Just got home from work

Nothing particularly eventful to write about. It's been raining most of the week but it's not been cold. I actually love rain. My perfect day is a rainy day at home wearing comfy clothes and listening to it fall. *sigh* heavenly :)


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A new month is here :)

Soooo. I didn't win the Dogwood Arts competion. Phil Savage's Woodruff's won - he had an awesome photo. I am however exhibiting this month at Three Flights Up. We had the opening last night and it was pretty awesome. I got to meet a lot of interesting people and sell a little bit of art :). I love opening night of an exhibit, it's so fun to just mingle and talk to people about what you do. Getting ready for an exhibit - well , that's a whole other story LOL. It's stressful trying to make it all come together with a deadline. But then you go to the opening and it's all worth it :). I'm doing canvas for the exhibition, well pretty much everything I sell locally is on canvas now. I'm using a company in California - I send them the photographs, they print them on artist grade canvas and then ship them to me rolled together in a tube. I then mount the canvas on stretcher strips and luann board and use transparent layers of paint to give them a distressed, nostalgic look. I really like the way they turn out. Here's what I'm exhibiting this month ( all these are 20"x20" ) :








I did these in a smaller size ( 10"x10" canvases) :

We FINALLY had some snow...

It was just a dusting of snow, you probably wouldn't even call it snow if you lived up North lol. It was fluffy and beautiful and inspiring though. I worked that day at Cato (my day job now), came home and took no less than 85 photos . Here are a few of them :






I only have one in my Etsy shop at the moment but I'll be putting the other ones up as I go along this week. The ironic part is that I'd decided to totally launch into spring with my shop photos lol. We just never get snow though so I wanted to get these in there while it's still winter :).

2009

I'm so glad the new year is here! Did everyone make resolutions? I don't really call them resolutions, more like goals for the year I suppose. I have way to many to put them on my blog but here's the condensed version:

• Do a painting every week
• Be more assertive about your needs
• Make a daily list the night before of things to accomplish the next day
• Keep better records of art sales
• Do a photo a day (at least one)
• Offer gift certificates and matting in your Etsy shop
• Open a vintage shop on Etsy
• Fine more venues to sell your artwork online and locally
• Keep up with your Etsy teams requirements (Etsy Bloggers Street Team & Design Style Guide)

Plus a cazillion house goals - pull up the disgusting purple carpet downstairs, do stained concrete floors, install concrete counter tops, paint downstairs, paint the hallway upstairs, etc etc etc. THAT list is pretty endless lol.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and the new year makes all your dreams a reality.

I've been tagged :)

I got tagged this morning by Michelle over at Little Paper Dog. I have to tell six things about myself that most people don't know and then tag 5 Etsy Bloggers. When you leave here, you should head over to Michelle's Etsy shop - you'll find some super cute gocco prints such as :





She just had her grand opening on August 8 so she's still a new Etsy shop :).

Ok.....6 things about me that most people don't know :

1 - I would love to be rich - I know that seems like a compromise considering I'm an artist and I should be all about artistic integrity and creating art for the sake of expression and all that. I DO believe in those things. But my dream is to make so much money from my photography that I can pay off my mortgage, buy an electric car, and travel all over Europe and India.

2 - Most of my online friends don't know that I'm going to be getting married in April of this coming year :).

3 - I make lists for everything...my longest list is entitled "Your Handmade Life - what this means to you". It's five typed pages long and it has everything that I want to incorporate into my life from recycling every day to shopping locally to hanging original art all over my house :).

4 - Everytime we get a lab (we've had a black lab and a chocolate lab) they either run away or disappear. We don't know what happens to them. We've heard that labs are bad for this from other people and it's because of this that we will never get another lab.

5 - I love owls.

6 - I love eggs for breakfast. I could seriously eat them everyday :).


Ok, here are the Etsy Blogger Street Team members I am tagging:

1 - Angie over at JellyBean's Art - I have been in love with her 'jellybean tree' prints for awhile now :). You can find one of her Etsy shops here.

2 - Licia - her blog is called Myself in Pieces - it's introspective, beautiful, and personal. Her artwork is dreamy and lucious as well. Her Etsy shop is called Theophany.

3 - Shell at Shell Mitchell Accessories and Design. She has some super cute gloves in her Etsy shop. I'm going to have to keep her in mind when it comes to xmas giving this year :). Here's her shop.

4 - Julie at Sew It's For You - Oh my gosh - personalized, embroidered dishtowels and cloth napkins. That's on my short list of things that I want to get this year. I need dishtowels but I'm seriously holding out until I can afford some of these :). Find her shop here.

