lately

First of all, I have a fun little announcement! Forever ago Bill and I designed & printed this poster (SO LONG AGOOO) and recently Bill listed the remaining prints for sale on etsy! I'm still so fond of this piece, even though my style has changed quite a bit! It still feels really relevant to my interests now... and working with Bill is seriously the best experience. Buddies 4ever!

Otherwise things have been pretty rad. New things starting, hanging with new & old friends, and planning travel for the not-so-slowly incoming holidays. Wasn't it January, like, yesterday? Here, take some photos.

p.s. featured activities & locations from these photos: the santa monica pier (walk there, walk to the end, turn around and walk back), Angels stadium (get two small beers and a Nacho Mama),  La Brea Tar Pits, jumping in the pool at Tarte (not pictured: giant punch bowl of palomas), touring famouses graves at Forest Lawn in Glendale (this guide was pretty helpful!), looking at pretty books at the Art Center library, donut donut donut.

hot child in the city

If I could I would just draw pictures of food and make pretty maps and get paid for it for the rest of my life. When I got this awesome assignment to make some fun neighborhood maps and cocktail recipe illustrations for the LA Time's Summer 2015 Entertainment Guide I was obviously pumped.

Plus now I have a collection of cocktails to make and places to visit! Who wants to go to with me as I make my first pilgrimage to Diddy Riese?

Here are a couple of the illustrations! The rest are available to check out on that link above or on my website! YAY!!

(That slice of watermelon is on my Top 5 Best Things I've Ever Drawn list)

flower power

HAPPY FRIDAY! Oh man, did you ave a good week? My Trader Joe's finally has strawberry Kefir back in stock, so that was my big win.

JK GUYS, I've been hard at working doing a TON of promo work. After I made this baby shower invitation for my etsy shop I realized it might also work great as a ~*~*~motivational quote~*~*~ to send to potential clients, so I worked that up! Don't you feel the good vibes coursing through your veins? 

Alsooooo - can you believe it's June? I MEEAANNNN when did this happen? Perhaps it was the whole "planning a wedding at the speed of light" thing, but I am feeling like this year has been flying by.

To celebrate such a thing, here are some photos from lyfe.

fun outings & tasty eats: Mini Golf at the Arroyo Seco Golf Course, exploring Graystone Mansion, egg sammies at Eggslut, donuts at California Donuts.

pictures of you

  

 More photos from around town, presented for your viewing pleasure.

 

4th of July requirements: babes, Peggy, Katie's dangerous mystery beverage, corn dogs & goth dance parties... in that order.

 

 

california dreamin

thanks to laura we snagged a couple free tickets to the huntington gardens, and it was glorious

Obviously this blog is mostly about sharing my art, but it's also a personal blog and I haven't really been posting too many visual representations of our new life here in La La Land. It's been an entirely new experience moving to a new, vastly different city in my adult life. I thought I had a little experience moving from Michigan to Minnesota for college, but that was essentially like dipping my toes into the kiddie pool and slooowwwllyyy wading in. I'm a midwest girl, and moving to California was like jumping into the deep end and then losing my bikini top. 

That is to say, it's been awesome and a little shocking! 

So here, some visual stimuli for you. We've been here for just about three months and have already had three sets of visitors, all of whom I love: My parents & brother (who was living in San Diego for a few months, so we visited him too!), Alli & Alex, and Bill, Ben & John. See if you can spot them, it'll be like Where's Waldo but for people you possibly don't actually know.

 

gorgeous foliage in venice & silverlake

taking a walk with some fashionable fellas

 

a trip to disney animation studios / the aquarium in san diego

more san diego - we saw a guy catch a bebe shark here? he took a selfie and then threw it back in the ocean

 

malibu treats: sandy crabcakes / I would take up residency at sqirl if I could afford it

took a tour of the rosebowl with the fam, found some modern art disguised as an abandoned sign

orange you glad

Starting last Sunday we drove from Minnesota to Iowa to Nebraska to Colorado to Nevada to Utah to a tiny bit of Arizona and finally to California. We are exhausted but happy- now it's time to focus on getting the apartment together and finding work.

In case you're wondering, we stayed at the Golden Gate Casino in Las Vegas, which is in the "old" section of Vegas. We eventually made our way over to strip, but I enjoyed the Container Park (plenty of artsy shops and bars) and the Fremont Street Experience (weird light shows? tiny bayou themed coin slot machine casinos? yes) the most. The hotel itself was kind of a mess though, so I'd recommend finding lodging elsewhere.

motivation messages / before and after: madness and empitness

 

various sights along the road: car (not even all the way packed yet), food, cat, mountains

Vegas niceties 

Final destination

 And! A bonus video from the passenger window: