Sometimes it rocks to be a work from home mom!

A few months back, I wrote a journal post called, "Sometimes it sucks to be a work from home mom", so I feel obliged to balance that out today.

I'm feeling very happy about a sale I made today. I only earned $9 for a whole lot of time, but I feel as chirpy as a Disney princess!

Someone ordered a Personalized Passover baby T-shirt. I really enjoy getting the emails with those requests! Sure, when someone emails drawnbyk@gmail.com to ask me to personalize a design or change the coloring, it represents more work for me with no extra pay. But it feels more personal than just seeing sales reports. I get to have a mini written conversation with a person who has found my artwork on the internet and actually decided they want to buy it for a baby or toddler to wear! Pretty cool!

I even find out the first name of the baby, and I can imagine that there is some adorable little person with that name wearing my shirt! This time, I even got to imagine a little more, because the customer asked me to make slight changes in the drawing (making the hair curlier and longer) to make it better resemble the baby. I hope that little girl with the curls is old enough to taste a little sweet charoses, and I hope that when her family gathers with her for the seder, they like her shirt!



The customer who ordered that shirt just sent me this message:

Hi Kerridwen -
Just wanted to let you know I got the shirt today and it's gorgeous :) Thanks so much!

How fantastic is that?!

Babies for Barack and Obama Mamas

Little Characters, my online store, has a great collection of political T-shirts for babies, kids, and parents. Click on any of the pictures below and you'll go straight to the website where you can buy T-shirts, onesies, or bibs for less than $20. They're all printed to order, so every design will be in stock in the size you want.

The design I'm most proud of is based on Obama's logo. It features a baby/toddler crawling on the red and white striped path toward the rising sun.
As always, I've made all the designs available in different skin tones. This picture is available with several messages (or just on its own). My favorite message is "My Future Is Looking Brighter".

This design was one of the things I can really say was a collaboration with my husband, Patrick. My final sketch had a rough drawing of the logo itself, but Patrick did a lot of cool technical work. He created different layers - one for my little kid, one for the wavy stripey path and one for the circles. Then he made sure the circles were really circles (I suck at drawing straight lines or perfect circles). The last thing he did was a really cool effect where the light blue background fades gradually into transparent. It makes it look like the white sun is really sending out rays of light.

I think another set of political designs that are really cute are my little blue donkeys.
A good friend of mine periodically checks out my shop and she spontaneously reacted to the United Baby by saying that the little blue donkey on his lap was really cute. The other shopkeepers on the forum have been saying for a while that I should try to offer designs that don't have people in them, so I decided to do some designs with just that donkey. I had to monkey with the coloring, because the bright blue didn't seem to print well - especially on dark colored shirts. The pastel is sweet though. My favorite product with the little donkey is the Future Democrat design on the maternity shirt.

I wish that I had been able to create more of these before Obama won, but I've been plugging away. As I'm typing this and thinking it through, I can't really ask for a better reason for designing. It's been hard work, but I do want to celebrate Obama's victory. Honestly, I'm just frustrated that I can't figure out how to get my designs to come up higher on the search results in Cafe Press's marketplace. Right now, if someone goes into their Kids section for clothes and does the featured search for Barack Babies, my designs don't start until the 7th page! I guess it's egotistical but I really believe my designs are better than a lot of the ones that come up first, and I'm worried that no one will see them.

If anyone is reading this who likes my designs, please go into the marketplace, search under "Barack Babies" and just click on my designs. Supposedly, Cafe Press's search results are based on how many people click the designs - not only people who buy them. So you could help my stuff get seen without spending a dime.

Little Tree Hugger T-shirts, onesies, and bibs

Little Characters, my online store, has two adorable Little Tree Hugger designs for infants and toddlers!

Click either picture, and you'll go straight to my store where you can buy the design on T-shirts, onesies, or bibs with a variety of skin tones and hair and eye colors.

The latest one has a baby hugging a sapling (literally hugging a little tree) . . .



The original design is one of the first drawings I made. I'm especially proud of all the detail and coloring in the leaves . . .



I decided to rework the first design after I got a lot of feedback and encouragement from other shopkeepers at Cafepress. They really are such a supportive community - they actually make starting a business a pleasant experience.

I have a long list of designs to work on right now, but I do have a goal for myself to create Little Tree Hugger designs for older kids. Some day!

Day of the Dead T-shirts & Onesies for Babies and Toddlers

I'm proud to announce that Little Characters, my online store, has a cool design for the Day of the Dead!

