jUST ARTiNG ARoUND

I feel like I’ve been in hiding. Or so it seems to me these last few days. I’ve been offline quite a bit while having my nose down, diligently working on my latest Spoonflower contest submission, due today. A Toile de Jouy based on the history of the town where I live.

And considering that’s New York City, this challenge had “potentially overwhelming” written all over it. Not only because toiles are notoriously detailed, epic displays of illustration, but well, where to begin when it comes to picking something from NYC’s hefty history?

I couldn’t bring myself to jumping into the middle of time somewhere (I’m a weirdo for order that way), so instead I started at what we know to be the beginning. And besides, this way, I can create sequel toiles and just pick up where I left off last. 

Here are four details from the new pattern, along with some brief descriptions:

The Lenape Indians first called New York home, more specifically, Lenapehoking, meaning “in the land of the Lenape”. Verrazano first saw them in 1524 (the bridge bearing his name today is depicted in the topiary tree top above him). The Lenape lived up and down what was later called New Netherlands and eventually New England. They perfected the slash and burn technique of clearing brush and were the first to mark a major route that we now know of as Broadway. Other symbolism I included are beavers and apples which are the state animal and fruit. 

Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch called it Nieuw Amsterdam when they settled in 1625. And in 1664, the English took it over, naming it after James II of England, Duke of York.

And that’s just the broader naming changes. When we get into the specifics of the five boroughs of New York City, their individual histories boggle the mind even further. 

The Bronx was once all land belonging to Dutch settler Jonas Broncks (Broncksland). 

What we now know of as Brooklyn (once called Breuckelen, then Brockland, then Brocklin, then Brookline, then Brookland…can you keep up?) makes up Kings County, which was named after Charles II of England, brother of the Duke of York. 

Parts of Queens still possess names that the Lenape, Dutch and English gave them. For example, the Dutch Vlissingen is now the English Flushing (which sounds way less attractive in my book). Queens County itself was named after Charles II’ wife, Catherine of Braganza. 

Manhattan, part of New York County, gets its name from the Lenape’s Manna-hatta, the “land of many hills”. 

Staten Island (once the Dutch Staaten Eylandt, meaning States Island) makes up Richmond County, named after Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, an illegitimate son of King Charles II (sorry about that, Staten Island.)

And to finish it all off, I sprinkled in some current New York cityscapes in topiary form along the treetops to show some of the new as we know it, along with all this history. 

Did your brain explode? Because I think mine did while researching and executing this and all I want is to take a nice long nap after biting off this chunk of subject matter and attempting to chew and swallow it gracefully without upchucking and leaving a horrible mess all over the place.

Forget tennis elbow. I’m currently afflicted with toile hand. Pardon me while I go lie down now…

In the meantime, you can see the finished pattern here. Voting opens on Thursday, so check back and vote for your favorite entries then!

03/02/12 Edit: Voting is now open here!

Here’s a step-by-step craft tutorial to create something, well, simply divine and oh-so springlike. You can thank me later.

What you’ll need:

1 - potty-trained 3-year-old toddler
1 - nursing 9-month-old baby
1 - living room sofa out of direct view of the bathroom
1 - bathroom within earshot
1 - roll of toilet paper

Let’s begin:

1. Toddler should be positioned in bathroom. Baby will be positioned on your cross-legged lap on sofa.

2. Wait for stars to align.  

3. Toddler will exclaim urgent need to go to the toilet while baby concludes nursing and follows that up with much-needed sleep.

4. Realize you’re now pinned to the sofa unless you want to wake the baby. Assess your luck lately, and choose to stay seated. Hope all goes well in said bathroom.

5. Let 2-3 minutes go by.

6. Note that things have become peculiarly quiet in the bathroom. Call out to toddler to see what’s going on in there. Look blankly into space while you hear no reply. Call out again. Repeat if necessary. 

