Bat-Mitzvah Girl

A few weeks ago my close family friend Kyra here had her bat-mitzvah. We toyed with different idea's of how to incorporate the custom fashion illustration I had done of her into her big day. We thought about printing custom stamps, placing it on invitations, or onto party favors like t-shirts or cds. In the end we used it for a truly custom sign-in board for her bat-mitzvah party.

Kyra's unique sign-in board set the right tone at the party entrance, it was instantly identifiable as being the bat-mitzvah girl and was a big hit among all the guests! A custom bat-mitzvah illustration could also make a great gift, if your not in the market for a sign-in board.

Anthropologie Welcomes Decor8 Holly Becker

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of meeting Decor8 blogger and best selling author of Decorate, Holly Becker. New York was the very last stop of her US book tour and although mother nature almost interfered by giving us a earthquake and then a hurricane, Holly made it to NYC safe and sound.

I've been reading Holly's blog for years, long before I started Fabulous Doodles. I've also taken Holly's class Blogging Your Way, not once but twice! So needless to say it was a thrill to finally meet the lovely lady herself. Anthropologie hosted the event in their Soho store, which started off with a presentation by Holly on assembling a successful mood board.

A funny thing happened, during the presentation Holly talked about the importance of including key fabrics for color, texture and pattern to set the tone. She used a gold and pink swatch as an example of a fabric she loved and treasured. What's so crazy is that I had sent her that fabric about 5 years ago! At the time Holly had asked her readers to send any extra fabrics and trims they had to put together swatch packets as a giveaway. I was working as a designer and stylist and had an entire studio space filled with fabrics and notions so I sent her a nice big box and that swatch was one of them! I had bought it from Mood and used it on design boards for Seventeen and CosmoGirl. I remember it so well because I, like Holly, loved it too and had a big piece up on my office inspiration board.

After the mood board demo drinks, hor derves and cookies were passed around while everyone mingled and the book signing began. Holly mentioned a group was going for drinks after so I hung around waiting for the singing to finsih while having a great time getting to know Rashan Carraway, aka Mr. Goodwill Hunting and Mayne Richardson.

We had fun and did a little impromtu photo shoot around the store before heading over to the Soho Grand for cocktails with Holly and friends. (Including Paul and Marcia Zia Priven, Cristina Batch-Lee of Etsy, Abby Jacobs of West Elm, fellow fashion illustrator Samantha Hahn, stylist Raina Kattelson, and Brett Bara.) It was so nice chatting it up and getting to know such a creative group of people.

If you haven't already, you should go go pick up Holly's book Decorate. Its a fantastic visual guide to decorating and making your space uniquely yours. The book also has stunning images and tips from designers such as Jonathan Adler, Nate Berkus, and Vincent Wolf.

Childrenswear: Carmen

Last week I was asked by a client to work on something a little different, a fashion illustration of a chic 8 year old girl. To design her outfit I was given all the inspiration images below, along with a few directions for tweaks, such as add a third buckle to the coat, change the dress to a light floral print, and so on. I think Carmen here came out adorable, and is kind of making me want to draw more kids. (Although to be honest in the past they haven't really sold well in my etsy shop.)

(Clockwise: Coat e.BoutiqueMaje, Dress Zara, Bag Proenza Schouler at Barneys, Boots Jcrew Girls.)

Etsy Home Finds

My old friend Camilla, blog author of High Heeled Foot in the Door, asked me to write a guest post for her today. I'm so honored, I've only been asked to be a guest blogger once before. (A wedding post for the Etsy Storque, which you can check out here.) Her blog is an interior design and home decor focused blog, so I chose to write about fabulous Etsy finds in my favorite "home" color palette; cream, white, and silver. Click here to read my guest post.

This little teaser photo is one of the items I chose to feature; a steel memo board from Ekoh Design with a silhouette print of classic furniture and home accessories on it. (Which I actually purchased just last week.) The fashion illustration magnets are the newest products added to Brooklit, my Etsy shop.

Sassy Silhouettes

While shopping with my mom yesterday I spotted these funky silhouettes and I had to snap a picture for you. I love a great silhouette. Be it fashionable, countrified or even traditional, I love them all. These silhouette collections were part of the store merchandising display within the Kensie clothing department of Macys.

I've been a fan of silhouette's since long before they were trendy. Anyone who has placed an order from my shop (here) may have noticed that their order comes with a custom stamp on the package of "my girls" in silhouette with the shop web address beneath it. They were based off project I made back in college. (My BYW mood board from a previous post, had some pretty fabulous silos you could check out here too.)

Portfolio Mood Board

Since I've been on a little mood board/inspiration kick this week I thought I'd share a mood board from my product design portfolio with you. For nearly four years I was the Designer of a Brand Development Department. One of my job responsibilities was to create seasonal trend boards for brand managers, editors, retailers, and licensees.

Ballet Dreams is a board I made to inspire a teen bedding collection. In person the board measured about 2' x 3' and was three dimensional, but it's hard to tell in the photo. Maybe this board will motivate you to pull some looks together and find fabrics, colors, and images that inspire you.

All the fabrics used on the boards were purchased at Mood Fabrics. Unfortunately I made this a while ago and do not have much credit information for the images, I am sorry. Top left: Michael Kors bathing suit, Top right: Balenciaga, Bottom right: Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker ad.

Mood Board

I’m currently taking an online class given by Holly Becker author of Décor 8 and Leslie of Creative Mint. This week’s homework assignment was to create a personal mood board. I’m pretty happy with it, so I thought I’d share it here with you. The photo above is the whole board and below are some close ups I wanted to highlight.

As you’ve probably noticed if your one of my regular readers, I’m currently loving black, white and pink, so those are the colors I decided to work with when developing my board. I thought it was important to have layers of textures so I included: foil printed wallpaper, textured handmade papers, studded black leather, pink tulle, patent leather alligator paper, stingray textured paper, pompom trims, silver metal rimmed tags, and spiral sketchbooks. I really love the juxtaposition of textures like the biker studs and ballerina pink tulle mixed with fashion illustrations and super glam silhouettes!

I also love this black and white photo! In real life I’m a curly girl, the default photo I have on this blog is just the result of a great blow out, my hair doesn't really look like that on a daily basis! So I’ve always gravitated towards images and art with curls, especially when they’re this bold.

Being an artist, and that a big part of this blog is about my artwork I chose to include some of my illustrations. Most are from my etsy shop, but there’s also this sketch I did of my friends little sister that I’ve always really liked and her casual cool vibe just seemed to fit.

In addition to imagery that I liked I also chose key words that resonate with me, and what I want for this blog and for my life really; fashionable and chic, create and inspire, and fabulous doodles.

Summer Suits

Summer has officially arrived, although here in NY it's been raining just about everyday for what seems like forever. I've been getting ready for a big trip abroad and with that comes the dreaded bathing suit shopping. It started off rough, but thanks to Gap, JCrew, and Target, I have 3 cute new tankini's making the idea of laying on a beach with five of my friends (male and female) not so daunting.

Here is a page from my college portfolio. The theme of my collection was "The Concrete Jungle; the jungle invades the upper east side." (shhh, don't tell but I'm really a upper west girl!) Although it's not recent work I thought the bathing suit page would be a nice image to kick off my summer posts. Enjoy!