Painting the Roses Red

Prompt: Tree

I've been on a kick to paint more these days. I don't do it enough, it's one of my favorite things to do, and I want to get back in the habit of doing something artsy "just for fun" daily. I bought a block of watercolor paper, some new brushes, and I'm not stopping until the block is full. It just so happens that Spoonflower is having a 30-day drawing challenge right now, so I have been hopping on their prompts and going to town with my paints. Cosmic alignment or something. Anyways, here is a glimpse of what I have been painting, and you can follow along via instagram (and maybe I'll post a few more here in a week or so.) 

Wheee!

Mountains

Cactus

Landscape, Lemons, and Arrow

Spoonflower Contest!

I'm so stinking excited about this! So, the amazing and wonderful Spoonflower is pairing up with Robert Kaufman Fabrics, to host a contest in which the winner will be offered a contract for their collection of fabrics, a $1000 advance on royalties, and a Wacom tablet! Holy wow, right? The theme given was pen and ink/watercolor-inspired fabrics, which is kinda right up my alley. Anyways, I made a purrdy floral pattern to enter into the contest, and I made it into the top 100! I would LOVE to move onto the top 8, and create 7 additional patterns to go with this one.

Here's where I need your help! Voting is open now until the 9th, and I would really love your vote! You have to have a Spoonflower account to vote, but that is not such a bad thing to have anyway (because they rock!)  Please and thank you!!

You can vote here (and find mine amongst some really pretty patterns!) 

Detail #1

Detail #2

Detail #3

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. 

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.

Spoonflower Swatches

Hello!  Summer seems to be slipping by rather quickly, as of late, and all of a sudden it is August. Yowza.  I can't wait for Fall though; Bring on the hoodies and apple cider and crisp leaves and pumpkin-flavored everything!  I had an old friend visit this past weekend, and we had a blast.  Coney Island,  The Museum of Natural History, LOTS of walking around, way too much sunshine, good food and beer, and great talks.  I love reconnecting with old friends that I haven't seen in awhile, and feeling like no time has passed since you last saw each other. Yay friends!

I've been a pattern-making fool lately.  Well, for a few months actually, but I was saving up patterns to get test swatches printed via Spoonflower.  Finally got some back yesterday and I'm pretty psyched about them!  Most of them I put up for sale on Spoonflower (you can have a little shop on there; super-neat!) and a few I'm keeping to making a nifty new product for my shop and for upcoming craft shows.  If any of you are on Spoonflower, I would love to connect with you on there and see your patterns.  Such a great community there and so fun to be able to print your own designs!

What I wore Today

There is a fun Flickr group called "What I wore Today" where it is drawings only, and I finally got my butt in gear to participate!  I'm going to try and make it a regular or semi-regular thing too. 

I've also been working on some new patterns that I have sent off to Spoonflower to be printed. Eee!! I'm super-excited about them. I don't know why it has taken me so long to try it out.  Here's a little swatch of one of the patterns:

Other than that, I'm just workworkworking on stuff for upcoming holiday fairs that I'm doing and enjoying the cooler weather (omg soup! hot cocoa! lots of tea! chili! pumpkin-anything!)

I'm also getting pretty psyched for VeganMoFo to start in November. Are you participating? I am!