Sunday, November 15, 2015

Shop Talk

I recently opened a Redbubble shop and I am so glad that I did. 
The quality of the products is excellent and the merchandise arrives carefully packaged (and yet, not overly packaged) in a very timely fashion. 
Greeting cards, stickers, and a print from Joanna Hunt's shop 
arrived in perfect condition.
T-shirts and stickers from Andi Butler's Eleven Santas series. 
Aren't they funny!?!
This is the sweet tote bag I ordered from Gina Perry 
(adorable greeting cards not pictured).
My Mini White Stars mug pictured alongside 
Gina Perry's original Earth Fox painting 
(which is also available on products in her shop).

Be sure to check out these fantastic shops:










Friday, September 25, 2015

Squirrel Sketch

Working on something new for Halloween, this is a bit from the sketch I just started. I love the weirdness of how ideas happen and look forward to seeing how the final piece will turn out.
I also posted this sketch at The Sketchables today. Happy sketching!

Monday, September 14, 2015

Back-To-School

Hello! My kids have officialy been in school for 5 days now. I miss having them at home during the day, but they are enjoying school so far so that is pretty great. Ticking things off my to-do list is a good feeling: our new storm door has been installed and new window boxes are up (the house colors turned out great, btw!), the dogs have been to the vet, and I even scheduled a furnace tune-up. I have some book dummies out on submission right now so that is exciting, working on a new picture book manuscript that will eventually turn into a dummy, and revisiting a painting I started a while ago. Getting all of my duck, duck, gray ducks in a row is a very nice feeling.
p.s. I made my first meme this summer. It barely makes sense. Christopher Walken played The Continental on SNL. Knitting with the yarn in your left hand is the continental style, knitting with the yarn in your right hand is the english style. ha

Monday, July 13, 2015

Summertime

Hello! Haven't posted in a while, summer vacation is keeping us busy over here. We have picked out new colors to paint our house,
watched some monarch caterpillars turn into butterflies,
picked a lot of raspberries,
added a new pug to our fam (Gordy and Jilly),
drew on the driveway (thanks for the chalk, Shawn McCann!),
and have seen some pretty beautiful sunsets.
Hope that you are having a nice summer so far, too! xo


Sunday, May 31, 2015

Proof

I was thrilled to receive the proofs for Chicken Lily this week. It's going to be a real book! The official publication date is 29 March 2016. Absolutely thrilled with how it turned out, I can't wait for you to meet Lily and all of her pals! Here is the official cover:

Friday, March 13, 2015

The Sketchables

March 13th is Ear Muff Day and also my day to post over at The Sketchables! I have better at posting at the sketchables every other week than I have been posting at my own blog. I was testing out watercolors on this piece of scrap paper and decided it needed to have a flamingo on it. I used the close tool in photoshop to put some color up on the ear muff. Wow, that is pretty fancy for me! No chance I'll ever become a digital gal, but it is nice to have a trick or two up one's sleeve, no? Happy Friday, Friends! 

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Loch Ness Valentine Giveaway

Do you have a fondness for tartans and mysterious lake monsters? 
This is the Valentine for you!
Leave a comment here today (including your name & email address) before 7pm CST and you could win a pack of twenty-five Nessie Valentines! 3 winners will be randomly chosen! Your odds of winning are better than catching a glimpse of Bigfoot! Good Luck!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Nina Update

Hello! The past couple months have been a little busy.
I finished all of the interior art for Chicken Lily late November. I love how it turned out!

(this is Tad, one of Chicken Lily's classmates)

In December my family went on an amazing trip to Austria (my very first time leaving the country!).

(view of the Alps from our hotel window in Innsbruck)

We were invited to hear Helen Marlais and her husband Arthur Campbell perform at the Mozarthaus in Vienna. It was completely enchanting. Helen and Arthur performed a piece written by Timothy Brown, so that was an extra special treat. Helen and Tim are the composers of the piano music book series that I have been illustrating and are both delightful, amazing, talented artists whom I absolutely adore. It was so wonderful to finally meet them in person!

(Helen, Nina, Tim)

It has been a blur of Christmastime, winter break, and back to school ever since we returned home. I feel like I am finding my center again, which really feels great! I will hear back soonish on ideas for the Chicken Lily cover and am working on a little piece for Valentine's Day and a new book dummy idea in the meantime. My hope is to post here a little more regularly in this brand-new year. Here's wishing you all the best in 2015! xo Nina