I’m SO excited to tell you my 2016 winter holiday stationery collection is now available on my shop!!
Let me give you a quick refresher on what’s in the collection! You ready?
1. 2017 Mindfulness Wall Calendaris beautifully illustrated with watercolor, gouache, and pen, and every month you will get my handwritten positive message to inspire mindfulness and gratitude.
It’s 5″x8″ and fits perfectly above your desk where you will get the gentle reminder to pause and breathe every day.
They come in 3 colorways: traditional green & red, cool teal & yellow, and pink & blue if you’re looking for something a little non-traditional and fun.
The simple illustrated designs of these holiday cards will bring peace and calmness during the busiest time of the year!
I like to write down my accomplishments (both big and small) every day in my notebooks. I’d love to hear how you want to use yours! 🙂
4. Last but not least… In case you just WANT THEM ALL (I know, it’s so hard to choose!), I’ve created a holiday gift bundle for you!
It includes the 2017 calendar, a box card set (assorted colors), and a set of 3 notebooks. It’s a sampler of the new holiday collection, if you will.
And by ordering the bundle, you save $10! You’ll definitely get the most value out of my new collection when you order the bundle. Oh là là!
You can gift the stationery set to a very lucky friend, turn them into multiple small gifts, or of course, keep them all to yourself 🙂
Heck, you’ve been working so hard this year, you deserve a little treat, don’t you think?
Well, friend, I’ve been working my butt off for this collection and can’t wait for you to have these goodies! I feel so lucky I get to make people smile with my creations every day. Let me help you be the one to bring smiles to your loved ones’s faces today ❤
In case you missed the link, you can view more photos and shop the new collection here.
I showed you a sneak preview of my 2017 Mindfulness & Gratitude wall calendar a couple of weeks ago in this post.
Let me take you on a behind-the-scenes tour and show you my creative process today.
I started creating illustrations about mindfulness and gratitude after I came back from the 10-day silent meditation retreat earlier this summer. It was deeply healing and I wanted to make art about it as a reminder of that experience. (You can read about my reflections here.)
May all beings be happy, peaceful, and liberated.Live like you have everything you need.
Once I started to make a few of these drawings, I thought, why not create more and make a calendar that encourages people to live mindfully every day?
What does “living mindfully” mean to me? It means that I can hit a pause button in my mind when I’m in a stressful situation and think “oh, this situation is stressful.” I remind myself that whatever is going on is only temporary, and I bring my focus back on my breathing. It helps me stay calm and respond to a situation more thoughtfully rather than reacting.
Of course, I’m a regular human being and not a Tibetan monk :D, so I still react to situations.
I get mad when someone cuts me off in the traffic (without the turning signal on even!!). I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night worrying about how my business isn’t where it should be and can’t get back to sleep. I get so jealous when my husband devours slices of super cheesy, gluten-and-carb-filled pizza or a big piece of custardy Bosc pear tart with a scoop (or two) vanilla ice cream and does not gain an ounce.
Believe me, I’m not above it all!
But I try. Every day is a new beginning and you can only try, right?
For the calendar, I created 12 new drawings with watercolor, gouache, and pen on paper.
Many of the drawings are inspired by nature and seasons. I also incorporated some everyday objects like these tea cups and pots:
I also hand-wrote positive messages for each calendar page to encourage mindful living.
I gathered these simple quotes and sayings from the instructions of the meditation practice or advices my wise friends gave me in the past. I also included some of the things I tell myself when I’m feeling off-centered.
It’s OK if the only thing you did today was breathe.There is enough for everyone. I worked on this illustration on my parents’ dining table while I was in Hokkaido, Japan.You can always start again.Close-up.
Then I scan my hand drawn art in to Photoshop to edit and design the layout for the calendar pages.
Working away on a tiny dining table at an airbnb we stayed at 😀
Here is a couple more sample pages for you 🙂
It’s OK if the only thing you did today was breathe.You can always start again.Be gentle with yourself.
Do you know someone who can use a little positivity boost? This calendar makes a great gift for the holidays, and it will be available on my Etsy shop early November!
