Blooms

Some bright blooms to start a nice spring week...hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. My mom and I did some shopping and enjoyed some burgers (and fries!) at B Spot. What did you do for your mom?

Apartment Therapy

Jim and I have been looking for a house for the last few months, and the search seems to be drawing to a close. Although it's really exciting, we both been in our current apartment for almost 3 years, so we've obviously developed some attachment to it. Even though we're outgrowing it, it's going to be bittersweet to leave it behind.

So, to help balance out all of the great memories we've made there, I thought I'd make a list of everything we won't miss so I can check my emotional baggage at the door. Plus it'll be fun to look back on all of these things down the road — and laugh.

We bid adieu to:

- The kitchen cabinet that pops open whenever it wants, or anytime you shut another cabinet

- No air conditioning. The apartment feels like a brick pizza oven in the summer.

- Jumping out of the shower stream whenever anyone in the building flushes the toilet

- Hearing our neighbors above and below us

- Parking in the street! If I get home anytime after 6 there are zero spots.

- Having my workspace in the dining room...and not really having a "dining room"

- Needing quarters to do laundry

- Watching a crazy neighbor yell at cars going by while we sit on our balcony

- No closet space. Really, none.

- Keeping our music down, our TV down, our voices down...it's hard not to be loud!

- Wishing our fireplace really worked

- Walking up three flights of stairs everyday – and being afraid to fall down them when it rains

- One lonely bedroom

I could go on...but I don't want to sound like a big whiner. I just know this will come in handy when we're packing up everything we've acquired over the last three years, and getting a little sad. So here's to heading onward and upward...and to a whole new set of problems ;)

DIY: Chevron Tray Makeover

All winter I was poking around the apartment looking for a project, and now that the weather is conducive for spray painting, it was perfect timing for this old brown tray to find its way to me. A coworker was giving it away and I snatched it up, I knew right away what I wanted to do with it. I saw this dresser DIY over on Design*Sponge and wanted to take a stab at doing an alternating chevron pattern - something a little different than just a zig-zag (are we kind of over chevrons already?) So this seemed like something I wouldn't get sick of as the trend fades away.

So here's a how-to in case you'd like to try your hand at this. The taping was the hardest part, but if you have steady hands and good eyes, you can get away with little measuring. 

To start, sand the tray. This one had a brown paint/factory finish, so we tried to get most of it buffed down so the paint would stick. 

Wipe the dust and debris off with a clean, dry cloth. Then, spray paint the tray - we did white, and it probably took about 4 coats. In retrospect, we probably could have primed it and done less coats - but it wasn't a big deal. *However, before you do the last coat - gently sand the tray with very fine sandpaper. This will give your last coat an even finish that will able to handle the tape.

Now for the hard part ;) I bought one-inch painter's tape, but wanted two-inch stripes, so had to double up the strips. The easiest way to do this is measure the halfway point of the tray (where the points meet in the middle) and draw a faint pencil line to guide you. 

Then lay the tape strips down, starting at the edges and working toward the center. I used a ruler and x-acto to trim the tape, using that center line as a guide. In the left photo, you can see me peeling away the tape I trimmed, to reveal a clean edge. 

A trick to getting the lines parallel: measure the white space (the non-taped areas) at multiple points - they should measure about the same as the width of the taped areas. So everything should be two inches in width. 

Then, tape newspaper over the edges so that the spray paint won't make its way to other parts of the tray. Spray two coats of a contrasting color - I chose a bold metallic gold - then peel the tape off (wait 24 hours to make sure it's dry)!

Tah-dah! An old tray becomes new and beautiful. We will probably finish it with a clear coat to protect the paint job. Have you taken on any challenging tape jobs? How did they come out?

Announcing: WMC Fest 2012

I am so {insert descriptive expletives} excited and honored to be a speaker at this year's Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, right here in Cleveland! The site just launched yesterday and I can finally blab to the whole world about it. 

I attended last year and it was the most phenomenal creative weekend I've ever experienced (here is my wrap-up post and also a video about last year's event). I saw so many fantastic speakers and was able to catch a few bands over at the Happy Dog in between, not to mention all of the friends I got to see and reconnect with.

This year will prove to be no different, so if you're local (or not!) be sure to check it out. Weekend passes are only $50 and that includes ALL speakers and bands. Follow along or ask questions at @wmcfest. Hope to see you there!

Crab Pattern

It's March 1st and it seems like spring weather is starting to break through! Although it's been so mild this winter, it feels like now that February is behind us, so is the worst of it.

I made a little crab pattern the other day and it really made me smile and think of all the fun I have eating these little guys in the summer (sorry crabs).

The first time I ever even tried crab, they were straight out of the ocean—I had to crack them open and gut them myself! It was a little intense for me but it opened the door for my love affair with crab legs. It's one of my favorite summer staples—along with watermelon, corn, beer, and a good burger. What are your favorite summer eats? 

