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my blog
illustration
design
about me
say hi

Aurora Borealis #1

December 15, 2013

In Uncategorized

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Happy Tuesday, lovelies! I was just out for a bike ride/walk to clear my mind and simultaneously get myself to the dentist to adjust a filling so I can chew without pain and resume my popcorn habit... It is a white day outside, and there are decorator snow flurries in the air. I gave myself plenty of time, dressed for the weather, and I was careful to avoid icy patches and walked whenever I felt like it. When I turned onto the street where the dentist office is, I saw this tiny red fairy door. I thought to myself, “Even tiny creatures who live in a stump have a screen door to keep bugs out.” It just made me chuckle, so here are a couple pictures. I hope you notice something that makes you smile today, too! And if you love popcorn, I hope you enjoy a big bowl and think of me as I wait to feel my mouth again.

Painting happy plants brightens a grey day, right?! Hoping you have a great day today, lovelies, and remember to take the time to do something that makes you happy, too!

Happy Saturday, lovelies! I’m sipping a delicious ginger herbal tea @wesleyandrews.cc while painting leaves and berries in the brightest blue! Seems like an appropriate color palette since I’m headed to the meet up with friends @amswedinstitute in a short while! I hope you have a lovely day, and remember to take the time to do something that makes you happy!

Painting rain, sipping a chaider (apple cider + chai), and enjoying the musical stylings of a barista who occasionally sings along and harmonizes with the music playing here @fivewattcoffee on Nicollet. I’ve got smiles-a-plenty on this grey day! What are you smiling about? Do you have some fun plans this weekend?

Happy Friday, lovelies! Sometimes I look at something I’m painting and think to myself, “That needs polka dots!” or “That could use some stripes!” Today, as I sipped a homemade chai on this gray morning and painted in my book, polka dots came to mind immediately. I grabbed my white uni•ball signo pen and started to add white dots, first as highlights on the berries and then as polka dots on the flowers. I like it! I hope you have a lovely day and take the time to do something that makes you happy!

Happy Magic Monday, lovelies! I am going to pack up so many orders to ship today, but I’m squeezing in a little time to paint in my watercolor journal and sip an oat milk chai @quixoticcoffee this afternoon. The sun is shining, the air is crisp and chilly, and I’m warm and toasty, feeling so much love from all of these orders I look forward to shipping today! Also, there are a couple young men beside me who are passionately discussing video game music composition and it is making me smile so wide, my mouth hurts! They keep humming the melodies aloud and getting super excited! Do you ever overhear conversations that just make you so happy?! It’s one of my favorite things! I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to take the time to do something that makes you happy! I hope you overhear something really great, too.

Hello, lovelies! New to my online shop this morning are these adorable tiny gnome gift enclosure cards! And today only, when placing your online order for any 4 notecard sets (or more), if you write in the notes section, “Happy Magic Monday!” I’ll include a set of these tiny gnome gift cards as a gift from me to you! Happy Magic Monday!

Happy Saturday! I awoke this grey morning with indigo floral patterns dancing in my head, begging to be put on paper. So, maybe that is a poetic overstatement, but it has been a couple days since I last painted, and I awoke with a very strong desire and a very specific color palette and subject matter in mind, so after eating a giant vegan breakfast burrito and sipping a hemp milk chai at French Meadow in Minneapolis, I am doing a bit of painting, and it feels so wonderful! Also, lovelies, I am blown away by all of the orders I have received in the last few days! Once I return home, I have more orders to pick and pack than I have ever had before!!! I’m so excited for you to receive the notecards and artwork you have ordered and for the joy that I hope it will bring and spread! Thank you for continuing to make this dream of a job possible for me! I am beyond thrilled to be able to paint and create for a living, and having people who love and support what I do means the world to me!

Gnome Notes are listed in my online shop! Go get ‘em, lovelies! Give these cute little gnomes a home and then spread joy with them! That is what they’re for.

