A Christmas Study

of all things festive, furry & bright!

The question being asked...

over & over again- Is it Christmas yet?
(especially by my 5 year old)

2012 Christmas Card

Every year I make Christmas card to sent to clients, friends & family.  This is the 2012 card.

Smitten...

Twice a month on Saturday I take my son Luca to the library.  We both run straight to the kids section to gather more books than we can carry. Often times the books are sweet but not always memorable.  This one,  "Cecil & the Pet Glacier" is a gem!  We've gone back to it night after night enjoying it just as much as we did the first time.  The book is written by Matthea Harvey it's quirky & clever.  The illustrations are by one of my favorites... Giselle Potter who brings her own unique spin to everything she paints.  If you have little ones or are an adult who just loves a wonderful children's book check it out.  It doesn't disappoint.

Santa's Checklist

because we all need one!

Dream House

I'd like to live here... at least for the month of December!

Peel and Place Christmas Tree

Today I'm showing a peel & place decal I made for Oopsy Daisy.  You can find it here

This is great fun for kids!  Their own tree to decorate without any worries about broken glass :0

Feeling Festive

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.  Whoo- things have been busy around here.  Between work, the holiday & guests I've been in overdrive!  (don't get me wrong I think that is my favorite speed)  I'm feeling extra festive this year.  I've got the tree up & decked the halls at home.  I hope it lasts!  Some years I get like this & turn into Scrooge by the middle of the month.  We'll see...  Today I'm showing some Christmas art. I've always enjoyed making holiday themed art.  There are so many traditional & untraditional ways to take it. I think this one would make a pretty tea towel or small dessert plate.

Vroom Vroom Your Lil’ Boys Room

I found this beautiful room browsing through PROJECT NURSERY.
This is a pretty cool site for all things "Nursery".
It's great to see how all the products work together to create a nice space.

Birds of a Feather

Flower, flower, bird, bird, ring, ring, FLOWER
My desk is on the second floor of our studio that overlooks the roof of the porch.  Also in my view is a big oak tree that is almost bare.  Both areas have lots of bird visitors.  I enjoy catching a glimpse of them throughout my day.  (I consider them my coworkers:)

Happy Halloween!

This is a spooky celebration of TYPE.

Tall Fall Flowers

In honor of what froze last night!

It's SCARY close...

Halloween is just one week away!  Are your costumes ready?
This is the first year I have not made Luca's costume.  (with age comes a mind of their own)  He is going to be a ninja. I do plan to bedazzle his stealth, black costume some with bits of metallic shimmer. I need to remember to edit myself so he doesn't end up looking like Liberace or Elvis.  Instead of going all out on his costume he has asked me to make a matching ninja costume for his bear "Beary" who goes almost everywhere with him.  I am more than happy to oblige!

Dreams

Fall Stripe

I love stripes.  They are the perfect vehicle for color!  This is a painted stripe with some etching into the wet paint.  The messier the better.

Urban Fall

I guess I've had cities on my mind lately.  This is Urban Fall.  Painted with gauche, building in colored pencil, charcoal (love that messy stuff!) & pen.

Letter On Blue

Hope you have a great weekend!

The Spaces In Between

painted with gauche

Little Black Book

Over the next week (or so) I am going to post some fall surface design.  No bunnies, butterflies, trucks or over abundance of cuteness.  Just good old fashion patterns.  Let me know what you think.  I am making a point of broadening my repertoire.  I find myself making so much kid appropriate art (which I love) I miss exploring some other stuff too. (need more hours in a day)  Often times I think taking yourself out of the box some brings a newness again once you're back in it.  Oh, by the way this print is called Little Black Book.

NYC

Hello & Happy Monday!  Over the weekend I was looking over some of my old sketch books.  I found lots of New York doodles.  I have such a love hate experience with that city.  Right out of high school in the suburbs of Kansas City (barley 18) I headed to art school at Parsons School of Design in NYC.  I thought I had landed on the MOON!  (it's funny now & I am proud off my yourself for going for it) but at the time it was well.... culture shock!  End of my freshman year I immediately transferred schools to R.I.S.D in Providence.  A place that felt WAY more like home.  Once I graduated I found my way back to NY for several years with my first "real" jobs.  I wouldn't be surprised if I am sucked back there again.  It seems to have some sort of magnetic pull on me.  I love the energy of the city, the people watching, the creativity, the pace & how you can kind of be anybody.  I don't like the lack of trees, the grass, eye contact & space.  (and summer stink- yep don't miss that...)