5 - My Aphrodite.....she was born in America and now calls England home. She makes some absolutely amazing jewelry - I'm loving her little bird necklaces. You can find her on Etsy right here.

I'm providing links to everyone's blogs here, but feel free to check out the Etsy minis they have posted on their blogs. It will take you straight to their Etsy shops. Soooo, without further ado...

TAG - you're IT!!

Life is Challenging

Overlooked


Quote for the Week:

"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results."

-Anonymous
Delta Dawn


I feel challenged right now with our circumstances which tends to give me a bad, downer attitude. We're really trying to make things work out - working from home together, paying our bills, making sure all our teenagers have plenty of food to eat. It just seems like things haven't come together well for us the last couple of weeks. Or they've come together but just barely. The economy probably has a lot to do with it, the fact that buying art is an optional rather than a necessity. I've decided to view this time period as a challenge and keep a good perspective on it all. I really want to focus on the good things that we have now instead of worrying about the things we don't have yet.



Pointless Sentiment

Featured Artist - Funky Chicken Designs

I'm starting a new feature today - I'll be featuring artists from the various Etsy Teams I'm a member of. Today's featured artist is Funky Chicken Design and she's on the Etsy Interior Design Team. Her primary focus is light switch plate covers although she does pillows as well some adorable push pins and magnets. I also spotted this incredibly awesome magazine bowl in her shop that was obviously very labor/time intensive to make.



This bowl and the frame below were done using recycled magazines. Michelle, the shop owner at Funky Chicken Design, is a big believer in recycling as she uses recycled packaging when mailing out her fabulous creations as well.


Here is a frame done using similar materials. Very intricate and colorful.

She obviously enjoys working with paper and decoupage is her primary art of choice :). Here are a couple of my favorite light switch plates from her shop. She has a ton of styles and color schemes to chose from, you're sure to find something for every room of your home.




She also has items for your home office including pushpins and magnets. Here's some oh so cool pushpins. Once again she has several different ones to chose from.



Here are just a couple more items from her shop - a nightlight perfect for your rockabilly boudoir and a gorgeous pillow that would be right at home in your bedroom or your living room.


So head on over to Funky Chicken Design and pick up some cool items for your abode :)!

Quote for the Weekend

"When one of your dreams come true, you begin to look at the others more carefully."

- anonymous

I'm off to the farmer's market in the morning to sell my photography. I'll let you know how it goes when I get home (probably on Sunday actually, I'm usually wiped out when I get home lol).

A Rainy Sunday Morning...

'Fade to Gray'



We had a full house this weekend - Chloe (my 17 year old who we always have), Erik (Richard's 16 yr old son who we have every other weekend or so), and Mia ( my 15 year old who lives with her Dad and who is supposed to come every weekend but has been sporadic about it this summer), + Chloe's assorted friends and boyfriend who was in and out. Chloe and her boyfriend Nicky apparently have gotten a puppy, well, Nicky got a puppy and Chloe's taking care of it a lot I should say. It's adorably cute but not something we want at our house because our Golden Retriever is getting ready to have puppies next week. Then we're getting both our dogs spayed because this was an unplanned pregnancy. Sesame , the Golden Retriever , is just a little over a year old and has only went into heat once. We let her out for like 30 seconds to go to the bathroom and a German Shepard that had been hanging around immediately jumped her and had his way with her. She is undeniably, hugely pregnant right now. I know she'll be glad to get it over with, she has absolutely no energy right now. Richard took her to the vet Friday morning and got her some prenatal vitamins which will hopefully help.


'Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head'


I must go and make a big Sunday breakfast now, everybody's starting to get up. It's an awesome rainy Sunday here in TN, what a great day for sleeping in :). I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend !

'Rainy Day Feeling'

New Website!

'Cream'



So, I'm in the process of setting up a new website, it's not quite ready to go yet...it's going to be really cool and pretty though. I'm working with an amazing website designer named Richard Johnson - I really love his ideas :). More to come on that later.

Nothing really exciting or fun has happened this week, I've been a little under the weather it seems like. I had some issues with UPS sending me some of my photos for a big order completely bent and beat up. There were seriously indentions of a cart wheel on the outside of the envelope....I'm going to put a picture in here so you can see what they did. If this were a South Park episode I would have said 'those bastards' lol. And of course it was an order that needed to be there by July 15, that I had put a rush delivery on and everything. My printing company handled it beautifully though. All I had to do was send photos of the damage and they replaced all 3 photos absolutely free of charge ( large 16"x 16" photos) AND they arrived the very next day. Pretty darn amazing :). I will love them forever and recommend them to anyone who asks :). Look at what UPS did :




outside of envelope - see the cart wheel track in the corner?!



back of one of the photos

Went to the Famer's Market Saturday..

