Fireflies

Last week I got my monthly edition of National Geographic (it feeds my need for travel when I can't afford to actually go anywhere) in the mail and I just now got around to reading it. Towards the front of the magazine was a brief article about how the worlds populations of fireflies are apparently down something like 70%! It had occurred to me that I had seen far fewer of them in recent years but I hadn't seen anything in writing declaring that there is a problem.

Reading this really drove home for me how you really cant take the small things in life for granted. Having fireflies out to light up the night in the summertime is one of those lovely bits of nostalgia that you really don't know you love until they are gone. Perhaps it's just a small thing, but I'm a little saddened by the fact that my future kids may grow up in a world without fireflies.

In tribute:

Pugs

So my boyfriend and I are going to be moving into a house together in July. Along with the standard excitement of having our own place, having a whole house all to ourselves, etc, we also keep bringing up the possibility of eventually getting a puppy. It's something that probably won't happen for awhile since I don't know if I have the energy in me to go through house breaking a dog right now, but it is nice to know that when we decide to get one we will have a yard for it to run around in. We're both pretty quirky people, so we would want to get a dog with a lot personality. Currently, a pug or some sort of a pug mix is seeming like a good fit. Knowing us, our dog would end up looking (and acting) something like this:



Clearly I've got puppies on the brain. :)

The Four Seasons

Ta da! The four seasons... all at one time!!

Bathtime!!

Remember when you were small, and the bathtub was really just a small swimming pool?

I miss those days.

Unfinished Business

So I had a goal for myself that I was going to illustrate a calendar for every month this year as an incentive to get me to focus on building my portfolio and updating this blog more often. Well, it's almost the end of February now and while I have done some illustrations for said calendar, I'm far behind and have not been keeping up with posting them every month.

So instead, I'm just going to post the two illustrations I DO have done and hope everyone enjoys them. :)

Here's January!



And February!



I'd like to still keep up with this and then maybe by 2010, I'll have a full year completely done.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I have had a lot of freelance and other events in my life that have kept me very busy. In January I produced 6 illustrations for this adorable little company called Idbids and they were just now posted to their website. It was rather thrilling to have my work posted on the internet by someone other than myself. :)

Well, if it was not a long time in between posts before, it definitely has been now. I've been a busy girl. Since my last post, I've moved into my lovely apartment in midtown Atlanta and have been spent a good bit of my energy decorating it to my liking. I hired my friends to help me paint it a bright green and blue color and am so pleased with the results. This is my first apartment that is only mine and I went all out on personalizing it. The place is only 550 sq feet so I had to get creative with how I set up my work space.



I also painted my kitchen/ living room bright green which gave it a bit of an art deco flair






As an additional side project, I found this great dresser at a thrift store for $35 and had a great time designing and a painting it to my liking. In my haste to get started I neglected to take a before photo, but I'm quite pleased with the after.




It sat in my bedroom untouched for several months before I was able to get to it. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to finally be able to use it for its intended purpose.

Another recent addition to my life is my pet rabbit Bruno. He is the new love of my life and I see him being a great source of material for future illustrations.



Oh wait, he already has! :)



Life has been treating me well. I've picked up some new clients that have been keeping me very busy (in a good way). I'm hoping now that I've finally gotten my life more situated, I can update more often.