Before and After

My main goals for this holiday weekend were to have fun and not think about work. On Friday I felt majorly creatively stuck and burnt out. It's a terrible feeling and always feels like it will last a long time. I decided my only hope to design anything decent by Tuesday I'd better get as much distance from the day job as possible. Saturday we took Penny to her first movie and I felt much better. I decided recently that the two most important things in life are to have fun, and to stay as healthy as you can (so that you can keep having fun for as long as you can).
Okay, so it wasn't all fun. I also tackled my business taxes, which just about broke my brain, and re-shot some of my product pics. Above, the before and after pic for one of my robot toddler tees. Much better, no? It's amazing I've ever sold any shirts! Thank you customers, for overlooking my sub par photography.

February

I have piles and piles of Penny's artwork from preschool. I've been hearing about some cool solutions for what to do with it all, like scan them and put them all into a Flickr account or make them into a bound photo book. We came up with an idea too, at least for the drawings that aren't quite frame worthy: collage! This was a birthday card for our friend Danny.
Have you discovered Pinterest? I've written before about the visual inspiration folder I keep on my desktop. Pinterest is way better! Now I have a link back to where I found each image, and it's so much fun to pin and see everything together. If you want to see what I've had my eye on lately, you can follow my boards. (Or if you already pinning away, feel free to pin some items in my shop :)
Enjoy your week! I'm about to tackle our taxes, so wish me luck!

January

A very belated Happy New Year to everyone. In the spirit of post holiday sales, I've discounted these, with more items to follow. Gotta clear out some stock and make room for new inventions! I've got a brand new computer and a head full of ideas :)
Pictured above: Penny's breakfast of homemade whole wheat sweet potato pancakes with almond butter and organic strawberries (OK so I'm proud of the food I feed my kid), and my magic fig tree who thinks Spring starts in mid January every year. A friendly, positive omen, I think!

Holiday Shopping...

I'm so happy to say it's been one of the busiest holiday seasons EVER for MamaRobot. Thank you SO much to everyone who decided to gift their loved ones (or themselves!) with some of my art. My shipping deadline for Chritmas delivery is fast approaching. For NYC dwellers who haven't had a chance to get to everyone on their list, I wanted to mention you still have a chance to grab some MamaRobot goodies. Head to B. Conte in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You'll find a special assortment of my creations for a very limited time as part of the Holiday Artisan Bazaar. I took a peek at the selection on Friday night, and it really is a beautifully curated group. I've been way too swamped to do any other events this season, so I'm happy I got the chance to participate by proxy in this one! Happy shopping :)

Inspiration

I've been meaning to pop in on my long-neglected blog to show off my friend Miguel's Etsy shop. The image above is from one of his pieces, The Siren of Fortune. All his pieces are hand silkscreened. We've got two of them hanging on our walls, and I can tell you they are beautiful, crisp and bright, and I never get tired of looking at them.
I hope all of you have a lovely Thanksgiving. This year I'm especially thankful for my health. After a 2 month long bout with asthma, I'm finally feeling better and ready to party!

Orange and Yellow

I kept noticing these two colors all weekend. The little sculpture on the right is a tiny chair I designed in the children's education lab at the Museum of Modern Art.

first watercolors

One of my favorite things to do with Penny lately is paint with watercolors. The only rules I give her are:
(1) No black.
(2) Rinse your brush between colors.
(3) Look for a white spot to lay down a new color.
And then I let her go to town. When she's done I take a 5 x 7 mat (using it as a viewfinder) and move it around the painting till I find a nice composition, mark it, cut it out, and voila! A fine abstract piece, courtesy of a 2 year old. We've been giving them out as birthday cards.