Warby Barker

Friday April 1st, I will be drawing dogs Warby Parker Soho 4-7pm for their Warby Barker April Fools celebration. Dogs will have glasses to try on and I will be trying my best to work and not cuddle them all night.

See you there?

Goin' Fulltime Freelance

In the end of February, I left my corporate job doing children's graphics t-shirts and have transitioned to FULLTIME FREELANCE! Woohoo! I am very excited to be doing this fulltime now!

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Skin & Body Essentials

Winter is upon us and that means tight, dry skin! I've been wanting to update my Essentials list (previous essentials here, here, and here) - but this time, with my favorite skin and body products. These have been my top skin and body products I have been loving recently. (products listed in order of the columns, L-R) Do you have any favorites? I always like to check out new products, let me know about yours!

Nars Desire Blush ($30) The bright pink color initially turned me off at Sephora, thinking it would be too much for my face. Delightfully, I was surprised how much it warmed up my cheeks after swiping on the hue. Warning: this is very pigmented, so a little goes a long way.

Caudalie Polyphenol C15 Anti-Wrinkle Eye & Lip Cream ($42) Sephora must know what they're doing. I received a set of Caudalie samples from the beauty retailer and since then, the eye and lip cream made me a convert. This product helps maintain moisture in the skin around my eyes and lips. I hope to add other Polyphenol products to my regimen at some point.

La Mer The Moisturizing Soft Cream ($170+) This is my splurge item! I'm definitely a La Mer convert. My skin used to be so prone to flaking and drying with other moisturizers, but with this Soft Cream, my skin stays really hydrated with out feeling heavy or greasy. I'll be saving my pennies for this one.

Library of Flowers True Vanilla Handcreme ($25) The beautifully illustrated packaging originally lured me to this product, but it's the aromatic vanilla that has me buying my second tube.

Clarisonic Mia2 ($149) This motorized cleansing facial brush has been a well spent purchase. It deep cleans and buffs, resulting with a squeaky clean face.

Soapwalla Citrus Deodorant Cream ($14) I've been wanting to implement a natural and aluminum-free deodorant into my regimen. So far, this Soapwalla deodorant cream is doing pretty well. I may have to look for another option in the summer months though, as this is not an antiperspirant.

Avene Thermal Spring Water ($12ish) I purchased this at Duane Reade as something to give my face a nice moisturized pick up. It is the first thing I put on after washing my face and before my sunscreen. It feels fancy and reminds me of running through a sprinkler.

Beauty Blender ($20) My mom bought this for me as a stocking stuffer last year and since then, it has been a helpful aid when applying and blending foundation.

Supergoop! City Sunscreen Serum ($42) Vivre la SPF! My mom gave me a Supergoop City Sunscreen sample from Sephora awhile back (I guess my mom is the beauty guru in the family!) . It wore so nicely as a base layer under moisturizer and foundation, without any subsequent flaking, that I bought their retail sized product. And no breakouts! Highly recommended.

Oxalis Geranium Clay Mask ($18) Ah! One of my favorites. Oxalis is an apothecary brand started by a previous co-worker, Erin. I feel like this mask cleans out my pores like a vacuum. Anytime I miss completing a week's mask, I can feel it and can't wait to rub on this mask.

I hope some of these inspire you, and please let me know if you have any personal favorites yourself!

Maui Vacation

Since it is past Labor Day, I thought it was well overdue to share some Maui photos.I loved this island so much, I made an accompanying map for my favorite island.

We stayed at this wonderful AirBnB. It had a great view from the lanai.

I was smitten with this hand-painted, shaved ice food truck.

Ali'i Kula Lavender There is a tour, but we skipped it and relaxed just walking around the farm and taking in the views of Maui. We hoofed it over to the gift shop and devoured the lavender flavored lemonade, iced tea and scone. They have complimentary lavender-flavored honey and jam that we squeezed on our toasted scone. So delicious!

Surfing Goat Dairy We went on the $12/person tour, fed some goats, tried some tasty flavors of goat cheese, and checked out the milking area. We purchased chocolate truffles made with goat milk.

Tsaka Guri Guri. I wouldn't go out of the way for it, BUT, it's right near the airport. So, we stopped by before we dropped of our rental and then to the airport , so it wasn't too out of the way since we were over there. Guri Guri is refreshing (worth a try to at least taste it) and really cheap (like under $4 for both of us).