Confession time: I’ve been a bit out of sorts the past few months.
On top of the usual summer busy-ness, I traveled to North Carolina in August, dealt with an illness and the loss of our beloved kitty, Sheppie, and took a trip to Japan in September.
And just as I thought I could finally sit down to focus, we had another pet emergency with our parakeet, Gerty, over the last weekend (she seems to be recovering ok), so I had to hit the pause button again.
As much as I want to believe I could do everything like my life is normal, my work had to take a backseat through these planned and unplanned events.
Life happens. And I’m trying to remind myself that things have always worked out in the past, and this will also pass.
With that being said, I’m slowing making a progress on my winter holiday products and am very happy to see how they’re coming together!
Here is a sneak preview of my 2017 Mindfulness & Gratitude Wall Calendar:
I’d rather be here and now.May all beings be happy, peaceful, and liberated.Live like you have everything you need.
In addition to the wall calendar, I’ll be releasing new art prints, notebooks, and holiday greeting cards in early November.
I’ll keep you posted on when these will be available on my Etsy shop! Stay tuned 🙂
Since my parents wouldn’t let me have cats for a long time, I fantasized about having one pretty much 24/7.
My husband, Dave, always loved animals and was more of a dog person when we met. He was even allergic to cats growing up. But magically, he grew out of his cat allergy as he got older – it’s like he was destined to meet me, a hopeless cat-lover!
I had my two cats, Lulu and Sheppie, from my previous relationship, when we met.
Lulu (left) and Sheppie (right)
They were pretty much my babies. It was important to me that whoever I’d bring in to our life would understand how important they were to me and at least tolerate them, if not love them.
To my delight, my kitties won him over pretty quickly with their cuteness, loving personality (in their cat-like ways), and their comical antics.
Dave is so sweet and loving with any and all cats he meets. I sometimes wonder if he’s become a bigger cat person than I am now!
We’ve been through some scary and tough situations with our cats, too – especially, losing Lulu last year was extremely heartbreaking. He’s been my rock through thick and thin, and I’m really grateful to have him in my life.
Our sweet girl.
On Father’s Day, I like to thank him for being an awesome dad to my cats.
I’ve been making a cat Father’s Day card just for him in previous years because let’s face it, my cats are not very crafty 😀
And, I thought there might be other people who want to celebrate their cat dad, too!
So I decided to share this special Father’s Day card with you.
“Thank you for being an awesome dad to my cats.” Father’s Day card, 4.25″x5.5″ folded, blank inside.“Thank you for being an awesome dad to my cats.” Father’s Day card, 4.25″x5.5″ folded, blank inside.
Make your special (cat-obsessed) man smile this Father’s Day 🙂 You can order yours here.
p.s. I’m going to be closing my shop between June 1 – 12, 2016 so please place your order before May 30th in order for your card to be shipped by May 31st!
Oh I’m so excited this day has finally come! Drum roll please…
My Eat a Rainbow art collection is available now on my Etsy shop!!
For this collection, I created 4 new designs of art products with a summer garden theme: Eat a Rainbow, Bell Pepper, Tomato, and Summer Berry.
Why the gardening theme? Because eating healthy is one of my passions, and homegrown fresh fruits and vegetables are simply the best!
Growing your food, even if it’s a small portion of what you need, is very empowering. It helps you stay connected to the nature and allows you to notice the beauty that surrounds you every day.
It nourishes you and your family – not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. And it lets you learn from your mistakes and encourages you to live creatively.
And even though the food goes away once you eat it, the memory and feelings you create with people you share your meals with will last a long time.
My Eat a Rainbow art collection is available to help you create more joyful moments this summer ❤
And you can enjoy them in 3 different product categories. (Note: You can click on each photo below to get directly to the product page on my Etsy shop!)
Let me give you a tour of what’s available for you! Ready?
I decided to add this 12″ x 12″ archival canvas print to the collection. I just simply could not resist having this artwork on a canvas, and it turned out so beautiful ❤
Perfect for adding vibrant energy to your kitchen or to refresh your kid’s room!
