Illustration Friday: Bundled Up

It's Illustration Friday! (Well, Saturday actually). This week's word was 'hibernation' which is appropriate, because as you know I'm super depressed that summer is over. On top of that it's been a gross, cold rainy day so I'm ready to bundle up and not leave the house for a few months.

We spent today actually walking in the cold rain to head down to Crafty Bastards in D.C. It was fun to see all the interesting crafts, etc. 

We saw Jay McCarroll from season one of Project Runway which was pretty awesome, especially since it was Kevin who pointed him out. We also ran into Jessica from the Declaration of You and I commiserated that today would have been a PERFECT day for her new rain boots.

End of Summer

I don't like to admit that summer is really really over. This weekend will usher in October and I can't even pretend that's summer like I can September. We spent this past weekend with our lovely friends at the Dogfish Dash in Rehobeth Beach, Delaware.

During the weekend when we weren't running or sampling the fine craft brews, we spent our time meandering up and down the boardwalk and kicking sand around on the beach. The weather was sort of foggy and chilly, but it was still really relaxing and beautiful.

On our last morning we took a walk on the sand to chase birds, survey GIANT dead horseshoe crabs (no joke, one was as large as a dinner plate), and say goodbye to summer.

Thanks for the excellent weekend Team :o) Now I'm working on catching up with the Declaration of You, my grad school project and some bird footprint-inspired doodles for later this week. 

Happy September!

I'm trying to be happy that it's September, but really, I'm devastated. Summer is my favorite season by far because there's no way you can confuse it with my least favorite season... Winter. I'm a Florida girl at heart and I need my 100 degrees and 99 percent humidity days!

So along those lines I made this orang-ey fall-ish print to get pumped up. The inspiration actually came from this photo I found on  Design*Sponge.

Source: designsponge.com

Another reason I'm getting pumped up is that later this month I'm starting "The Declaration of You" with Michelle Ward and Jessica Swift. Wooo! I'm really excited about it because I'm hoping it will help me sort out some of this stuff I've been thinking about for a whiiilllee.

I've been trying to figure out what to do about sharing/selling my doodles and artwork and the level of committment I want to put into it. It's complicated and I have full confidence these wonderful ladies will help guide me through so of my questions. Stay tuned for updates!

A Trip to the Barn Sale

Today we final headed up to Frederick to check out the barn sale at Chartreuse & Co. that we heard about back in February. There was a pretty good mix of re-finished and needing-to-be-refinished furniture. Best of all, most of the prices were pretty reasonable. Only a few pieces were over $500. The old library card catalog to the left may have been one of them. Kevin loved the Scrabble pillow on top.

There were more than a few pieces that we really loved. Sadly, due to our complete and utter lack of space, we just couldn't commit to bringing them home. The whole experience made me desperately wish we had a house but it was really fun just to poke around.

I loved this industrial workshop cart. The color was like a deep teal. The little herb bottles were really fun. We actually brought home this window frame for about $30. I'm trying to decided whether to turn it into frames, a chalk board, a magnet board... so many options. Any ideas?

I really love this desk. The top was so nice. We were both pretty obsessed with this cabinet which was a blue-y gray color (there was definitely a weird "antique blue" theme throughout the sale... as if all re-painted antiques should be blue).

So what do you think? Should we have made room for any of these treasures? Ever been to a barn sale? It's literally in a big barn in the middle-ish of nowhere.

Orchid You Glad?

Here's the next in my series of botanic garden-inspired prints. The orchids at the U.S. Botanic Gardens are amazing. The different colors and patterns are almost shocking. This was my favorite one (mainly because I'm a little obsessed with pink... talk about shocking, I know).

This is the first stripe I've made so I was unsure about the process but really it was pretty much the same deal. Maybe I'll use this pattern from my DIY Keds that I've been craving? I'm getting ready to order some fat quarters of fabric from Spoonflower to mess with as well. 

I used Kuler again to pull the colors from my photo. You can download them here. Which do you like better the all-green or the green and pink? Should I try something else? As always, try click on them to see the big version and try it out on your desktop! It's a fun, end-of-summer color splash.

Illustration Friday: Something You Should Know

Okra has always been my favorite food which I think some people find weird. It's typically a pretty slimy food depending on how you cook it. Yeah, don't judge.

My favorite is fried okra. Anyways, two reasons okra is on my mind today. The first is that we went to the Bethesda Farmer's Market and I bought okra AND pickled okra. That's in addition to our adorable little okra plant Kevin is growing me. So I'm going to be eating a lot of it. Good thing I love it.

Second reason is that I saw this Project Doodle on Good for your favorite meal. So I figured I'd do this for the week as well as Illustration Friday which has the theme: perennial. 

Response 6: Summer Colors

So this is really my LAST last post for class. My classmate Jonathan made a post about how much he's looking forward to summer and I have to say, "ME TOO!" 

As I mentioned in the last post, I've recently discovered the wonder of color-izing my old black and white designs in Photoshop. I knew there was a reason I had been saving all these high-resolution scans. Here's one...

Here's the black and white version. I had originally named it "Chlorine," because it reminds me of the way the sunlight hits the bottom of a swimming pool (a very summer-y thought). Here's another one that was originally called "Rivers" but adding the green really made me realize how much it looks like growing grass or uncurling ferns.

Anyways, adding fantastic colors to these designs will be keeping me busy for a while I'm sure. What do you think? Better than the originals?