Videoblog - Art related stuff I've been up to this week :)

If you can't see the embedded video below, please click here to see the video on YouTube. :) Please excuse the background noise...Aiden was playing in the next room and sound carries big time in our house. ;) If I waited until he was quiet, I'd never do any videos. *hee, hee*
The oil pastels I mention here are called Portfolio and they are water soluble (I realized that for some reason my video image is appearing mirrored and you probably couldn't read the package). Well I'm gonna go heat up some leftovers...my hubby made some yummy turkey tetrazzini the other day with our Thanksgiving leftovers and since he's working late tonight, I'm gonna keep things simple....simple's always better I say! :D

A little update...

Well I've been sadly lacking in things to say lately...today was a typical day filled with preschool, errands, shipping prints (was a day late on that because I didn't realize yesterday that I was out of shipping envelopes and I just was not up to going out 'cause it's been quite chilly and wet here lately), then tonight I actually cooked....yeah really, I did. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not much on cooking....I can do pretty good as long as I have a simple recipe or its really basic...spaghetti, lasagna, taco salad, french toast, grilled cheese....I make a mean grilled cheese! ;) LOL! But other than that, if there's too much to it, things get burned or overcooked. Anyways, I've been doing some work getting brand new prints ready for the shop so be on the lookout for those in the next few days along with a new notecard set or two.

The above pic is the result of my ongoing paint/paper addiction. I cannot seem to leave any store that has either of these without buying more....like I don't have enough already!!! I'm running out of places to put it! Anyone else have this problem? hee, hee

Well I hope all of you here in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a quiet one here at home just the three of us. I ordered a fully cooked Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time from a local grocery store and went and picked it up Thanksgiving morning....I was determined that we were going to have a stress free Thanksgiving this year. We just had to heat everything up (the turkey took about 2-1/2 hours) and my hubby made a green bean casserole to go with the included sides of mashed potatoes and stuffing. Man I don't know why we didn't think of that sooner!!! We are so gonna be doing that again next year! :D

Well I gotta get myself to bed....I'm lucky if I manage to hit the hay before midnight these days. Don't know why I stay up so late...probably because its the only time I get completely to myself to relax. Sleeping would probably be the smart thing to do since I'm always exhausted by the time 3pm rolls around, huh? And on that note, I'm gonna go hit the hay....I seem to just be rambling aimlessly at this point. lol! G'nite yall! xo

Cherish painting...work in progress pics

I finally got Aiden to bed and am posting really quick so I can watch the new episode of "The Office" before heading to bed. The pics below are the stages the painting went through yesterday. I feel she's finished, but I always like to let a newly finished painting sit for a few days before I make a final decision...so she'll go up on the mantel in our family room so that I can gaze upon her in the meantime.

And this last picture is how Aiden occupied himself on the floor in my studio while Momma painted...

"See The Beauty" painting on Ebay & progress pics

This painting, entitled "See The Beauty" is up for auction on Ebay. For more info on her and more pics, please visit the listing. Here is the story of the inspiration behind the painting... Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I’m a worrier. Much of the time I worry about things so much, even things beyond my control, that I miss the beauty in the everyday things of life.

Lately, I’m trying to remind myself to take time to enjoy the little things…a cool autumn breeze blowing through the trees, the smell of the air after it rains, my sweet little boy’s infectious laugh, his amazing smile…just a few of the million little things to get lost in the beauty of…every day.

And I just love sharing progress pics with you guys, below are a few that I took along the way of this piece...I wish I had taken more, but I got so caught up with this one that I forgot to stop and take pics while I was painting her face and the details.

I was hoping to have more pics of the painting from last week, but alas best laid plans don't always work out. Just as I was sitting down to finish her on Friday, I got a call from Aiden's preschool telling me that he had a rash on his face, neck, back, and chest. Well of course I dropped everything and got there as fast as I could.

He was not happy about leaving school early and I pretty much had to pry him away from the door leading to the playground where he'd happily been playing before I arrived. We were all afraid that it was super contagious so I had called his doctor on my way to pick him up to try to get him in. Thankfully he didn't think it was anything serious, but was quite baffled as to what had caused it.

By the next morning, the rash had miraculously disappeared. Hallelujah!!! I was sooooooo relieved!!! I was dreading having to tell Aiden that he couldn't go to his friend's birthday party on Sunday and I'm so thankful we never had to go down that road! Aiden loves birthday parties and he would have been so heartbroken.

So the pics below are first of the background, then with a couple of collage elements added, and lastly the drawing of the girl before I started painting her. I really want to start filming while I paint again, but I have to get a longer firewire cable for my camera first. Ever since we got our new iMac, I've been in need of it, but keep forgetting to pick one up. Hope I can bribe my hubby into picking up one on his way home.......hmmmmmm.....:)

Painting progress pics

Here's the state of my painting table this morning after working on the painting in the foreground yesterday. Think a cleaning is in order before I start back up. LOL!

This is the sketch for the new painting...

And here's where it was last night when I had to stop because of a bad headache...probably from staring at this painting too long. LOL!

Hoping to finish this while Aiden's at preschool in the morning. I'll try to post more pics as I'm finishing her up. :)