First Thursday Art Day...

...with my mother, Pat Eaton of birdnestontheground and some of her friends...they have a regular KNOT meeting every month where they discuss what they are working on, etc...but decided they would love to get together on a different day, strictly for the purpose of trying new art and craft projects! They all specialize in different areas of art, but like me, want to broaden their horizons!

It was such a fantastic idea...mom decided on an abstract art project, as some of the group had never painted OR did more fine art pieces instead of the freedom that comes from painting abstracts...with that being said, since that's what I enjoy doing, she wanted to have it at my house! I was tickled to be a part of their day... they are extremely inspiring and motivational, funny and like me, love trying new things...it was quite fun and I look forward to hopefully getting to attend more of their First Art Thursdays!

The Finished Ornaments...

from our family get together the other night...mom will pass out that I have actually posted 4 times in one day - BUT, I wanted to share everything before I forgot!

I finished these up last night - I wanted to show you what the others painted, but sent them home with the kids for their tree without taking a photo!

Grab some clear glass ornaments, brushes, air bake enamel paint and some glitter glue and create away!

Remember, handmade is always better...

Special Thanks...

to aspasia for including my painting "blue maze" in her treasury! If you don't know what a treasury at Etsy is, it is a selection of themed products, picked by fellow etsians! It's a great way to look at all of the amazing handmade work from fabulous artisans...thanks again aspasia!!!

My AREtsy Secret Santa Recipient...

is Briana from nest!!!

AREtsy is a group of artists who all live in the state of Arkansas and sell our handmade, handcrafted items on Etsy. We work together to get the word out on the street about the best site on the web...ETSY!

Erin at idyllhands, our fearless, tireless and motivational leader, put together a secret santa gift exchange in our group and she drew nest for me...I wanted to share with you the painting I did for her...keep in mind, we've never met in person, I only know her through our common thread on the internet, so it was a challenge to come up with something she would love...

I looked through her flickr and blog sites to get some ideas and saw pictures of a beautiful family, with a fabulous remodeled home that appeared to be simply modern, divine and truly a nest made of love! She picked the perfect name for her Etsy shop! The nest is a family run business, making wonderful handmade soaps from natural products and also original artwork.

I am blessed to be a part of this fabulous team and I hope you will take time to look through their wonderful work through our team page or blog!

I've Created a Monster...

with my husband and his newfound craziness for painting! As promised, here is an image of the painting he was working on in the last post! It's not varnished yet, but it looks really cool! I am totally impressed and happy he is painting with me...it's something he's always wanted to do as I said before...with that comment I will say that he's gone nuts! He's already painted three more (alot smaller!) and he's wanting to go to the canvas store with me - I'm scared - I'm not sure there is enough room in my truck for what he will want to buy! I will keep you posted on how this love affair progresses...

Oh What Fun...

it was to get my hubby Rick and my mom together last week for a morning of painting! Mom and I have done it on numerous occasions, but Rick was off that day and he wanted to join us. He has always wanted to paint but between work and golf getting in the way, he never has gotten around to it until now! He loves art - modern and bold. He was actually an art major for a whole semester in college - didn't like the fact you had to take english, math and other classes as well! Mom and I worked on some small projects but Rick decided for his first painting, to do a 48x48! Jeez...talk about a challenge! Anyway, it was a refreshing way to spend a morning I can tell you. I will post his finished piece as soon as it's finished...he's off this week and is determined to get through...

My Fab Brothers Strange Request...

to do a painting for him made me laugh! He emailed me one day and said he wanted me to do one for his fabulous new apartment in California. He said he wanted a piece as a tribute to Syd Barrett...I said "who?" - he laughed and said it's the guy from Pink Floyd! Obviously while I was listening to disco in the 70's, he wasn't...I said to him that I can't paint people...he then sent me a photo of an album cover and wanted the floor that was depicted as a painting. I looked up the link and laughed....it's an old wood floor that has been painted and varnished. I have to say, it was cool! My brother has always been the cool one, even though I do like funky, modern design. I did the piece for him and am sticking it in the mail! It's a 30x30 and will hopefully look good. I pray it matches something!!! I am including the album cover photo so you can see who Syd Barrett is too (for those of you that don't know!?!) Hope he likes it in person...

From Unfinished to Sold...

I had some friends pop by the house the other day...they were having a party in their newly redecorated and fabulous, I might add home and needed some artwork...they saw this particular piece that wasn't quite finished and loved it. I had one day to finish it and get it over there so they could hang it in time. Too cool...I rushed around, went and bought some more varnish as I knew I didn't have enough for a 48x60 painting...got home, realized I had bought gloss medium...what a dummy! Needless to say, the paint store was closed and I had to wait to go back first thing the next morning. All's well that ends well...I got it done, they got it hung and it looks beautiful in their living room. I never know how a piece is going to turn out - I just keep going til it's done...this one started as a beachy painting inspired by my girls only trip - didn't like it so I just painted right over it. I've added a couple of photos so you can see what I'm talking about. The ugly "rainbow" is gone and in it's place is a beautiful earthy blue green abstract. There's also a beach photo that reminds me of the painting...I hope you like it...