7. Wait for gleeful toddler to return from bathroom. Note that toddler mentions nothing unusual.

8. Let 10 minutes pass at which point baby randomly wakes up from nap, now rendering you fully mobile again.

9. Completely forget the last 20 minutes of life. Go into bathroom to brush your teeth.

10. Look down with stunned surprise.  Forget to take a photo at this point because you are distracted and slightly humorless. Realize later that it would have been a tutorial-wothy photo.

11. Completely forget to brush your teeth.

12. In an exasperated state, quickly roll up the massive pile of white paper just to get it out of the way. Mumble to yourself for added effect. 

And there you have it: a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L gigantic toilet paper rose. 

Happy unexpected crafting!

This just in: Toothy is in France. Repeat. Toothy. Is. In. FRANCE!

How awesome is this? I would have been over the moon at simply knowing Toothy the Tooth Fairy has gone international and is now living in France. But guess what? It gets better.

According to Aurelie over at Marie Made’s Couleur Machine, her Toothy plushie is now living with a dentist where he comforts his young patients. Look at him, just look at him!

Nothing short of wonderful! Thanks for sharing the Toothy love,  Aurelie!

Photo courtesy of Couleur Machine.

Although I didn’t make it into the winner’s circle of They Draw and Travel’s YouTopia contest, I had a lot of fun showing off some of my favorite New York City sights!

Big congratulations to the winners and everyone who entered! So many lovely designs showing off some wonderful places to visit. Go check out them here!

Handily taking up two cold weather afternoons inside, we managed to complete The Bub’s Valentine’s Day card list just in time with a special heart for everyone. No Charlie Brown empty mailboxes here, no sir-ee!

And with some extra string and mini squares of origami paper, I threw together a quick heart garland for the kitchen. It was just therapeutically fun to use my hole puncher again after who know’s how long. 

Happy Tuesday and Happy Valentine’s Day!

You may recall I was a finalist in last September’s Cooking 4 Kids challenge hosted by the awesome crew over at They Draw & Cook. Well, their sister site, They Draw & Travel (and btw, if you know me, you know I’ve done both of those a fair amount) just closed their submission period for a map contest called YouTopia. I had it in my head that I wanted to participate and was able to squeak in my entry with just a few hours to spare last night.

As per the TDAT site, the challenge was to create “a super pretty illustration focusing on all the special and specific things you love most about your favorite place.” Since I had already explored my little ol’ town in this recent design, I thought I’d go with some elements from that, as they are some of my favorite things about New York City. 

I dragged out my sketches along with my trusty tracing paper and started reconfiguring my landmarks to suit the required rectangular format. Funny how sometimes when you redraw something you’ve sketched before, it can look way worse or it can look much better. Luckily my drawing hand was cooperating and giving me exactly what I wanted to see on that paper.

I worked slowly as the pen I was using was taking its merry time to dry. I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to specifically address the ‘super pretty’ aspect of the challenge, but figured I’d just work my way towards that, shifting and adjusting elements as I went along. 

After scanning and importing the revised drawing into my computer, I played around a bit and came up with this entry. Yes, I’m going to make you go look at it over on the TDAT site. Feel free to leave a comment if you like! Oh, and be sure to check out the rest of the great entries. Look at them long enough and you’ll want to go on a trip. Or maybe you’ll want to start drawing a map of your own. Or both!

Nine winners will be announced on Tuesday. Exciting stuff!

Along with all the daffodil bulbs and baby birds that think it’s time to pop out and get chirping, I’m feeling similarly unseasonable thoughts and have gotten into spring cleaning mode. After all, I need more room to create more things! Am I right or am I right?

Although it often feels like a monumental task to rid myself of things I don’t need (oooh, but I might wear/read/use/need it later), I was clearly in rare form and joyfully came up with two giant bags of items to donate to a local thrift store.

I say it now. I love a good thrift store and I adore a good treasure hunt. And I am in love with this one store in particular. Over the years, I have found such an array of great things there. And the ladies who run the place, although gruff and no-nonsense with most people, are not only kind to us, but they’re especially fond of my kids, giving them little fun treats, like most recently a cute wind-up snail.

