I am...

..playing around with some new tools that

my ancient computer didn't have,

working on a special request for my niece,

and looking forward to a productive February.

One last mini before I get back to my list.

"I Love You, The End"

There's a little owl in my shop

Just thought you might want to know.

She is here.

Crossing things off the list...

A pink monkey for Elma

with scallop-y sides.

I call it "The Tail of a Lovely Monkey".

And I was able put the blue background stripes that I needed

for another project to use in this painting for my friend, Meg.

That's a pitiful looking dog, right?

I really want to say thanks to all of my loyal customers

who continue to buy my art even though they

probably have more then they need already.

You know who you are. :)

Okay, I may stray from the list today and try to do

a few little paintings on wood.

They're fun and easy and that's sounds perfect for a

dreary Wednesday in January.

IF - Twirl

Well, she was originally called "She Believed in Spontaneous Dancing".

Demdaco did some playing around and she became the 

Twist and Twirl girl.

Either way.  It's fun to twirl.

See more twirlers at Illustration Friday.

My Normal and a Give-Away

Sometimes you just see a piece of cardboard

that needs painting' on.

And when your kitty is there making it difficult,

this is what comes out.

"My Normal"

Also stopping by to let you know that there is a 

new blogger in town.

The town being Pittsburgh and the blog being

Get Your Mom On

Jen was kind enough to blog about

me and my shop in her very first

Friday Feature.

So it's only fair that I supply her with a few "give-away" items.

So why not head on over to say Hi and enter for a chance to win 3 prints of your choice

 from my shop.

Go on.  It's right here.

You can get all the details when you get there.

Have a great weekend!

More favorite things

  Pin It

Still doing my best to try a build a complete collection

with the

"Favorite Things" 

theme.

The little painting on the plate stand is the latest.

You can find it here.

Okay back to work!

Just for me and The Cookie Shelf

(click on image to see entire post)

One of the things on my 2012 to-do list was:

#1,000,000,001 - Keep an art journal!

I love art journals.  All kinds.

But I never can manage to start one of my own.

No more!

I'm not going to give myself any rules about writing or sketching

everyday.  

Or about what can go in it and what can't.

I know me and that would just be setting me up for a fail.

It's just "whatever" and "whenever".

Just for me!

Mike being the amazing Print Production Specialist that he is,

gets a lot of paper samples from various printers.

So, I claimed this sample, that came in the form of a spiral-bound book,

as my own.

It has nice sturdy paper of all different sizes.

And some pages even have pop-outs.

Fun!

And when the first page already says this,

how can you go wrong?

As for the second part of my post title, well....

...there you go.

Imagine

Love letter

(Click on the image to see more photos)

Here's what I've been working on this week.  More sweet little monkeys for  my

 Monkey Love collection.

"I Love You, Monkey"

"I Feel the Same"

I'm offering them as a set over in my Etsy Shop.

(Oops. Already sold. Prints will be added soon.)

I still need to make some coordinating pattern pieces, maybe with flowers and hearts

and mushy stuff like that.

I'd also like to show what is written in the letter itself, but

will have to think on that a bit longer.

How would a monkey profess his love?

Anyway, sorry for my wishy-washy-ness where the

layout of this blog is concerned.

I really love the simple, clean look of this Dynamic view,

but miss some of the extras that come with the old format.

Like the "Follow Me" feature.

Need to figure out how to get that back.

Links to all of my shops, Pinterest, Facebook, etc

can be found by clicking on the tabs at the top of the blog.

Please let me know if you have trouble finding your way around

and I will revert back to the old layout.

Again. :)

Happy Weekend to you all!

Getting to know you

The Evolution of a Friendship

Monkey Love

Hey look!  I finally painted something in 2012!!!

I did absolutely nothing else today, but so what.

The post office will still be there tomorrow.

As will the laundry and pet hair.

Anyway, haha, monkeys. :)

Hope you like them.  I think they are pretty cute.

Given that my word for the year is "Simplicity"

I was trying to stick with the cream, white and red color palette.

Could not resist sneaking a bit of aqua in though.

Speaking of cute.

Cookie is cute.

"Monkey Love" is here.

If you like monkeys.

And love. :)

I'm Still Here

I can't believe we are already 5 days into this month and I am only just now posting.

I'm so busy trying to get organized so that I can get things done, that I'm not getting anything done.

Well to get you all caught up, we had a really fun Christmas Eve with Mike's family.

Followed by a Christmas morning full of surprises.

Like this one:

Mike surprised the family with that new grill we've been needing...

or did he?

A new iMac!  What?

And if that wasn't enough,

he surprised me with this

Cookie!

We named her/him (we're not 100% sure yet)

after one of our own Pittsburgh Penguins, Matt Cook, because she's an

instigator.  Haha!

I promise to take some more pictures of the front of her/his face soon. :)

Mike really is the best gift giver.

I mean, he did give me these guys. 

That middle one there turned 20 today. TWENTY!

VENTI!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AARON!

YOU ARE LOVED!!!

So on that note, I will leave you with a sketch of what I plan 

on painting today.

I've been saying that for days, but this time I mean it.

Year End Sale!

I had such a great Christmas that I wanted to share some love!

I re-opened the shop early for a year end sale.

Use the coupon code 2011END

to get 25% off anything in the shop.

Back soon to show you why our Christmas was so wonderful. 

It won't be long now!

Sure, there are a lot of things on your "to do" list.

But don't forget the most important one:

BE JOLLY!

Around the house...

Well, just around the dining room at this point.

These were taken last week, when this was the only room that was semi-decorated.

We went and cut our tree last week and it is up now and decorated.

It's in the foyer again this year, because try as we might we still can't manage

to find a skinny enough tree to fit in the living room.

I was hoping to have more excess greenery leftover from the tree

to tuck in on the mantle and well, just anywhere, but not this year. :(

It's hard to decorate when you don't have Christmas music playing.

We finally replaced our broken CD player yesterday and I think that will do 

wonders for the holiday vibe around here.

I see/hear a great deal of Johnny Mathis in my immediate future. :)

Hope everyone is plowing through there Christmas lists.

We are pretty much done, I think.

Josh had his first Christmas concert at the high school this year.

He plays the guitar in the jazz band.

Tomorrow night we'll be heading to my alma mater for my nephew's Christmas concert.

It really is nice to have the craziness stop for those few hours and listen

to the kids sing and play.

I'll miss that when these last one's are all grown up.

Anyway, just thought I'd stop in for a few minutes.

I have been painting a bit, but just gifts, so you can't see. 

Sorry.

Hope you enjoy this last week of preparations!