Alain Grée

I've always loved the universe of illustrator Alain Grée well before I knew his name--I had a record of Rumpelstiltskin (a weird story I remember) when I was a child, cover by you guessed it.
His style is pure joy, lyrical throwback characters, stomping fairytale fonts, perfectly planned quadrants and the colors...oh the colors! What would it be like to live in that world? I wish I could for a day...

I've been doing more graphics for the show for the past 5 days and am trying to keep it light. I mean my theme is "A Butterfly Circus" afterall...

A little walk

On a little Sunday walk, we found small and powerful things.

I just took a break

and when I went outside there was a chill in the air and realized Summer is really ending. So I went back and remembered all the green mossy things we saw on our hikes this summer and the funny little flowers and dew drops on everything,

the pretty things on the side of the road

and the little swallow nest on our porch in Kaloloch.

and this tiptoeing tree at Rialto beach


and this little kid
and the sea stacks







and finding the amazing tide pools with all the little sea creatures clinging to the sides.

I looked back at my summer trip and saw how much it inspired the new collection:










model shots by my wonderfully talented husband, still shots by the wonderfully talented Amy Sahba...

and the e-postcard

Yes. And the e-postcard. and then the line sheets, purchase order forms, display goods, clothes to wear, my gifts, my passport, my plug adapters, my euros, my key to the flat, my bills paid, my hopes that it will all fit in one big suitcase and that the markets don't totally explode...have I forgotten anything? OH...Yes! Please, if you are in Paris come for a visit. I would love to meet my blogger friends in Paris!

We made this

front cover and back cover

page 2 and 3

and you open it up and this is what's inside

little fold-up catalog of sorts to bring to the show. It folds in half vertically and then horizontally and then you open it up and get the sexy inside. I kind of...love it.

Model photos by Jim and stills by Amy. Printing is being done by Greener Printer.

You Are Beautiful

all photos from the You Are Beautiful site.

More of this please. What an excellent message. For some reason, this reminded me to remind everyone to watch the first Presidential debate on Friday the 26th and all of them thereafter.

Field Notes

Man, it's coming down to the wire...I'm leaving soon and just when I think I have it all together, I realize that's it's a slippery slope this "getting it all together by deadline" business. It's the lists that get me up sometimes way too early in the morning (that and I sometimes fall asleep by 10). If I don't write EVERY LITTLE BIT DOWN ON PAPER, I lose it..it's gone. I end up though, jotting and sketching on any scrap that's near me, envelopes, the newspaper, and if I'm lucky, sometimes one of my ten notebooks floating around the studio. It's one way of being organized. If I just write it down it will stick in my head (usually).

But deep down, my desire to just have one go to place for all all these lists and notes is palpable. And I'm addicted to graph paper...I usually stock up up on the colorful Claire-Fontaine notebooks and receipt books in France but I just found these fantastic Field Notes notebooks via my favorite neighbor's blog. I love the utilitarian sameness of each one, customizable, like the little black and red notebooks I used to get in Chinatown when I was in college. I bet I can actually carry these around town and in my travels with me light and easy, no fuss, no muss and around the house even, in the back of my pants. Then I'd whip it out whenever I need to get it down fast. I believe these little notebooks will change me. I'm ready.

(And check out the excellent use of Futura Bold (thanks Heidi) on their hot site.)