greenbeanbaby art

happy fourth of july!

may you all have a swell weekend!

new york city love

as stated in the previous post, a friend purchased a plane ticket for both of our birthdays... it was the first time i was away from my family since i gave birth to diego... even when i had isabella, diego was near me within 24hrs... and when i went to chicago, we saw eachother within 24hrs as well... so can we say it was a long awaited [and much needed] vacation?!

so i'm going to give a briefing of my trip as we did A LOT!! and i was able to meet a ton of wonderful people that i've known online but never saw in person... it was definitely a good time

wednesday:

• ramel dropped me off at the airport... we said our goodbyes without tears... thought we had plenty of time but apparently, i was late and had to RUN for plane...
• made it to new york and my friend ali picked me up... unpacked, laughed, and relaxed
• went to a famous indian diner... jackson heights diner where i tasted indian food for the first time with a wonderful experience [the other two times, were not so swell]
• went for coffee

• walked to nelson and andrea's place where we got to meet in PERSON! they are a swell couple for sure [nelson is the one who did ramel's site, btw]
• took the train to times square
• went back to ali's house to relax

thursday [ali's birthday]

• we took the train to the upper east side to shop a wee bit
• went to a vegan resteraunt, candle cafe, and tried a seitan sandwich for the first time ever
• tried to visit the society of illustrators but it was closed for a special event

• walked to f.a.o. schwarz, the cutest toy shop ever
• took the bus to union square park and walked through there
• walked to forbidden planet, a wonderful comic store
• walked to east village/ st. mark's place
• walked to tokoyo toys

• rested at washington square park
• went for pizza at aurturo's [in the village]
• had dessert at bruno's bakery
• saw the movie" house" [check out the link!!!!]
• took the train back home

friday

• took the train to rockefeller center
• visited the nintendo world
• visited the nbc store
• walked back to times square

• checked out the sanrio store and hershey's store
• took subway to the village
• tried some falafel at mamaun's then ate it at washington square park
• walked through SoHo
• stopped in at bloomingdale's store
• walked to chinatown and shopped there
• took the train to visit MoMa's
• went back ali's home to relax

saturday

• woke up and played a bit of call of duty: world at war
• nelson and andrea drove me to long island and astoria to shop and hang out
• went back to nelson's and andrea's place to play halo 3

• ali's party began and met matt hill in person as well as rudi [whom i met online by playing xbox]
• we played charades
• played apples to apples
• had a halo 3 tournament [which ali and i won :D]

• played a bit of wii boxing with matt [and won]
• played more boxing [and lost to willie, the kung fu master]
• rested up since it was 2am

sunday [last day in nyc]

 

• took the train to brooklyn
• walked the brooklyn bridge to manhattan
• walked through south seaport
• took the staten island ferry [there was a bit of running involved to get a good spot]
• walked to union square to visit some paper stores
• relaxed at madison square park while we ate food from the shake shack [met up with rudi]
• drove to murray hill to the movie theatre to watch transformers 2

• walked to koreatown and tried korean food
• walked past macy's and herald square
• went to the empire state building and went almost all the way to the top!!!!!
• celebrated my first minutes of my birthday in the empire state building
• walked to the grand central station
• took the train home
• woke up 3hrs later to take the plane back to milwaukee

whew!!!!!!!! my birthday presents and birthday adventures in milwaukee will be another post... i want to thank ali and phil, matt and rudi, nelson and andrea, and even willie and the people i met in nyc for giving me the greatest new york city birthday trip ever!!!!! many hugs to you all!!!!

in the meantime, you can check out:
matt hill's photostream of ali's party
a few more of my photo's here

new york, new york

i'll be leaving to new york city on wednesday... in less than 2 days!!! that's right! my friend bought me a plane ticket for my birthday and hers!! SUCH a treat!!!!! i've been wanting to go for ages and i'm grateful that she's created a way for such an adventure... and thanks to my mom, i have a new camera so you all can see pictures!!!! i'm all too excited!


now, ramel will be home alone with the kids for 5 days... but all kid clothes will be picked out for him... 2 outfits per day, per kid... and isabella's hair will be in enough braids for him not to worry about brushing through the nest of curls... he has free tickets to museums and the zoo [thanks to the summer reading club at the library] on top of that, isabella is potty trained so very few diapers to worry about!! yes, this girl is quite advanced in this area...

