Hello friends, and Happy OMG October!!! The spookiness vibes are in full swing. I'm decorating for Halloween, and as I type this, the air and temperatures are crisp because holy moly, I live in Ohio now. While on a walk with Ricky the air had this beautiful smell that brought me back to a memory of sitting next to an open window while reading a book back in high school. It was such a nostalgic fall feeling, and I realized that I was smelling the same crisp air of fall poking her beautiful head around the corner. This is the season I've missed the most living in Texas. My new desk has a big window right next to it that I've been leaving open all day while I work. Hearing the sounds of the street, the trees, and the wind; It brings me such peace, and I can smell that cozy autumn air while I work.
On to the meat of the matter: UPDATES, my friends. This whole month is filled with work updates and what I've been filling my time with.
First off, I've been working on a 2027 Calendar y'all!!!!! I already shared that with you, but friends, she is almost done. I'm putting in the final tweaks so she can be ready for sale shortly. I decided not to film at all during the painting of each illustration. I wanted to be fully present in the making of it, and sometimes the mere presence of my phone camera takes me out of the creation.
Here is a sneak peek photo to get you excited!!!! She's cute and cozy and full of all the seasons!
I've also been working on wrapping up the book I wrote, which is named "Penelope's Probably Book"!!! I officially have an ISBN number for this sweet baby girl, and all of the illustrations and formatting are just about complete. I'm going to self-publish the book, so I'm currently getting all of the files ready for this step (it's a task, my friends!!!)
This book has been a long time in the making. I've realized I move slowly (and that's totes okay). Usually because I have a lot on my plate, but sometimes because I stall out of indecision and fear. This book has sat with me for 9 years, and after finishing the illustrations this year, I had to put it on the back burner (AGAIN!) because of, well, moving! Here's another sneak peek photo to wet your palette.
Client work: I shared these on social media, but I am soooo happy with how they turned out. I was asked to create custom illustrations for a client's clinic. I shared sketches a few months ago (pictured first), and below are the final paintings.
I swung by At Home with my mom to see if they had received some artwork they ordered and spotted 6 of my pieces all nestled together. It was such a fun surprise and such a fun moment with my mom.
It's Halloween Month, so naturally I've been doodling ghosts and skellies. I also made these little trick-or-treat numbers below. The latter of which is in my Etsy shop.
That about wraps up my September.
Cheers from October.
I hope she's spooky, cozy, and trick-or-treat-y for you!!!
xoxo
Rachel
Well friends, I skipped over my August newsletter because life got in the way.
Let's start with the big news. We moved back to Cincinnati, Ohio!! After the birth of our Leonora, we decided we wanted to raise her with family nearby. It took us 2.5 years to get here, but we have officially moved into a new home in a new city surrounded by old friends and family!
Leading up to the August Newsletter, I planned to share the impending move. I wrote down random thoughts and feelings I was having leading up to this massive move and massive life change. I was feeling incredibly introspective, remembering feelings I had when Ricky and I first moved to Houston 14 years ago, how much we grew into our own during our time there, and saying goodbye to a city and a community that we built over more than a decade. I drew cute little sketches to go with the post and then something unexpected happened; our sweet beautiful pup Frankie passed away. He was 10.5 years old, but he was a young whipper snapper at heart with a clean bill of health, so his rapid decline came as a shock to our hearts. After taking him to the vet for what we thought was a bacterial infection or stomach bug, we were rushing him to the vet hospital. 2 days later, his poor little heart gave out. While we still don't know for sure, the vets think he had lymphoma causing his liver to shut down at a speed I still can't comprehend.
We were crushed and heartbroken and confused to say the least. We were actively packing up our house to move, and suddenly one of the biggest parts of our family was not going to be joining us on this new chapter. Our packing and life came to a halt while we processed what just happened. After being on cloud nine, we were sitting in the gutter. But that's life. Nothing can be wrapped up in a neat bow. You can't have highs without lows. You can't feel love without pain. After talking and crying with friends and family, I think Frankie could tell a move was coming, and he knew his body couldn't handle it.
We carried on packing, and we brought his ashes with us on the drive to Cincinnati. I sat them in the backseat on his bed, exactly where he was supposed to be during the move.
Everything happened so quickly that I couldn't quite bring myself to revisit the newsletter and all of the random things I had written down, and the doodles and sketches I made of our little family of four. I decided to let the newsletter skip a month, but I also decided to leave everything as I had written it for you all to read. It's a little all over the place. I hadn't joined all of my random thoughts together yet, but as I have learned, life is also quite disjointed and confusing. I included more pics of sweet Frankie at the bottom of the post. I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts on our big move below.
