isaiah eagle boy!

There's an Isaiah Eagle boy in the shop!

I had too many requests to make this scripture print with a boy.

And fresh from my career coaching tips I was able to put some

of the new skills I learned into practice.

Like getting rid of my pencil drawing and making it more like a true digital illustration.

Oh if only I didn't need to sleep.

There are so many prints on paper...just waiting to come to life.

The eagle boy is in the shop here, and if you're looking for a different

skin or hair color just send me an email and I'll make it happen.

I have long loved this scripture. 

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

May the young man in your life see this and 

imagine himself soaring on eagle's wings with the strength of the Lord.

art therapy

My career coaching has been an amazing thing.
We've just had our third skype session and I'm
beyond excited about the tools and tips I've learned so far.
Little short cuts and ways of doing things I had never
learned, and it may have taken me months to google
and find them in tutorials.

Making the whole digital painting process that much
easier and more freeing and useful.

Pretty much since childhood I've turned to art as a release.
Things have been a bit stressful with circumstances I haven't
talked about much here.
It's not super important what they are, just that what it means
is my pencil has been flying off my paper.
It's my therapy.
Just after prayer and turning it all over to God,
it's my way of calming and centering.
I turn on my Sara Groves pandora station and I pray and paint.
And just wish I had more time to paint and pray and paint and pray.

I'm trying to make it all work and am hoping to have new things in the shop soon.
Here's a teeny sneak peak of one thing I'm working on.
And a clue of more to come.
I've been slightly obsessed with sea animals
since it's our whole science unit this year.

I love how cozy she looks snuggled up with him.

career coaching

You may have noticed that adding new prints to the shop has been a bit on the back burner for me lately.

Not because I want it that way.  Just because my kids have been needing so much of my time and energy that I'm falling asleep at night and with homeschooling, my daytime creative hours are no longer an option.

But I'm making an effort to carve out time for creating.
(Side note here....but I had a request to make a boy on an eagle so I started this.. I felt like a boy would much rather be standing with an eagle that looked way more fierce.  At least I know my ten year old son would much prefer it this way.)

Back to the title of this post.  And the fact that If I'm not intentional about literally putting creative time in my calendar, it so sadly is one of the things that can get cut from my schedule.

Back in August I noticed that one of the illustrators I have loved following, whose work I think is adorable was offering career coaching.

stephanie fizer coleman

Ironically, I so often have wished for something just like this where I could talk with someone further along than me and ask them how they do things.  She also is completely self taught and her story is pretty amazing.  Her first illustrated children's book was just released.

I love success stories like this.  So often I think people wouldn't want to share their short cuts or tips.  But she is and honestly, I can tell that we would be real life friends if we lived close.

We started our weekly skype sessions yesterday afternoon for me, night for her.  Over the course of the month, she's basically doing one on one tutorials with me as well as answering loads of business related questions.  It's perfectly catered to all those questions that apply directly to what my needs are at this time.  It's like having a private class.  And I'm so excited about it.

Generally I google things when I want to learn how to do them and then follow a tutorial.  Or I'll spend lots of time going to paper warehouses and researching online, finding what I like best.   But my free time being so much more limited with homeschooling, I thought this would be more efficient and well worth the investment.

Most of all, it's making me carve out time for something near and dear to me.  I've set it up to have a babysitter every Friday afternoon from 2-6.  It's giving me time to draw and work on the things we talk about in our skype session.

It's inspiring and fun.  And just what I needed.  I pray you'll see the fruits of these sessions very soon!

custom orders

A customer emailed me a picture of the colors that would match her daughter's room.
So we set to work to tweak this design to match.
I love it.
Pink and lime green.
Perfect for a little girl's room.
It's in the shop now. ;)

spreading joy

Ok...so here is my top secret Christmas DIY this year.

Only one friend who I know reads this should not be reading it yet...
You know who you are dear sweet Kimberle...so please don't read on.

I wanted to share that I discovered these adorable cheese spreaders a good couple of months ago on etsy.

Thought they were adorable!!!

But the $45-$54 dollar price tag per set was a bit high.

I thought they'd make such adorable hostess and Christmas gifts.

And I kept thinking of different people I'd love to give them to.

But truly the first person who inspired my wanting to get them is my sweet husband.

You see he and I both have a weakness for cheese.

Particularly brie and blue.  He is the one who got me to like blue cheese.  It's an acquired taste.

Back after we had Jackson, when we realized going out on a date night couldn't always happen.

We'd make our own little wine and cheese parties right at home.

So the cheese spreaders seemed perfect for him.

I'm very into gifts that are meaningful and when they're handmade, even better.

I asked a friend if I could borrow her metal stamp set.

She informed me that they're really not that expensive and gave me links to a couple of resources.

I did some research and actually wound up buying from this shop on etsy.  She was super helpful.

Oh and where to find the knives?

Ebay of course.

I'm like a giddy school girl when I win an auction on ebay.

Of course my husband always reminds me, "You're BUYING...not winning."

But still when it's a great deal...it means giddiness for me.

And aren't all those different designs just gorgeous!

I scored a lot of thirteen vintage butter knives awhile back.

I should confess I was totally nervous when it came down to actually hitting the hammer to the
metal.  I didn't buy anything to practice with so my husband's set was my 'test' set.  I did make some errors.  Like that p that slipped there.

But it's ok.  By the second and third set I was figuring out what pressure worked best and how to align them better.

This set went to my sister and her sweet family.

And this as a hostess gift to my friend who was hosting the fabulous scarf exchange party on Saturday.

I know I'm digressing, but here are some pictures of the food and decorations.