I can’t wait to reveal my entire Eat a Rainbow art collection to you in just a couple of days… EEEK!
Eat a Rainbow Art Collection Available on May 1st on Etsy!
Oh, the anticipation is killing me!! (In case you missed it, you can see the bits and pieces of the collection, here, here and here.)
I’ve been working very hard on creating this collection for a few months now. And as a creative and hardworking person, you understand that everything you create is your heart and soul.
It’s physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting to keep working at your creation to make it the best thing ever.
You make numerous tweaks and revisions, not to mention the never-ending conversations you have with yourself: “Yes, they’re gonna love it!!!” to “Oh man, this sucks. Nobody’s gonna buy this…”
You give it all you got, and at the same time you need to detach yourself emotionally from your creation so you can examine it objectively.
You know what I’m talking about. It’s a hard work.
Your art is not just another pretty thing to look at. It should make you feel something.
My art makes me happy. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It makes me feel alive. And I’m choosing to make a living out of my passion so I can live my life fulfilled and do the work that makes me happy.
I share my art so you feel the joy and happiness when you see them. And I put myself out there to inspire you to embrace your own creativity and follow your heart. I want you to know that your life is full of possibilities even if you don’t realize it.
I want to brighten your heart when you feel like there is nothing to smile about.
It’s not science or logic. I can’t give you a scale to measure your happiness, either. But I just know that’s what I’m supposed to be doing with my art, and I’m sticking to it.
When I feel discouraged or insecure, I try to remind myself that I’m making a choice to follow my calling. And I realize how lucky I am to be able to lift up others while following my heart ❤
Writing about it is making me all emotional and gushy ❤ I’m so full of feelings, guys.
Anyway, to celebrate the big launch, I’ve created these sweet Eat a Rainbow downloadable desktop & smartphone wallpapers!
Get ready for the summer season with the Eat a Rainbow desktop wallpaper! Designed with a soothing blue/green background.It’s like your smartphone is wearing a pretty summer dress ❤
Do you love it? Good!
Sign up at this link and get your goodies for free today 🙂
If you’re already on my email list (THANK YOU!), your gift should have been delivered to your inbox by the time this article gets posted. Enjoy 🙂
I want to create more exclusive freebies in the future for my friends on my email list, so definitely sign up if you haven’t done so yet!
Ok, friend! Get ready for the big launch on Sunday May 1 on Etsy (8:00 AM PST)!
I’ll see you then 🙂
With heartfelt gratitude,
xo Yuko
p.s. In case you missed the link above, you can sign up for my list here and get a free downloadable desktop & smartphone wallpapers today ❤
My new art collection, Eat a Rainbow, will launch exactly two weeks from today on Sunday May 1!
Woo hoo! I’m very excited 🙂
By the way, if you’ve missed the previous behind the scenes sneak previews, you can check them out here and here.
Today, I want to introduce you to my new notecards!
Eat a Rainbow, Bell Pepper, Summer Berry, and Tomato Notecards!
Just like my new art prints, the notecards come in 4 new designs: Eat a Rainbow, Pepper, Tomato, and Summer Berry.
These are going to be available as single card or as a set. I mean how could you choose, right?
I love pretty notecards. Whenever I’m at a craft show or visiting a cute gift shop on vacation, I pick up a few. They’re like a tiny gift of art that is also practical.
But I also admit that I have piles of pretty notecards I have accumulated over the years.
If you’re thinking – what do I do with more notecards? Fear not.
I’ve compiled 6 creative ways you can use these watercolor art notecards this summer!
1. Start a new tradition and send your handwritten season’s greetings to your friends and family during the summer.
Bell Pepper Notecard on 19pt Natural Savoy, 4.25″ x 5.5″
Do you send your family and friends greeting cards during the winter holidays? Well, it’s been almost 6 months, isn’t it?
How would they feel if they received an unexpected season’s greetings from you this summer?
I would think happy, delighted, and loved.
