Santa is Exhausted

Too many presents to wrap and deliver, too many cookies...Santa deserves a break.

All the tea in China

With extra free time, I've been working on my design skills by doing some challenges from Spoonflower.

Spoonflower is a print-on-demand fabric company and every week, they have themed challenges. The submitted designs are voted on by your peers. I managed to make the top 25 on the last challenge but it's tough because there are some pretty awesome fabric designers out there.

This week's theme is "Chinoiserie". I submitted a tea-themed design. I watercolored my tea cups and teapots, scanned the illustration, and then designed my repeat fabric on the computer. This was quite a challenge for me because I figured out the repeat for the cups and pots first, and then had to make sure the background pattern also repeated. To set off the blue and white teacups and teapots, I used a dark peach background. And then I tried it with a blue background. Now I can't decide which I like best.

You can vote for your favorite Chinoiserie design on the Spoonflower website, here.

I drew my images in pencil on bristol.

added some shading with watercolor paint...

added the detail.

Option 1 - Peach background

Option 2 - Blue background

The designs on the tea pots and cups were inspired by Chinese batik designs
from a book my sister gave me.

Easter Sunday

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spring Song

A new collage to welcome spring. This was done on a piece of pale gray scrap board. I used a rubber stamp in the background. The hand made papers are in shades if green and gold and the little bird is embellished with watercolor. This one is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Spring Song original collage

Best Pickle Ever!

Growing up in Ohio, we always ate Don Hermann Kosher Dill Pickles. They were the best (and still are in my book). When I moved to the west coast, I had a hard time finding a good pickle. I finally looked up Hermann's Pickles online. I emailed them and told them I was having a hard time finding a good pickle and could I order online? They kindly wrote back telling me that in California, they sell under the name Nathan's and the pickles I craved were the Half Sours. I went right out and bought myself a jar! Yummy, yummy, yummy. Still the best pickles ever!

Best Pickles Ever!

A watercolor I did a few years ago of...Pickles!

Writing about pickles has made me hungry. I think I'll go eat one now....

Spam

I get a lot of spam on my blog which no one ever sees because I moderate my comments. This, however, made me laugh.

"Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said "You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear." She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!"

  I did this watercolor of shells a few years ago.