Mai Autumn

looking ahead

i hope you all had a fabulous holiday season! i know i've kind of disappeared for much longer than usual! it's been a whirlwind of busy-ness with packing up lots of holiday orders (thank you to everyone! it means the world to me that you bought something and i wish i could give you all a bunch of hugs!!) and attempting to squeeze in some holiday festivities with family and friends here and there. i can't believe how fast time flies!

now that the new year is coming upon us, i find myself reflecting on the things that have come and gone in 2011, and what i have to look forward to in 2012. i do know one thing, if i do project 365 (taking one photo a day for a year) (or attempting to at least - i never actually finish!) i should probably make a rule of 'no pictures of the cat' because i'd say about 75% of my shots are somehow involving poor little boo - he definitely doesn't want all that attention! another rule: product/artwork photos do not count as my photo of the day. i don't care if it's the *only* thing i did allllll day... no work related photos will count! other than that, 2012 is kind of up in the air for now. i actually have very few plans. it's weird for a super planner like me. maybe good though? i think, perhaps, my only plan for 2012 is to create to my heart's content and aspire to beauty in some way. that sounds like one heck of a plan if i ever heard one :)

"...we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne"

see you next year :)

(image via water in my paint)

new work

i thought it might be time for me to share some pieces i was working on a few months ago, since i haven't had the chance to paint lately, and because some of you out there may like to give any of these new prints as gifts! all three pieces are different directions i'm thinking of taking my work...

tropica

this landscape is inspired by my dreams of visiting someplace tropical this year. i love painting scenes that take me away to exotic destinations :)

goodnight

i have one other painting (fragile) that has similar trees to this one, but i decided to go a little more illustrative with the moon and stars, which are done in pastel. i would have definitely wanted this painting in my room as a kid :)

rose

and, last but not least, the first in a series i'm hoping i have the energy to continue with. i'm basing these pretty large (18"x24") illustrations on botanical plates from old books and scientific drawings. my goal is to have a bunch - i'm thinking 5-10, but we'll see with my usual habits of being all over the place :) i'd like to give natural history illustrations a little bit of whimsy, and, in this one, it was difficult at times to let the paint do it's usual watery thing, rather than to let myself get too detailed.

prints and originals of all three are available over in the shop, and i'm hoping to get all the new jewelry pieces from last week up (you can see some of those starting to crop up in the shop too!)

 

***just a little side note: there's still time to get some mai autumn lovelies for gift giving! the order deadline for domestic priority mail delivery is 12/17 and for express mail, you can order through 12/20. (unfortunately, the international cutoff has passed.)

 it's back to packing orders this afternoon for me! and later, hopefully there will be some tree trimming and egg nog near the fireplace! i just love this time of year! :)

lovely bits from the interwebs

i've become somewhat like one of santa's elves overe here, what with packing all these orders and such, (thank you! to everyone who is shopping!) and in my in between time, i've been wandering around the internet finding pretty things like it's nobody's business. i guess this is kind of like a little wishlist, although some of these wishes are a bit unrealistic (ahem, a new living room and designer sofa..) here are some of my discoveries over the past few days...

 pretty gift packaging via pinterest

spanish wine glasses at spartan (via daily candy)

beautiful greens via conspicuous style

wall stencil via royal design stencils

earrings via seed and sky

wool sweater via andy ve eirn

original illustration via betsy walton

silk ikat clutch via eclu

 

ok, no more daydreaming about all these lovely goodies :) it's back to work for me!