Last week I went to Jones Coffee again, for Week 8 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories.  This time I got to meet not only Mireya's son, Chuck, who is co-owner of Jones Coffee, but also her lovely granddaughters who are so bright and interesting. 

This hot pink hair is everything!  So much fun to paint!

The red hair theme runs in the family, so pretty! 

And speaking of pretty, the hibiscus tea now comes with edible flowers!  Maria at Jones told me this is a new fun way they're serving tea from now on.  I'm on board for sure, those flowers look good enough to eat ;-)

I also got to meet the nicest newlyweds, Rachel and Curtis, who both posed for portraits. 

While the line for portraits was growing, lovely Heather who was sitting next to me dropped in on the fun.

And a cute couple who wanted a portrait together, love it!

Another fun live painting session at Jones - thanks so much for having me, Mireya and Chuck!  Can't wait to see you all again soon.
xo
Cristina

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Mimi.  Mimi ruled with grace and kindness over her fashion, style and sewing kingdom, aptly named Mimi G Style.  She loved her kingdom dearly and worked tirelessly from dawn til dusk to make it more beautiful each day.  And each year all came from far and near to see the beautiful things Mimi made with love.  For three days and three nights they ate, drank and made merry.  And shopped for fabric.  And of course, they all lived happily ever after.  Because this was Mimi’s dream come true, after all.

And what a dream this has been! I'm still on a high from this past weekend because for Week 7 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories I got to illustrate at the Mimi G Style three-day Fashion, Sewing & Style Conference at the luxurious JW Marriott at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles. This was the 6th (and final) annual conference, and I am so happy I had the chance to be a part of it.

The first day of the conference was registration and fashion show day. I was filled with so much anticipation and excitement.  As the whole set up came together, I was happy to meet the many amazing volunteers, sponsors and guest instructors. Debbie Kreiling from Simplicity Patterns was there, Babylock, Spoonflower, Norris Danta Ford (duh! Mimi's knight in shining armor), Anita Morris, Rosy Pena, Candice Ayala, Brittany Jones and many more.

As people started to arrive for registration, the excitement grew. All the women attending the conference received their pink gift bag and a string of colorful Hawaiian leis. They were all very excited, and they looked happy and festive!

After finishing registration, the runway was all set up, the lights were on, and the fashion show was ready to begin!

The show was amazing! The music, the lights, the high energy! And the beautiful models were none other than the ladies attending the conference. They modeled their own fabulous creations based on Mimi G Style sewing patterns, and let me tell you, they did a lot of hard work, and they all looked incredible!

To see so many beautiful and creative ladies in outfits they had sewn themselves was inspiring.  They all worked that catwalk so confidently.  And everybody cheered them on, what a loving and supportive Mimi G Style community!

During the fashion show I sketched faster than I had ever sketched before :-)  This really gave me a good taste for the lightning-fast, action-packed vibe at fashion shows. It was such an exciting (read: nerve-racking) experience for me!  And I can't wait to do it again!!

Day two of the conference was jam-packed with sewing classes throughout the day.  Gifted instructors Maddie Flanigan and Mary Alice Duff, among others, taught classes like bra making and pattern adjustments. In the evening everyone went to our awesome local LA shop The Fabric Store on La Brea for an evening of more celebration, champagne and cupcakes, and of course, fabric shopping!! The store was packed, women from the conference kept filling the store in waves, and the awesome employees were cutting fabric at supersonic speed.  (Yes, that's me and The Rock, aka my new bf, at the JW Marriott)

The last day of the conference started off with charter buses running back-and-forth between the hotel and the fabulous Michael Levine fabric store in LA's famous Fashion District.  More fabric shopping! Is there such a thing as too much fabric shopping? I think not ;-)

As the ladies started to come back to the hotel, I was all set up to paint their watercolor portraits on the spot.  One of them was Gia @themahoganybox who was wearing a fab turquoise head wrap of her own design - check out her shop here!

One very happy customer :-)  Gia's reaction completely made my day!! <3

And the ladies kept coming!

I was very honored to paint these beautiful ladies and to experience their excitement at having their portraits painted. What an amazing and special day!  I was blown away by the warm responses and the incredible support and I received from all of them. Oh my goodness, thank you so much, ladies!  You have completely made my day on Sunday! It was a pleasure to meet you all!

The whole conference experience was a blast, and to be in the presence of so many creative, kind and positive people was incredibly fulfilling.  Quite a dream, and I had an amazing time! Thank you, Mimi, for inviting me to be part of your special event! Now let’s all of us (and our fabric stashes) live happily ever after …

xo
Cristina

You know what they say: once an architect, always an architect.  Some things never change I guess.  As a fashion illustrator, my architect colors are showing ... no pun intended.

Yup, we're a creative breed.  And every single damn thing has to be a big production DIY project, ha!  My new business cards are no exception.  What can I say, I love having creative, unique and custom business cards.  Each one of my business cards has a different illustration featured on the front.  It's a lot of fun to make them, and it's even more fun to pass them out and see the small thrill when people realize they each receive a unique design.

Hey, at least I'm no longer hand-painting each one ;-)  I'm printing each sheet with a whopping 10 business cards at a time! That's progress ...

The fabulous Karlie Kloss ! 

'Nuff said.

