hummingbird: a tattoo design!

hello beautiful people! today i have another custom drawing for you. this was for my best friends sister. she sent me an image of a hummingbird she saw and wanted me to add some flowers around it. she is getting it on the inside of her bicep so i couldn't go too big. i ended up tweaking the hummingbird she sent me a bit so that it flowed a bit better.

she should be getting the tattoo soon and i hope her artist doesn't change too much of the design. one of the things i find hard right now is that since i am doing everything over the internet i can't proper measure people so when they do take my designs in to get tattooed there is going to be some tweaking and moving of things. most people understand that. when i start tattooing myself that won't be an issue anymore :) i have a few updates about that, which i will post about soon. i am so excited! i am improving each time which instead of being hard on myself i am encouraging myself and able to see the improvements rather then see the negative. i think as an artist that can be really hard. either way i am happy and keeping my chin up!
xo,
cb

a sleeve of florals

howdy everyone! we weren't able to take our poor little computer into the dr's this weekend, tom had a side project that he needed my assistance with instead. working on your day off is rubbish! rubbish, i tell you! but hopefully we can get it looked at soon and figure out what the problem is. until now blogging on the ipad isn't so bad.

i wanted to share with you today the sleeve design i have been working on. it is my first piece that the client wanted shading and color. i really love how it came out and really happy with the color and shading. it was great practice too so when i start tattooing and someone wants a tattoo designed by me and shading i know how to shade my own designs. after this i have 3 more tattoo designs to work on. one being my friends first tattoo! i am soo excited for her!!
xo,
cb

life lately...

hi everyone! hope everyone had a great weekend. here is what i have been up to since not working but good news, i start working again thursday!

we didnt take many pictures, shame on us but the seats were so awesome! i really wish we got a picture of the awesome couples in front of us!

>>>went to an a's game with tom thursday night! tickets were $12 for field level seats which are normally around $30-$40! super score! we were really close, the a's won and the cutest pair of die hard fans sat in front of us. they knew all the venders, the guest service people, security and the tv crew, throughout the entire game, people were giving them hugs and chatting it up with them. they have been going to every game for years and sit at the same four seats. i want to be them!

>>>many many cuddles with rosie. she has been such a cuddle bug recently! i am not sure what has gotten into her but i don't want it to end! never ever.

she was having a blast!!

clemie squirming away wanting to swim!

i love this picture of tom and i

>>> more lake time!!!!!!! invited kelly-anne and the family to the swimming lagoon and had a blast! clemie was so adorable. we ate lots of yummy food, hung out in the sun and played around in the water. good times and i can't to do it again!

>>> working on some new ideas for the shop and working on a new tattoo design.

kelly-anne got me this pin, isn't it perfect!

>>> packing, packing, packing for our camping trip! we left sunday afternoon and are currently there right now and will be back tomorrow. so nice to get away for a few days!

what have you been up to lately?

xo,
cb

currently i...

turquoise nails, turquoise top, turquoise vw bug...i don't think i could be any more turquoise unless i painted myself....hmmm

>>> am working on a tattoo design

>>> am gearing up for a client meeting to discuss her wedding invitations

>>> am loving my morning coffee in our new record lounge

>>> am enjoying the sweet sweet ass bliss that i have four days off from work

>>> am loving the package that just arrived that i bought for my birthday <3

>>> am enjoying my new tattoo, every time i look at my wrist, i smile.

>>> am packing for a weekend trip up north to go camping for a few days.

>>> am loving the show, river monsters (thanks kelly anne for tell us about it) seriously soo good but it makes me not want to EVER to go the amazon river.

>>> enjoying the fact that for 4 days i don't have to look or lift another rug (for those of you who don't know i work at a really cool rug store) this week was from hell! like being stuck at the gym for 8 hours kinda hell. yea....

have a great weekend everyone. over and out.
xo,
cb

cuckoo time...a tattoo!

 hi! i am super super excited to show you the latest tattoo design i did for the lovely kate over at wake up, kate. she was a pleasure to work with and i just loved her idea!

whenever i first have an idea, i do tiny little sketches of the idea in different styles and then do little detail drawings of the aspects i know i love. i sent kate a bunch of little sketches along with seperate drawings for the hummingbird.

once she decided on a shape and bird, i did a full scale drawing for her and then from there we tweaked it so that it was perfect for her.

she is getting the tattoo in a month and i can't wait to see it. it is always really exciting to see the final inked drawing and what the tattoo artist brings to my design. remember cayce's bird design? well, she just got it inked and it looks incredible! her tattooist did a great job and i love what she did with the color.

in other news....i met with a gallery director for a up coming show in may and they picked my floral peices! i am currently working on some more designs to add to the show. this is my first show ever and i am more then thrilled. right now, my heart is so full and happy. it feels like a dream come true!
xo,
cb

bits and peeks

well, hello everyone and happy monday! i hope everyone had an excellent weekend. here are bits and pieces of our weekend!

finished up a recent tattoo design that i will show later this week. also updated my tattoo design portfolio and will be slowly adding more.

did some thrifting. hit the mother load of crocheted hangers, an illustrated flower book and some embroidery wall art! good times! i will showing the most magical find of all the later this week too!

found some plastic dinosaurs and added them to our succulent garden. they are so cute! if any one has any they want to get rid of let a girl know :)

a glimpse of what i wore thrifting. a new lace dress from urban and my oh so favorite clogs!

