In full bloom.

If I had $348 to frivolously spend on a fancy dress this would absolutely be mine. I don't think I've ever seen an article of clothing that was more perfectly me. 

(On Etsy: here.)

Collecting memories.

A couple of weeks ago I asked Andrew to install a window box outside of our kitchen window. I filled it with Bloomsdale spinach seeds and they've been growing quite well recently. I can't wait until we can pick salads out of our window. I've also got tomatoes and lettuce on the back porch. These are the things we use most frequently and were practical to grow in containers. 

I haven't been thrifting in quite some time. I love the thrill of finding treasures for cheap. I like to go on Mondays when my favorite store is 50% off everything, but I've just been too busy. I guess I satisfied that thrifting craving by making a really great Etsy purchase last week...a wooden vintage photo album for $7. We always seem to have polaroids or photo booth strips lying around that don't make it into a frame or forget get pinned up somewhere and end up cluttering my desk. I thought this would be the perfect solution to that. I just love the old paper pages.

 

Our LOST party.

We had the Garmons over for a little Lost finale party. The Dharma food drop provided us with chips, salsa, and sodas while I attempted to bake some fish biscuits. They weren't as pretty (or legible) as I had hoped, but they tasted delicious. Despite reception disruptions, we made it through to the end and I think we were all pretty satisfied with "The End". It's funny how the characters of a story can work their way into your life and how you can create connections with them. I will definitely miss Lost.

Still lost.

I've been too busy to post anything from the weekend. However, I just came across this screen cap that someone made from an episode of Lost and felt that it was worth posting. It's pretty gorgeous.

Extra hours.

Today was not the best of days. But, I did spy a rainbow on my way home.

What I've been working on.

Two shirt designs that I finished recently. The Coney Island image will be centered on the shirt while The Fray shirt will have a more non-traditional placement. 

Dream weekend...

In my dreams, weekends would be spent something like this:

Instead, I am currently working away at my desk on multiple shirt designs and watching the neighbor cats multiply. Seriously, yesterday there were 9 cats. Now there are 9 cats and three four kittens. I'm about to call Bob Barker to deliver them a PSA on spaying and neutering pets. 

(Image via The Sartorialist.)

SketchCrawl day.

I had a lot of fun at the SketchCrawl today. Saw some familiar faces, soaked up some sunshine, and allowed myself to relax a little and draw. I'll let the pictures say the rest.

Worldwide SketchCrawl.

I'm pretty excited to be participating with fellow Clevelanders in the 27th Worldwide SketchCrawl tomorrow. A SketchCrawl follows the idea of a PubCrawl or bar hopping with sketchbooks and pencils in place of alcohol (although I'm sure you could enjoy a little alcohol during the event if you really wanted to). We will be sketching at different locations in the Cedar/Lee area and I'm looking forward to the chance to get out and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather before diving into a weekend of freelance work. More information about the SketchCrawl and a forum to help you find a group near you can be found here: http://sketchcrawl.com/.

Local Natives were local last night.

We were lucky enough to see two performances by Local Natives last night. The first was an acoustic in-store at Music Saves. The second was a regular show at The Beachland Ballroom. Both were wonderful. It's been a while since I've been really excited about a new band. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more of their music in the future.

Our Nashville wedding vacation.

Last Thursday morning we drove to Nashville to spend the weekend celebrating the wedding of our friends Ryan and Chelsey. I had been itching for a road trip and I couldn't have asked for a better one. It was a blast spending so much time with all of our far away friends, the weather was incredible and I even got myself on the dance floor. A few other highlights included: "obnoxious chocolate cake", finding some Beach Boys on vinyl just in time for summer, Settlers of Catan, learning professional florist skills, great salads, sunshine, our "homeless" friend, fake wrestling and hotel security.

A Springtime Mix.

Tuesday I mailed out the mix I created for a mix CD exchange organized by Accordians & Lace. I really love making mix CDs. I typically organize the music based on some sort of theme. This one was a compilation of my favorite springtime songs. As always, I started with a playlist that was far too long to fit on a CD and slowly edited it down to some thing that really worked well together. I offered copies of the mix to some of my friends and ended up making a series of 4 pieces of album art using some old flash cards and flowery paper that I had stashed away. I really enjoy the set of them together. 

In case you're interested, here's the playlist:

Care of Cell 44 - The Zombies

Extended Holiday - School of Language

Flood - The Acorn

Sun Hands - Local Natives

Knotty Pine - Dirty Projectors & David Byrne

Saturday in the Park - Chicago

Grass - Page France

Norwegian Wood - The Beatles

Florida Silver Springs - The Impossible Shapes

Sweet Road - Animal Collective

All Bad Ends All - The Books

I Saw the Bright Shinies - Octopus Project

Vapour Trail - Ride

Neanderthal - Kaki King

Gobbledigook - Sigur Ros

Tunnelvision - Here We Go Magic

A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill - Jens Lekman

Scuba Cat's debut!

A couple of months ago I was contacted by the design company that works with KLM airlines and they asked to use my drawing of a scuba diving cat for one of their articles. The drawing was inspired by this video I found on YouTube one day while procrastinating and the article happens to be about the exact same cat. But really, how many scuba diving cats exist in this world? Especially when the equipment costs $20,000. I got my copy of the magazine in the mail yesterday and took some pictures to share.

A little bit of sunshine.

I absolutely do not need a fancy new iPhone. My first generation is still trucking along just fine. But if there was any reason to argue for a new one, these iPhone cases by Christopher Bettig would be enough. Unfortunately, like most other awesome iPhone cases, they're only available for the 3G. (Available here.)