Whatever happened to 2015?

Wow, this year has just flown by. It's been a great year of learning for me, and I can't wait to see what 2016 brings. I'm working fervently on my resolutions list. I hope you all have a fabulous holiday and find lots of time for creativity and fun in the new year! Love, me.

Bubbly on Spoonflower

Everybody's on the move

Christmas a-go-go

12 days of Christmas...kinda

I had planned on doing twelve days of journal paintings leading up to Christmas, but things don't always go as I plan, alas. So this is day 5 and I do have a few more I'm hoping to get to. Relaxing and goofing off is fun, too, though! This one is an homage to those sweet old Christmas cards from days of yore.

Cross-country bears

First-Class Kitty

First-class kitty

Sweater vests for everyone

Sweater vests

Better late than never

Hooray! I finally got my greeting cards in the shop, though I grant you, they're a tad late for anyone but the most last-minute card sender. (That would be me!) Nevertheless, it's nice to accomplish one's goals at last. Check it off the list. Be sure to check back — I'm planning to do a 12 days of Christmas sketchbook challenge beginning on Monday (I think!)

2015 Holiday greeting cards on Etsy

Jolly holiday gift wrap and fabric in sage on Spoonflower

Jolly Holiday gift wrap and fabric in pink on Spoonflower

Get out your woolens

And... another entry in the weekly Spoonflower design challenge. The subject is knitting. Check out all the entries and vote for your favorites here!

Woolens

Cut and sew holiday gift bag

Yep, still at it with the Spoonflower weekly design challenges! This is actually from last week but there's still time to vote for your favorites. This was tough for me since I really haven't sewn anything since I was 14 years old. So, take my instructions with a grain of salt. They're more like "here's how I would go about it if I was to unpack my sewing machine from its shipping box, which is currently serving quite nicely as a barricade to keep my cat, Stache, from pushing out the screen in the screen door..."

Cut and sew holiday gift bag

Holiday gift tags and free shipping all month

At last, I've added my gift tag set to my Etsy shop. Also, everything ships free all month. Just use the coupon code SHIPIT at checkout. Don't forget! That's just for domestic. But if you're an international customer, hit the custom order button on the item and ask me for 40% off on your shipping charges. Also new, my 2016 Neighbors calendar, available as an 11 x 17 inch print. I even took out the extra day I had in November!

Holiday gift tag set on Etsy

Set of 12 gift tags on heavy stock

2016 Neighbors calendar

Deck the halls

Here's an illustration I did for a piece in Baltimore magazine on decorating for the holidays.

Cheers!

These are my sketches. The idea they didn't use was recycled into a halloween sketchbook painting.
No wasted ideas around here!

Family portraits

I decided to make a pattern out of one of my sketchbook paintings for the current Spoonflower weekly design challenge. The theme this week is family portraits, and I usually see a lot of portraits on a wall for this theme, so I didn't want to repeat that, though I did begin a design I'll call "snaps" if I ever complete it. I'll share a peek here just for the heck of it. I had also planned to do a fabric of just faces, which I'll still do, but another designer did one I loved, so I decided to hold off a bit on that. Happy Thanksgiving!

An homage to my beloved Grandma, and the many Thanksgivings we spent at her house in Petersburg, Virginia.

One of our regular car trips was the one we made on Thanksgiving.

This sketchbook painting was always meant as a jumping off point for a surface design.

Snaps: Work in progress

The moon & you

Here's another in a long line of Spoonflower weekly challenge designs. The theme? Why, 'tis the moon! You can see all the entries and vote for your favorites here starting tomorrow. And by the way, if you've had your eye on that cute little chevron fabric or anything else on Spoonflower, now's the time to get two fat quarters for the price of one until 10pm EST Thursday November 12th (that's tomorrow).

The moon & you on Spoonflower

Here's a photo of the printed fabric from my entry of 2 weeks ago, Kitties of the zombie apocalypse,which managed to make the top ten in the contest.

Hello, Tiger

This is another piece I did for the Co-Lab Gallery show at the Hollywood Palladium tomorrow. It's part of a series I like to call "Creatures of the Night." Now available as a giclee print in my Etsy shop.

Hello, Tiger

At the Lizard Lounge, part 4: The painting

Yet another iteration of the reptile hotspot, this time it's the painting, which is on thick birch panel, and will be on display this weekend at the Co-lab Gallery Art and music pop-up Sunday from 2-8pm at the world-famous Hollywood Palladium. Also now in my Etsy shop.

