Tag Archives: painting

bird merch (launch day)

Exciting news: I’ve partnered up with Riley Mae and Mom to design some bird merch for Riley Mae’s YouTube channel, and yesterday we official launched it 🎉

I was excited to get to design some simple, straightforward birds that are now being printed on t-shirts, mugs, pins, hats, and more.

All of these designs were drawn directly from some of Riley Mae’s photographs, and then painted with black acrylic paint before I scanned them onto my computer and turned them into transparent PNG files that can easily be uploaded to all of our projects.

carolina wren, ruby-throated hummingbird, sanderling, blue jay, northern cardinal, northern flicker, turkey vulture

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coyote skull art

I’ve been in the process of cleaning my coyote skull since I posted this beautifully witchy photoshoot last autumn. And by “in the process,” I mean mainly letting mother nature do her reliable work, because I stay away from these things until they’re clean enough to not make me wanna gag while in close proximity to them (I’m just a girl with a weird hobby, I’m not a girl with a stomach of steel).

Well, the time finally came last month, after the long, cold winter began to thaw off, and I retrieved this perfect specimen from my…um…specimen bucket.

Yeah, okay, I hear it. And I know how it sounds.

But listen, this was a donation from my grampa who found a dead coyote. So really, I’m just doing the respectable work of appreciating the good lawd’s creatures, even after their death.

the gold accents are truly the chef’s kiss ✨

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february wrap

February was a really happy and fun month for me.

There was a ton of creativity, inspiration, exciting news, and talking to good people.

Although the winter blues have definitely been a problem for me in the past, I’ve thoroughly and completely enjoyed these cold months this year. I don’t think I’m ready for the world to get loud and active again as the weather warms up, but the first little snowdrop greens poking out of the frozen ground have definitely made me excited 🤍

(top left) February 10th, the nearly-full moon; (top right) February 28th, many evenings have been spent sewing and watching old episodes of Sex and The City; (bottom) February 25th, a juvenile hawk hung out in our yard for a while, Riley Mae identified it as a red-shouldered, and also got some photos of her own

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deer skull art

It finally happened: I painted my deer skull, and ‼spoiler alert‼ it came out better than I imagined it would.

I’ve been talking about this project for a hot minute, but it was just too much for me to seriously think about for a while. I was scared to jump into it prematurely and ruin it (it’s not like I have an unlimited amount of skulls here — all of mine are very special and meaningful to me).

the gold detailing really brought the project to life

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wrapping up 2024

We got our first real snow on December 4th. We were only supposed to get an inch or two, but when I woke up and looked out my window it was a winter wonderland! There’s such a specific feeling to going to sleep with no snow and waking up to this beauty, and it cannot be explained. The fact that I have a friend who lives in New Zealand and has never seen snow in his life still boggles my mind.

Of course it was very heavy, wet snow which resulted in us losing power for a few hours, so I went outside and built a little snowman while we were left in the dark. He had a face on both sides: one for us and one for everyone driving by. The faces didn’t end up lasting long (the eyes very quickly started to melt out), but the snowman [incredibly] lasted for days. He defied all logic — and gravity — by bending completely over, while never losing his head. By the time he melted, his head was almost touching the ground, while still remaining firmly attached to his body.

I truly magical snowman.

when you wake up in the night to a snowplow going by your house, you know that you’re going to wake up to something beautiful in the morning

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creative flow

I’ve been giving a lot of energy to my Etsy shop lately, and creativity is going in multiple directions. One day I’m spending hours in front of the sewing machine, the next I have a paintbrush in hand. I’ve also been creating videos to add to many of my listings (adding optional videos to Etsy listings is a fairly new feature on Etsy, but I’ve never used it until now). I feel like my shop looks really good right now, and is successfully reflecting my current creativity.

The hardest part for me when it comes to listing new items in my shop is still setting the prices for them. Does it ever get easier!?

My first reaction is to always think that I’m pricing things too high, because you can pick up things much cheaper from Target, T.J.Maxx, and Walmart (although those are all mass-produced items, unlike everything found in my shop).

But when I deduct the shipping cost (I offer free shipping on everything, so I pay $4 – $12 shipping on each order, depending on the items sold), and the Etsy fees (6.5% of each sale), and the taxes…don’t ask how much I’m left with for the time I put into my work.

Finance can get tight when you run your own business (as they are for me right now!), but this is really all I want to do, so I make it work, and I’m excited to keep branching out!

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latest update

To say that my creativity has been flowing lately would be an understatement — I’ve been having so much fun making things for my own enjoyment (Christmas quilts for me and my family!), and for my shop.

I’ve started to add a few new items to my shop (with more to come), some of which are quilted throw pillows (using my new favorite FPP sewing technique!).

every color on the butterflies — including all the small black lines — is an individual piece of fabric that is sewn together to create them!

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8 guinea pigs

I just finished my most recent rewatching of Grease (possibly my favorite movie of all time), which may sound like a pleasant thing, but alas, it typically means that I’m up late at night with something ailing me.

More often than not, Grease gets put on at 2am when I’m sitting up alone, drinking tea, and praying that the magic of Sandy, Danny, and the rest of the musical gang will lull me to sleep. It’s one of my top comfort movies, and it usually works pretty well — this time I dozed off and completely missed Danny singing alone at the drive-in. A tragedy, I know.

I’ve hardly gotten any good-quality sleep in the past week due to a persistent (and very tickly) post-nasal drip that has me continually clearing my throat and excessively swallowing. It’s stopped me from being able to comfortably lay down (pretty much torture for someone who greatly enjoys the pastime of laying down), which has made the nights feel endless. At first I thought I was getting ill again (just after I had recovered from my previous illness last month), but now I’m wondering if it might just be more allergy goodness (yay).

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wedding gift

When I say that I damn near cried when I was sent the reference photos for this custom portrait…what is this Pinterest-worthy love!? I’m obsessed.

The woman who purchased this portrait had been given one my pet portraits as a wedding gift from her friends, so she then turned around and ordered this beauty for her friends’ wedding gift.

I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous to get started on it (it’s been a hot minute since I’ve painted human faces) but I was so happy with the outcome, and now it’s wrapped up and en route to Canada ❤

(people have way too much trust in me)

click on the photos to enlarge them

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barn sanctuary auction items

Back in 2017 I took to Instagram to try and rustle up a following and audience to launch one of mine and my family’s grand ideas.

Spoiler alert: the idea was a joint-effort blog and business called Follow Us Home, which we successfully sustained for a couple years, before eventually shutting it down. I shared DIY tutorials; my mom shared vegan recipes, and all-natural cleaning products; my younger sister promoted sustainable, ecofriendly, and fair-trade clothing companies; and my older sister highlighted important charities that we supported. It was a wonderful, and exhausting, dream.

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