As a Lover of Both Wine & Animals...

Earlier this week in my online travels, I discovered CritterWines. This is a compendium of labels with animals prominently displayed on various wine labels truly for sale.

The label shown to the right was a faux label that I designed several years ago depicting my contemporized grape bunch with Bacchus' name as the winery. This was one of the very first motifs beyond the CalligraphyPets line.

And now, I have a few ideas brewing... stay tuned on CreativeGoddess to learn how you can be a part of a new series.

St. Valentine's Day: A Giveaway Surprise

I can't help but to feel generous this time of year; it doesn't have the pressures that the year-end holidays do.

I'm hosting a St.Valentine's Giveaway on CreativeGoddess and you'll want to sign up. Send your mom! Send your SO! Send your friends!


Contest Ends Thursday, February 14.

Chinese Zodiac: A Giveaway!!

In honor of Chinese Zodiac on Thursday, February 7, we are hosting a giveaway. If your name is called, you get to choose a free signed unframed print from our Chinese Zodiac collection.

Go to the Chinese Zodiac Giveaway now.

Contest ends Thursday, February 7th!

Addiction + Living With Creatives

I've just written a lengthy post about how in addition to basic elements of Maslow's theory (food, shelter, etc), the artist drive to make art is not an option, but a necessity. The non-artist partners of creatives have a hard time understanding the concept of addiction and how it is related to art making.

So, when does the need to create become an obsession? A vice? Or worse, an addiction?

You'll have to read more about my solution to the whole vice/addiction scenario on CREATIVEGoddess.

Thanks for reading!

Suede Sundae

This weekend, Andrew and I went shopping for more bundles of suede. Wow, we got some delicious colors and I can't wait to get started.

I love the feel of suede. I had fun incorporating bubbles in the form of Swarovski crystals to this koi last week. He's now available in my ETSY Shop

Luxe Suede Handcrafted Painted Journal with Koi

Studio News: Licensed with Thirstystone!

We've got an announcement for all you wine lovers out there... we've launched a partnership with Thirstystone, a manufacturer of fine coasters this year. Thirstystone has uncorked 2 collections from us: Wine and Paisley!



Thirstystone Wine Coasters

I like the way the new wine series looks, I may just have to use them as wall decor!!



Thirstystone Paisley Coasters

I like the way the paisley beckons for a glass of homemade lemonade.

More on the press release.

Luckenbooth Heart

As an influence from our honeymoon and a symbol of our wedding, I have redesigned the Luckenbooth Heart to befit any home.

Luckenbooth Heart
Befitting for the most intense romances with a significant other or oneself, this new blazen beauty in red signifies royal love. Adorn your special space with this crown and glory.

Luxe Suede Handcrafted Painted Journal
I couldn't help myself, I had to find a way to put brush to suede. I love how the Luckenbooth Heart turned out, so I added a few Swarovski Crystals to make the crown pop.

An original painting with metallic golds on luxurious red suede that includes my small kanji stamp in the corner; it also comes with a small certificate of authenticity.

I'm rather in love with this piece but thought you might like it, too.

You can find both in CalligraphyPets

Studio News: WinterIce OLE Watercolor Sterling Pendants

Introducing WinterIce
Water is like the stream of creativeness, refreshing the spirit and awakening up new forces. -A. Rakauskas

Awaken and refresh your spirit with an ECStewart original one-of-a-kind watercolor! These fabulous pendants are inspired by the beauty of nature and the stream that flows within.

Inspired by my travels to a much colder climate and my love for water and crystals, I've had a little fun with watercolors recently. While it seems like a departure from my usual tight calligraphic renderings, this allows me to enrich my work by applying a little freedom in the studio and bringing it to you.

These little beauties are original, one-of-a-kind limited edition original watercolor set in sterling silver bezel (30mm), sealed with resin that magnifies the flowing spirit and harmonized with a Swarovski crystal that represents the solid form of water. This small masterpiece hangs on a 18" sterling silver chain.


Right now, you can find them on ETSY because the limited edition is easier to keep track -I wouldn't want folks to double purchase my pieces when I'm not looking!

Owls & Designaholics

I'm a designaholic.

I'm a designaholic who has just finished posting this adorable owl and her baby as a teaser on ETSY.

Is this the first step to curing my own insatiable desire to beautify the world? Nop. It's my own small way of letting you know that I can't stop breathing design. I live design. I dance and sing design but only hit vibrato when my car strikes a chuckhole. I eat design -actually, Andrew serves design and then I eat it. Hell, I even blog design.

Some of you have been following my recent adventures abroad with Andrew. Some of you are completely bewildered as to why I would take the time out to blog or even stay up beyond the midnight hours to optimize images so that you, too, could enjoy what I've been experiencing.

I confess, it's the rush.

If I weren't a fine artist in the midst of building my little empire, then I'd probably be writing furiously on the inequities of human rights, or animal rights for that matter.

Up until the 11th hour before we were to set off on our honeymoon, December 19th, I was still designing. Actually working on prototypes in our workshop because I wanted to finalize as much detail in the process before returning home and launching the new line.

This morning, Andrew sent me a link to Seth Godin's recent post about Workaholics; it's not what you think. You should read it as he has unmasked the true spirit of my unwavering commitment to my enterprising endeavors.

Now I should go help Andrew finish making his savory chicken pot pies, but first, I'm sure I'll want to tweak this entry.

I Got Noticed by the Wall Street Journal!

Hey folks! Blogging works!

I was checking my stats tonight and realized that a few people were coming from the WSJ! Woo-hoo! Why in the... I discover that it's all because of an article I wrote about wearing my Princess Diana hat at New Year's Eve Party: Edinburgh: Hats Off to Compliments!

Although the entry was a bit heavy on the introspection, Teri, the author of the article, Wearing a Fedora, found my article good enough to blogroll. Where? On the WSJ site, of course!! You can find my tiny link at the end of the article. I say in this case, size doesn't matter: tiny works!

Oh, and she's included Johnnie Depp's photo -I couldn't think of a better celeb with which to become associated.

Envision the Pips singing, "Taking the train to happy town... woo woo!"

In case you didn't catch it, my entry has been blog rolled on the Wall-Street-Journal!!

Thor Thursday

Did you know that Thursday is named in honor of he god Thor? Makes sense because I'm feeling the hammer of the mighty God of Thunder right now in the form of a bloody head cold and on a Thursday. Co-inky-dink? I think not.

Yup, our trip finally caught up with me. From freezing temperatures (I'm not going to bother to calculate Celsius to Fahrenheit -nop, not gonna do it) to a warm and balmy climate... I just want to go back to bed and hide, but I've got product to ship. Bleck.

CalligraphyPets Web Site Updates
For those of you cruising thru my Web site, I'm making some updates that requires some reformatting of the page. Should you find any anomalies, I'd love it if you could send me a note -there might be a small token of appreciation coming your way. Give me a few days to upload all of the pages then add a few more days to bestow this infectious varlot a host.

Meanwhile, I'm updating entries and adding a few. Here's one:
Edinburgh: Hats Off to Compliments