Another cold winter day, another floral pattern.

Oh, winter. You are the houseguest who stays too long, sits on the couch all day, and eats all the food. It does not bode well that I'm sick of this season already and it's only January. Nothin' coming around the corner but more of the same. My inbox and catalogs keep telling me to go ahead and buy some new pieces for my spring wardrobe, and I'm like "Wha-huh?" I've been wearing the same pair of skinny jeans for close to 3 months now because they're the only thing that fit under my big boots. Okay, shake it off, Katie! Shake it off. Moving along. 

I've been working on some floral patterns. While I don't consider myself a "flowery" kind of girl (lovely, but no thank you, Laura Ashley), I do really love flowers, and I even love floral patterns. Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner: beautiful! They make it look so easy! But I've got to say, florals are a challenge for me right now. I don't really have the hang of it yet, so I'm going to continue to work on building up my "floral skills." In the meantime, I've come up with these:

Both patterns will be available in my Spoonflower shop when I get around to ordering my samples. I also decided to try and work them into a tea towel layout (below). I don't know, I think I like them, for a first go and all that. Besides, it's nice to flood my brain with flowers this time of year.

November desktop wallpaper

We all need a little extra love in November . . . the month with a bad reputation for being dreary and cloudy. Apologies to people like my sister who will be celebrating a birthday this month. I don't mean to insult your month. And hey, there's always Thanksgiving to look forward to. Pie, turkey, and pie. Here's some love for your desktop too.

Download (2560x1440) here. 

Coming soon to Spoonflower

I'm sure most of you have heard of Spoonflower, the online design your own fabric (and more) place. I've been lurking there for a number of years, I've ordered fabric from other designers, and the whole time I've really been wanting to design something myself. I'm finally getting there, thanks to a Skillshare class done in collaboration with Spoonflower. I actually worked on a different fabric design but decided it wasn't something I actually wanted to print. So I came up with the design below for my trial run. It might look totally hideous, it might not work, the colors might be wonky, or the blips in my design will be totally obvious, but whatever (!) the test swatch is on its way to my house. I can't wait to see it. Once I do I might put it out there for other people to purchase if they so desire. Then I hope to make myself some kitchen towels out of this stuff. 

Have you ever really needed to just get something done? That's how I felt about this. Waiting, waiting, maybe someday, once I know more, once I have the right tools, the right skills, etc. Sometimes I need to get past the second-guessing myself stage & just complete something to feel free to move forward, make some mistakes, and hopefully get better. I hope to see some more stuff like this around here in the future!

Find my fabric on Spoonflower here.

September desktop wallpaper

I honestly don't think it's almost September. Can't possibly be since we've been marinating in humidity and baking in the hot sun for over a week. But someone told me it's Labor Day weekend, so whatever, I guess it's true. 

I'm working on creating more patterns around here because it's something I'd really like to get better at. A good friend gave me a Spoonflower gift certificate and I can't WAIT to try making my own fabric. Ooh-la-la! So this month's desktop wallpaper/calendar utilizes a pattern I was fiddling with. I used the glasses from my back to school illustrations and added some apples. It might be a tad busy for a monitor but I still like it, so feel free to use it yourself if you like things a tad busy.

Download the original size image (2560x1440) here

New spring patterns

It's wishful thinking time around here. Where we pretend that spring is right around the corner and not, in actuality, more like 2 months away. So I have spring on the brain and doodled out some patterns with rain boots and tulips. I'm going to try to mess around with them some more and combine them into one pattern. We'll see how that goes.

Valentine's Day pattern

A simple valentine stamp pattern I've been working on. I'm trying to figure out this whole pattern making thing in Photoshop. I got the book below for Christmas and can't wait to dive into it a little more. These are the kind of geeky things I get myself into.