Whew!  Sorry if you’ve been noticing a bit of madness on my blog today.  I decided to do some blog maintenance, which is a good idea for any blogger from time to time.  Make those little changes you’ve been noting mentally and take the time to really evaluate the various parts from design all the way to layout and technical elements.

First, I decided to update the design by adding the leafy background pattern.  It’s actually the first repeating tile background I’ve made in Illustrator!  I really wanted to add more of the yellow color to my design and shout out happiness!  Bright enough for you?  Also, just in time for Autumn with the leafy design.  I’m hoping to experiment more with tiling backgrounds as well, as soon as I get the hang of it.

Second, I added a Flickr badge to the right column to share my Flickr photos as well as tweets!

Third, I moved the introductory column to the right side of my blog, along with all the subsidiary links.  The reason for this change was primarily because of Google search.  I realized that the little description that Google picks up for your various posts seems to be the first paragraph of the page.  All my pages were showing up with the same intro blurb, so I decided to make the change and see if it would take effect.  That way the description text would match the post and actually be useful.

Finally, I also moved the RSS subscribe and newsletter sign-up to the upper right corner. I’m not so happy with the way it looks, so I will try to come up with something for my next blog maintenance.  I’m also hoping to add graphical links to the bottom footer of the site as well, to link to all my other websites.  I think it might look like ads, but I like banners as opposed to textual links…we’ll see. Here’s a before and after…

Happy Monday and see if there’s something you can improve on your blog as well!

Posted on August 31, 2009 at 7:51 pm | blogging | No comments

It is funny how sometimes the universe manages to allow convergences of similar things.  Sometimes I wonder if I try to be more observant, perhaps I would notice how everything really does fit together ALL the time.  Perhaps coincidences are more common than we realize?  I just bought a new mug with a cool pear design on it, totally by chance.  Most of the glasses in our house are glass or delicate fancy tea cups, so this mug was just the right addition to accommodate my morning tea or coffee time.  Less chance of breakage by clumsy me and it was the last one on the shelf at the store, so I had to take it.  Cute, eh?

It turns out that the inspiration this week on the Inspire Me Thursday website happens to be the word pear!  Not to mention our family has been munching away on a basket of tiny pears – even our turtles ate some of them.  Then I was browsing on iTunes and instead of reading “Pearl Jam” I only saw the word pear and stopped.  So I guess this Thursday is a celebration for all the pear coincidences and appearances around me lately.  I decided to create a little kawaii pear design pattern.  I actually created this yesterday (Thursday, Italian time) but had to wait until the next morning when I could get a picture of my mug in use above!

I love adding faces on things at the moment.  Just adding that bit of emotion and expression makes me happy to see the pattern.  I like how cute and ready to eat they turned out, maybe I should add some horror-filled faces!  I’m thinking of doing more with this pattern and creating some paper goods as well…any ideas or requests?  BTW, have a fabulous Friday and lovely weekend!  Woohoo!

Posted on August 28, 2009 at 12:55 pm | inspiration, patterns | 9 comments

I previously posted my work in progress for the Dr. Seuss themed show at Monkeyhouse Toys…and now it’s nearly opening night!  Please stop by and check out all the great art.  Info and flyer below – click to enlarge the flyer.

August 29 – September 13, 2009
Opening reception on Saturday, August 29, from 4pm-8pm
Monkeyhouse Toys & Art Gallery
1618 1/2 Silver Lake Bl. – Los Angeles – CA -90026 – USA

If you saw my work in progress, you’ll realize at the show that my piece totally changed.  I had a bit of mishap and had to paint over with a different composition!  Here’s a shot of how it turned out in the end…very thick and texture-y.

Posted on August 28, 2009 at 12:21 am | acrylic painting, events | No comments

Living in Italy means  authentic and delicious Italian cuisine.  However, it can be difficult to find variety when living in a small town.  I was so used to being able to find any type of cuisine at a moment’s notice in Los Angeles.  Where we live now it’s like the search for the holy grail if you want something different.  There are places, but not all are authentic or quality.

Thankfully, my husband is very eager to hunt around and try out ethnic food restaurants with me.  During our August vacation, we visited an hour or two North of our region and found a wonderful Indian restaurant in Carrara.  It was heaven…real Indian cuisine!  I realized how much I missed rice in general.  Thoughts of Japanese rice balls wrapped with seaweed or stuffed in tofu pockets came to mind.  I started to imagine giant pots of Indian or Thai curry mixed with beautiful white rice.  Yum*drool* oh, I miss you rice!

These thoughts inspired me to make a new desktop wallpaper to express my love for rice balls.  I went kawaii style after reading the first issue of Parasol Craft who mentioned that kawaii (cute in Japanese) would be the theme of the next issue.  What can be better than rice love?  Now I can drool about it every time I look at my desktop!

Posted on August 25, 2009 at 5:05 pm | designs, free goodies | No comments

With all the Italian vacation time in August, I haven’t been very productive lately…not to mention it is madly hot and humid here.  These times require you to stay as still as possible in attempts to keep cool.  You also end up taking multiple showers a day and pretty much lazying about aimlessly.  My husband and I went on little trips to various regions of Italy, but the heat pretty much made us homesick!  Here are some photos to share of our various adventures.

Of course, vacation time will soon be over and Autumn is just around the corner.  I’m totally looking forward to cooler weather and the changing season.  Then comes the frenzy of the holidays!  Whoa…I really need to seize the day and get to work!

I think it has helped mentally and emotionally to unwind and relax, but I’ve also felt a bit of anxiety.  I have so many ideas in mind, I feel like I need to go execute them rather than taking vacation.  After all, you have to take advantage of when inspiration hits!  I’ve always had this constant battle of finding balance and trying to not get overexcited to the point where I suddenly lose focus of the original goal.  Sometimes I wish it was as easy to reset life, as it is in video games.  Not that I want to reset everything, but the clean slate feeling is something to envy at times.

Well, I suppose every day is a new start…so here I go…

Posted on August 21, 2009 at 11:50 pm | thoughts + discussion | No comments