In Japan there is a custom to send a letter or a greeting card to friends and family during the summer months to wish them well – or more like “I hope you’re surviving the super hot and humid summer season OK.” If you ever lived or visited there in summer, you know how miserable it gets… 😀
I love traditions like that where it’s not related to any particular holidays. You simply reach out and say “I hope your summer is going well!”
Help them cool down with these refreshing watercolor art notecards!
2. It’s a perfect summer birthday card.
Each of the notecards feature my colorful and refreshing drawings of summer’s bounty and makes a perfect summer birthday card!
These cards are printed on a cotton savoy card stock and feel very soft and luxurious. It can totally be enjoyed as a framed mini-art after they read your thoughtful birthday message 🙂
Bonus if your birthday people are also into gardening, farmers’ markets, cooking, and, of course, eating good food ❤
3. Write a thank you note to your neighbor who brings you her homemade blueberry jam every summer.
Summer Berry Notecard on 19pt Natural Savoy, 4.25″ x 5.5 “
Are you one of the lucky people who have that special neighbor who loves to make jam with fresh, seasonal berries AND share them with you?? Homemade blueberry jam is my favorite, by the way!
Write a thank you note in my Summer Berry notecard and tell her how much you appreciate the delicious gift!
(Hint: she’ll probably bring you more goodies if you do :))
4. Your tomatoes are doing a little too well and you don’t know what to do with all of your bounty?? Invite your friends over for a tomato canning party!
Tomato Notecard on 19pt Natural Savoy, 4.25″ x 5.5″
I have a friend who plants lots and lots (I mean LOTS) of tomato plants every year, and she turns them into delicious tomato sauce and cans them.
If you’re a canner, you know it is a “process.” You need to clean, peel, chop, measure, season, and cook your veggies or fruits. You prepare your jars and lids and can them in boiling water in a hot kitchen.
I love canning but it can be quite time consuming and labor intensive.
It’d be a lot more fun if you have your friends over and enjoy the process while catching up on your summer happenings.
Make it a special event by sending them my Tomato notecard as a handwritten invitation!
5. Send your family an illustrated report of what’s growing in your garden.
Eat a Rainbow Notecard on 19pt Natural Savoy
If you live in a similar climate to Seattle and have a vegetable garden, you’re probably growing many things (if not all!) that are illustrated on my Eat a Rainbow notecard.
Perhaps your parents are retired in Hawaii, or your brother lives in New Zealand. These everyday veggies we take for granted may be quite interesting to those who are not familiar.
Show and tell what you’re growing in your garden this summer with your loved ones living far away.
6. Invite your friends to a garden potluck party!
Are you planning an outdoor potluck, wedding, birthday, anniversary, or retirement party this summer? Get your guests excited about the fun you’re about to have by sending an invite with these notecards!
The colorful and fresh vegetables and berries on these notecards scream garden party.
Send your invitations early before everyone’s calendar starts filling up this summer 🙂
Invitations have already gone out? (You, organized you!) You can send your guests these notecards as a thank you card later for making your party special.
How cute is this??
However you decide to use these notecards, you’re sure gonna make them (and you!) smile 🙂
I hope you got a chance to see the sneak preview of my new summer product line, Eat a Rainbow, that’s going to launch on Sunday May 1 last week. If you missed it, go here to get a sneak preview now!
It’s my first attempt to release a cohesive art product line on a regular basis (my goal is one collection per season). I’m starting small with just a handful of new art prints and notecards.
In this new collection, I’m releasing 4 new designs: Eat a Rainbow, Bell Pepper, Tomato, and Summer Berry. All things I love and look forward to in summer!
For the new art prints, I selected the Premium Giclee Paper as recommended by the printshop I work with (I work with FinerWorks, and they’re great by the way!), and I couldn’t be happier with the quality of the products! I gasped when I opened up the mail to see these prints for the first time because they’re so beautiful ❤
The texture on the paper adds so much to the luminosity of the watercolor illustration. To be completely honest, it looks even better than my original 😀
Take a closer look and you’ll totally agree.
