A Bad Day

I woke up this morning and instinctively knew the day would be *bad*. Women know these things sometimes.

My little Samantha has been struggling with terrible allergies this spring and it breaks me up to see it. Today I snugged with her and she felt warm. My heart sank. I felt this sort of pit in my stomach. She had a fever of 101! She doesn't have any of the other flu symptoms. Of course I'm terrified it's Swine Flu.

I gave her ibuprofen and her temp is normal now. She was playing a bit and not acting too sick, so I am going to wait until morning to call the doc if the fever is still there. The last thing I want to do is bring her to the doc or ER! Of course I will if necessary, but I've heard they don't want people to come in unless absolutely necessary (just phone calls if possible).

I'd so much appreciate any prayers and thoughts for our little Samantha!

On a nicer note, a friend of mine sent me this link. I am finding it quite comforting right now. I keep watching those pretty ladies change and change and the music sorta takes me. They have nice round faces, unlike the "pretty ladies" of today, where stick-skinny is the thing and gobs of make-up. I'm dating myself.

pretty ladies

Good night everyone,
Liz

New earrings!

I listed some new earrings in my etsy shop tonight. I am really loving my new laminator! :) Last spring I had made a few pairs of laminated earrings and kept a pair for myself. Well, I wear them constantly! They are so light -- it really feels like I have no earrings on at all. Now everything else feels so HEAVY. Ugh.

Time to get a bowl of cereal and watch a little t.v.

Inexpensive Mother's Day Gift

I put together a little magnet gift pack just for moms in my etsy shop. Take a peek!

Interview of artist Sarah Wyman

Below is my first official artist "interview" with the VERY talented and lovely Sarah Wyman! I stumbled across her etsy shop and immediately loved her work. Her style is so unique and I especially love how transparent her layers are and the depth of her work. Check out her blog too!

How does being an artist affect your life (good and/or bad)?

Overwhelmingly, it has been a positive thing. It feels good to create something. I’m often excited thinking about a new technique or inspired by a recent trip to a gallery. It’s my passion. I try to get in the studio everyday. Some weeks are just too hectic, but even if I can work for 10 minutes and move a painting along, I feel better. Of course it is stressful too, especially the business side of it. I spend a lot of time preparing boards to paint on, listing new work, packaging, creating prints, but I’m grateful for every sale because it allows me to continue on this amazing journey of being a working artist.

What part of the creative process do you find most difficult? And what comes the easiest?

The most difficult thing seems to be consistency. If you have followed my work for any length of time you will see me jump around stylistically. My work is mainly figurative women with collage, but within that theme I play around with backgrounds, body types and the way the faces are rendered. I hope people aren’t put off by that, but I am too curious and too new at all this to just settle down on one way of doing things. I guess the easiest is getting inspired, hence my problem. Everything gets my creative juices flowing. The way my son draws a line, the colors in a Birthday card I just received, a dark tree silhouetted against the light blue sky, art magazines, blogs and galleries. I want to try everything I see and interpret it personally.

If you had to choose just five paint colors to use for the rest of your life, what would they be?

Blue, red, yellow, white and burnt umber. The first four because you can mix most colors from them so I wouldn’t ever be limited. I had a painting instructor who would only let us buy those colors at the beginning of the semester and we had to learn to mix everything. He wanted us to only use white sparingly, but I disagree there. I love white, and wish I had more white space in my paintings. Burnt umber is my favorite shade recently, I use it with a little blue to make a lovely black, and I’ve been using it to render faces a lot. Tell us about your family and where you live:I am married to a great guy, Mike, who is one year younger than me. We have two little kids, Paul is five and Lila is two and I stay home with them. We live in Ballwin Mo, which is right outside St. Louis. St. Louis is a great place to live. We have one of the best zoos in the country and it’s FREE. I took my family to the art museum today for a family fun event and our art museum is free too. There are amazing restaurants, especially ethnic foods, gorgeous parks and pretty good art stores. Most importantly, almost all of my family lives here, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. We’re pretty close and have huge family gatherings at least twice a year. My only complaint is we don’t have an IKEA.

Describe a typical day in your life:

We are a busy busy group of people. Mike goes to work; he is an IT guy at a big telecommunications company. The little ones go to their respective ‘preschools’ three mornings a week and I go downstairs to my studio to ‘work’. I drink coffee, watch CNN and paint. Two days a week I go to college. I am nearing completion on a BFA in art education. We are all usually home for dinner and I love cooking and try out lots of new recipes. My husband and Lila are good eaters and are game for most things I make, Paul not so much, but he’s getting a little better. Once the kids are all tucked into bed, I usually am too tired to work more, so I watch some TV like my beloved American Idol or the Daily Show.

Look what I found

I cleaned out the basement and found a box of brushes, paint, clay, clay tools, etc! My dad had given me this box a while ago and I thought I had *lost* it somehow, haha. You can imagine how exciting this was! I needed new brushes badly.

