lampshade love

while i was in maine my mom had the good idea of revamping her plain beigey lampshades. of course we didn't start until the day before i was to leave and the adrenaline kicked in!

my mom primed it first with a coat of primer and then we went to town with regular old house paints and brushes. my mom is so resourceful. i swear. i was doubtful when i saw the crusty old buckets of house paint and dull brushes, but it totally worked. the painter snob that i now am felt reluctant since i have spent hundreds... ahem thousands... of dollars over time on high quality paint and tiny delicate brushes and was doubtful that we could make it look good with less than that. yet with my mom's vision and a couple of coats we persevered! maybe it will inspire you as well to bring out your paints & brushes and liven up your lampshade!

i'll share more photos of my family's colorful maine home in a later post!

xoxox

Blame Sally Awards

I thought I'd share this post by my Husband Hugh from his blog!

The poster design that my wife Mati McDonough and I did last year for our friends in the band Blame Sally just keeps getting awards. Earlier in the year the poster was featured in the Society of Illustrators 52 show and annual. Now it's garnered another honor: it is in the 3x3 Professional Show for 2010!


(If you've never seen 3x3 magazine, you should check it out. When it comes in the mail we rush to open it, fight over who gets to read it first, and linger over every page. It really is a beautifully designed, loving homage to contemporary illustration that is a must for any artist or designer.)

The t-shirt version — printed on gorgeous Alternative Apparel shirts — won best swag from the Independent Music Awards in 2009:



You can get your own copy of the silkscreen poster from us here, and you can pick up the shirt from Blame Sally here.

Mati and I don't put our artistic heads together that often, but when we do we get an awesome product. (I guess that's one reason the marriage works, right?)

collab-orations!

when writing my list of 34 good things a theme emerged of artistic collaborations. it seems like 2010 has even more in store!

starting with this great collab with my talented pal jen of sprout studios! i'm january's necklace of the month artist edition. jen is featuring two of my art pieces~ a feather power girl and "show the world your magic" manifesto elaborated on here. see more deets & purchase them to wear here!