I am in the running for best swimsuit design at Front Row Society!

The theme is “African Heat” ~ encompassing the wildness of African prints.

My design, “High Roller” was inspired by the lush and pretty colors of the Lilac Breasted Roller, a bird native to Africa.

The birds are so named for their impressive courtship flight ~ a rocking and rolling motion. I also have been wanting to try a pattern in the wild Dutch Wax fabric style so here we are!

Detail

Please take a little time and vote for me, if you could please…

http://www.barbraignatiev.com/highroller

If that link doesn’t work for you, just go to www.frontrowsociety.com and VOTE NOW button under the AFRICAN HEAT contest.

Thanks so much for your helps!

If I win, I get a little dough, a sample of the swimsuit, and some links and videos posted. You can also get the swimsuit if you like it :)

I’m entering more contests these days because it helps me spread the word about what I do and I get a little challenge at the same time. Yay! Thanks again. Means so much to me that you gals and guys take the time to help a girl out.

Barbra

PS: If you helped by voting for the last Spoonflower contest ~ Sailing ~ thanks so much. I did not actually win that one, which is a bummer, but I’m going to keep on trying!

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Here are some super special guys!

Boston Terriers are referred to as the “American Gentleman” because they are the first true American dog breed.

Spider, our special guy, is a Boston Terrier. Here is a picture of him.

Yogurt on his nose

He is almost 13 and actually pretty blind. Don’t feel too bad for him ~ he gets around very well for an old guy. He even walks all the way up to Capitol Hill on a regular basis, like a true American dude.

Bostons tend to have the cutest names. There are a lot of Bostons that live near us ~ one is called “Miss Bean”, another is “Gerald”. They live in adorable brick townhomes near Capitol Hill.

To honor Spider and our fine fine country I painted some watercolor Bostons for all to enjoy. Look at the googly eyes! Gleeep!

Download, share and enjoy!

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Mother’s Day is this Sunday. Just a little PSA. :)

Here’s some jazzy flowers for yer ma ~ MMS her an iPhone or iPad wallpaper and tell her how much you think she’s pretty great or something. PLUS give her a call and hug her.

I’m so bossy. I should be a mom.

I’ve been really into mirrored patterns lately. I did another one in a bird theme that I will share with you soon! If you’re a-following me on the Instagram or Facebook, you will have seen it. And you will have liked it, I think.

What do you think of this one? I love the intense colors. I also think the flower in the lower middle looks reminiscent of Animal from the Muppets. See…?

★★ Another BONUS this week ★★ I included a printable greeting card that you can print, cut, sign and send to your Mommy. It’s blank inside and is actually good to send to anyone that you think is super pretty and that you love. See and download it below!

Thanks to all the moms out there who made the babies! We would not be here without you.

And special thanks to my mom who has always been super supportive and also incredibly pretty.

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PRINTABLE GREETING CARD
Frolic Super Pretty Card (Approx 3 MB)
 
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Arriba! I am a big fan of Mexican culture. Half of my childhood was spent in my friend Roslyn’s home, eating homemade tortillas and refried beans, watching La Bamba. I estimate I’ve seen that movie over a dozen times. It was Roslyn’s favorite movie I think.

I always thought Cinco de Mayo was about Mexican independence, but I learned it’s really mostly a celebration of Mexican culture. Yes, OK, bring on the margaritas, bright colors, guacamole, and singing.

So this month’s Skull-of-the-Month had to be Cinco de Mayo inspired! This week’s wallpaper is a little earlier in the week because I also included a BONUS free printable Cinco de Mayo invitation. :)

See it below. Just print, cut, fill-out (fillable in the pdf or write in your info), stuff into an A6 envelope and send off!

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PRINTABLE INVITATION
FREE Cinco De Mayo A6 Invitation (Approx 4.5 MB)

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Mike has been taking sailing lessons and tying knots in his free time and talking all the sailing lingo and wearing navy stripes. It’s cute how excited he gets for things.

We are both very excited to be taking sail boats out on the weekends once he gets certified. A certified sailor! Seaman. Hehe. We will be able to rent boats and go out on the Potomac River ~ weee!

Consequently, I noticed Spoonflower was having a sailing-themed contest so it seemed a perfect opportunity to come up with a neat sail-inspired pattern.

I had this idea to have all these little sail boats tossing around in a sea of blue bonky waves in a sort of toile-type pattern. And, naturally, some mermaids would join in on the fun.

The mermaids are pretty large in proportion to the sail boats but I thought maybe these could be rare GIANT mermaids. Even MORE sexy and enticing.

