Print & Pattern

Yay what a wonderful day! Bowie over at Print & Pattern has posted about me - you can read it here. Thank you Bowie!

invitation samples

Here are just a few samples of some of the wedding stationery collections I have over at LookLoveSend. There are a lot more, but I got frustrated with the lighting and my camera and stopped at 3 photos... I guess the camera isn't liking me today...

Always, ALWAYS back up your files.

Last week was INSANE. I had my usual almost-full time work with LookLoveSend, which takes up most of my time, plus several ads and editorials due for the various trade magazines associated with art licensing and Surtex due at the end of the week. For whatever reason I finished them up early and emailed them all out on Monday and Tuesday of last week. Phew wow, I felt good to get them out the door. Then on Wednesday morning I get an email from the Surtex people saying that a better booth opened up and would I like it? Heck yeah I would! So I put several things on hold, and RUSHED to revise all of the art and editorials that I had just sent out and let them all know that hey, my booth number has changed, so don't use that art I sent, use this new revised art. I heard back, and great, they all got the message. Nice.

Then Wednesday afternoon, my computer kept freezing and I had to force-restart several times, and by the end of the day with one last forced restart, it just DIED. Wouldn't turn on at all. Gray screen of death. Uh oh. I scheduled an appointment for the next morning at the nearest Genius Bar (which is an hour from me...sigh). It turns out that my hard drive crapped out. No going back. But thankfully I use Time Machine and back up faithfully all the time to an external hard drive, so I knew I didn't lose any files (or if I had, it wasn't much). So I ordered a new hard drive and left my baby (the iMac) with the Apple Store and headed home. I wasn't under warranty anymore (my applecare expired last year), but it wasn't much money to buy a new hard drive, so I was very happy. When I got it back in working condition the next day (that was a pleasant surprise, because they said it would take longer) I plugged in right in and started the restoring from Time Machine process - it began on Thursday night at 6:30, and I couldn't believe it but it took over 50 HOURS to restore. WHAT?! Sometime during the wee-hours of Sunday morning the process was complete - when I woke up I checked and yes, all my files were there. Thank heavens!

I learned some lessons through this experience:

1. Always ALWAYS back up. ALWAYS.
2. Use a firewire connection for that external hard drive. Mine was a usb, and I think that may be one of the reasons it took so long to restore. I ordered myself a new external hard drive - bigger faster stronger and with a firewire connection. It arrives tomorrow.
3. I've since invested in the cloud, and am using it as one more line of back-up.
4. Its pretty nice to have several days in a row off, even if it was forced and not planned for, and a little stressful in the beginning.

So at the end of this all, I have my computer back, running smoothly and better than ever. And I am in a great booth at Surtex - booth 355! Right in the thick of things! Yay!

The latest

I'm up to my eyeballs in preparations for Surtex 2012 - 2 months away! And here's a sneak peak of my latest floral collection that I'll be debuting at the show - Garden Path. Bright and colorful! Whoa!

There's so much to do - design ads and postcards and the booth, price out banners, figure out logistics, and prep my ipad for my portfolio. Plus actually create new art to show, and juggle all my clients who must have banded together and decided to call me all at the same time. Despite all that, I'm having a very good time putting everything together and I'm getting very excited for May. Mark your calendars - May 20-22 at the Javits, booth 656.

It's a new year....

Hello internet-world! I haven't posted in months, being so busy with my new job at LookLoveSend.com (I'm their Art Director now, in addition to creating invitations for them) and juggling various illustration projects (which I can't share just yet) and also signing on again with Eugene Textiles to create some great new quilting fabrics. Oh yeah, I also no longer have an agent and am doing it on my own! And I'm deep into preparations for SURTEX 2012 in May, and this year I have a booth all by myself :) YIKES. ok, breathe...

Last month I finished my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project and mailed it in to the Brooklyn Library. I was able to go back, after I finished the pencil sketches and a little ink, and fill in some parts with color (colored pencil) and I'm happy about it. The cover turned out great I think, though the inside pages weren't as accepting of colored pencil.... ok I guess, but the kraft paper of the cover showing through the colored pencil is just delicious.

Here's my story, from start to finish. Enjoy!

This just in

I received some samples yesterday of stickers made with my In The Kitchen collection from Momenta. Cute!

Sketchbook Project - In 10 Minutes

Here are pages 2 and 3...with lots more to come!