Mushrooms, turtles, and snails combine with leaves, berries and flowers to highlight some of the flora and fauna of the forest floor. This weeks Spoonflower Design Challenge is “Forest Biome” and I had fun bringing a touch of whimsy to my design.
It all started with the mushrooms. Once I had 4-5 drawn out and colored, I decided that a couple of them needed faces. I’m pleased to introduce you to Lady Mushroom (see my first animation of her over on Instagram).
The leaves were next. I wanted a variety. Those little heart branches were last and they are my favorite!
Then I needed berries… but I wanted a variety of berries for interest.
I added the turtles in honor of my 8 year old son. He loves turtles. I’m not big on realistic turtle drawing, though. My turtles often have those super unrealistically high shells. He has vaulted ceilings. 🙂
I thought I was done, and I was really happy with the design, when my husband decided I needed to add snails. He does that sort of thing all the time.
“But I don’t want to add snails! Snails sound hard!”
Nonetheless, I added snails. And I love them. He was right. It definitely needed snails. And one of them definitely needed a face, however unscientific it may be. 🙂
Spoonflower is showcasing these in their contest as wallpaper, but how would you use it? Fabric? Wallpaper? Would you turn it into a little girls dress? Or dress the walls of the kids playroom? Let me know in the comments!
My 2024 Mini Doodle Calendar is here! At 3.5 inches tall, it’s the cutest little thing!
Years ago, when I first started illustrating, I began creating these cute little calendars as Christmas gifts. I tied them up with those tiny easels you can find at Hobby Lobby (though that first year my husband made them for me because we couldn’t find any) and attached them to the top of cookie platters for friends at church and tucked them in stockings or packages for family. I even sold a few at our Christmas market.
Everyone loved them, so I did it again! Then life hit and I took a couple years off. People asked about them at market each year and family set aside their little easels for “someday”. Last year, with my new Etsy shop open for business, I decided to make the time to create new ones (chickens and trucks). It was fun to be in the calendar business again. I sold a few and gifted them around to friends and family.
This year I’ve been planning to update my calendars for 2024, but before I could do so, one of you contacted me requesting my 2018 calendar for this next year. I was beyond delighted to have a request and got right to work (after I finished the Mountain Lodge Prints I was working on that is).
And it’s here! As I have been doing with a lot of my early work these days, they have been “re-mastered” and are looking better than new! (“Re-mastered simply means I have better equipment and a few years more skill than I did when I made these originally so I’ve cleaned up the digital files!)
I’m currently packaging up 31 of these cuties to take with us to Peru next week (12 cut out so far). We’re taking the whole family to serve at a South American Missionary Conference and I want to gift these to the missionary families who will be in attendance!
Please click over to find this and my 2024 Old Truck Calendars in my Etsy shop now! (If it’s the Chicken Calendars you want, I’m hoping to have the 2024 version in the shop the first week or so of November!)
My first post for the new domain! Yey! I’m still working out a handful of kinks in the road (getting my subscription up for one), but I wanted to give you a little sneak peak of what I’m working on for the shop. Plus, I miss you all!
I have a couple plans for this little guy. I’m making some tweaks to him (her?) and I’m working on several different poses. What do you think of my new project?
I know I have a wide range of people who are readers here. Raise your hand if you are a chicken person (okay… leave a comment?). If you aren’t sure, you probably aren’t. A chicken person doesn’t necessarily have chickens themselves, but they want to. And not all people who have chickens are chicken people. (Am I right?)
And of course, among chicken people there is a wide variety as well. Some just love the birds and others make fancy coops and decorate them seasonally. (Someday I want that to be me.)
We have chickens in a quarter of our garden with a somewhat ugly but functional coop. I made it myself with the help of 3-12 year olds (6 of them). I guess you could say that I’m a kid person at this phase of my life. 🙂 Anyway, I digress.
While I dream of what I would do if homeschooling and gardening, laundry and occasional house cleaning didn’t take up all my time, I made some really cute (sorry, I’m biased) chicken coop signs for you to decorate your chicken spaces with!
They are in my Etsy shop now. Head over to grab the bundle for yourself for 30% off this week. Coupon code COOPSIGNS30 or click here.