Week 6 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories started off with a bang on Tuesday at Jones Coffee in Pasadena! This is the first time in the six weeks I've been going to Jones to paint that some lovely people showed up for my live illustrations just from seeing me on Instagram alone! Yay!! Super excited for this new milestone! Thanks for showing up guys, you totally made my day! :-)

As soon as I arrived at Jones, Grace, a writer and artist, came up to me and told me she saw this announcement on Instagram that I was going to show up to paint live fashion illustrations. So she became my very first Instagram client :-)) Thank you so much for coming out to see me, Grace, it was so nice to meet you! I had so much fun painting your portrait, and it was awesome talking with you about our creative processes. I'm sure we'll run into each other again at Jones.

The lovely and creative Grace.

While I was painting Grace's portrait, Teri and Joyce and signed up to be next!  Teri's chic red bob and blue eyes were a striking combination, a painter's dream.

Joyce's pretty dress was just the right shade of blue to highlight her bright blue eyes!  Nicely complemented by the Jones sign in the background ;-)

These two beautiful friends were so sweet and kind, and it was a lot of fun getting to know them.  It was lovely to meet you both and to paint your portraits, ladies!  Hope to see you again soon.

Last, but not least, I was blown away by Pasadena Magazine showing up to see what I was up to at Jones!! A big thank you to Sydney, the Marketing & Event Coordinator at Pasadena Magazine (on the left) and her assistant Lindsey for taking the time to come and watch me work.  So happy to connect with a local magazine supporting Pasadena!

The beautiful Sydney and her cascading blonde curls.

What a natural beauty!  Lindsey with her portrait.

Thank you so much for the Instagram Stories shoutout, ladies, I appreciate it!  It was a pleasure to paint your portraits. Let's stay in touch.

And as always, thank you Jones Coffee Roasters for being supportive of my artwork and for allowing me to spend time painting at your cool coffee shop! I'm having a blast every time I'm there.

What an amazing week 6! It's mind blowing to me just how much can be accomplished when taking consistent action. In just six short weeks I feel like I've made so much progress in coming out of my shell and painting live illustrations more. And I've already met so many wonderful people by simply pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I am so glad I've decided to embark on this journey with my year-long 52 Live Fashion Stories project, and I'm very grateful to everyone out there who is supporting me along the way: thank you for everyone following me on Instagram, for every 'like', every blog visit, and for showing up in person whenever I paint live.

If you would like to work with me for your social or private event, please send me a message, I would be happy to add to your special day. I'm available for retail, hospitality and beauty/lifestyle events, weddings, corporate parties, birthdays and more.

For daily updates and behind-the-scenes videos follow me on Instagram @ct_sketches.
Thanks guys!! See you out there!
xo
C

During week five of my 52 Live Fashion Stories project I got a chance to paint in-person not once, but twice!! Yaay!  For a quick recap, check out week 1, week 2, week 3 and week 4.

On Saturday, my friend Ce Ce came to my house for a private portrait session.  She brought with her a few tops and bottoms, and we had a blast mixing and matching different outfits, accessorizing and painting several fashion sketches of her over a couple of hours.

With such a beautiful model, it was a blast to play dress-up and paint her portrait!  Thanks for being such a patient muse, Ce Ce!  <3

On Friday I had the pleasure of meeting Christina at Jones Coffee in Pasadena. The pizza place next-door, Pie Life Pizza kept calling my name to go pick up my pizza ... except I hadn't ordered any, ha! And then Christina showed up, my namesake: pizza mystery solved! Only slightly different name spelling, but we'll let that slide ;-)

When Christina passed by me she mentioned she liked what I was painting, so I asked her to be my inspiration for the day.  Little did she know that picking up her pizza lunch came with being a model for the day ;-)  Thanks for taking the time to pose for me, Christina!  You were such a joy to meet!

My two lovely models made week five a super fun one!  Thank you, ladies! xoxo

The third issue of Sew Sew Def is here, YAY!  Along with my illustrations for the two awesome freebie sewing patterns that come with this issue: The Katie dress with its flirty ruffle sleeves and hi-low hem, and The Gosling men’s button-down with cool details like sleeve tabs and contrasting shoulder yoke and pocket.  

As a side note, long before I painted The Gosling button-down, I painted a portrait of THE Gosling ;-) Check him out here!

So proud to be part of this awesome fashion sewing magazine, even in the smallest of ways.  Check out my illustrations from past issues here and here.  Thanks Mimi and Norris, this is a super fun collaboration, and I’m so excited for more to come!!

Get your June issue now at Sew Sew Def!  This is a 94-page magazine packed with awesome projects like how to make your own DIY sandals by the multi-talented Jasika Nicole from shows like Scandal and Fringe, and these two freebie sewing patterns!  Woohoo!!  Let the summer fun projects begin!

Don’t sew?  Get Sew Sew Def for that fashionista, or fashion-ist :-) in your life, they’re gonna love you for it!

Mimi in her fab creation, The Katie fun and flirty dress!  I just love this summery pattern in this fresh white and blue checkered pattern!

Norris modeling The Gosling.  Yup, dope men CAN sew!

The mood around here in my studio for the past couple of days!  So. Much. FUN!! The Katie in-progress.

The Gosling, almost done.

Tune in on July 1st to see my next collab with Mimi and Norris for the next Sew Sew Def issue!