29. December 2013

Its nice to be in Berlin again, especially after the hulabaloo of the holidays.  I did a lot more posting about "Buy my stuff!" than I would have liked but hey - Legos are expensive and were sure in demand.  Thanks for putting up with me!
But now we are here and there is a lot less internet time and work time and a lot more time spent just being in the moment. Which of course is always relaxing and inspiring.  Funny how the less you "try" to be inspired, the more it just happens...
So here's to a January full of really watching what's happening around me, and drawing, drawing, drawing!
By the way, if you also happen to be in Berlin, be sure to check out what the clowns of my family are up to at Sauerkraut Variete!

28. November 2013

Getting ready for some post-Thanksgiving shopping madness! How does half off sound to you? Shop me at DENY Designs and snatch a bargain - for you or for under the tree :)

22. November 2013

What an honor and delight to have my "Frolic" pillow from DENY Designs featured in the current issue of Pregancy and Newborn Magazine :)

12. November 2013

My Küchenzauber collection with Westfalenstoffe Living has launched in 3 gorgeous colorways!  I just love the cute things they sewed with the fabrics for the photo shoot :) 
These photos left me feeling very inspired to do some sewing of my own with these fabrics so I gave the dining room a little facelift today. First came some fabric baskets on the shelves and then I took the leaf blower out of the corner (I know, what was it doing there in the first place?) and replaced it with a comfy sitting chair complete with a Fruit Salad pillowcase - all in the Navy/ Khaki/ Lemon colorway.  Pictures will come... once my new battery charger gets delivered....

11. November 2013

With daylight savings kicking in, and the sky being dark at like 4 (are you serious?) I was so happy to find this bright and sunny photo of Suzy from Floating World Views where she is sporting a top she made out of some of my fabric that has been licensed to the Australian Market. 
How fun is that neon snail?

Since Australia is far from Germany (and also much warmer might I add) this is the first time I have seen this fabric collection -which is exclusively available there- in action.  If you're in Australia, I've heard select fabrics are available at Spotlight and if you happen to design anything with my prints, I would love for you to share!

28. October 2013

After visiting the Evolution Show in Holland over the weekend, where I attended a lovely trend lecture given by Milou Ket has got me waking up full of inspiration and excited to try out new color palettes.  So here you go, to brighten up your Monday morning :)

10. October 2013

I love screen printed designs.  They look clean, professional, timeless and just plain gorgeous!  For years I watched DIY videos on how to make some kind of makeshift screens, but nothing came of it.  Finally this summer I met a bunch of awesome screenprinters in Berlin who totally motivated me to take the plunge.  So for my birthday (the big 30!) a couple weeks ago, my fabulous husband got me a screen printing starter set...
Here is the heart of it, but a lot more doo dads and potions were also included.  After 2 failed attempts of cutting the screen (this really is a precision skill and that's not really my specialty.  I really had to turn my patience and concentration up to full volume or else this was all going to end in frustration) I finally cut one that was a success!
Now that I know how the whole thing works, its true what everyone says - screen printing is easy.  The printing part is for sure easy, but when you are cutting the screen be sure to follow the instructions 100%, and if you aren't doing it in a room with a yellow lightbulb you are wasting your time.  But anyways, do you want to see the results?  Some snuggly little softies...
and cork hot plates with my mermaid illustration...
and my intellectual fox quoting Thoreau...
I am so pleased with the result and for your shopping pleasure, have listed them already in my shop :)



9. October 2013

Big congrats to the winner of my 2014 Calendar...

3. October 2013

Woo hoo!  The 2014 Calendar under my stationery label, Rae Schmae, is ready to ship!  And I'm so excited, I'm giving away a copy for FREE - and will ship to anywhere in the world :)  To enter, either Pin it or Share it and be sure to let me know you did.  I will pick the winner at the end of the week!

30. September 2013

Hello, Fall!  You are looking lovlier than ever :)  A sunny picnic for the baby on a crisp autumn day in her new fall jacket?  Don't mind if I do.
I love sewing with my line of fabrics from Robert Kaufman's Cool Cords collection.  They are so soft and snuggly and the colors just pop! Between her jacket and the picnic blanket Luna is looking here like Miss Cool Cords herself.

16. September 2013

Despite moments of doubt, I can finally say that my 2014 Calendar under my stationery label Rae Schmae is finished!  I thought I was finished yesterday, so I had Diemo (my 6 year old) give it a once over.  He approved of every month except January.  Actually, January literally brought him to tears since it was a picture of a girl and January is his birthday month.  So we discussed doing a boy.  I drew it out and he approved but I wasn't loving it.  So therein was born our compromise which is now one of my fave months - the winter racoon :)

Preorder your copy here and save!  The price WILL be going up by 15% in 2 weeks once delivery starts :)  


13. September 2013

We are getting ready to move into a house that, dare I say, is a dream house!  Especially since we have definately outgrown the apartment we are in now.  And obviously, the most fun part of the move is trolling Pinterest for decor ideas and cute organization projects and then executing them.  I'm just so motivated and can't be stopped!  I still haven't figured out how I am going to incorporate ironing fabric onto the walls yet, but I know its going to happen.  Until then, here is some wall art I recently created...still not sure which room it will go it but I love how the girls came out :)

3. September 2013

I have to say, it is strangely validating when your 6 year old decides that what you do for work is cool enough that they want to do it too.  So today I am sharing my dinosaur fabric print as well as Diemo's :)  
His is entitled "Super Dinosaur Picture"
I love it!