Mozart + Fizzy

My friend Alexandra recently asked me to create a portrait of her much-loved kitties to give to her man for Valentine's Day. I've already been able to follow the lives of these two through her Instagram, so doing research was easy, plus she provided me with a long—er, EPIC—email about their personalities and likes/dislikes. So the heart, squirrel, bird feeder, and mouse toy were all a part of what makes these two special.

The art started with some watercolor washes, and the piece was finished digitally.

I'm so happy with how it came out, and it makes me even MORE happy since she loves it. I've done a few of these lately and I'm really loving it. So if you have a furry friend that you'd like to turn into a portrait, drop me a line!

New year, New workspace

My workspace goods (clockwise from top left): Urbanears headphones; Jon Contino print; Geo Triangle print; Corkboard; House Industries Valentype Woodblock Initial; Water Hyacinth Small Milk Crates; Tread Bowl; Rutger Chair (best chair-stool EVER); Jonas desk; Black, White, and Gold Washi Tape; Metallic Baker's Twine; Titanium Non-Stick Scissors; Maize Woven Storage Basket

I've been wanting to revamp my workspace for quite some time now, and just randomly got the bug to do it last weekend. I had this small, old corkboard hanging above my desk, and it always falls down (the adhesive sucks), and it finally fell down for the last time. Enough! I threw it away and decided it was time to start over.

I moved into our place a year ago and never really gave my work area the attention it needed. It worked sometimes, but I also found myself using my dining room table to spread out and draw because I just had too many things cluttering up my desk. I got this Ikea desk years ago, and I love it because it's just a big, flat work table, which is really what I need. I have to be able to easily push my computer to the side when it's time to draw or paint.

I also had a messy collection of art paper and wrapping paper shoved along the side of my desk, and my cards and envelopes were all over the place. So I headed to Target to solve my problems :)

My favorite purchase has to be this woven black and white arrow basket. We were looking for something to store my paper rolls, and I spotted it in passing on a random endcap. I basically started jumping up and down because it was so perfect.

*p.s. YES I know, it's time for us to take our Christmas tree down.

My desk surface is now much clearer, I'm no longer storing bills and coupons and junk that only gets in the way, and everything has a place. Joy!

And my corkboard is now bigger, better, and actually functional! Now I can just sit back and let the organization vibes transfer into productive energy...

Shore Society Christmas Products

I have been so busy lately that I'm clinging to the light at the end of the tunnel—ten glorious days of Christmas break. There's so much to buy, wrap, bake, clean....all while keeping up with holiday shop orders. It's exhausting, but in a great way!

I also want to say a HUGE thanks to designworklife and Burrs & Berries for featuring my holiday gift tags on their sites...thank you, thank you, thank you!

Shore Society is also now selling in Poppytalk Handmade's Holiday Market, which has been both exciting and inspiring—there are so many talented makers selling their goods, I encourage you to head over there and check out all of the amazing shops that are participating. I want to buy everything!

Sets of the aforementioned gift tags are still available in my shop, in case you are a procrastinator and haven't started wrapping yet. I still have some last-minute things to grab but I'm in the home stretch...have you finished your shopping yet?

After I finish my shopping, the holiday parties and get-togethers begin! I'm so excited to hang out with all of my amazing friends and family coming in from out of town, and to take a break from working and sitting behind my computer. Sigh...won't that be nice?

DIY: Christmas Decorating

I do realize I'm jumping full-force into Christmas right from Thanksgiving, but I'm in the spirit so I hope you won't hold it against me! I spent the weekend hauling out the boxes of last year's decorations, and decided to make some new mantle decor (aaaaand this is how everything I do turns into a craft project).

I'm not a huge fan of traditional Christmas colors, so I kept everything gold and glittery and added a touch of soft vintage aqua. Our walls are already very colorful so including a lot of white-on-white helped keep things light and wintery.

I already had a few bottles and jars on the mantle, so I filled them with some aqua glass beads and gold glitter branches. We put the beads in our fishbowl too, so Vince could match ;)

I made three garlands; one of white pom poms threaded on a string, a beaded one that I strung by hand (I recommend patience for this) and a third garland of gold circles that I punched out of glitter paper.

I also picked up some plastic pears at the craft store, first painted them white, then with a thin layer of glue, and dusted them in an iridescent fine glitter. They are really sparkly in person, it reminds me snow!

Our final impulse idea was to write or draw on the mirror, and I'm so glad we decided to do this because it just ties everything together. We picked up a white glass paint marker and after a few rounds of practice on the bathroom mirror, I got it juuuust right on the second try. Thankfully this stuff erases easily! This was really fun, after I finished I started thinking of what else I could draw on.

Our fireplace is non-working, so unfortunately we can't have any cozy fires in our living room. It still felt like we needed something in the hearth, so we added some logs anyway. I can use just a little bit of imagination to see them in a crackling fire ;)

I'm glad that our decorating is finally done, our tree is up, and all I have to do is finish my shopping. Christmas is totally sneaking up on us now...have you started decorated yet?

New Holiday Prints

I'm finally able to share some new holiday prints that I've been working on! These two little guys will make an appearance at Made in the 216, so stop by if you'd like to pick one up, or you can head to the shop if you're feeling lazy (who doesn't love online shopping?)