dress shoppe stationary

Hello to you out there in the blog-o-sphere! I know I've been neglecting my blog, and that's not fair. My little bloggy blog has
done a lot for me, and yet I ignore it. No more!! I'm going to start posting more regularly now, I promise. I've even got a few ideas for regular/weekly/feature type blog updates so that even if I have nothing of my own to show you I can at least post something. Keeping it fresh is important, dontcha know.

In the mean time, just to prove that I have not just been sitting around my apartment eating bon bons and painting my nails (although I do so in moderation when the mood strikes), I'd like to present one of the projects that has kept me away from bloggin' as I should: my Dress Shoppe stationary set! I know I mentioned it before, but I got the thumbs up to do a more in-depth post on it, so here goes...


I wanted all the gals to look different but like they are from the same universe, too. This first lady in the suit might be my favorite. She's like the ultimate chic housewife of the decade. I imagine that she wears this outfit to the supermarket to buy 50lbs of meat to store in her giant freezer in her turquoise and pink kitchen. "Off to buy some haaaaam!"




This gal might look familiar because she is a re-incarnation of my Librarian Paper Doll. She was the inspiration for this set. (I still really want to do a straight up paper doll book or magnetic paper doll, by the by.)


I love this color combo: red orange, pink, minty green.



And one last sunny yellow dress! Actually, this might be my favorite. She's more 60's looking than the rest, but I love her flats and pink gloves. I pretty much gave her an outfit that I'd like to wear.

I made the set for Chronicle Books and I have to say, they really do a bang-up job on the graphic design end. The style of the set is super girly and very 50's, and I had the pleasure of working with folks who totally understood what I was going for and had a lot to add to it. Look at the little photo shoot they did for the back of the the box:

So perfect!!

It comes with stickers so you can stick accessories on the gals, like little glasses and purses and flower brooches and hats. And pink envelopes! Did I mention that they stand up? They do. (PS, please excuse the general crappishness of these photos.)


Anyhoo-a, you can pre-order them on Amazon
OR on the Chronicle Books website, but you wont be able to play with 'em til March. :)

brush pen part 2

Hey! I've been sick aaaaalll week! It sucks. I really thought I was better last night but after being in denial most of the day I finally took a Sudafed and passed out. At least I woke up breathing through my nose, which was a major improvement! I've been sucking down tea and hanging around my apartment for daaaaays and started reminiscing about last weekend when I thought I had beat my sore throat and went to brunch at Alcove, the favorite breakfast-at-noon spot in my neighborhood. It is full of characters, myself included. Here's a few that I encountered:

The lady on the right had a whole lot of look happening: a big woolly oversize sweater, a ripply tunic or dress (it's hard to tell which sometimes but this was supposed to be a dress since she wasn't wearing anything under it), giant chunky rock necklace, crazy gladiator sandals, and the ultimate accessory: a small dog. The dog was cute but ultra tiny! It looked fragile and fluffy. Her friend was tiny and had worlds largest handbag.



This girl is a cupcake. She was really working that romper. Except for the back, where the edge of her butt cheek kept peaking out...but I did you the courtesy of only drawing her from the front.



This was a tall, skinny, lanky couple. They looked like they just rolled out of bed to have a tall, skinny, lanky brunch together.




Also, I added a whoooooollle bunch of new prints to the shop this week. All stuff from my show last month. Lots of the originals are still available too, but I'm still considering whether to put them up in the store or not. I haven't had much luck selling OG's on etsy.

This will probably be my only post this week, since I've spent most of it laying around watching Grey Gardens and eating cough drops like candy.

drawings that I did from the balcony in the dark

I saw Camera Obscura last night at the Henry Fonda in Hollywood. They are sooooo great! The not great thing was that we had balcony seats. They are good for seeing the stage, but not so good for dancing around like you are supposed to do at a show. I tried to make the best of the situation by busting out my brush pen to doodle...but the only surface available to draw upon were cocktail napkins from the bar. So here are some doodles that I doodled out in the hot smelly balcony in the dark!

Anni Rossi opened. She plays the viola and sings and stomps on a suitcase wearing big boots for percussion. It took me a few minutes of watching her to realize that I went to CalArts with her! I think we had some classes together. People used to say she was awesome, but I never saw her perform until last night. Sean says I jacked her pretty hard in this drawing. Sorry Anni. You stomp out a song real good, though!



...THEN a band called Agent Ribbons played. They looked like a band of wind up dolls that played instruments! They had a great cello/violin player. She had a flower in her hair that was probably as big as her head.






I could not tell you what this bird guy was all about. He must have been over six feet tall, wearing a bright pink suit with a bird mask, and a moon shaped tambourine in one hand and a boxing glove on the other. If you are confused by these drawings, then imagine how I felt when this was actually happening in front of me.




Camera Obscura! They are a big band, and their lead singer has what I call a "cupcake" body: kinda thick, but not fat, but cute and appealing all over. Like a cupcake.






Yay!

pics from the show!

As promised, some photos from the show this past weekend, courtesy of Jules! (As you may know, dear blog reader, my camera has resigned to paper weight status, and so I have no pics of my own.)



Sorry to anyone in these pics who would rather not be. If it makes you feel better, there are pretty much no flattering images of myself to speak of.





Bert approved.



Cute children and cute dogs liked the show, too...(that's my friend's baby Kaitlyn and my sister's baby Bambi).



Yep. Good times.