Traffic Jam

This is a older transportation print I have always liked.  I stumbled across this file this morning while looking for something else.  Made me smile as it visually explains how I feel right now. The urgency to move in about 20 different directions! (but I am still stuck in the garage)

October 1st

Happy Monday & welcome October!  One of my favorite months of the year.  Time to start thinking about that Halloween costume.

Future Children

When I was younger & WAY less busy I used to draw pictures of what I thought my future kids would be like.  This is Lou Lou (complete with a personality profile).  I have dark brown almost black hair so I am not sure why I thought I may end up with a blond child. (adoption perhaps? I still like that idea.) Today, I have a five year old boy -Luca- who strangely enough I often call Lou Lou.  I guess sometimes you just know- but it usually comes with a surprise twist.

Colors of FALL

The shadows are longer, the sky a little bluer, the air crisp & the fall foliage about show an array of color.  It is hard not to love fall!

A Little Book

Since I was a child animals and patterns were two of my favorite things to draw.  Things haven't changed much.  (funny how that works!)  This is a simple small scale book (did you know they call these chunky books?)  that shows the animals name in English, French & Spanish.  Perfect to share with a toddler.

Hummingbird Floral

I planted window boxes off the kitchen last spring.  I packed them full of red geraniums, (for color) mint, lavender, basil & rosemary (for fragrance).   We soon discovered a new friend outside our window in the morning. A beautiful little hummingbird has made daily visits.  We have enjoyed waiting for her to quickly flutter by. This made me want to know more about hummingbirds.  Here are just a few things I found out:
1. They can fly about 25 mph
2. Their favorite color is RED & they like tubular flowers the most
3. They can fly forward, backwards, sideways & even upside down!
4. The eat on average 7 times an hour.
5. They are the tiniest birds in the world.  Their nest is the size of a walnut, a hummingbird egg the size of a small jelly bean.
6. They are SMART!  Hummingbirds remember from year to year flowers & feeders in their territory.

*What wonderful little birds.  To our friend- Thanks for the summer visits.  We'll miss you! Until next year...

FUN!

I received my Marie Claire Idees magazine last week.  I loved this idea- a disco ball in the kitchen.  That would liven up cooking for sure.  We already like to listen to music when we're cooking. (it seems to help get the whole family involved)  I can only imagine the fun a disco ball could bring!  Think I'm going to have to give this a try.

Presidential Portraits

Are you ready for the upcoming election?  You know we are close when you begin to see or hear the candidates on the news on a daily basis.  This is a presidential poster that will be available through Oopsy Daisy in the very near future.  No matter which party you are with this is a fun piece to teach your kids a bit about American history.

Oopsy Daisy Wall Canvas SALE

Hello friends....  I recently did an interview for Oopsy Daisy.  I've made wall art for them for years now.  I always love seeing where it pops up (often times some pretty cool places)!  They also asked me to come up with a craft or creative idea for kids.  Here's a link to the interview http://oopsydaisy.com/jill-mcdonald/  If you visit the Oopsy Daisy home page you'll see they are offering 20% off all stretched canvas art. (August 31st- Sept 3rd)  Shop Away & Happy Labor Day!

Morning Fog

Well we're back from our Disney adventure.  Fun was had by all but it's always nice to come back
home.  This morning it was particularly enjoyable.  We live 3 blocks from the Missouri River.  There is a  park with trails I run on in the morning.  Today it was crisp, foggy & beautiful!  (I love the fog, makes everything look so dreamy & mysterious.)

Birthday Boy

We are heading out tomorrow to take Luca to Disney World.  He will be 5 on Thursday & I can hardly believe how quickly he is growing up.  Seems just like yesterday I thought he was never coming out. (he was 15 days over due...)  We so enjoy watching his interest change, listening to him tell us stories, teaching him new things & well pretty much everything else about him! (said like a mom, right?)  Today I'm showing some birthday art I made years ago.  Enjoy & Happy Birthday to all you Virgos.

(* thought he was going to be a leo like me but, alas he was a couple minutes late)

Happy Little Friday

Do you remember Bob Ross?  I do & when I found this funny little finger puppet on Etsy I laughed (I need to look it back up so I can credit the artist here...)  I remember Saturday's around 11 am being glued to PBS watching The Joy of Painting.  His relaxing voice, his happy little trees, his occasional oval shaped canvas, (even as a child I knew fancy yet wrong) The accepting voice of support that it's all OK. WOW Love him! Sometimes he would bring his son (an adult) on & they would paint together.  Oh, Bob Ross I miss you!

