Cherry Blossoms

I love cherry blossom time!

Ecocolo Magazine

Ecocolo is another great magazine from Japan I found recently. I think it's a general lifestyle and good things magazine, maybe a little bit like Kinfolk? Just looking at the pictures makes me happy. This issue seems mostly about gardening and growing food, but the back issues look great too, there is a whole issue on wisdom from grandmas! Wish I could read that one.



As a bonus on their website there is a cute short film to go with this issue.

Shop Talk

I'm still slowly trying to work on updating and making some changes to some things in my shop. Lately I've been re-packaging some things, and re-photographing as well.  I also changed the layout of my store! Spring cleaning and reorganizing, I love it.

Postcard sets are back in stock, but with new more simple packaging. The boxes they came in before looked nice, but they seemed wasteful to me. Now postcard sets will come in biodegradable plastic sleeves with a pretty hand drawn label now instead!

Buy Spring Assorted Postcard Set

Buy Wolf & Deer Postcard Set

Plant Love Postcard Set

What I Listen To

Today I thought I'd share some of what I listen to while I'm working. Usually I listen to music in the idea/thinking phase but once I get going I like to listen to a book on tape or a podcast (especially if I have to do a lot of finishing work computer). Here are some of my favorite podcasts:

RADIOLAB: I love Radiolab. I think everyone does at this point? It's a beautiful mixture "between  philosophy, and human experience", which is my favorite way to experience science.

99% INVISIBLE: I learned about this show from Radiolab and it's my new favorite! It's about design that's all around us but that we hardly ever notice, the "99% invisible activity that shapes our world." If I were you I'd go back and listen to all the episodes, they're very short and completely fascinating.

DECODE DC: Andrea Seabrook used to cover congress for NPR, but she's had enough! Decode DC is her attempt to cover what's actually happen in politics and not just repeating soundbites. If you are also fed up with politics and how it's covered you will like this.

FREAKONOMICS: For some reason this one took me a while to get into. But after listening to about twelve straight hours of it while hand addressing wedding envelopes a few months back I was hooked! Their tagline is "the hidden side of everything", I would say it's kind of a non emotional way of looking at everyday things in a new way. Give it a listen and maybe that will make sense!

THE DINNER PARTY: This one was recommended to me by a couple of people. So far I've only listed to a few episodes but it's a lot of fun! It's sort of like a pretend dinner party, they invite famous people on to chat about current events, create dinner party mixes, or teach you a joke or how to mix a cocktail to serve at your own dinner party. It's another short but sweet one.

As well as these I listen to the podcast downloads of Fresh Air, The Diane Rehm Show, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, The Splendid Table, and Snap Judgment. I have to say, I'm just not into This American Life anymore, I haven't listened to to willingly in years. NPR sacrilege I know but there you go.

A lot of you might already listen to these, but maybe you'll find something good to get though your day or a long car trip!

What are some of your favorite podcasts? I love recommendations, especially if they're lesser known shows!

Sign Painters Trailer

SIGN PAINTERS (OFFICIAL TRAILER) from samuel j macon on Vimeo.

No secret I love hand painted signs and I'm super excited to see this!

Hungry Foxes

 

These are a few smaller pieces from my show. They are available to buy right here.

Instagram Highlights

Some more bits of the last decadently careless two weeks of my mothers visit. These pictures will serve as a nice memory of the outside world since starting Saturday I am not allowed to leave my desk at all for the next month at least! Well, maybe I can go on a few walks, especially if the weather stays as amazing as it has been throughout her visit. The trees are blossoming!

Nannou

Nannou by Aphex Twin. I just think this is kind of beautiful, and you know how I love stop motion animation. 

Some other things I wanted to share today:

-I think this is the most perfect house I've ever seen.

-This is my favorite Tumbler of the moment. My number one source for pictures of cute cats.

-I just stated this Pinterest board for beautiful cookbooks because I'm a sucker for books with gorgeous pictures of food. What are some of your favorites? (I like to get them from the library personally, though I wish I could buy them all...)

More Spring Flowers

If you love growing things you create a garden however you can.