The paints are oil, so not sure if I will ever use them or not. I don't know anything about oil painting.


OH! I was thrilled when I saw this brush holder thingy!!! I tend to leave my brushes in my dirty water too long sometimes :(((. This thing is so handy! No more wrecked bristles.

I also got rid of a bunch of stuff in my studio and organized a bit:

And have I told you how in love I am with my new BULBS??? Oh my my my!!! I wish I would have bought these daylight trumpet bulbs YEARS ago!!! (I didn't want to pay the $15 a bulb, but to think of all the time I wasted trying to get good shots and editing!). No more struggling to get a good shot! No more color correction! Such better quality photos as I don't have to adjust my exposure setting as much, if at all. Of course I broke one the other day by trying to unscrew it and not holding the base. Grrrrr.

Here's my lightbox. I also have a lightbox that has the sheer sides, but I've found that this foamboard one works so much better. Super easy to make.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Stay tuned for Monday's interview with an UP AND COMING etsy artist! Very cool stuff!

Liz

Take a peek at my new stuff!

♥ felt art cuffs ♥

Funky and different! I love these and I hope you will too! Find them in my shop RIGHT NOW: etsy shop.

BLOG READERS ONLY: Any cuff purchase receive FREE shipping and a free art magnet!

Thanks everyone for your support. Stay tuned for other new products I'm working on!

Also, please check back on Monday for my first *artist interview*. I will include the interview, photos of her (his) work, and of course links to their etsy shop and blog! I love learning about other artists. Every month or so I will interview an artist I've found on etsy that I love!

First Official SHOP UPDATE!

SHOP UPDATE on Friday the 24th at NOON CST (1:00 pm EST).

Will post one after another, so please refresh your browser every so often.

I have few new product lines (one line will be included in tomorrow's update) ... so fun! I get bored easily. I sometimes wonder if it would be better to stick to one thing and be the best at that one thing and be KNOWN for that one thing (branding), but then I remind myself that I just CANNOT do it! I am who I am. For better or worse.

Hope everyone has a great day today!

xoxo liz

Look at my doggie!

I stumbled across a new etsy shop with *no feedback* and was thrilled to be the first to buy! The owners are super nice and so excited about their new venture on etsy! They provided that last pic above for me to show you. :)

What cute dog and cat tags! So reasonable, too. And the shipping was soooooooooo fast.... made me take notice of how important that is to a buyer. I know it's important, but sometimes as a seller (mostly) it is easy to forget a bit and take a day or so longer than you should.

The second Teddy gets a glimpse of the camera she becomes shy. It is hysterical.

She is not brushed and needs a HAIRCUT bad. I love her at this scruffy, moppy stage though. I notice she gets touched and scratched and cuddled constantly when she's scruffy! Everyone's always scooping her up. Isn't that interesting? When she first gets her haircut and it's short, she isn't as cuddly and maybe actually gets a bit of PEACE!

Here's the shop: JBImageCreations

Keep checking my blog for news on my first "official" shop update! I've got some new goodies I'm working on!

Liz

New Products coming SOON!

I'm working on some new products to put in my etsy shop, and hope to have them up late next week.

I'm wondering if I should start doing shop updates like a lot of etsy-ers do? Anyone have any opinions on that? Normally I just add as I can, but official shop updates seem like a good idea sometimes. Then load it up at once!

Anyone???

Liz

Albino squirrel in my front yard!

I know you've all been waiting! ;o)

We love feeding our little neighborhood squirrels. We have "regulars" that visit us in the morning while we drink our coffee. We have a big jug of nuts by our front door and they come right up on our windowsill and BEG for those nuts.

We've seen some very amusing things over the years. Once we saw our "mama squirrel" move each one of her little babies, one at a time, to another tree. She had quite a bunch to move. During her last trip, she literally was stopping and trying to catch her breath every 10 feet or so! Another time we saw a squirrel pack his mouth with nuts so tightly that he could hardly walk! It was hysterical!

To our utter surprise and delight, an albino squirrel showed up the other day! I've never seen one before. At first we tried to be very quiet and not move much, but soon realized this guy was NOT SHY. He was very bossy, chasing the others away.

I googled "white squirrel" to find out for sure if this was indeed an albino, and he (she?) is. He has all white fur and pink eyes. Non-albino white squirrels have dark eyes and some gray on the head and down back.

Liz xoxo

tollipop

I stumbled upon such a lovely etsy shop a few days ago called tollipop. I went to Kirsten's blog and was even more delighted by the stories and pictures. My favorite post is "fantasy library". Those girls know how to PLAY.

Here's some pics of the Kirsten's awesome art:





I hesitate to mention that she's having a give-a-way right now. I'm embarrassed to say I'm so so so wanting to win this thing and don't want more competition! I feel like I'm two again! MINE MINE MINE!!!

