Wonderful Smiles which warm your white snowy night ;D

Beautiful Happy Smiles from Serge and Elianaaaa!! I am SOOO HAPPY to have this picture from you, Serge! Thank YOU sooo much for sending it to me!! It makes me smile so big ;D

Besides this "Newborn MoMA" painting, he also purchased "POM Wonderful Purple Goodness" and "Flying Easter Dove" piece~!! Hurraaayy! I love his taste ;P He chose one of my favorite pieces from my previous collection and two from recent~!! I love to visit you again Serge and play with your beautiful and super cute Eytan and Eliana!! They are full of joy! ;D

And! My friend Lilly purchased this delicious painting since she loves cooking ;) I miss your cooking, Lilly!! Hope you and your sweet family are all cozy in your fabulous house! :D

And more! This is the most popular products in Mihoko's products! ;D New York Skyline Stamps (black)~!! I had sales a while back but haven't written Thank YOU so here we go!

Big Thank You goes to Rachel, Laurie and Amy in New York and Jessica in Arizona~!! Hope you, your family and friends are enjoying the beautiful holidays!! ;D

As you know, you can purchase Mihoko's products here ;)))

AND! Thank YOU Sooooo Much for all my sweet friends who voted for me in the credit card design competition! I didn't win... ;( but that's okayyy because I have the Altpick Awards~!! Woohoooo~!!! ;D I will keep going and submit more artworks!

Again, I really appreciate your warm support and sweet smiles AS ALWAYS!!

Pleeeaase let me know when you need my help with anything~!!! :D

Joined Altpick!

New Member in Pink ;DOne of the prizes for the Altpick Awards second place was one year Altpick Membership! Woohooo!! So I just joined! ;D

My URL is http://altpick.com/mihoko , very easy to remember ;)))

Hopefully this will lead to many freelance jobs!!

Coooome to meee~! ;D

Won Altpick Award : New Media : Second Place!!!!

YAAAAAY!!! I am still jumping with joy, have lots of goose bumps!! Super fresh news I JUST received from the Altpick founder Maria Ragusa-Burfield; my Dubai Skyline illustration for Wassla Weekly won the Second Place in New Media category~!!! Since I Really LOVE this piece, I am SO HAPPY to receive such an honorable recognition!! Thank YOU again, Maria, for the creation of Altpick and your friendly communication, and the Juries for choosing my artwork~!!

You can see all the 2009 winners here! The artwork will be in *Altpick Awards booklet* early next year ;D

HUGE THANKS goes to Ari Kushimoto who designed this fabulous website and decorated beautifully around my art which makes the artwork look much better! and Nasrin Shah Abushakra, the founder of Wassla Weekly, who worked SO hard to make this happen and she successfully created such a beautiful & educational website for Dubai!!

And even more surprisingly, today is Nasrin's Birthday!! This is all meant to be!! Happy FANTAAASTIC Birthday to YOU, Nasriiiiin :D

I really appreciate your phone call, Nasrin! Wonderful talking with you~!! Celebrating this special day from Boston the city you love ;D

Please Vote for me - Harvard Credit Card Design Contest ;D

Now my Credit Card Design for Harvard University Employees Credit Union is up!

I chose my rainbow fireworks design to celebrate Harvard ;D

Pleeeease vote for me from this page or the link below :D The process won't take you more than 5 seconds! You can choose 4 favorite designs from those student credit card designs. The first prize is $500 and more than that, I would be SO Thrilled if people carry the credit card and feel good every time they see my art ;D

Mine is #13!

https://www.huecu.org/forms/vote2009.html

Huge THANK YOU to everyone~!! Crossing my fingers, hair and everything else!!

Welcome to Haaarvard~!

From September, I am back in school, this time to study Environmental Management in a graduate program at Harvard University Extension School ;D I am still not sure I can really survive a Harvard education but so far my first papers were 5/5 and 10/10! Whew!! Pleeease wish me luck!!

My creative partner Brandon Welti and I were luckily chosen to be photographed by Jeff Pike for the school website. Jeff took so many pictures and all the pictures look great, which made us want to keep all of them ;P Jeff chose his favorite and the above picture is the approved for the website~!! Woohoooo ;D

Super smile~! Yeeees, makes you smile, right? :D He is the fabulous photographer behind the Harvard University Extension School website, such a fun person to work with, which made us think we were just playing together for several hours ;D Love YOU, Jeff!!

Here are some of my favorites from the shooting :D

Young Professional Theme~!!

Jeff asked us to wear "young professional" clothes one morning. Do we look professional enough?! I love the shining soft-green trees and my hair swinging in the wind ;D

Skateboard + Bike Theme :D

This was done on the day when we met Jeff Pike for the first time!

I thought I will miss New York so much but I learned Harvard Square has a similar New York City feel. You see artists, musicians, homeless people, cute gay guys and crazy happy people with multi-colored hair on the streets ;P Plus New York City is just 4 hours away! :D

So far I am having a great experience here!! People are super sweet, they will stop their cars for you if you are crossing streets, which makes you feel like you are a king or queen crossing the street with a velvet carpet underneath you ;D

Come to Boston~!! Wishing all my friends will move here :D

Speechless Natural Beauty...

My super talented photographer friend Takami (check out her gorgeous poetic pictures!) came to Concord with a cool hat during the summer and we went canoeing in Sudbury River! Thanks to our sweet neighbour John, we rented his canoe and put on the top of our car! You see the gorgeous reflection here?

