Do you have a tiny dancer who is performing in the Nutcracker? My daughter used to do ballet and she was in the Nutcracker twice. The Nutcracker Ballet is a lovely holiday tradition. I've taken my "Clara's Nutcracker Ballet" print from spoonflower and made four tea towels that fit on one yard of linen cotton canvas. You can make four tea towels (all the same design or one each of the four combined on one yard) on each yard of fabric to help celebrate your holiday traditions and add some ballet cheer to your holiday kitchen! Dance on!

Visit my spoonflower links for my Nutcracker collection and Tea Towels collections.

Color and more color...I love to play with different color ways and see how different a design looks in each! Here is my Deco Garden tea towel in gray and green colors. I've got my sample swatch on the way and I will be ordering this one and the citrus palette for my kitchen. 

I couldn't resist one more color grouping. I was thinking of a kitchen, two houses ago, where I had my cobalt blue kitchenmaid mixer on the counter and lots of warm orange and gold colors in the decorating. The jewel tone towel would have been the right choice for that kitchen. 

If you'd like to see these and more, check out my spoonflower shop!

I love old mason jars. The beautiful aqua blue of the glass reminds me of sea-glass and retro kitchens. When spoonflower.com had a competition with the theme of "spoons" I thought it would be fun to have the colorful plastic ones waiting for a bowl of ice cream at an afternoon party, displayed in lovely mason jars. Since then I created a set of tea towels using the party spoons and mason jars that fits an assorted four designs on one yard of linen cotton canvas. I recently updated the calendar tea towel for 2017. 

You can find the group of four together on my spoonflower shop link here or find them individually and see other tea towel designs in my tea towel collections page.
Thanks for visiting my spoonflower shop!
​http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/robinpickenswww.spoonflower.com/profiles/robinpickens

These are some alternate color palettes for my Hawaiian Pineapple Tiki design. I know if I were wearing a Hawaiian shirt, I'd probably go for more of the teal colors mixed with warmer greens (than the original color palette that was specified by spoonflower.) Now for coordinates... Visit my spoonflower shop for more designs!
#SFWeeklyDesign #HawaiianPineapples

Today my experiment is with pinterest and a format that is good for pinning. With social media having different requirements in different places, I think it's a good idea to try out some tests. So excuse any duplication...I'm learning!

Another new thing I'm experimenting with is the spoonflower weekly design prompts. I loved the weekly contests they used to have. There was a wonderful sense of community, camaraderie and support with the comments people would leave on your designs for that week. It was great to see the variety of solutions people came up with for a theme. Often as I would go through the weekly voting, I'd be delighted by the unexpected perspectives and the gorgeous solutions the other designers had entered. It was a fun activity and a chance to experiment and push yourself to do new work or try new styles. I am sad that spoonflower is no longer doing the weekly challenges. They have larger, monthly ones with other sponsors, and although that is a good challenge as well, I miss the structure and the feeling that you didn't have to be too precious with the weekly one. Spoonflower has now started doing weekly design prompts that encourage people to share on social media. There is no "gathering place" to see all the entries on the spoonflower website at this point, but I am hopeful there will be at some point to replace the community that happened with the weekly contests. But I am also hoping the silver lining to this change is that I stretch myself in my social media and experiment and explore other avenues of sharing outside of spoonflower's site.

Back to the design prompt. This week's theme was to create a pattern that could be used on a hawaiian shirt using a limited color palette that spoonflower provided. I think I will experiment with some other color palettes (with a more muted green)  but I am happy with the pineapples and tropical feel. I mocked up this shirt using the Negroni shirt pattern on sproutpatterns.com. If you'd like to see more, see my shop page on spoonflower. #SFWeeklyDesign #pineapple #hawaiianshirt

Modern. Southwest. Baby bedding. That is the challenge with Spoonflower and Carousel Designs this week. As I was pondering what to do, I kept thinking of the unique and interesting shapes of cactuses - they seem so representative of the southwest - and I wondered "can cactuses ever be cute and cuddly?" So I set out to make modern and appealing cactuses that you wouldn't feel bad putting a smiling baby down on for a nap. Also I love the geometric patterns of ceramic tiles and wanted to keep that bold pattern feel for visual stimulation for babies. I've included a collage of cactus and tiles in a one-yard cheater baby quilt. I used the crib image from Carousel Design's website to see how my patterns could work in a baby's world.
Visit http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/4083311 to see the bumper pattern or visit my shop to see the whole collection of "Cactus Garden."

Woo Hoo! It's never to late to celebrate! Whether it's Dia de los Muertos or Halloween candy hangover or just a love of all things skulls...have fun with some sugar skulls! SOCIETY 6 is having a great promotion of $5 off things in my shop AND FREE worldwide shipping!! Use this link: http://society6.com/rpickens?promo=9YJF73TD2JPT

Just working on these yoga girls has brought a smile to my face and a sense of calm to my day. I love a reminder of the things that ground you, the things that help you keep balance, the things that bring you peace of mind, clarity, and health. Isn't this what we all need as we rush around with holiday activities?

I'm happy to present my yoga girls line in my Society6 shop. There are a variety of poses with blooming inspiration growing from each. And now, perfect for the holidays, Society6 is offering a promotion through December 8th. By using the link here, http://society6.com/RPickens?promo=37095a you can get $5 off each product and free shipping. Please note, this promotion is only available through the above link.

Promotion expires December 8, 2013 at Midnight Pacific Time. *Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

Some of the items available include mugs, phone cases, iPad and laptop covers and skins, tshirts, hoodies, tank tops, totes, pillows (with or without inserts) and wall art. I hope you like them!

Namaste.

I'm enjoying my new "drinkblots" coasters at my desk today. These coasters absorb water and come in sets of 24 different designs. I love them! And I love that they are reusable and recyclable (AND made in the USA). I finally got some pictures of my new collections that are available. I'm fortunate to have two lines with Studio M, the maker of drinkblots (and part of the wonderful Magnet Works family). The first set is "Summer Garden" and is a collection of birds, butterflies, flowers, and patterns in blues, greens and purples. Fresh and cool. The second collection is "Nature Lover" with images from my modern lodge collection. Just the style for a fishing trip, the mountain vacation home, or just remembering the beauty and serenity of our forests and lakes. Have fun enjoying a different image with each coaster you use.

I've been asked where you can order drinkblots. They are available through a number of retail stores. The company Flag Fables carries the whole line and has online ordering. If you are interested in "Summer Garden" (http://www.flagfables.com/product-p/mc-db11327.htm) or "Nature Lover" (http://www.flagfables.com/product-p/mc-db11351.htm) or any of the other inspiring artist collections of drinkblots, check out http://www.flagfables.com/category-s/386.htm.

A toast to artful homes! 

Another showroom from the Atlanta Gift Show... METcolors. They have a variety of my artwork for wall art, including images from my Seize the Day inspirational art. METcolors offers art as stretched canvas and as printed wipe-off dry erase boards. So for the space below the image and inspiration, you can write your notes, shopping list, messages to the family... all in style!