late nights and full tables

This is usually a slower time of year for me. Not so this year! I am very thankful and extremely happy. I am crazy busy and my tables are full of completed pieces. WOOHOO!! I am so excited. The last couple weeks have been full of very late nights. Regular, but unexpected, life things pop up and take time but I have spent hours lately finally putting brush to canvas and oil pencil to paper. I have been taking lots of (poor quality-sorry) pictures and I look forward to sharing but for now, hopefully a pic of sweet BrownDog (aka Gracie) will do. Most of the new items on my tables will be sent off to their new homes this weekened and early next week. By Sunday I will be able to post some pictures without ruining any surprises.

Also, I am doing some early Spring cleaning in my little home studios. I have lots of art and craft items as well as paper products and books. I have been posting them on Craigslist but if anyone is in need or if anyone is interested please just drop me an email. I can share the details of what I have before I place it on CL. My next post is all art books, sketchbooks and paper.

Now as promised, Miss Gracie! Sleeping on her (very own) love seat. Gracie is my parents dog and the sweetest most gentle giant you will ever meet. Dont let the teeth fool! You can not tell from these pics but she has the most gorgeous green eyes.
Nighty night for now.

VALENTINES DAY SALE!

I have a lot to post but I wanted to start by sharing a little love. I have lots of new YellowDog cards and stickers and even a handful of new little moleskines. In celebration of the upcoming holiday I both love and hate..heehee.....I am offering a sale on all of my YellowDog paper goods. And hell, lets put the last painting I have in my possession (that is not spoken for) on sale as well!!

So for this week the following sales (!!) apply:

STICKERS = 4/$14!! Below you see my newest stickers but the sale applies for all of them.

CARDS = 3/$14! Same as the stickers...below you will see some of my newest cards but the sale applies to all cards (not just the Valentiney ones).

DREAMING = $75!

This is the only painting I have that is not spoken for. It was originally $125. It is acrylic on a 12" x 48" gallery wrapped canvas. It is ready to hang! It doesnt really work for any of the projects I have coming up so I thought I would put it up here on sale in case I can spread some more holiday love. If it doesnt sell, I love the size and colors so much I have a place on my own wall that it might be calling home soon....

I also have new moleskines, notebooks, note boxes, chalkboards and containers. More pictures to come soon but for now here is a peak at the slightly seasonal moleskines (I might have trouble parting with these!):

So lets hope this takes the sting out of all that shoveling (who am I kidding?!?!?). Drop me an email if you would like to check out any of the new items or sale items. I try to give as much as I can to the Chittenden County Humane Society but this weeks proceeds are actually going to sweet Missy! Missy is my own little four legged house wrecker. She will be visiting Dr. Millie Armstrong very soon. But shhh....lets not tell her just yet...Im afraid I will wake up with a mouse head in my bed ;)

CHANGES ARE A COMIN'!

I am going to be changing a couple things on my blog in the near future. Nothing huge. I am happy with my blog over all. And lets be real, my blog changing skills are limited. The changes will mostly be the way I post. Some days I want to post ten times while other times I dont post for weeks. I thought that categorizing my posts would help. For example I would have a post strictly about a work in progress (WIP) or a post solely about a favorite or new art supply or the occasional post about a show or sale. This will make quick posts easy and multiple posts less overwhelming and jumbled. It will also help me (and others that dare) search for certain things among previous posts. So, if you could care less about anything other than where a show will be at, you wont have to sift through all my babble! Like this paragraph! Anyway, in the next day or so that will take place.

Now I cant bore you with a paragraph like that last one without leaving you with some cuteness:
My Mom gave me this sweet little felted bird for Christmas. She picked it up on our little trip to Middlebury this past October at a store called Sweet Cecily which is jam packed with adorable gifts and utilitarian goodies. If you need a special birthday gift or if you want to find a gift for everyone on your holiday shopping list, I suggest checking them out. Or hell, even if you just want something unique and adorable for yourself! The picture does not do the bird justice so trust me when I say it is cute as all hell! Thanks Mom!

Where did Friday and Saturday go?!