Just start paddling the canoe, Che jumped into the water!! She has already experienced taking a bath, riding a loud and busy New York Subway, swimming in the Walden Pond, cuddling with me in bed, so maybe this was her new challenge?! Probably her curiosity made her jump! We are not sure why she jumped, did she like water or she didn't like canoeing? Hmmm... either way, now she is happily sleeping in my arm :D

Beautiful graphic patterns on water... speechless...

Happy moment surrounded by nature... :D Yes, this is taken by Takami Shimura ;D Arigatooo as Always!!!

And the gorgeous sunset!!

Puppy sitting ;D

My friend Claudine needed a puppy sitting for 2 weeks. Of course, we say, "YES WE CAN!" with big smiles :D

You are right, I don't own a dog, I have never had a dog, this is the first time to do a puppy sitting! It is fun to have such a beautiful sweetest creature with you everyday, it is tough to wake up 6 AM every morning to go for a walk and wait for your dog to do pee and/or poop and the same goes to the night time! Like me, who sleeps and wakes up whenever I feel like, this puppy sitting experience made our life like the one of Buddhist monks! :P

This sweetest Bernese Mountain dog is just a 8 weeks old. Her name is Che, yes, she is a girl but Claudine named her Che, because of her passion for Cuba and Che Guevara. Che smells like a milky baby, super sweet, her stomach is soooo kissable and always smooth and warm. She will be a big dog so she has huge soft paws which I can't stop touching :P Her nose is so cute too, very soft and pink. You cannot get tired of just looking at her!

My super smart friend Roshan is right. A dog dreams! Che often dreams. She moves her legs and make noises, while she is sleeping. Amazing.

If you are single and looking for a partner or just want more new friends!!, I definitely recommend to own a dog ;P But the dog has to be cute and friendly and if possible a rare dog (better to avoid loud barking dogs like chiwawa etc) so people will talk to you! :D So many people stopped us when we went for a walk. It will take a way longer to just walk several blocks because everyone wants to talk to you and touch your dog ;P So be ready for that~!!

"Happy in my shadow" - Che loves a shade, she doesn't like hot weather at all. She is a master of finding a shade! When she gets tired of walking, she often sits in my shadow and gives me a happy smile like this :D

New friends at Kona Skatepark ;D

Had lots of fun at Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida, the oldest skatepark in the States! I wish I could have stayed many more days ;P .... the only thing I don't miss is the mosquito attack! Now I have 43 mosquitoes bites! Boooo!!

Flying history of skateboards!!
Sunbathing on Kona's concrete flower ;P

Super freshly made "dcat" hachimaki~!

"dcat" is ready to conquer the world!! Matt, thank YOU so much for sending me pictures!! ;D

Logo Design for dcat ;)))

I really enjoy designing logo! What fun!! This logo design was for "dcat" project at super fast growing hedge fund Two Sigma Investments! They are just fabulous people! :D I gave them 5 digital logo ideas:

and they liked the bottom robotic logo idea. We added { } since "dcat" program uses those. I hand-drew one and used illustrator for the other one just to see the comparison. They liked the hand-drawn version better and I was happy because I like the combination of the soft organic hand-drawn lines and the digital robotic logo ;D

This will be printed on ninja style headband, "hachimaki" in Japanese, for the fantastic "dcat" project team and their clients ;)

Relaxation at Shiatsu Moon... :D

I met this pretty lady, Zoe Moon Culbertson (Yes, that is her real middle name! How cool is that!!) when we were walking down the beautiful trail to the Walden Pond! I was so surprised to hear such fluent Japanese from her mouth! That was the last thing you can imagine when you are in the quiet forest ;P Zoe is not only a master of Japanese Shiatsu but also a woman full of knowledge. She can give you advice about nutrition to live your life healthier.

She asked me to be a model for her website the other day and I said, "of course!!" and the pleasure was literally all mine ;P

Here is her gorgeous website, Shiatsu Moon~! When you need relaxation or find harmony with your body & soul, I am sure Zoe can help you ;D

Flying above the St. Johns River ;D

Created fun video of "Bosun Swinging" by hanging a bosun's chair from the 50 foot mast of Karavela, lifting it just above the life rail and swinging out over the water on the Freedom 40 sailboat captained by Jacqueline Welti and Jos VanBavel who masterfully navigated around the thunder clouds so we could ride the wind and waves~!! Can't stop!! :D Thanks to Ratatat for the kick'n music~! Woohoooo!!

(You can see the full size video on YouTube)

"Greenest" roof I have ever seen! It is made of gorgeous ivy vines :) This is a garage roof top in Jacquie's house :D

Very GREEN Massachusetts :D

Oh dear Bloc11 Cafe~!! Found my new favorite place in Massachusetts ;D It is a real deal "Green" cafe with a touch of East Village coziness and New York City cool-ness ;D

Friendly people with delicious food and coffee... I wish I lived near this cafe! Yeah then I would come here every day ;P

They DO recycle, everything! The register lady told us that they have composting bins in the back. And you see, they use "ecotainer" here ;D Viva Bloc11~!!!

You will see only his back in this pic but that is my new fabulous friend Max Jackson with his creation Didgeridoo :D Visit his website to see his Didgeridoo, purchase one, listen to his music and more!! ;D

Maureen sunrise ;P Enjoying delicious brunch in their beautiful garden terrace :D I LOVE this picture of her!

This building was a bank before and they kept the bank doors! How cool is that! Fantastic idea :D Kids were playing inside of the vault ;D

And in Concord, MA, where I spent the month of August, you have to pay $1.50 for these Green tickets and put them on your garbage bags when you throw away :) That is a gooood thing~!!