It's Gorse of Course!

Photo by jen-the-librarian via flickr.

To wrap up Ireland I wanted to close with one more of my Grandma's journal entries. It is about the flower gorse, and I just loved it. Especially written in her beautiful cursive script.
"When gorse is out of bloom Kissing is out of season" (this is an old Irish saying).
"Yellow flowers in pastures = gorse. Farmers don't like it. Blossoms 3 times a year". If that doesn't tell you enough you can check out the wiki entry here.



I'm pretty excited because I just booked my trip next week to go visit my BFF Ris in Portland, Oregon. I'm continuing my travels to the places that I've done in the Places I Have Never Been line! So sad that Sasso can't come with me. It has become apparent that he will be chained to his desk this summer (just like last summer) so I've resigned to do some solo travel, so sad. Well, less sad cause I cashed in my miles for a first class ticket... to ease the Sasso missing.

Listen to those pipes!! Part Uno

Pipe organs, when I was perusing Flickr for some Ireland inspiration I kept stumbling upon them and I thought they were totally beautiful. They also brought me (somewhat) nostalgically back to the Catholic church days of my youth, leaning forward with my forehead on the pew in front of me praying for God to end the sermon and let me go ride my bike.
This first "organ" may not be the traditional kind. The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, many forming together to look like a pipe organ, located in Northern Ireland. Legend has it that it was caused by an Irish giant running away from a. either a baby eating a steak or b. a baby that was gigantic, tearing up the Causeway as he went. Read here for yourself. You might recognize the Causeway from the cover of Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy album (you know, the D'yer Maker one). Check out these BEAUTIFUL pictures of the causeway below from brian77kelly via flickr.

The Galway Pattern

Here she is, the new Galway Pattern. Inspired by the yellow gorse flower, (which my Gramma wrote about in her Ireland travel journal), and pipe organs. Why pipe organs? I just kept seeing them everywhere in my research. There are some beauts in Ireland and even a series of gigantic rocks that resemble a pipe organ. Maybe it is from being brought up in a pseudo-Irish Catholic household, Ireland reminds me of church, church reminds me of pipe organs. Go figure.
The Galway pattern graces one of our new Hello! note cards: Top of the Mornin'. This shot isn't bad considering my camera can't focus on anything lately (Dear Sasso - My birthday is next month... a new camera would be an amazing present).



Since we are talking about Ireland here...ss anyone else out there watching these Celtics games? I mean... I almost turned off the tv in disgust last night but boy was I glad that I didn't. Talk about the luck of the Irish! Fantastic!!

Valley of the Flowers

I had originally designed this pattern to be big, bold and kind of in one's face. But when I put it next to the other patterns for the 2009 calendar, it seemed really out of scale. So the whole thing got shrunk down. And in the end I like it very much, the only sad thing is that you loose a lot of the details in the flowers. I spent the majority of a dreary Saturday this winter drawing these flowers, each one blown up to like 800%. So I thought I'd blow them up a bit so you can see the detail in them here. The funny thing is I swear that I wrote down the name of each flower so that I could show you an original picture too... but apparently that was a good idea not followed through on.
Today my mom is coming in for a short visit and we are going to go wedding dress shopping. I'm not a big clothes shopper. I prefer to obsess over something online and then order it in 3 sizes and try it on in the comfort of my bedroom. Something a bit more difficult to do with a wedding dress. I'm looking for something white that is simple and costs less than my share of the booth fee to the stationery show. We'll see how it goes....

Floral Couture

I write this with a throbbing face, cheek really I guess. My tooth had been aching and I had to go to the dentist. I made my last minute appointment thinking, "oh this is no big deal... I can do it in the A.M, have the whole day to work and then I can still make that Design Salon event I've been looking forward to in the evening." So I went, shed a few tears (you would too if you had 18 teeth pulled as a young one), and when I was leaving the (wonderful) dentist said to me "so once the Novicain wears off this is going to hurt at least twice as much as that root canal you had. Here, go get some Vicodin." Oh it appears I gravely miscalculated my procedure. Which is why I'm sitting at home with a throbbing face.

To take my mind off that (and how I really can't buy a M.J bag from the employee sale cause I just dropped the equivalent at the dentist) I thought I'd write a bit about the beginning influences of the Loire Valley pattern. Well, it was all those flowers over flowing the Spring runways. I mean they were EVERYWHERE! I could have filled an entire sketchbook with inspiration, forget just a few pages. Here are a few glimpses of my floral sketchbook pages.

Matthew Willamson, Prada, and Balenciaga. Balenciaga was the big time influence. All those cool floral patterns, and those crazy black and white gladiator sandals totally inspired the Chester, England pattern (I want those sandals, I know... where would I wear them... but I want them anyways). So here, take a look.

