BENOM PLUMB

I've been working on some artwork for a friend of mine who's getting ready to release a series of EPs. The idea is that each EP will will have a different theme, musically. The first being "The Keys EP"...you get the idea.

SOMETHING TO ADD TO YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST

A while back I got together with my good friend Janette to design some eco-friendly t-shirts. We teamed up with fashion illustrator, Kirk Davis and came up with something pretty great! GO GET ONE!

FAMILY PORTRAIT

Long before I started Aaron's artwork with his profile, I had these silhouettes ready and waiting for the perfect frames. The other day Aaron and I stumbled upon 4 identical frames at River Market antiques. It was simply meant to be!

CUPCAKE CREATIONS

After a rough couple of weeks at work our team got to take another trip out to Kearney. This year it was cupcake decorating with Laura and Lauren. They brought all their gear and I learned how to make roses with icing. So fun!

HARK! THE CHRISTMAS EP

Be sure and download Aaron's Christmas EP Available November 17th. It's a FREE download! Like an early Christmas gift from us to you!

I HAVE BEEN ILLUSTRATING!

A few weeks ago my friends at storenvy came to me wanting an illustration for their home page. I was a little bit overwhelmed at first but their belief in me got me to a place where I was willing to give it a shot. This was so much fun. This is one of my favorite characters. You can see the final illustration here. And if you look close you can see Aaron :)

IT WAS A CYCLO-YAK, MANBEAR HALLOWEEN!

NEW LOGO

Threw this logo together for a friend who is trying to get his start as a booking agent for Christian artists. He requested a dove :)

AUNT SHANNY

My Aunt, Shanny is an amazingly talented Painter and Sculptor. A restaurant in Fredricksburg, Texas recently commissioned several pieces to hang in their space. The restaurant requested orchids, and orchids is what they got! One dozen BEAUTIFUL orchids. The way she captures light in these paintings gives these flowers such life! I love the way she dives into her work. She researches her subject matter in order to really capture the essence of what she's painting. For Shanny, these orchids became characters, each with different personalities. This is the kind of process that really makes a complete work of art. If you're in the Fredricksburg area you should head over to August E's for the Artist's Opening.

A BEAUTIFUL WEDDING IN COMFORT TEXAS

The invites for this wedding were inspired by the couple's Hawaiian engagement. They had a beautiful summer wedding in the Texas Hill Country. Congrat's Candice and Chris.

BRIDAL SHOWER

I got a new book full of antique florals and wallpapers.

A shower invite I did for Aaron's mom.

BUGS

Trying to figure out what Lab Partners Project product should look like. The bug collection idea could be fun...

LAB PARTNERS PROJECT!!!

Aaron has always said he wanted to use his music as a platform for something, but he could never really put his finger on what that might be. Well over the summer it came to him... he wants to help send street kids in Africa to school. We have spent the past few months daydreaming about how this is all going to come together. God is already putting so many things in place. Check out our blog to get a better idea of what it's about.

RACHEL'S SHOWER

I know it's a little delayed, but the shower was a success! Can't wait to meet little Kempf!

Oh, and if you're wanting to make these cupcakes at home Janette posted the recipe here.

MOTHER HEN

Janette and I are trying to pull a baby shower together for Rachel in the next couple of weeks. We decided on a mother hen theme in reference to the baby chickens Rachel got not too long ago. I drew up a vintage style chicken for the evites. Can't wait to meet little Kempf!

LARA COLLINS

On my most recent trip to Fredricksburg, TX, I met Lara who is a super cool girl and owner of Enid. It's a great little shop featuring one of a kind handcrafted gifts and decor. She approached me a few weeks after my visit to see if I would be interested in creating a logo for her jewelry line. She had a clear vision for what she wanted and we came up with something really sweet. Here's the logo in action.

I CREATED AN ALPHABET TODAY

I'll call it Dove.

MY MOM IS SO COOL

Check out this article in Edible Austin magazine about her gourmet popscicles. You can see all the flavors here. They delicious and beautiful!

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

This is a project I got to work on for Sunrise Greetings last year. They were launching a new handmade line and wanted some fun attachments.  You can find it at Barnes & Noble!

NEW AARON HALE MYSPACE COMING SOON...

AMPERSAND = BIRD

I was doing some logo design in the car on the way to Arkansas today and Aaron suggested I play around with a new logo for twine and twig. I made an amazing discovery... ampersand = bird. Since the name "twine and twig" was inspired by a line from Spoonful of Sugar, I thought a robin would be the best choice. I think I'll name him Bert after Dick Van Dyke's character.

A robin feathering his nest
Has very little time to rest

While gathering his bits of twine and twig

THE MERCH IS HERE!

TURNS OUT I MIGHT HAVE A GREEN THUMB AFTERALL

This weekend was a beautiful weekend for working out in the yard. I got our flower beds cleaned up and we finally had some time to fill our flower boxes. We had some dusty miller at our wedding. It's one of my favorites and I love the way it contrasts with the dark leaf plants. I also planted some basil and cilantro. It's doing pretty well so far. Can't wait to cook with it!

PEABODY & WONDER

A friend from Lubbock was in town the other day and got some really cute shots of our sweet dogs. I had to share.

Thanks Caleb!

VINTAGE MIXER

My friend Becky in Salt Lake City area has a great blog and wanted a little update with a coordinating twitter page. I had a tough time getting started, but I think we ended up with something really fresh and it totally fits her style.

THE BIGGEST LITTLE THING YOU CAN DO

Hallmark is reacting to the turn in the economy and giving their 99¢ card line a much needed face lift. Our team got to lead this redesign. I had a lot of fun working on the kids' cards. The line looks great! To see more visit a Hallmark store near you!