Happy Magic Monday! This morning I worked on some fun client work at Peace Coffee in Minneapolis. I sipped a masala chai seasoned apple cider as I worked at a bright high top table by the window. Today is a grey day, which is perfect for getting back to work in a cozy way. (That is a thing, isn’t it?! I’m making it a thing.) Anyway, I wanted to send out a greeting and a thank you to all of you who were able to come to my open studio/art sale this weekend! My heart is warmed by all of the positive energy that filled my house. Over and over, I heard lovely people say to me that they feel like they know me, and I believe they do. I am an open, honest person, and if you like me and you like what I do and what I share, we ARE friends. I may not know your name, but I have a feeling we see things in similar ways, appreciate the same sorts of things, and have very much in common. It was a pleasure meeting so many new friends this weekend! Now, I need to try to get some pictures of these gnome notes, hygge notecards, and new prints so I can update my online store today. I’ll be sure to post here once I’ve done that! I’m really happy with how the cards and prints turned out, and I can’t wait to share them with you!

Happy Friday, lovelies! Today I am running errands, preparing for my open studio art sale this weekend, but I have to eat lunch, so while I wait for my food, I’m pulling out my paints and adding a bit more to these rainy day dog (and crocodile) walkers. Sometimes errands and life and business and emails and laundry and chores get in the way of my art practice, but if I can squeeze in a tiny bit of time for me, I always feel better for it. Hoping you have a wonderful day, a lovely weekend, and take the time to do something that makes you happy!

Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I think about what I do for a living. Projects come along that just make me so ridiculously happy. For example, this evening I sketched the first of many humanized koalas for a client in Australia. That’s right. Now, in interest of full disclosure and transparency, there is still plenty of stress, uncertainty, self-doubt and difficulties that come along with my job. But this has to be a giant perk, right? I get to draw koalas dressed like people for my job?! As a kid I wanted to be an animal masseuse because I wanted to be paid to pet animals all day long. (No dealing with syringes and surgeries and those difficult vet things!) But this is so silly that I think younger me would likely be happy with my career choice, had she known this was even an option. It’s hard not to smile as I sketch. Wishing you something silly to smile about today. Remember to take the time to do something that makes you happy, too! Drawing koalas in clothing was a great way to end my day!

Hello, lovelies! Happy Friday! I just wanted to announce that I’ll be having an Open Studio & Art Sale on Saturday, November 17th and Sunday, November 18th from 12-4pm both days. If you are in the Twin Cities area, stop by the weekend after this coming weekend for some cookies, light snacks, hot mulled cider, and to shop all the available art prints, original art, books, and all 10 notecard sets. It should be a really great time!

Happy Friday, lovelies! Yesterday was a very busy day where I was running errands and didn’t have time to share with you or eat a timely lunch until my mother sat me down and made me an avocado sandwich at 2:30 or so. I had wanted to do a throwback Thursday yesterday to this particular Thursday a while back when I was feeling down and painted these happy thoughts to cheer myself up, but I’ll just share it today. This painting is now, several months later, on the cover of the Hygge Notecards folio and is one of the four designs of the notecards they will hold. Yesterday I went to the printer to inspect the scoring of the folios. It felt so rewarding to see this art in a form that can help spread even more joy! And knowing who is making it and where it is made and what it is made from makes me so happy! 100% post-consumer recycled paper printed with vegetable based agri-inks in St.Paul, MN. After visiting the printer, I brought several boxes of Gnome Notes folios that had just been scored and cut to my parents house, where my mother excitedly (and seemingly tirelessly) folds them and uses double-stick tape to make them into the boxes that will hold the cards and envelopes that will arrive today from the printer. She sent me a photo last night of 180 boxes, all ready for cards! I called her right away to thank her and got all teary eyed and emotional, just feeling unbelievably lucky to have such a supportive family and to have the opportunity to create so much joy, both for myself and hopefully for others. My mamma said she gets happy folding and assembling these folios and thinking of how happy they will make others. It just made me cry happy tears. I’m so humbled and happy to be able to do this! So, thank you! These new notecard sets will be listed in my online shop soon, and if you want a local store in your area to carry Striped Pear Studio Notecards, let them know! :) Thank you for giving me so much joy and making so many joyful things possible for me! I hope you take the time to do something that makes you happy today, too!

I’m looking at press sheets from the new notecard sets for Striped Pear Studio, which were printed yesterday! They are drying now and it won’t be long before Gnome Notes and Hygge Notecards will be scores and trimmed and folded and made available to you! I’m so excited about these! Can you tell? ————————————————
If you are unfamiliar with the word “hygge,” it is a Danish word/concept/life-goal that basically translates to “coziness,” and it is a celebration of the simple joys in life. Basically, it is what I am all about?! So, yes. I am excited about these new sets of cards and hope you are, too! Gnome Notes and Hygge Notecards for the win this winter!!

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