paper & planes

Kristiana Pärn has the sweetest illustrations! I’ve been enjoying her etsy site and all her prints – many centered around cute little bunnies, foxes, and polar bears. Wouldn’t these be perfect in a little boy or girl’s room!

Kristiana was born in Estonia and launched her art career there at the early age of seventeen. After graduation and studies with Estonian painter Marje Berlokko, she moved to New York City to study illustration at the School of Visual Arts and now she resides in Brooklyn.

To see more visit www.kristianaparn.com or her etsy site for her lovely prints.

Here is fabulous Portland artist, Elizabeth Soule,  and her lovely photograph vignettes of  little plastic animals. I adore her Zoo Series – to see more visit her website or her etsy shop. I’ve seen her work in a couple of the places that I show in Portland – visit Tilde, Noun, or Presents of Mind to see her work in person if you are in the area!

Cheers,

Rachel

One of our favorite summer time activities is to head out to Sauvie’s Island (10 minutes outside of Portland) and go to Sauvie Island Farm to pick berries. This year has been a little funny since, as you can see I am about 9 months pregnant and look like a berry myself. : )

We still were able to pick several pounds of blueberries, raspberries and marionberries with our good friend Amy and her adorable little boy. I love when we get home with all this amazing fruit and then have to start processing it to preserve it’s great taste. We’ve made jam, popsicles, muffins, and froze most of it to have throughout the year.

Next up is peaches!

Rachel

Hello,

Jon and I have been trying to have ‘Sewing Sundays’ where we sew a complete project. Last week we made these cute little toys. I made the elephant from the book ‘Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts’ by Joelle Hoverson. (Note to those who want to make it – the instructions are written a bit poorly and in some cases wrong. I finally just looked at all the pieces from the template and was able to figure out how to put them together. I read some online reviews and other people had the same problem and contacted the author to get better instructions.) Jon made these great fabric blocks with rattles inside – he took an empty film canister, put some dried beans in it, placed it inside the block and stuffed the rest with batting.

Fun times!

Rachel

Our friends Kris and Haunnah recently returned from working with the Peace Corps in El Salvador and were telling us a story in which they happened to spend some time with (I believe) a Japanese man and a Frenchman.  Their communication was rather hindered, so they ended up sharing the sounds that roosters make in their respective countries.  This testament of cross-cultural exchange led us to scour the internet for further examples.  We stumbled across bzzzpeek.com – a fun site with a slough of animal and vehicle sounds with recordings of speakers from around the globe.  Their graphics are fantastic too.  Have fun!

-Jon

Hello all,

Hope all is well!  Sorry for the lack of posts last week – we got incredibly slammed with work and general life business.  And now I’m up at way too early – I keep being wide awake at 3 or 4 AM – I think my body must be getting ready for the early mornings that will be coming soon with our baby.  Adelaide is due in less than a month!  I usually work on the computer this early, but took a break to check out my favorite sellers on etsy.  I was just looking at Kelly Packer’s work – I keep being drawn to her rooftops and urbanscapes.   Great colors and simple shapes.  She is gets her inspiration from living in Montana and recent trip to France.   Check out her etsy site or website for more.

Cheers,

Rachel

Thanks to all who stopped by last night for the opening of my show at Tilde! It was fun to chat with folks and spend time looking at all the cute things in the shop. We sold several pieces including one of my favorites, ‘Portland’ (shown above). The show runs for the month of July and will be my last solo show for a while as our baby is now due in just 5 weeks. This reception felt like a great way to start this long weekend of bar-b-ques and fireworks. : )

Happy 4th,

Rachel