Cookie Thief

Image 14 Book of Blessings. Sweet treats as a late night snack. Y U M

Oh Happy Day

Image 10/Book Of Blessings. A picnic for little ones, juice box's and all. Although a tad chilly it's a beautiful day to be in Kanas City. 

My chubby kid body gave me character :)

So hi...How are you? I hope swell. It's summer!!!! Yay! It's the perfect time for a party. How about a book party?! From May 5th to the end of June of 2014, there is a BOOK LAUNCH blog PARTY happening to celebrate Jenipher Lyn Gallardo's BOOK  release, "How Being Stubborn, Depressed, and Unpopular Saved My Life". She invited over 40 people to spread the word by sharing an encouraging doodle. The book is really sweet and has helped so many girls. Her doodles in the book are very charming and the message is very down to earth and funny BTW! Of course I said yes to this awesome party invite and down below is my doodle. 

Here's my story to go a long with the picture.....So when I started second grade I began to get chubby. Then I got even more chubby. My mom made really good pies what can I say?! The kids at school apparently didn't understand my love of food. I was called Ms. Piggy, Fatso, Chubs, you name it. It hurt. It hurt A LOT! Kids are so mean. Even though it hurt my feelings and left some serious scar tissue I wouldn't change it for a thing for two reasons. 1. It made me really dig deep into drawing. Being able to draw gave me a sense of worth when other things in my little life made me feel worthLESS. 2. Being called names taught me how to have empathy for others. I knew what it was like to be teased so I thought twice before doing it to others. I think this gave me some serious character and the ability to think about other peoples feelings. So thank you chubby second grade me. I love you and accept you just the way you are...because I wouldn't be me without you :)

Perspective

I was so honored when Design Ranch asked me to design the cover of KU Medical & Science Magazine because the cover story floored me. I balled after I was finished, like hard. The article is about a woman named Kathy Davis and the extremely sick or terminally ill children at KU. Kathy is their teacher, their mentor, their rock. Someone who helps their family get through the tough spots like surgery or donor issues etc. Someone who is a huge presence in helping their parents with the grieving process if the child passes away, an experience I can't even imagine. I am so thin skinned and don't know how the people in the medical field do it. I'm too sensitive...That's why I do what I do. So how does an artist capture something so inspiring yet sad yet also hopeful? It was tough. But to me, Kathy provides these folks with stability and comfort. But she doesn't ever forget these are children and at the core of every child there is an innate desire to have fun..to be light. To be a kid :) So I drew a tree because Kathy provides them with stability in a scary roller coaster world. She also provides fun, lightness and hope so I made clouds for it's leaves. I made the children happy and light because if they had it their way, that's how I think they'd want to feel. I hope I did this story justice because it's nothing short of amazing. And I just can't my hug my kids hard enough right now. Read the full story here :)

Finley's room....finally :)

Ya know...we tried so hard to have his room finished before he came....but it just DID NOT happen. 

And folks say to you empathetically as you tell them your pre-baby goals, "He's not even going to use that room for a while you know"....And you smile and nod, knowing damn well you won't have time once your little bundle arrives, no matter what room he's in, to do anything but take care of that little bundle. That pooping, crying, eating, cuddly bundle of pure and amazing magic. So fast forward to 4 months later and we're finally finished. We put it side for a minute until we could REALLY finish it. We're only waiting for ONE more thing. A rug. We just haven't found the right one yet. wink, wink...We'll post an update later. So when you have talented friends and generous family members, designing a baby room is sort of a piece of cake...so once we re-conveined and saw all the fun things we had to work with the room came together rather fast. A special thanks to Mirna Stubbs, Dean Kube, Lilla Rogers and the studio ladies,  and last but not least, my wonderful mother-in-law, Sandy aka Momsville and my father-in-law, Kevin, aka K-Pop. Our elephant bedding is from Land of Nod and designed by Allison Cole. Thank you Momsville! The "Hello, I love you" bear print by Julia Pott is a fave we've had for awhile and didn't have the perfect place for it until Finley arrived. The adorable alpaca print is Flora Chang. We made the mobile with help from a co-worker of Colin's. Thank you Hanna! There are some Petit Reve prints in there too. I mean, c'mon, Can you blame us? ;) As far as furniture it was mostly Ikea and then we took an old chest of drawers we had in the garage, slapped some knobs on it (lovingly painted by by K-pop). My hubs painted it and voila', good as new.

by Dean Kube

Black Bear's Delight by Colin Walsh (shameless Petit Reve promotion)

banner by Mirna Stubbs

another print on Petit Reve done by yours truly