How to use this Page

There is so much involved in designing.  One must be up on the trends for color and pattern and more. I always have my eyes open to finding things I love to look at!

Here are the Pantone color trends for 2013.

http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr.aspx?pg=21005&ca=4

I had to take a close look at them. . . some of them bore me unless they are paired with an “eye-catching” color.  Color is so amazing!  It can make your day!  It can bring a smile to your face, and warm your heart.  It can also bring you down. Why else do people get depressed when they experience too many gray rainy days?  All that because of color? Yes!  Think of the feeling you get when you take a walk and come upon a beautiful scene.  Do you ever “OOOOoooh and Aaaaaahhhh?”  Do colors grab you?

Colors can calm the soul.  One of my favorite movies is Miss Potter.  I like her spunk, I LOVE that she talks to her cartoons,  and I also love the scenes of her beautiful English countryside.  The colors speak peace and tranquility.

One might want calm and peaceful and serene colors for the baby nursery.  So why did I decorate my first child’s nursery in bright sunshine yellow with brown and Kelly Green accents?  ha!  Because I crave bold colors!  All I could think of was that my baby would wake up and want to be inspired by what she saw.  The room had to be warm and happy and that is was!!

As the room progressed to fit two more daughters into it, we moved to pinks and browns. I loved it, but the girls were not really drawn to it.  Interesting.  In my house, you will find that colors change often.  If I could, I would paint my house every year!  My husband jokes about our bathroom being smaller because of the many times I have painted it!  I am thinking of a new color as I type!!!  I am leaning towards a beautiful blue with just the right amount of purple in it!  Baby blue is okay, but I always want something with a little PUNCH in it! I like to walk into a room and hear my heart sing! La la!  Wall colors can be muted but if that is the case, in my house, the paintings must sing!  Oh how I love a noisy house filled with color.

So what am I to do?  Follow the trends?  Or start my own trends?  Am I brave?  These are the questions every designer must face.  I always lean towards being a renegade trend setter!  ha!

I love flowers!

The weather is teasing me!  A warm day, a nice breeze, flowers peeking from the cold wet ground, and then WHAM! A freak snow storm!  Such is life in Colorado.  Peepsqueak is not worried.  As you can see in this picture, he is thrilled to find the first Spring flower.

Do you have any flowers up yet?  We only have a few tulips and iris peeking out of the dirt. Flowers are still a few weeks away.  I am ready!

Come February, without fail, I  begin to feel the effects of Spring Fever. My tulips are peeking out, our trees are budding, and my heart begins pining away for warm weather.  THEN it SNOWS 8 inches! haha!

There is no complaining on my part.  Colorado needs the moisture!  Like Peepsqueak, (above) I put on my coat and scarf and set off in our winter wonderland.  Spring will arrive as it alway does, but there are sidewalks to shovel and a wood stove to load and lots of indoor activities to keep me busy until snow gives way to rain and flowers.

2 1/2 years ago I bought my trusty little Apple laptop. The other day I was working on it and up came a window telling me I had about 100 GB of information on it!  This memory includes programs that I run, but most of it is ART!!  Fabric design, product concepts, children’s books and more. Peepsqueak and his friends, Newton my lamb and his friends, a friendly new elephant and monkey, some babies, some clowns, Lae Dee Bugg, Snofolk, and more!  Always more.  What great fun it has been to look back at the last 2 1/2 years!  It has me wondering just how much art will fill this computer by the end of 2013!  I have some ideas right now!!!!

Polly is beautiful. Officially, She’s an Easter-egger chicken. Which means she’ll  lay green or green-blue eggs. But right now she mostly just eats, sleeps and occasionally tips over. She totally stole my heart.

Today a new Peepsqueak came in the mail.  I have to decide which one I like the best.  The one on the right is the new one. He is chubby and the pile is short.  The one on the left is more shaggy and his body is softer and squishy. Which one do YOU like best? Do you have any comments?

Just a few minutes ago my little dog Violet started barking!  I opened the front door and found a brown box. The return address? NY, NY!

“It’s Peepsqueak!” I yelled!

I pulled at the sticky packing tape and ripped open the box! Oh my goodness!  Peepsqueak was all packaged up with his own tag. Next I had to cut him out of a plastic bag!  I will have to talk to Beth at Harper Collins about giving him breathing holes next time. He was no worse for wear and now is sitting  comfortably on a chair in my family room.

Merry Makers is the toy company that made Peepsqueak They have made other fun characters like Olivia, Splat the Cat, Lama Lama, Junie B. Jones and more.  Peepsqueak has not stopped talking about them since he came.

Merry Makers has decided to license Peepsqueak for all the world to buy! How exciting!   Keep an eye out for him come late January.http://www.merrymakersinc.com/index.html