Buffalo or Bison?

Buffalo or bison...we're not really sure, but who cares?

My wonderful graphic designer friend Lindsay made this beautiful, flashy print. Isn't it fun and refreshing? The moment Tyler saw it he fell in love, and luckily Lindsay had a few extras so we could have one!

Sadly, I still don't have a place for it on our wall (not in this apartment, anyway) but I'm thinking of putting it in the kitchen when we move to California. And this is its pseudo-frame until we get another one. Right now it's just leaning against our utility room door, but at least we get to look at it everyday. :) Isn't Lindsay talented?

A Hoot A Day

I love owls. I remember growing up there was an owl who lived at the top of a giant palm tree at our K-8 school. No kidding! We'd collect owl pellets (aka owl vomit/hairballs) to dissect in science class. Kind of gross, but at least we knew where the pellets came from, am I right? Who knows where those cow hearts have been.

There's a blog I recently heard about that I'd love to share with you. It'll touch the hearts of the owl lover inside each and every one of you. It's called 'a hoot a day' and everyday the artist, jen peters, posts an illustration of an owl. A different.one.each.day. Yikes! I wonder how long she can keep something like this up? 

I'm impressed with what she's got so far! What a neat little project.

Travel Posters

[I made my younger sister a set of greeting cards and this was on the front of them. Doesn't it just make you smile?]

A few weeks ago I had an idea. A "brilliant beyond brilliant" idea. Ever since the tragic death of our over-sized wall clock several months ago, I haven't bothered to really decorate the wall behind our couch. The one piece of art that was there wasn't even centered. Embarrassing, right? 

Then one night while I was trying to fall asleep the words "vintage travel posters" popped into my mind. Bingo! The next day I started working on them.

The process was fairly quick, but not painless. My original idea was to download and print real vintage travel posters and hang them on our wall. This was proving difficult because all of the designs I liked and that fit together weren't large enough images to print out.  And it's definitely not in our budget to buy five (or even one) $20 posters. So we scratched that idea. Tyler then suggested, "why don't you just make your own?" Riiiiight. Why hadn't I thought of that in the first place?

We decided I would make travel posters of places we have either been together or have visited separately. While looking online for inspiration I came across the beautiful NYC poster below. I loved it so much that I simply tweaked it here and there and called it good. I also found the San Francisco and Hawaii ones, and tweaked them a little bit too. I can't call those my own, but they certainly were the perfect inspiration pieces. The style is absolutely perfect for what I want our family room to be. Using the NYC, San Francisco, and Hawaii posters as inspiration, I made the London and the Paris posters from scratch.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. Tyler even let me buy some frames for them to go in. I'm digging all the bright colors - I get so happy every time I see them!

And p.s. here is another sneak peek at my hair:

[and baby jack:]

Alphadeath

So lately my Etsy store has gotten popular! I've been shipping and selling quite a bit of my Animalphabet posters (see above). But this alphabet set below, titled Alphadeath by Philip Tseng, is much much cooler than mine. Tyler says if we introduced Jack to this he'd for sure be listening to Metallica by the age of 14. Bahaha. But in all seriousness, I wonder if there is somewhere we can buy the set? I think they're really cool!

Here are some other fun works by the Phillip Tseng:

Christmas Ornaments

This year for Christmas I am contemplating making ornaments for the family gifts.  I feel like it will be more personal and I can utilize the creativity side of my brain. And every once in a while, I love to work with my hands. :) I was also invited to an ornament exchange (my first!!) so I need a good idea for 10+ ornaments.

I whipped this design up the other day and was thinking about doing an image transfer as part of my ornament. But so far I have no ideas really of what to do. Maybe I'll just print this onto a onesie and Jack can have a festive tee to wear for the holidays.

(and p.s. it's going to snow here tonight. tyler and i are not too thrilled about this.)

Nursery Art

I'll admit I've been pretty bored these past two weeks while Tyler is full-time at work. I always thought I'd get to see him more when he was working full-time (compared to both of us going to school full-time) but I actually see him less. Weekends are nice though because he gets off around 3pm on Fridays, and then the weekend seems longer. :)

So to quench my boredom, I've been looking at art prints for Jack's nursery. Because we will be in an apartment, we are limited on what we can do (I don't even know if we can put shelves up or anything). I think his walls are a pale yellow color - fun for a baby room! I started designing yesterday and here is what I came up with. Let me know what you think!

I am thinking they will be 5"x7" prints on a nice white paper, and then with a black frame (shown in the picture). Tyler doesn't like the monkey, but after experimenting I thought it was best to stick with a theme (in this case, a jungle theme). 

However, I have been corrected by Tyler: only monkeys live in the jungle - giraffes and elephants live on the savannas. He suggested putting a lion instead, but I told him I like the uniqueness of the shape of the monkey. I told him all three belong together just fine - like the Lion King. He corrected me and said very matter-of-factly, "Simba only went to the jungle because he was a reject! Look how he turned out! He didn't even think he was a lion!" Oh Tyler, I love you. :)

[ On a side note, Jack is kicking and wiggling around like crazy now! It's so neat to feel him wiggling all the time! Sometimes it tickles. :) Also, we just found out my older sister is having a boy too, so Jack will have a play buddy! ]

Alice in Wonderland

Check out these vintage Alice in Wonderland illustrations. I found tons of free vintage clipart illustrations at The Graphics Fairy.  I love the crosshatch style of the Alice illustration, but I must admit her face is freaking me out a little.

And speaking of Alice in Wonderland, Tyler and I are SO excited for the movie coming out next week!!! Anyone else going to see it?

Packaging Design

Oh, may I please work for Smile Chocolatiers? I'd love to take part in their packaging design (and live in Malibu, California...hehehe...)

It's beautiful.