Robo Tags!

I have an unexpected few precious days off from my main gig these days, and am enjoying them thoroughly. As you can see, I've already been up to a little product development for Holiday 2008! It's sooo nice to be able to draw my own stuff again. Making a living as an artist is such a delicate balance for me. I need freelance work for the camaraderie and drawing practice, but after a few months, I really miss this: my dad's old drafting table, watching the Circle Line gliding by on the East River, my paints, some snacks, This American Life playing, the cats snoozing nearby. Anyway, these will be up in the shop later today. Hope you like them as much as I do!

Road Trip

Oh, it's been a long time since I visited the MamaRobot blog. I'm always over at the other blog, listing yummy new shops for y'all to find. But I've popped in to share some neat pics from the road! Chris and I recently flew out to Colorado to pick up a car, then drove it back. I will choose a road trip any day over flying, and this trip was a blast as usual. I think all of these were taken in or very near Indiana.
My August was absolutely swallowed up by freelance work! And as soon as I turned in the last design, it was road trippin' time. And now that THAT's done, I'm looking forward to having a peaceful fall spent wrapping up my main freelance gig and opening up my schedule even more so I can get back to my poor neglected shop. Poor little thing's still trucking along, but is in dire need of new products!

Sunday Night

It's about bedtime on Sunday night after a busy weekend with family. My mom has a really great juicer and treated me to a carrot/spinach/ginger blend Saturday and Sunday mornings. The air out in the country smells soooo good. And it's sooo green and quiet and calm. I'm always happy to be back home, though. Especially when Cinder is so excited at our return she meows in between bites of her dinner. (Or is she scolding us for being away all weekend?) Above are pics of a store window I happened by. Is that a recycled pool ball bracelet?! Alas, they were closed.
Before I hop into bed I wanted to thank the wonderful Justine for featuring one of my Robot Toddler Tees in her cool Etsy Gems blog. I'm flattered to be in the company of such gorgeous products!

Giraffe Tags

One of my purchases from last weekend's craft store shopping spree was a tag cutter. And here's my first tag project! Making gift tags is a great way to make use of my growing pile of "dud" cards - greeting cards with a bent corner, an errant dot of ink, or some other flaw that makes the card un-sellable. For this tag, I made a quickie watercolor painting of a giraffe (my Audubon Guide to African Wildlife is great for inspiration, when all else fails!), scanned it, shrunk it down to tag-size, printed it out (on the blank back of the "dud"), and finished it off with some cute pepperminty baker's twine from one of my fave Etsy people, Karen from SchoolLocker. The first finished set of 8 is freshly listed in the shop now!
I also wanted to thank Emily from Subu for featuring my Robot Onesie in her cool blog. I love her other selections, too!

He Ram!

It's been woefully long since I drew anything for myself (as opposed to drawing for a certain show about turtles that happen to be ninjas, teenage, and also mutant). This is a wedding present for my brother and sister-in-law. Let's just say this goat became famous by the end of our time in Tortola, and I promised I'd immortalize him. (No, we didn't eat him).
It looks like it will be a rainy 4th of July weekend, and we kicked it off with a trip to Michael's. I picked up a few goodies (how can you go there and NOT buy something?) and then, as we stood in line, a nice couple behind us gave us a 50% coupon! How cool is that? That random act of kindness saved us $8.50!
Hope you all have a restful and fun weekend!

Sunday

Just got back from a trip to Home Depot and our local Japanese supermarket, where Chris bought miso paste for a walnut miso sauce he wants to make, and I snapped a pic of these angry (and satisfied?) sponges. I think they're sponges.
It's the start of week 3 of my plan to get 8 hours of sleep a night, and so far I feel much better. Some nights I don't quite get to bed on time, but I've had at least 7 hours of sleep every night, and most nights I get the full 8. I read something about how, when you don't get enough sleep, it really exacerbates that feeling of not having enough time to get things done. That seems true for me...I feel less "crushed". I hope it lasts. I'm going to keep trying.

Breakfast with the bun

"Do I have something in my teef?"