ERIKA LEE SEARS

This post is brought to you by Target! but all the opinions and content are my own.  Follow along on twitter or instagram with the #mykindofholiday or @mkoh Did you have a great Thanksgiving? What I look forward to the most the minute after Thanksgiving ends is the holiday shopping of course. There is a massive Target next to my house and I have gotten into the tradition of being of one of those people who waits in line for the Black Friday deals.  I love getting the holidays off to a great start with getting my shopping started early.   Now the Target by me is such a big one that people camp out the night before- I am not that hardcore but me and a few close girl friends wake up and do an early start which is totally worth it to get the black friday deals.  I come ready with my list and store map!  which makes me whole shopping trip that much easier.  The first thing on my list is to check out the Apple supplies since Tim happens to be an Apple guy. What I love most abo...

We are less than 24 hours away from Thanksgiving and we are getting ready to do what I like to call the holiday dance. The holiday dance is where you have to go to multiple locations and do the holiday razzle dazzle a couple of times in one day. One thing I have to say I am looking forward to is my mom's pumpkin pie.. well my mom buys the Costco pumpkin pie but it is pretty delicious. :) I decided to make Nora her own little placemat since she gets a little antsy at the table because when she is done eating she wants out of her chair and hopefully this place mat will keep her occupied for at least 20 minutes. Today I am gearing up for the thanksgiving day gluttony which means- getting a good work out and sneaking into a few stores that I hope I can get get a pre sneak peak of black friday goodness.  What are you up to today? Download here ....

It's never to early to find the perfect gift, now is the time to order commissioned portraits for holiday gift giving.  For this holiday season I am going to be doing a limited number of commissioned portraits and pet portraits.I think the most special gift you can give someone is a painting because it's handmade, extremely special, one of a kind and it's something that is going to last forever.  I would be thrilled  and honored to paint something extremely special for you. I am going to be doing a custom 8 inch by 8 inch painting on cradled wood panel with free shipping.   I am only doing a few of these this year so please order early.  If you have any questions please contact me at erikaleesears@gmail.com. How it works: 1.  Purchase your painting. 2.  I will contact you with information and details that I need in order to complete the work. 3.  The painting gets mailed out. ...

This weekend I went thrifting and I had such a great haul.  Such a good haul that when I came home, Tim asked me what I was doing with all of this junk.  :) One of the things I am always looking for when thrifting is storage solutions or some type of basket solution because even though I love old things- I don't like a whole lot of clutter. I found this at an estate sale for a couple of bucks and thought this would be perfect storage solution for Nora's books. We go to the library at least once a week and she loves to pick out her own books.  She loves reading or at least pretending to read and I have caught her a few times flipping through my books and reading. Since library books are generally hard backed and coated in plastic- it seems like they take up more space then regular books and I had the books stacked on an end table but it just seemed like they were getting in the way and the stack was getting larger and larger. This is an old magazine holder I think from a...

TGIF! It has been such gorgeous weather here the last few days- it is really starting to feel like winter. I don't think we will get snow for thanksgiving but maybe we will have a white Christmas this year because it is COLD. This week has been challenging one! Nora is starting to hopefully be over her biting phase- only biting me :) when she gets mad.  Her typical mad is usually when she wants to walk and it's not the best time for her to walk or if she wants something she can't have like knives or scissors.   But now she is climbing on everything and not just chairs and couches.. climbing on top of the tables, trying to climb into the garbage cans, and yes even climbing on top of the pugs. .   I know I am only moments away for her climbing out of her crib and falling face first into the carpet and running free in the house in the middle of the night but my pedestrian did tell me that humans can fall safely up to 4 feet with out hurting themselves.  Who knew? I have a w...