Sam Sato's The place is a bit harried. Our waitress was quick and efficient with our order. It's not about the ambiance, rather just a quick in and out noodle place. Perfect for what we wanted -- food! We really enjoyed the dry noodles, saimin, chow fun, and bbq sticks. We were so sad because they were out of manju that day. :(

Pipiwai Trail in Haleakala National Park My favorite part of Maui. It's a 4 mi round trip hike through a bamboo forest. The sound of the bamboo hitting one another is worth the trip alone. Mother nature gives you an extra present at the end of it with the breathtaking Waimoku Falls. A tip: this is at the very end of the Road to Hana. We left around noon to start the Road to Hana (stopping at 2 places along the way). We wished we left earlier, like 10am, because we were driving the curves after dark and in the rain. Needles to say, it was extremely nerve racking and gave me a stress headache.

I became obsessed with rainbows on this trip. I especially loved this hand-drawn shaved ice painting. :)

This was actually in Oahu, but here I am showing my niece how I draw in my sketchbook.

Thanks Hawaii. We miss you Maui !

Hawaii Essentials

My husband and I were making final preparations for our Hawaii trip this weekend. Needless to say, I am psyched! We tied up logistical loose ends by booking our rental car today. I still want to plan a loose itinerary of must-do and must-eat adventures in the few weeks leading up to it. While we have the basics of car, flight and hotels covered, I am doing a bit of internet window shopping to narrow down some items that would be a treat to bring with me. Some of these, I have already purchased and waiting for UPS to swing by :)

From L to R columns: Nike Sports Bra (similar here via Nike). Nike workout shorts here (sold out!). Nike tennis shoes via Zappos. Coola sunscreen via Sephora (I bought during our honeymoon and loved the smell). Turkish Towel (I just bought some on Bedford at this boutique, Berlyn 65). Banago bag (can't wait to receive!!) . Illesteva sunnies via Jcrew (sold out!). Triangl bikini. Bug spray via Soap. Bkr waterbottle. Madewell striped dress (sold out already!).

Our Wedding Details

My fiance and I got hitched this June. Hooray!With limited time and energy between a job and freelance work, I focused on projects that I knew I could handle. I needed to avoid a total bridal meltdown! Some of those projects were our invite, our wedding favors (which also served as our table assignments), as well as signage for the event.

For our invitation, I illustrated the front, the inside map, as well as the assets used throughout the invite. My fiance worked on the inside typography and layout. We decided on a limited color palette of black and yellow to ensure a minimal use of ink. We printed the invitation suite on our own and wanted to avoid buying tons of ink cartridges. Plus the color palette kinda screamed "NYC" to me. Taxis, stoplights, black and white cookies, oh my!

Oh, here's a fun gif of our invite. :)

With the signage, I used the same illustration from the invite and added directional information for the venue.

For the table assignments, it was important to me that they were both functional for the event, but also useful after the wedding. So, I decided on illustrating notepads that would have the table assignments written on them, but could also be used afterwards for list making or note taking. I had a lot of fun illustrating this whimsical NYC scene.

To complete this favor, I bought some adorable pencils from Knot & Bow that were engraved with adorable food pairings. Mac & Cheese, Meat & Potatoes, Pancakes & Syrup!

New York City is bracing for mega blizzard 2015 to strike tonight, so I finally had a minute to play catchup with my blog. Please stay safe wherever you may be. And thank you for reading about our wedding details. I hope to share some photos from the wedding in the next few weeks. Take care!

2013 - A Recap

The entrance of 2014 has pushed me to set some new goals for myself. One of them being to get back into blogging more. Whether it be about new illustration work or things I have been up to in New York City, I am trying to push myself to share more content with you folks. But before I jump into new goals for 2014, I wanted to thank you for a great 2013. To everyone who liked a post, every single person who bought something from my Etsy shop, and to the new friends I have made this year, I wanted to thank you from the rooftops!

And to recap the year, I decided to highlight 10 things that happened this year. Some things I posted here on the blog, some on my Facebook page, and some on Instagram, but a few I have kept pretty private.

To start off...

1 / I started the year off drawing A Car A Day.