Be Happy!

I found these illustrations by Monica Sheenan in a magazine many many years ago, but it is timeless advice. Here's my wish list to all of you for 2013! Looking forward to a brand new year full of new adventures and creative pursuits!

Singing Flurries!

Here's my entry for the last Spoonflower contest of the year with the theme of Snowflakes. I felt like I had to enter because my Spoonflower name is Snowflower. Me and the snowflakes are practically family...I love the fluffiness of snowflakes and I wanted to convey that in my illustration. But it looked kind of plain with just snowflakes so I channelled my friend Diane added some of her feathery friends. Just put a bird on it! There is a lot of really good entries this week. You can go here to see them all and vote on the ones you like. Enjoy the flurries!

My Fabric Gift Tags in the top 10

I just found out today that I made it to the top ten in the latest Spoonflower contest without even begging anybody to vote for me! There was actually a lot of fun holiday entries (see the top ten here), but I wanted mine to be non-seasonal so that you can use them all year round. Because they are also designed to be applied and sewn to hand made quilts or garments, I didn't want them to be too flashy and take away from the actual masterpiece. Kind of like a signature or an ex-libris you put in a book. If you leave me a comment below, I will send you one of my fabric label. Cheers!

My new label app

I discovered a fun little iPhone app through one of my online class. It's called Labelbox and it's a free app (of course you'll want to buy the extras label packs, fortunately they are only 99 cents each, I bought the "Going Postal" one and I am eyeing the Masking Washi Pack). Looks like it's compatible with the iPad and iPod Touch too. It's super easy to use. Here's another example of what you can do.

I took this picture in Port Townsend by the beach, thinking of my friend Martine's dream of having her little writer's studio in a Silver Bullet Airstream, which I think would be totally cool. I would love to have one too and convert it to a little traveling art studio/gallery. But that gives you an idea of what you can do with these labels, pretty fun, n'est-ce pas?

Overnight trip to Vancouver, BC

I love Vancouver, and now that I live close to the border, I can go to Canada whenever I want! I decided to get a little inspiration and go to Holt Renfrew (a must, it's their flagship store!) then walk around Robson street to finish my little shopping tour in Gastown where I found this totally awesome little store called Orling & Wu (what a cool exotic name!) I will have to do a special post later to show you all the stuff I got there...

Vive les Saisons!

Now you see where I got my inspiration for my November banner. I have been trying to do a different banner for each month...not sure I will try to do that next year, I think I will just change it with the seasons so I only have 4 to do instead of 12. Anyway, this is the month of October in my new 2013 "Vive les Saisons" Calendar. I still have a month to finish it right? Only 11 more months to design...

Motifs à la Matisse

I am a big fan of Matisse so when I saw the call for entries on Spoonflower for this contest, I just had to enter something. The goal was to design a textile that would look at home in a Matisse painting like the ones currently on display at the Nasher Museum of Art exhibition on the Cone sisters of Baltimore. Everybody has to use the same color palette. The top ten fabrics will be featured at an Art for All event at the Nasher on Dec 6, 2012. You can vote here if you feel like it until tomorrow I think... My spoonflower name is "snowflower".