Frame them and and hang them under shelter if you have it. I think they would be cute mounted to wood and sealed from the elements and hung on the outside. Your call. What would you do with them? Let me know in the comments! 🙂
Back by popular demand, I have illustrated new mini doodle calendars for 2023! I did a couple of them years ago (here too) to sell at our Christmas market. They take a lot of time to create, though, so it’s been a while since I’ve done one. This summer I took up the challenge with my mini illustrated chicken calendar.
While I am hoping to sell them at our Christmas market next month, I also have them in my shop as digital downloads. They are downloadable as a PDF with three different sizes: mini, 4×6, and 5×7.
The larger sizes can be framed for display or clipped up, but I love the mini size on easels and tucked on a shelf or in a windowsill above the sink or stove.
I have dreams of posting a second design before the end of the year, but I haven’t decided what the design should be. Any ideas? Flip through some of my past content to see ideas of what sort of artwork I’ve done in the past and post your suggestions in the comments.
This new Harvest Journal Bundle is just one of a few items I have listed recently in my shop. I love to keep track of how many pounds of this vegetable I bring in or how many pints of that fruit.
Though I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks, I have been working when I can and have some new things in my shop. With the arrival of spring comes a lot more time working outside in the yard and garden. We’ve been digging, planting, raking, and even harvesting already! Asparagus is the plant that keeps giving year after year!!! (anyone with me?)
With the addition of outside projects, there is not much time left over for blogging… especially with my new Etsy shop. So it isn’t hard to understand that I’ve gotten behind in the blogging department. I do want to share with you, though, some of the new things in my shop.
From the beginning, this blog has been about sharing the things I am creating, putting myself out there for you all to see. I want to keep doing that, and if you should want to purchase something… well, I won’t complain about that either. 🙂 (wink, wink) So I’m going to try get some posts written up to share what I’ve been doing, all while continuing to create some more. 🙂 Thank you all for your support on this creative journey! (Coupon codes to come!)
I designed most of these pages to coordinate with my Chicken Egg Counting Sheets. They will fit nicely in the same journal or binder. The artwork on some of the pages are specific to one crop (like this strawberry page), but really, you could use any page for any crop.
Others have room for several crops on one page (as seen at the top).
I’m a 40-something mama to six children and I have a confession… for the past six and a half years (YEARS people!), my mother has been doing all my laundry. Yep… I am S.P.O.I.L.E.D!
Okay, sure, I’ve done some here and there. She does get sick from time to time… or we have some extra laundry in the form of children who aren’t completely potty trained… and sometimes she leaves town. When these things happen, we generally do our best and still run out of underwear and socks. [Eye roll] It is hard to switch it back into our routine. But for the most part, my mom does it all!
I talked about this several years ago, but it all started after baby number 6 was born and things were HARD (head over to read the other post for details if you are curious). My mom lives with us in a renovated detached garage, but she worked full time, so she wasn’t able to be around much to help. A couple weeks in she started doing all the laundry. Husband was very thankful to have socks and underwear every day and I was very thankful to no longer feel like a failure every time he didn’t. Win win!
It was a great help during a difficult season, but as we were finally climbing out of it several months later, she told me she was going to keep doing it. (Again, more details in the other post.) And she has! For six and a half years! Now she did retire this past summer and has done quite a bit more traveling since. It’s been a transitional year as we prepare to take it over for good. This summer the new laundry room should be fully functional, and I will take back the laundry baton that she has faithfully carried for so long.
Several years ago, as I was reflecting on how much I appreciated my mom and her willingness to serve us in such a tangible way, I decided to paint her a card for Mother’s Day with a giant basket of laundry on the front. I had no idea that 4 more years would pass before I would take that chore back from her.
This year, as I’m anticipating being the chief laundress for my large family once again, I thought about how laundry is one of the many thank-less jobs moms do. Most of the time they only notice if we don’t do the laundry (“Mmmmmooooommmmmm, I don’t have any underwear!”… I hear this a lot when I’m in charge.) They don’t think to come down in the morning to say “Thanks for the clean underwear and socks in my drawer mom!” (To be fair, my husband does thank me for laundry from time to time… I am spoiled indeed!)
