Merry Christmas!!!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! I have finally posted a few of my holiday decorations from my holiday party. Please enjoy!

Holiday Invite

Finally the holiday season is here and it will be Christmas before we know it. I am in the process of putting the finishing touches on my holiday decorations. Stay tuned for more pictures from my apartment and holiday party.

Drink Fabulous!

The entertaining season has officially begun! I thought these pics were great inspiration for fabulous looking bar ideas.

Im planning on hosting a few dinner parties during the holidays and I am excited to set up my own stylish little bar. Sometimes to start my inspiration process I flip through my old domino magazines. Above I  found this great bar area, inspired by a holiday outfit. I love the dark artsy gothic edge to this one! 

 I also found some inspiring pics from this great blog called La Dolfina.

(I also want to use some of my retro cocktail drawings from the above pictures, on napkins or print them on little labels. Stay tuned for future pictures of how my bar comes out)!

The Fluffy Chef

I thought I would post a quick meal I made on Friday night, "Tomato&Arugula over Pasta". This is a quick and delicious recipe!

 Find this Fluffy Chef print on my etsy site.

Ingredients:  *1/2 pound of Angel Hair pasta *A pound of fresh tomatoes(plum and or cherry) * 1 Tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive oil * 4 gloves of chopped garlic * Fresh arugula(one package) *Sea salt(about a teaspoon) *Fresh Pepper(about 1/2 teaspoon) *1 tablespoon of Fresh Basil *Shaved pieces aged Parmesan or Asiago cheese.

Tales of a Pisces

I'm a Pisces, so by nature I love all things dealing with water. I have always been fascinated by all the blue and green hues of the ocean, they  make great color stories while decorating a room or creating artwork. On Sibella Courts site she has created beautiful color palettes for her paint line. I especially  love her one room entitled "Tales of a Sea Gypsy". The pictures and colors from this room have inspired me to create my own mood board, that I have titled "Tales of a Pisces". 

Above, I have included one of my Pisces prints that you can find at my Tomato9studios Etsy shop. In the below mood board check out these great screen printed ship tea towels from Oh Little Rabbit etsy shop. Make sure to also buy Sibella Courts book This is a great book for room and color inspiration.

I Heart VERA!!!!

Well I Heart VERA!!! Everyone who is close to me knows I have collected Vintage Vera Neumann stuff since high school! I love her scarfs, shirts, and houseware items!!! She was way ahead of her time and has always inspired my artwork!!

Her patterns are still popular today, you can still find reproductions at Anthropologie. I have included both my vintage finds and some reproductions. Hanging on my armoire are two of my most treasured vintage vera shirts.  I also really want this Vera book for Christmas........hint hint ;)

This is a picture of all the houseware items I own by Vera. I have included both vintage an reproductions. Can you guess which ones are really vintage?? The small swatches are rugs I would love to have! How great are these prints!!!

Van Gogh Sketchbook

During my live drawing class last thursday the instructor showed us this wonderful Van Gogh drawing book The marks create such great textures and each and every drawing breathes! I thought this would be a great starting off point to use for my fall inspiration while decorating my apartment. I have included items I would love to have and also pictures of my decorating in progress.

Anthropologie is one of my favorite sources for inspiration. I would love to re-upholster some of my old chairs with these fun bold sketchy prints! I also bought these great Vera mugs from Anthropologie and I love staring at them every time I drink my coffee! These books are actually boxes and are great for small storage! ( Magnets/ pillow)

Find the print above at my Tomato9studios etsy shop. 

Here are a few pictures from my apartment.

Inspire Me!

Welcome to my new blog!! Im so excited to share all the things that inspire my life and my artwork. I want this blog to catalogue everything that I find throughout life that moves me. I am inspired by art, culture, interiors, fashion, food and travel! As an illustrator and textile artist I love to sketch  and I thought it would be a great idea to include some of my illustrations to go with each post! This will let me have fun with creating and designing small illustrations that coincide with what is directly inspiring me! I thought I would start my opening post showing you my inspiration board from my studio and a few of my illustrations that you can find on etsy at Tomato9studios

Please enjoy my findings and I hope they inspire you as much as they inspire me!!

I'm Falling for you.

To start off my first post I was trying to come up with this great inspirational page for fall. Something that had color and images that would just blow your mind away but as I was searching I decided to let the posts over time speak for themselves. I took the pressure off trying to create the most perfect post and decided to just have fun.  After coming across this great online magazine called Cellardoormaqazine I decided to sketch some fun whimsical fall leaves and play with the layout for the first post. The picture below is from this very cool wallpaper studio ClaireColedesigns. I created a border out of my drawn fall leaves to show how the wallpaper inspired me.

Here I also pulled some more photos and inspiration from the e magazine and designed my own inspiration page. I added more of my drawn leaves and a quick watercolor of eyes.  I love the color, design, photographs and the featured artists from this magazine.  They are all incredibly inspiring!! Cellardoor magazine was started in 2009 by UK based Jade Cooper-Collins and Amy Power. 

My favorite finds from this e magazine was both wall paper artist ClaireColedesigns and this great illustrator Emma Block. You should definitely check out their sites!!!

(Images: Cellardoor Magazine)