Introducing Loire Valley

Soooooo.... I need to note that right now I am sitting in the studio with all the windows open getting a fantastic cross breeze of warm air. So warm that when I walk through the kitchen I check to see if the stove is on, I've been doing this all day. The scent of a neighbor's BBQ have been wafting in... I've been waiting for this weather to return since November.



A while ago I wrote about what was inspiring some new patterns. The first new pattern to be released is Loire Valley. She is French and very bright (as in colorful, though if she was a person I think she'd also be very smart and clever), and just bursting with flowers. The pattern was inspired by the flowers that flooded the Spring 2008 runways (especially the Balenciaga collection - swoon), a few chateau gardens in France and the idea of a colorful fruit basket (not sure why but that popped in my head the whole time I worked on this pattern).
This is also the first release of the new Thank You card line, which Loire Valley graces on the Merci card which you can see here. The cards are sold as singles as well as in packs of 6 and they are all enviro friendly as mentioned before.
This pattern had so many great inspirations and I can't wait to share them all. I know posting has been a bit light. Sometimes it is tricky to get pumped up about the inspiration for patterns I did like 18 months ago, so I'm really looking forward to sharing the 14 new patterns I have with you!

On another note my dear-dear-dear-lovely intern Alston is leaving me in Mid-May so I'm on the lookout for another talented design intern. If anyone is interested please email me at jhilldesign (at) mac.com for more details. One of the big projects for the summer is the rework of the Studio's website which will soon have a wonderful database driven shopping cart (adios paypal buttons!). Good experience and fun :)

Views of Fakahatchee

So the Fakahatchee isn't so much a city or town as it is a big swamp... I guess (see with the whole "Places I Have Never Been" thing, you depend on others info so you can't always be sure of everything). I was breezing through flickr, a favorite past time of mine, and saw all these great pics of Fakahatchee so I thought I'd post a few. These lovely ones are by MistyL. She has so many great nature photos for you to check out, including these ghost orchid pics, and this huge album about Fakahatchee Strand. I love flickr because it is so easy to find amazing photographers like Misty.
In other news, I'm excited to say that the new 2009 line is 80% in the bag, and soon comes the fun part... production. Which I honestly hate, I don't know why I said it was fun. There's the nauseas feeling when approving a proof, the nauseas feeling when I open my amex bill, the anxious feeling waiting for things to get here. Not fun. But it will be over soon, a few more weeks.
I've been freelancing a bit back at my old stomping ground, the lovely beauty company Fresh, just to help them out. It has been soooooo nice to be out of the house a couple days a week, working with dear old friends in a sunlit office which happens to be right in the center of some of Boston's best restaurants and bars. Of course getting to be around all that pretty, creamy, sweet smelling product is nice too. This morning the office was filmed for the local Boston news program Chronicle. Look for an awkward JHill (I mean really, what are you supposed to do with your hands when you are make-believe reviewing something) in an episode about Fresh to air in April/May.

Ooooohhh... Fakahatchee!

Oh Fakahatchee... the way your name just rolls off the tongue. Fakahatchee is actually a swamp in the Florida Everglades. The print was inspired by the book "The Orchid Thief", the movie "Adaptation"and of course the lovely orchid.
I love the orchid and this is the first in a series of orchid prints (vanilla orchids in the Tahitti print and perhaps more to come). Sasso's mom has BEAUTIFUL orchids in her living room that have blossoms as big as your fist, they are totally amazing. Once, we were given an orchid plant as hostess gift for a party we threw. I swear it
was dead in 6 months. I just can't keep anything alive, which is why only cut flowers are around our house. That may be one reason for my slight growing (ahem, no pun intended) obsession. If I can't have them alive in my home I guess I will just have to draw them.

Just a note, on my site there is a big "Spring Cleaning Everything is on Sale" sale going on. I need to make room in the "inventory closet" for some new work that will be coming in. It should be called the "Did you know weddings are expensive?" sale, cause boy... I have found out that these shindigs do not come cheap...

Doughnuts, Castles and Elephant Seals

Sasso and I spent our first affianced day with JBatt and Picy touring the Big Sur area, we did so much it is actually kind of amazing. The day began with a stop for pastries at The Big Sur Bakery. I could have eaten those homemade jelly doughnuts until I became ill.
From there we got on the road and then stopped for a brief "hike". We should have known when the description said "good for children" that this was more of a walk to a vista point than a uphill climb. But I like to wear cute jeans and carry a cup of coffee on my hikes so it was perfect for me. The view of the waterfall / ocean / rolling hills was so ideal it kind of looked like a set at MGM.

