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A day at the beach - My handmade pillow process

[caption id="attachment_959" align="alignright" width="254" caption="She smiles"][/caption] Over the summer, my nephew, his wife and their 5 kids stopped by my home/office to rescue this workaholic for a day. Since the beach is only 2 blocks from my home - and it's one of my favorite places to work - I decided to oblige - plus I could not say no to those cute kids. While my nephew manned the grill, his wife took the kids for a swim splash. I sent a few e-mails, tweeted, updated my Facebook status, then walked down to the beach to join them. As I approached the water I saw my niece (also my god daughter) sitting down in the sand - all content - with the most innocent smile ever - she is a bit of a troublemaker. The kids were having a blast, I had to join in on the fun. We collected shells, we made sand castles, we swam, we ate. It was the perfect day. A few weeks later, I was having a particularly stressful day. I called my friend for a pep talk and she suggested that I close my eyes and think of something that made me happy. I did, I focused on that day at the beach with my family. The memory became my happy place. That afternoon, I started to compose the scene (as seen in my head) of my family enjoying a warm summer day at the beach. I sketched nieces M and T. Scanned the sketches and digitally colored them. [caption id="attachment_962" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Girls"][/caption] They were joined by their brothers C and D. [caption id="attachment_963" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Hello auntie Al"][/caption] I could not decide if I should add baby H (I did not want to make the composition too crowded). Baby H. was the the cutest of them all and the biggest troublemaker. He kept knocking over the sand castles. As soon as we got them perfect, he crawled over and knocked them over - it was like a scene from Godzilla.  I finally gave him a beach ball and that kept him entertained for about 45 seconds. [caption id="attachment_964" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="And baby makes 5"][/caption]

I did a small Facebook pole and my fans voted to include him. I am glad I did. It gave me an opportunity to add even more color - I love color.

[caption id="attachment_967" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Pillow"][/caption] After all the details of the image is finalized, it is printed on 100% organic cotton fabric. A 20x20 pillow will look perfect in the kids play room. [caption id="attachment_968" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="It will look great in the kids play room."][/caption]

The image looks great as a shower curtain in their bathroom - even as a window treatment.

[caption id="attachment_969" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Shower curtain/window treatment"][/caption] xoxo Al  

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