Millie Rossman and I have worked together in the past, so when she contacted me to ask if she could license some of my patterns for her new line of scratch-off stationery, I said a big YES!

Here's how Millie describes the cards: Imagine if telegrams and fortune cookies got married and had babies. What would you get? Colorful little goldengrams of goodness delivered right to your door. Scratch off the gold, reveal the message. How's that for instant win?

How great is that?

Millie is licensing a bunch of my designs to use on the backs of the cards, and as you can see above, they're going to be adorable!

She needs your help raising the funds to produce the cards through Kickstarter-- as you know, I raised a bunch of money to fund the manufacturing of my first line of rain boots through Kickstarter, so I'm a huge fan of what it can do to help creative people make their dreams a reality!

Check out Millie's project right here-- she's 25% of the way to her goal after just one day, so now's the time to jump in on funding this brilliant idea. :) I just love the idea of giving these fun little cards to brighten someone's day.

I dream about having a backyard studio sometimes-- a little building that's separate from my house, so I can feel like I'm going to work every day but without the inconvenience of actually having to go somewhere else to work every day.

This is a weaver's studio in Washington, and THIS IS WHAT I WANT. This is what I aspire to create for myself one day. Isn't it amazing?

And the fact that it's in Washington is a whole other aside... there are weird Washington coincidences happening in my life all the time lately. My husband will find out where he matches for his medical residency in just over 3 weeks, and the University of Washington is at the top of his list. We're getting strange Washington signs all the time lately-- like, we'll be walking in the neighborhood and start talking about where we'll be moving for his residency, and a car with a Washington license plate drives by. Or we're out to dinner and start talking about where we think he'll match for his residency, and someone at the next table happens to start talking about Seattle. I find a photo of my dream studio, and where is it? Washington.

I'm VERY curious to find out if this is where we're going to end up! March 16th is the big day that we'll find out.... I'm trying to be patient, but it's SO HARD!

Anyway, what do you think about this studio? Isn't it incredible?

Happy Monday! The weekends go by so quickly, don't they? Mine was filled with fun things like buying new art supplies, practicing yoga, going to the ballet, making soup, watching a movie and being cozy on a rainy Sunday, painting.... what about you? What did you do this weekend?

This painting  came to life on Friday-- I'm feeling so inspired by Flora Bowley's e-course that I'm taking right now, and I'm having fun discovering how it's going to mesh with my current painting style. I think it's going to make my work a bit looser and more spontaneous. Fun fun. I'm loving playing with color in new ways-- this painting uses a color combination that has never been my favorite -- red, blue, and yellow... the primary colors -- it's just never been a combo that's very pleasing to my eye. But I love how this one turned out! Who knew? Sometimes I surprise myself with color.

Also! Case-Mate is having a fab.com sale right now, and 6 of my cases are available! 3 of them have never been seen before-- they're Russian-inspired. Here are two:

Now's the time to grab 'em if you like them, because I don't think they're going to be available for sale anywhere else-- and we're refreshing the cases that I have available on the Case-Mate website for spring, so the other cases that are in the fab.com sale will be gone soon, too! You know I love color and think it's such an important part of being happy, and these cases will definitely add a splash of color to your life!

And one more thing:

Some of my Case-Mate cases are available at Nordstrom now, too! Dream come true, right? My partnership with Case-Mate gets better and better every day. I'm so grateful! The 4 cases that are available at Nordstrom are completely different than the others, too-- they have my paintings on them! 

Here are 2 of them:

Fun, right? You can get them on the Nordstrom website. :)

There are not many things that make me happier than beautiful color. So I'm absolutely loving these paintings by Anne Harper-- aren't they so pretty?

Are you doing anything fun this weekend? I'm going to the ballet with my friend June tomorrow night! So excited. We're seeing Twyla Tharp's The Princess and the Goblin-- I can't wait!

I haven't been to the ballet very many times in my life... I've gone to see The Nutcracker a couple of times since living in Atlanta (I *love* the Nutcracker), and my most memorable ballet-going experience was going to a performance by the Dutch Ballet in Amsterdam. Incredible. I was staying on a friend of my mom's house boat, and it was such a magical night. We walked across the canal to the theater, and I was mesmerized, moved, and captivated. I hope the ballet tomorrow night feels like that!

