Making Progress

We now have a graduate! Dixie graduated yesterday from her puppy training class.

She had to successfully do leave it, sit when you stop walking her and stay in the middle of the store for a minute and a half. She got all of them on her first try.

Then we came back and did pictures and she got her little diploma. Isn't she cute with her little hat?

We start the intermediate class next month, well, we will as long as everything is going okay with my job.


I've also been making a ton of progress getting ready for the Spring Fling. It's only three weeks away!!

I have my booth mapped out, just dropped off my file for the banner and I'm about to order my shirt. I only have a couple of paintings I need to finish up before then. I've got these two paintings (above and below) finished up just this week.


On the other hand have fifty million prints I have to cut out, label and stuff into their cellophane wrappers.

Thankfully with it being so slow at work I have been able to do quite a bit at the office. Plus, one of my coworkers is helping me since she's bored out of her brains too. I can't begin to tell you how much help she has already been.

What the cat drug in

Who Moved My Cheese?

Have you ever read that book - Who Moved My Cheese? It was all I ever heard about when I first started at my current job. In fact, it sneaks in on occassion still.

I passed by it one day at Half Price Books and figured I could spend three bucks to see what the fuss was about. As it turns out it's a cute little read...

It tells a story about four mice who had to learn another way to get to their cheese once someone moved it to another part of the maze. It relates surprisingly well to adapting in both the workplace and at home but then again that's the whole point of the book.

Someone moved our cheese today (*sniff* boss lady would be so proud) and gave us some interesting news at the office but I haven't quite decided if it's good news or bad news just yet.

Like usual I can't really go into detail but basically our client is restructuring and until a few months pass we don't know where that leaves us. Guess we'll find out soon enough.


On a lighter note WE'RE FINALLY GOING TO SAN DIEGO!!! I've only been promising my little brother we'd come out there some five or six years now.

I'm so excited! I started looking at flight/hotel/rental packages today.

Can you believe I've never seen a beach before? I want to go to the zoo there too. I heard it's suppose to be one of the best. I'll get to see palm trees!

Do you know of any cool places to go while I'm there? I'd love to hear about them.

Winter Aftermath

Win a free copy of Creative Time and Place by Rice Freeman-Zachery

Alright creatives!

How many of you out there can relate to just how difficult it is to juggle your daily life and find time for art? I know I certainly can!

This month's giveaway, Creative Time and Space by Rice Freeman-Zachery, will explain how other artists have achieved balance in their lives and teaches you how to find it within your own.

Creative Time and Space embraces the idea that making time and space is at the core of creativity. It is not just about managing your time or setting up a studio space, it is about your mindset and about making room in your life for your craft.

To enter just sign up in the widget box at the bottom of this post before Saturday, February 27th! It couldn't be easier!

Want two chances to win?

Create a post on your blog mentioning this giveaway and leave a comment here with the link.

Good luck to all who enter!

*This giveaway is now closed.*

It's time to break out the Tabasco!

Well, today didn't end too well for me.

I got to wait for about a half an hour at work for absolutely nothing, my car was on empty, my phone kept beeping at me because I forgot to charge it and I could swear the idiot convention had just let out as I was driving home.

I drive up only to see the trash and recycle buckets still sitting in front of the house.

Cory and I bicker for a bit but all was forgiven when he shows me just exactly why he forgot to bring them in...

We thought Dixie was doing better. We really did. Unfortunately, this week it feels like she is just pushing us to see when we break.

When I left this morning I put out her bowl of food, gave her fresh water, filled her two treat toys with goodies and gave her a pig ear. Now mind you she already has umpteen other toys and chewies out there already.

Apparently those aren't good enough. No, apparently she prefers the wood on our house!

She ripped off two pieces of trim from the door frame and proceeded to eat the actual door frame and halfway ripped off a huge trim board off the side of the house!!

I seriously wish we has security cameras so I could watch her do this. It's crazy!




Did I get mad? Nope.