TRY THIS ON FOR SIZE

My husband, Aaron just spent some time in Florida recording some new tunes. He'll release an EP sometime this summer and so I've been working on some T-shirt ideas. Aaron is passionate about the concept of Ubuntu. It's a South African word that translates into the term "I am because we are." This is sort of what inspired the idea of the different profiles. We've had a lot of friends send us pictures of their profiles. (some of you might recognize your head on the t-shirt) We want to include every profile we get in the final artwork for the EP putting this concept of Ubuntu into action. Send in your profile if you want to be a part of it!

¡FIESTA!

Aaron's mom, otherwise known as Susanna, is hosting a couples' shower for some friends and asked me to do the invite for her. She'll be serving a Mexican dinner and I wanted to add a little Mexican flavor without the use of sombreros or cacti. This flaming heart came to mind. My grandmother lived in Mexico for a while and I remember her sending us "milagros" or in English "miracles". They're sort of like good luck charms for good health. The images of the heart sometimes had flames coming out. I've had a hard time finding one meaning for the flaming heart, but to me it says PASSION! Perfect for a couples' shower right? Anyway, Susanna just let me run free with this one and I had a lot of fun with it.

oh... and the background for this shot is some awesome wallpaper I found a while back at a thrift store. Amazing!

BLOCKHEAD HALES

Our dear friend Amanda has been playing around with After Effects and this is her interpretation of our love story. I really think she captured us... you be the judge.


Blockhead Hales Ep. 1 from Amanda Michelle Boyd on Vimeo.

GREG & VIRGINIA

The past few weeks I have had the pleasure of working with an amazing bride-to-be. She has a very clear vision of what she wants, but at the same time, she trusts me fully to give her a beautiful invite. Romantic, whimsical and outdoor were some of the words I had to work with. What a beautiful wedding this is going to be.







Congratulations Greg & Virginia!

TEXAS MONTHLY

I recently had the opportunity to work on a typographic solution for Texas Monthly Magazine. An old friend from school knew that I liked to experiment with stitching in my design. He had a pretty good idea of what he wanted and I sent him what was meant to be a "rough draft" of different colors and stitching ideas... well they loved it the way it was and didn't want me to change a thing. Gotta love those happy accidents.

This section of the magazine is called "In the Chute" and for each month they have a different designer do the typography. I'm honored to have my work in such a well-designed publication. Go pick up a copy of the March issue and turn to page 59 or see it here at texasmonthly.com!

YEAR OLD CAKE...

...year old marriage.Aaron and I went out for an amazing four course dinner at Pierpont's the night before our anniversary, so I never expected to come home to a candlelight dinner, roses and champagne. What a great night. The last year has been good to us, which is more than I can say for that cake. Yuck!

OMEGA MISSION INTERNATIONAL

Some stuff I played around with today for OMEGA (Aaron's dad's mission organization)

THE ONLY PHOTO WE TOOK WHILE ON THE CRUISE...

I've started this post a million times, but I can't seem to put into words what Aaron and I experienced last weekend so I'll let him tell you...

"We embarked from Miami on the ship.

Long story short: it was actually pretty fun. We aren't big fans of cruises, and this one was no exception, but we met some really great people.

Got to see my old pal , Brandon.
Got to meet some really cool artists and musicians in the Christian music community.
Made some great friends with Evan (Mandisa's guitar player, and an all-around great dude), Scott (Third Day's road manager), and Jenna (Scott's girlfriend).

Overall, we had a really good experience. And now we are on to the next step in our journey."

POSITIVE & ENCOURAGING

So, I haven't said much about it, mostly to save face, but Aaron and I are leaving early in the morning to go on the K-LOVE Friends and Family Music Cruise. We booked it a few months back in hopes that Aaron could make some contacts in the Christian music world and now we're thinking it was probably the worst idea ever! There's no way out now so we are hopeful that God will somehow work this out for good! Here's the demo we plan to hand out to 25 lucky passengers. Ha! Hopefully passengers with some kind of pull in the music industry. Are we crazy?!

A SECOND COLOR!

I successfully added a second color! A second run is scary because if you screw it up, all the work you did for the first run is thrown away. And I think I'll be throwing a lot of them away. Ha! Needless to say I learned a lot with this second project...

1. Maybe try and find a new drying system.
(or don't let your dog in the basement when you have wet pieces on the floor)

2. Make sure you carve your linoleum block out BACKWARDS!

3. Stamping a block of ink by hand does not work out so well. (this was probably the biggest mistake)

4. Simple Green doesn't work as well on rubber-based ink, however, mix it with a little crisco and the ink magically melts off.

CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL...

Moises Valdés is a master print maker for artists around the world. He creates limited edition prints and displays them in his gallery in Mexico. He explained to me that his gallery had a dutch modern feel and he wanted that style to reflect in the logo. He also said it would make sense for the mark to include his initials. I thought this solution I came up with said it all! This mark creates the "M V", but it also illustrates the process of taking original art and making a print. Little did I know there was another designer working on this with him and unfortunately he went with this.

COOKING LIGHT FOR THE NEW YEAR

I got the December issue of Cooking Light Magazine and I gave this recipe a try. Coconut-curry chicken soup. I love ordering the soup at Thai restaurants and this sounded amazing! Aaron had the idea to garnish with some bean sprouts. Yummy!

MANBEAR!!!

Aaron loves to draw. Cute little, fun little things like this...

and this...
AND THIS...

Well for Christmas one of our friends took the time to make one of these cute little, fun little things come to life. It's so amazing. I don't even have words... thanks Janette :)