Just click the picture and you'll be taken right to the shop to see the products.


This was definitely a little different from my usual style! It gave me a chance to branch out and be a little more artistic. In keeping with my commitment to truly having diverse holidays represented in the store, I started thinking about how I could do a design for Day of the Dead.

The biggest challenge with this was not to be morbid or insensitive in the way I incorporated an infant. My first sketches just had one skeleton / calavera, and it was meant to be a baby. My husband, Patrick, kept looking at them and calling them the "Dead Baby Drawings" which made me wince and feel like tearing them up. Clearly, some people do lose children, and according to Wickipedia, November 1st is dedicated to lost infants and kids, but that wasn't what I wanted to focus on in the drawing. I wanted the design to make people think of babies or children being part of the celebration of the holiday.

My solution was to incorporate another traditional part of the holiday: families going to cemeteries together and sharing favorite foods or drinks with the deceased. I decided to try to draw a family of skeletons (including one baby) having a picnic at a grave. To me, this has a happier focus.

One of the aspects of the design that I like the best is hard to see in the thumbnail images on the website: the little pictures in the eyes. The daddy skeleton has bright blue stars, the mommy skeleton has purple flowers, and the baby has rainbows. It's certainly not as complex as some of the painted skulls, but I wanted to do something inspired by that.

We did get a tiny bit of comic relief in working on this design, too. When I am doing the computer work on designs, one stage is the "noskin" file. This is when I have added all the color, except for the skin, hair, and eyes. This way, I have lots of options for creating diverse variations. I got a chuckle going into Patrick's room, and announcing, "I just finished the No Skin for Day of the Dead!" Okay, I know that's a lame joke, but I'm a dork.

I've seen a lot of beautiful clothing for Day of the Dead already out there, and I can't afford to pay for advertising, so I may not make any sales. It would be really cool if someone in one of the parades had one of my designs on their little guy though!

Funny Anti-Palin Designs for Kids' Clothes

Little Characters has some adorable designs for children's clothes that poke fun at Sarah Palin . . .

Your baby or toddler might be limited to reading board books about farm animals and holding them upside down, but that is still an accomplishment! Click the picture and you will be able to purchase an infant/toddler T-shirt, onesie, or bib.


Chances are, if your child is reading, s/he is already more well-read than Sarah. Click the T-shirt and you will be able to purchase this colorful text design on a variety of bright shirts for kids.


And if you want a funny way to persuade swing voters at the playground, there's always the cute Obama Change Baby design. Now available on "Mom bags"!


Hurry while there's still time to inspire people to vote for Obama! :D

Cute Clothes for Your Natural Baby or Little Hippy

Little Characters , my online store, sells my hand-drawn designs printed on T-shirts, onesies, and bibs for babies and toddlers.

Check out my sweet collection of designs for natural babies! If you are more of a hippy mom, you'll enjoy seeing your little one in these. They're great baby gifts for friends who aren't always mainstream. And for all you new grandparents out there, this is a sweet way to show your kids you support their own style of parenting.

Just click on any of the pictures below, and you'll be taken straight to the products in my store. Everything costs less than $20 and it's printed on demand, so you don't have to worry whether it's in stock in the size you want. Every design is available in a variety of skin tones, and hair and eye colors.

More than pea stains will show that your baby is green . . .

Much nicer than constantly reminding people you have a little vegetarian . . .

Since she doesn't have armpit hair, she'll have to show she's a hippy in other ways . . .

 

Thanks for looking and sharing any feedback or suggestions!

 

 

 

 

Jayne Hat Baby Clothes for Firefly Fans

Little Characters has Jayne hat baby clothes for Firefly fans. I'm selling onesies, T-shirts, and bibs with a cute drawing of a little one in a Jayne hat. I drew the design just for you, Browncoats!

Here's a sneak peek - you can click on any picture to get right to the products. Everything is under $20.





And take a look at the Stars section for other designs inspired by television, movies, and books.

Diwali designs for baby clothes

Little Characters has two new Diwali designs. The T-shirts and onesies would make sweet Diwali gifts for babies and toddlers.





I spent a lot of time analyzing whether or not I should push myself to do these, but I ended up doing two just in time for people to order the baby clothes and have them arrive before October 28th.

Patrick keeps supporting me by reminding me that this is my own business and that I don't have any goals or deadlines except those I chose to have for myself.

I'm really committed to having the religious diversity though - in principle. And when I started to talk to my mom about the possibility of doing the Hindu designs next year, I realized that I might be doing the three monotheistic religions' holidays first and then eventually getting around to the polytheistic ones. After growing up polytheistic and hearing so many people casually treating polytheistic religions like they're in a separate category or like they're not real religions at all . . . I just couldn't do that. I might not get to the Wiccan holidays this year, but I'll at least do two Hindu holidays. And now that I'm a committed Unitarian Universalist, in a way this is an expression of my current values and spiritual life. UUs always say that they respect, and are inspired by, other religious traditions.

So, yes, I talked myself into spending several more hours on yet another holiday, but I feel good about what I've done. I must be convincing! :D

SO Proud and Happy

I added beautiful new designs for Ramadan and Eid baby clothes to Little Characters

I really hustled to get these done and I was only able to add them with a handful of days of Ramadan left:





I worked really hard to get these done, and the morning I successfully posted them on the store, I was just bopping around with joy. I told Patrick and my mom that even if I didn't sell any of the designs for Muslim holidays, I would still feel so good that I had created them. I felt such a sense of accomplishment!

And then before the day was even done, I saw that someone bought two onesies with my Ramadan and Eid designs! I only earned $10, but I have to say that sale made me feel like a million bucks!

And tonight I just checked the babycenter community groups, and saw this message posted:

I love all your eid/ramadan designs, they r just adorable!!! Thanks for including the muslim holiday sentiments. We need such acceptance of diversity in religion and people in todays world. You r doing a wonderful service to all mankind. Eid Mubarak to you and your family.

I think saying that I'm doing a service to all mankind might be a bit of an overstatement, but obviously this post is making me feel absolutely wonderful!

Baby and Toddler Clothes for Eid Ul Fitr

If you go to Little Characters now, you'll see these new designs in time for Eid:



Clicking either picture will take you directly to those products.

This has been a challenging set of designs for me to do. First of all, there are just a lot of holidays happening now! I just barely finished Rosh Hashana (September 29th), and I had to really hustle to get designs out in time for Eid (October 1st). Yom Kippur is October 8th, but I don't think I'm going to do any designs for that - at least not this year. I really don't think infants or toddlers will be too involved in repenting. But Sukkot is October 14th, and that's right around the corner.

My ignorance about Islam was the main challenge in creating the Eid designs. I've read some, but there is just so much I don't know. When I researched Eid Ul Fitr, I couldn't find any distinctive foods or symbols to draw.

The only food I found mentioned was vermicelli in sweet milk, and, honestly, I really have no clue how to draw that in a cute way. I finally settled on the symbol of the crescent moon (halil), because Eid doesn't officially start until someone spots it, and sometimes children are the ones who go hunting for it. I got the idea of having a baby seem to be reaching out - as if to try to grab the moon.

The next big challenge I had was how to dress the babies. I wanted to make sure that the babies appeared modest, so I knew this design wouldn't have my typical diapers-and-little-else look. But I had NO IDEA what the baby should actually wear. I read that families liked to dress extra special for Eid, but I couldn't find any photos of what babies or children would wear.

And I was very concerned about how to draw the heads. I didn't think it was appropriate to draw a head scarf on the baby girl, because girls aren't expected to wear those until they reach puberty, but I thought the baby's head should be dressed somehow. I saw photos of boys in those fancy prayer hats, and finally, I spotted a photo with two little girls wearing them on their way to mosque.

So this is what I've settled on. I really hope that the babies seem appropriate, and that their dress doesn't exclude anyone.

I'd love some information or suggestions from any practicing Muslims out there. I'm always looking for ways to improve my designs, and I'd like to include other Muslim designs, but honestly, I don't know what I would do other than the Eid stuff.

Baby Clothes for Talk Like a Pirate Day

Hurry to Little Characters and pick up some garb for your Little Pirate before September 19th!

Ahoy, mateys, If I were a drinkin wench, there'd be salt in my beer now, cuz I'm sad that I didn't do a better job of advertising this sooner. Don't let my goof up ruin your ankle-biters' holiday! Just cuz they have to stick to milk instead of grog doesn't mean they shouldn't have fun. Before they can even shout out, "Arrrr!" your babies and toddlers can join the party.

These designs are purty enough to be called a treasure.

For more information on this silly, but real, holiday go to The Official Talk Like a Pirate Day Site