bits & pieces + an Italy giveaway! (closed)!

I really can't believe I have already been here a full month! Time is flying by and so are the pages in my sketchbook. Oofah...I'm scared to see how fast this next month and a half will go by too. Especially since I have some friends coming to visit. New adventures up the coast are coming! 

I also just remember that the 1 year birthday of Sketchy Notions is this week on the 19th. Pretty crazy that it has already been a year since I filed for a business license, started the trademarking adventures and turned my little hobby into a real, functioning business. A lot has happened in one year. In celebration of this, I'm going to giveaway one of my little watercolored postcard! You can find out more details at the end of this post after a peek at life in Italy during the past few weeks...

1. Girasole! Sunflowers! Feels like home when I see a giant field of sunflowers...

2. Sketching back in my favorite Tuscan town, Castiglion Fiorentino! 

3. I have an obsession with bikes, flower boxes and vintage Vespas...if you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen multiple examples of this obsession...

4. It has been raining off and on (mostly on to the point of thunder storms) for the past couple weeks. Which is actually lovely! Much cooler temperatures and less tourists...YAY!!!

5. A prime example of my Vespa obsession...

6. Found some Queen Anne's Lace growing alongside the walls the other day! 
7. The most perfect and lonely window. 
8. Yellow versus pink. A block divided...
9. Watching for rainbows outside of my window...
10. The prize! I just painted this little postcard and I'd love for it to find a lovely new home. I'll probably mail it from the states so I can include some other little Italy goodies and not risk it never reaching its new home!  Read below for details on how to enter...

You can enter by doing ANY or ALL of the following, just leave a comment after telling me you did it with an email to reach you at! Each form of entry must have a separate comment in order to be counted for multiple entries!

1. Comment telling me somewhere you want to travel one day! 
2. Follow my blog
3. Follow along on Instagram
4. Like on Facebook
5. Follow on Twitter
6. Heart my Etsy Shop

Already follow along on bloglovin', twitter etc? Awesome, just leave a comment telling me you do! You can do any or all of these to enter. Giveaway will be open until Saturday July 26th!  

The giveaway is CLOSED! The Random Number Generator picked: #2! Congratulations Susie!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! I'm thinking about holding another giveaway when I launch my new collection so stay tuned! 

birthday giveaway! CLOSED

It's my birthday later this week, on Sunday the 26th to be exact. This month also marks my Etsy shop's 3rd birthday. It's my Sketchy Notions business' half birthday, 6 months of being an actual legitimate business. So that last one might be a stretch but either way, who doesn't love a good 'ol B-Day giveaway? Plus this week you can also get 20% off in BOTH shops until midnight January 27 with the code BDAY26 (this excludes custom orders). 

Want to know the goods? For this giveaway I wanted to have a special prize combo from both shops. So the winner gets all this good stuff: a pair of Pearl Snap Earrings (your choice of color!), a set of travel postcards (you pick the city!) AND a custom embroidered artist book with your name or word of choice on the front!

How to enter:

You can enter by doing any OR all of the following, just leave a comment after telling me you did it with an email to reach you at! Each form of entry must have a separate comment in order to be counted for multiple entries! (Example: one comment telling me your favorite birthday gift/email, another comment saying how you follow the blog).

1. Follow my blog
2. Follow along on Instagram
3. Like on Facebook
4. Follow on Twitter
5. Heart my Etsy Shop
6. Pin an item from one or both the Sketchy Notions shop or Etsy shop (leave a link in the comments to the pin). 
7. Share the giveaway (leave a link to where you shared it in the comments). 
8. Easy extra entry! Share a little something about you! What's your best birthday gift you have ever received?

Do you already follow along on bloglovin', twitter etc? Awesome, just leave a comment telling me you do! You can do any or all of these (you can get 9 entries if you pin something from both shops!) Just make sure you leave a comment for every separate entry and an email to reach you!!! Giveaway ends Monday January 27 at midnight! 
Now CLOSED! 
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WOW! I'm overwhelmed by how may entries there were, thank you so much for making this my best giveaway yet! Congratulations to KATIE HEMINGWAY! I'll be emailing you later today! 

Valentine's Collection

That sappy, lovey-dovey holiday that you either love or can't stand is just around the corner! This year I'm pretty indifferent towards it, which could possibly be because I had V-Day designs floating around the art bubble around Christmas. Trying to stay on top of seasons has the odd effect of just kinda being "over" the holiday when it actually rolls around... But either way, it's a good excuse to just treat yourself or that person to a special day. Speaking of spoiling yourself, there's a killer Mod Cloth giveaway on Kitty & Buck this week ($75 to spoil yourself!). I'm also plotting a giveaway for my birthday week (the 26th) so stay tuned for that! 

If you haven't seen them yet, I have some cute new Valentine's Day cards in the Sketchy shop! And I've been playing around with embroidery with my artist books for the Notional Notions Etsy shop. They would make a pretty adorable Valentine's Day gift...

The full set of Valentine's Day Cards! 

Cross-stitched Heart Artist Book

My favorite little Heart Doodle Card

Hello! Another cute embroidered Artist Book

snail mail & a giveaway

I love getting mail. I love it even more when you get something really sweet or unexpected on a really crappy day. Yesterday, I got my Snail Mail Collective package from the very sweet Lauren! Which was perfect timing because it was just the pick-me-up I needed for such a wretched Monday. 

