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π Michaela Made February Newsletter
Published about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
~ February | 2025 ~
Hey Reader! February has flown by, but I'm looking forward to getting some weekends to myself to work on my new line of greeting cards and prep for spring markets. Monthly updates below!
1. Upcoming Markets
I have a few markets lined up for March and April: ποΈ 3/15 + 3/16: Dallas Art Book Fairβ ποΈ 3/29 + 3/30: Riso Rama San Marcos βποΈ 4/11 - 4/13: Arts in Bloom McKinney
Secret project revealed! I launched this LNY Wheel at Austin Beerworks and it did pretty well! I was inspired to create a more interactive version of the Chinese Buffet placemats and I was so pleased to see you all picking it up and looking to find your animal and then look to find animals of friends and family members! Lesson learned: despite creating so much Year of the Snake imagery, most people are looking for their own zodiac animal! π I would get asked "Do you have the Ox?" so many times, and I just had to say "Not yet, it's coming!!" I hope to finish out the remaining animals this year and if I don't launch it this year, I will have them all next Lunar New Year (February 2026)! Printed in fluorescent pink, blue, yellow and black on the back!
Something stressful behind the scenes is one of my riso print drums (Scarlet Red) has not been working. My intent was to print my riso wheel in lucky red, but it wasn't working by the time I needed it, so flo pink it was! I think it came out more fun and retro looking anyways. Miguel and I spent an entire evening carefully cleaning and inspecting the screen, but still no luck, and it looked like a Dexter scene with how much ink we were cleaning off. It's been frustrating since this is a brand new drum, and I've already put in a service order with my riso seller, any tips are appreciated if you know of any! So for now I can only print with flo pink, but my hope is to have red up and running soon so I can create more Burn Steady prints at home!
4. Shoutout Small Business
I spent this week at a private event pop up with WFF (Women's Foodservice Forum). I got to meet so many inspiring small businesses along with some lovely patrons from foodservice companies across the country who connected over cats and white rabbit candies! Vanessa with Esculent Soap and Lynda with Vesperre were lovely booth neighbors, go check out their businesses and support small!
5. Sketchbook
I've definitely been doing more tiny drawings this year and it's been such a joy to see them build up. First image is a snapshot I sketched during my shift at my part-time job and it was fun getting to use the multi-colored pen for shadows and plants. Second image I was inspired by people sharing their Hobonichi monthly and I've been keeping up with it through February, but my January spread was cute, so I'm sharing that one first. Loving my LAMY extra fine nib pen I got in Japan, and writing in OURS Studio Research Journal and doing some light scrapbooking with business cards I got from vendor neighbors.
Currently...
π Reading: I've been pouring over this gorgeous art book from Netflix series Arcane. If you haven't heard of it, I highly recommend checking it out, the animation is gorgeous and it won several Emmys! I also just downloaded the audiobook for Kendra Scott, Born to Shine after vending next to her pop-up all week (Kendra was not present haha, just her jewelry).
ποΈ Watching: Keeping with Arcane theme, I loved discovering more about the music and sound engineering of songs 'To Ashes and Blood' from s2 and 'Goodbye' from s1. I immediately regretted starting White Lotus s3 because I want to binge the entire season now! Also totally watching the Oscars this weekend and I really don't have a favorite for best picture this year.
π΅ Listening: After winning her Grammy, Doechii's Denial is a River is still a bop, and I finally got that it's a pun. π The music video is also super entertaining and her Tiny Desk was very well done.
β¨ Shop Small Today! β¨
Word on the street is that February 28th is the day to shop small! If you place an order today, you will receive an extra mini print from me! There's a lot of things going on right now, and I also respect if you choose to opt out of shopping all together today. Even if you don't shop today, but you have shopped with me in the past, know that I am grateful for your support. Supporting local is not only helping me continue to create, invest in materials, and grow my small business within my Dallas community. As @parkerandscott said eloquently: "Shopping small isnβt just a one-day movement; itβs something that makes an impact every single time you do it."
I always enjoy writing these and I hope you found it interesting! As always, I appreciate your support (big or small) and thank you for being here! π
Until next time,
Artist + Owner of Michaela Made
P.S. If you were waiting on your Lunar New Year animal to appear, which zodiac animal are you? Let me know!
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