Happy Year of the Ox!

This drawing is from a while back, but I thought it was perfect to celebrate the Year of the Ox! The sub-freezing temps are continuing around here, and I'm fighting off what I call the "winter blahs", as well as the "pregnancy blahs". Both of these blahs make me want to glue myself to the couch and not budge, but that's not exactly something I thrive on. So on Saturday I remembered the brand new maternity bathing suit my sister-in-law gave me, and I decided to walk over to the local indoor pool for the $5 adult swim. Chris came with, despite thinking it odd that I wanted to go swimming on a 20 degree night in January. But the room and the water were well heated, and we had the gigantic pool to ourselves. It really felt good to get myself moving, although I have a feeling the baby was yelling, "I did not authorize this!" For some reason I picture her as a little tyrant in there. A lovable tyrant.

New York Treasury

Thanks to LiaBuffa for including me in her cool treasury of New York Etsy artists. Every extra bit of exposure helps, especially in January!

Figgy

I planted this fig tree cutting last fall and did not have high hopes. I kept it under plastic to keep it warm and moist, but it seemed futile. Then suddenly, in the middle of January, during a week when the temperature hovered in the teens, Ms. Fig decided to make her move! Now every day I'm amazed at the progress. I have to admit I find all kinds of corny metaphors for life in this little fig tree. I mean, isn't that just how life seems sometimes? Just when you're wondering if all your efforts are going to waste, a reward falls in your lap.
I wish I had some drawings to post, but I've been having a bit of a creative block lately. Of course there's only one way to solve that, and that is to draw right though that block. I'm going to try today, and share what I've done soon!

The "Nursery"

For us, living in New York City means not having an entire extra room to devote to a baby. At least at first. But I feel satisfied with what we were able to do with the space we have. This is where our girl will sleep, in a little basket under a gorgeous print made by our good friend Miguel. That wall has been painted peachy-orange for quite a while, and I love the way it all happened to come together so well.

Brrr!

The temperature hasn't climbed past 20 degrees in the last 2 days, so we're all hunkered down with videos and hot baked potatoes this afternoon. As you can see, Cinder decided my pregnancy pillow was the comfiest spot in the house.
Chris gave a guitar lesson to an 8-year old girl this morning, and afterwards we walked her over to the library where her mom was waiting. On the way we talked about birthdays and our pets and the soon-to-arrive baby. It really makes you think differently, talking to someone that young. I could feel my thoughts slowing down, and I kept quiet a lot to listen to what she had to say. It made me look forward to have conversations with our own little girl one day, the three of us walking down the street. And then we rushed home, because it was so cooooold! Hope you're all staying warm, wherever you are. Don't forget to cover that nose!

Animal Family Portraits

Now, up in the shop, my paintings from the most recent Too Art For TV show! I love these paintings, even though they ate up all of my autumn weekends. Hope you like them, too.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody! So far, I've been taking 2009 niiiiiiice and sloooooow. I'm in my 31st week of pregnancy and, well, I'm feeling a bit fragile! I get winded walking across the street to the Post Office. I even get winded standing in line at the Post Office. Fortunately, my most recent freelance gig finally came to a close, so I can spend my final 2 months of pregnancy prepping the apartment, resting, and perhaps listing a few new goodies in the shop. All you moms out there who worked up till your due date, I salute you! I don't know how much longer I could've managed to climb those subway stairs every morning.
This week I hope to finally open up my Gocco machine and make my first print with it! It's been sitting new in its box taunting me since July, when I bought it as a birthday present to myself. I'm going to decorate some notebooks with it.
Oh yeah, the shop hit 500 sales! Don't know if I mentioned that, but I was super excited. It makes me hopeful for my plan of leaving animation behind (at least for a bit) in favor of building my business while I stay at home with our baby girl.
I hope all of your plans for 2009 go smoothly ... I think it's going to be an exciting year.

P.S. The above picture was taken in La Sirena, one of those great shops in the East Village that is chock full of eye candy.