Our Fair Country (and a big announcement)
Our Fair Country (and a big announcement)
I'm heading to NYC for the National Stationery Show. When I return I will be throwing myself fully into making Worker Bird a real, real thing. I am excited and inspired to take this leap. There will be more of these maps and all 50 states and much more coming this year. Onward.
The birds have already feathered their nests
Have you? It's definitely spring here in Western PA (I saw some House Sparrows doing-the-do this morning so I know it's true) and we're all coming out of hibernation and greeting the new season. A few Spring Cleaning items: last weekend was Craftin' Outlaws in lovely Columbus, OH. Thanks to Megan and everyone for putting on another great show. I will be at the Mt Lebanon Earth Day event this Saturday to celebrate. Stop by my booth to say hi and feed some mealworms to my hens. It goes from 11-3 at Main Park. I will be adding some new pieces from my tin series to my etsy shop later today. This one is already there: Lastly - I designed and printed a 5x7 piece featuring a Great Horned Owl. I am going to be selling the print and a portion of the proceeds from each sale will go to Wildbird Recovery Center. Details to come in the next post. Onward.
Worker Bird
Alright ladies and gents, I've got it. I decided to name the new project "Worker Bird" (as in, busy as a bird). I'm not entirely sure how I plan to reconcile this space with the new space but I think it'll all fall into place as I go. I think this blog will be used for general posts about the chickens, illustration projects, client work, life, etc. I think Worker Bird will be solely about the products I design and make under that name. We'll see. Maybe in the end I'll fold it all together under one umbrella.Thanks to everyone for your ideas and suggestions. I need to get to work - Worker Bird will make its debut at Handmade Arcade on December 8.Lastly, please visit Sweet Six to read a little interview that my friend Jenny did with me. And order some tasty hand-crafted candy while you're at it.
Chicken Love
Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello and meet the girls at today's Mt. Lebanon Earth Day Festival. I loved seeing so much excitement over keeping backyard chickens. Also wanted to show everyone the three gorgeous eggs that the girls laid as soon as we got home. It was hysterical to see them dart from the crate, across the yard, into the hen house and up the ramp into their coop. And then, like, magic, these:
Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions about chickens. I will do my best to answer or direct you to great resources. Email foxbury [at] mac dot com.
Little Suburban Farm Life
The chicks should be arriving next week and we're so excited to see the wee things. Fingers crossed that they arrive safely. We're busy prepping for their arrival and also planning the large outdoor "Chicken CUBE" that we're building. We have pretty much decided to build a fully enclosed space and then site the coop - and all other hen-related things - inside the cube.First we have to relocate the castle:
Then try to build something a lot like this:
Then put this little guy into the "CUBE"
(and finish staining the deck and rebuild the retaining wall and stack the firewood and and and)This past weekend we took a quick trip to Chadds Ford, PA and spent a few hours roaming around Terrain at Styer's in absolute awe of it all. I know where I want to be buried. Hope the fine folks at Terrain won't mind. Every square inch was inspiring. Maybe we will face one side of the CUBE in funnels?
More on Terrain later. Headed to the incredible Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.
Back in the Saddle
After the big push to get TO the National Stationery Show and then get home FROM the show and unpack, decompress, etc, we then hopped a plane to Boston and spent some time exploring much of what New England has to offer. My baby brother tied the knot (I was a groomswoman!) in New Hampshire and then the entire crew went to York, Maine for a day trip to unwind. After that we headed to a college-friend's farm and hung out with her family which includes two horses, six guinea hens, a herd/school/smack/murder of ducks, a dog and a cat. Three days of bird calls, owls at night, fresh air and good sleep = delight. AND I have a huge new crush on the Maine coast.Now we're home and the reality of filling all those awesome orders from the Show is setting in. I also have some projects that I really want to dig into while it's still 2011. We'll see how it all plays out. In the meantime I just got word that one of the projects I worked on a few months back is set to launch imminently. I was hoping to have some behind-the-scenes photos and all sort of good details on said project but life got in the way. I'll have to sit on my hands and wait to see what the company rolls out.Until later.
Still here - I promise.
Oh, little orphan blog. I haven't forgotten but I have been wrapped up in living. Whistle and I took a week-long trip to New York and upon our return I jumped into preparing for the National Stationery Show next month. And Spring is springing so I'm constantly outside checking out the progress of the perennials.The sort-of-secret project I was working on is coming to fruition and I hope to have some new photos and info about that soon.I also swear that we have been making progress on the house. I just have been terribly remiss at posting pictures. Well, actually I've been remiss at cleaning enough to take pictures. No sooner than we get a room "done" we fill it with our messy life.So - thanks for your patience and I swear to get busy on this soon. In the meantime, some NYC photos.
Whistle took this one.
(and this one)
You didn't get mad when...
My brother sent this to me and then I did a little Google search to find more to make sure I was giving credit where due. These are things I've thought but never took the time to put thoughts into words. Thankfully someone else did.You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion (and counting) on said illegal war.You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.You didn't get mad when you saw the Abu Grahib photos.You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.You didn't get mad when we let a major US city drown.You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all ok with you but helping other Americans... well f$%^ that. That about right? You know it is.