This is what I was doing last night at 10pm, after eating lots of thai food (and a yummy coconut cupcake that they gifted us at the end of our meal for Valentine's Day!)

Remember the beginnings of 2 experimental paintings that I posted last week? Well, this is the second layer, and I am totally and completely digging them so far. Flora told us in in her e-course to not worry about creating something beautiful at this point, and I tried hard to remember that while working on this second layer and just let go and have fun. I just dripped and dabbed the paint and had a grand old time, loose and flowing. I'm telling you, I haven't had this much fun painting in a while. I feel a new freedom, and it's totally addictive.

While I know these aren't beautiful yet, I'm in love with them nonetheless. I feel like they're totally new and different for me but that there's also a thread of something that ties them to my typical style of work. I suspect it's the color.

Can you see the piles and piles of wood panels in the bottom right corner of the top image? Those are for a whole bunch of gloss prints that I need to make that sold during my fab.com sale-- I find myself once again wishing for more space..... if I visualize my dream studio hard enough, do you think I can make it appear when I move to a new city in a few months? (Please say yes! Tell me your stories of visualizing things into existence!) I'll find out in just a month where we're moving, when Ryan finds out where he'll be doing his residency!! Have I told you how weird it is that my husband is going to be a doctor in 5 months? Totally weird. And also totally awesome. He's worked so hard, and I know he's ready for this next phase. (I am, too!) 

Anyway, back to the paintings. I feel so happy to be doing something a bit different creatively right now-- I get so caught up in everything that I have to do (my to do list is never-ending it seems) that I often forget to have FUN and PLAY. And that's a huge part of why I do what I do! It seems crazy that I'd forget to have fun when I get to create things all day and make art that goes out into the world. (I'm so lucky to get to this every day. I don't know if I've mentioned how grateful I am for that lately. I am SO grateful!) So I'm glad for the reminder through this class.

Yep, I'm doing another fab.com sale, and it starts today at 11am! The first one (back in December) was fun and exhilarating and really successful, so I was excited at the chance to do it again. Yes, I might be crazy-- it was a lot of work-- but I'm interested to see how sale #2 goes. Was the success of the first one a fluke? (I hope not!) Will this one be better than the last? (I hope so!) I'm sure I'll be obsessively checking the numbers for the next 3 days, just like I did last time.

Anyway, head on over at 11am to check it out-- I'll have 30 different items available, all bright and colorful of course, and some have never been offered before. Excitement!

I'm reminding myself of this today, and I thought you might need some reminding, too.

Give yourself a break. You are doing everything right. You are on your own path. Your life is magnificent. LIVE IT UP A LITTLE! (Yes, these are all the other things I'm telling myself today, too!)

I'm currently taking Flora Bowley's painting e-course, Bloom True, which began on Monday, and yesterday was the first day of painting. (I was also lucky to work her her and Beth Nicholls to design Flora's new logo and the entire look of the website-- all the graphics and everything! What a fun project it was.) Here's how my first two canvases have started out....

I'm so so excited to learn from Flora and infuse my paintings with some new energy. The canvases I'm painting on are way bigger than I normally use-- they're 30x30"-- and I don't actually usually paint on canvas at all. I paint on wood panels. So this is different and liberating so far for me!

Lately one of the things I'm wishing for the most is more space to work-- my studio is feeling more and more cramped every day. So I'm putting it out into the universe... when Ryan and I move in a few months, I want to find a house with a giant work space, lots of natural light, and lots of storage!

I love this quote. It reminds me that there are always possibilities available to me, even when it feels like there aren't. The trick is to get creative, step outside of the box you've created for yourself, maybe get yourself into some new surroundings, open your mind, and trust that new ideas will come.

This happens to me all the time. I get into self-defeated mode, and all I can see is what isn't working, but when I change my attitude and look at things from a different angle, all of a sudden I can see things that I didn't before. Change your focus, focus on the positive, get creative, and your wildest dreams are available to you.

What experiences have you had with changing your focus and discovering new possibilities? I'd love to hear in the comments!