2014 Tea Towel Calendar

I've always loved those vintage tea towel calendars. I generally love kitchen towels, which is probably an odd thing to love, and I've been wanting to design my own calendar tea towel. Then I found out Spoonflower has an annual tea towel design contest so that gave me the motivation I needed to finish one before 2014 is actually here. I wish I'd had a little bit more time to work on it (speaking of procrastination) because Halloween and costume making got in the way of this project. In the end I'm still happy with how it turned out. I've entered it in Spoonflower's contest and you'll be able to vote starting on Thursday I think. There are some really beautiful designs out there. I'll also be ordering a sample swatch and then putting it in my Spoonflower shop so you can purchase your own. It's designed to print on a fat-quarter (18x27 inches) of their linen-cotton canvas fabric and you can view it here! I'm in the process of trying to get my act together to open an etsy shop as well and when that happens (fingers crossed) you'll be able to purchase a towel there as well. I just have to get through Halloween first . . . 

Another slice of fabric design

You remember how I designed my first fabric through Spoonflower and had it test printed? Well, Spoonflower has weekly contests based around different themes and I decided to take my new fabric designing "skills" (I don't think we can call them that yet, but for the purpose of this sentence just go with it) to enter a design in an upcoming contest called: Pies. Because really, pie? Pie and I go way back. We have a close and personal relationship that always ends with me practically licking the crumbs out of the pie plate. For my birthday, forget cake, bring me a pie and I'll be yours forever. Needless to say, it was a fun theme for me. But still a challenge. It was hard to not get too "all-American, red, white, and blue up in there. The pattern I came up with is below and you can find it on Spoonflower here. I think you can even vote for it next week if you have a Spoonflower account (I think you need one of those), and that way maybe more than just me and my mom will vote for it. That would make me feel all warm as an apple pie inside.

On a side note, the previous pattern I designed is available for purchase here if you feel so inclined. 

October desktop wallpaper

Holy cow, it's October. Time's a flyin'. October means Halloween is coming up and around here we're in our first round of costume proposals. This is when Ben, the four-year-old, says he wants to be a gila monster (a kind of lizard if you don't watch Wild Kratts religiously like Ben does) and I say no. I like Halloween, I like it better now that I have kids. We even have a big Halloween open house/party for trick-or-treaters, friends, and family. But I don't want my house to look like a Halloween party for 30 more days than it has to. By extension, this wallpaper is for the more fall focused desktop because what I love, is fall. Fall weather, fall colors, it's my favorite season, and October is the best fall has to offer. I hope you enjoy this view almost as much as you enjoy the view out your window.

You can download the full size (2560x1440px) here