Saturday, February 26, 2011

Where have I been?

Hello, friends!

I have been working up a storm lately! My first magalog for Lane Bryant will arrive in mailboxes the first week in March, Melissa's baby shower invites arrived in mailboxes last week (more below), Kate's wedding invites (we'll wait till those are IN the mail) will be in the mail soon, and my NEWEST project is actually just being started today (you can see some inspiration below).

I'll let those of you (if any) that get the Lane Bryant magalog view that in real life on your own (it's 44 pages - too much for this space!!!). But for everyone else, here is a glimpse or two into what I've been doing:

Melissa's Baby Shower invite:



She loves them and I hope that the party-goers do too! I illustrated them and did the design work - it was a labor of love and it was AWESOME to do.

And now I'm (finally!!!) getting to work on a coworker's wedding invite (and additional collateral), which we decided we'd work on together about 6 months ago, and now it's finally happening!

Her fiancé is from Mexico and her dress looks like a flamenco dress - her colors are turquoise and red - and they love tattoos and  Día de los Muertos (but we're not including skulls because her very catholic father does not view them favorably). So, this is the swipe I've pulled so far:










So, I'll keep you posted on the results. I'd tell you from whence all of this inspiration came, but I didn't keep track - just google search "mexican floral tattoo" and you can probably find the source of most of them.


Okay, back to work!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Late? Maybe!

So, I said long ago that I'd update this blog with photos of GIFTS for yours truly... so here are a couple of things that I received for my late December birthday - they definitely made my day and they were all given to me by ladies whose names start with "K"!

From Kelle (and Bailey - not a K name), I got this beautiful butter dish (posing as a jewelry holder) and a beautiful brooch:


The note made me laugh, "When you open the butterdish, listen for the way it says, 'shrrrring!' - sounds fancy! [heart] you" because it's TRUE! I think of it every day when I open the dish (and I do, everyday, regardless of whether I'm wearing posts or hook earrings because all the backs are in the dish - my neck is too short and I love scarves too much not to wear them and risk hook earrings falling on to the floor or ice when I'm ice skating). I realize that I didn't get the brooch in the photos... but Kelle did, awhile ago:
I could go and take my own shot, but I'm choosing to be lazy tonight!

These girls also left me the BEST birthday message - Bailey yelling, "I LOVE YOU, JESS – I LOVE YOU JESS!!!" made my whole YEAR!

Kailen (my goddaughter) sent (via her mother, my cousin Kelly) this awesome card:
colored by Kailen herself - I love that Kelly didn't make her do it in a certain way, she just let her go and be herself (one and three quarters years old!) – I love it!

Next, from Kate I received this beautiful print of my beloved MICHIGAN(!):
and eyeshadow that has resulted in no less than 20 compliments:
by Sonia Kashuk - who knew!?!

Finally, from my friend Katie, I received exactly what I asked for. I donation to The Water Project:

It was a great birthday! My sister and brother also gave money to The Water Project and my mom bought me an electric toothbrush (which I TOTALLY wanted!), my other sister and the same brother got me Kanye West and Taylor Swift's new CDs (I made them fight over a Beyoncé CD), and my friends Joel and Melissa got me so much Alice and Wonderland dishware that I can't wait to eat all day! JUST KIDDING!!!




What a good year and I'm sure that 2011 will be even better!

I hope everyone is surviving under all of this ice and snow! Keep warm!