on a personal note

I don't talk much in this blog about being an expat overseas. I guess I envision this blog to be focused on design and creating. Well, a very good friend of mine is s freelance writer for the Budapest times and wrote an article about friendship as an expat. It it a fantastic explanation of friendships abroad. I wanted to share as he can say it better than I can. Enjoy the article.

Budapest - our current home

websites

I have been working on my new website. I like what my current site looks like and I have gotten great feedback-and lots of work from it. However, I don't feel it fully represents my current work. After putting this off for over a year, I finally sat down and started working on an updated layout. And, I have found someone who is going to get it up and running for me-YEAH!!

I want my website to:

• represent my work
• be a portfolio of past and current projects
• advertise my products and services
• advertise where I am and where you can find me
• encourage people to check back frequently
  

I am curious...what are some of your favorite websites? What do you like and what drives you crazy? Any advice or opinions about websites are very much appreciated!!

Here are a few websites I really like. What do you think?
www.heatherbaileystore.com
www.anahataart.com
www.dutchdoorpress.com

My new website should be up by mid May! So, stay tuned!!

Have a good weekend and Happy Easter!

hungarian egg painting

Last Friday NAWA hosted an "All About The Arts In Hungary" day. It was fantastic! One of the activities was to learn to paint Hungarian Easter eggs. It was a ton of fun and quite the challenge!

eggs painted by the professional

Wax is put into the tip of a cone that is attached to a stick. Next, you place this tip over the candle flame to melt the wax.

quickly draw on the egg before the wax coolsrub gold powder over the wax.My finished eggs.
It was so hard to quickly draw your design with a steady hand.
Not my work:) I took this photo years ago when we were visiting Budapest.If you know me, you know I love learning how things are made. This was such a treat that I got to actually to try my hand at this craft. And I got to tell you-it was so hard to make a straight line.

Check out this link to learn more: click here

blog update: my grandmother's quilt

I blogged last week about quilting and spoke about a quilt my grandmother made. Well, she sent me a photo. Thanks Grandma!

marble, gold leaf and intricate patterns: parliament

Last week was a pretty good week although I was not very productive in producing much work. I think I hit a bit of a creative bump. I have been working pretty hard the past few months and I just couldn't bring myself to do anything! By the time Friday came I as napping in the afternoon to escape the piles on my desk-how bad is that! I have all these ideas but my hands just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. I was done.

Fortunately I did have two things planned last week that got me away from my desk and inspired me in different ways. First, I went on a tour of Parliament. WOW! What a building! It is the second largest Parliament in Europe and was completed in 1904. It is an amazing building with marble, gold leaf and intricate patterns everywhere! See for yourself!

Very inspiring don't you think?
The second things I did last week...stay tuned!

come visit me!

It has been three months since my last show. Where has the time gone? Well, I have some new magnet designs, new notebook colors and a new notebook design! So if you are looking for something to do on Sunday swing by the American International School of Budapest's Food Festival.

the details:
American International School of Budapest
Nagykovácsi út, Building "B" known as "Old Building"
Sunday, March 28, 2010
11 am to 3pm

notice the new design?

in search of inspiration

Hello and Happy Tuesday! There is so much to cover in this post. I have been so busy. I can not believe it is March 23 and I have had a constant stream of work since January. Last year it seemed there was much more time to network, focus and dream. This year all that dreaming and networking have paid off-this is good. I keep thinking next month is going to be slow and then the next month comes and it is just as busy as the month before. I just got the show schedule from my rep and it looks like things are going to stay busy til June.

With all this work and designing I have to actually schedule time to research trends and gather inspiration. Without days when I can sketch, read and search for magazine tears there is no designing. My imagination pot dries up and there is nothing left. So, last week I put aside a pile of magazines and started cutting, sorting and taping. Working on new pages for my book of inspiration.

my print & pattern bible

Ironically my friend Josephine just blogged about her method of gathering tears and making notebooks. We have the same process!

After tearing up a bunch of magazines I went out and spent some money buying new ones. And they are great! Below are the three April editions I bought. Funny, I bought "Homes & Gardens" and "House & Garden". They are actually different magazines. Vogue Living Australia-a must buy!

from Vogue Living Australia I have never been a fan of traditional ikat. But, this is another story! The colors are fantastic.

from Homes & Gardens
love the colors and the floralsfrom House & Garden
The photographer is Sabina Rüber. I highly recommend checking out her website. Click here.

Her photos are beautiful. The colors and composition make me think they are paintings.And there is more...I told you I had allot to cover today. I was looking at Fiona Richards blog and saw her post about the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. This is the coolest site for viewing archived images! Tons of inspiration all at your finger tips. Check out the images below.

That is it for now. Enjoy the sites and links. I hope you will find them as inspiring as I have.