Pantone's Color of the Year 2011

Every year I look forward to December for five reasons.
Since Monday I have been obsessing over reason number 4....
What will the Pantone color of next year BE?!
I was almost hit by a PANTONE® 14-0848 Mimosa colored cab while
contemplating this as I crossed Broadway the morning of the big announcement.


When i got back from lunch yesterday I got the call.  Luckily, Best Friend @DuchessOJustice was on it. Keeper of my heart and best interests in the absence of anyone with testosrone, she linked me accordingly. I've been seeing through Paris-toned spectacles ever since. 

Withouth further ado, here is She Sure is Sketchy's take on this year's Pantone:

From Flicker and left-to-right
1.©Xavier Donat...  2.©SirWiseOwl...  3.©Tom Martin...  4.©Velvet Android...  5.©-Nat...  6.© Christing-0-...   7.©~*Bomba Rosa*~...  8.©Lst1984...  9.©Glovsky255...  10.©Shiny Red Type...  11.©Song_Sing...  12.©EricSkiff...  13.©Saffanna...

This is the song I sung this morning while thinking of Honeysuckle.

Last year, when Pantone bent to my will, and chose the most beautiful color on the planet for 2010, I knew a moment of magic had happened.  All year, whenever I found myself bathed in 15-5519 I would close my eyes, do a slow circle and make a wish.  That's pretty much how I found myself in Nassau, a lot of Turquoise wishes just came true. 

It is beautifully painful for me to let go of that flawless, perfect tone of  two thousand and ten. I have elected that a new 18-2120 gloss for my pout will mark the transition with a satisfactory amount of bliss and respect. With that I'm off to Sephora. First Honeysuckle wish of the year comes true! 

I wish you a Merry Pantone!

IF - Prehistoric

This morning I went to bed at two, woke up and woke up at six. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I thought I'd make the best of it and finally cross off the nagging spot on my to-do that says "clean house so can decorate Christmastime"

I pulled on a pair of white tights, a white cami and a dress to go over the top and then went to get a garbage bag. On my way to the garbage bag I saw my long neglected pastels and watercolors. So it's been 2 and a half hours, and it looks like Christmastime isn't happening at the Penthouse at 302 Court this morning.
GRrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrr


Incidentally, this has been nagging at me in its own way, ever since the 12 of November when PbIdMo #12 hit me. So that's something. Now off to change out of the white with green sploch that the Cat in the Hat wouldn't dare to tackle.

Say it with me.... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRR Hehe. Happy Friday.

Sketchbook Retirement - #32

Who: Girl of All Work :Desert Collection
What: Recycled Paper, Fabric covered, Ribbon Bookmark
When: July 2010
Where: Papél New York / 529 Court Street / Brooklyn / New York / 11231

Why: There was a hint of gold glitter in the cover. I liked the heavy pages with their rounded corners. It was the best book in the store and I wasn't going to Prospect Park without a sketchbook.

Underlying Unintentional Sketchbook Theme: Things that swim. Patterns that nature makes.

.....................................................................................

Dearest #32,
It's been fun. Remember when you bounced out of my raincoat pocket and onto the puddle covered sidewalk? I was beside myself with fear for your safety, but we laughed about it in the end. That moment even inspired some pretty cute art.

Sure, we've had our dalliances,

but we've also had our serious moments.

I know all the others here in the penthouse at 302 were jealous when I decided that you were the one coming to the Bahamas with me. You earned that trip. After all, I credit you with the brilliant creation of Sea Horse and Dolphin Paisley.

We had some great adventures, but my favorite times were the quiet ones. I think you really shined on our jaunts to the coffee shops. I know your favorite was Argo Tea in the Flat Iron building, that's where you really let your creativity shine.

I thank you for your support and your help. You were special and I will miss you dearly. I know our time isn't really over. I'll visit you when I'm stumped for ideas, and when I remember that I already drew some pretty cute acorns in you.

