it is the one thing that always still surprises me, the night sky.  Billions of tiny sparkles, with the occasional shooting star. You just can't really see any stars here in NYC, so I do savor those times when I'm home in the country and they are crystal clear and amazing!  

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend! I had a lazy one, with lots of movie watching and home-cooking.  Nik and I watched A Single Man saturday, and it was so sad! I love Colin Firth in this.  Also, beautifully shot.  We also managed to watch the entire first season of Weeds. So funny!  Definitely looking forward to watching more of that show. 

Happy Tuesday!

Michelle

Shop Update Part 2!

Part 2 of the shop update! Six more will be added tomorrow...

"Sleepy Fox"

Watercolor on 300lb. Arches Watercolor Paper

8"x10" (image size is approx. 7"x9")

For Sale Here

"Changing of the Seasons"

Watercolor on 300lb. Arches Watercolor Paper

8"x10" (image size is approx. 7"x9")

For Sale Here

"Penguin Snowman"

Watercolor on 300lb. Arches Watercolor Paper

8"x10" (image size is approx. 7"x9")

For Sale Here

Some new things...

Hello! I wanted to share a few of my new paintings that I have been working super-hard on over the last few weeks. I have a thing for bears lately, if you couldn't tell. Will reveal the rest soon!





Things I'm excited about:

My group show this coming Saturday, Feb. 13th at Fuego 718, in Williamsburg, from 6-10pm. Come out for cupcakes and fun art!

Impending snowstorm! Woo! I was out of town for the last (and only one) we had this season, so I say BRING IT ON! (sorry to all those who are buried in snow already!)

Hooray for the new season of LOST!

Planning for my trip in April to Peru is FUN!

In-progress

'Lil Hippy Bears in love:



Bodum is so pretty, yeah? I heart this teapot.

Forest Party

If a bear has a party in the woods, does anybody hear? New print available in my shop!