A first time for everything!

So I participated in my first craft show last weekend! It was held at a local church here in Cloquet, and I had a great time. The hubs helped me create this awesome display to showcase my note cards and prints. And my mom stayed home with my noisy, albeit lovable toddler! Thanks guys.

Please to observe pictures below.

Overall I was pleased with how things went! This being my first time, I was just hoping to cover my costs to purchase my spot in the event, but I was pleasantly surprised by my profit. Yay! I'm hoping to do more shows in Duluth this next year. Up nort ya know.

I haven't shared a ton about my art or projects lately, but I wanted to give a little update of the new items in my Etsy shop! We've got a few Christmas cards, and a new hummingbird and robin that weren't in there before.

Check them all out here to shop for your Christmas cards or unique gifts for your pals and fam!!

Oh, and happy turkey week, folks.

Housekeeping

Hi.

The past couple weeks have been somewhat of a blur of activity, a scramble against time, an endless to do list. Hence, I am feeling the need to catch you up on all of the things.

First, I re-did my blog! Did you notice? You probably did, since it looks very different from before:

(The ghost of Pointsies past.)

I was feeling a little change and I also updated my shop to match. I'm not sure I'm completely finished with it all yet, but so far I am enjoying the new look.

Speaking of my shop, I've been working hard at getting some new winter products all up in there! I've been pastel-ing/printing/photo-ing/changing out of my sweatpants and into jeans two minutes before the hubs gets home (you know I got the hots for you Brian) like a mad frazzled woman these past few weeks and I'm excited to share my new pieces! Here's Papa and Mama Cardinal hanging out during a snow fall. Available in two print sizes, or as notecards.

Check out more over in my shop! 

So I'm hoping now that I have everything all updated for the holidays I'll be able to devote a little more time to writing in this space. Then I can keep you in the loop on important things like that time that I wanted to make chips and cheese in the microwave but then I realized we didn't have any chips so then I made them with water crackers instead but then I realized we didn't have any salsa so instead of chips and cheese with salsa I ended up with crackers and cheese with barbecue sauce and it just tasted really bad but I ate it all anyway.

It's important that you know about these things.

Recent Work

I wanted to share part of some projects I've been working on the last few weeks. This is a mock-up of a first birthday invite. I drew the lion in Illustrator - not always my strongest program but I think I'm getting more comfortable with it.

Paisley is pretending to be a one-year old boy named Danny here. She's into acting and I try not to discourage her dreams.

Like what you see? If you would like some custom invites or other paper goods designed I'm your gal! You can reach me at liz(at)theskylarkstudio.com. Or check out our website here!

OR you could always check out my shop for unique, pre-made greeting cards and prints!

Hello.

Alright. I hereby declare my return to blogging. And I'm excited about it!

But you know the thing where you don't say anything for a really really long time...and then you decide you want to start saying things again....but you're not quite sure what to start saying?

That's happening to me right now.

So since I'm sure that I want to start blogging again but unsure of what exactly I want to say, this post might be a bit of a rambler.

First off, thank you friends and readers for your wonderful comments in my last post! The one where I announced that I have a baby bump starting to grow. I was so glad to hear from you, and was reassured that taking a blogging break when you have the growing a baby grumpies was perfectly ok. So thank you again.

Second off, well I'm not sure. This is where I start randomly typing my thoughts. I'm super pumped to get back to work on my animal doodle note cards, improving my etsy shop, and having sketchbook days again! But as I did basically nothing these past few months (and when I say basically nothing I'm in no way exaggerating) I have quite a few items to catch up on before I can get to those things. At the top of the to-do list has been cleaning my much much neglected house, sorting through frighteningly high piles of accumulated papers and mail, doing our taxes which is one of my VERY favorite things (and by favorite I mean I want to kick taxes in the face), working on projects for clients, and reminiscing about how the hubs finally threw away our only plant because I allowed it to slowly die. Because apparently I was so lethargic that instead of getting up to water it once in awhile, I just watched it's slow death from the couch I sat on for four months.

1st trimester pregnancy looked good on me.

But now I feel like a new person! Or perhaps more like the old me. And if I could get that plant back to apologize to it right now I would, and I would lovingly nurse it back to life. And there wouldn't be that bare space on top of our tv stand anymore.

More good news is this: spring is here in Minnesota! And it's only March! When most years we'd still be having snowfall and slick ice, this year we are having 70 and 80 degree weather. And yesterday we had a thunderstorm! A (very) early spring is perhaps one of my biggest dreams come true and I refuse to even entertain the thought that winter could maybe still bring it's ugly head back into our lives this early in the year.

Here's a few shots of the hubs and me enjoying some park time in the glorious weather.

Me getting ready to slide down a twisty slide.

Ouch, guess I'm old and have big hips and twisty slides hurt me.

The hubs is an outstanding climber. Here's him on a super hard route. Yes he wears Hannah Montana sunglasses. I think it's sexay.

Us being happy at the park.

Well I think I'll wrap this up. Talk soon!

New Stuff!

I'm excited to announce that I will soon be listing a select group of my Daily Animal Doodles in my Etsy shop! They aren't in there quite yet, but I will be selling both prints and note cards.

I've been experimenting printing on note cards and I'm really pleased with how they are turning out - it looks so close to the original pencil!

I still have to decide what type of paper to use for actual art prints - I'm excited to try a textured paper instead of just a smooth matte to see if it makes it look even more realistic.

There are a few more animals that I also will be adding, and I have some tweaking to do now that I can see how they print. But I'm so excited to soon be getting new items into the shop! I do hope that this means that my productivity has made it's return.

Gift Ideas

Hi friends.


I'm wondering, are you like me, and need help with your Christmas shopping?


If so, which I'm assuming some of you MIGHT be, I have a solution for you. Check out my friend Kris' sweet little shop, Life at the Table.

Kris makes lovely handmade goods including market tote bags, produce bags, reusable sandwich bags, and beautiful drawings for your kitchen.

Now. I know from experience that her stuff is fabulous. A couple of months ago I snatched this super fun market tote bag from her shop. I LOVE the bright color combinations and intricate detailing. I'm excited to try it out at the farmer's market when summer comes back around (eternities away!!) but in the meantime I've been using it as a book bag.   

I have a lot of books I like to cart around with me (sketchbook, whatever novel I'm reading at the time, journal, bible, blog journal, to do list journal, planner, devo book, help books....AND the list goes on.) This bag is strong and durable and gets compliments wherever it goes.

So. If you like cute, lovingly handmade and awesome things or you think that someone you need to buy a Christmas gift for might, head over to Life at the Table and check out Kris' work! The Christmas deadline for her made to order items is the 15th (um...today!! hurry, don't dawdle!) and for her in stock items the deadline is the 18th.

Happy shopping!