Hello Again

Goodness Gracious! I know it's been ages since I've updated everyone through my blog. I wanted to let you know I've done a whole lot in the last couple months.
Here is an abridged list of everything I've done since my last post:

1. I have gotten 5500 postcards and 4 large-format prints made for ArtPrize.
2. I have sent all of the above prints to Grand Rapids, Michigan for ArtPrize.
3. I "oversaw" the hanging and set-up of all of the above works for ArtPrize, which started on September 21. Many thanks to my parents for helping with the set-up
4. I submitted designs to the BLVD Hotel's 1881 Project. A mural design project and live art competition.
5. My design was picked for the 1881 Project mural/live art competition.
6. From 5 PM on September 24 to September 25, I painted said mural. It looks really nice.
7. I will be participating in the "1551 Collective"/ "Piece Riot" art show October 14-16 in Burbank.
8. I will be creating lots of new artwork for the above show, and I will be showing some older work as well. It should be fun!
9. I will be at Handmade Galleries on September 30 for a "Meet the Artists" get together... I will be introducing some new product to the gallery on this day.
10. I saw Pat Metheny with my boyfriend the other night. He had a MINI ORCHESTREON with him at this concert. It was awesome...really, really awesome.
11. I reformatted my website. It is now html based, ipad and ipod and mobile device friendly... it also has a new BLOG feature within the site, so I may be updating that blog a little more frequently than this one. Stay tuned!

Lions and Tigers and Cats. Oh my!

Can you tell that I like drawing cats? These doodles are inspired by my shop and blog name ("pink toe press") as well as a possible new name for a new shop. "Cat Boat Co." has a nice ring to it.

Once again enjoying the Brown Pen

Flowers

Another lovely doodle of flowers. I am really enjoying drawing with this brown pen.

This drawing was inspired by the times I would go walking with my dog through the fields near our cabin. I always liked those walks, but she and I would always come back and spend the next day or two sneezing and wheezing. It's not too often you find a dog with a grass and flower allergy. :-)

Calaveras

Calaveras are one of my favorite things. They are so lovely and wonderful. I've always loved the celebration of Dia de los Muertos ever since my Spanish teacher taught us about it in Elementary School. Some of the kids thought it was strange or creepy that death was celebrated instead of feared.

Now that I'm living in Los Angeles, I've been to the Dia de los Muertos celebration down town a few times. I really enjoyed myself, and I think it's just a wonderful way to celebrate a life. Anyways, I've been making doodles of Calaveras, and I really like these ones. I think they would look really nice on a small vase or bottle.

CAT PARADE

Once upon a time, there was a cat parade. All the cats came to celebrate.

I made this little drawing the other day while watching some 1980's "horror" movies with some friends. We watched "House" (1986), "House II: The Second Story" (1987), and a newer movie filmed in the "style" of the 1980's: "The House of the Devil" 2009. Overall it was a good night.

Cats Drawing Cats

This little fellow was inspired by some of Chris Sanders work. I just love his little critters.

Sandiego Comicon

So I went to Comicon yesterday, no big deal!

What a fun and crazy event! I'd never ever been to a convention that big before. David and I went to E3 Last year, but that was much more spread out, I think... or at least it wasn't nearly as claustrophobic.

I saw lots of people in costumes, and we met lots of great artists. It's always fun going to those sorts of things just to people watch too. My favorite costumes were a little girl in an Ursula (from Disney's The Little Mermaid) and the Coconut Knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Of course, there were a number of Storm Troopers and Darth Vaders, but there were a lot less than I thought there would be. What there were a lot of, though, were artists! Here are some of my new favorite artists who I found out about at the con!

*Artwork by Becky Dreistadt. Not by me

This is one of my new favorite things ever! When David and I walked past their booth, I immediately made a B-Line to where they were. It's so refreshing to see a new artist that has such a lovely and unique style !

We also got to meet Chris Sanders whose work I'd seen before, but it was neat to at least see him in person. I really love his work- it's just so cute. Did you know he voiced "Stitch" in Lilo and Stitch?

And Emily Warren does original artwork and some "fan art" that could put the original artists out of business! This Street Fighter Artwork was everyone's favorite.

David and I also met Wendy Pini who created Elf Quest it was pretty cool to meet her too!

I didn't get a chance to meet these artists, but I did check out their work and pick up a business card: Sze Jones , Tara McPherson and many more!

