Wrapping things up

Well, the last of my flurry of commissions is almost finished, I'm so happy! I was a little nervous for a minute there that I would be painting all through Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE every minute of it, but I really wanted to put everything aside for a while this year and enjoy time at home with Billy and Ben. So, that's what I'm doing now!

The time for Christmas movies, present wrapping and incessant Christmas music playing is here :)

ADOP spotted in Nicole's house! EEE!

Did anyone see Nicole's (of Making It Lovely) house tour on Young House Love? Well it was pretty amazing, and I also spotted a little gift I made for her wee one! 





Back when I met her at Blog Podium I brought a mini nursery painting for each of her kids. I know, such a kiss-ass....NO, I've been reading MIL since 2007, and I remember when Nicole posted about being pregnant the first time, and the second time, and if you read blogs you know how connected you start to feel to the writer and their family after a while. I know, it's weird, but it's true! Little Eleanor and August are just so cute, and it makes me soooo happy knowing that I have a little painting in each of their rooms!

For August, I did the orange fox pictured. I knew Nicole had designed his room with pops of orange, so I thought this would be perfect. For Eleanor, I knew she loved elephants, so I went with that, and I chose green to go with the new decor Nicole was  putting together for her. 

Anyway, just wanted to share this, I'm sure Nicole is showered with gifts all the time (well-deserved) but she could have just tossed these. I'm thrilled to know they are in her home being enjoyed by her little ones :)

Images via Young House Love

ADOP Donation Painting

My friend Morgan is hosting a Holiday Fair for a local Long Term Care facility and reached out to local friends and business for donations, and I was excited to help! I painted this piece to go in a raffle that will raise money for the residents. I hope they get a couple of bucks for it!



This piece is super textured which is hard to see, there are tons of layers, but it's pretty graphic which I like. I wanted it to be sort of like a messy square, layered over lots of messy scribbles (which is the part that's hard to see). Anyway, although the original will not be available in my Etsy shop, I have uploaded it to my Society6 shop!

Handmade holiday shopping!

Anna over at Door Sixteen posted about supporting handmade/small/local business during the holidays and I think this is such a great idea!



In the spirit of this, I would like to offer all of my blog readers a very special discount code just for you. You can use the code AANDBSTORIES1 at my Etsy shop and you will receive 20% OFF your painting purchase! This is the largest discount I have ever offered and it will be a rare event friends, so take advantage! 

This offer is open until December 10th, 2012. This applies to paintings in my shop and to custom painting requests. Sadly it doesn't apply to anything in my Society6 shop, sorry!

ADOP Throw Pillows are now available!

I'm so, so excited about this. I've actually been trying to source this out for a while and have had some trouble, but Society6 recently launched the functionality to offer throw pillows, and I was all over it!

You can view my full collection of throw pillows here. Most of my pieces are there, and more will be added. I'm also thinking about adding my nursery line too!

Anyway, hope you guys like these! They are pretty reasonably priced (the small cover is only $20) and right now shipping is free until Monday!

Dare I say these are the perfect Christmas gift? ;)

Amazing condo tour with a little pop of ADOP!

One of my clients, Colette, contacted me today to let me know that her home was filmed for House and Home, and that the art she purchased from me could be seen! Hurray!



The entire home tour is stunning, wow, her place is incredible. If you watch closely after about the 3 minute mark you will see an ADOP deer painting in her family room, and a fox in her sons' bedroom. I have to say, Colette's home is exactly the type of home I picture when I create my nursery pieces. They look so perfect in the space! I love seeing this :)

New at ADOP - Winter 2012

After a few weeks of painting during every free minute of the day (of which there are few friends, very few, with this crazy toddler of mine) I've managed to get my act together and post my new line of paintings! Hurray!



You can see these paintings, along with a few more, all in my shop now. There are 15 new pieces all together, yay!

Some of these pieces are inspired by the first few paintings I ever did years ago, but with different colours. I really like this set, there's a sense of nostalgia for me when I look at each one :)

Anyway, sweet Ben will be up any minute so I'd better get going. Thanks for listening! :)

ADOP - One year later + branding stuff + news

I have a few updates that I wanted to post so I decided to to one monster post. That way if you're totally uninterested it's very easy to just ignore this and move on with your day. See, I'm always thinking of you.