It was really fun getting to know Lauren, who blogs over at Going Green: Our Army Adventure. Lauren is the first Military wife I have come in contact with through the SMC and was such a sweet person to get to know. Her package was so thoughtful and was so perfectly timed! The theme for this past month was "grateful," so her package was filled with all sorts of goodies associated with things Lauren is thankful for. A sleeping mask for that much needed nap we both need but can't seem to sneak in, pens and notepad for doodling breaks, a wine bottle holder because a glass of wine at the end of day can soothe all ails, and chocolate because chocolate makes everything better! Perfect! 

Head on over and check out Lauren's great blog, she's a very inspiring lady and I'm SO grateful to have been partnered with her this month. Curious about the Snail Mail Collective? Melyssa and Chelsea are only hosting it for one more month! Become a part of it while you still can! I have met so many inspirational and wonderful ladies over the last 6 months because of it. Plus it's always a nice surprise to get a little something in the mail...

On to the giveaway! I'm currently sponsoring the very talented and sweet Chantilly over at Chantilly Songs. Right now she's hosting a giveaway for $25 credit towards the Sketchy Notions shop! Head on over and check out Chantilly (did I mention she's a very talented musician?) and enter for your chance to get some Sketchy Notions goodies! 

a sketchy giveaway with Kitty & Buck!

It's time for a giveaway again! There's a lovely giveaway of a bunch of Notional Notions goodies over at Shell's blog Kitty and Buck today! You can win a pair of Pearl Snap Earrings, a set of hand-printed cards and a sketchy button! Pop on over to her sweet blog and enter for your chance to win! I would so very love to see one of you lovely readers snatch up this sketchy prize package... 

Enter now!

a sketchy GIVEAWAY! (closed)

As promised and mentioned multiple times, I'm having a GIVEAWAY! There are a few reasons for this giveaway. One being, this is my 199th post on the blog...eek! Time has flown by fast...seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my room in Austin clicking "publish" for the first time. So much has happened between now and then...the Etsy shops, the website, more Italy travels...I'm excited to see how much will happen between this post and the 300th!

Another reason is that I also surpassed 100 likers on Facebook. It's currently at 108, pretty crazy. I also filled Terzo, which was a huge accomplishment for me! AND although it's been pretty quiet as far as being mentioned, the 24 before 25 list has been making huge progress too! Lots to be happy and thankful for. 

And so! The good part! As I mentioned before, while in Italy I was working on a series of postcards. I just finished up another one yesterday thanks to some rainy weather and lots of hot chai. This postcard is of the skyline of my town Castiglion Fiorentino in Tuscany. My friend and I trekked out into the valley and had the most gorgeous view of it at sunset so we did a bunch of sketches and color studies. And you can win this postcard! How you may ask...a couple of ways actually...

To enter you can do one or all of the following:

1. Comment on this post below (tell me what your dream travel spot would be!)

2. Comment on the post about the giveaway on my Facebook page. 

Extra entries: Like the Facebook page or heart my Etsy shop and comment back here telling me you did.

Or follow me with Google Reader, Bloglovin etc and comment back here telling me you did. 

Please don't forget to COMMENT HERE if you did any of the extra stuff! It will be a little tricky to keep track of new Etsy hearts/Facebook likes etc...

See how easy and how many ways there are to enter? I want this postcard to go to a lovely home! Tell your friends! If this all goes well, I may even have a surprise at the end... the giveaway will be open for a week. I'll pick the winner at random and announce the winner next Monday (12/10). Good luck! This giveaway is closed!

The verdict is in! Thank you everyone who entered/hearted/followed along! I really appreciate all the lovin'! The winner is...

Congratulations! And thanks again to everyone who entered! This giveaway went a lot better than the last one...I might do another one in January to celebrate my birthday. I have to start thinking about the next list too, 25 before 26 eek! 

Mini notebook winner!

First giveaway complete! Not the turnout I had hoped for but I'm still happy there were any entries at all! And they were all some lovely ladies that I know, even better!


And so, the winner! Random number generator gave me the magical number.....2! Kelly!












Congrats Kelly! Thank you everybody else that entered! I'm going to try another one of these giveaways soon, hopefully with more entries! Maybe a snazzy friendship bracelet? A print? What would you like to win? 

bits & pieces lately and a giveaway!

There's a lot happening lately! A lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's...

This past weekend I participated in the Mother's Day gathering at the C Gallery. It went really well! I sold a bunch of cards, AND one of my Daisy Chain artist books! I had just brought it to advertise for my bookmaking workshop this summer but a lovely lady wanted to buy it as a gift for her friend! Stoked! Also exciting, the fliers have been printed for the workshop...time to start planning!

On to Lumen! As much as I want to keep posting regular updates of the illustrations, this is going to be the last real peek until the book is finished. Gotta keep something for a surprise! I finished another illustration yesterday and these little owls just keep making swoon!

Been making boxes like crazy for the pearl snap earrings. And sketching up a storm. And making earrings and bracelets like a madwoman...and in the midst of all this crafting and arting mayhem, I got this lovely surprise in the mail the other day...I'm officially a card carrying member of SCBWI!!!

And the last bit of lovely news! And it's big news! During this week over at the lovely Kitty's blog, A Law Student's Journey, there is a giveaway of a pair of my Pearl Snap Earrings! Check it out and enter if you would like to win a pair!