Advent Day 24

Merry everything!

Advent Day 23

Run, run, Rudolph! It's almost time….

Advent Day 22

I still have a bit of shopping left. How about you?

Advent Day 21

Did you get your Christmas dress yet?

Advent Day 20

Season's Greetings from my house to yours!

Advent Day 19

A kitten for xmas….

Advent Day 18

Time to go caroling...

Advent Day 17

A snowy winter scene.

Advent Day 16

Paperwhites.

Advent Day 15

And a partridge in a pear tree…

Advent Day 14

A snowy friend…

Advent Day 13

I wish I had this many presents bought and wrapped….

Advent Day 12

"Silver and gold decorations on evr'y Christmas tree" —good ol' Yukon Cornelius and Burl Ives…

Half way there!

Advent Day 11

I come in peace.

Advent Day 10

A little helper from way up north….

Advent Day 9

I've never had a sugarplum before, but I imagine it would look like this!

Advent Day 8

Hark! A herald angel….

Advent Day 7

Joyeux Noel!

Advent Day 6

Meet me under the mistletoe…

Advent Day 5

Did you get your tree yet? That's me in the mommy van at the bottom….

Advent Day 4

Get crackin'!

Advent Day 3

A little gingerbread cutie...

Advent Day 2

Time to break out the ornaments!

24 Days of Christmas!

OK, I may regret this but I'm challenging myself to post a design a day 'til we hit Christmas. An advent calendar of sorts. First up, sweet hot cocoa (a close cousin to happy coffee). Mmmmmm….

Doodle Every Day

One of my goals for this year was to draw more often—with real pencils, pens and paper, and not just on the computer. So for the past 11 months, I've been doodling every day and posting to Instagram. At the beginning of this journey, I never imagined how much this exercise would inform my art, bring me more confidence, help me define my style and make me want to draw even more.

I now have over 1200 followers tuning into my feed and I'm so grateful for each and every one of them and all the lovely comments I receive. If you care to have a look, hit the link to the right, or find me @shindigstudio

Below, I'm posting a few of my favorite doodles from the year and a few insights I've learned along the way (in no particular order):

• Instagram is full of amazingly talented artists
• details make your art more fun (and popular!)
• Instagrammers love cats more than dogs (or maybe I just draw cats better…)
• when in doubt, draw a cute, smiling girl

Send Some Love

What could be sweeter than Minted's Valentine's Day Card challenge? I love designing for kids, so this competition was right up my alley. This year I have four classroom valentine designs up for voting, so pop on over and send some love my way.

vote for berry good friends here

vote for cool cat here

vote for some bunny here

vote for sweet as candy here

Here, Kitty Kitty

I think November is the perfect month to cuddle up with a cat. And that's exactly what I've been doing—at least digitally. My real cat is rather aloof. Here's the start of a new collection I'm calling Here, Kitty Kitty. Coordinates are in the works.

Party Time!

I found myself working on lots of birthday cards and characters recently, so I thought I'd post a few here for fun. A couple of the designs are for Minted's latest challenge, but the rest need loving homes. Greeting card companies, here I come!

Butterfly Garden

Every butterfly needs a flower or two, right? As promised, a few floral coordinates to go with my butterfly guys.