I'm in love with this graphic I found on Scoutie Girl, by Eleanor Mayrhofer of e.m.papers. For me, seeing it laid out visually makes everything clearer. Check out all the posts on this subject here.
New Work: "Baby Food"
I did this little illustration for Baton Rouge Parents magazine. I love drawing fruit and veggies so much, it's making me realize I should be working on a cookbook! hmmm...Hear that universe?
New Look
In with the new... and out with the old:
Still wrestling a bit with Wordpress' "Custom" functions within my current theme, but so far I love the new fonts. I had always hated the old standard fonts, so these feel like a breath of fresh air. --Much more "me"! What do you think? A welcome makeover?
Have a wonderful weekend folks! We're off to Vermont with our animal menagerie and 33 hour! audio book in tow.
Working Wednesday: Trends as Inspiration
I just stumbled across an unexpected (for me) source of inspiration: Design Trends.
Prompted by The Academy's insightful article "How to use Design Trends To Guide Your Marketing Activity, Part 1", I clicked over to Etsy's Merchandising Desk column in their blog. After reading their July post, I was brimming with ideas.
Now some of you, who are good worker bees, are thinking "duh." But maybe there are others out there like me, who only give trend forecasts a cursory glance. It seemed so dry before, and perhaps a bit limiting, and even a little like cheating. "Use these colors right. now." But something clicked today and I realized these lists can be a great source of inspiration.
The above links are great resources if you're interested in checking out the latest trends.
Working Wednesday: DIY Book Display
I needed inspiration for displaying my vintage children's book collection, and it recently occurred to me that I should be looking at kid's rooms. Right now, my awesome books are stacked in a pile on a shelf in my office. Boring-- and sad. But I'm thinking these Ikea Spice Racks, that everyone seems to be repurposing these days, would do the trick:
images from Domestic Simplicity.
I think placed down low on the wall, like this, would work especially well in my studio. (Don't you love that grey with all the pops of color? Actually that whole room is amazing. Click on the photo for a link to her Flickr stream.) Though if they were up high they'd be more decorative...hmm.
image from misspfui
Seems easy right? The Ikea racks are $2.49 in the States, and the set up is pretty obvious, but here it is spelled out, just in case you'd like some directions.
Working Wednesdays
G and I moved to Providence almost three years ago and it's the first time in a long while, or really, ever in my adult life, that I have my own studio/office/work space. However, as we were under the impression that we were just in this apartment "temporarily," I was loathe to do much to improve it. "Why paint the walls if we're just going to leave in a few months?"
But here we are, pushing three years and the walls are still a horrible, dingy shade of grey-green. And lately the piles of ...everything...have multiplied so that I found myself walking in, head down, and then resolutely staring at the computer so I can't see the mess around me. Not exactly a stress free work environment. But I've been working on it. (And spending too much time online obsessing over dream work-spaces.)
"Working Wednesdays" posts will be about freelancing, working from home, organizing tips, and yes, drool-worthy office spaces. Hopefully the ideas will not only be inspiring to you, but will result in a clean, happy office for me!
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First up: To corral test prints, and the like, I put in a bunch of tacks and hung clips from them. A variation of this:
image from remoldista
Except my prints are larger. Not the best permanent storage, but a great way to get working, or pieces of paper you need, up and out of the way. A couple variations:
image from Martha Stewart
Also works great for hanging kid's art:
image from The Style Files
See? Less piles already!