trafalgar's square

oh my darling

Valentines is just around the corner (less than a month now!), and with it, the endless search for the perfect valentine.  I love the valentines exchanges, it's like a heart-themed Halloween party.

 I remeber going through my little cardboard shoe box decorated with construction paper hearts and eagerly opening, looking, and sorting through each valentine.  As kids growing up, my siblings and I would spend days planning and creating hand-made valentines for one another (no small feat when there are 12 of you!).  The supreme challenge though, was trying to create the perfect love letters for my mum and pop.  That's when the sibling rivalry came through.  Not only were we kids trying to impress our parents with each of our valentines, we were in a deathly race to see who could make the best one for them.  No wonder my parents always looked a little startled/overwhelmed/frightened when we would en masse deliver our cards to them.

So, being the kid that never grew up, I had a lot of fun designing these new valentines for the shop.

 I of course had to use my pup painting (I have a bit of a crush on him if you can't tell), 

and I love the shower of hearts with the little bunny--just to take the "catch a star" theme to a new level. :)

 They're the perfect size for small hands, and I love the crackly sound the glassine sleeves make when you slip them in.  Just finish them off with a few candy hearts or shiny heart stickers, and you're set for making someone's valentines a very happy day.

 

now I know my abc's...

Thank you all for your sweet comments about little Lucy.  I can't believe she's already 4 weeks old today, time is just flying by.

Before this event is over, I just wanted to share with you trafalgar's square's feature on Zulily (you can find it here).  Tomorrow is the last day you can buy our prints at a hugely discounted price, so hurry over and take a look.

I've never offered limited edition prints before, but I am excited to announce that there are a number of limited edition prints we have premiering at this event.  One in particular is an alphabet print I am button-bursting proud of:  

I've always wanted to create an animal alphabet, but I never could come up with the right design and layout.  Never, that is, until I was about three weeks from my due date with Lucy.   I spent the next week sketching pages and pages of animal heads-I wanted this print to have a bit of sophistication about it, so I sketched adult animals rather than babies.  Then came the watercoloring and this gave me the biggest headache.  I looked through pages and pages of nurseries in books, magazines, and online. This print needed to not be primary-colorish, I needed something elegant, clean, and whimsical, something that would look beautiful in any baby's room, whether boy or girl.  So, when I happened upon this image, I was ecstatic.  

 I am so pleased with the way this painting turned out.  It was quite the challenge putting it together as far as timing went, but maybe all those baby-anitcipatory emotions I had at the time helped make this become a reality.  

 

Quick note: the limited edition of this print is a 13x19, but there is also an 8x10 open-edition available. Don't let the blown out colors of the photograph dissuade you, these prints are gorgeous!  :) 

baby days

 

 

 I'm in love with these blissful baby days...

 

 

welcome

Lucy Willow

our little angel

waiting...

Remember when I mentioned my magnum opus I was working on a while back? I really should have told you all earlier but with one thing and another, I kind of put it off until the very last minute (hopefully). By the way, for some reason, I can't upload pics onto my blog from this computer, but believe me, I would if I could. But to get back to my announcement...Adam and I have been working on a little project for the past 9 months and we're happy, thrilled, delighted, ecstatic, etc to announce...we're having a BABY!!!

I'm actually in the hospital as I write, hoping that Babykins will make its appearance soon. Things are going very smoothly thus far (I hope I don't jinks us by writing that), and it looks like Baby is well on its way. I've been here now for 11 hours and am starving for something other than ice chips and apple juice. A bowl of linguine alfredo would be heavenly... I'll definitely keep you posted and hopefully before the night is over, our little family of four will have acquired the latest model. :)

very grateful

Here's wishing each and every one of you a very Happy Thanksgiving! Let's all eat tons of pumpkin pie with heaping dollops of whipped cream, lots of turkey, and platefuls of stuffing, yams, and cranberry sauce!

I also wanted to thank you for your support, well wishes, and very kind comments, both here and received through the shop. It's such a pleasure to work with you, hear your wonderful ideas for future prints, and to share a little bit of my world with you through my illustrations. Thank you so much!

Now, let's go eat some turkey! :)

 

p.s. I have an enormous "thank-you-kindly" sale going on in the shop right now, so once the pie plates are put away, please feel free to stop by!

so, whatever happend to halloween?

Gee wilikins, nothing like a little lapse between posts!  I know Halloween's come and gone, so I shall apologize profusely and proceed to thoroughly bore you with a recap of our pumpkin night.  :)

Our Halloween was lovely and (as usual for us), completely chaotic.  Adam ended up getting a pretty severe spider bite that required immediate attention at urgent care minutes before we set out to go trick or treating (he was put on a pretty powerful antibacterial and is doing much better btw), so our little Rapunzel princesses had about 20 minutes of roaming the neighborhoods for candy before houses starting turning off their lights.  I had the most delightful party planned, but ended up having to skip most of the activities.  But, at any rate we still had a wonderful time of it with hot dogs, my mum's legendary chili, and root beer in ice cold brown bottles, and watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 

 And the pumpkin pinata, pin the tail on the cat game, and cookie decorating contest I had so carefully planned for that night will do just fine for next year...

I really hate to do this but...

I have to give you a sneak peek of our new Christmas line of goodies.

There's lots more coming (I'm sooo excited to show off our new line of brooches, especially our jolly line), but that's all I'll show for now.  There.  That's done with--now to get back to Halloween!!  :)

 

 

a halloween outing...

Aside from Christmas, Halloween is my favorite holiday.  I love the magical side of it, the bright orange pumpkins with their flickering grins, the crisp feel to the air, the leaves on trees that turn different colors every day, chocolate cupcakes with little candy corn pumpkins decorating the tops, and the thrilling search for just the right costume for that special night.

We recently stopped by one of our favorite haunts, "Roger's Garden," at Newport Beach.  I love the vintage-inspired treasures they featured for this year's displays.

 

 

 

 Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween without my favorite character--

That's right, the legendary Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

Originals

Well, aside from getting ready for Halloween (spooky posts to arrive soon) I have a few more original paintings up in the shop! And what with the economy being as lovely as it is, I've put them into a more affordable price range (yay!).

Ny little girls have been on a Madeline craze lately, and after reading about pooh-poohing the lions in the zoo for the millionth time, I finally gave into their demands to create a Madeline painting. 

I think she may not be the last of my Maddy-themed prints.

 

And as if I didn't already have enough wishing star illustrations:

Nothing like a little star flying to brighten your day, eh?

Oh, and speaking of originals, I have a particular original I have been working on for the past several months nonstop.  This one looks to be one of my best creations ever (there's only two before this that have my undying affection) and it's one that I'm absolutely tickeled to show you.  I'll be sharing the details of this magnum opus in the next little bit, so be sure to stayed tuned!  :)