Illustrator Crush: Irina Troitskaya

For a while I’ve been playing with the idea of making Matryoshka dolls with my illustrations.  The other day I spotted these custom ones by Irina Troitskaya:

They are blowing my mind.

I love them.

Irina is a freelance illustrator  who does work for all kinds of clients.  You can see more of her work here.

Via MinorDetails

May Goals Wrap-Up

Man, can I just say I’m looking at this list and feel exhausted?  Ergh.  Frustrating, as a lot of it was supposed to be done in April.  What is it with these warmer months? Everything seems to move slower…Geez.

1. Polish up the dummy and get it ready to send around. I’m almost done with one of the finished illustrations.  But fairly certain finishing the whole dummy isn’t going to happen.
2. Sign up for ChildrensIllustrators.com
3. Sign up and organize updates for free portfolio/illustration news sites.
4. Continue working on posting regularly here. I’ve gotten better!  Come say hello–I’m around more and more…
5. Work on making portfolios to send around to select clients. yup
6. Organize promotions effort. Probably could use some tweaking.
7. Work on ice cream piece for portfolio. Realistically, I don’t see this happening.
8. Send out a newsletter. (You can sign up here if you’d like!) Now I’m shooting for the beginning of June, FYI.

And a couple new ones to add:

9.  Brainstorm for the PikaPackage project. I’ve spent some time on this and coming up with ideas has been super fun.

10. Participate in my high school’s alumni art show. Aw..Its tonight!

But in fun news, I’m posting my goal wrap-up early because G and I are off on a proper, just-us, vacation! See you in June…

Left-Over Fabric

I have a bunch of odd pieces of fabric that I’ve been hoarding. For what, I wasn’t sure. But then I spotted these two fun projects:

Fabric Tape!

And this cute dress, that looks so easy, even I could sew it.

Images by annekata and By Fryd.

Baby Sloths= Best Ever

Will is 21 Years Old

Happy Birthday, brother.   My almost twin, just ten years off.  I love you.

‘We Are A Happy Family!’

I have no idea what the rules are, but doesn’t this card game from Pintameeldia look amazing?

It features 8 artists and all proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders.

All images from Pintameeldia.

Babies

I saw the documentary Babies (with my soon-to-be In-Laws!!) on Mother’s Day.  It was really wonderful.

I guess partly, as expected.  I mean gorgeous footage of babies, doing ridiculous baby things…It could have gone on for hours and I think everyone in the theater would have been riveted.

But how great is it that a documentary with little, to no, (discernible) dialogue was packed opening day at a mall in eastern Connecticut?  The whole thing made me happy.

Busy busy

Because I decided May wasn’t busy enough, I just signed up for two exciting projects:  Pikaland’s PikaPackage Project and the Flourish business e-course.  I’m really looking forward to working on both.

You may have noticed my little etsy  shop languishing over the months.  I haven’t figured out how to juggle pursuing illustration through more traditional means, while selling prints and other items directly to customers.   I’m an illustrator, not a shop owner.  But I’m hoping after Flourish I’ll be both.

The PikaPackage will tie in nicely to that– get the creative gears moving, as well as a promo for my work and shop.

And to help me juggle everything, I’ve signed up for the free trial of the task management program, Things.  Does anyone use it now?  I’ve only had it for a day, but I think its love.

New To Me: Made by Joel

Check out Made by Joel for wonderful diy craft projects for kids.

Dollhouses, mobiles, animation… seriously, this dad is awesome!

All images from Made By Joel.

‘A Thank You Note A Day’

I’ve been writing thank you notes lately and just came across this blog over on A Cup of Jo.

“Leah Dieterich’s mother always told her to write thank you notes. So she does. To everything.”

This was one of my favorites: