Christmas Wishlist

My husband and I don't really get each other gifts besides the occasional record + Lush bath bomb, but I still like the make a Christmas/Birthday Wishlist. This year my wishlist is full of things I would love to have, but for some reason are super pricey...

1. Apple Watch. I currently have a Fitbit, but I feel like I would like all the features of an Apple Watch...plus they're shiny.

2. iPad Pro + Pencil. I want to start learning how to do more digital art. All of the illustrations I've seen with people using the Ipad have been amazing!

3. Chanel No 5 L'eau Perfume. I am a perfume snob. Buying expensive perfume used to be my go to retail therapy, but since having a kid I haven't bought any. I'm also out of perfume and this one smells so good!

4. Classic Toms in black. My feet really like being comfy + cozy. Currently I can't wear more than some Toms or Minnetonka moccasins because I have a pesky broken toe problem. Black is my new go to color for everything.

5. Bee & The Fox Sweatshirt. I've had this Mama Bird sweatshirt on my list for a while...it's now a tank top too.

6. Kanken Backpack in pink. I've seen these all over Instagram and they seem pretty handy. With a kid carrying a backpack makes life a little easier.

Of course I have a mile long list of books on my Amazon wishlist....

What's on your Christmas wishlist? Do you have a holiday birthday? Mine is December 31st...

Happy Thanksgiving + Shipping Update

Thank you to everyone who helped my celebrate 4 years! I know my shop is almost sold out, but there are a few cute goodies left. I just wanted to give you lovelies a heads up that I will be out of town with limited cell phone service/internet November 21-27. Any orders placed during this time will be processed when I get home and shipped out on Tuesday, November 29th!

Thank you all for your patience + I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! xo

4 Years + a Flash Sale

I got a reminder from Timehop that today was my 4th year as a small business owner! I can't believe it's been that long! I know this year I haven't done as much with my shop, but I have plans to change that coming into the new year.

I just want to thank everyone for your support over the years, it means a lot to me! All the emails + comments I get from you guys keeps me going. xo

As a thank you, I am having a one day flash sale! Now through Thursday, November 17th, you can save 40% with the code 4YEARS.

I know my shop isn't super stocked, but if there is anything you want to get of my past collections, now is the time. This current collection won't be back after they're sold. I am currently working on new products for 2017.

Again, thank you so much for liking my art and following along with me! xo

PS Make sure to sign up for my newsletter to know about any future sales! xo

New Sketchbook + the Dreaded First Page

I'm always on the hunt for the perfect sketchbook. I have a bad habit of ripping out the pages, mostly because I'm left handed and it's just easier to draw without the bind getting in the way. Although I guess I could draw in the book backwards, kinda like you read manga...

I've used many different brands + types of paper, but I always seem to come back to Moleskine. Recently I thought I needed a big ass sketchbook, but turned out it just wasn't working for me and was a bit overwhelming. I had a Ladies Sketch Club meeting on Friday and hoped the Moleskine I ordered on Amazon would be here in time, but it wasn't. I had a few pages in an old square Moleskine that I was able to use.

I love to put stickers on my sketchbooks. I also love supporting other artists. This sticker is from @beebooties on IG or here's her Etsy shop. I love Eleven from Stranger Things, and out of all the fanart I saw this was my favorite.

The Moleskine has a cover page which has a little section to put your name and offer a reward if your sketchbook is lost and found. My reward for anyone who finds mine is a cup of coffee... I put this post-it doodle on that page in case the good Samaritan needed a visual of what I looked like. >_<

Normally, I skip this first page of every sketchbook. If I do talk myself into drawing on it, I usually end up ripping it out. That's just how it works for me. I think with the cover page, it made it seem less scary and I drew on the first page!

It was just some cute doodles of things I like to think of as my cozy kit. I don't love it, but I don't hate it and I'm trying to make an effort not to rip out pages (even for drawing purposes). The ink pen I'm using (Paper Mate Flair M) doesn't bleed through, but I don't like drawing on the back side unless I have to. I had an idea to make little post-it note drawings to stick on the back sides of the pages I draw on.

Here is today's...I decided to cut my own bangs and well it was a disaster as predicted by anyone who knows me. I was going for kinda short betty bangs and ended up with crazy short wonky baby bangs...good thing I wear a lot of hats.

I am planning to use this sketchbook as sort of a visual diary. I love seeing inside other people's sketchbooks/visual diaries/travel journals and thought it would be fun to do my own! Another reason NOT to tear out my pages.

Am I the only one smelling + touching all the paper when trying to pick out a sketchbook?  Let me know what your favorite sketchbook is! Do you draw on the first page or skip it?

Geeky Ornaments

Am I the only one already watching Hallmark Christmas movies and buying all the holiday stuff from Bath & Body Works? A couple years ago I painted up some Harry Potter ornaments on some wood slices and they were a huge hit with you cuties. This year while spring cleaning I found some small wooden hearts and thought they would make cute geeky ornaments.

The first round included a kawaii Harry Potter, the 10th + 11th Doctors from Doctor Who. Thank you to everyone who bought one of these cuties to make their holidays geekier. Right now I'm working on another set that will be listed today with one of my favorite HP characters, Luna Lovegood!

Thank you to the cuties who suggested Luna! I love finding other people who love her as much as I do. I'm not sure if I'll try and order more hearts and make more ornaments, but thank you to everyone for the positive feedback!

I can't wait to share with you all the new ideas I'm working on for next year!

What character would you love to see on an ornament?

November Goals

Today it finally feels a bit like fall! It's kinda rainy and not 80! I love fall weather, but it's still felt like summer here in Texas.

A few of the goals that I made for myself this month, I've already accomplished. Like re-opening my Etsy shop and sending out a newsletter.

More November Goals include:

1. Portrait Practice. This is something always on my list. I get asked to do portraits a lot, but I'm terrified I'll be awful at it. Hopefully practicing on friends + family first will help boost my confidence a bit.

2. New fabric design. I haven't worked on a new fabric design in months. I have plans to make a kawaii chibi Supernatural pattern to go with my other fandom designs.

3. Make a pie. I've never made a pie, and this year I wanted to make a pumpkin pie. I found a simple recipe that requires no baking today. Hoping to test it out soon!

What are your goals for November? Even though my shop is open right now, I plan to enjoy this season. I love watching the Thanksgiving Day parade and decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.

Studio Clean Out, Bundle Deals + the Future

I've been cleaning my "studio", which is really an extra bedroom in my house, because we've been painting the walls. I found a stash of cards + fabric and decided to do some bundle deals instead of just hoarding all this cute stuff. Next thing I know, I'm updating and motivated to work on new things.

If you are subscribed to my newsletter, you'll know I opened my shop yesterday. I sold out of my card bundle deals in a few hours! I was blown away by the response to reopening the shop, and it gave me all the feels.

I don't have  many products available right now, but you can find a few of my older favorite prints in the shop, a set of holiday postcards, a few single cards + fabric bundles.

Let's talk about fabric bundles! You may be wondering why? When I design fabric for Spoonflower, in order to make a pattern available for purchase I have to buy a sample. I prefer to buy a fat quarter to make sure the repeat pattern doesn't have any mistakes. But after that, they sit in my supply closet which seems like a waste. I've bundled them at a discount, because we all know how expensive fabric can be!

You may be wondering what's next for Hello Quirky? Truthfully, I'm still wondering that myself. I don't tend to keep my shop open long after Thanksgiving with the craziness of the holidays. I'm hoping to have some new stuff in the new year, but I will try to communicate all the fun things as they happen.

I'm currently working on a few paintings and our family Christmas card, which if I like it and can figure out the logistics of it, would like to do simple custom portraits in my style. It is one of the most requested things from you guys.

For the most part, I'm just trying to enjoy making art and doing it on my own terms. I read this great article on the Sticker Mule blog with Jeff from Ugmonk about running business/making art on his on terms and progressing slowly. His method and ideals really resonated with me. I am hoping that by ignoring all the "advice" out there, I will stop getting so burnt out.

What helps you avoid burn out? What products would you like to see in the future from Hello Quirky?