Oh, and from Prism Comics I got a lovely little Lucha Bear card from Justin Hall

My big hauls from the day were my wonderful Tigerbuttah Little Golden Book, and my Lucha Bear card. Everyone seemed very pleased with the new artists they met and supported, and the haul of posters and prints we all brought home.

Chocolate Spoons

Photo from Delicious Delicious Delicious

I'm a wonderful procrastinator, especially when the internet is involved, and today was no exception. While looking online for something or another, I ended up finding these delightful little chocolate spoons. They seem like a lovely treat or favor for a party. Simple, pretty, and delicious.

I've got a soft spot for sprinkles and small candies, I can see myself making these often. Whenever I do, I'll be sure to post pictures.

Self Portrait

I realize that I hadn't made a self portrait for a while, so I put this little doodle together last night.

I think it's a pretty accurate depiction, only it's missing a cat.

Work in Progress

Here is a picture of a new piece I am working on.

I'm not sure if I told you, but I'm a really big fan of Hex Signs. I think they are beautiful and fascinating.
This is an attempt to make a sort of hex sign of my own... I worked on this a little bit yesterday at the Gallery. It was VERY slow, and I think that CARMAGEDDON had something to do with it. Haha!

I'll show more pictures when it's finished. Now back to work!

More New Artwork

Here is the new artwork that I will be bringing to the Gallery tomorrow. I'm pleased with both pieces. The framed artwork is a new drawing based on an older drawing/sketch. I really liked the older drawing, but it wasn't on good paper, so I re-drew this one on Bristol with archival brown ink. I like the strange dreaminess of the dragon/monster. Of course, next to the framed original artwork is the new terrarium that I created the other day.

New Terrarium

It's been too long since I made more terrariums. Now that I have a mountain of felt, I have plans to make a few more of these soon. I think these terrariums are so lovely, and they are so much fun to make.

This one was especially fun because I tried using some new materials: felt balls! They are the perfect size and shape for little flowers. Each flower design was hand stitched to the felt, and then everything was carefully arranged together inside of the glass.

I'll probably bring this little guy to the gallery on Sunday when I do my vendor hours.

The best part about these terrariums (aside from how cute they are) is that they are great for apartment dwellers, people with allergies, or people who just cant seem to keep even a cactus alive. I dream of the day when I have dozens of these lining shelves. Gotta get making!

Birthday!

Wow! What a fun day yesterday was! My boyfriend made plans for a really great day!

We ended up going to Catalina Island! I had never been there before this trip, it's such a lovely place. We started off the morning with an hour boat ride from Long Beach. That was fine, but I felt a little urpy since I get a little seasick (but I brought along a bunch of "Ginger Chews" so my tummy felt better afterwards). The boat ride was not too eventful until we saw some BLUE WHALES! I didn't really get to see much more than their noses, backs, and tails, but that was a pretty neat sight!

When we got to the island, we walked around a bit and got to check out the little coastal town. The houses/cabins are so cute, I can see this place being absolutely swamped on the weekends and holidays. We saw a poor cat with a "Lion Cut" on our walk. What a silly look for a housecat--I can't even begin to imagine how much fun David would have with the two cats if they looked like this:

After a little exploring, we grabbed a quick brunch, and after that we went to sign up to go PARA SAILING! While waiting in line there was a basset hound who kept us company. We also saw THIS MINI FED EX TRUCK!

This reminded me a little of Mackinac Island where they have horse-drawn Fed-Ex trucks!

Para sailing was pretty awesome! I had never been before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was a pretty cool, yet scary experience. Earlier this month, my friend Alison and her boyfriend went skydiving, I'm not quite that daring yet, but I think I could work my way up.

We ended up being the only people on that trip (the others who signed up never showed up) so we got the whole boat to ourselves.

We went up pretty high! That was pretty awesome--next time, maybe we'll go skydiving. Or maybe not...

After that, David decided that we should go on a Sea-Do. He's ALWAYS talking about how fun they are, and I naturally agreed to go. We took a boat over to a little floating "island" where they keep these Sea-Do's, got a little bit of basic instruction, and we were off! This was the only rental place I've EVER heard of that lets you ride without a group. That was a BLAST! David went SO fast on that darn thing- I thought I was going to fly off the back.
Turns out I never went flying off the Sea-Do, but I did make us stop a few times because I was on "seal" duty. I would have felt terrible if we ran over the poor things going 45 mph. Toward the end of our trip (and once or twice during) I saw these weird silvery fins in the water. At the very end of our time on the water, we saw 3 kayaks and 6 BIG silver animals with huge fins. The finned animals were circling the kayaks. David and I are sure they were sharks, but we were told that they were probably porpoises.