A Follow Up...

on a previous post...the Circles of Life painting that I did for The Robert Elliott Foundation auction went for $625! I was totally tickled and it thrills me that it will help in some small way...

For a Great Cause...

I sat down and tried to come up with something happy, yet thought provoking....the cause is dear to some of my best friends in the world, The Robert Elliott Foundation, whose purpose is to help those suffering from depression. I've talked about it before in a previous post, but this is the first time I've been asked to paint something for them and I was honored to do so. It's entitled "Circles of Life" and is an acrylic done on stretched canvas that measures 24"x24". The circles deal with all of the happiness, sadness and everything in between that we deal with in this one shot at life. I think we sometimes run around in these circles and don't know how to stop, but then there are the fabulous moments where we don't want to at all. I hope it brings some money to the foundation...the auction is on the 23rd of this month...I am always nervous about these things! I'll be sure to let you all know...

Is There No End....

to all of the add-ons, sites, etc...to use in your blogs and websites?!? Just when I think I've got everything I need on there, someone says "Oh, you should try _____!" Well of course I pop open a new window and get after it, therefore, clogging up my windows and getting totally confused. I've messed with feedburner and widgets all morning (finally figured it all out!) and that was after having a blast reading blogs on fuelmyblog.com for hours! Needless to say, I have not been painting much and have a numb fanny from sitting with the laptop constantly! I wonder if there's a drug out there for this addiction - there seems to be for everything else! For now I am determined to go get this ginormous painting started.....

Days Going By Too Fast!!

My, my.....took a look at the date on my last post and realize I am not blogging often enough! It has been crazy at work, was out of town for a Coldwell Banker Sales Rally (pic on the right of post is me, Janice, Steph and Robin, 3 of awesome team members at work!!) and then back home for hubby's 50th birthday party....time just flies and the older I get, the faster it goes. I always heard that but realize it more and more! The birthday party was a smash! Rick (above) was born on St. Patrick's Day so naturally we had the green beer and other green drinks and had karaoke/dance music which was hysterical AND tiring! Some of my best friends Carrie, Lynne Michele, Sara and Suzy and I did a play on words with the song "Oh Mickey" but of course changed the name to "Oh Ricky" and I sang while they did a cheer - it was fabulously fun and I have to say, felt like the old days in high school.....we are definitely not to old to have a blast! I am glad it's over though.....I could barely walk to the truck that night my feet hurt so bad and the next day the legs were sore from dancing and running around all night! The things we do for love......Time to go watch the first basketball game of the day even though I should be painting........

Much Calmer Now

Ok.....I have finally figured alot of this computer language, HTML and image sizing, etc. out and I have to say I am much calmer that I was at my last post! Of course now I'm helping mom which is hysterical all in itself since my brother has worked for Apple for 10 years and he's the expert! Oh well, he's across the country and I'm here.....poor mom!!

Anyway, took off with some friends on Monday and went to the horse races.....I rode in the back and read the newest Artful Blogging magazine. You are talented people out there in the blogging world! I'm feeling alittle intimidated but I will get over it! The pages are beautiful and the words and pictures are so inspiring! I am going to be checking alot of them out. There were about 10 or 12 that really stood out to me and I can't wait to get some quiet time to sit and check them out! Off to finish editing products at Cafe Press......just about done, thank goodness, haven't painted in months! Until next time......

Image Sizing

Ok......I have literally lost my friggin mind! I have been figuring out alot of things I can do on the computer that I never thought I would even try, BUT, I need to somehow find a way to change image sizes and that my friend is not easy for someone who can't copy and paste. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be a piece of cake but for some reason I can make my own business cards but I can't do that! I am going to be researching a camera that will take photos up to 3800x2400 at 300dpi, so if any of you have any suggestions without me selling an arm, I would love to hear about it! That would eliminate a ton of the issues I am having right now. My etsy shop is up and running, real estate has picked up tremendously and lo and behold, I decide that I just have to open a store on Cafe Press! That's where I lost it......love the site, but, it's not near as user friendly as etsy is in editing and even adding items. I have a long road to hoe on this deal.......would somebody please stop me!!!! Off to paint.......much better at that!

Mass Confusion

I have to say I have never been good at taking pictures......pitifully I admit to buying disposables and getting them developed but have recently learned to use our digital camera which I have discovered is archaic and doesn't take the size photos I need for reproduction purposes. With that being said I am learning about dpi, pixels, etc.....and really don't have a clue what it all means. It's like computer language that I don't understand either, but have at least learn to clean my cache and defrag when needed. The technical world is way ahead of alot of us, but I hope in time we can at least use it all to do the things we need to. It's all very scary but I have always learned by trial and error - of course I have 2 hour cuss fests sometimes when all does not go well but on the other hand, I get so excited when something actually works. I hope I am not alone in all of this - I am almost positive I'm not! Off to paint.......I can actually use a paintbrush with no problems!