Along with donating stuff comes finding stuff. Clearly the treasure hunt gods have been smiling down on me recently as I scored these two new pieces of juicy fabrics. The picture doesn’t quite do them justice. There’s the shimmery woven gold upholstery-weight, probably about a yard and a half’s worth, and then there’s the nearly four glorious yards of cotton wide wale in a beautiful reddish-orangish-rose color. All for less than $5.00 smackers total. I’m not sure what the corduroy will be turned into, but the gold is screaming out to reupholster a hallway bench sometime in the future. Love this type of loot.

And when it comes to donating stuff and finding stuff, here’s a case in point:

Two bottles. Two bottles that I somehow acquired at a yard sale. I recall the woman saying, “Pleeeease. Take them. I have a whole case!“ 

So I did.

And then they just sat there. In the kitchen, taking up space. I swore I could come up with a use for them and I even polled friends. Alas, nothing that truly made long term sense. Their openings are too small, at about a 1.25” in diameter and they called for cork stoppers but I didn’t have any and just wasn’t compelled to get some. I guess I could have made some sand art thingies with The Bub, but space is at a premium and I can’t bare to fill it with nonfunctional things at the moment. End decision: donate ‘em!

And on that same donation drop-off visit, I found some fun and functional replacements… 

There they were, four vintage 70’s apothecary jars, all waving hello to me from the shelf, but I thought it ridiculous to take them all. I have my limits, you know. With an abundance of self-control, I bought two. (My brain chanting, “Drop two off, get two, not four, you crazy woman.”)

Then I came home, stared at them and realized I needed them ALL! See ya later, self control! I went back the next morning and got the last two. Sure, sure, I know they’re a bit on the novelty side of things and I might just hate them in a year. I really do try my best to predict what I will tire of the least, thus clear glass is a much safer bet than any particular pattern.

But really, come on. I just couldn’t resist these amusing containers and thought they’d look grand holding an array of my art supplies.

After a nice cleaning, I’ve filled them all up. I was so giddy, I actually found it kinda hard to decide what to put in them. I love how they look. I’d guess something like drawing pens would look even better as they’d stick up into the dome area more. As a side effect of all this content shifting, I now believe I own too much sewing thread, as the spools filled up more than the one jar I had first allotted. That just means I’ll have to sew more, purge more or buy more kooky jars.

The quest to rid myself of the unsightly useless and surround myself with the (fun)ctional useful continues!

Are you into spring cleaning mode? How do you decide what to get rid of? And are you a fellow rabid treasure hunter? What’s been your favorite score?

Btw, happy Friday!

Messing about online often yields little (I’m highly skilled at wasting time in this fashion), but I’m happy to say I found a few fun things worth noting this time.

Justice is mine.

Looks like more designs from my collections are now available from some more e-retailers. Woohoo!!! You’ve seen the black and white version online (found most recently here), but now the multicolored version of “Sign Language Alphabet” can now be found here. 

Newly released, “Balloon Dogs” can now be found in two colorways here and here.

And my sentimental favorites, as I was pregnant with and thoroughly inspired by my sweet second son at the time I drew these, both “Paper Airplanes” and “Imagine That” (pictured above, in original sketch form and final Timeless Treasures fabric form) can now be found here and here. I know for a fact that I’ll be getting more of these two patterns to make some goodies for expecting friends of mine. And something for Mister Baby Pants, of course!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve officially defaced my way to third place in this week’s Spoonflower fabric design contest.

Behold (photo courtesy of Spoonflower):

The brief: graffiti/street art.

My approach: creating a sweetly innocuous pattern and then defacing the heck out of it like a crazed red pen-wielding beastie.

I enjoyed it, to say the least. And I’m thrilled a few other voting folks did too! Thank you for all your support!

This. This. This is what I’m talking about. Caught! Mister Baby Pants in the middle of *checking* my drawing progress. It’s all fun and games until someone starts waving their arms around like a wind turbine generator. 

Seems that the only way to outsmart this dexterous little charmer is to simply grow my arms longer. Then the table could be even further away and I’d still be able to reach it…

…or I just give him a pencil and let him help. That should cut my production time in half, no?