Family Time.

I am so excited to spend the next 6 days in sunny California with my new beautiful

wrinkly nephew Cole. He was born on Saturday. My Younger sister and I are flying

out early in the morning to give that cutie little baby a hug and a squeeze. 

So please forgive my absence. I will return next Wednesday with great photos and 

updates of his beautiful fresh new life.  Until then, take good care of yourselves. 

And remember just how beautiful this life really is. {xox}

Happy Birthday to My Sister

An Important Day in history today. Happy Birthday to my sister, Kelsey. 

I love you so incredibly much.

For those of you not lucky enough have a Kelsey to love, let me give you some 

reasons to find one. 

• The Kelsey I love is so big hearted she would walk 

into a bee hive if you told her you needed honey. 

• She is both painfully and adorably gullible, so our 

storytelling family has always had her second 

guessing reality. 

• She has a guinea pig. Love those little guys {!}

• But best of all, she would befriend you, and 

care for you... no matter who you are. Her 

heart is open WIDE. Of all the people in the 

world she is the last person to ever pass a 

judgement. 

And thats why, I'm glad to have a Kelsey in my life...

Happy Birthday Kels {xox}

ILLUSTRATION INSPIRATION: Julie Morstad

For this week's Illustration Inspiration feature I chose someone whose style is very 

different than my own. Actual it would almost be impossible for me to try to mimic 

this style. Thats why I LOVE it so much! It is so unique. Each of Julie Morstad's 

illustrations provide her own signature and every time you see one you can pick it 

out as one of her own. 

She uses colored pencil, ink, gouache and pencil and sometimes even collage to 

create her beautiful drawings. I really admire the mixture of rough pencil that she allows to 

shine through. Each of my pieces end up having to look very clean and smooth when 

they are finished (OCD?) But I always like them best at there sketch phase. Sounds 

kind of like an identity crisis right? She keeps her drawings looking very 'hip' this way.

And to balance the gray of the ink and pencil she throws in those brilliant punches 

of bright color. Its just makes my eyes swim across the page, I just adore her style! 

Hope you do too.

Books are Art...

I am a little behind the times on this ad (Anagram books has since closed) but look at 

their beautiful advertisements promoting their store. That octopus is out of this world.

I could look at it for hours and try to figure out how it was created. 

I became an Aunt and my heart bursted

In the wee small hours of Sunday Morning, I became an Aunt, for the very first time. 

My Sister had her first baby, in California while I  a.n.x.i.o.u.s.l.y waited in Maryland for

word of his arrival.  He is Beautiful and tiny and so wrinkly he actually looks wise; like he 

has years of knowledge on me and I need to hit the books before I go out there so I am 

not out smarted by this adorable tiny wrinkly little face that looks so peaceful and perfect. 

My heart keeps welling up inside with sheer love. I bounce back and forth between 

feeling excitement for my sister and her husband who are over the moon for their 

new baby boy, I know their hearts grew a hundred times when they saw his face.  

And I'm gushing over the idea that there is a new little man in our lives that we are 

all going to laugh with and love and watch grow. And he is going to get hair cuts and

 build blocks and loose teeth and have adorable innocent moments that will make me melt. 

I am flying out to join my sister and her husband and meet Cole for the first time on 

Thursday. I can not wait to see that tiny face. Congratulations to my sister and her 

husband ~ xox you guys are going to be wonderful parents. 

Thanks Bippity Boppity Boo for the adorable photo

INTRODUCING: Typography Friday

New Deal Folks. Every Friday = Typography Friday. 

Since I find myself drooling over all of the type art out there and dying to share but 

without any proper avenue or platform for it, I have created one. So here we go. 

Todays feature proves my recent journey into type love. The top image is the ever 

talented type genius John Passafiume's save the date design {its like a maze of words 

and art, love it} compared with my simple whimsical illustrated type save the date 

for Dave and I. Just getting my feet wet... more to come. Happy Friday {xox}

Katie Rodgers = Amazing Right?

SO Madly in Love with Katie Rodgers' beautiful watercolors. 

Check out more at Paperfashion. Oh Its SO good isn't it?!

Illustration Inspiration featuring: Lia Marcoux

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to our Illustration Inspiration Feature. 

This week, my drawing hands are totally jealous of Lia Marcoux's unique style and amazing 

ability to pick the most perfect color palette. Looking at her work you can't help but notice 

her brilliant choice of color to separate foreground from background, and to set the 

mood in the illustration. Her light and shadow are fantastic. Do you kind of get a a folk art 

feel from her work? And do you notice the noses of her characters? They are all red...

I really adore any artist with a signature that sticks out like that. 

Embroidery... {xox}

Wouldn't it be adorable to use these custom embroidered numbers from Merriweather Council 

as table numbers at your adorable wedding and than gift those cute little initial necklaces to your bridesmaids. I love the color, texture and vintage look that the embroidery adds. Oh its so clever!

Great Alarm Clock Idea

Oh My Gosh! Have you seen these silent alarm clocks yet? Its a touch screen wrist 

band that vibrates when you need to wake up, sum it up or get out of dodge. I LOVE 

this idea. Because Dave and I are always popping out of bed at different times, these 

private little alarms would add a lot less groaning to the morning routine. 

What do you think? 

People Freaking out in a Haunted House: Hysterical

I know this is so random but I can't stop laughing at this. I stumbled upon it looking for 

references, and it gave me a good laugh. Its people freaking out in a Haunted House.

 Look at that guy running away from his wife as she pulls him back, true colors right. 

Haha. I like that top picture of the guy protecting all three girls, way to go Dude!

More Here

To Love a new Life

My sister is having a baby. Have I told you that? Its pretty wild, it will be the first 

baby of our immediate family and my brain and heart are gushing with the idea of a new 

person to love. When I realized she was bringing another person into our family, it hit 

me in a strange way. If you don't know me by now, you should know that I worry a lot, 

especially about the people I love. 

Well, I was driving alone listening to a terribly sad song. Thats when I realized, as I was 

hoping that my new little nephew, would never have to feel the sad ache that that slow 

song sang of, that I loved him already. Because I was already worrying about him. 

Its a strange thing, to worry so much, but it all comes from this giant place in my heart

 where I hold all of my favorite people. Love manifests in funny ways sometimes doesn't it? 

Paige is due this weekend {!}. Her ankles are swollen and uncomfortable and she is 

anxious to meet her new son. Its mere days before I will be an Aunt and my parents will be Grandparents for the first time. The family has halted in wait of this new little baby boy.

 I wonder when his birthday will be!?

 1st image via {great maternity shoot} 2nd image via

Dan Kendrick's Baltimore Book Launch: TONIGHT

Hi friends, I am really excited to announce the Baltimore launch of Dan Kendrick's new 

book, Sex Sells but I'm Ugly, a real time guide to sales, marketing and life.

 I know this event will be a great time, and I wanted to let all my local Baltimore readers

 know to come join the fun! Its a Chic, Black, White and Red party {!} 

And everyone who attends gets a copy of the book!

Illustration Inspiration: Priscilla Burris

Cute Right? Priscilla Burris is our feature in this week's Illustration Inspiration. 

She creates characters that are so adorable and spunky I could pluck them off the 

page and take them to the zoo. I really appreciate the shape of the heads. {Thats 

strange I know} But it definitely contributes to the adorableness of the character. 

She uses a sketchy, low detail, style but adds perfect touches to melt your heart 

or get you laughing. That last drawing at the bottom looks just like my little sister 

Kelsey when she was little. {so cute}

For more from Priscilla Burris visit her site: Priscilla Burris

Amazing Business Cards

LOVE the way these business cards are brightly sprayed.

IS Creative did it themselves with an airbrush!

Oh Harry...

Oh... Now thats just hysterical.

via ffffound

Superman Character Bought for $130

"On March 1,1938, DC Comics gave two young men from Cleveland, Joe Shuster and 

Jerry Siegel, $130 for the rights to a comic character named Superman. That $130 check 

essentially created a billion dollar industry and set in motion nearly 70 years of legal battles 

that continue to this day. Without this check being written out by DC Comics, there would be 

no Superman, and thereby no Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, X-Men, and all the 

characters that came into existence after the concept of "the superhero" was born with 

Superman" This is a lesson for artists to consider maintaining legal rights to their artwork. 

This check is now being auctioned for $38,053.

 I wonder what Joe and Jerry think of the value of the Check now. 

images via illustration art

Happiness

Happiness is a difficult thing to settle in. Its hard to attain because we are always 

looking for more, and a lot of the time you get so lost in seeking it that you don't 

realize you are actually living it.

Lets be honest, we are all occasionally guilty of dreaming about all of the things that 

we don't have that we wish we did. Maybe for the weekend, we could focus on what 

we love about our life, those who we love in our life and all of the decisions that we 

have made to get us here. And by doing so we can find some sort of clarity amongst 

all of the daily 'i wishes' and see that we really do have something to be happy about.

I for one know I am. xoxo

Happy Friday. 

image via

Tea Cookies... Brilliant

Great Idea. So adorable for a Tea themed Party.

via

In the Spotlight for a Minute

Yesterday I felt lucky to be in the spotlight over at Melissa Blake's fantastic 

lifestyle blog, 'So About What I Said'. Included in the interview are details 

on my etsy shop, the inside scoop on how I got started and my favorite 

illustration to date. 

Read More on Melissa's Blog.