Exciting news to share - Ricky and I are about to move back to Cincinnati, Ohio!!! I was going to wait until next month to share, but I fear writing this sentimentally will not come easy once we're living in boxes and unpacking our life in a new city and a new house. So, I decided to pivot and write about it now. My newsletters this year have definitely felt weird, because this has all been brewing behind the scenes since January, but we haven't been able to share until now. It honestly hasn't felt real until earlier this month, when we started saying it aloud to our loved ones, both here in Houston and back home in Cincinnati.
Ricky, Leonora, Frankie, and I are coming up on an exciting life change: a new chapter, a new book, a new season of life.
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall
All you have to do is call, and I'll be there!
Road Trip of Life - we came to Houston as two kids in love, fresh out of college. 14 years later, we're about to move back with a pup, a 2.5-year-old, and a truck full of memories and forever friends in tow. How do you summarize 14 years of life? You can't. In those 14 years alone, there were 10 chapters at a minimum, with 100's of footnotes to each page. The couple we were then is not the couple we are now. We had ups and downs, experienced loss, experienced immense joy, and each experienced so much growth as individuals. I always hope that my favorite time in life is exactly where I'm at. Some seasons that's happened and others not so much. But right now, it's on point! I'm so proud of who I grew into during my time here in Houston, and I'm so proud of how our relationship grew.
The Rachel fresh out of college is not the Rachel you see today. Some of her is still in there, but I've shed so many things that don't serve me anymore, and I've acquired so many things that fill up my cup. The friendships and community that we created over 14 years is WILD!!! It's something that I know will stick with me forever.
In talking about his own life, David Lynch said, “If you’re transcending every day, building up that happiness, it eventually comes to: it doesn’t matter what your work is. You just get happy in the work. You get happy in the little things and the big things. And if the result isn’t what you dreamed of, it doesn’t kill you, if you enjoyed the doing of it. It’s important that we enjoy the doing of our life.”
Looking back on the day we moved down to Houston and the week leading up to it (how I felt, things that happened, etc.), I remember crying with my mom on her back patio telling her I was scared. I remember she said that I can always move back if it doesn't work out. 14 years later, I called her to tell her the same thing. I was scared and overwhelmed moving back. It's a new season of life and a new chapter, and we built something in Houston that truly mattered, so it was hard to say goodbye. Even though we are returning home, it's still all new for me. I've never lived in Cincinnati on my own, always staying in my childhood bedroom every time I visit.
Wild story though, I wrote about this in my vows to Ricky. When we first moved to Houston, it was a stressful week to say the least. We had a heck of a time packing up our U-Haul; we left late because my step-dad had emergency surgery on his gallbladder, and a mere 45 minutes into our drive we got a flat tire. I recall crying for about 30 minutes straight as we pulled onto the highway after hugging our families goodbye in my step-dad's hospital room. After the flat tire, and waiting for a good hour or so for AAA to change the tire on the U-Haul, Ricky and I started to laugh at the upsurdity of it all. And it ultimately reminded us why we were making this big life change...to be together.
14 years later, returning home, the same upsurdity ensued. We lost our sweet Frankie, upending our packing schedule and some going-away party plans we had penciled in. We got a flat tire on our car the day before we left, and the tire shop didn't have the right tire in stock, so we left late the next day. And once again, I cried during the drive. After letting out a good cry, Ricky and I held hands and had the same feeling we had on the way to Houston....we were doing something big, but we had each other.
Well friends, that was as far as I got before everything happened with Frankie. I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts. Below are some pics of our sweet pup over the years.
I'll see you next month,
Happy September!
xoxo
Rachel
Happy July, my Beautiful Butterflies!!!
This year is half over!! Like what?!? How???
Anywho, you're catching me in this newsletter fresh off a trip to San Diego for a Bat Mitzvah, and just before a trip to Cincy for my brother-in-law's wedding! So, I'm keeping this post short because mama is busy!!
I've been very heads-down working on commissioned paintings, calendar artwork, and sketches for an exciting new project with Jessica Correnti of The ABCs of Grief series this past month. But I have also been getting so much love for my Book Nook art prints, pictured below, in my Etsy Shop!
I LOVE to read not only children's books, but also adult books. I may have to do a separate post about all of my favorite books so far in life. But anywho, I made these prints to foster that love of reading at an early age. We started reading to Leonora the moment she was born. I remember my sister laughing at me reading to a newborn, but for me, it was a way to talk to my little girl before she had words herself. To let her know I was there! And sneakily, I wanted to sit and enjoy all of the books that I had been gifted by my loved ones.
Leonora is 2.5 years old now, and we still read books before bed. She also has started to pretend "read" to us which is hilarious and adorable! I recently found myself going back to these illustrations with all of the love they've been getting on Etsy, and I watched the time-lapse of the art coming together. After watching it, I knew I had to share it with all of you this month. I posted all three videos below. They are super short (like 15-30 seconds a piece). SO I hope you enjoy these super short super quick videos so you too can get back to your summer!!
I'd love to hear what your favorite books are right now, for both littles and yourself?
Until next time,
Rachel