This week's A Tiny Bee's Project was the word invigorate.  Now I know what invigorate means but this word was a little tricky for me this week because I know what it means but I needed a little help with exact definition. Typically when I do these creative assignments I just go to my sketch book and start creating something but this time it was a little different I had to start writing first and actually look up the meaning of the word in the dictionary.  So I decided to write it out in my sketch book and have the words sink in and some Bob Ross happy little trees came out. :) Sorta funny isn't it? In my neck of the woods we do have beautiful trees and landscapes and the smell is of this clean evergreen- it's quite intoxicating and if you have been to a forrest-y place that rains a lot you'll know what I mean. Today we are dropping off my paintings at a local art show when Nora wakes up from her nap. And you know what that means... it means there could be some e...

Fellow Portlanders! Macy's if having their annual My Macy's Holiday Parade on November 29th.  This is for free tickets for VIP seating right in front of the Macy's store and it's for up to 5 tickets. There will be 25 inflatable floats, marching bands and of course over 650 costumed characters. This is Macy's big kick off event for Santa coming to town which I know Nora is particularly excited for because Macy's does have the best Santa. The Rules! This giveaway is sponsored by Macy's Downtown Portland location. Winners must be able to attend the Macy's Holiday Parade in Portland, OR on November 29 at 9AM. Seating starts at 8AM and the parade lasts for one hour. No purchase needed to win and no expenses covered.  If unable to attend winners forfeit their tickets. These passes allow you entry to the special seating area in front of the Macy’s store on Alder Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues.  The parade takes place on Friday, November 29th (the day ...

I can not believe I almost done showing you all of my paintings for the Big 400. It is seriously my favorite art show that I look forward to every year.   I always paint a few vintage still life and they are usually my favorite because I love going on the hunt for old things. I envision each vintage piece has some sort of past life and an amazing story behind it like a secret story that I will never really know.  I think what draws me in most about painting clocks, typewriters, and radios is that they are every day items that really marks the time period of when and sometimes where they came from. I have been thinking a lot about thrifting lately and where I live Portland, Oregon- thrifting is extremely competitive because people love old things here.  So competitive that I have heard of people starting fights and other people getting banned from even going into estate sales.   I generally thrift for things in the 1960's or older which if you go to a thrift stores here you pay t...

This weekend we spent a lot of time indoors watching old movies and munching on popcorn.  I have been hooked on watching old Audrey Hepburn movies and thinking about how everything was so dreamy back then and the styling was so classic old Hollywood glam. The pugs especially love movie time because they sandwich themselves between Tim and I and become a cozy little pug sandwich.  They also are excellent carpet cleaners too when any popcorn falls on the rug, they immediately jump down and inhale it.  After they gobble up the popcorn they run their snouts on the rug for a good 5 minutes to make sure they get every itty bitty last crumb. I'm not sure if Tim likes the old movies but I sure do. I made this really easy Happy Thanksgiving Garland.  All I did was print out Happy Thanksgiving from my computer and cut out the lettering and then glued them on glitter paper. I hole punched each side of the word and strung it up with bakers twine. Super easy and instant thanks giving ch...

Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Target. One of my favorite times of the year because I get to be around my whole family! We are all a little spread out among a few different states and thanksgiving is one of the few times of year that we all manage to be all under the same roof.   Even though it tends to be a bit of zoo because there are so many of us and pets included! I love having my family all around me. One of our biggest traditions is that all the ladies huddle in the kitchen working on their specific dishes and I since I am the youngest I am typically the official taste tester which I have to say is the best job ever. My other big job for thanksgiving is being in charge with setting the table and getting all the forks and knives in a perfect arrangement and I always seem to second guess which side the fork goes on. Since I am in charge of the table-scaping I always make a big effort in coming up with something new at the table each year to mix it up and...

Happy Friday! I can't believe we are already in mid November and the chills of winter time have started to creep in. Nora has been an extremely busy one and is into everything. Her favorite place to go in and destroy is the pantry- she likes to remove every single can and every box and pull everything out and make a new arrangement. She has also figured out how to get into the cereal boxes and pull out her own snack and the pugs love it because they sit and wait for her to share or drop any tasty little morsel. I now know why people have dogs besides being the best cuddlers around they are the best little vacuums for messy toddlers.  The pugs look forward to meal time the most because they just sit and wait for their beloved crumbs to fall off Nora's high chair and she has tendency to drop pretty big crumbs. This weekend we having some well needed family time, my husband told me I have been working too much lately and that we deserve a family brunch date and possibly some ...

