New Halloween Cards

Halloween is one of my favorite occasions to design for.  Here is one I designed, done by Great Arrow, all hand-silkscreened and the texture is luscious.

It's April, I must be getting ready for SURTEX

Well, since the UPS guy has delivered this banner, I guess SURTEX must be coming up soon.  This will be my 6th year exhibiting at the Jacob Javitz center in NYC (Booth 559), and I think after all this time I've finally figured out everything I have to do.

Banners hanging out in the hammock before getting rolled up and transported

Design the booth, prepare my helpers (thanks Arlen, Susanne, James, Morgan and Dawn!), 

Me in the booth with Arlen, 2011 

Prepare the portfolios, prepare any prototypes and samples I'm showing,

One of my first booths, 2008

 reserve a hotel room, send out promo mailing, find something to wear, prepare for catastrophes, 

The halls of Surtex before the show starts!

 Have the signage made, design and produce any takeaways,

My booth, 2009 or 10?

Fill the booth box with tape, scissors, hand sanitizer, mints, business cards, velcro, extra shoes, more mints.

My LOUIE-award-winning Children's Birthday card

And finally, get a lot of sleep, pack the car, suitcases and go set up!  May 19 - 21.

New Rugs with Home Comfort

Now we are in the new year, I thought I'd post some of my latest rugs from Home Comfort.  The washable Jellybean rugs have been selling well, you can buy them here.

Well-Designed Pie

I don't post about food too often, but I recently made a pie that I thought was beautifully designed.  That is, nice to look at as well as to make, an elegance in its simple assembly. You don't need a pie pan and can bake it right on a cookie sheet, this Rustic Apple Tart.

First you make a crust dough on a piece of parchment, and using the rolling pin, roll toasted nuts right into it.

Then you pre-cook an apple filling, this one has about 6 small apples, dates and honey.  Let it cool and plop in the middle of your crust.

Fold the edges up and over, forming a small bowl for the filling, patching up any tears.

Bake it for about 30 minutes!  Looks beautiful and the hand-made look adds to its appeal.  Voila!

Christmas Products

Hi all, Christmas is rolling around and I've got some new products in stores now.  Here's a favorite of mine, a set of 4 porcelain plates called "Santa's Servers".  I've always liked developing characters, and I hope these have a certain holiday sweetness.

They are also available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Paperproducts-Design-Servers-Gift-boxed-Appetizer/dp/B00A2EJIOI

In the Halloween Mood

Scenes from this weekend's flea-market outing. October puts me in that certain mood, and where better to find creepiness than in the dusty corners of out-of-the way antique shops and country flea markets?

Classic creepy clown doll

Classic purple western spaceman baby with squirrel hat.

Looking a little worse for the wear, Mr. Lincoln

Eew

You'd swoon too if you had pins in your bustle.

Message to the villagers...

Scary pair of pants

Seriously!

Scary vegetables at a farm stand...

And I'll end with these wonderful painted Olde Timey Halloween 

signs at a farmstand near the Delaware river.  

Remember when Halloween was scary, 

not gory and violent?

Summer Cocktails

I want to show you a couple of different cocktail products from Snowpea Studio in stores this summer, to showcase our design versatility.  On top is a Thirstystone coaster design from the A&A Collection, a line I do with my mom Ardys, who is an excellent pen-and-ink artist.  She does the line work, I paint the backgrounds and assemble them digitally.  The bottom set is a coaster collection of my own graphic bold designs.  Both are available in stores now, you'd never know they came out of the same studio!

Also I have recently added a Studio page on Facebook.  Come on over and "Like" me to follow what's going on!