So, with these thoughts in my mind, I have brought the laundry themed Mother’s Day card to my Etsy shop. I am selling them as digital downloads so you can purchase, print and send them without waiting and without leaving home.
I also created some bonus tags and a bookmark that are included. Great for Mother’s Day, birthdays, or just because!
As always, I want you to have an opportunity to have them at a discount during their first week in my shop. Enter LAUNDRY33 as the coupon code for 33% off through the 22nd or use this link to have it taken automatically.
These dandelion prints make me smile. You’ve seen the artwork before here, but I wasn’t done. Before long I began working on these prints that would be fitting in any child’s space.
I love whimsy in my home decor, but especially in my children’s rooms. I don’t know how much of my home decor taste is because I have so many children in my home (six kids age 15 and under) and have for so many years, but I can’t help myself. I love making spaces that my family can enjoy. And they make me smile too.
And I love white space. This is something my husband and I don’t always agree on. I show him something I’ve created and he wants me to make a background. “NO!” I reply, calmly. (ahem) I just love how the focus is brought to all the right places with plenty of “negative” (that’s the fancy way to say white) space.
I included all the phrases, the dandelion fuzz blowing in the breeze, the little boy gifting a dandelion to his sister or friend because I think they carry the whimsy of the whole set. I really love the “D is for Dandelion” print. I was aiming for the simplicity of the outlined flower and the yellow “D” just sitting in the corner. I picture this set in a homeschool room, or even a preschool. On the bathroom walls or one or two of them sitting on the dresser in a nursery.
I finally got them added to my shop today. Your coupon code for 33% off is DANDELION33. Or you can click this link to have it taken automatically. Discount is only for a week, so head over quick! (I usually offer a discount for new products in the shop to my readers, so if you don’t want to miss a discount, sign up to follow and receive notifications in the sidebar!)
Last year I had the joy and privilege to design the wedding invitation for a sweet couple in our church. I brought out my paints and paper and went to work. It was so fun! With some back and forth between us, I think the end result was beautiful! Shown here are the two options for the RSVP/Registry card. She picked the back one, but I wanted to share both with you.
In the last 5-6 months I’ve been working on a big project. One of my biggest so far, in fact. I’ve turned Anna’s wedding invitation into an entire design collection, complete with a second colorway. I’m working on the finishing touches to the collection for fabric, but while I’m waiting for that, I’ve followed this line of inspiration to some new places.
These stickers are designed for use on your tablet’s digital planner/calendar/bullet journal in your note taking app, but they can also be used on any computer where PNG files can be used (not suitable for printing). They aren’t just for weddings, but add a romantic and beautiful feel to your everyday digital world.
As always, I want to offer my readers an opportunity to get these stickers at 33% off for the first week I have them in my Etsy shop. Enter coupon code ANNASTICKERS33 or click this link to have the discount taken automatically through April 15, 2022.
Like it? Please pin the image below! Thanks for your support!
With spring officially begun, we are full into the beginning of garden season! How better to celebrate, than with a cute Carrot Patch sign!
This is the part of the year that I still like gardening. Ask me again come July or August when it’s too hot to be outside and the weeds and pests have taken over and my opinion is often different. But for now… for now I’m all about the planning and the prepping and the seed starting. Yes, and even the decorating!
So… I designed this cute sign specifically for my sister who is loving all things carrots these days! I wanted to have something for her when she arrived for her visit this week, but I couldn’t help but print myself one and frame it up! It’s sitting on my kitchen counter waiting for me to figure out a good place for it. 🙂 I couldn’t stop there, though! I’ve also added it to my Etsy shop so you can have a copy too!
My sign reads, “Welcome to our Carrot Patch”, but my sister lives alone, so that isn’t going to work for her. Hers says ,”Welcome to my Carrot Patch.”
I designed this sign both ways, so, whether you need this sign in your family home or want to use it in your own space, I’ve got you covered! This sign would be great framed as an 8×10 or 5×7 on an entry table or in a dorm room, or framed as an 11×14 on the mantle in your living room. You can also choose to print the pdf of the 8.5×11 size to put in the front cover of your homestead, household, or school notebook!
