My Zines at ShanaLogic

I am happy to report that my zines are now available at the awesome indie online shop called ShanaLogic! I really love ShanaLogic cos they support so many super talented artists and designers. Please have a look at her website, and you can pick up some of my zines! I am the first zinester to have their zines at Shana's webshop.


You can own my thrilling titles!






So please have a look at ShanaLogic and read some zines!

Sketchbook Sunday - Acorns and Cute Girls

I have been drawing some cute girls lately! Some are mori girl inspired and some are just doodles.




Here are some acorn heads. I enjoy making new characters and illustrating their clothes and friends.


This is another mori inspired sketch - a girl holding a baby acorn! I love her hair and her bow.


We had a good bit of rain last weekend, so this illustration was made during the rain and hail storms we had last week.


Here is my fawn baby, too. I love drawing animals, especially deer and fawns.

Operation Cutify - Yard Crashers, Part 1

Last year, we neglected our backyard in favor of working on some indoor projects (the living room, hallway gallery, master bathroom). To make up for it, we've been spending the last couple of weekends busting our butts working outdoors, in an attempt to get most of the prep work and heavy duty tasks done before the sweltering summer months. I've been obsessed with MULCH ever since Missy and her mom refreshed the mulch in a couple of our flower beds. The bags have been on sale 3 for $10 at Home Depot, so we've been buying them every chance we get. I think we've gone through at least 40 bags by now.

Besides spending time at Home Depot, we've also been supporting a couple of local nurseries - COFER'S and THYME AFTER THYME. We were especially inspired with the woodland feel at Thyme After Thyme, and hope we can bring that same kind of atmosphere to our backyard...









Back at the Ranch, we started with clearing out this problem spot between our shed and patio, where the spigot is located. We dug out a couple of shrubs and cleaned out a bunch of natural debris that had been accumulating there, making it difficult to get to the spigot. After, we covered the entire area with mulch, extending it into the bed surrounding the patio, where we added new flowers and plants. While I worked on the area by the shed, Missy worked on adding some new ground covering plants to our walkway. Hopefully, in time, the ground cover will fill in all the spaces between the stepping stones...











Next, we turned out attention to this empty bed in front of the shed. A couple of years ago we had tomatoes growing in that bed. We decided to move one of our ROSEMARY BUSHES to the bed and surround it with various other herbaceous plants...

















Missy tamping down the mulch around our shed:



After we got the areas around the house sorted, we turned our attention to a group of trees towards the far back of our yard. We wanted to build a bed around these trees, but had to clear out years of neglected leaves, fallen branches, and over-grown ivy, weeds, and vines. Our plan was to dismantle the stone fire pit in our yard (where the previous owners used to burn their trash, according to one of our neighbors) and use those stones to outline a bed around the trees. In the clearing process, Missy managed to uncover a SNAKE hiding in the thick layer of leaves. Luckily, we didn't get bit! Missy tried to pick it up with a shovel, but it quickly slithered under our chain link fence and into our neighbor's yard...









The wet spot on the tree shows how thick and high the layers of ivy and underbrush was (about a foot deep):







After the back bed was built, we turned our attention to this area in front of the fire pit area. There were all these annoying tufts of GRASS and DAY LILLIES which had gone wild all over our yard. We pulled them up and replaced them with native flowers, hoping to attract bees and butterflies to our garden...









VALERIAN ROOT:



TICKSEED:





We ended up purchasing a metal ARBOR and placed it at the "entrance" of the fire pit circle, which we are going to convert into a butterfly-friendly garden. We got a pair of CONFEDERATE JASMINE plants that we will train to climb the arbor...

We Buy DIY: Oceanity Handmade

When we had our table at Raindrop a few weeks ago, I picked up some really neat stuff from Michelle of Oceanity Handmade. Michelle makes really lovely fabric brooches, bow barrettes, sewn ribbons, and much more. I chose this pin, made from vintage Girl Scouts fabric and felt. This is the Pen Pal pin! I love it because I had so many pen pals when I was in high school and college. Hey, it was before the internet... I might have to get the other Pen Pal, so she can have someone to write to.


I also chose a vintage children's book to add to my collection. This one has some really cute illustrations inside - so inspiring!


The book is called Children of the Nineties, and I know you are thinking they might be into "grunge music" maybe, but no, my friends, they are from the 1890's!