2. September 2013

Do you ever wake up on a Sunday morning and think, "Despite the million things I have to do, I'm going to spend all day sewing plushies."  I don't either, but somehow it happened anyways.  And I totally blame it on this super cute and wicked easy tutorial from Christina McKinney on the Birch Fabrics Blog.  I decided to make my elephant school-themed for my son who starts first grade on Thursday, using fabrics from my Robotic collection.
I also made a bunny plushie from a pattern of my own design, which will have to be shown another day since my son decided to give it a bath and it still soaking wet!  I am really on a plushie kick, but I still think the next tutorial is going to have to be this one - cute organization!

28. August 2013

I was at the store over the weekend and saw some cute corduroy baby pants. I almost took them to the register when I remembered two things: 1. I have lots of beautiful corduory fabric at home from my Cool Cords collections and 2. I know how to sew! 
So home I went, and I got to work stitching away - and I am super happy with the result that I got from simply using another pair of her pants as a pattern.  I love that fall is around the corner and that now is the time for soft and sweet corduroy. Plus, little Luna seems to like them too, and that is the most important!

24. August 2013

Finally back home in my studio where my sketches turn into realities!  Its going to be a fun day of scanning in my drawings during my Berlin trip and seeing what they turn into.  Here is the first one...

It was a great trip where I was super inspired by artists of every kind, new printing techniques I can't wait to dive into, and getting a great response to Rae Schmae from local boutiques.  My head is spinning, my sketchbook has pages falling out and stuffed back in, and my to-do list is long.  Its a great feeling! 

8. August 2013

Let's be real for a minute.  When I signed up for this working-from-home-mom business I pictured it pretty different from reality.  In my vision, I am peacefully designing during naptime, earning the big bucks from working minimal hours, and my house is always clean because I am also simultaneously, the ideal housewife.  Well all I can say to that is - HA!  
 This card translates to "Everyone can do easy." and though the road of being a work at home mom has lots of great moments, easy it is not.  Because while I can say that my stationery line, Rae Schmae, is now available at several boutiques in Berlin (yay!) don't be fooled into thinking that I, in a very cosmopolitan outfit, made appointments with boutiques that I penciled into my dayplanner to which I showed up with a professional display and press packet and we all sipped espressos while talking business.  No.  This is more like it: Its 95 degrees and humid - my hair is up in a messy bun and frizzing out.  I am pushing / lugging up and down stairs a baby stroller with an under-napped 6 month old, and have a bored 6 year old bumbling behind me.  I pop into a stores that I happen to wander past (and some I have Googled ahead of time) and ask in my less-than-perfect German if I can share the box of samples I have in the bottom of my stroller behind the diaper bag. 

So keep on Moms because, you know what?  It worked.  I had nothing but positive responses.  So don't wait until you can approach your next business goal "not like a mom" because this is what we are.  And really, most of the people you are working with out there are too :)

5. August 2013

I love being in Berlin :)  We are here for the first 3 weeks of August so that the menfolk in the family can do lots of this at Berlin Lacht! :

Its so inspiring being in such a creative city where everything is at your fingertips.  I've been doing some fun drawing, but don't have access to a scanner yet, so whenever that happens I will be sure to share.  

So fitting that while we are in Berlin, Keka Case has selected 2 of my prints for the face of their East Meets West story.  Although I think a different East and West are implied here :)

27. July 2013

Oooh....who are the people in your neighborhood?
"They're the people that you meet, when you're walking down the street.  They're the people that you meet each day!"  I have been singing this in my head all morning working on this print.  Actually, I sing that song a lot to myself since living in a small town, you really do see the same people every day.  The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker...you know how it goes.
So here is a print in celebration to all of them!

26. July 2013

Inspiration, Motivation, all the "tion"s come in waves. Yesterday I saved my morning coffee for the afternoon and got a late day motivational boost that had great results, for example. This morning I am motivated to clean up the house, which I have to take advantage of while it lasts! Last week I was last minute motivated to enter the Crickets competition on Spoonflower, and my little guys made it into the top 10! Woohoo! And that also means they are now for sale :)

25. July 2013

First of all, how is it already the end of July?  I think summers always feel shorter to me here in Germany because they have different summer vacations - this is the first week of Diemo's summer break!  So while I'm feeling like the summer is just getting started, really its well underway.


So here's to summer road trips, and also plane and train trips.  Next week we are off to Berlin which, for us, means summer is really in full swing!