made a fort at work. we spent the night there friday night. it was soo much fun! we had to be up so early for the bike ride and the train doesn't start running till 6am which is when we needed to be at the start of the ride.

we didn't finish our 80 mile ride. we turned back about half way, it was pouring rain and tom and i were both soaked to the bone, even though we had rain gear. we didn't have anything for our shoes so we road for 6 hours with wet feet and wet clothes. it was cold and we were pretty numb to the core. it was a bit disappointing but at least we tried which is all that matters!

hunger games! my mom picked us up and we had a great time. it was sooo much better then i thought and left the movie a super happy little clam :)

>>> what isn't pictured: swimming at the gym, watching the entire first episode of downton abbey and eating pho after our long wet ride. it was a great weekend despite the cold wet ride!

tell me about your weekend?
xo,
cb

a perfect tattoo for spring and a winner!

happy thursday! today i am doing my taxes, oy vey and i hope it doesn't hurt too much but i will be happy to get them over and done with it.

i am super excited to share with you another tattoo design that was done for the wonderful and super sweet cayce. she was such a pleasure to work with and i really enjoyed drawing her something special. i always get excited when someone wants birds AND flowers!

i came up with 3 sketches for her and the first one i did she LOVED. let me tell you, tracing paper is my best friend, it makes my life so much easier because it makes it easier to sketch out an idea, is easy to erase and if i don't like something but certain elements i can just trace over what i have already done and move on to another idea.

cayce is getting the outline done on march 11th and i can not wait, as i am sure she can't either. getting tattooed is so much fun. i will for sure share it here on the blog. currently on my flickr i am putting together a portfolio so it is easier to show my work there rather then refer to blog posts. there is just never enough time in a day to get everything done!

doing all these designs is giving me the itch! i gotta make my birthday tattoo appointment asap. any furture tattoo's in your horizon?

>>>> oh and can't forget....the giveaway winner is...... ROSE! congrats girl! email me your address and we will ship off your presents!<<<<

xo,
cb

home is wherever im with you...a tattoo!!

hi and oh happiest of thursday to you all! first, off i want to thank everyone regarding my post yesterday. this community is so wonderful and i am so happy to be a part of it, thank you.

 today i am super duper excited to share with you a design i just completed. as some of you know i just recently started offering tattoo design. a bit ago the lovely larissa emailed me about getting a tattoo design.

 we discussed what she wanted, she sent me images of things she liked and then i got down to business. i did about 4-5 rough sketches of the idea i had in mind and then sent those to her to have a looksy. the last drawing i did ended up being my favorite and hers too.

 
 i was so happy. it is always so nerve racking to put yourself out there and have people view your work, even now as i am typing this i am nervous about sharing but i love doing this so much i just can't help but share.

i had so much fun designing larissa's tattoo. what i love about drawing tattoo's for others is that it opens me up to designing things that i normally wouldn't draw. as an artist we always need to be challenged otherwise we can never grow. that also goes for being just a human too, if we don't challenge ourselves we can never discover new things about ourselves.

life as an artist is an interesting and wonderful journey even with all the stress & nervous butterflies i get about expressing myself through my work it is all worth it and i wouldn't have it any other way.

xo,
cb

a start of a beautiful dream

before the year ended i looked back on my year of 2011 and my list of 28 things to do. we had a lot of fun, did new things and basically had a really really great year. for this year i want to make mine and tom's dream start. this is the start of a beautiful dream.

for my new *list* i wanted to make it more goal orientated and do things that make me happy. tom and i someday would like a little family of our own but right now we are just not in the right place. we have dreams of chickens, bees and gardens, a HUGE room for tom to tinker with bikes and a great place for us to have a studio to be creative and happy, not that we aren't already, but to continue on that path of happiness. this is what we want and i am so so happy that we both are on the same wave length.

i have had to work hard for what i have, i am thankful to have had a mother who started me off in the creative world but i have had to work hard on what i do with my creativity, thus my new list for 2012. i wanted to be able to see my goals and fun things to keep us active so i cut out each of them and hung them over my desk so i can be reminded of them each day.

tom and i are adventurous people and we always know how to fun so i have sprinkled the list with a few things i want to do in 2012 but mainly it is a list of goals i want to start and hopefully accomplish in the near future not necessarily within a year. i by no means hold myself to any list. to me a list is like a journal entry, a way to get out all the things in my head. it is also nice to have a reminder of certain things.

my main goal for my future is narrowing down my crafts. i feel like a jack of all trades and not sure yet what i want to focus on. it is kinda daunting, how to begin on that journey?? i am not sure. do i try all types of things and see what works, what gives me the most joy and happiness?  often times i get really excited about an idea try it and then move onto the next thing. i think my next step is to write out all the things i enjoy doing and take it from there....i am excited for this journey and i know i can do it, i just have to be patient with myself and take things slowly. like they say, rome wasn't built in a day, if it was well then shit people, i'm screwed. hehe

i can say that i have already checked of two things off my list i made, my new blog design, yay! and another i will post about on thursday!

ALSO, since i am narrowing down my crafts and tattoo design is a HUGE part of what makes me happy, i am now offering tattoo design. check out the link at the top of the page!

don't forget that you can take 20% off my shop the entire month of January!


xo,
cb