white picket fence

layers and layers

As I wrote in one of the pages below, I had recently started feeling like I'd broken my "drawing machine" (aka the part of my brain that needs to put pen to paper). I just didn't feel like drawing, or painting, or cutting up paper. Luckily that's changed in the past week, but before that I started to make a few journal pages, really just to force myself to make something. These pages are pretty basic, lots of layers of nice paper in a simple color palette, which I've realized is my number one go-to technique. Not revolutionary, but that's okay. Because:

I think it helped. I may have mentioned here before that, as I get older, I don't really believe in "inspiration" as much as I used to. You can be inspired all day long but if it doesn't get something made, who cares? You just have to work through a dry spell and into the creativity. 

These pages were made on the same 1970s yearbook I've used for a ton of projects. I think between my etsy shop and my journal pages, I've almost used up the whole book and I'm starting to feel a little panicky about it. I'm IN LOVE with the quality of this paper. And with that... I'm off to ebay to find a replacement.  

norah at 2

Norah turned 2 a few weeks ago. I think 2 year old humans are some of the funniest and strangest creatures on the planet. It's definitely entertaining to have one in our house again (okay, entertaining mostly, infuriating sometimes). This girl loves to be outside and moves FAST. So fast that you start taking pictures and realize they're all overexposed but that seems fitting somehow and you appreciate them anyway. 

She looks at the birds and the sky and likes to "help" me do yardwork. She loves her tricycle even though she can't ride it yet, she just wants to sit on it and put her special toys in the basket: her blankie and the little Woody and Jessie from Toy Story figurines that she carries everywhere these days. 

Her hair is a mess but I don't want to cut it. It's usually in 2 curly little pigtails with pieces falling out all over. I love it. 

She got this purple dress from my mom for her birthday. She calls it her "ballerina dress" and wants to wear it all the time... even when it has macaroni stains all over the front and grass stains all over the back. As you can see, in these pictures she is wearing it over her regular clothes. Because I'm not into having fights over the little things that make her happy. 

She has discovered the magic of the words "no" and "yes" and uses both of them equally though seemingly at random. When she says "yes" it sounds like "esss" and she nods her head and smiles an adorable teeny little. When she says "no" it may or may not be accompanied by an ear-piercing shriek. We take the bad with the good on this one. 

Our sweet Norah. We are so happy to have her. 

collage & art journal ideas zine, volume one

I've wanted to make a zine for probably 10+ years. I can't believe it took me this long because it was SUPER fun and the perfect project for me. Collage, little books, typewriting? Yep, that's me. 

So here it is! My first little zine. First of many, I hope. 

It was made entirely by hand, no computer involved. (Just pens, x-acto, scissors, tape, old paper, a typewriter and the copy machines at Staples & FedEx.) Though I have to tell you... typing on a typewriter is not very forgiving. There is a typo in the zine, by the time I noticed I didn't have the heart to redo the entire thing, and I'm just chalking it up to the downfalls of the medium. Namely, the fact that a 1950s typewriter doesn't have spell check. Plus it's like a fun treasure hunt! Find the typo! Whee!

I'll be sharing a few more peeks of the inside soon, and maybe some of the original color pages. 

Available on etsy! Hooray. 

6 lessons: march 2013

You probably know I'm big on life lessons and this past month felt full of them. Okay, some of them might have just been mistakes that I'm attempting to gain something positive from. But some were pretty sweet things to learn, too. 

1. Sometimes your kids just cry and whine a lot. It's probably better to stop trying to analyze it and just move on. (See above. Norah has been fussy lately. Lesson 1a: at least when you hold your 27 pound toddler half the day, your arms get a pretty good workout.)

2. Roller skating is fun. Parades are fun. Roller skating in a parade is really, really fun. (Watch a video here and look for me at 0:59 and 1:53.)

3. Don't leave expensive and fragile items laying around if you're going to accidentally take a nap and the kids are playing nearby. Like say, the $500 glasses you just bought 4 months ago. D'oh.

4. But then also: Never underestimate the importance of threatening to take your business elsewhere. When Lenscrafters tells you there's nothing they can do about your broken glasses and you're just going to have to buy a new pair, tell them you'll probably buy something cheaper online. Then the glasses lady will be all "Well... maybe we can sell you an insurance plan and then say your glasses were covered previously." Still a ripoff, but not as big of a ripoff. Or maybe the lesson here is that I should have just bought cheap glasses online in the first place? 

5. If you're in a weird March cold snap but it's above 35 degrees, make your kids play outside anyway. Because you never know when it's going to get even colder, and on those 0 degree windchill days you'll be pretty happy you haven't already been stuck inside all week. 

6. And last but not least, when you take jumping photos, make sure to bend your knees. It makes your vertical look a lot more impressive. This is totally not photoshopped, and yes, I'm about as shocked as you are that I can jump this high. 

tuscan serifs (aka circus-y lettering)

My kids like to read the same stories over and over. I've realized there are a ton of truly horrid children's books out there, so I try to find ones that we all enjoy. Them for the story, me for the art and art direction, of course.

These are 2 of our current faves:An Oliver Jeffers classic, The Incredible Book Eating Boy, and Limelight Larry by Leigh Hodgkinson. Both are full of inspiring hand-drawn typography, but I kept coming back to the capital serifs on "incredible" and "Larry."

I've been noticing this type of lettering more and more; so I did a little research and learned that it's called a Tuscan Serif, or Bifurcated Serif. Most people, myself included, associate these with the circus or wild west-y type stuff. 

Anyway, the more I looked at it, the more I really just wanted to draw some. 

I know I've said this before, but it's always good to go back to your old loves. I've been doodling letters for about as long as I can remember. It feels so natural and comforting. 

Sadly though, this is about as much drawing as I've done in the past month or so. My current sketchbook is much larger than I normally use, about 9x12, and I'm starting to realize it's just not working for me. I have no desire to work in it and that's pretty unusual for me. I'm all for trying new things but this time I struck out. It just goes to show how the right materials really can make a difference. Has something like that ever happened to you?