After that fun adventure we walked around town some more and then went over to the "far away beach," which was really only a 10 minute walk. The walk ended up taking extra time because WE SAW A LITTLE BABY SEAL

He was so cute, like the Free Cat if you slicked back his ears and put his feet together. Although, I think he was hurt because he ended up staying there all day.

After trying to throw the seal some Annie's Bunny Crackers, we found a kayak rental place and went kayaking in the ocean. That was a lot of fun, but it was so wavy that we ended up not getting too far. Later, we sunned ourselves on the lawn and watched little kids play soccer. It was a lovely and relaxing way to close up our day.

Who wouldn't want to relax here?

Afterwards, we made our way back to the dock because the last boat would soon be leaving. On the way back, the little seal was still sitting on the rocks.

What a cutie! I wanted to take him home at this point, but David thinks I have too many pets already. Reluctantly, I walked on and we headed back to the boat and waited in line.

While in line on the dock, we saw a few more seals and dozens of FLYING FISH! I guess the little seals were trying to eat them up, because whenever we saw a seal swim by, a bunch of flying fish would jump out of the water and fly away. It was really neat!

Then we waved goodbye to the island and headed home. From the boat I even saw a few dolphins before dozing off.

Once we got back home, we grabbed a fancy dinner of pizza and ice cream, watched The Birdcage, and then hit the hay. What a wonderful, wonderful day.

Birthday! Tomorrow!

So my birthday is tomorrow.

I remember as a kid always being SO excited for my birthday... We used to have "bowling alley" birthdays a lot (my siblings and I, that is). It was always a nice excuse to get together, have fun, and, of course, eat cake. Since my birthday is during the summertime, naturally, we would get ICE CREAM CAKE. In fact, I could go for some Ice Cream Cake right now...

So, I don't have any plans made, but my boyfriend told me that he had some activities planned. He also told me to bring a bathing suit when we go out tomorrow morning. He's always such a good activity planner.

OH! He gave me an amazing surprise gift when I got home from work tonight! I really feel that I need to share:

I'm SO glad I have a man who knows exactly what I want: LOTS OF FELT AND EMBROIDERY THREAD!
He's such a sweetie...

Anyways, off to bed- we've got an early start to our day tomorrow.

Cat Time

Just in case you were wondering, this is what happens in my studio when I leave the room for just a minute to grab a glass of water.

Ferdinand is a merciless string stalker. He will sit right next to me while sewing and bat at my string the whole time. And if I leave my string unattended, he'll knock it off the table and spread it around the floor. What a little stinker.

Leo Doesn't care much for string...but when he sees his own tail twitching in the corner of his eyes, he becomes hellbent on getting that tail.

He REALLY gets into it.

::NEWS::

I apologize for being M.I.A. for a while now.
Man have I been busy!

In the last few weeks I have applied for and been accepted as an artist in ArtPrize! ArtPrize is a HUGE art competition in Grand Rapids Michigan. The competition is in its third year this year, and I am excited to be participating.

I designed a set of postcards and posters inspired by vintage travel posters of the early 20th century. I will be sure to post more information about my project soon. If you would like more information in the meantime, here is a link to my Artist Profile through the ArtPrize website.

Sending Greeting Cards to the Hospital

Good afternoon!

Here is the link to the St. Joseph Mercy: Ann Arbor Hospital where you can send greeting cards to patients and staff. My cards are available to send!

It seems as though the sizes of my images need to be tweaked a little, but the designs are still very cute. Keep your eyes peeled for the properly sized cards on this site soon. Many thanks to my friend Ariel for making this all possible.

Postcards Featured

My postcards were featured on a blog yesterday!

Missive Maven liked my unicorn postcards so much she made a feature about them. Thanks, Missive Maven! If you are in to snail mail and vintage postcards, she has a really great blog about all of her adventures in snail mail and beyond. Check it out!

Take care!

More Greeting Cards

Here are a few more of the greeting card designs I created for the hospital.

I still think that the "lions" card is my favorite, but these Piñatas are a close second!

This one's a cutie too!

