Rebound

It's been awhile since I have taken a book binding class with Mr. Carl Kurtz, book binding prodigious perfectionist, but I had the itch. As a part of Art for Africa fundraising, I found a few vintage children's textbooks on ebay, gutted them and added sketchbook paper inside. Each book's pages were hand sewn together making the "signatures" of the book. I sliced the uneven edges with a guillotine paper cutter, making them perfectly trimmed.

These are images from just two of the books that were rebound and converted into sketchbooks.

-A beautiful owner's name tag


-the spine paper I chose to attach the new sketchbook paper to the original cover

-another beautiful name tag on the inside cover, original to the book

-"Anne of the Island" by LM Montegomery cover

-just showing off the precision job well done on the spine. I should have been a surgeon. The sketchbooks open flat and are easy to draw or write in. This is so important for a sketcher.

-I glued the original title page and illustration back into the new pages as a fold out.

-"Emily Climbs" by LM Montegomery cover

Baritone Business

Kevin's best man, Chad Somers, recently graduated from Liberty University with a Bachelor Degree in Music with an emphasis in vocal performance. The least we could to for our good ol' friend was to use our talents to support his. He's an opera singer! This past weekend he made Kevin and me omelets and got us lost hiking in the woods down by the river. We love him and the rest of the Somers family, and his chubby pup Patience (I hope she's not reading this). Please call Mr. Chadwick, the baritone, for voice instruction, performance opportunities, or because you want to meet someone awesome. Sorry ladies, this is not a dating offer, Chad is spoken for.

Home Sweets! Home

I'm trying my luck again with another Threadless entry--this time in hopes to win a Volkswagen car! By voting high numbers, like 5, you're really helping boost my chances in getting printed. Free rides for everyone!

This design was extra fun because of the challenges of the Pre-Loved theme. The three of us at ThreeHouse have brainstormed together and have each come up with some pretty clever and beautiful contenders for this contest.

If we win the car, we're going to so wrap that thing up in the most gaudy and unashamed advertisement for ourselves and floss it up and down main!

African American Museum in Philadelphia

photos by Eisterhold

Here are some images from a project that Kevin and I just finished with a local design firm, Eisterhold and Associates. We animated projected images that overlay cutout images of the important figures in African American History. There are six sections narrating the history of culture, work, law, politics, religion, and family for these early Philadelphians. This wall of images is 60 feet long. It's huge!

I GOT PRINTED!!!!

Dandy Lions is up for sale today!!! Thanks to everyone who voted.

Click here to see other people wearing my design --the onesie's my fav! I think I'll get one for myself.

And my interview tells about my design's inspiration, my life, my loves, my dreams, my hopes

The South Africa Trip

photo by Isaiah Powers

Women doing laundry and chores in Masi


photo by Isaiah Powers

The wetlands crept up to the edge of homes. A house in this photo is sinking in the swamp.



photo by Isaiah Powers

Table mountain is in the distance.



photo by Isaiah Powers

Here we are on one of our last days in Masi. Zama, in purple, decided to join us.



photo by Isaiah Powers


photo by Sean Prestidge

About 58 False Killer Whales beached themselves on Long Beach about 10 minutes from where the team was staying. A van took about 22 of our team to the site where they hit the ground running toward the water to help the whales. Everyone was baffled as to how these creatures ended up here and why they kept swimming back to shore after they were put out to water.
Witnessing this was completely unreal. It was so sad watching the scared and worn out whales struggling. About 15 were saved.


photo by Sean Prestidge

Red Hill, a township which was largely destroyed in a fire last year. The rebuild opened doors for the All Nations team to come in and help rebuild. Now there homes are further apart, allowing room for personal gardens.

The Howdeshell Honeymoon!

Sunset over Firenze



Traffic of Venice



The Golden Bridge in Florence



Us newlyweds at Michelangelo's Plaza overlooking Florence



My husband and I just made it back from our honeymoon in Italy last night. We've heard that there were some people who were worried about us and the earthquakes. Fortunately, we were well clear of them, and hadn't even heard of the earthquakes until my mom had contacted us worried to death. So, thank you for your well wishes. We had an amazing and safe time in a beautiful land. However, we returned to our new home looking like the rubble of an earthquake. It's a lot of work moving and getting married in the same week.

This whole getting married thing has been a roller coaster ride of anticipation up hill for the past 5 months, and the wedding and the honeymoon has been the fast and steep hill down. It was so fun! I really can't describe how amazing our wedding day was, or how lucky we've felt having such a beautiful day and a beautiful trip to start our marriage. No freak snow storm could ruin our day.