Carrot Condo by Trista Cornelius

The One That Got Away

Before I show you the Coloring Contest results, you have to see the one that got away. When posted on the bulletin board at the launch party with all the other entries, I think it looked like a page nicely colored. When you compare it to my original page, however, you’ll be wowed. Here’s the original:

Here is the “after” as colored by Akira:

Look at everything Akira added to my original: a dog, a little girl in a #5 jersey, a witch, an owl and ghost, an extra painting on the wall, and one painting turned into a little chicken! Oh, and a mouse!

I’m stunned by this page!!! Akira’s drawings blend so smoothly with mine that it looks like these additions were there all along.

What am I going to do about this? I’m thinking of contacting Akira to see if she wants to collaborate with me on a new storybook you can color. A good idea, no?

Okay, stay tuned. I’ll post the first four categories and winning entries next. And then, there’s a great story that goes with the final three winners. Plus, more pictures from during and after the launch party.

Carrot Condo almost launched

Prizes are wrapped, cookies and lemon bars are in-the-works, coffee will be brewed, and then … we’ll be ready for for Carrot Condo’s launch party.

Just friends and family, but even so, it feels like a big event to me.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how people colored the pages for the coloring contest. There will be one page from each of the four books. I want to know how people experimented with coloring a panda bear, and I want to see how different the same page can look when interpreted and colored by different people. Mostly, I am looking forward to seeing the books “alive” once colored by someone else.

I’ll let you know how it goes and share a few pictures here soon!

The Magic List

One year ago, on September 27, 2014 while eating breakfast at Detour Cafe on SE Division, I pulled out the little notepad I carry in my purse and wrote at the top of the page: “In my imagination, I know what I want to do professionally. In reality, I’m unsure of how to begin, or maybe simply afraid.”

And then, I made myself write out exactly what I dreamed of and forced myself to ignore my fear and doubt. I wrote “I want” and then listed things like: to create, to write, to illustrate, (ideally, the two together). I also wrote “collaboration (I don’t know with whom or how)” and “my own business.”

I remember with those last two I kind of cringed because I had no idea how to achieve either, only that I liked the idea of both.

And yet, today, one year later, I can check off every item on my list. Some part of me must have hoped for this, or I would not have bothered to write the list in the first place. Nevertheless, I am absolutely amazed and grateful and excited to see what’s next.

For now, I’m spending the evening setting up a table in our basement for storing and packaging my books and cards, which might sound like a bland way to spend Halloween, but I’ve been looking forward to it for days! (Besides, it’s 3:30pm in Portland as I type this, dark enough outside to be 8pm, and raining so hard there’s a small river drifting down the street. I don’t know how many trick-or-treaters we’re going to get.)

The Storybooks Have Arrived!!

Welcome to Carrot Condo! My Storybooks You Can Color are linked here as well as my Cards You Can Color. If you’ve been following my blog, All But The Kitchen Sink, you know this has been an exciting process, and this website feels like the last step in making it all real!

As of today, three of four storybooks are printed, and a set of four flower cards are ready to go. They’re printed on bright, white paper called “music paper,” which handles pens, crayons, and colored pencils without bleeding through to the other side.

I will open my Etsy shop in early October, and I’ve applied to the Crafty Wonderland “2015 Super Colossal Holiday Sale” in December. My shop and business are called “Carrot Condo,” which is short for “Views From The Carrot Condo.”

The name comes from a raised bed in our backyard that we use to grow vegetables. When we first moved to our house, a fancy hot tub stood there. Everyone said we’d love having a hot tub, but we gave it to a friend and planted a big box of dirt instead. Thinking this was a pretty fancy way to grow veggies, we started calling it the Carrot Condo.

It seemed like a good business name, like my drawings are what the carrots see when they peek out of their fancy garden box:

I have about 47 more projects imagined or sketched, but one thing at a time, right?

I’ll be posting more here soon. I want to tell you more about the print shop I’m using and the things I’ve learned in the process. I also want your opinion about upcoming projects. So, stay tuned, and thank you for all of your support and enthusiasm.