Ladies Sketch Club + Inktober

Happy Halloween! The day my kiddo has been waiting for has finally arrived! I couldn't sleep because I have "This is Halloween" from the Nightmare Before Christmas stuck in my head. We've watched it about 5 times a day this month.

One of my goals for October was to go to more social events (that are for me, not the kiddo). I finally worked up the courage and squeaked in a couple this past weekend. I went to the first meeting of the Lubbock Ladies Sketch Club. I was really nervous, but everyone was super nice.

The group plans to meet twice a month, and I can't wait for the next meeting. It was nice to meet other arty ladies and have some time to try and get caught up on Inktober.

Speaking of Inktober, I managed to get 17 out of 31 days done. I think that's the most I've ever completed of a drawing challenge, so I'm pretty proud of myself. So next year I'm confident I'll be able to complete the challenge.

Wednesday Addams

Jack O'Lantern

Scarecrow

Masked

Franskenstein

Bat

Ghost

Alien

Witch

I had fun working with colored pencils and have plans to paint a few of them for future prints. You can see the first half of my sketches here.

Did you participate in Inktober? What was your favorite prompt?

Inktober

Since I've closed my shop + dialed back the social media, life has been great. I definitely feel like I get so much more accomplished in a day...seriously my house has never been cleaner. Participating in Inktober has been fun. I haven't been as consistent as I would like, and hopefully I can get caught up on the days I've missed. Here is what I've done so far:

Witchsona

Costume

Sadness

Wolf

Haunted

Mummy

Devil

I've only been using pink copics + black markers, but this week I'm branching out into colored pencils (borrowing my daughters >_<). I'm a tad behind this week, but I'm working on getting caught up.

I might work on turning some of these sketches into watercolor paintings in the future and put them on Society6. xo

October Goals

October is one of my favorite months! The weather gets to that perfect temperature (cardigan weather), there are pumpkins everywhere, and of course Halloween!

My goals for this month are:

1. Get out of the house/go to social events. I was so stoked when fun geeky things started happening in my town.....but I always talk myself out of going. Since I became a stay at home mom, I'm super duper awkward around people. It's like I forgot how to interact with someone who isn't a toddler, and all I know how to talk about it my kid. 

There are so many fun things going on this month and I am going to talk myself into going! I already talked myself out of going to the Ladies Night at my local comic book store, but there are still plenty of events to hit up this month. Who knows, maybe I'll have fun and make some local arty friends.

2. Participate in Inktober. I've already started and I've been sharing my drawings on my Facebook + Instagram pages. I'll do a round up here once a week. I'm not following a particular prompt list, but later today or tomorrow I'll post this different lists I'm using for inspiration. 

3. Participate in the Bernat Mystery Stitch Along.  My yarn will be here tomorrow, but the 1st clue + videos are up today! I can't wait to crochet up an afghan not made of granny squares. I'll be posting more about this later too. 

This month for me is all about participating! I think being stuck at home (working on getting my car fixed soon!) has gotten me kinda of depressed and very anxious about actually leaving the house. So this is me kicking myself in the ass to get out and do the things I want to do. 

What are your goals for October? Are you participating in Inktober? 

Why Is Your Shop Closed?!

Some of you may have noticed that my online shop is closed. Ever since last Christmas, I haven't been feeling the online retail life, especially coming from working too many grueling years in retail. I love making things, but hate the whole business side and the having to try and sell myself that comes along with it these days.

I keep trying because I want to feel like I'm contributing to our household bills. In reality, running a handmade business costs a lot of money, and it seems the costs keep going up. From platform fees to postage, on top of supplies and marketing it's a nightmare. Truthfully I don't want to charge anyone an arm and a leg for cards + stickers just to come out even.

This year it doesn't seem like I've produced a lot, but I'm always sketching and painting. My passion seems to have shifted from making things to making art. I figured out how to make a repeating pattern and found I make more money with a lot less time commitment using Spoonflower + Society6.

Spoonflower lets other makers use my designs to produce amazing things and it makes me happy to see everyone's creations. Society 6 lets people buy my designs on fun things like mugs + phone cases (which are requested the most) without me having to figure out the logistics of it all, which means less stress + more creating.

