Hope whispers

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

Sharing...

...a little sneak peek at what's on my desk today.


And also a rare peek at where some of the little pieces of me go to live.








Thanks for sharing, Laurie, and for being such an enthusiastic supporter.
And thanks, Ellie, for letting "my girls" share your beautiful room.

Two

How I spent my SAturday night. :)

Daydream

Springtime is the best time for daydreaming.

Where the heck?

I haven't gone anywhere. I've been right here. In my little nook. Painting away.

I've been busy this week working on a secret commission. And I didn't want to post without pictures. Pictures are the best part, right. Words Shmerds!


I will show you what I made yesterday. It's a second Kokeshi very similar to the first. I did this one upon request. I found it to be much easier the second time around. Didn't struggle with the face at all this time. And don't you just love the little base for her to perch on?



Anyway, my real reason for stopping by is to let you know that Tina over at Small Town Living has featured me in her Artists Profile section. You can read the article here and enter a give-away to win a She Believed Print Set here.
So you should totally read that and do that. :)

I'm very close to finishing up a painting for my etsy shop right now, so I'm off to do that. I'll be back with photos real soon.
Happy Friday all!!!

Yay!

Look what Cat made!
Find them here.

Here's another.

I've framed up another little painting and she's living in my shop.
"My Frog Puppet"

(The final version does include a little fabric box in her hair)

oops. i mean bow.
thanks, maggie. :)

I've been framed!

5x7" flat canvas panel is securely mounted on a mat board covered with pretty paper.
Tucked in a frame and ready to hang.
In my shop.

MOre Alice

I sit down to paint other things, but Alice keeps coming out.
Imagine what will happen after I see the movie!


Hope to find a frame for this one before I list it.

For St. Patrick's Day

I know it's kinda late in the day to bring this up, so I'll make it last through Sunday.
Get my March Frog print (unframed) for only $5 plus shipping.
I'll relist if it sells out so be sure and check back if it's not there. :)
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

From Princesses to a Queen

"NEVER MIND ALL THAT! Get to the part where I lose my temper!"


No, I didn't see the movie yet, but how could I not be inspired by all of the wonderful Alice art that is popping up everywhere?
You can find her here.



So not such a great few days around here. Had our taxes done Friday. NOT GOOD!
And then somebody hit Mike's parked car on Saturday night and then just left. How uncool is that? Insurance will pay, but we have a $500 deductible. BOO! It's like we're a whole house full of Ziggys.

Somehow that panic-y feeling from last week has not returned though. I think I'm past that.
I'm enjoying a sudden burst of creativity and that's good. I think it's partially due to rediscovering Jackson Browne's Pretender cd. Mike hasn't said anything yet, but he's probably going to kill me if he hears it one more time. :)



Here's some other good things that happened:

Made it to etsy's front page on Saturday thanks to this lovely person adding me to their treasury.

I received a very generous gift from my give-away winner. Please go read about her Peace Rocks here. Love them!!!

And I was featured here. :)

Two Princesses

In my shop.

Intense Knitting!

I can't knit.
I wish I could knit.
My grandma tried to teach me several times when I was little. I'd get the hang of it, but then I'd become bored with it and soon forget everything I learned.
I do have fond memories of sitting in her apartment with her while she knitted. I would read a book or watch t.v. while she knitted away. And she smoked.
I remember the cigarette just barely in her mouth. It would go up and down as she inhaled and exhaled. Just hanging by the dry of her lips.
It still makes me smile to think of it.
Eventually she gave up smoking, but she kept right on knitting.
Intensely.

Find it here.

Story Art

Done and in my shop.
Once again I'm writing this right when it's time to get dinner on the table.
Gotta run!

Bunny and Flo.

Just playin' around with these two characters. :)
They are a bit rough around the edges as I decided to stitch on the right sides instead of the wrong.
Maybe I'll do the next set in a proper fashion. But it's art! Who's to say what's proper, right?
At any rate, I plan on painting a picture of them today.



Things are a BIT less stressful around here this week.
The Unemployment office released Mike's last 6 weeks worth of checks so we can breathe a SMALL sigh of relief.
I had some sudden inexplicable foot pain yesterday, but it seems to have lessened today.
So, in addition to the painting, I think we will take Penny for a nice long walk and enjoy the sunshine before the forecasted rain begins.