What a World Quilt

I'm currently wrapping up my second fabric collection with P & B Textiles. (available this fall)  I've enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful things people have made.  Antonio recently found this blog http://tiptoetango.com/2012/06/13/what-a-world-featuring-leo-the-lion/

She made a colorful, fun quilt for her son using the What a World fabric.  Take a look. I can't wait to see what people create with the next collection!

Fab Fabric

With all eyes on London lately I wanted to share this really cool vintage fabric.  My friend Gigi collects all sorts of things.  One of them being vintage fabric.  She has bins & baskets full of this kind of eye candy.  I particularly loved these quirky British characters & the fun limited color.  So much variety & humor in this fabric.  Hope you are as charmed as I am with it.

Spotted

While at Target over the weekend I spotted some of my art.  First it's my number print on the car seat.  Next it's the Circo neutral crib set.  This was on display & looked great out of the package.  So fun to walk the store & stumble upon your art.

Fish

Summer fish in the color of the  r a i n b o w.

Olympics

Have you been watching the Olympics?  We have.  One of my favorites to watch has always been gymnastics.  Wow- they are truly AMAZING! Gymnastics is a sport I did for 8 years.  Even as an adult I still love to do handstands or the occasional cartwheel. Today I'm featuring a gymnastic wall art piece I made for Oopsy Daisy. (This piece can be personalized with a child's name)  Check out oopsydaisy.com for more details.

Decal Scenes

A couple days ago I received some of the JM Kids products being introduced this summer.  These are my Peel & Play Decal Scenes. The stickers are made of vinyl so the child can reuse them to create a variety of stories on the back drop.  I think this would be a perfect thing to take along for a little one on a long car drive.  Luca has been enjoying his Town Construction scene.  To find out where you can find these in your area visit crgibson.com

Go Ahead & Scream...

for ice cream of course!  Did you know that July is national ice cream month?  I just discovered this. To honor my new info I plan to have ice cream for lunch.  (*I think I have double chocolate in the freezer.)  You learn something new everyday!

Superstitious

Are you superstitious?  I just noticed it is Friday the 13th.  So far so good... Hope you have a lovely weekend!

The Sea

Currently I'm hard at work on my next picture book for Barefoot Books.  The story is about the sea.  I'm painting sharks, eels, stingrays, crabs, starfish.  If it swims I'm illustrating it!  I spent last Friday with camera in hand at the Kansas City Aquarium for some extra inspiration.  The deadline is right around the corner & this book will be out late Spring 2013.  Like Over in the Meadow Barefoot will create an animated sing along to go with this book.  I am excited! So cool to see your art animated & moving.

4th of July

Hi & Happy 4th of July!  A little later today we are headed to downtown Parkville.  (about one block away)  Every year the town sets up the carnival there.  It is all Luca can bare to see all the rides roll into town & then the next day they are standing tall & twinkling in the night sky. Something about a carnival along with the 4h of July makes me so happy.  Like cake & ice cream!  The piece I'm featuring today is based off this carnival.

Handmade

J is for Jill also July and well lots of other things...  Today I'm showing the personalized mug my friend Gigi made me. She's a wiz at coming up with clever, cost efficient crafts.  She took a plain cup  & transformed it with a pen you can use on ceramics.  My morning coffee taste even better now.  By the way... Can you believe it's JULY already! (where does the time go?)

Zooless

Today we had planned to pick up Luca early from day camp to take an afternoon trip to the zoo.  It's 102 degrees here today so we unanimously decided NOT today.  Instead I'll post some zoo art & set up the sprinkler.  Should do the trick. (keeping a little one busy is no easy task!)

Summer =

FUN, flowers, things that fly & bright vivid color.  Here's a painted floral that's kind of about just that.

Maine

I've always wanted to see Maine.  Tomorrow we will be off to do just that!  I found this painting I made in 2002 when my fascination began.  I know this is a state I could not live in. (I'd don't manage the cold well)  So a summer visit will work perfectly.  I miss hearing a heavy east coast accent from my days living out east.  Can't wait to get my fill of it all.  Goal #1 is to eat lots of lobster!

Arrggh,

Matey- It's MONDAY!  Hope you had a great weekend.