Mapquest said the drive to Hearst Castle was 60 miles or 60 mins, but Mapquest didn't know that you can only go 25 mph on this coastal road... so after what felt like 3 hours of switchback after switchback we finally arrived, JBatt and I in the backseat a bit carsick. The name Hearst to me meant socialites and magazines, which makes sense since this castle is the former home of the media mogul Willam R. Hearst. At the castle's base is a a disney world like visitor center, but the ride up the hill to the castel is beautiful. You can take 4 tours and we took #1 which included the exterior and a few rooms. Hearst combined his love or art and architecture creating a home that really is a museum (the temple facades around the outdoor pool are actually from ancient ruins). The styles are all over the place, but together they really do all work. Every detail from the drain pipes (yes they say ...MEOW...) and eaves to the indoor pool is considered. The tour lasted 2 hours but I think Sasso and I could have spent 2 hours in just one of the rooms examining all the detailed decoration. Just imagine the parties that must have taken place.... see a few pics below.

On our way back to our lodge we stopped at a beach full of elephant seals. They definately walk the line of cute/blubbery and kind-of-gross/blubbery. It was cool to be so close to them and watch them do absolutely nothing. We were just begging to see some National Geographic type action...

Suspension without Suspense

I started sketching out the Vancouver pattern right around the time of my big dental procedure. I brought my Insight City Guide: Vancouver to read during the breaks in what ended up being a very, very long dentist appointment. "You going to Vancouver?!" the endodontist asked. "Um... not anymore," I responded looking at the estimate for the 2 crowns and a root canal (one downfall of being self-employed and unmarried - no dental insurance). The dentist then told me all about his trip to Vancouver, and though my trip to Vancouver was about to be sitting inside my mouth, it was very nice to hear all about his.
There was one element that I included in all of my different Vancouver pattern sketches and that was the Capilano Suspension Bridge. The bridge has been carrying tourists across the thickly forested canyon since 1889, it's 450 ft swinging 230 ft in the air. It makes me light-headed just to write that. There is also something called Treetop Adventure where you walk around on a series of bridges, some 100 ft in the air, linked together by massive douglas fir trees. There is something mesmerizing and beautiful about the Suspension Bridge above all those trees.

Piles of Emeralds

To be honest, emeralds have always kind of creeped me out, though I'm unsure why. I imagine them on the fingers of a eccentric crazy women like Ms. Dinsmoor from Great Expectations or Little Edie from Grey Gardens. Hmmm.... strange that this is also my mother's birthstone. Anyways... Jaipur is the emerald cutting/processing center of the world. Mined emeralds are brought here from places such as Columbia and Zimbabwae (emeralds from Zimbabwae began growing over 2600 million years ago) to be cut by master, well cutters. The emerald's hardness protects it from scratches but its brittleness can make cutting difficult. Apparently master cutters still love this stone as they developed its own cut: the emerald cut.
Emeralds create the tail of the kites in the Jaipur print. Imagine the day of the Kite Festival, kites flying through the sky dripping with emeralds. The b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l emerald & diamond necklace above is from Tiffany's and goes for $350,000. I'll be looking for that in my stocking.

What's so cool about Tahiti?

It's snowing here. When I was walking the basset hound this morning, there were just s few little flakes but now it is a real snow flurry. It's really beautiful with the trees all orange and the green grass poking through the snow...time to dig out all that warm winter wear.
Let's talk about some cool things from somewhere that you don't need to turn the heat on - Tahiti.
Breadboxes: In Tahiti houses are equipped with a long mailbox, but forget the junk mail. They are filled daily with French bread. How great is that? I wish our mailbox was full of fresh bread instead of sale fliers from Stop 'n Shop.
Tahitian Tattoos: When I was in high school i got myself a small tattoo on my back. My mom said something about me turning into Madonna, or was it Roseanne Barr... I can't remember now, but she was NOT happy. If only back then I could have searched flickr and shown her a picture of this guy to prove that is could be worse...
Les Roulottes: Restaurant's on Wheels - this is Tahitian street food. Once the sun goes down these little places open up serving everything from Italian to Chinese. I want to try the local specialty, "Poisson Cru." A salad made from coconut, cucumber, citrus and fresh tuna. I imagine it to be a bit like ceviche which I love.
Brando's Island: Tetiaroa is the private island of deceased actor Marlon Brando. Mostly undeveloped this area is great for a day of sunning and bird watching. Better yet, it has a very dramatic history, read about it here.
Over water Bungalows: I've always dreamed at staying in on of these thatched roofed hotel room, but they seem to elude my travel budget. Some have glass floors so that you can watch the fish and coral from above. I just imagine falling asleep to the lapping of the waves...
Hawaikinui Va'a: "The Super Bowl of outrigger canoe races". Occurring in early November, each crew of 6 races 72 miles from Huahine to Raiatea to Tahaa and ends up in Bora Bora. This looks so fun, like the Tahitian equivilant to standing on Boylston St to watch the Boston Marathon. But you are in the crystal blue water and it is sunny, so I think this race wins. See the video below.