Eat a Rainbow Watercolor Illustration and Handlettering by Yuko MikiEat a Rainbow Watercolor Illustration and Handlettering by Yuko MikiBell Pepper Watercolor Illustration by Yuko MikiBell Pepper Watercolor Illustration by Yuko MikiTomato Watercolor Illustration by Yuko MikiTomato Watercolor Illustration by Yuko MikiSummer Berry Watercolor Illustration by Yuko MikiSummer Berry Watercolor Illustration by Yuko Miki
Just picture these vibrant watercolor drawings of fresh vegetables and berries hanging in your dining room. Imagine how inviting your home will be for your friends and family. You’ll be treating them to a feast not only to fill their bellies but their heart, too ❤
Eat a Rainbow art collection will launch on Sunday May 1 🙂 Stay tuned for more updates next week!
I’m trying to focus more on my art products this year, and my goal is release a cohesive new product line every season.
And I’m excited to tell you that my Eat a Rainbow summer product line will launch on Sunday May 1!!
I love sharing my behind the scenes creative process with you, so I’m going to share bits and pieces of my new art product line in the coming month.
When I decided the art product was going to be my new goal this year, it was already mid-winter and was too late to produce and market anything for the spring. So I decided to start with creating new products for this summer.
My first step when I start something new is to educate myself on the subject matter as much as possible. So I read a bunch of articles and watched webinars about making successful product business.
You probably already know this, but starting a product business is expensive!! You have to make an up-front investment in inventory and supplies, and it can take a few years for you to actually profit from your sales. Yikes.
I don’t believe in debt and since I’m still learning, I decided to start small and invest in paper products (e.g. art prints and notecards) for the summer season. Prints and cards are not as expensive to produce as compared to other products like mugs and bags, and you can expect a higher profit margin.
I also learned that you need to be on top of your schedule for your product launch and promotion and you need to start designing and producing your products waaaay early. Like, I need to be thinking about fall and winter holidays now. But it’s not even summer yet!!!
That unseasonal aspect of the product business feels very awkward to me, but I gotta start somewhere and am willing to try! So I put the tentative dates and reminders for my product designs, promotion, and launch on my Google calendar for the rest of the year. I’m so patting myself on the back for that one!
Once I made a decision about what kinds of products to create, I worked on creating a cohesive theme for the products. I did some research to find out the visual trend for this summer, especially for stationery and surface design. Which I must say was not very easy to find for some reason.
I thought someone must’ve created a list of themes that are hot this summer, but I didn’t find anything that was so simple or easy. I guess nothing is easy when it comes to learning?
But one website I found based in the U.K. did mention urban gardening/homesteading theme is one of the more popular themes this year (hasn’t it been kind of popular for the past few years, though? Maybe it’s different for different counties…?), so I decided to tackle that theme for my summer art products.
I’m a gardener, and as you know, I love anything related to food 🙂 Summer is the time for abundant vegetable production, and why not celebrate it with art??
When I was designing for the summer product line, I had many ideas. Simple line drawings, fun veggie-related puns (though I’m bad at coming up with puns…), vintage seed packet designs etc. But I was particularly inspired by the beautiful food gradient art by Wright Kitchen.
I was introduced to her website a few months ago and have been following her beautiful food photography on Instagram. Her art is absolutely stunning!! Definitely follow her feed if you’re looking for delicious eye candy!!
So anyway, I started drawing and sketching some of my favorite summer vegetables in watercolor, gouache, and my favorite Micron pen.
And then I scanned my drawings in to create several fun compositions digitally in Photoshop.
I named the series Eat a Rainbow, and I imagined my colorful art prints hanging in someone’s kitchen or dining room, where they’re going to be cooking and enjoying the meals made with fresh vegetables with their family and friends 🙂
This one is my favorite ❤
My Eat a Rainbow summer product line will launch on May 1, 2016 on my Etsy shop! I’ll be sharing more sneak previews in the coming month, so stay tuned!
Honeyberry Diary 