so this is quite brief because  as i type, i must get the house adn my bags ready for this wonderful adventure!!!

so to sum it up:
1. i'm going to new york city
2. diego can climb walls
3. isabella is potty trained
4. i got my nose pierced
5. still have 25 illustrations to complete
6. my mom gave me a camera

have a wonderful week!!! i sure will :)

working hard or hardly working?

okay, so greenbeanbaby really has been busy... if you are looking at my twitter, you can see it's been mostly about sketching, sketching, and more sketching... i have had to sketch out 25 different holidays, including cinco de mayo, st. patty's day, and several jewish holidays... it's wonderful learning about various holidays and expanding your knowledge in such areas... however, one must make sure that when it comes time to sketch them out, they are not in the least, stereotypical or offensive...

i'm not showing too much of my work in progress on my blog anymore... there is still a fear that someone will steal my artwork and make money on it before i get a chance too... heck, i'm just worried about someone stealing my artwork period!! a friend, who has been through such a situation, once stated that it felt like they were trying to be erased... and it DOES feel that way... you work so hard to create your style and work out your technique but haven't quite made it BIG yet... and someone beats you to it, using your work!!!! so when people see your work they think of THEM not YOU... you fall victim, while someone else fills their pocket... so my luster for blogging remains tainted by the past issues and current concerns...

on the other hand, i am still sellling my art AND creating!!! i am having a small sale at my shop right now, so if you are interested, all ORIGINAL illustrations have been marked down and there is free shipping!! all proceeds go to getting my dad and my husband father's day gifts :D it's definitely going to a wonderful cause!!

lastly, i AM on facebook now [as ellia hill, not ellia domena]... i am not that great at keeping up but i might end up slowing down on my blog even more and updating my flickr and my facebook more often... if you are on facebook, and wanna be friends, just holler! please make a note of who you are though- some of us only know each other by our blog names ;) again, i'm still working on keeping up on my wall [as well as everyone else's]...

well, i'm off to finish a few more sketches and get ready to have date night with my honey!

the loveliest pair

you cannot deny these two kids make the loveliest pair of siblings... i'd say they have a near average relationship with each other.... a bit of "she's copying me," "she's throwing stuff" and "she's too loud" can be heard the second i sit down to respond to emails... isabella cannot be so vocal with her opinions of diego but she has learned the "no! no! no! i can do it!" from him... that seems about average for this 4.5 and 2yr old pair....

but their love and excitement to be with each other is not... although one may be too forceful in handing a toy to the other, leaving a minor war wound on the face, they help each other so much... assisting one onto my bed to teach them how to do back flips off the headboard... sharing their snacks when one ate too fast and finished theirs... the open armed greetings coupled with a loud shriek of excitement when one walks through the door [or even wakes up!!!!!].... yes, their sounds of love, joy, and sometimes annoyance, fills these walls from 6:30am to 10pm now.... no more school for diego... no good weather to get them out of the house... and no desire to go to bed at 8pm.... and boy, they are all smiles and giggles once the sun goes down!!!!!

we are gonna have quite the summer :)

ps. thank you all for the comments!!! you have me geeked to get the rubber stamps created faster :) i'll get another post going soon about the shop goodness!!

products, anyone?

i've mentioned to you that my camera is broken, right? it makes it hard to take photos when you have nothing TO take photos with.... my children will be undocumented for a month or so, and my blog may show images of the past, but oh well... it will only mean that my next camera will be even better!!!!

anyhow, with the new shop underway, i'm looking for a few suggestions... in the past, i have sold products including keychains, photo albums, notebooks, and a favorite, magnets... but everything was in such short supply and often sold quickly [what artist can compla?!]... i'm hoping to be able to offer items in bigger quantities soon!

i'm also looking into rubber stamps... for the longest, i've wanted to offer stamps with some of my characters but haven't had the resources or even the time! if i offered stamps, what sort of characters and themes would you like to see?

in fact, what sort of products would you like to see in the greenbeanbaby shop??? whether it's items i've offered in the past, or items NEVER offered, i would love to know... your help is greatly appreciated!

in the meantime, i have 25 more ideas to sketch out for illustrations... thank you all for sticking around despite my sporatic blogging and lack of illustrative content to show for... have a wonderful new week!

etsy shop update

so much for my daily blogging last week... i did play alot of video games, i caught up on some custom orders [ like this illustration above] and shipped them off, and spent time with my family...