Above photos clockwise from top Bread Box by ThePreismans.com (check out there site here for some GREAT photos), Tattoo Man via flickr by thelastminute, les roulettes via flickr by zug poof, Tahiti via flicr by Matt Mihaly, Brando's island. Video via YouTube by zanawear.

Las Vegas : Part Deux : Daylight Fun

We needed to do something to counteract all the materialism and craziness of Vegas. So we rented a car and drove off strip to Red Rock Canyon. First we took the road in the wrong direction, luckily it just ended (like the road stopped and there was nothing else) so we turned around and went the other way. I am no hiker and am usually not dressed appropriately (see previous post about looking for crocodiles in Costa Rica in high heel espadrilles and a mini skirt). I'm lucky that my jean capris had a bit of stretch in them to make my "rock climbing" possible. The Red Rocks were pretty amazing. Their texture was so soft and dry, Sasso said they looked like a deflated elephant because of all the wrinkles which was spot on. It was like climbing around on huge overturned terra cotta planters. The sand (this is the desert after all) was super fine and bright red. The contrast with the blue green shrubs and bright green moss was so lovely that it reconfirms my belief that nature is the greatest designer. (note: no matter how pretty the cactus do not pick it up. It will bite you and leave prickers in you thumb for a few days). There were also all these cool little "animal condos" worn into rock. "This would be the best place to play G.I Joes," Sasso said. We had a blast and on our way out we said "what's up" to a few actual rock climbing doooooodes barely feeling like impostors (though I think my jean capris gave that away).

Well after all that nature one does need a little materialism and I have to say Vegas has some killer shopping. Most of the brands are a little (by that I mean a lot) out of my league but window shopping here let me really fulfilled (except for wanting that red dress in the Christian LaCroix window, or everything in the Marc Jacobs' window...). We have some of these brands in Boston but where else can you find Louis Vuitton, D & G, Marc Jacobs, Anthropolgie, Custo Barcelona (who I love), Agent Provocateur, LaCroix, Gucci and Pucci under one roof?! Actually you can at the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. Then there is Sephora and BCBG across the street at the Venetian.... good thing we only won $100 on the slots or I would have traded my millions in for a bunch of over flowing shopping bags. If I hadn't wanted to spend the day hanging out with Sasso on Monday I could have walked around those stores for hours just looking at the colors, textures and especially he different materials that are used in the shops constructions.

The Savannah Pattern

When I was visiting St Augustine with my mom for the first time we went on one of those trolley tours of the historic area. Now I admit that in Boston I tend to despise those trolleys. They are always blocking the street and you know how impatient we Boston drivers are. Anywho… the tour was actually pretty fun, and I saw a lot of Spanish moss in the trees. I was quite fascinated by it. It lives in relative harmony with the tree, not killing it but just slowing its growth rate and gives it that whole Southern Gothic feel that I love. It looks pretty cool close up, (though I just read on wikipedia that it houses bats, chiggers and snakes so I won’t be getting so close next time), and there seems to be a boatload of it in Savannah. When I saw the moss I knew I wanted to include it in the Savannah pattern.
It was the “don’t be fooled by the midnight and magnolias” quote from "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" that spurned me to research the Magnolia Grandiflora. It’s a beautiful flower with waxy dark green leaves and it reminds me of a lady in a white ballgown. I bet it smells heavenly too.
All this came together in the Savannah pattern: the magnolia, the squares, the Spanish moss, and Scarlett Johansson’s dress. The pattern is available in the new 2008 calendar, as a print and as a note card and you can check them all out at www.jhilldesign.com.
On a side note, each pattern I do starts to remind me of a member of my family or one of friends… this one always reminded me of my “little” sister Becky and today happens to be her birthday. So, Happy Birthday Becky!
Photos from top left: my Spanish moss in flordia, the Savannah notecard and a magnolia blossom by maedeans via flickr.

