The beach was full of so much beautiful white fluffy snow, we had a blast running around. The waves were crashing and the tide was high!

Well. Doesn’t this look violent? This is how they play. Funny. Looks so violent. Really, you do hear teeth clanking, entire dog jaws clanking and clicking. But the rest of the time they are curled up into a ball and sweet as pie. Well this is actually how they USED to play before they started going to doggie daycare (while the boyfriend is away for a few weeks in Italy, working on stuff for his company.) Now, they are so worn out they just collapse in a pile of fur and snore, truly wiped out from 12 hours of running in a big dog pack and chasing balls, etc. They love it, and as puppies, how wonderful to just be a puppy all day long. Thank goodness the vet is our neighbor, she had to make a house call as both of them have ear infections. She remembered to bring over the leather muzzle so that Beppo looks like hannibal lector while she administers ear medication. He is a fussy patient, true that.

So the art show was really fun, really motivating and I really felt the love and support from my friends who made it out. The work is up all month so if you’re local, check it out. I showed up and started to take photos and my camera battery died. I am so mad, because I am usually so hyper-prepared with stuff like charged batteries, etc. Well I wasn’t this time, so no photos until the Curator emails me her photos, and/or when I go back and take some photos myself. It looks great framed, really classy. I can’t wait to show you. I will be screen-printing some new tee’s with some new designs, and working on some new products. I know (well I hope) that Spring is coming soon (despite the fresh 6 - 9 inches of snow we just got today) and I have plenty of reality to know that since the Winter was spent hibernating, the Spring and Summer will be spent outdoors. Not chained to a drawing table. So. Trying to be productive now, while the governor of Massachusetts declares a snow emergency and sends every non-government employee home early today. Crazy, huh? Snowy Winter for sure.

Some things I’m really into right now (cuz all cool bloggers are making lists full of links they love):
*Signing onto Itunes and having it ask me if I would like to complete an album by downloading the rest of it for a fraction of the album price (cuz it noticed I have one or two songs from an album.) I downloaded this, this and this and they are all really nice listens. This too. I love madlib and this is a great album. This too. I hate to believe the hype, but had to download the recent Radiohead too. It’s good. It only gets better the more you listen to it. Hypnotic. Oh yeah. This too. I needed it. Pretty fantastic. Just needed it. Did I mention that I drive a lot and listen to my ipod constantly? New music is pretty much like filling up the gas tank to drive, it’s vital.

*A slumber party Saturday night with my dear friend Sarah, who is coming over to make art, play with dogs, drink wine, listen to music, walk the beach, and eat raviolis with me. Yay!

*Drawing cute decorative footwear treatments for shoes that light up for little girls. Taking a break from my mostly fashion-inspired line for kids, and doing cutesy stuff.

*Loving this new handbag, I finally have my grown-up lady leather handbag, thanks Ebay. Why do I have to vacillate so drastically between little girl and old lady style?

*These wellies are really coming in handy for all those doggie pee breaks in all of this snow. Had to throw out the pair I bought at Ricky’s in NYC. Typical NYC story, you’re wearing darling shoes and then comes a torrential downpour, I mean like flash-flooding style and you pop into the closest store and hope they sell something rubber for your feet, to save your cute shoes. The cheap wellies I bought were total crap, really, but somehow they got me through 2 winters in NYC as my only winter boots. I hate spending money on ugly things, but sometimes, outerwear just isn’t cute but totally necessary. I like these.

*Being included in the Schmap Boston for a photo I took while just visiting one summer, now I live here. Funny. But the happy part being, if really you could just do what you like, and self-publish, and people would find you and support you for it… nice. Flickr is really nice. One of my favorite web places. I just looked at my stats, and it’s interesting. I’ve been a member for 3 years, and have 2673 photos, with 12,642 views. I have met people from all over the world who have similar interests; whether it’s taking photos of the pavement, or art or whatever. We’re all connected. Yay!

Things I’m a bit sad about:
I miss my boyfriend a lot. And so do the dogs. We are moping. They don’t understand why the kitchen isn’t filled with the potent smell of garlic every night and why they don’t go to the park and the beach every day.
The hockey ice skates I’ve had since I was 15 years old, broke, and I was really sad. I loved them. So I bought a new pair and am excited to try them out. Hope I don’t sound like an old man and say “they don’t make ‘em like they used too.”
Not having vacation time until Summer. This winter is long and I could really use a trip to some sun.
Realizing it has been a year and a half since I’ve been to Portland. I really miss my family and friends. Had a vivid dream last night and I could feel a Portland summer breeze on my arm. I could feel the grizzly beards of my Dad and Stepdad on my cheek when I hugged them. It was a vivid, visceral dream and I am doing everything I can to get out there the very next 3-day weekend I have off. Miss you guys!
not necessarily a bad thing, but did the math and realized I’ve had 25 addresses in my 31 years of life. Why, oh why, do I move so often? I have also counted that I’ve had 17 different jobs since I was 18 years old.

