- Nov 3
Happy November, my Beautiful Butterflies!!
So good to be back in your inbox at the top of the month!
Last email, I mentioned that we just got back from an amazing trip! We went to Italy and Slovenia to celebrate our almost 10-year wedding anniversary AND to celebrate that Leonora is almost 2. Once she hits the 2-year mark, she requires her own seat on the plane...so we had to sneak in one more trip!! It's only been two weeks since we've been back, and I'm still mentally sipping on that beautiful post-trip soup! It's definitely been an adjustment being back to work! The very first morning back in Houston, Ricky, on a whim, ran out to a bakery to get us croissants so we could pretend just a little longer that we were still abroad! I promised last post that I would share pics from our trip, and to be honest, I want to relive it all once more, so this whole post is a stroll down memory lane!
We were so fortunate to be able to take this trip! Adventuring and travelling fill up my cup like you wouldn't believe! I get inspiration for new work (remember my Big Foot and Camping Collection inspired by our Sedona Adventure?!), I give my hands a needed break from painting and drawing, and now I get to see new experiences through Leonora's eyes!!
Let's dive in!
We started off the trip in ROME!! Our first time visiting this city, and she was a beauty for sure! We checked out the highlights, of course, but we spent a lot of time outside the tourist center, strolling through cute neighborhoods and checking out the cutest little playgrounds near our hotel.
After Rome, we headed to Florence for a few days. Florence is much smaller and filled with cute cobblestone alleyways. We used this city as a place to rest up, eat up, drink up, and shop up before heading to the Alps for hiking!
The remainder of the trip we spent in the Dolomites and Slovenia! We hiked to our little hearts' content, dined at the mountain huts sprinkled on the hiking trails, and watched Leonora light up at every playground we came across with amazing mountain views! We dined on bread dumplings, pasta, cheese, aperol spritzes, and pizza!
It even snowed one day! So magical!
After the Dolomites, we headed to Slovenia, where we stayed on a beautiful farm surrounded by mountains! Leonora squealed with excitement at all of the animals every morning! It was such a treat to see!!
We flew out of Venice Airport, and the last night of the trip, we were greeted with the largest rainbow I have ever seen. It was the perfect way to end our adventure!
I hope you enjoyed this post! And excited to be back in your inbox soon!
Happy November!
xoxo
Rachel
Happy October my Beautiful Butterflies!!!
I'm coming into your inbox a little late this month because Ricky, Leonora, and I have just returned from a magnificent and magical vacation in Italy and Slovenia (I'll share pics next month). I'm back to work, trying to catch my breath and floating in the post-trip high for as long as possible despite massive jet lag.
I popped into your inbox right before my trip to share my new Printable Halloween Collection, and now that I'm back, I wanted to showcase both the new and old pieces I made for Halloween a little more.
It's a truly basic sentiment, but I LOVE this time of year. Everything feels both whimsical and spooky. The weather starts to cool down (albeit slowly here in Houston), the humidity starts to drop, and all of the fun decorations, fall wardrobes, and fall flavors start to appear. This new season is perfectly described by an artist I follow, Nina Crosford
"For me, autumn feels like a fresher start than January in many ways. It may have something to do with the fact that I was born at this time of year so it naturally feels like the start of something. Also, new school terms, new stationery, new routines etc. There is a lot of newness around this time and rather than lament the end of summer, I try to really savour the excitement of seasonal shifts and new beginnings."
I was the odd kid who was excited for summer to end and school to begin. It meant so much new excitement, and it meant one step closer to crisp fall. So, on that note, let's dive into some new (and old) Halloween art! I decided to keep the post itself simple, with mostly pics and a tiny bit of reading. You can shop my Halloween art here
This Trick or Treat Print is an oldie but a goodie. I hand-painted the entire scene...a tedious labor of love but inspired by the excitement of trick or treating as a kid.
Okay, so this "Howl-o-Ween" print may be my fav of the new collection. I loved drawing all of these cute pups and thinking of all the different costumes they would wear. The puppy skeleton may or may not be inspired by my Frankie!
Below is the original sketch for my silly Halloween puppies!
Below is a compilation of a lovely little ghost series I painted a few years back. They legit make me feel so incredibly cozy!
Can't have Halloween without a cozy fall print in the mix. I made this a while back for Christmas, but repurposed the art and changed up the colors to introduce fall.
I love drawing costumes and outfits. When I was really young, I wanted to be a fashion designer, because I loved drawing clothes so much. What I didn't realize at the time was that the excitement was for the illustrations and story for character creation, not the clothes themselves (though I do love clothes :)
Below is the original sketch for this print!
This skeleton print makes me chuckle every time I see her. It also makes me think of a few friends of mine (I'm sure they'll text me when they read this :)
Rounding third and heading home with these last two prints. I thought the "tis the season" verbiage was such a fun twist, and the art was perfect to re-purpose for the "Graveyard Smash" print.
I hope you enjoyed trick-or-treating down Halloween lane with me for this simple post.
Feel free to check them out in my shop. Most of them are available to download and print at home, so perfect for last-minute decorations and Halloween cards!
See you in a few short weeks in November! Happy Halloween, my Lovelies!
xoxo
Rachel
Happy September my Sassy Sasquatches! (see what I did there?!?)
Last month I promised that I would share more about my completed Big Foot Collection!! To give a bit of back story in case you're new, I took a lovely vacay with my husband and daughter to Sedona, Arizona in the Spring. We spent a week hiking and basking in the beautiful scenery. While on a hike a man asked genuinely if we spotted Bigfoot, and alas the idea and push to create a Bigfoot Collection was born (see pic below from our trip).
It took a long time to pull together with other projects I was working on, but I officially completed the collection last month. I created several iterations of the line, trying to decide which fit best. I created them in a mix of watercolor and pencil drawings. While I normally love watercolor hands down, the pencil drawings felt better to me. I shared a behind-the-scenes post a few months back, but now that everything is done and ready for viewing, I wanted to share it with you for this month's post. Before we jump in let's take a look at the sketches that started it all.
I compiled everything into a lovely pattern mixing together all my Bigfoots and all of my little adventure hiking illustrations.
Then I went through and put together art prints using the elements I created. Some with just lettering and some with the nature pieces too. You can scroll below to check them out! You'll find a link to shop everything below or you can click the buttons here:
The last step to this collection was uploading the pattern to Spoonflower so you can purchase on fabric! The exciting bonus: I included all the different iterations I made on Spoonflower. So you can purchase in watercolor, line drawing, and pencil drawing. I included a snippet of those below.
I hope you love the collection as much as I do! I'd love to hear what your favorite one is!
I'm keeping my post short and sweet this month since we're coming off of Labor Day weekend and I know your inboxes are full enough!
You can shop my prints in my Etsy Shop here:
You can shop the fabric line here:
Hope you have a wonderful September!
xoxo
Rachel