Happy Thursday! Don't you just love the word "Crisp", I think it's a word that sounds exactly how it is and it also makes me think of late fall with the leaves changing and apple trees ready to have their apples harvested. Since I live in a place with long falls and long springs, crisp is a very word that resign-ates close to home.   Since we are coming close to the end of November, the wind has become crisp. I took Nora for a walk in the little woods by my house and all she wanted to do is sit in the leaves and I sprinkled the leaves down on her and she made cooing sounds of pure happiness. I think this is going to be a fall where she starts to remember the difference in the seasons and the holidays. Ohh and guess what? I got a new sketchbook.  I have rarely actually finished and used every single page of sketchbook until recently and this is the first page of a brand new book and I can not wait to fill the whole thing up. Want to join in for next week? Next we...

When I was a little girl, my mom and I would always be canning or preserving things from our family garden like corn, green beans, pickles and of course my all time favorite pickled beets. Over the summer I seem to have been wanting to get back into canning and preserving things especially since my parents have a pretty large garden that I am constantly taking vegetables from and we also love the farmers market. There is nothing better then fresh local ingredients- so why not learn and get better at canning and do more than just jelly. I have been going the last couple of months to the Portland Preservation Society which is a group that gets together once a month and swaps their latest home made goods.  So if you made a ton of pickled beets or maybe made a ton of peach jam then you can trade for delicious goodies. I have to say I have gotten some amazing things in the swaps such as Kim Chi, smoked salmon and fig mustard.  The Kim Chi was so good that Tim has been pestering me to ...

I think this is my favorite camera painting to date and usually my favorite vintage cameras are the minty or turquoise ones. Sometimes I change the color in the painting to make the still life a shade of blue or green but this time I wanted to keep that beautiful candy apple red. This is a vintage 1950's Imperial Mark XII with flash and I love collecting old cameras but never really used them.  I have a DSLR camera, my Iphone and a mini Instax that I use but never really starting using actual film cameras.  I know the mini Instax is technically film cameras but it's not really old.  I recently picked up an big old Land Camera at an estate sale and I have the itch to take it out and give it a whirl.  I don't think I have used actual film in an camera since maybe college, which seems like a long time ago.  I remember my very first camera that my mom bought me it was one of those long skinny cameras in hot pink and I was totally embarrassed by it because all the other kids h...

Have you seen the documentary Salinger yet? I watched it over the weekend and now all I want to do is re-read all of J.D. Salinger books or I should say all of Jerry's books.  I think my first memory of even hearing about JD Salinger was when I was in 8th grade and the school was making us read Catcher in Rye. Yes making, I've always loved books but some of those books in school I could barely keep my eyes open to read them.  To be honest, I don't really remember that much of the story other than it was about a coming of age story and it was set during World War II. I don't even remember loving it or hating it but chalking it up to a book that I read in school. This documentary is about putting together the pieces of J.D. Salinger's life because with the fame of his book Catcher in the Rye, he started to withdraw and hide from the spotlight.  His fans would drive 100s of miles and wait outside of his gate of his home just to try and meet him or even get a glimpse ...

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 Happy Friday! Since we are now in November I can not help but start shopping for presents especially for myself.. tis the season right?  I think shopping is the best right before the holidays because it's like you get first pick at all the Christmas shopping.  I also couldn't help but put Hunter Boots on the list because right now they are on sale at Costco for almost 50% off regular price and the rumor is that Nordstrom is matching their price- so can I please have in every color? Hunter boots are such a Portland staple because it rains like crazy here. This weekend we are going on a family date to a new ramen place in town and then to our favorite ice cream shop.  It has been such a busy week and I can't wait to unwind and have a little family time. What are you up to this weekend?...