I created it with watercolor because that seemed the natural choice. Then I brought it into Photoshop, isolated the colors and then put it into half-drop repeat. It took quite a bit of time to get just right.

SO there is something I need your help with…

If you have time, I’d love it if you could enter your vote if you think this design is pretty cool.

Just go here:

http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters/new?contest_id=188

It should take about 2-3 minutes of your precious time and I will e-hug and air kiss your for it.

You will have to page thru 16 pages to find mine, and they seem to show up randomly so I couldn’t tell you what page to find mine. You don’t need a Spoonflower account as far as I can tell.

If you do vote, leave a comment below or email me (b-at-barbraignatiev.com) ~ I will personally thank you and air kiss/e-hug each and every one of you ;) Sommmmmehow.

Thank you sooo much!!!

Here’s a time-lapse making-of video for your further enjoyment…

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Rrrower.

When I was painting this I was thinking of the lady that might wear such a print as this.

She would be well-connected, fun, goofy, and yet super sophisticated. (Sounds sooo much like me. Ha.)

She would be rich, happy and hot and everyone would flock to her because she was a sugarbubble of positivity and abundance, open to all possibilities. Put-together, but still a little rough around the edges.

A new kind of A-lister. A for Awesome. Ha dorky.

Download, share and enjoy!

xo,
BIg

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Besides having a kitty and a dog, we also have a snake. People are usually surprised and freaked by it when they come into our small city apartment… even though he lives in his own tightly-sealed glass “apartment”.

But snakes are super cool. Some times Durango will coil up and tuck his little head inside his coil in the cutest way like he wants to shut out the world and all the raucous we make.

And he does silly things like climb up the side of his cage, over extend himself and then come thumping down loudly like a falling angel from Heaven. Some times he wakes me up in the middle of the night with this nonsense.

My husband looked at this glorious painting and said “hmmm well that isn’t really what snake skin looks like”. He’s a reptile expert of sorts and “actualizer”. I said “it’s inspired by it, dammit!” And then he said “oh then I like it”.

I made a quick process video below for this one. It is below.

(Thanks to you all that have been sending me ideas for designs. Keep them coming ~ just leave me a message via my contact page.)

Enjoy and download below!

ALSO you may have noticed this is not Thursday. We have a two-fer this week because I thought that’d be nice. So sign up or come back on Thursday for another wallpaper 0_0 which is also animal-inspired.

Weeee~
BIg

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I asked all you ladies on my mailing list what you’d like to see more of and lots of you said “ANIMAL PRINTSSSSS!”

So I got out the watercolors and spent an entire day making animal-inspired wallpapers.

This one is inspired by the equid that is the symbol of individuality, the zebra.

Did you know that each zebra has their own unique pattern of black and white stripes? Like a large-ass finger print all over their bodies. Black and white is also all about the integration of opposites, which appeals to the Gemini in me.

Download, share and enjoy :)

xo,
Barbra

PS: I’m posting more animal-inspired prints next week! Subscribe and I’ll send let you know when they’re up.

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I asked ladies on my mailing list what they’d like to see more of and someone said “more animal prints, please!” and “cute flowers in pastels”. So I thought ~ OK, why not mix up these ideas for extra enjoyment.

I like to imagine a cheetah is hiding amongst the flowers, lazily intoxicated from the rich floral fragrances.

Or something.

Also check out the quick making-of video below. :)

xo,
Barbra

PS: More animal-inspired prints are to come! Subscribe and I’ll send them right to you.

PPS: We call “Careless Whisper” by George Michael “Cheetah Friend” in my family. Because at one time that’s what I thought he was saying in the song. Or maybe it was my sister that thought that. I don’t really remember. Whichever it is, I’m really bad at deciphering song lyrics.

Shoulda known bettah than a cheetah friend,
waste a chance that I been given
So I’m never gonna dance again,
The way I danced with you oooo ooo.

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Can you believe I hadn’t created a cat print…until now. That is just unacceptable. Here’s one!

One night I was inspired to doodle some cute kitties whilst in bed, watching Foo sleep near my feet, so these fella felines showed up in my head. Some are grumpy, some are sneaky and others are a little… special, IYKWIM.

When I brought them into Photoshop I was like oh hey why don’t I put a glitter texture in there. Let’s just go freakin’ crazy!!! Let’s take it to the next level. I think it works ~ what do you think?

It took me so much back-and-forth with my sister and my husband and my friend Claudine to get this design to this point. They are my lovely sounding boards and fresh eyes. Thank you so much! Some times designs need a kind and yet fierce jury.

I only have iPhone and iPad wallpapers for this one ~ just seemed too busy for a desktop, no?

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