+ + +

Part One - A year later



A little while ago I passed my one year anniversary with ADOP. Woah. Years go by way too fast when you're counting them, I can't stand it. But, a year it has been, and there have been some pretty awesome little milestones for me during this time. To name a few:

• Officially opened ADOP on October 5th, 2011
• Made my first sale within just hours of opening
• Sold three pieces to a production company back in November of 2011 to be seen in this movie. (No, I haven't mentioned that yet because it was so long ago and I didn't want to jump the gun, but it happened...I can't WAIT to see it!)
• Launched my kids line of paintings which has now officially been more successful than my abstract line 
• Opened a Society6 shop for prints, iphone cases, etc.
• Had my first (and second) art show at The Grey Room
• Had three shops contact me to have ADOP carried in their stores (a little more on this later).
• Was mentioned in Hamilton Magazine, Style at Home, House & Home, and a ton of other really amazing design/kids/lifestyle blogs (thanks everyone!)
• Sold two pieces to a production company to appear somewhere in Season 6 of Mad Men (still in shock over this one)
• And lastly, as of yesterday, I sold my 100th painting between direct Etsy sales and private commissions. Yep, 100. Ok, so maybe it's not that good, but I remember vividly thinking I would never sell a single piece, so to have sold 100 in my first year is way beyond what I thought I could do and I am very very proud :)

It hasn't been all sunshine and daisies. One of my paintings was destroyed in transit (it was just a fluke, everyone was reimbursed and I made a new one for the client, but it sucked). Also, a local gallery scammed me - they sold a painting of mine and refused to pay me for it (currently working on my claim), and THAT sucked. But, it's been almost all great things for ADOP, and I love my little shop :)

Ok, enough about that. Sorry if this sort of thing comes across as self-indulgent, I mean for this blog to be like a living history of bits of our lives, and this is a big part of it now, so I can't help it!

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Part Two - Branding Package

This is a bit of my current branding/marketing bits, and a few people have asked about where I get things so I thought I would share it here. I'm a Marketing graduate so this kind of thing is my fav.

My logo design is all done by me...it could not be more simple so I whipped it up pretty easily. I recently redesigned my Dad's logo too, I guess it's just like a weird nerdy hobby of mine.

My business cards and thank you cards are printed through Vistaprint. I LOVE that place, they always have crazy sales and the prices are great. Now this is not good if you want the letterpress neon sided cards, this is your average business card that may not be Alt-approved, but if you get the thickest stock they offer it's pretty good. With my simple design it works just fine, and I just bought 1000 for $20, free shipping. Love that. 

The tags and shipping labels are just printed at home using cardstock and labels. So simple. 

I order my twine from The Baker's Twine. They used to be on Etsy and it's been so long since I've ordered this stuff I just realized that they aren't anymore. But, still, great stuff, great price.

My custom pencils are something that I include with every purchased painting, and I order them from Ebay. I really love them and have had great customer feedback about them!

As for the stickers, I won't disclose this because I'm actually quite unhappy with them. I ordered them from an Etsy shop and the colour smudges right off. Not good. So, I'm on the hunt for a new sticker supplier. If anyone knows of one, please share!

+ + +

Part Three - Some news




Lastly, I wanted to share that ADOP has custom paintings available on By April and May! I loooove the April and May blog, and when Jantine approached me about creating some paintings just for her shop I was over the moon. Be sure to visit her shop and buy something!

NOTE: Yes, I realize that I come across as times as a little sales-y at times, and I would like to state for the record that I have NEVER been paid or asked to write about anything I write about. I'm just that girl who gets all excited about her stuff and wants everyone else to go buy one. I don't know why. But, this is a 100% ad/sponsor free blog, so don't be mad at me.

Ok guys, that's enough out of me. Thanks for reading for those of you who stuck it out (Mom).

ADOP on Mad Men

The other day I was contacted about two paintings, a normal enough occurrence. However, this particular sale ended up being to a production company in LA who intends on using them on the set of Season 6 of Mad Men. MAD MEN. Um, what?



They have selected these two paintings, and the release forms have all been signed and submitted, so this is real people. Oh. My. god.



Now, surely they could very well end up being paintings in one of the restaurants Don and Roger take clients to, never to be seen again. Do I care? Um, no. It's still cool that they chose my work, regardless of where it ends up. I do believe that this is the most exciting moment in ADOP history to date. Woo hoo!!!

It's going to be an eternity (at least for me) before Season 6 is on, but I will be glued to the tv to try to spot them. Lucky for me I LOVE this show and have watched it religiously for years, so it's hardly a tough task. Now, if I can just convince Billy to be Don Draper for Halloween one of these years (and I will be Betty of course, not Megan. Although I do like Megan, I will always, always love Betty).