Laundry is spinning around in my washer and my dishes are getting a nice hot steamy bath so Im grabbing a minute to type up this post. Later I hope to put on the painting clothes and relax but for now I am cleaning up after a hellish week at work and trying to prepare for another hellish work week ahead. Im sure you know about THOSE weeks. But on to the fun things....

Look what arrived on my doorstep one very snowy evening:
I had been waiting for this package from Paypaya for a couple weeks. My friend Georgia gifted me the most amazing Sabrina Ward Harrison art journal from Paypaya for Christmas. I had wanted one of those journals for almost a year but it didnt give detail on the type of paper and I just couldnt bring myself to indulge in one for myself. Georgia and I both love Sabrina's books and she ordered one up for me. Not only was the cover gorgeous but the paper is crazy thick and the journal is super thick but opens nicely. I knew right away that I would stress about using that gorgeous journal unless I got another one. I know, it is a sickness but at least I know myself. Confident that I love them, I dared to order one and I lucked out with free shipping! Ofcourse even the label is beautiful but then I opened the hefty box to see this:I am a sucker for gorgeous packaging! My picture taking skills do not do the tissue or glossy label justice. I strongly suggest hopping over to Papaya right now and ordering yourself up some of these:

Stunning artwork in beautiful art journal form. I will warn you that regular shipping seems very very slow (even if you pay for it) from here but it is very much worth the wait.

I found some chipboard ornaments while holiday shopping. I did not get a chance to tackle them until after the holiday season but who says they have to be 'holiday' ornaments? I made them winter themed instead. One is going to my mother or she will kill me but the other is up for sale. I am only posting it here on my blog and maybe facebook. Otherwise this little guy gets put away until late in the art show season next year!

I did not think to take a picture sooner but above you see they are about 2/3 of the way done. Smaller work can be very time consuming but lately the small projects have been the easiest to varnish and complete due to the Vermont weather. What do you other Vermont artists do in the cold snowy months when it is time to varnish a piece?

The final stage before varnishing:

A close up after two coats of varnish:

And on the other side you have YellowDog's cousin BrownDog!

I did a ton of cleaning in my small upstairs studio. I am not done but life is so much easier with space to move around and clean work surfaces to work on. So I am flying back and forth between my computer and my painting table lately and it disturbs my studio helped immensely. She would prefer I stay in one spot and in arms length of her. Below you will see the look I am getting a lot lately. Notice she has her own basket. She loves boxes and baskets so by designating this basket as hers (and filling it with her favorite crinkly paper), I keep her out of projects in progress with wet paint and glue. For the most part anyway!

Stay warm!

Oi! So much to catch up on!

So much is going on and so much is coming up. How about a quick catch up before I start in on the upcoming news? I may not have kept up with my blogging but I did take lots of pictures!

My last show/sale of 2010 was the Home Fur the Holidays event at Play Dog Play in December. It was an amazing show for me. I lowered prices on a large number of items and gave lots of surprise bargains to shoppers and it lead to lots of my pieces finding new homes, shoppers getting affordable gifts and the HSCC getting three times the donation from my table compared to last year! It was win-win-win!! I feel so much better about my donation this year. Check out some of the items below. Most were completed just in time for the show.

This is my first YellowDog bank. I was so exctied when I saw this blank wood banks. Surprisingly it took me forever to decide what to actually paint on them. This is the only bank I completed! I did way too much thinking and way too little painting. But I love how it came out. This Citron Green by FolkArt takes four coats to look good but then it looks soooo good. There is a BrownDog with bone on the other side of the bank. Book ends coming soon!

My new favorites! These little 5" x 7" pieces are so much fun to make and I just love the look of them. So simple but the colors are great and the new version of YellowDog has such a sweet little face. Two have found new homes and one is on its way to a new home. I have already started some new ones. I might even keep one myself. A first for me!

Here is a shot of some of my brand new holiday/winter cards. These were fun to make and keep an eye out for some new Valentine's Day cards. They are recycled kraft stock with ink, graphite and oil pencil.

