Gnome Friends

  
I've added some new gnome friends to my BlissForest shop for the holidays.

Kai, the ocean loving, dolphin friend, gnome. 

Astrid will bake your cookies and tell you all her best stories.

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We got the beet, and you can dance to the beet!

 A tribute to my little sister and OG Farmers Market folks everywhere.  My new garden series of wrist warmers!  I had a blast making these and have been wearing the practice set of Carrots around town.  They make me smile. All currently available in my AlyTheRed etsy shop.

 "Powered by Carrots"

 "You Make My Heart Beet"

The Mommy Book- the ultimate gift you'll want too

I'm making myself a present.  Yep, in the midst of holiday sales, lovely wholesale orders, shipping madness, I'm making myself an important gift. Some ideas just can't wait.

I think you can relate to this project. You, reading this, are likely to be a mom, or an artist/creative person, who has a collection of special cards from those you love.  In my case, it's a BIG stack of hand drawn cards from my two boys, and some favorite drawings I've finally peeled down from my walls in various rooms.  I wanted a special place to keep them together, and best of all be able to LOOK at them.  Why not put them in a book?

Find a nice hard cover drawing book with strong blank pages.  I've removed about every fourth or fifth page so when I tape new pages in, it won't get too huge.  Of course I've SAVED the sliced out paper for the kids to draw on.  :-) 

I've gotten all the special little drawings done just for me, and cards together, and taped them in with acid-free, double sided tape. 

Two pages of special stories the kids wrote and illustrated awhile back.

I don't have a view of it here, but some of the cards are taped in so they can be folded up and shut.  Some have the front removed and taped in next to the inside of the card so both are viewed at once.  Some drawings are trimmed or cut out.  Really old ones that have been on the wall for too long, were restored, so to speak, by color copying them.

For holidays, the kids tend to make new art for my display frames (my favorite gift), and when I take the old ones out, I can now add them to the book.  My hope is that sometimes, they will pick up my Mommy Book, and write me some notes and drawings right onto the new blank pages.  :-)

They saw me working on my book and took turns looking through it themselves, smiling and remembering.

If you don't have children, you can still make yourself a Dear One book, adding cards, letters, drawings from friends to you.  Then continue to add things you like:  your favorite poems, your own drawings, photos you love, letters of awesomeness to yourself, and all new cards you get. 

Gnomes

I spent a lovely Sunday, gallery hopping in Portland with family, made especially nice by an unexpectedly sunny day.  I found a wonderful Gnome themed shop on Alberta and picked up these new gnome friends.  Not only are they the cutest salt and pepper shakers, they also set the table for dinner!  Industrious little fellas.

Feeling Foxie?

I have a new batch of Foxgloves, this time on black.  I have also fine tuned my design.  I really wanted the cute little foxy fella to be bigger.  I'm pleased with the turn out.  Almost like wearing a puppet instead of a design.  Happy Autumn! 

Bad Gnome Busts Gift Guide

 HGTV's design star, the sweet, fun and very original Emily Henderson has added my Mr Bad Gnome mug to her favorite gifts for the holidays.  Emily's online gift catalogue guide went live this morning and let me tell you, it's simply gorgeous!  238 pages of beautiful decorating ideas, great guest blogger posts, DIY ornaments and gift tags, and of course her hand picked best gifts for the holidays. 

My hand drawn gnome mug is featured a few pages into"Emily's faves" portion of the e-mag, page 64.  I'm honored to be amongst several great etsy items and many big brand names in the guide.

These images are my original designs on an up-cycled mug.  For the catalog, I sourced a style of mug I liked so I could make a large set.  It's now on a matte, stone wear mug that looks like something you would find in a gnome's home.  :-)  When you click on the mug image in the catalogue, it takes you to my page with the NEW mug, beautifully photographed by Lee Rog.

This original green mug is still available in my Bliss Forest etsy shop.  After this one sells, I will be offering more of the new design in blue or black ink.  The perfect gift for the grumpy gnome in your life.