22. July 2013

Today is the deadline.  Of a lifetime.  Lilla Roger's Global Talent Search, round 1.  Like many artists I'm sure, the prize (which is among other awesome licensing deals, a 2 year contract with Lilla Roger's studio) is the dream of a lifetime!  Lilla's artists are so unique, talented and inspiring.  I had so much fun with the round 1 assignment, a journal cover with a playground theme.  Just the assignment in itself left me so motivated and inspired.  As Lilla says "People buy your joy" and joy was definitely the place this cover was designed from :)

Fingers crossed for the shortlist!

19. July 2013

Yipee!  My design "Ponyhof" made it into the top 10 of Spoonflower's horses challenge :)  The best part is to see the artwork printed on fabric.  The next best part will be ordering some!  You can order some too, here.


18. July 2013

While I am working away over here, mid-heatwave, with a wobbly 6-month-old in my lap, trying to perfect my entry for Lilla Roger's Global Talent Search, my line of artwork for Keka Case has been lauched.  Yahoo!  Check them out :)

17. July 2013

What a great time we had in Copenhagen for the long weekend!  I got refreshed, refuled and inspired!  Unfortunately, most of the inspiration hasn't made it to the paper yet so here is a little something else and unrelated for you -- crickets :)

11. July 2013

Getting ready to go to Copenhagen tomorrow :)  I am so looking forward to it.  I am supposed to be packing, finishing up some client work, doing laundry, blah blah blah, but I am just so into adding photos of my favorite subjects into my illustrations that I am totally distracted!


I am having way too much fun with this and keep thinking of ideas for more...

10. July 2013

A special blog post as today I am remebering the birthday of my best friend, who left this earth too soon.  She lived her life in a way I have always aspired to - by never thinking any dream was too big to go after and always reaching for the next possible goal.

There are people out there who say its better to keep what you love to do a hobby and not try to do it professionally because of the chance you will get sick of it.  Obviously this person has no idea what they are talking about.  I consider it such a priveledge to be able to take joy in my work, improve my skill, get lost in time in a world of drawing and have that be my profession.  

Sure, there was a time when I also considering if I should keep my love just a hobby.  Mostly because I was scared to fail.  Thank you Lauren, for being such a role model and that even though you never were able to give me this advice with your words, you did with how you lived every second of your life.  Happy Birthday xoxo

9. July 2013

In gearing up for the huge-mongousest contest of a lifetime (aka Lilla Roger's Global Talent Search) I've found its been great entering other contests even if it feels like the topic might not be my thing.  For example, I wanted to enter this week's Spoonflower contest but I saw the theme was horses which did not get me excited and I thought about passing.  But then I realized this was exactly what I needed.  Its possible to do horses that are cute, forward, and original and not just, well, horsey.


So I made horses that are really in my style.  Its so fun to have come up with something that is so me, but a topic I never would have picked voluntarily.  And to have an end result that I am happy with is just icing on the cake!

8. July 2013

In the spring, I thought it was a nice idea to put out stale pieces of bread on the balcony table.  The little chickadees were loving it and stopping by every morning to see if anything was out there.  Sounds cute, right?  Well, now that the days are getting warmer, I leave the door from the kitchen to the balcony open most days to let in the bright sunlight.  But when I leave the kitchen and come back 10 or so minutes later, these gutsy little birds have invited themselves into my house and are poking around under the table, on the countertops, and wherever else they please, looking for a crumb or two.


Even this doesn't sound horrible.  I mean, they're chickadees, right?  Its not like they're crows or seagulls or something.  But I will tell you when the line was crossed.  When I went to wipe down the kitchen table and found little bird poops dotting the table.  They pushed their invitation too far...

4. July 2013

Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans!  (Insert fireworks here)  Here is how I will be celebrating in my heart tonight - imagining I am in Seattle on Lake Washington floating along on a boat with family and friends, having a little sing-a-long (where I would not be singing, to spare everyone's ears) and watching the fireworks... but while I am not doing that, I did just get from buying train tickets to go to Copenhagen for my friend's upcoming birthday so that's also exciting :)

Is this what blogs are for?  Rambling?



Anyhow, in Tigerprint's competition for patterned font I submitted a design I really loved and its made the shortlist!  Fingers crossed that it goes even farther :)  I feel quite honored to be on the shortlist, there are so many beautiful designs.

3. July 2013

Its been a long time since I've had a blog on my website, but then I realized that when I'm on someone else's site, the blog is my favorite part :)  So I'm starting over with a clean slate, fresh blog, new illustration, and still haven't even made my cup of coffee yet!  (Okay, the illustration is from yesterday.  I'm not that good.)


Sometimes when life gets crazy, the house needs cleaning, the kids need entertaining, and I need to remind myself to prioritize my work because its my job, the things I want to do like entering competitions like the ones from Spoonflower don't make it onto the to-do list.  But this week I loved the theme so much that I couldn't keep my pen still :)  Hope you like what I came up with for the Picnic theme!