'The Study of Botany



I had a great day at the farmer's market in Knoxville today. It started out really soggy but ended up with beautiful blue skies. Fluffy white clouds included :). I should have taken some photos but I kept my camera in the car due to aforementioned sogginess :). I meet so many awesome people there - I really could just sit there and people watch. Of course selling my photographs is an added bonus lol. I'll have to post some photos of my booth soon. Just a photo or two of new artwork today.



'Daydream Believer'

Quote for Today...

'You're the Biggest Part of Me'


" The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want."

~ Ben Stein


' In Love '

Quote for Today...

"Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work."
- Rita Mae Brown


I think this applies in so many ways to having a shop or working for yourself. Don't hope more than you work....this says to me not be so worried about having sales or who is coming to your shop that you forget why you even wanted this life in the first place. You wanted it to be creative on a daily basis. To enjoy your photography or your painting or your jewelry making (pick your own creative passion) - if you spend all your time hoping instead of creating then you've lost your focus. Trusting your instinct, well, that goes without saying. Without that, creativity is pretty much impossible.

The Exhibit Opening Went Awesomely Well!

'She Knew Revenge Was Her Only Option'


So, the First Friday reception went perfectly !!!! It was so fun. I absolutely LOVED it. And if you knew me, you'd know that totally goes against my personality - I hate crowds, I don't like the city....and this involved all of those. I sold 6 of my photographs, I heard there was about 1000 people who came through the gallery - it sure seemed like it lol. The mayor of Knoxville was even there. And I got to stand there next to my work and talk about it for 4 hours to anyone who had questions. I had a really good spot, my artwork was the first thing you saw when you walked in the door, it was thrilling. Everyone loved my photography, I was completely flabbergasted by all the attention it got. I think people are used to seeing photos displayed 'as is' in galleries - not distressed or given the effects that I like to give them. That's the only thing I can figure out lol. There are so many amazing photographers on Etsy who do similar things to their photographs so I didn't realize it would be such a novelty out in the real world. The real world of Knoxville, TN that is.

'Save Me a Space'


Either way, it was very validating to me as a photographer. I loved the attention, I loved talking about what I do, I loved watching people enjoy my work. You just don't get that in your online shop . I can't wait to do it again. Totally fun =) =) =).

Ok, so I lied

'Reflection'

LOL. I said I was going to do a decent post on Sunday and here it is Tuesday and I'm just now getting to it. That's sooo sad. I've decided to set up a shop on DaWanda which is basically a European version of Etsy. It's not associated with Etsy in any way but it sells a lot of handcrafted indie stuff like Etsy. I just have to list everything in euros and centimeters - it's quite fun actually. I know I've said it before but I love my job! It makes me very happy :) :) :). I was so not happy at my last job. Working from home is an excellent fit for me.

'Sunshine on my Shoulders'

We got some gas for our grill finally so we've been grilling like madmen the last couple of days. Do madmen grill? Hmmm, I'll have to ponder that one. I have some chicken breasts marinating in lime juice, olive oil and various other seasonings - they should be awesome.

My bf gave our doggies baths yesterday. I'm looking at them outside my window right now laying in the dirt LOL. Oh well. We rearranged furniture in our living room the day before yesterday too. I'm sooo happy with it. Except that I moved our big bookcases and then remembered that I painted around them instead of behind them. That's so funny. So I'm really needing to paint now. I'm so bad about half-ass doing something as far as my house goes. Not with my business however, just my house. Cleaning, painting, you name it. I'll halfway do it thinking I'll get back to it tomorrow (or in a minute) but then I never get back to it. Then I look around my house wondering how half my rooms are half painted LOL. I have such big plans for my house though. We're going to be here for a long time. Especially since Richard and I are both working from home now. We would be working in Knoxville if we weren't and the commute (about an hour one way) was our only draw back to this house (yes, even with all the plumbing issues lol). Now the commute is a non issue and we're actually using one car now too. It was kind of by default since one of them broke, but it's working out great for us. We are feeling like we are contributing to the health of our planet by not driving every day :).

'Good Morning Sunshine'

'Just Bringing Pretty Back'

'Fresh'

'Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head'