Have a nice day. :)

That's better.

I think this looks so much better with just a few non-wishing stars added.
What a difference a few dots can make. :)

Wishing Stars!

Just stopping in to show my newest "She Believed" girl.
She's in my shop right now.
I showed this sketch a reaaaally long time ago and am just getting to it now.

I really have to run because I'm in Aaron's room and he's trying to do his P90X. It' like an oven in here!
Plus it's dinner time.
Bye!

Her Cottage by the Sea

In my shop.

No time for chatting this morning.
I promised I'd make crepes. :)

A Sheepish Pair

There. Three makes it a series, right?
Any other animals you want to see? Just say the word.

Mike is off picking Josh up a school after we received a call from the school nurse. :(
I don't want to still be sitting here when he gets back, so I'm off to shower and walk down to the post office again.
And then I'll paint. Maybe a human this time. :)

- just made a print set featuring the first 3 "Two by Two" paintings available in my shop.

Pssst! You really helped.

Just stopping in to thank you for the lovely comments on yesterdays post.
I feel much better today. Nothing's changed, but my walk to the post office in the sunshine and reading all of your encouraging words did me worlds of good.



Also, I'm trying to make some room in my little art nook (aka my happy place) so that I can spread out and get busy.
So I've listed a couple of paintings over on ebay. Very reasonable starting bids.
Why not have a look see. :)

Of course, of course. Mr. and Mrs. Horse

Hmmmm. They may look more like Mrs. and Mrs. Horse. Which is fine. But not really what the Ark was all about. :)




Well, whatever they are you can find them here.

There has been so much going on here lately. You already know most of it...hockey championships, band battles, power outages and piles of snow...
Unfortunately, while all of these things were going on, Mike has been out of work. No freelance work since early January. So another first of the month has come and gone with no paycheck. Yet, bills still need to be paid and groceries still need to be bought.

And on top of that, the word "freelance" confuses the unemployment office so any money that we should be getting from them is on hold until someone there gets "unconfused."
So I don't know what's going to happen next. And not knowing makes me worry.

I worry about not being able to have a graduation party for Aaron. Or that Eli won't be able to go to the prom. Or worse yet, that we will lose our house.

And I'm angry.
Angry that we've worked hard for so many years (okay, Mike's worked harder than me but I've worked) and at 45 this is where we are.
I'm angry at Mike's employer who let him go while keeping on people that showed so much less dedication than he did. Mike never "left at 5 no matter what" if there was still work to do.

Why do we need to jump through hoops to get the unemployment money that is rightfully ours. They've collected it from our employers all of these years with no hoop-jumping.
It's not fun being angry. But sometimes I am.

I realize that my anger may be misplaced and irrational, but nevertheless I'm angry.

But mostly just worried.
Yes, I realize that sitting here worrying doesn't help, and I know that so many are in the same or even more desperate situations.
And I know that I also have so much to be grateful for.

So I'm done. Besides, being worried and angry only makes me cry, so instead I'm going to go and paint a picture. :)



...and hug my dog.

Leaving her spot on my very messy desk...

... and going off to live with the Give-Away winner who is......
#7 SASA
Here's the link to her blog if you want to go and congratulate her.
I did my best to gather all of the voters' comments from other posts and then used the true number generator over at random.org to determine the winner.
I really wish I could give something to every person who took time to vote. I know some of you went way above and beyond just voting once a day.
In fact, Gorilla Music got at least 30 emails last night from Flyght voters who were unable to get votes to register.
Last I checked this morning they were still taking votes and we were in the #10 spot.
So, really, thanks again, SO MUCH.

I promise to have another "just because" give-away real soon. Hopefully before the end of this month.


And last but not least, the Rams are champions again!
This time it was a 4 - 1 victory of Kiski Area to win The Open Cup.
Unfortunately, they can't go any further since our team is made up of students from a handful of different schools and so we're not eligible to go to the next level. Which kinda stinks since it was looking like they had what it took to go all of the way. But, not complaining. I mean 2 cups in 4 days!!!

Okay, off to paint some horses.
I'll let you know what happens next with Flyght.