Without the pressure of having to constantly be putting new stuff out, be trendy, or jump on the enamel pin bandwagon, I'm finding my quality of life has drastically improved. The time I would use to market, make, package, and all that jazz is now spent on more self love. This month, I've started working out (yay endorphins), taught myself to crochet, been able to start all those home improvement projects, and of course spend even more time with my daughter without worrying about customer messages, marketing + filling orders. My phone not constantly going off has been heavenly.

I know some people thrive on this handmade/entrepreneur life, but it's just not for me. I'll still be creating, but on my own terms. That doesn't mean I won't re-open my online shop at a later date, but for right now I'm happy creating fabric designs.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years! It means a lot to me and thank you to everyone who continues to support my art through purchasing through Spoonflower + Society 6. xo

PS I'll be updating my Society 6 soon + I'm working on a new geeky fabric pattern. Can you guess which fandom I'm diving into?

Puff Stitch Slouchy Beanie

Lately, I've been super into crocheting. I started my first project at the end of June that turned into an awesome Twilight Sparkle themed afghan at the request of my three year old daughter.

For my next project I wanted to tackle hats. I made a simple hat for my husband out of some yarn I've been hoarding from Fancy Tiger in Boulder, CO. He liked it, but I wanted something more slouchy for myself + to give to my friends this Christmas. I found this pattern from The Hook Nook through Ravelry.

Jessica from The Hook Nook had a simple YouTube video on how to do the puff stitch, and making the band was similar to the hat I had made using this pattern. I only had to restart once, because I made my band too big. Sadly, I ran out of the yarn I was using and it wasn't as slouchy as I would've liked it to be. It's still super cute and I'm excited to make more and tweak the pattern a bit. This was my first time attempting to read a pattern, but being able to get on YouTube and get a visual of the elements of the hat helped a ton!

 

You can find all the information on the yarn + hook size I used on my Ravelry. The color of this yarn is  Painted Canyon. I couldn't find it through the Hobby Lobby website to input into my project on Ravelry, but it's beautiful. My only regret is not buying more.

You can find this pattern in the Hook Nook's shop or if you're not into crocheting buy one pre-made from Jessica.

Are you on Ravelry? If so, let's be friends!

Fall Fabric

This weekend I had my first pumpkin spice latte of the season, and then went to Target to stock up on other pumpkin-y goodies. Fall is my favorite season! This Fall Festival fabric is one of my favorites! Full of pumpkins, apples, and acorns...not to mention a very Fall-y color scheme! You can purchase it here!

Please share your projects using #HelloQuirkyFabric so I can ohhh and ahhh over them. I'd also like to share them across my social media too! xo

PS I also have a very kawaii Halloween fabric available!

September Goals

I am so excited that it's September! I love fall and my daughter is really getting into it too. I made some goals for August and I didn't complete all of them, but I did pretty good overall.

Here are my goals for September:

1. 1-2 new fabric designs up in my Spoonflower shop. I exceeded my own expectations last month with fabric designs (mostly holiday), and this month I'm hoping to keep up the momentum. Designing fabric has become my main gig these days, and I'm really enjoying it.

2. Morning Routine. I am not a morning person, but my kiddo has a very consistent internal alarm clock (up at 8am on the dot). I want to make use of being up so early and get things done (like exercising <started BBG today>, morning pages, etc.). I've been looking on Pinterest for some ideas to get my morning party started.

3. Blogging! Still struggling with this one + always loosing momentum. Here's to not giving up!

4. Children's Book. I've got ideas that I need to flesh out and lots of sketching to do. I also need to learn how to actually go about writing + illustrating books. I bought a few books to help me. Fingers crossed I make time to work on it this month.

What are your goals for the month?

Halloween Fabric

I've been working on holiday fabric for the past couple weeks. I just got my sample in of the Halloween fabric and I'm in love! I have already made several fall + Christmas designs that will be available for purchase as soon as I get my samples in.

You can purchase the Halloween fabric here!