Liz xoxo

Easter

Easter here was a bit odd. Molly had to work (did I tell you she has a JOB!? She's 15). She works as a busser at a very busy diner. We went there for lunch (she insisted! Soooooo happy that difficult middle school time is over and she actually LIKES us again!). She looked like she'd been working there for years... flittin' around with her long blond ponytail swingin' as she walked by. Cleaning and setting tables, carrying soda and coffee, sweeping the floor with one of those cool silent vac thingies, and of course bringing us a pile of napkins for soda Samantha spilled all over the seat and on my pants, LOL. Here she is in her uniform:

I'm one of those people that does things a bit different than the norm. I'm never bothered by sorta making up my own rules. My poor kids would probably love it if I was more "normal". I seem to rebel against things that are sorta expected (someday I'll write about my intense hatred for Christmas trees, although I begrudgingly put one up every year).

We colored Easter eggs ON Easter. I used lemon juice in my coloring mixes and after some disappointment that I didn't use vinegar to get the more vibrant colors, we settled in and got to work. Our favorite part was putting the plastic around the eggs and watching them shrink around the egg in the hot water. FUN. The eggs looks so old-fashioned and I love that. It was a sunny day here, and they looked so pretty in the light shining through the kitchen window:

Later, I met my mom and dad at Golden Corral (we affectionately call it "The Hungry Hepher"). Just the three of us on a whim on Easter. I told you I do things different than the norm (my whole family, actually)!

It was nice to be alone with them and I love to watch the people that go there at odd times on holidays. Makes me sad sometimes. Maybe they're sad when they see me too! Never thought of that! Although most people don't notice other people the way I seem to. I'm one of those people that stares and eavesdrops, LOL! Most of the time people don't even notice, but on occasion I get a bit of a dirty look and I realize I've gone too far. I don't mean to be rude, but I get sorta caught up in it.

I tell myself I'm not nosey, but that I'm interested in people and their lives. If I could do it all over again, I'd go to school to become a sociologist. Then I could stare and study and have a legitimate reason to do so.

My next post will be about the albino squirrel I fed on Easter morning! LOL! I even have pics. I bet you're excited!

Liz

Beading

Yesterday Samantha had her friend Mariah over. We had a lot of fun making beaded necklaces, bracelets and rings. It was 50 degrees here AND SUNNY (Wisconsin). My mood was so much better. So tired of the winter.

Today we're going bowling to celebrate my nephew Luke's 5 yr birthday.

Liz

Woman watches live internet feed of her house getting robbed!

Drawing a face

I'm going to try drawing my girl's faces more realistic. I am all into trying new things constantly.

YouTube has a lot of great vids of artists showing us their tricks. I like this one a lot: guy drawing face. I hadn't heard of the "four eyes" theory. Makes sense to me.

Liz

Mexican Tortilla Soup

I made a great soup yesterday in the crockpot. Both kids loved it, and dIh liked it as much as he likes any soup for supper. He's a meat and potatoes guy. A lot of times when I make these light dinners he gets the hot dogs out right after! ;)

I tweaked the recipe a bit. I used more chicken broth instead of the water. Water
makes no sense to me in soups like this. I also added some mexican chili powder. It needed more kick, as it's very mild. And about 10 minutes before we ate, I added a can of drained and rinsed black beans. I think the beans are essential! What's the point otherwise. Here's the recipe: yummy soup

Oh! Did you notice the new blog look? Three columns! Pretty fancy, huh? :::joke:::

Liz

New Painting

I just put a new painting on etsy... it's 12x24 on wood. I really love how this turned out and am going to do more in this style. :) This one is more muted, which is the kind of painting I could have in my own home. Would you believe it if I told you that I do not *own* any of my paintings? I display them until they sell, then they are gone.

Liz

Kid and Laptop Love

While cruising through channels on tv, I came across Darius Zucker singing, "It Won't Be Like This For Long." I had tears in my eyes as I heard him sing about MY LIFE! My daughter Samantha is six and is very very attached to me. Sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed with it. And I have a 15 yr old daughter, Molly, who just got a JOB!!! She's on the other end of the spectrum and wants to be with her friends as much as possible. It really seems like yesterday when she was in love with me too! This song brought me back to life as it is NOW. I need to try to not let my life with my husband and kids slip by without notice. I need to enjoy the MOMENT. I don't need to think about art and biz and laundry and money every second! This is my personality (very high brain energy, LOL... wish it would be more PHYSICAL energy!). I needed to be reminded of this and Darius did that for me. :) It's the first song on my playlist here. If you listen to it carefully and have children, I bet you'll have tears too! Once your tears get going, then watch Christian the Lion video again and really let it rip!!!

On a lighter note, I bought a laptop (ebay) and am so excited! I knew I needed one for my biz.

I can see already how much more work I'll be able to do! When I first started selling online, I had no idea how much time is spent on the computer versus actually PAINTING! I bet I spend 90% of my business time on the computer and just 10% actually painting. I'd be curious to hear how other artists do on this. I think the laptop will help get my ratios at a better level. At least I hope so.

Liz