Getting ready for my trip to NY!

Im leaving for a very brief trip to New York tomorrow night! 

I plan to see some of my little crochet critters that are being sold in a gallery there, but I also lined up several meetings with some children's book publishers! 

I'm so excited to finally share all my precious book dummies with some exciting and wonderful people!

However, there is still so much to plan and prepare for before tomorrow!

So my little squirrel is helping me plan my itinerary!

Mini Critter Portraits!

My critters were just begging me to have their portraits painted;-) 

In the midst of me frantically working around the clock on my children's book dummies, it is important to take a minute to whip up some quick little paintings of my little critters, who are always muttering words of encouragement as I work away!

Mousey Seamstress

Just continuing on with my mousey seamstress drawings and I'm loving the little button border!

I think this illustration would be super sweet on a travel sewing box lid~

Amazing Birthday

I love creating custom critter orders. Out of all of my designs, I delight in seeing which of my critters people prefer.

This order was especially sweet since it was for someone's grandmother on her 100th birthday. Amazing!

Still-life Painting

Aww, there's nothing like starting off the week with a super sweet, miniature still life painting!

Ria Art Pig Party!

Here are some various critter pigs celebrating Ria Art!

Pigs are very sweet to me because it is one of my family nicknames! I know it may seem like a cruel one, but I assure you, it's not!

I guess I kicked a lot when my mother was pregnant with me, so everyone nicknamed me 'piggly wiggly.' When I was born, it got shortened to 'Piggy,' especially after the arrival of my little brother, who became the 'wiggly.'

Over the years, it just became 'pig' or 'peg.' :-)

Sewing Friends

Here is a sketch of a mouse after my own heart. The little guy has just finished sewing up a little stuffed animal friend.

I actually did this sketch for a class I'm taking right now. It is a class about illustrating for products. So I was thinking this could be a nice character for a travel sewing container.

He's also just really cute!

Etsy Yum Yums

Today I'll be sending out this fun crochet keychain set to another one of my lovey Etsy patrons!

They are miniature food, but of course Ria Art cannot resist the opportunity to give a little personality to one of the little guys-we all know the banana is the ring leader of thus bunch ;-)

This is one of my most favorite seats to create that is available in my shop, so it was a pleasure~