in your state!

here is a special treat - order a single state to represent you, or! send to someone in the same state but who is still kinda far away and you miss them a lot.

order holiday cards now!!!

yes! do it! http://kaitlinhoward.etsy.com

bear

come on, seriously?

holiday

holiday cards are coming soon!

it's artichoke season!

stuffed artichokes and me really get along.

been a while!

it's been two months since i've posted so i thought i'd drop a line. i'm back in upstate new york... job searching, working on simply stated and getting ready to launch them into stores. horray! it's been a little hectic getting back into the swing of things, but its coming along. i'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to get state to state cards into stores since custom orders are so specific. they sell the most on etsy... so i have some thinking and planning to do! if anyone has any suggestions i am totally open to them!

here is an order i had on etsy sent from georgia to iraq. i was really honored to have a card sent there... more coming soon!

stars

don't want hearts? choose stars! visit my etsy page and custom order your states, colors, me's and you's! http://kaitlinhoward.etsy.com

recently my dad was in chicago for my 24th birthday, it was a blast. we did lots of chicago things (architecture tour, sox game, second city comedy club - highly recommended, and of course lots of eating and drinking). we also took a trip up to lauderdale lakes in wisconsin to spend time with my favorites (aunt linda, uncle pete, mary, and peter). always a blast.

bears

found myself drawing tonight... here are some new card ideas (with bears)

countries!

soon on my etsy page you will find cards with countries! above is united states/london and the virginia/brazil card was an order which got me started. more to come <3

new states

washington, tennessee, oregon, rhode island... more coming soon!

june

since the end of may i've been home twice, once for a wedding and to visit with family and the second to surprise my mom for her birthday. i hadn't been home since christmas and both times were equally as fun. here are some shots from my visit last week.

mexican themed birthday party

camping

also, here are some new birthday cards i've come up with. visit my etsy page to see more! http://kaitlinhoward.etsy.com

birdie friends

i had fun making these little guys this morning while looking outside at the cloudy-ness that is memorial day. i am a very happy girl though - it's my first day not working in a week and i finally have a chance to do some drawing (+ cleaning + packing). last weekend i was in milwaukee visiting the garofalo's and got to see mary go to prom and petey get confirmed. it was a lovely time! here's everyone... i miss them so!

i'll be posting more on etsy today... birthday cards and what-not. hopefully sometime in june i will have my cards at gracie*s on harwood ave in wawautosa. laura, the co-owner of jilly & george where i worked last summer, just opened in may after the closing of J&G and the space is adorable!

wednesday i'm heading home for about six days and absolutely can't wait for tess's pesto, mike's cocktails, annie's kisses and maxi's shenanigans.

tata for now!

a drawing a day

i'd like to try to do a drawing a day. a friend said to me when i was in a creative rut, "just do something creative, ANYTHING, for an hour a day. it's only an hour!" i've been trying hard to stick to it and it really does keep those creative juices flowing. so if you can't find an hour, 5 minutes will do.

here's a little sheep...

i'm on etsy!

i'm finally on etsy so check it out. http://kaitlinhoward.etsy.com


so i'm selling my cards will the heart illustrations. you can order one, six, or twelve. if you want other quantities, that's okay too, just contact me and i will figure it out and get them out to you!

also, if you have an idea for a card or a drawing you would like me to do, don't hesitate to ask! the point of simply stated is to customize them to YOUR liking whether it's states, colors, or the message inside.

love,
kait

flame within a flame

watched eagle vs. shark yesterday and thought it was great. anyone who loves jemaine clement as much as i do should check it out, and loren horsley is adorable. i guess i gotta keep creating or else i'll just die.

looking forward to going home in 3 weeks to see the faces i love the most.

whats goin on

this week i have been house/cat sitting for a coworker from art effect. she has an amazing apartment in lincoln park and i've never met a more friendly cat. he is quite a lover. this is tiger.

besides hanging at a house that doesn't belong to me, relaxing and playing scrabble, i have been working on an illustration and editorial layout assignment for an internship i got back in february for an arts and culture magazine. i will basically be laying out articles and doing some drawings if they let me. it isn't too time consuming which is nice but it's something to work on. also, i've been working on a greeting card line "simply stated" which will resemble the valentine cards below.

hopefully in the near future they will be on etsy for custom orders along with the knitted cowls. check out this yarn!

thats all for now... we're all waiting for winter to be over in chicago.
check back soon!

new projects

here are some projects i just finished this week in milwaukee. i took the train up about a week and a half ago to stay with my cousins mary and peter while my aunt and uncle went away. to my surprise my mom came! needless to say i was one happy girl. so, thanks to a lot of relaxing and movie watching i was able to get a ton of knitting done.

valentines

just wanted to share some love!

antler scarf

a scarf for richie.

please don't clean my shoes

here you'll find new work, other things, stuff, and things of that nature.

since i've lived in chicago there have been few things that have been weird enough to tell about. funny things have happened, unexpected and lovely things have taken place but never quite this strange (except for one crazy train ride to milwaukee). last night when i got in a cab to go home there was some confusion when i told the driver my cross streets. i told him which way to go, where to take a left and how many streets down approximately. he said it was his first week which was why he wasn't familiar with where i was going. i asked him if he liked it to which he replied he did, he was learning, like any job. before driving cabs he said he used to clean shoes and asked me where i got my shoes cleaned. i told him i never had my shoes cleaned before but that i had a nice pair of leather boots i had been meaning to get touched up. he explained to me that he still cleaned shoes on the side which helped him pay for food because as a cabby you only make what you make in tips. a dollar here, a dollar there went towards his groceries. he even said that he would give people rides and then clean their shoes, maybe three or four customers a day and that riders would give him their leftover food from lunch or dinner, and that way he said, he didn't feel like a beggar. i told him it sounded like he had met some generous people.

we pull up to my corner and i said 'this is good thank you' but instead he said he was going to turn the corner and park. i was confused but i was hoping he was just pulling over to get out of the way of traffic. so he's driving further down my street which i didn't understand, pulls over, parks, and gets out. with a rag. he opens my door and i asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to clean my shoes. i told him there must have been some miscommunication, i didn't say i wanted you to clean my shoes!

he insisted it would only take a minute, put your shoe on my knee, and honestly, i didn't know say. the cabby was now kneeling down in the middle of the road, in the snow, in 5 degree weather, at 9 o'clock at night, cleaning my boots with some rag. and he said "see? their dirty." i was stuck between pity and anger. he had been buttering me up the whole ride talking about his lack of food and each dollar bill going towards food and people giving him their leftovers. i felt for him but i never said ok clean my shoes while its dark on my quiet street. i took note of the fact that while i am sitting in the cab with both feet out the door with my hands full the meter was still ticking away. when he was done i was polite but flustered and dropped my bag. my mango flew out and rolled away and i had to ask him to turn around and pick it up because i couldn't reach around him. i was not going to let that mango get away. i was looking forward to that mango.