Shop Re-opening

I'm excited to announce that the shop will be re-opening this Friday, August 12th!  Thank you to everyone for being patient while I've taken a break + revamped the shop. 

I've made some changes to shipping + wrote up a blog post about it here.

I've revamped some of my old products + I'm currently working on new products. I am not currently selling sticker packs, but you can find individual vinyl stickers. Let me know if there are any past designs that you would like to see in this bigger size.

You can also find my fabric fat quarter samples. All of the fabric is 100% cotton and printed through Spoonflower. In order to be able to sell a design on Spoonflower, you have to order a sample, so I don't have more than a fat quarter on hand. Instead of just letting the fabric sit around my studio, I'm putting it up for sale at the price I paid for it as a designer.

This Friday, Saturday + Sunday only, save 25% with the coupon code "OPEN".

 I also have a special on cards, for a limited time only:

Thank you again for your support over the years! xoxoxo

Shipping Changes

With my shop re-opening soon (I'm shooting for Friday, August 12th), I've been in the process of re-thinking everything. One thing that always seems to shoot me in the foot is shipping costs. With the price of shipping continuing to rise, it seems crazy to continue only offering USPS First Class with tracking on most of my items.

I decided to test out sending stickers + cards USPS Standard. This means I put a cute stamp on your envelope and you don't get a tracking number. I have used this method in the past for my Sticker of the Month Club, and never had any issues. This is cheaper for me and for you, since the items I sell don't weight much.

This is great news for international customers, because I can use a global stamp. A global stamp cuts the cost from an average $6+USD to $1.10 (or a couple dollars depending on the weight).

I know some people need to have a tracking number for their own piece of mind. I am making the option available with an add on listing or in special cases a custom listing.  I will be using tracking on prints + fabric sales, since I can not easily replace those items.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns with these changes. And as always everything will be packaged with care + love! xo

PS Make sure to sign up for my newsletter to receive a discount code to help me celebrate! http://eepurl.com/Lglmj

August Goals

 Seems like July flew by! August is here and I'm ready for fall! I decided to make a few business goals this month to help keep my focused + motivated:

1. Make preparations to re-open my shop. I don't think I will be opening this month, but I will be sending out a newsletter to announce the date. I'm already taking steps to get ready (like re-ordering business cards, and taking product photos.).
2. Blog. I am a super inconsistent blogger. It's not my main gig, and I would rather be making cute things....but I know blogging is an important part of running a small business. So if you have any post ideas you would like to see, let me know.
3. New Designs. I've been working on a portrait series, and even considering offering custom portraits (which is really scary). I'm working on the logistics + examples right now. I'm also working on more card designs. I haven't decided whether or not I will be carrying stickers, unless I outsource printing + cutting.
4. At least 2 new fabric designs for sale on Spoonflower. I've been focusing on making fabric designs using my old sticker designs. This takes time, from the pattern stage to buying a sample and making sure it's perfect. I've loved seeing all the things people make with my fabric!
5. Find a printer for prints. I've had a hard time finding a printer for prints. I use Moo for my greeting cards, but I can't seem to find a reasonable printing company for prints. Let me know if you know of a great company!

What are your goals for this month?

Book Club

Bookworm is one of my most popular prints. Turns out there are a lot of us bookworms out there! It's been a while since I've had any prints for sale, but I keep reworking this cutie. I thought it would be fun to show all 3 versions. I'm sure this won't be the last time I update her.

Version 1: This was offered as a brooch, sticker set + prints. This is the second series of paintings that I started selling when I first started out.

Version 2: This cutie is part of my Pastel Girl Gang series that was sold as cards and vinyl stickers. I'm kinda obsessed with pink hair and big glasses....

Version 3: I just re-painted her again yesterday. My style has been evolving as I've been trying to sketch daily (even if I don't share it + as my arthritis-y hands allow). I'm not sure if she is my favorite yet, but you can find her in my Society6 shop as a print.

Also in my Society6 shop, you can find the Book Club print on phone cases + mugs! I made this fun print for the Novel Tea Book Club in the form of stickers, but thought it was too cute not to turn into a pattern. Look for it on Spoonflower soon!