New Fall Line at ADOP - Modern Abstract Paintings

It's September! I LOVE the fall. I must say, I'm not 100% ready for sweaters and mittens just yet, but I'll get there. It's my absolute favourite season.

I wanted to add something new to my abstract line for the fall, and I've been working on a few pieces over the past month or so. Last night I finally got them all listed in my Etsy shop, so I thought I would share them here as well!



These pieces are a little different for me...usually my painting process is fairly methodical, but I wanted to do something a little more free, so I just started painting and went with it. SO much fun.





I've also added the iPhone cases to my Society6 shop too of course!



Anyway, that's all for now. Hope you all have a great start to your week!

Modern Baby Goodies

This week I've been finishing up a little batch of ADOP nursery painting commissions that came in, it's been so much fun! I love all the different colour requests that I get. I am partial of course to this one, loooove the black and white.



All of these nursery requests have had be thinking a lot about Ben's room and the cute little things out there that I would love to get. Of course I turned to Etsy and found some of the cutest finds for modern babies. I created a little treasury of them, take a look!



You can look at any of these shops through the treasury list. They are all amazing!

ADOP...more on the way

I've been busy painting away over here and will soon have a new little batch of paintings to add to the shop. Here's a little sneak peak!



Some new nursery characters are coming as well, they are just too much fun to do!

ADOP End of summer sale

I'm having a little end of summer sale! You can get 15% off your ADOP order with the coupon code 'SUMMER12' from now until August 20th. I will also apply the sale to any commission requests received before that date. 

Happy shopping!

Note: Sorry if the use of 'end of summer' depresses you, it depressed me too. 

I'm in Hamilton Magazine!

If you follow me on Instagram then this is old news (story of my life) but I have a little mention in the Summer issue of Hamilton Magazine! SO excited!!



I'd like to thank the editor of Hamilton Magazine, Marc Skulnick, as well as Stephanie Trendocher and Jacklyn Warmington (The Beaux Mondes) for contacting me and including me in the magazine! So humbled and honoured!

A new painting, and more coming soon!

Hello friends! I posted this painting in the shop the other day and I thought I'd share it here too. Yes, I'm still obsessed with black and white. I don't see an end in sight to this love either. I've been pretty busy with commissions lately (and two more came in today, yay!) but I'm hoping to pick up more canvas soon and get a few larger pieces in the shop. I am also hoping to learn to function on 2-3 hours of sleep so I can get more done at night...people totally seem to do that all the time, right? HOW??

ADOP /// Fun custom nursery painting

Not too long ago I shipped out this custom nursery painting to a client who was looking for something very specific. She was looking for a modern shaped apple with the phrase "You are the apple of my eye." written below. I love how it turned out! 








Oh, it's so much fun painting for kids's rooms and nurseries. I have so many ideas of things I want to do for my kids line. JUST NEED MORE TIME. I'd probably free up quite a bit if I'd stop whining about never having time. I should try that.

A few new pieces in ADOP

Well tonight I have been busy adding some new pieces to the shop, and yes, I'm on a black-and-white-only kick. I've come full circle. Don't worry, colour will make it's return. 


I'm experimenting with new nursery paintings (the bottom row are designed for nurseries and kids' spaces, though they could work anywhere really). Have some more ideas that I hope to work on soon for this line. Oooh how I love painting. Love love love.


Anyway, it's way past my bed time. Sorry for the bursts of posts followed by days of nothingness. Summer has gotten the better of me. 

ADOP at the Art Crawl

Well, it happened! My first art show can officially be added to my 99% blank artist CV. I definitely think I'll do it again if I have the chance! I LOVED Grey Room Design Studio, and it's owner, Melissa. Her studio is in this super cool building that used to be Hamilton Hotel and is now all studio space. I want to live there. Like for real.


Anyway, here are a few pics of the night, the gallery and the Art Crawl. (Please excuse the blur, I'm still trying to use manual mode and clearly failing at it).





(Nerd alert).





My father. The original artist.





Thanks Rach for coming all the way from TO!





More of Hamilton Hotel. LOVE.





Mixed Media. Coolest art shop!





Finally got to the Design Annex. Gorg.





Mulberry Cafe.





James Street.





Blurriest photo ever.


This was the first Art Crawl that I've been too and it was really fun! It was so cool to go to an event that brought people of all ages and all walks of life together. My parents came down with me and at first we had Ben there, and there were tons of people with babies all night! So cute.


Again I just want to thank my family and friends for stopping in to see my paintings, I have the best fam/friends ever. This was a pretty nerve-racking experience for me but overall I'm really happy I did it. And, I'm more inspired than ever to paint. More to come!!!