Indigo Prints Features hannahcloud DESIGN

I was pretty chuffed to wake up and discover that Indigo prints had devoted a blog post to little old me. As I mentioned previosly, I'm very excited to have been chosen as a Branded Designer for Indigo Prints and am anxiously awaiting their site launch. In the meantime they've been giving some sneak peeks via their blog and facebook page.

They pretty much hit the nail on the head when they said "We fell in love with Hannah’s eye for color and fearlessness to incorporate a lot of it!" Color? Yes, I like it alot. As evidenced by my Rainbow Soup  pinboard.

Lately I've been working on a lot of things I can't share since they are people's holiday cards and I don't want to spoil the fun, but I'm terrible at saving surprises, so I'll share the front of my holiday card here. It was a family collaboration. Tex and Theo (Tex mostly, but Theo's dark blue monster on the left represents with style!) drew the monsters and I grouped and colored them. Super fun, I see a family tradition in the making!

A Little Joy for the Tree: Ornaments Against AIDS

In collaboration with Etsy, Cool Mom Picks is hosting a cut and color ornament contest. The 8 chosen ornaments will be sold as a download on Etsy with all profits benefitting Housing Works, a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS whose mission is to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain their efforts.

This little cut and fold stocking is my entry. It's neat becuase it can hold a little gift, or a rolled up letter. If you size it up before printing, it could even hold a gift card and treat for your favorite teacher.

If the ornament is not chosen, I will make a high resolution jpeg available  for free on Flickr so you can make these with your little ones. If it is chosen, you can purchase the full set of 8 ornaments to benefit Housing Works!

Pinterest Intervention Needed.

I received my invitation to join pinterest.com three days ago and I'm already sensing just how dangerous it is going to be. Dangerous, but wonderful. I love that I can gather and browse so much visual inspiration in such an intuitive and aesthetically awesome way. I actually believe that this will help me to want less by allowing me to aquire and catalog things without actually having to physically own them.

Yum.

WOO HOO: Vote for my "Woodsy Wedding" Design on minted.com

I made it past the first round cut in the minted.com Wedding Challenge.

If you are able and would like to, I would be so grateful for your vote/rating!

Cookies and Washi Tape

What, you don't host a cookie swap every year? Well, now you can with this party invitation that will be available for purchase very soon on IndigoPrints.com. The pink striped ribbon was inspired by my latest craft obsession: washi tape. Washi tape is a masking tape made out of japanese washi paper. It comes in a delightful variety of solids, stripes, dots, abstracts and animals. Some of it is slightly transparent, all of it is beautiful.

I tend to have a problem with craft supplies. There is a storage area in our basement devoted almost entirely to stamps, ink, grommets, paper, various cutting implements, needle felting supplies, knitting needles, a sewing machine and many many fat quarters and assorted ephemera of every shape and size including about a zillion buttons. Very little of these have seen the light of day since I became a mother over 5 years ago and for the most part my artsy side has been carried out using a screen and mouse.

I've been pretty sort-of OK about not accumulating too much more stuff, but I have a feeling that I might NEED more washi tape. . .

I got mine on etsy from prettytape and I would recommend the shop. My tape arrived quickly and, as you might imagine, very prettily packaged.

These stores also sell washi: cute tape, happy tape, and wonderland room.

I'm pretty sure any respectably crafty person on your gift list would flip over a pretty package of washi!

I am pleased to note that I am not the only person with no self control in regards to washi. Jordan Ferney, stylist extraordinaire, writes the great blog, "Oh Happy Day" and just confessed to her obsession with washi (and stickers, stamps, paper. . .).

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!

Planning a stylish and festive holiday get together?

Likely not yet, but when you do, check my Eat, Drink and Be Merry invitation which will be available on indigoprints.com sometime before thanksgiving.

I'm really excited to announce that I have been chosen as a featured designer Indigo Prints and you will be able to find a lot more of my stationery designs there soon!

Clap if you Believe in Fairies!

From the same family that brought you Ryan's Dinosaur Party, I present Adeline's Fairy Party! The birthday girl's mom gave me a photo from Adeline's  "Under the Sea" Dance recital and I gave the Birthday Fairy a little fairy woodland and a toadstool to perch on and acorns, since she collects acorns.

Now available in my etsy shop, no one is too old to celebrate their birthday with this invitation, but it will probably be most popular with kindergarten girls. Actually, I just had a funny idea for my brother's birthday card.