but yes, i even updated my etsy shop... it will be the last shop update before i launch my new site [yes, it IS coming... after two years, or three now, but it is coming!!!] along with the site, there will be a new shop location and new goodies... all in the works... in the meantime, i've listed some illustrations in the etsy shop and they are on sale...  they are all older illustrations but available to you all...

so in the meantime, check out the illustrations... all proceeds will go to buying video games and paper- HAHA JUST KIDDING [kinda] :)

wednesday/thursday- promoting a shop

this post is going to be brief but sweet... as i've blogged before, my mom had a shop... however, she's recently gone etsy, and has moved her shop to here...

all of her prices are quite decent and affordable... with the way the economy is, there is little money to be spent on leisurely things... however, as we all know, a treat now and then keeps us all a sane and happy person... we can't go through life paying all the bills and not enjoy a movie now or then [or another paper pad]... my mom keeps her prices low so that people can enjoy shopping without it putting a hole in their pocket....

so if you are looking for some nic nacs, buttons, ric rac, a popple, or kitchen items, her shop is where you can look :)

tuesday- friendly visits

last week a good friend who lives in new york came to milwaukee to visit us... its rare that anyone from new york would want to even step into any other city but thank goodness, friendships supersede the limits.. we've never met in person beforehand but diego and isabella were quite comfortable  with her [as was ramel and i]... the first thing we did was get some food and coffee, of course :)

on wednesday we drove over to chicago, leaving ramel to care for the kids overnight... it was the very first time i've ever been away from them like this... normally, a mother would feel sad, nervous, or bad, right? but not this mama! i mean, my kids were in good hands and it was nice to be out of the house long enough for someone to notice i wasn't around... yes, i missed them dearly but i enjoyed my time [searching for something to bring home to them] with my friend...

anyhow, chicago was beautiful... more beautiful than i remember during my previous trips... my friend and i went to lunch at a swanky club, visited the SMART museum, and had oodles of coffee in between... we walked around alot and enjoyed each other's company... while she rested, i got lost and couldn't find our hotel for a good half hour...  how could you miss a 40 story hotel [unless it is surrounded by other VERY tall buildings!] i did find the hershey's chocolate store and the american girl store... i also stumbled across a mall that had a papyrus store inside [oh yes, their cards are to swoon for]... that night, she even ordered hotel service and treated me to a late night dinner in our room [which was way up on the 36th floor!!!!!!]...

the following day we went to the art institute of chicago... most of the photos here were taken on this day [don't mind that flying curl- hehe]... we tried walking towards the lakefront but there was a freeway blocking us... nonetheless, we enjoyed all the beautiful scenery in chicago and headed back towards milwaukee, stopping by at the gurnee mills outlet mall... i had hoped to find a few things for the kids but couldn't but ended up stopping by a toy store here in town and getting them some goodies...

anyhow, the week was wonderul... it felt great to have a friend come and visit, and it felt swell to get to go out of town with her... sadly, i didn't get a chance to show her our museums nor send her home with our famous wisconsin cheese... she didn't get to try our frozen custard either but there is always another season, right?!  she is a very gentle and warmhearted person in which i was glad to hang out with for a whole week....

now, to set up my trip to go to new york :)

monday- wedding invitations

this post is proof that i haven't been playing video games all day and night [although if you look at my xbox blog, it would seem that i'm lying].... a few months back, a customer requested custom wedding images for her upcoming wedding...

the illustration itself was created in cut paper, with the golden gate bridge as her background... then it was scanned in, type added, and sent off to the printers... UPS shipped the final product to the house [not without a giant fiasco though], and they were BEAUTIFUL!!

since my work is known for its handmade qualities [or at least, i'd like to think it's known for that], i wanted to add a 3d element to the flat print... 250 flowers were punched out... 250 lil pieces of 3d tape was added onto the back... and 250 little red insides were added onto the flower with a teeny glue gun [the red part not shown]

several alfred hitchcock episodes later, those 250 little flowers were added onto the 250 wedding images.... and i must say, they look wonderful, although you can hardly tell by this photo [which was taken with a broken camera] i cannot wait to see them assembled, which the customer will do...

in a few hours, i will be playing on my xbox rewatching heroes season 1 and 2 and working on another commissioned piece... after those are done, work for my upcoming venture will be the main focus [and don't worry, you will see soon enough!]

happy monday!