Friday, May 30, 2008

A Stapler??

Our First Stapler!
What an odd item... a stapler. Even the word is a bit odd but for some reason they are so important, even pop culture has found a place in the craziness of staplers with the ever famous "Red Stapler" from the movie Office Space. But for some reason over the last 8 years Donald and I have never found a real reason to own one. As an artist you never find a need to actually staple anything, that just put holes into works of art and who really wants to do that? Even with us getting our degrees, writing papers and Donald going through his masters program we never found a need to get one. Our reports were always put into some sort of binder and art was always mounted on to board. But now with my online store, I find myself in the world of packaging (which I love!!) and no stapler (which seems really strange)!! It's just not normally spoken, "Hey honey, let's make our Friday night really fun and go purchase a stapler!" But that is exactly what I did :) I have been putting together one of my thank you cards for new moms in a package of 3 and the absence of a stapler is quite inconvenient. But finally after a trip to Staples some yummy Mexican food, and Starbucks with kid run a muck, Uncle Mike and Donald, I came home and stapled my first package of cards together. We are now the proud owners of a wonderful flat back stapler.

My First Package of Cards :)

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sketch

My friend Wendy has a lovely little girl (Cate) who is turning 1! She asked that you not bring gifts to the party, but I still couldn't help myself. I spent yesterday afternoon sketching out a picture of the two of them from photos I took at my Emma's first birthday a few months back. I wrapped it inside a children's book so that it wouldn't get bent. It's just a little something I thought Cate would cherish when she was older. I do hope they like it, the party is this afternoon. Unfortunately the scanned jpg below is nothing compared to the real sketch.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Soft Opening


After loads of tears, disagreements, laughs, and hard work I have finally opened my online shop. It's a very soft opening with only 2 items up for sale but as the weeks continue my shop will grow. I should be receiving all my mailing and packaging items today or tomorrow. On Friday, Donald and I are going shopping for specialty fine art cotton paper that I can use in my Epson. Which any artist will tell you, the better the paper the better the print! Of course it helps to have a wonderful Epson R1800 that does everything and a paper supplier that also loves Epson printers so carries only the best to run through them. My first two items up for sale are both printed on 100% cotton acid-free Hahnemuhle photo rag 308 gsm paper. This is currently my choice for all fine prints, but am looking forward to talking to my paper supplier to see if they recommend something a bit different for what I am doing or if I should stick with my first choice. I absolutely love paper shopping and am looking forward to my Friday! And if all goes well, with in a few weeks I can have a Grand Opening for my shop. You can currently visit my shop by clicking on the link to in the upper left.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Logo Update

Did some work on my bird logo today, made some minor changes that make a big impact. I cleaned up my flower and leaves, I redid the swish in the branch, gave my bird more bird like legs, and fixed the eye area. I love the way it looks now more than ever.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Pirate Girl of the Sandbox

I have been working on my Pirate Girl of the Sandbox. I still need to do a sailor girl to go along side this one. I got the idea from spending so much time at the playground watching Emma run around like a little pirate stealing all the shoes that were taken off to play in the sand. Emma loves shoes (hers and everyone else), so I am always having to return shoes to other mommies and kids. Emma doesn't mind ever giving them back and always does so with a smile, I think she is just happy to have them for what ever brief moment she can. So just image the Pirate Girl's bucket full of shoes. The pose came from pictures that I took one day while Donald and Emma and I were at the beach in Carlsbad.


Pirate Girl of the Sandbox