Drifting Leaves, Jack-o-Lanterns and . . .Jingle Bells?

This is the time that I begin thinking about my family's holiday card, and so it's time that I add some holiday cards to my etsy shop!

I'm liking the clean 50's style and tone of Peace. Love. Joy. Mustard. (though it could also be in other colors, like ketchup).

and Joy Evergreen.

Find something you like on my etsy site and if you don't see just the right thing, please contact me about custom cards!

Muchos Besos, R + M, for letting me photograph your families.

I haven't had time to swoon over anything lately. . .

. . .so I'm sending to you over to oh, hello friend to swoon over her lovely picks.

Swoon worthy, right?

some days i want someone else to choose my music for me.

Today the Stand By Me Soundtrack hit the spot.

Other great movie soundtracks in no particular order:

Crooklyn, a Spike Lee Joint

Trainspotting

Amadeus (OK, it's all the same composer, but such a marvelous selection)

Tank Girl

Natural Born Killers

and some days I really need this:

Flashdance

and Pulp Fiction, Diva, 500 Days of Summer, Juno,

So there you go. I'm really surprised that not all of these are available as mp3 downloads. All images and names are linked to sites where these soundtracks are available. If emusic has 'em, I linked there, otherwise it's mostly amazon.

What are your soundtrack favorites?

Elizabeth Mitchell's New Album has landed! Oh Boy!

Another great reason to belong to emusic is here. . . Elizabeth Mitchell, one of my all time favorite children's musicians has just released her latest album. The album is also available from Smithsonian Folkways for $9.99.

Already loving their version of Keep On the Sunny Side and the guest artists are exciting: Storey's friends, Dan Zanes and the Children of Agape Choir of South Africa to name a few.

The fantastic cover art is by Ida Pearle, who is know for her larky, magic paper pieced illustrations.

For more information on Elizabeth Mitchell, and her bandmates, husband Daniel and their daughter Storey, go here.

(a previous post about Mitchell's music is here.)

Finally, an Android App I love!

I have a Droid smart phone. The phone is a year old HTC Hero, which I don't love performance-wise as it's always dropping calls -- and ALWAYS isn't hyperbole -- has the battery life of a newt, and is flaking paint from its buttons, but I do enjoy its "smartness" in terms of web, gps, email, etc.

Because it's not an iPhone, the Apps available are not nearly as plentiful and I haven't found many I really enjoy and/or find useful.

But I did find one that I really like. It's called Retro Camera, available here on AppBrain, and it is super-duper satisfying.

Just look a the scrumptious photos I took this afternoon at a traveling carnival set-up in the parking lot of the just recently no-longer functioning Wonderland Greyhound Track. (I used the "LITTLE ORANGE BOX" camera for these shots, but I'm not sure which real retro camera it mimics.)

The boys and I were on our way back from a sleepover at my mom's in cambridge, our dog lindsey was in the car, but we stopped so Tex could go on a ride. It was much nippier than I thought so we all had cold noses and fingers for the first time this year, and the dragon ride for kids was actually much faster than it looked before Tex got on it. Poor guy, when he rounded the corner the first time he looked severely apprehensive, the second time around, he was sobbing. They stopped the ride for him, he skittered off, flung himself into my arms and cried, "I wan't to go on a different ride"-- the kid's spirit is hard to crush!

The sun was just starting to set when I took these photos and I think they're very fun. Obviously, with the gunky edges, they are a bit gimmicky looking, but the colors are really something.

This is how a couple of the other "cameras" look:

Alternatively, I haven't tried the photo app Vignette, but it some positive reviews as well.

I've moved!

Thank you so much for reading the blog, please visit me at my new site, hannahcloud.com!

September Flowers

Since receiving my Pentax K-x in May, I have been a picture taking fool and have especially enjoyed photographing the changes in my garden and the outside world in general. Check out these amazing September flowers from my garden. I love the juxtaposition of their bright blooms against the crisp skies and changing leaves.

Mexican Sunflower. Grown from seed, I thought it would never bloom:

and this bloom from the same plant (check out the color variation!):

Windflower, a new favorite:

Sedum, which is beautiful, fleshy and green all summer and than, bam:

And my favorite, which began mid-summer and are still going strong, the somewhat coarse, but never shy Zinnia (these beauties are from The Food Project CSA):

Happy almost Fall! Enjoy these beautiful days.

Just so you know. . .

IMAG0645, originally uploaded by Hannah Cloud.

there are apparently actors and models for christ.