At the Lizard Lounge

2016 Tea Towel Calendar

"Neighbors" is my entry in the Spoonflower 2016 Tea Towel Calendar Challenge. My obsession with windows continues. Available soon as a print in my Etsy shop and on Spoonflower as fabric for any of you sewing geniuses out there. There are a lot of really great designs this week —you can see them all and cast your votes here.

Neighbors, a calendar for 2016. 

Free shipping + 5 bucks off in my Society 6 shop

Use this promo link to get your discount through midnight Nov. 8 Discount only available by using this special link.

Lizard Lounge 18 x 18 canvas tote.

Black-cat-a-day 30 & 31: Masquerade

At last I've come to the end of my daily project. It's been such fun. Now I just have time to get ready for trick-or-treaters. Happy halloween!

Black-cat-a-day 30 & 31: Masquerade.

Black-cat-a-day 29: Goodbye to Bunky

Goodbye to Bunky. Even the skies wept.

Black-cat-a-day 27 & 28: Miss Havisham's cake

The days grow shorter. The air grows nippier (or as in Los Angeles, slightly less blistering) and I have actually purchased candies from the grocer in anticipation of Halloween. Just a few more black cat days to go, so here's a nod to Dickens' Great Expectations, in which our dear Miss H, jilted at the altar, lives out her days dressed in her tattered wedding gown amid the ruins of her reception feast.

The groom didn't show: Miss Havisham's cake. Yummy.

Days 24 & 25: Kitty Noir

Kitty noir: Crime thrives in the asphalt jungle.

Black-cat-a-day 23: Procession, Part 2

Procession, part 2

Illustrations for Vegetarian Times

For an article in the October issue about creating a happy home for pets.

Happy pets for Vegetarian Times

Happy kitty

Day 22: Chatty Zelda

Black-cat-a-day 22: Chatty Zelda

Black-cat-a-day 20 & 21: Truck Stop & Charles

Truck Stop/Charles

Day 19: Kitties of the Zombie Apocalypse sketches

Color sketches I made while working out the Post-Apocalyptic Toile fabric for Spoonflower. Zombie cats threaten the food stores!

Black-cat-a-day 19: Kitties of the zombie apocalypse

Black-cat-a-day 17 & 18

Ace of Cats & Co-sleeping

Kitties of the zombie apocalypse

For various reasons, I've fallen a few days behind on my black cats, but since I am working on a cat fabric, I'm going to bend my own rules a bit, whatever they are and count this toward a couple of days. Though they're technically dark blue, they're black cats in spirit. This is a pattern I'm working on for this week's weird Spoonflower challenge on the theme of "Post-apocalyptic toile". UPDATE: Nah. I think I can catch up.

Kitties of the zombie apocalypse

Procession, Part 1

It was a dark and stormy night... and yes, there's a black cat in this one, in case you doubt.

Black-cat-a-day 16: Procession, pt. 1

Get out your masks

Here's a quickie to get me through a couple of busy days. Hope you've picked out your Halloween costumes, because it's a-comin'!

Black-cat-a-day 14 & 15: Masks

Black-cat-a-day 13: The family tree

Behold, the family tree

Nice day for a walk

I haven't forgotten that the whole point of this challenge was to celebrate Halloween. So... why shouldn't a cat have a pet bat to promenade around the neighborhood on a crisp autumn day?

Black-cat-a-day No. 12: Nice day for a walk

Black-cat-a-day 10 & 11: A cloud of perfume

Black-cat-a-day 10 & 11: Wafting in on a cloud of perfume

Fortune-tellin' kitty

It's day nine and this black cat is for my friend Yvonne.

Black-cat-a-day 9: Fortune-tellin' kitty

Black-cat-a-day 8: Sneaky panther

Black-cat-a-day 8: Sneaky panther

Black-cat-a-day 6 & 7

One week in and I'm still keeping up. From today and yesterday I give you a black cat & a black crow, plus the noble Lord Whiskers.

Black-cat-a-day 6 & 7: "Don't even think about it!" & Lord Whiskers

Black-cat-a-day 5: Three kitties at a seance

Three kitties held a seance.

Black-cat-a-day 4: Midnight matinee

Black cat a day 4: Midnight matinee

Black-cat-a-day: Days 2 & 3

Black cat a day. DAYS 2 & 3: A nice bowl o' milk / Take a letter, Miss Katz.

Black cat a day

It might be fun for October to paint a black cat every day. Here's day one. We'll see... I'm already one behind!

Black cat a day: Day one, olive corduroy jacket.