You'll see, it's not the end, it's really just the beginning, but you won't be with me on my commute, and you won't come to coffee houses with me this Winter. You've done your job and you've done it well and now it's time for you to join your predecessors. They've been waiting for you to show up for the party:

all my love,
Amber

P.S. While I've been retiring sketchbooks for years (I write some of this stuff on the last page of each book) this post was greatly inspired by Valerie Best's brilliant blog "http://thet-shirtproject.com/"
Read it. Love it. Be it.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday? Wreath By Evergreen

Tonight My workdesk is being presided over by the first episode of Ugly Betty,
which is cuter than I recall and streaming in the background.


If you know me at all, you know that I am NOT patient, and you also know that I HATE rules. However, there are a couple that are paramount to living life to the best of your ability, when I defy these I often regret it.

#1 - Don't ever leave the house in underwear that you wouldn't want to caught dead in. I learned ths one in the fifth grade, when an emergency appendectomy found me in the Dr.'s office wearing care bear panties. Man those were cute, wish I had a pair like that now.

#2 - Never give your number to a stranger, your email, yes, but your number never. I learned this one the hard way Halloween 2009 when I met Jack, who my friends later wrote a song about. He is now affectionately known in past tense as JTR - Jack the Ripper. Haha. Good times.

#3 - Never ever, ever, decorate the house for the holidays until the house is Mr. Clean-clean. HAHA. HAHAHAHAHAH

So, this is something I'm going to for sure find myself regretting.
This is the view to the West of my desk......

And here is the main event. Yep, that's an Evergreen bough!
Tonight I found myself in the flower district, desperate to keep warm. In addition to coming down with a cold, I'm finding myself in the city without gloves fairly often, but usually only on the coldest days of the year. I ducked into a lofted space and before I knew it, I was the proud owner of this fine specimen of wreathdom.


So tonight, despite the MESS, out came the felties.


I created the felties years ago at my parent's beach house on Oahu. I am pretty sure I was 14 when I first pulled out every sheet of red, white and green felt we owned and went to town creating an army of snowmen and holiday stars.

So I made these babies, half my life ago. Now the little fellows spend most of the year in residence in a sandy zip-lock bag in a certain Brooklyn closet, in a particular box, boldly labeled 'Christmas'.


Tonight out came the ribbon, the felties, and the copper wire. I blissfully cut my hands to high heaven. Now the felties live to cheer again.



Felties unite!

So, Now I have an Etsy Shop

I'm left handed and while a hundred people sat down and tried to teach me to crochet as a child, I was so hopeless learning from right handers that it never really took. My stubborn determined personality was pretty strong, even then. So, frustrated with my failure, when I was about eight years old, I sat down with the few pages afforded left handers in my gramma's coveted 'Complete Guide to Needlework".

I remember sitting cross-legged on our deck with the book in my lap as I tortured a skein of butter-yellow yarn into submission.

Crocheting was the first thing I ever entirely taught myself. I remember the shear delight at beating that yellow yarn into a 2 foot tall, overall-clad mouse. I was young, but already I was ready to take up the left-handed shield of truth and glory.



I raised my H-hook in the air, brandishing as I breathed,
"TAKE THAT, RIGHT HANDERS! TAKE THAT!"
I haven't changed this stance in the past two decades, so you know it was pretty inspired for a childhood declaration.

I pledged handmade this year and thought I'd start early with my gal MIka's birthday.
So I made the first of the bacon barrettes. They incited a movement at job-job and with my co-workers support it wasn't long before I felt my dormant need to create something that more dimensional chirpping from beneath the floorboards in my heart.

I am a strong advocate of doing something ELSE creative and fun. Of course I am also an expert of turning everything into some kind of work. Lucky for me I love work. If you're feeling a bit of a lul in the art that you make, make something totally different, but teh same, but different. You'll get it..