Meet Lous! Isnt he adorable. He had surgery not long before this photo and you cant even tell. Look at that face! He (and his wonderful owners Kim and Chad!) came all the way from NY to visit. I looked forward to their visit for a couple weeks!

The show at PDP was wonderful but tiring. Very very tiring. I treated myself to a red velvet cupcake from Nibble or Nosh. I waited all day to eat that cupcake.

Ok, enough for tonight but I have more pics and news to share so til' tomorrow....

nighty night!

I AM MOVING AT LEAST

What do you do when you are too gross and icky sick to do anything but walk from couch to bedroom? You pull out a 1' x 2' table and sit up when possible. Pathetic, huh?! Does anyone know what this thing is that is going around? Flu? Plague?

Here is my little stash near the couch. I wasnt super productive but over the course of the past couple days it kept me sane.

What you see above are the essentials to making a YellowDog card on recycled stock. First is the pencil outline, second is the ink outline, third is oil pencils and final step is to ink again so the colors stay nice and bold. No photocopies, tracing or prints.

A look at one of the finished products:

This is my first ever xmas themed YellowDog card. I have a nice little bundle of new ones for my show this Thursday in hopes I can still attend. Originally I planned to be doing these little guys while taking my lunch break at my day job but I have instead been doing them on my cough-free breaks. I know, pretty. Hey, I am gross and sick but the cards are cute as hell :)

Something old, something new, something in progress, something flu?!

I know, terrible title. I blame it on my foggy head. I am sick. As in SICK. S-I-C-K. It is beyond the flu but I didnt think I could find a word that rhymed with pneumonia or bronchitis. Whatever I have, Im embarrassed it has knocked me down so badly for so long. Heres hoping tomorrow is better. Ok, enough of that talk...on to the fun stuff!

I did venture out to the Women's Festival of Crafts this morning. I armed myself with tissue, an entire bag of cough drops and a little bit of cash. The festival is one of my favorites. It is taking place all weekend so you can still stop by Burlington City Hall and find some amazing goodies for gifts or even for yourself! Maybe I will take some pics tomorrow and show you some goodies I have purchased from that show over the years; its really unique stuff.

Out of order but staying true to my title....

Something in progress:

I have wanted to do some YellowDog collages for a long time. What you see here are just steps one and two which included adding the background paper with gel medium and when dry, adding another coat of gel medium. I thought that before I risked a canvas or board I would try these circles I bought at the new art store in Essex. They are made of some funky combo of pressed paper and fabric or fiber...I dont know but as I hoped, they did not warp! At first I thought they would be magnets but at 3.5 " in diameter, I think they might be too big. Then I thought why not ornaments? It is the perfect time of year for those. But they arent really set up to be done on both sides and I would want to do both sides. So maybe back to magnets...what do you think? More pics when I actually complete them.

Now something old:

I used this Martha Stewart circle cutter with a self healing mat to create the pieces of paper I collaged onto the circles above. It was so easy and worked so well; they came out perfect. The little cutters has several spare blades and you can unscrew the top pf the cutter and store all the blades inside.

Something new:

These are Tombow Dual Tip markers. I havent really been into markers since I was a kid but these beauties are so much fun and the colors are so vibrant. I have been collecting them a few at a time as I hunted through all local (and some not so local) art stores. I could have purchased the whole set on Amazon but I dont need ALL of them and this way I got to support my local retailers. Other than my brushes, I buy from the little guys.

Im crashing so I gotta head back to the couch in a minute. I hope tomorrow brings painting because I have lots to do and I feel like I have wasted my entire week with this stupid cold/flu/nightmare!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

MORE HOLIDAY SALES!

Ok, so the title makes this sound bigger than it is but it is Friday and I am excited to get into the holiday spirit.

Below are three pieces; all originally $80 but now on sale for $30! Or how about 2 for $50?! This is fun!

SCOTTIE 12" x 12"" gallery wrapped canvas

BULLDOG 12" x 12" gallery wrapped canvas

SCHNAUZER 12" x 12" gallery wrapped canvas

(I admit it, this is my favorite!)