So sweet & yummy!

Now back to the spreaders...
I took a free downloadable gift tag design (it's killing me I can't find the source at the moment...for all I know it could have been from tatertots and jello, when I do find it, I'll add a link here).  I altered the design a bit, had to make it bigger to fit my 5x7 bags, changed to my latest favorite font and added the dotted border.   The fact that the basic design was already done was perfect!

And now I'm hooked.

I just need to do some more hunting on ebay.

I love the idea of spreading a little more peace, love, and joy to friends and family.

I'm linking to tatertots and jello handmade gift party ... head over there for more DIY inspiration!


266. stamping success
267. giving gifts
268. stoves purchased for families in haiti...check out the adventure project - it's awesome!
269. a sickie at home which means laying low
270. making old school paper chains for the holidays
        with aforementioned sickie at home.
271. 6 1/2 days of school left before Christmas break
272. a visit from our new nephew/cousin
273. tears of sadness from my sensitive 6 year old seeing him leave
274. an afternoon out by myself
275. christmas shows this week and next

new warrior girl

A customer asked me to make her with redder hair and to add a title.

As I started working, I was inspired to totally revamp my warrior girl.

She's in the shop now.

If you like this design, but want one of the other warrior girls with it,
just let me know and I can make it custom for you or the special person you want to
gift it to for Christmas.

And here she is with a straight haired bob too.

embracing our tree!

I have been very quiet here.
I was really, really sick with bronchitis.  I won't bore you with the details, but I'm on the mend.
And I was inspired by Luke 2:18-19 to create this scripture silhouette print.
It's beautiful to imagine Mary treasuring her precious Savior and pondering all these things in her heart.  She's setting the example for us isn't she?  It's available as a print or a DIY download in so many fun color options!

Other exciting news around here, we cut down our first Christmas Tree.  We live in LA so this is seriously cool to me.  I had always wanted to do it, so last Saturday, we took the train from Fillmore to the Santa Paula tree farm.  It was beautiful and such a fun experience.  The kids were so excited.

This is our tree.  We thought we were being conservative, and picking a regular sized tree.

But because we were out in such a wide open area, our perspective was off, and this one barely fits under the ceiling.  Just barely.

But it was half the price we usually pay at the lot and is so so fresh.

I have to feed it water twice a day. 

Just hoping it lasts through the season.

It's gorgeous to me.

The kids of course promptly had to get the decorations out and on the tree.

And of course that means clumping them all together in one area.

I've learned to just let that go and not get all 'Martha' about it.

Do you know what I mean?

This is so exciting and fun to them.

I'll go in and tweak a little later.

But I don't say a word, because I want it to be special

and magical, as it should be.

I'm linking to embrace the camera today.

Head over there for more fun embracing moments!

gift giving

Are you getting in the spirit of giving yet?
In case you are and you're planning ahead for your gift wrap,
I created these "Joy To The World" gift tags.

They're based off of the scripture art print of the marching kids to "Make A Joyful Noise..."

Wouldn't the print look so cute wrapped up with a matching tag?
That's actually what inspired me to do this.
So if you order a print for Christmas, you'll automatically get one of these!
You can get a set of 12 pre-cut with bakers twine for attaching and packaged all pretty by me.

Or you can buy the pdf and print them yourself or at a local printer,
as many copies as you'd like this season.

In the tags above I used a 3 inch scallop punch to cut them.
But you can also cut them as squares, or with rounded corners.
Then use a small hole punch at the top and you're all set!

Both are in the shop now.

Happy almost Thanksgiving everyone!

I literally was down for the count for the last five days.

We cancelled our trip because I was so sick.

But the fog is lifting, thankfully just in time for Thanksgiving.

come let us adore Him

I've been awfully quiet here this week.

Sorry about that.

Two reasons.....

First the not so fun news, I've been terribly sick with bronchitis.

And the second reason, which is fun news.

In the free moments I've had over the last few weeks, little by little,

this print has been coming to life.

I was inspired by our yearly tradition of going back to Bethlehem

where a local church literally makes you feel what it would be like

to be alive when Jesus was born.

As a child and even an adult, I still am mesmerized at the thought

of seeing Jesus face to face.

This print is making me happy right now and getting me in the

mood to celebrate this amazing Christmas season.

But first...there's other celebrating to do.

Yes, Thanksgiving.  One of my most favorite holidays.

But also on November 30th, fifteen years ago my husband and I

were married over Thanksgiving weekend.

Because our kids are all off school, we're going out of town,

alone, for two nights and three days.

Now I just need to get well.

Happy Friday everyone.

OH and my notable quotable for the day.

My six year old, who was watching "A Little Princess"

said, "This was made in the olden days, like the 80's."

Oh boy.  If that's the olden days then her dad and I must be ancient.

giveaway fun!

I mentioned this month would be full of fun goodies since I'm marking my one year anniversary of opening the etsy shop.

The interesting thing is that as I was pondering and praying about how and where to do these, a couple of women approached me through etsy.

Christy from Skinned Knees blog was one of them.
She has a fun and sweet blog...and is offering a chance to win one of my prints
of your choice or a set of the scripture stationery.

She lists the requirements for entry in her post, but one of them is to follow
willow of wonder.

She's also doing a fun marriage challenge this month..so you might want to check that out too.

This month my husband and I will celebrate 15 years...we were married Thanksgiving weekend so this time of year is especially sentimental to me.

The giveaway will end on November 18th..that's the actual official day I opened the
shop one year ago.

Pretty cool!

Also...just a reminder that I have a sale going on this month so it's less expensive if you have gifts you're thinking of getting for friends and family.