Amberbop Shop has been around for two weeks now. I made my first sale on Friday. Pretty sweet huh? LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE LEFT HANDERS!

PiBoIdMo Recap

Idea #1

Sigh. It's come. It's gone. Here is what I have to share. These are some of loose ideas that got a sketch, or a moment of pencil on paper this last November during Tara's genius second year at the helm of Picture Book Idea Month.

All of the pictures go with words, but not vs versa. Some of this months inklings are pages of dialogue. Some are inky post-it notes with scritch-scratch. One is an epic first sentence, one consists of three words written down 8 different ways. Currently they're a map that only I can navigate. (Ooh Idea #31) ;)

At any rate, there are 30 of them, while not always genius, that's 29 more than I would have had without the wide catching net of support of all my children's book cronies tweeting and twatting and blogging me forward this epic month of picture books.

Idea #4



Idea #6

Idea #12
AKA - A much better idea than idea #6
The 'evolution' of this idea was one of the most exciting parts of this month's breakneck make a story idea game. I kept revisiting it, in the shower, as I walked thru the park, and now at the beginning of December, I think it has sticking potential.

Idea #16
This is an idea I've been kicking around for a while, but PiBoIdMo was the kick I needed to get it down on paper and develop it into something that I won't sideline.


Idea #24
This is one of my favorites. I worked at keeping myself loose and sketchtastic on these. This idea was storyboarded in 14 frames in about 6 minutes. It's one of my most complete from this month of unprecedented kiddie focus, and actually one of the top 5 I'd take to an agent.


Idea #30
Came as I was desperately racking my brain for some last drop of picture book punch. I'm so excited to be working on this one and will attack it post haste.

I hope all your ideas were extra good to you this picture book season. I am excited to stalk you and see where they go. I'm attacking #3 (not pictured) first. It is my favorite and most funny idea this year. I want to pay homage to the genius of

Anna Staniszewski, Sarah Frances Hardy, and Jennifer Nielsen

In a sea of tantalising and delicious offerings theirs spoke to me and mattered most over time. This year's PiBoIdMo was simply smashing. I have not one single idea for how it could be any better. It was a treat and and a treasure and I'll be waiting on baited breath until Nov. 1st 2011 - No pressure Tara ;)

Today I Perfected My Patronus

At midnight on the release eve of every Harry Potter movie, I don a shirt for the special occasion and sneak through the night to the largest and best theater possible. I wear my HP pride with pride. This last week, Harry hit the U.S. with force. The weekend prior to his arrival I gathered with a few of my favorite friends, to watch the sixth movie in preparation for the seventh and to design this year's shirt.

During an obsessive conversation about patronus' that evening we decided to each take Facebook's long and antiquated 'what is your Patronus?' test. Mine turned out to be a hedgehog.

Bravery is your strong suit, and you are a kind creature to all, though your spiney exterior may make others think otherwise. You are proud of the strange parts of you that make you different!

I've been playing around with ideas for next movie's shirt. This won't make the cut, but I thought I should share the nerd power. Hedgehogs unite! We might not be the strongest member of Dumbledore's Army, but there's a chance we're the cutest.

Oh P to the S - This just reminder-ed me of one of my favorite films from Animation History in college, Hedgehog in the Fog. Can you handle the sweetness?

Christmas is Coming

The goose is getting fat.

I had the sublime fortune of watching 'Fly Away Home' the other day. While sketching these Christmas geese my friend suggested we get the movie. I went a bit crazy excited to see this. Surprisingly, it's still as feel good as when I watched it in the theater fourteen years ago. Yeah, that's right.


If you have not had this chance at pure happiness in a while, I suggest you go to your netflix queue post haste and get on that.

Holiday Fishes

I'm celebrating my favorite things, fish and puns.  It's been a licencing-stamp-blitz-baby-hurricane up in here. Here's some of that fruit, punny, fishy fruit.

When in Doubt...

Draw seahorses.