Merry Christmas

Well pardon me while I take an even longer blogging break until the new year. (I feel actually really bad being so silent here... but I have sooooo much to do!)  So now I'm off to spend a few quiet days celebrating Christmas out in the country, to relax and get away from my computer screen, and Illustrator which has been getting a lot of my attention lately.

Sweden really is a white Winter wonderland this year, we've got soooo much snow! I think it's lovely that we've gotten a white Christmas this year, for some reason it's so much more cozy and festive.

I wish you all a great Holiday! I'll be back next year with lots of projects to share, new What's in my bag features... and hopefully more. :)

Busy Bee

horribly fuzzy picture from my instagram, @emmakisstina

My goodness December is flying by way way way too fast! and I've been work work working. I've been getting up extra early to make the most of my days as I have way more to do than usual. I've got a nice amount of orders to place and ship, one really huge project I soooo soooo soo can't wait to tell you about, and lots of commissioned Christmas presents (kind of last minute, I must say.) So this is my view as of late... it's just me, my Imac and my Wacom tablet. Can't complain, I've got the best job!!!

Btw, to any tablet users... taping a piece of drawing paper to your tablet is just genius. Now it feels like I'm actually drawing on paper, like I'm used to instead of slipping all over the place. Love it! I had gotten this tip a while ago from a fellow illustrator (though she said try using tracing paper) but last week I was at a Master talk Photoshop course and got the tip of using drawing paper. Why haven't I thought of this before???

Back to work!

Advent: 2

Happy 2nd of Advent! Hope you're having a cozy Sunday.

Lighting up the Darkness

I love love love this time of year! It gets dark and cozy at around 3pm, but it doesn't feel dark and depressing because we light up the long nights with gorgeous advent stars and countless candles. (I'm already running out of votives and long stemmed candles, I need to stock up stat!)

It's not much but this is how we've decorated our little apartment for the Holidays.

Santa pants! and a modest stack of presents.

Glittering ruby slippers in our hallway chandelier

I especially love the star in our bedroom.

Can you see the thermostat says it's -8 outside, burrrrr

WIMB: Lindsey of Caviar Taste

Helloooo Wednesday and welcome to another installment of What's in my Bag: Blogger Edition (I feel so dorky and cheesy, like some sort of TV announcer.) This week I had the super dee duper pleasure of drawing Lindsey of Caviar Taste Tunafish Wallet's fabulous hot pink loving favorite things. Love it when a girl loves hot fuchsia as much as I do, can we say kindred spirits?!

To view all of the great bloggers I've collaborated with and all the illustrations I've created you can visit my Pinterest board here...

and if you'd like to commission a What's in my Bag illustration for yourself you can purchase this Etsy listing here...

Snow Chaos!

Stockholm is experiencing today what can only be described as snow chaos (or at least that is Swedish newspapers' favorite choice of phrase.) It is seriously snowing cats and dogs! Thank goodness I don't have to go out today. Even if I did have errands to run, I'm not too sure I would get anywhere, all the buses and trains are experiencing insane delays and cancelations. It's rather nice being able to stay cozy indoors watching my neighborhood get a thicker and thicker blanket of white.

Matchbook December!

 And then all of a sudden there was another great issue of Matchbook Magazine live. Being the December issue it was full of Holiday cheer, as one suspects. One really does get into the holiday spirit with all these gorgeous gift guides and party ideas taking over the internet world at the moment (oh and in real life too.) I also really enjoyed digitally meeting artist Lulie Wallace on page 80, her floral paintings are stunning. Oh and my contribution (can't forget) this month was Daisy Buchanan can be found on page 111.

Hope you're not disappointed by my depiction of Daisy. I watched the 1974 classic movie, The Great Gatsby, in order to refresh my memory of the story and Daisy herself. The entire film she floats around in light chiffon dresses, hats and scarves (only one scene does she wear a glamorous flapper ensemble.) I thought this soft lilac hat was the just the prettiest!

BTW, I found it strange how sweaty all the men looked through out the film, eww.

Donut!

Image via here...

Since it is Monday we need a serious color kick, hence this colorful donut.... Boom let the week begin!

I actually got up unusually early today, not because I had an appointment or anything, just because I wanted to. It was really nice getting up before the sun, and watch the sunrise as I got what felt like one million things finished before my usual wake up time. (I should do this more often, though why must sleeping be so yummy.)

Pouf Mag Issue 2!

Have you read the second issue of Pouf Magazine yet? If not you should grab a hot cup of tea and sit down for a nice look through right away. The issue is uber glamorous and has made me super excited for this Holiday season! The photos are just stunning and I think the design is so sexy (graphic design can be sexy right?) Also this issue is a little extra special because not only were a few of my illustrations featured but my boyfriend made his writing debut in the form of a very informative Champagne guide (make sure not to miss it on page 106!)

Let's take a peek...

Pretty gorgeous, am I right?

Week 48

images via Instagram (emmakisstina)

Week 48! woo hoo!

Quite the eventful week, a lot more action than my usual quiet weeks of being at home working by myself. It was a welcomed change!

• The week started off with romance as it was Johan and my 4th anniversary. We celebrated with a fancy breakfast at Grand Hotel, and a free day full of relaxing and little work. Time surely has flown by since that cold November day 4 years ago when I met the boy of my dreams outside of the Royal Castle.

• Got a little work in, but I didn't have many projects to work on. Did you see the gorgeous second illustration in my new blog series featuring the super cute Lauren of LA in the Bay? Pretty excited about it, plus I've lined up more great girls to feature.

• I also went to 2 more days of courses held by my Artist's society. One about writing contracts (very important, I now know how to properly protect my work) and another about how to provide great quality printing material (also very eye opening, I haven't known much about what file formats, and color profiles etc to use, now I do... sort of.) I've loved meeting other illustrators and designers and sharing our different experiences working in our special field.

• Then all of a sudden it became Winter this week. Stockholm is covered in a thick white blanket of snow. I hope it's here to stay all Winter long, it's just so super dee duper gorgeous, and lightens up dark days. I'm also really excited about all the Christmas and Advent lights popping up every where!

• And the week ended with a lovely bang with a mini vernissage at WOS accessoarer, an accessories store here in Stockholm. I hung up a selection of my prints in their great store and spent the afternoon meeting friends and customers at their Christmas party on Saturday. So fun having my works out in the public rather than just in internet land. (Welcomed change as well!) If you're visiting Stockholm, you can go check them out on Hornsgatan 98.