Well friends, that’s all for now. Thanks for hanging out with me on this long post, more good stuff later. xo

I hope to see you tonight at my art show! Here are a few rough photos (bad lighting and curling paper) of some work, but I hope to take some great shots of everything looking all professional and framed tonight! Hope everyone had a great Valentines day!

We collect little trinkets on the beach near our house. I have collected quite the zoo of little plastic animals (probably from the kids down the street who leave them in the sand and then they wash over to the house here) but also nice little chips of ceramic fancy plates, the standard mussel shells and crab claws, driftwood worn smooth by the waves, rocks with holes, one-legged baby dolls, weird gear things that probably fell off of a boat, etc, etc. We recently found an oyster shell, and it stunk really bad but it looks cool. So now these treasures are bottled up yet easily viewed. Yay!

Happy New Year! The snow has started to melt. After a few 7 degree days, it’s starting to warm up to the 30’s… yay! But there was a polar bear and elk sighting in the backyard! Just kidding, there are those little plastic toys staged to look real. I think I could do this all year long, stage my little toy animals. I don’t quite have my new years resolutions all written out yet, but I am working on it… Easing into the new year!

p.s. I know we’re all pretty much over the Christmas thing, but here are the two stockings I did for us. I finished mine about 20 minutes before Christmas eve dinner, how’s that for last minute!

And a few shots from snowy Maine, where we were for New Years. Lovely!

We’re in the middle of a snow storm (6″ of snow already, another 6″ to come by the evening) and it is absolutely beautiful! And I love my new job! Really love it! More, later!

Interesting art installation spotted on the way to the subway in Queens, while in NYC.

Having the grey hairs dyed and getting my bangs trimmed… ahh nothing beats a trip to the hair salon!

Drinking pumpkin beer and eating sweet potato french fries. Yum!

These gorgeous mosaics at the Madonna Statue here in the Boston-area.

Getting excited about some new sketches that will contain elements in future drawings. I absolutely love the prelimnary sketch phase of all designing, you sit down and start out with so much hope and potential, and little by little refine down to what really works. It feels like playing! I have some new stuff in the works, I am going to be doing some pen/ink/marker/gouache (paint) drawings on beautiful heavy paper. Trying to plan in adding some color to my usual tonal drawings.

And decorating the store windows at Utrecht for Halloween. Boo! It’s great working with creative people, we just feed off of each other for ideas, inspiration and techniques. Happy Friday!

We’ve been enjoying some things from our garden, some hot peppers and basil. Now it’s time for eggplant, and they look beautiful! Their color and shape is just amazing. I hope our squash makes it to fall harvest time! I’ve been a little lax on watering them!

I took a few photos walking around near Symphony Hall in downtown Boston, bordering on the South End.

I got some of the things I’ve been waiting for in the mail… business cards via flickr and moo. Slices of my illustrations on the back, a random assortment, and the basic info on the front. I was going to go with the standard printed business cards, but the printing costs were crazy. But I’m extremely happy with how these turned out, really professional and super cute, all the way from London. Also, I got some sticker books with my illustrations, which are so fun. Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, I have to admit, I’m a huge fan of the Sanrio stuff, and this just makes my day to have my very own stickers!!

I’m waiting for some seriously adorable magnets from Button Arcade and also some custom printed mousepads with my illustrations, from My Favorite Mirror. I love using independent businesses! The customer service is fantastic and of course, it feels great for one small business to help other small businesses. Tomorrow it’s off to the local screenprinters to have T-shirts and Bags silkscreened!

Also, I noticed that the “vendor” links are up on the Renegade Craft Fair site. Click here and then click on “vendor” to see them, can you find mine? My logo links to my etsy site. Also I did a quick ad for the brochure they hand out.

Ok. Back to work… I’ve got a sign/tablecloth to stitch for my booth, an adult coloring book to layout, and some cool image transfers to work on.

We went to the Peabody Essex Museum to see the Joseph Cornell exhibit. It’s located in Salem, Massachusettes (oooh the witches of Salem…) and it’s about 40 miles North of Boston. The musuem was lovely and the exhibit was really inspiring! Cornell did the kind of work that is considered very personal, much of it was collage-based, and contained wooden boxes he made. I loved seeing work that spanned close to 30 years, and because he took from collage the bits and pieces he incorporated into his work, paper ephemera especially, relates to what was going on at the time in the world. It was also impressive to me to see this retrospective, because his work is not object-based, per se. He did not make precious sculptures of fine materials, or paintings of a grand scale. He used so many everyday objects but his work was still very emotional and personal, and self-reflective. I am inspired greatly by this. And also inspired to make work as much as possible, because it’s the only way to truly get better. And how great to look back and have your body of work parallel your life and what you experienced along the way.

Oh. And no outing would be complete without a meal, how about Chinese and Thai food at Kowloon? Hee hee look at the building! It’s been around for 60 years and seats 1200 people. I guess it’s a popular place for comedy night but I have all the comedy I need at home thank you very much!