Hiking in the North Woods

 

Hiking in the north woods of Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula Michigan as the leaves are changing colors is truly an enchanting experience.  It seemed everywhere I turned, there was colorful foliage just waiting to be captured. I look forward to printing some of these shots extra big to hang up somewhere just to do them justice. 

I am the Lorax, and I Speak for the Trees

Hello friends!

One of my all time favorite Dr. Suess stories is that of The Lorax, which I recently rewatched on Disney+. Then I got to thinking, how I could shoot an interpretation of this story for the blog!   So here you have it: some 5 ft tall truffula trees I constructed from pom poms and pvc pipe, and a girl version of the Lorax herself!  

A Mermaidy Pattern

As part of my new monthly theme idea, today I'm sharing some mermaid illustration patterns with you lovelies in four different colors!  These can be used for phone backgrounds or other fun things and I'll be using them in some other fun things to come :)

Stay tuned in in this space to see some fun things I'm whipping up at the end of this summer!  :)

Come with me, and You'll be in a World of Pure Imagination

I have been so excited to shoot and share these photos for a little while now.  This mint Son De Flor dress is just  E v e r y t h i n g  and I'm so thankful to have been gifted it by my husband for my 30th back in June.  Son De Flor is an ethical company, which means that they pay their garment makers fair wages, and source their fabrics responsibly and sustainably.  And besides that, their dresses are clearly what fairytales are made of!!!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Composite editing is something I've grown more and more interested in over the last few months, striving to put together scenes that are some sort of reality meets fantasy in my work.   I always want things to feel like they might have feet in our world, but something other-worldly might be happening!  Welcome today to the land of giant strawberries!!

Fairies in the Woods

Lately I've been in a dreaming mood, and letting my art sort of take the form that it tells me it wants to.  When I started this series, I didn't have any intention of turning myself into a fairy, but then it kinda sorta just... happened???

A Garden of Birds

I recently came upon this beautiful little garden on the grounds of the university campus and fell in love!  Who doesn't love an elegant english garden on a misty summer morning?  I just loved the elegant mix of florals cascading and mixing amongst the delicate stone pathways.  It seemed the perfect place to read a book and reflect upon life.  10/10, would visit again!

Putting Up the Stars in the Sky

       

When I was a kid, I used to think that people lived under the stoplights, switching the colors manually for every traffic cycle.  Obviously, at some point I learned the actual process involved in traffic lights, but things like this and lying looking up at the ceiling + imagining it was actually the floor seems like some deep rooted ideas in my mind about seeing the world in an alternative way.  I think it's daydreams like these that inspire a lot of my ideas for art, and so I'm leaning way in!!!

Like, what if one lone fairy was responsible for putting the stars and moon up each night?  What would that be like? 

Honeycomb Homebody

Bzz Bzz!

Some of My Favorite Art in Our Home

One of my favorite things about decorating a home is that it truly is a weaving of new and old to tell the story of a person.  What they enjoy, their history, and things that influence them.  Whenever I'm choosing art to put up on our walls, it's always a mixture of things I've been saving for the right moment, things I'm seeking out new, and things from our life's adventures.   I love being able to look around and be reminded of several different memories from life at a single glance. 

So I've rounded up a handful of my favorites from around our home to share their stories!

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

Seeing as Andrew and I recently upgraded our phones, I've finally been able to pick Pokémon Go back up again, and I am just overjoyed!

That and the potential of warmer days on the horizon inspired me to make this little Pokémon art series with some of my favorite Pokés!

Magic in the Mundane

The world has been feeling like a very strange place lately, and some days are better than others in my little corner of the world.

But I've been trying to cultivate as much creativity as I can to lift my own spirits and hopefully spread a little bit of joy to others as well.  I've been trying more and more to have some fun with adding a touch of magic to my art, not only to try to lift spirits, but because I believe that life needs a little bit of magic on a normal day!

Overcoming Discouragement

Today I want to talk about failure and discouragement.

Being an artist can come with it's challenges, some of them being creative burnout and self-confidence.

For the Elves

When I was growing up, we used to spend some of our summer days at my grandparents' cabin up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.   And while we were there one summer, another girl from the neighborhood who was about my age shared with me a magical place out in the woods, where the elves lived.  I don't know if it's still there, since it's been ages since I've been to the cabin, but I bet you I could retrace my steps through the forest, even these 15 years later.

That Rainbow Magic

In honor of St. Patrick's day and my blog's birthday happening in the same week, I wanted to make something extra special for the blog this week!  Happy Seventh Birthday, little blog of mine!

This photo series is one of my favorites to date, and involved a LOT more post processing than I do regularly.  I'm so happy with the outcome and I hope you love it as much as I do!

A Mindful of Miniatures and Ice Cream Hearts

A touch of whimsy for you on this first outfit post in February.  Despite cold temperatures, I'm having a ball playing with scale with this little mini-house today.  You never quite know how the scenes you dream up in your head will turn out when you actually get to go shoot — but I'd say this one got pretty close!  I saw these little baby conifers growing at one of our nearby parks and this idea of scale hit me, so I had to bring it to life!

Winter Artists' Notebooks

Happy winter everyone!

I wanted to share some of my love for this season in notebook form with you lovelies — so I designed some of my favorite winter nature details into covers and hand bound these cute little notebooks to put up for sale!

Winter Details

Today's post is just a little round up of minimalist winter details for you to enjoy, from monochrome winter knits to some winter foliage I gathered on my local wanderings one winter morning.

Sometimes the little things surrounding us can be simple yet beautiful.

Winter Fairy World

Today's post certainly marks a shift in the type of imagery that I hope to be creating.  I feel like over the years, I've found myself wondering, "how to I categorize myself?", or "how do I explain to others what I do?"

I have always been a consumer of imagery.  I feed off of it, really.

It quite literally is something I need a daily dose of.  Seeing what others create, and appreciating it, then going out into my world and dreaming up something I want to put out in the world.

I realized that I really do want to create more things that have a fantastical vibe— creating fairy tales as it were.

So here is my January Visual Fairy Tale for you ♥

A Woodland Love Story

We went to the woods to be animals for a bit for this one... bless my husband for putting up with me and being a woodland creature with me!  It was below freezing and we were both shaking in our boots, but the five minutes we spent out in the cold for this miraculously turned out pretty great!

An unlikely love story between a fox and a raccoon...