What a gorgeous weekend! Three consecutive days of sunshine is almost unheard of before June in this neck of the woods. I hope those of you who live in the area got to enjoy some of it. I had a pretty good weekend, got plenty of vitamin D, and even did some spring cleaning/organizing.

I also managed to find some time to redo my website, yet again. It doesn't look too different, the main new feature is that the pictures look a little sharper, and when you click on them you aren't taken to a different page. Much nicer!

(These drawings are for available to buy right here.)

This and That

These are some bits and pieces from yesterday, a trip downtown to the museum and a lot of walking around. My mom is still in town and we've been doing a lot of sightseeing and having a really good, relaxing time.

Also, my friends from Assemble Shop & Studio were kind enough to do a little interview with me for their blog, you can read it right here. As a bonus if you want to see a bunch of lovely things that make my heart happy, they also invited me to be a guest pinner! 

Generally Inspiring

I was excited to find this issue of Ukatama other day. I'd seen picture of some of their other covers on Pinterest quite a few times. The covers are all that adorable and most are done by the embroidery artist Micao. The magazine itself is about general home and lifestyle things I think? It seems right up my ally and I wish I could read the articles, but even just the pictures make me happy.

Morning Time

Morning time, another piece from my show.  I love my morning ritual of quietly reading and drinking coffee or tea.  I find I just feel better for the rest of the day if I spend some time before starting work relaxing.  I wish my cat could live with me right now, and that I had a kitchen table, but I do have a pretty nice place to read anyway.  I just finished the new book of stories by Karen Russel, it was fantastic! (My favorite story was Reeling For The Empire, which was beautiful, and creepy as hell.)

My mom just came to town and she's staying two weeks! I don't get to see her very often, and she hasn't come for a long visit like this in a while so I'm so happy and excited I feel like a holiday has been declared! Actually, I've been so busy recently I've been neglecting my morning calm time, and I can feel myself burning out. This is the perfect time to recharge.

What is your morning routine to get ready for the day? I'd love to know!

Root & Twig Opens Tonight

Here are a few more pieces of the pieces that are in the show. I'm currently obsessed with that lovely green, several other pieces use it heavily.

The opening is tonight, if you happen to live in the Portland area please do stop by and say hello!

Opening is from 6-9PM, 811 E Burnside St #110.

If you can't make it to the show in person, don't worry, all of the pieces are available to buy online!

Hellebore Garden Visit

It's hellebore time! I used to think these flowers were kind of dull, but their subtle beauty has grown on me. Actually, they're not that subtle, it's just that they're looking at the ground all the time. I love turning up the various flowers to see what exciting color or petal pattern is hiding.

Adventuring

Here is another taste of what will be at the show this Friday. It happened kind of last minute (I decided I wanted to have a larger piece in the mix), which meant that I wasn't too attached to it, which meant that I took more risks, and I love the results! Sometimes that works out. I think this piece reflects that it is February, I have a lot of work to do, and I want to get awayyy!

By the way, here is the Facebook event page in case you want RSVP to the show.

Fox Eraser & Question

I have a few Fox Erasers back in stock in my store. I gave them some cuter packaging (I think).

I've been brainstorming about some new goods I'd like to sell though my store. I'm thinking some new note card designs, and maybe some stamps (which I've actually meant to do for a very long time). And I have some ideas in mind for pdf printable things, but I have to figure out how to do that. What do you think? What sort of items designed by me would you like to buy?

Signs Of Spring

I think those are some kind of cherry blossoms in bloom! Early blooms are popping out all over the place, not that the winter is long here but it feels so nice to see them. As someone who spent her whole life in the Mid-West (besides five winters in Maine) I am still so surprised and excited when I see daffodils blooming in early February (not to mention beautiful camellias, which look too exotic too be allowed this time of year). I probably annoy the hell out of everyone because I'm constantly exclaiming about the flowers, but I can't help it!

Twig Fox

This is the first piece for my upcoming show "Root & Twig" at Redux, here in Portland. I had a show there a few years ago, and I'm happy to be there again, it's a fun shop!

This body of work is made up of drawings gathered from sketchbook scribblings I've accumulated over the last few months. I've been so busy working on work for other people since last summer, which has been great, but it hasn't left me much time to create pieces of my own. It feels good to work from my own inner world for a bit again.