Did I send Cory to the store to buy the biggest bottle of Tabasco Sauce he could find while I made mac and cheese? You betcha!

Bitter Apple doesn't seem to phase her. So instead, I took a spray bottle mixed with Tabasco and water and dosed the house.

In hindsight, it wasn't the most brilliant idea to do it on a windy night but hey, I was on a mission. My nostrils have finally quit burning and my throat is only a little raw now.

It's suppose to rain tomorrow so I may have to try again but I'm hopeful. We'll see how it works. Keep your fingers crossed.

What it is and what it should be

After my little breakdown Friday evening I kind of took a breather from painting.

I worked on some stuff for Etsy Fort Worth, watched Couples Retreat and Whip It with Cory, played with the animals and ordered all my bags and backings for my prints.

I wanted to extend a big thank you to everyone for the comments and emails I received after my last post. I think the majority of us can relate to what I did to myself and I want you to know it's appreciated. We all truly are our own worst enemies at times.

Once I gave myself a swift kick in the rear I started a new painting to make a third in my 9 x 12 pop art paintings.

It's a bit of a mess at the moment but they always start out that way. I guess I should be thankful you can at least tell it's a woman's face at this point in the painting.



The end result should look like this one (above). I don't think I ever posted it. I haven't finished building or painting the frame just yet so please ignore it.

I think I'm starting to get this type of art down! I don't know if I will ever be able to draw a realistic face properly but I can do line work and proportions.

I should have both of these paintings done and framed this week.

The Pity Party Ensues

I was feeling a bit burnt out from painting since I've been going at warp speed lately.

So tonight I decided to refocus a bit and was trying to find other venues to sell my art work in and started getting a little frustrated that I'm looking a little too late to find anything to put an application in for late spring/early summer.

Then (just because I like pouring salt in my wounds) I start looking around on Facebook at other artists. This leads me to run across a girl's profile that I went to high school with. I look at her stuff - spectacular of course - and then start clicking through links.

The links led me to local galleries and art stores.

Well, son of a bitch. I have now succeeded in making myself feel just about as bad as I had felt when I got rejected from my first juried art trading site (and just so you know, I don't take rejection well).

I'm sitting here, stupidly crying out of self pity and feelings of defeat and frustration and then getting mad at myself because I'm crying (which only makes me cry more). All this while I"m typing this post so you might see a few typos.

I"m being silly, I know. Just the other day I had felt so proud because I was starting to see how far I had come since I'd started painting again a few years ago. Now, I'm kicking myself because I'm not as far as I want to be.

I need to take some college art classes. LIVE ones. Not ones over the internet. It's hard finding ones that are on the weekends though. The last time I brought up going to college at work they said they would take me to hourly which is not something I can afford.

I'll be fine tomorrow. I'll sulk a bit tonight and feel better in the morning after I've slept on it. I know I'm being impatient and things have a way of working themselves out.

I think right now I hear some homemade nachos and an episode of Medium calling my name.

Why, Hello Dolly!

So after about two and a half years I finally finished one of my paintings! It sat against my wall for the longest time halfway completed.

Of course it's come a long way from what it originally was too...

I originally started it as part of a piece I did back in 2008 for Wyanne's "Mixed Media with the Girls" art class. It was a collage piece (obviously) and in the class she basically taught us what to do, how to do and where to stick the pieces.

The trouble was, I ended up getting bored with the class (like I do with so many of them) and I didn't really finish it. I got tired of drawing the girls she was teaching us how to do.

So, it sat there for about a year as I hadn't a clue what to do with the mess I had created.



Now, have I told you how much I love gel medium?

Working with gel medium allowed me to put a wonderful texture on the piece and comepletely hide all the collage mess. It ended up looking like this...



I wish I had taken progress pictures of the painting but I didn't. I am really please with how this one came out. Especially with the texture!

It's now listed in my new shop at Funky Finds. It will also be available at the Spring Fling in March if it hasn't sold.