This week's project is Blue and there are lots of different types of blue... the color.. feeling sad or maybe even Picasso's Blue phase- which was my favorite painting phase of his. My favorite blue in the whole wide world is the south pacific ocean blue.  It something that is pretty indescribable unless you see it in person and I have been over to that area of the world a couple of times but the water is this greenish blue and it's what postcards are made of. Just thinking about that blue I am transported  to another place with warm sands, twinkling blue water and golden sunshine.   I was doing this drawing with Nora in my lap with her very own crayons and coloring book and she only wanted to draw on my sketch.  I think I might have a little artist on my hands. :) Next weeks assignment is "Crisp". :) How ever you want to interpret it. Feel free to check out and link up with  12 Oz Bee House ...

During the fall, I love using pumpkin in recipes because it's an easy way to be healthy with out losing any ounce of pure yumminess.   I also wanted to make a muffin that tasted like pumpkin pie and turned out pretty delicious too. I know you aren't supposed to put frosting on muffins but why not- I have a bit of a sweet tooth and sometimes I think muffins deserve some frosting on top.  Don't they?  Let me know if you try it. The muffins are really moist and it's like taking a bite of the holidays. Ingredients for the Pumpkin Paleo Muffins: 1 and 1/2 cups of almond flour 1 cup pureed pumpkin- I used a can! 2 eggs (room temperature) 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup almond butter 2 tb of vanilla 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp of ground cloves 1/2 tsp of ginger 1/4 tsp of sea salt Ingredients for the Cream Cheese Frosting 8 oz package of full fat cream cheese. For the die hard Paleos- grass fed cow milk cream cheese. 1 tb vanilla 1/4 cu...

I think you can tell a lot about a book especially when it's good when the cover is curling back away from the book because it has been rolled so many times from lounging and reading, which happened to my copy of this book. I just finished reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. I've actually heard mixed reviews about this book, one friend told me it was a little on the dark side and another said it was an intense read. I think what drew me into this book is that its about a woman who hikes alone on the Pacific Crest Trail.  The PCT is a hiking trail that goes from the Mexican border all the way up to the Canadian border, and there is also a counter part on the opposite side of the United States called the Appalachian Trial.  I actually had a friend who hiked the PCT recently and it took her about 5 months, but most people do parts of it because it is quite a journey and lots of preparation.  In the book she didn't do the entire tri...

Happy Monday! I had such a busy weekend and am actually looking forward to the routine of the work week. I know sounds crazy- a person looking forward to Monday but sometimes the weekend just get to full.  Over the weekend I helped and went to the PNW Holiday Brunch Meet up .  I was in charge of organizing the goodie bag which is obviously my favorite part since I love prizes.  If there is a prize involved I'm totally in.  The goodie bag was pretty great and some of my favorites included sunglasses from Sunglass Warehouse, goodies from Land of Nod and lots of craft supplies which means a lot of DIY things in the near future.  Don't worry I'll share them as they happen. It was this amazing space called Union and Pine which is located in SE Portland which is very old warehouse vibe and there were bloody mary's, mimosas, baked treats and of course there was a photo booth. This painting is of Mary's Club which is a gentleman's club but it's a place that has...

follow me on instagram @erikaleesears Happy November 1st! Let me first say that trick or treating with a toddler is sort of amazing! She was more excited about her jack-o-lantern bucket than anything else, but over all the night was a success.  We only did maybe 10 houses but I think Tim and I had more fun because people have a tendency to give toddlers lots of candy which means Tim and I get to eat lots of candy.  I think it's because they are so darn adorable.  One of my neighbors was handing out Reser's Peanut Butter cups and she asked if Nora could have peanuts and I promptly replied with yes of course she can. :)  She did enjoy knocking on the doors but it was funny because we ended up carrying her and then putting her in front of the door and ringing the bell. I think she was more stunned and surprised and didn't know what to make of it all and got a little freaked out when of those mechanical ghosts jumped at her.  She did get to stay up about 30 minutes pa...