I had so much fun making these- I can't wait to make more!

Get Well

A friend from school recently contacted me requesting I design a few E-cards for hospitals in the Ann Arbor Michigan area. She works on the technical side of the hospital, and wanted to know if I could make them some cards. I am thrilled about this opportunity. I still need to make more designs and cards, but here are some of the designs I have finished already.

The cards will be available on the website for the hospitals. Friend, Family and/or Visitors can write a personal messages on the website, pick their favorite card, and then send it. The patient's nurse will print the card and deliver it to the patient. How lovely! It is such a great way to make someone feel better, especially if you are unable to make it to see your loved one in person.

I think I might make the cards available for purchase or download on my etsy site, and then for every card purchased I will send one to the children's hospital here in Los Angeles. I'll keep you posted!

Trumpet

In what seems to be a common trend in my blogging, I will now post about a project that I finished a little while ago:

Last October I was approached by a family friend. She does a lot of work with the arts department at my high school. She asked if I wanted to paint a trumpet for an arts auction to benefit my high school. I agreed, of course. Many other artists from Grand Rapids participated in the show, and I was very impressed with some of the other designs.

It took some time for me to come up with a concept and design that I thought would work well with the trumpet. It's amazing how things do and don't translate from paper to 3-D objects.

After many breaks for a tired wrist, I finally finished the trumpet and am quite pleased with the results.

(Photographs were taken by replayegr)

Fresh AND Easy

The California based grocery store "Fresh and Easy" is having a "design a bag" contest. They asked artists to submit designs for their reusable bags that are available for purchase in the store. Last year a lady from Pasadena created the winning design. The prize is free groceries and, more importantly, your design on bags that everyone will want to buy. NEAT!

Needless to say, I created a design for this competition. I love food, I love grocery shopping, I love bags, what more could I want in a design challenge?
Submissions are closed, and the designs are currently being looked over by people from Fresh and Easy. If my design ends up making it into the running for top ten or is one of the finalists, I will be SURE to let you and everyone else know!

Here is my bag design:

Who wouldn't want to tote this bag around? Grocery shopping, the beach, or even cat play-forts... I can think of a million ways that I'd use this bag!

Here is a detail of the design itself:

I'm quite pleased with how this design turned out. Let me know what you think!

Cityscape

The other day I created this drawing of a cute little city. I was inspired a bit by the 1952 Disney cartoon of "The Little House" ... or at least the memory I had of the cartoon as I hadn't seen the it for years until posting the link here. :-)

I'll probably do more with this drawing soon. I just thought I'd share what I have done for now. Thanks for looking!

Princess

The other day while searching through my computer, I found this drawing I made a while back at a figure drawing class. This class was really neat...we went to downtown L.A. to a bar where there were two ladies were modeling...

...They brought fancy gowns, props, and even some music. I do like traditional figure drawing, but this was a nice change of pace. I had fun making this drawing.

Free Cat

The Free Cat in action.

Isn't he just a cutie? This is how he greets me every day when I get home from work!

Glacial Lake

Last weekend my boyfriend's mother and aunt were in town. Among other things, we went to Lake Piru. I'm not sure if the lake is a glacial lake, or if it is man-made or otherwise, but I made this marker drawing after our adventures.

We rented a little motor boat and took it out into the middle of the lake. Unfortunately, it was windy and about 50 degrees out, so we didn't last too long on the water. It was beautiful out, though. I can't wait to go back once it warms up.

Birthday

Here's a Happy Birthday wish for my dear sweet Mother. I made this drawing for her a while back... When I was little I always wanted a pet iguana, I'm sure my mother was happy that I never ended up getting one. This drawing is a fun way to celebrate. Besides, you can't go wrong with a cupcakes.

It's time to party! party!

Polaroid Land Camera

The Polaroid Land Camera is one of my favorite cameras. They're so attractive and iconic. I don't own one, but I'd love to have one. This drawing was made with pen and markers.

Self Portrait

I found this the other day while searching through my external harddrive:

Ages ago I made this self portrait. I suppose I never really looked much like this, but I did have a hooded sweatshirt with little cat ears on it. :-)

Awards Part 3

The award ribbons I've been working on are finally finished. I'm quite pleased with how they came out! They took a little longer to put together because of a few little set-backs, but I certainly enjoyed working on 'em.

These ribbons are currently for sale at the Handmade Galleries. Check them out in person.