the illustrated word

Sometimes words are made better when there are pictures to go along. Perhaps that's why these books below are some of my very favorites.

The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. Illustrated by Keith Thompson. Intricate and sharp depictions of metal and gears with victorian flair. Hidden identities and fantastical animal species.

The Hobbit. Written and Illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien. Maps and quests, mountain ranges and a fearsome dragon.

The Little House Books. Written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Garth Williams. Black and white drawings of covered wagons and life on the prairie. These classics wouldn't be the same without the charming illustrations.

Wildwood by Colin Meloy. Illustrated by Carson Ellis. Dark magic in a mysterious wood, talking animals, giant birds and brave bandits. Quirky and colorful.

Swallows and Amazons, written and illustrated by Arthur Ransome. Sailboats, an island, Robinson Crusoe and summer adventure.

makings

I have been busy with paper, thread and glue, making new cards to sell at the Co-op. I thought of February drawing near and decided hearts were quite appropriate for this shipment. I'm thinking of putting a few in the Etsy shop, but haven't quite decided yet...

art: united thread

I am loving the Etsy shop unitedthread right now. Absolutely beautiful and vibrant watercolors. Lots to choose from in the shop!

dreams and flowers

It is late and it is Friday, but I had to do a short post and say how in love I am with the work of Yelena Bryksenkova. Love, love, love. Happy weekend!

(Via Design*Sponge)

pressed

Lately I've been feeling a big surge of creative energy. So much so that I have trouble falling asleep because my mind is churning with new ideas! I think I owe these new ideas in large part to the class I've been doing each Saturday since the beginning of the month. The boy and I have been making the trek to Providence weekly for a letterpress class at AS220. These lovely pictures of our adventures were taken by the boy.

We decided to do it on a whim but I'm so glad we did! It was great meeting new people and getting our hands dirty with ink. It can be a really intricate process and it's definitely got me thinking of designs in a new way.

(This is the type we set for our first class. It took much longer than you'd think.)

The day after our second class we were strolling through the local flea market and I happened to spot a table filled with Dover art books. I can't even tell you how gleeful I felt. Page upon page of beautiful, black and white, copyright free images for us to use! We left with a bunch of them, but I think my favorite is the book of animals.

I must admit I'm feeling a bit glum to be headed to work this Saturday instead of Providence, but we plan on going back and using the studio by ourselves soon. In the meantime, I'm busy leafing through our books and plotting new card layouts, poster designs and more. I'll leave you with a few pictures of the cards I made during the class.

to mark your place

Over the weekend the boy and I found ourselves with a little bit of time on our hands and a whole lot of scrap paper. So we pulled out our stamp collection and got creative. These bookmarks are the result and we had so much fun making them! It's been a while since I've done a small art project like this, taking time to doodle and play with no specific end goal in mind. It made me want to shop for all sorts of fun stamps and colorful ink pads.

P.S. I plan on posting tomorrow about just how we ended up with all these paper scraps. It's something I'm very excited about!

emily eibel

After some hurried searching and a little bit of stress, I am very excited to say that we have a house lined up to rent starting next month! Which means I now get to start paying attention to the fun stuff. Like decorating. I went yesterday and picked out an alarming number of paint samples to look through.

Something else I've been thinking about is artwork. These pieces by Emily Eibel caught my eye right away when I saw them posted over on Design*Sponge.

Check out more of her captivating, one of a kind artwork on her website.