Iceberg Diving

Well I guess it isn't so much diving as jumping in and floating. This picture on the left was cut out of Travel + Leisure magazine sometime ago. I put it away for some rainy day inspiration which eventually came and I began to research the company that runs these ice breaker tours.
The company is called Sampo Tours and it is the world's only tourist icebreaker. They sail on the northern Gulf of Bothnia out of Kemi, Finland from the middle of December to the end of April. The pictures on the right are from the Sampo website, there are a lot more to check out too.
You can take a tour of the ship to see how the whole thing works, then disembark onto the ice and finally don a big orange water-tight, thermal suit and jump into the black water. They also offer snowmobiling, helicopters, dog sledding taking you to a camp where you can sit under the Aurora Borealis and savor some Lapp treats and drinks.
I can't think of a better adventure. Sasso is always wanting to vacation somewhere cold, but I always persuade him that to escape Boston for a chillier climate is crazy, but this tour has definitely changed my mind. Imagine swimming amongst the icebergs...

Kemi, Finland

Kemi, Finland is approx 3,941 miles away from where I live. Pretty far. What sparked my interest was a picture of a person swathed in a orange rubber suit floating amongst some icebergs. It was just a little blurb about Kemi in an old issue of Travel + Leisure, but I ripped it out and put it in my "save-for-later" sketchbook. In the Spring I oohed and ahhhed over everything Marc Jacobs have covered in big, cartoon-like gemstones. Talk about some bling and some ice... wait a minute... it brought me back to that picture in T + L. Like floating in oversized gemstones. How wonderful. From there I researched Finland, Kemi specifically and found out what a lovely place it seems to be. Ice castles, reindeer, cloudberries, jewel museums, iceberg swimming, snow and much more...

The Death Valley Pattern

Oh Death Valley. Well the final pattern was a part of the 2007 calendar. It is July’s pattern because that is my birthday month I always put one my favorites on my month. Also, it’s a hot month, (though not so much this July… weird). Heat waves, mirages, desert hills, sunsets, snakeskin…
A few last but not leasts about Death Valley. The French song in clemifornia's YouTube video, (from the previous post), is by Les Cowboys Fringants and is called Les Etoiles Filantes which I believe translates to Shooting Stars. You can listen to the whole thing here. A perfect song for crusing through the desert at night.
And apparently there is this phenomenon know as the Moving Rocks out in the DV. There is a very flat area filled with big rocks that have left trails in the dirt, though no one has actually seen the rocks move. There is some video of it to check out here and some great pictures here.
This gloomy rainy day in Boston almost has me wishing to be out in the hot, dry 117 degree heat of Death Valley... almost.

It's not the heat it's the...

Here in Boston you'll always hear us say, "It's not the heat - It's the humidity..." It may not be hot today but I sweat I'm constantly walking through an invisible swamp. (In fact my dear Weenski has written a very funny ode to this swampy feel i speak of, see here.) Sasso has been to the desert a few times in his life. When preparing for a trip to Vegas last June I was a bit put off by a temperature that was in the "low hundreds". Sasso proclaimed, "It's a dry heat... it doesn't really feel that hot out." Ummmm.... I walked around wondering if in fact I was in an oven, I don't care how dry that heat was... it was HOT. So while doing my daily check of the weather here in Boston I decided to check in on Death Valley and see how it was holding up. Well as of 2:00 est it was a smooth 104 degrees (don't worry it only feels like 99 degrees) in the DV while it is a mild 70 degrees here in Boston. Our humidity is at 86% which equals swampy... that makes the DV's 12% humidity and high temps seem very enticing...

Sketches of the DV

The 2007 Death Valley pattern was highly influenced by the pages of Vouge and Elle, (Elle is my favorite fashion magazine for inspiration, they always have great ensemble collages). From Missoni's gradating fragrances to vibrant silk ombre dresses that resemble the sunset all i could think of was the desert. It was this python hobo bag by Nancy Gonzalez that got me thinking of the amazing geometric pattern of snakes skin.



After a little research I did various sketches of snakes skin patterns for snakes that call Death Valley home. Theres the mojave shovel-nosed snake, the ground snake, the panamint rattlesnake....

Painted With Light

I was browsing the web this morning looking for some images of Death Valley to post when I came across the site of Douglas Dolde from Simi Valley, California. Douglas is not only an amazing photographer but also a aerospace design engineer, (maybe he could explain to me how a plane stays in the air and help curb my flight anxiety).
Douglas shoots with a large format camera using 4" x 5" film. You can read more about his process here. His shots of Death Valley, (shown above), are incredibly beautiful, showing the amazing curves and angles of the landscape and the colors... breathtaking! You can also purchase prints from the site in various sizes from 8" x 10" all the way to 24" x 72" Check out Doug's site, Painted With Light, to see more of his photos from Arizona, Washington, California, Utah, Oregon, and Colorado. www.painted-with-light.com