Up until last year, everytime I used the internet I’d be browsing with Mozilla’s Firefox. Ever since my husband upgraded our iMac to Snow Leopard however, I noticed that Firefox got slower and slower and is taking longer to start up. I wonder why this is happening. We cleared all of our extensions and did a fresh install, but still got the same lagging performance. I’ve started using Google’s Chrome a lot more recently and sometimes Safari. In the meantime, I’ve been poking around about Firefox to find out if others were having similar issues. I’m pretty psyched to see Firefox 4 is coming out and I hope that will fix a lot of their slowness. In my research, I also discovered that even though a Red Fox is used in the logo, the original name “Firefox” referred to the Red Panda – an endangered animal.

Yup, you guessed it – it inspired me to whip up my newest piece “Making New Friends” adding to the growing Endangered Animals Library. Although they are solitary, nocturnal animals – I figured companionship is important for all. Who doesn’t like having friends? So not only is this piece dedicated to the plight of the Red Panda, it is also a big shout out to all of my friends, especially the new ones I meet every day while I spread news about endangered species. Note cards and Art Prints are on the way, look for them soon – even on Firefox.

Ok, so my husband and I are huge fans of the television show, LOST. The show wrapped up a few weeks ago but to this day we are still talking about it, and my hub loaded my ipod with some soundtrack tunes from the original score. Yeah, we’re sorta nerds like that are having trouble letting go. So I’d like to dedicate this week’s post and new painting to this crazy show somehow. Lets see, so the primary “hatch” where our beloved Losties was called the SWAN. Perfect! There are some swans that are endangered for sure.

That said, my newest painting called “Swans Swing in the Pond” is inspired by the Trumpeter Swan whose numbers are low enough to be included in IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature. Since I was a child, I’ve always loved swans and I’d hate to see them nearly go extinct like the Black Swan from New Zealand. OK OK, my post is all over the place like our crazy show, so I better wrap this up. Definitely, look out for the new Swans prints and notecards, coming this weekend.

We are going through a prolooooonged heat wave here in New York, inspiring most of us to find cool places to relax and enjoy the summer. To stay out of the heat, it seems like everyone is glued to TVs watching the latest World Cup matches or what team Lebron James was going to choose. For me, I chose to do some research and work on some new pieces for my 2010 Collection while enjoying cool fruits and frosty drinks.

Last week, those that were supporting Brazil during their run for the World Cup were deflated to see their team eliminated from the tournament. It got me thinking of the slow elimination of one of South America’s most beautiful animals – the Hyacinth Macaw. I paired a couple of Hyacinth Macaw’s in my newest painting – “We are Hyacinth, Too“. It is also my biggest painting to date, measuring at 20″ x 10″ and I am super-proud of it. Definitely look for it in the coming days in my Etsy Store as well as the revamped EcoPatterns store which is slowly getting there (glaring at my husband – husband is wilting, while working hard to get the store up). In the meantime, gotta get back to my iced coffee and new sketches.

It’s July already? Wow, seems like 2010 is flying by and it’s quite a task to keep up. As promised, the website is now transitioning and transforming into. I know I’m a day behind on sending out this update, but my husband worked all day and night to get the brand spankin’ new Animal Facts section and slightly adjusted homepage. Check it out and let us know what you think. Don’t forget to share your favorite endangered animal through Facebook and Twitter – by doing so, you are helping to spread awareness for the plight of each animal. Of course, this is just the beginning of the wave of changes that we will be seeing in the coming months to EcoPatterns and how we present our image and products. So I am super excited to be at the foot of the wave.

For the Fourth of July holiday, we’d like to extend a sweet offer. Buy any two (2) 8.5″x11″ art prints and get a third one for FREE. And we will extend this offer to Friday July 9th. All you have to do is specify which print you’d like to add to your order during checkout. A great way to fill up your wall.