Keeping Secrets
I have been printing journal covers for the last few days. I'm pretty sure my favorite part of printing comes at the end of a run when I've successfully printed my stack of paper and filled my drying rack and I start looking around for anything else I can throw on the table and pull a print on. I have printed the walls and posts in our basement. I have printed cereal boxes, shirts, aprons, cardboard boxes, envelopes, shopping bags - anything that'll take the ink. A couple of weeks ago I printed the tractor on a wooden "box" frame. I liked it so much that I've decided to keep a stack of boxes handy. I started printing bits of the screens I've been using for my journal covers and out came this test print box!
I love the test print randomness.I'm throwing a few coats of varnish on this and giving it to my best big brother for his birthday in a few days. He flies in tomorrow so don't say a word. Swear to it.
Early morning with the boy
bird1
Every once in awhile I get a good night's sleep and I get to wake up early with the boy and it's heavenly in the morning. We've been having unseasonably cool weather this summer so it's actually chilly this morning. Jeans, sweater, coffee, etc. We're up on our third floor watching some Thomas. The windows are open and the birds are singing. I love moments like this. It's about to get super crazy around here. We sold our hulking, Victorian rowhouse in the city and we're eyeing a 1910 red brick in a small town. The next few months (and years!) promise hours and hours of sorting, cleaning, packing, dumpster filling, sanding, painting, tiling, etc. What are we getting ourselves into? We just finished five years of all of the above. I can whip myself into a panicked frenzy in no time. But for now we will just sit and listen to the birds and the persnickety British trains and enjoy this morning.
Birds + Bees
I mentioned that some super awesome woman bought a bunch of my pieces from etsy. Well, she practically cleaned me out. I started a couple of pieces and hoped to have them up last week but, as you well know by now, I am an ace procrastinator so I now have only one done. The other is languishing on my table, waiting to be painted. The right color hasn't hit me and I actually have some ideas for pattern so...we'll see. I'm totally out of sorts right now because for a long time we've been in limbo about where to live. We live in an amazing, huge, old victorian row house in the city right now but it's...complicated. There are countless great things about living here but a couple of really bad things about living here. And with the sweetest kid on earth in our lives, the bad things loom large. So...we fell in love with a house today and we're spinning out of control about what steps to take next. Hence the out-of-sortsness. I'm very sensitive about "Place" and "Home" so this is a big issue for me and for S, as well. Sorry for the ramble. I'll shush myself and post the new piece - a pretty bird for May. Goodnight, all.
I thought Spring had sprung but Winter snuck back in
Two days ago we had our first picnic up on the Overlook and today woke to snow on the ground and more coming down. I keep laughing because it seems odd and dream-like. This is a "sketch" (in collage) for one of the main images in the Beatrice's Birthmark series. The final illustrations had to be trimmed down to three colors in order to be able to screenprint them - by hand. But I still love the sketches as much as the finals. Happy snow day, everyone!Oh, here is the final illustration on a greeting card. They sell these over at L2 Design Collective, by the way. 
Rainy Day oldie
I'm going through some old pictures on the hunt for something specific. I found this and miss it. I do actually get sad when I sell a piece. I don't make enough to get sick of any of it so when it's gone, I feel the loss. I then wonder if I'll be able to make something to take its place. I love making collages and need to do more of it. That's the bottom line. Get back to work, missy.
Welcome 2009
Dec 31,2008
Jan 1, 2009
It's going to be a good one, I can tell. We were so lucky to be invited to our friends' cabin on a lake in the woods. We built a fire and baked cookies and drank wine and watched the boys wreak havoc. Is there a better way to ring in a new year? I am hopeful and optimistic about this year. There are so many good things to enjoy in just this first month: NFL playoffs (go Steelers); the inauguration of Mr. Barack Obama. I can not wait to celebrate this; snowstorms (fingers crossed); our new truck (thank you again and again, DPMF); the 36th birthday of my awesome husband - I hope that I can find some time to fit in some painting and collaging and illustrating! Happy 2009 to all of you.
Baby, it's cold outside
The Perfect Tree
As I type it's so blustery and dreary outside. Exactly my kind of day. In honor of the weather and the holidays, I did a piece today. If you know me you know that I am kid-crazy about Christmas. I still like to sleep under the tree when I can. I'm certainly going to be one of those cat ladies that puts her tree up after Halloween and takes it down sometime in April. Anyhow - thanks to everyone who is checking out the etsy site and a big kiss to those of you who have bought pieces. Happy Holidays, all.
Not much feels better than being inspired
The family made this drawing the other night.
I love my studio but it's a mess. Here's the chaos: The wee one is awake so I'm out.
Fall finally arrived and that means that I am in my element. Cold weather, beautiful colors, crunchy leaves, fires in the kitchen for family breakfast, hot cider...it's all magic. And, I'm INSPIRED. I haven't been in a long time but the stars aligned and I'm thankful. I'm working on lots of projects for people that I dig knowing which makes it all even better.
Thank you, Drew White
Sing, Little Birdy
Drew White is an AMAZING painter and great friend. He's been working like a dog curating shows in Orlando, Florida. He just included me in a show last month. It just came down last week and I'm happy to have a few of the pieces back (and super happy to have sold a piece!). Thank you, Drew. Check out Drew's site here. Here is one of the pieces that came back to me (which is a gift to my awesome husband). More images to see on my flickr site and stuff for sale on my etsy site.