Can I run away yet?

Photo credit: Photography XO!
Just checking in to let you know I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. I've gotten way too much stuff dumped into my lap in the past week and a half and I'm trying to finish things up. Once that's done I will take a step back from things...drastically.

This past week has caused me to reevaluate a lot of things in my life and what I'm getting out of them (or not depending on the issue). When it comes to a point that the involvement is not worth the outcome you have to force yourself to make a choice and I have. However, I still have to finish my commitments first.

I've got lots of pictures and things to tell you but I can't find the time to get images edited and words typed up to get them online. I've been probably a good month or so behind with my posting but hiding it pretty well with the giveaways. The only reason you're getting this post is because I'm purposely avoiding work and swiped a picture that doesn't need editing.

The blog giveaways will continue they are just on a break for now. I still need to announce the last winner but that won't happen until at least next week. Any outgoing mailings from last week will not be going out until that time too. My Etsy shop is going on vacation.

My website redo is on the back burner until things get cleared up. Right now I'm paying $10 a month which isn't really worth it and I figured out how to do what I want do for free. Yes, you heard it right, for free.

In addition to the decision I made this week I took another step in a positive direction last week and decided to join Weight Watchers. I've gained about twenty pounds in the last couple of years and want to get the weight off.

A few other girls at work joined and I think the support system will work well. I've also decided to go to the meetings once a week. The hardest part for me is planning the meals. We'll see how I do this week.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell. I'll be back in a couple (or few) weeks.

Oodles of Doodles (Part 2)

About I month ago I had posted here different doodle pages I had created in my watercolor journal. While I enjoy this type of journaling/doodling I was also left feeling like my pages were somehow incomplete.

I'm not a huge writer in my journals, never really have been. I do try on occasion (as you can see on the page below) but any time I do I think it sticks out like a sore thumb.

I never really doodle with a plan in my head. I just pick things and start doodling. Unfortunately at the end of my doodling instead of the pages looking unified it just looks like exactly what it is - a bunch of random crap stuck on a page.

That bothers me. When I am done with a page (unless it's just an idea journal) I want my pages to look "done".



I took my pages from that previous post and reworked them a bit. I deepened the color, added heavier lines and gave the two page spread a single background color.

I really like the difference this has made. Granted when you look at the pages they still look like there is a bunch of random crap stuck here and there but at least it now looks a little more deliberate.

WIP Wednesday - Painting Fail

This ladies and gentlemen is what you call a muddy mess! It has such potential in my head but... well...yeah.

I was using a brush that was way too large for the little crevices and had trouble blending it.

I'm not sure if I should try to save it first or if I should just gesso over it and try again.

Before and After

I realized today when I was going through pictures that I never posted anything about our spare bedroom redo. I went with a grey, white and lime green color scheme that was inspired by the picture below.

Grey walls, Color accents by Nathalie.Cone
Before I show you what it looks like now let me take you through the transformation...

This is what it looked like when we first moved in. We assumed it was a little boys room. Once I started painting we discovered it was once also light gray, ballerina pink and lavender at some point.


I accidently deleted the picture we took right after we painted it the first time. Instead, let me show you the disaster it eventually turned into...

This was just a little over a year ago in January of 2009. I remember this because I posted the picture of the freshly painted room in my failed attempt of taking one picture a day for more than a week.


I got sick of looking at it, cleaned it out and painted it gray. Almost another year passed before I did anything else with it.

The only reason it got done was because I had a deadline to complete the spare bedroom since my brother was coming in for my grandfather's funeral.

This is what is looks like now. As you can see it holds my overflow canvas and paintings.


It's a little messier now than it is in this photo. Cory uses the spare bedroom to play Playstation so I am able to watch stuff on our Tivo in the living room. Thankfully though, it's no where near what it was and plan to keep it that way.

I still want to add a lime green patterned blanket to the bed, get some pull shades and maybe a headboard but for now I'm content with it the way it is.

Giveaway - Original Mixed Media Artwork

This week's giveaway is for one of my original mixed media paintings.

The painting, entitled City Lights, is 5" tall x 7" wide on a recycled canvas panel. Various mediums were used to create three dimensional texture and can be yours if your comment is selected next week.




To enter just leave a comment at the bottom of this post
by Saturday, February 19th at 6pm Central Standard Time!

Want TWO chances to win?

Just copy the code in the box below and paste it in a new blog post on your blog. Once it's posted come back here and leave a separate comment with the exact link.

<center><a href="http://www.blueskysunburn.com/search/label/Blog%20Giveaways" target="_blank"><img src="http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt213/blueskysunburn/5247af59.gif"></a></center>
Rules of participation: Giveaway is open to everyone. All residents (USA and overseas) are welcome to apply. If the chosen winner does not reply within 7 days a new winner will be selected. No winner can win two times in a row.

Good luck to all who enter!


The winner of last week's giveaway is...



Congratulations Jaime! I will be contacting you this evening for your address. I hope you enjoy your prize!

Also, a big thank you goes out to everyone who took the time to stop and leave a comment.

WIP Wednesday - Don Coyote

Remember that cartoon that would come on Saturday mornings called The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda? It was loosely based on Don Quixote, a character from the book Don Quixote of La Mancha written back in the 1600's.

I watched Don Coyote every weekend and then I watched the reruns that came on during the week. I loved that cartoon for some reason and that is what I was thinking of when I started working on this piece.

Right now, it's a little...off. It started out great in my head and it looked good in the sketch I made but something went wrong when I tried to translate it onto a canvas.

It doesn't help that just slapped base coats of solid color on there. You can see too where I thought maybe it just needs some ripped up pieces of paper. Not really sure what I was thinking on that.

Anyway, it's been sitting against my wall for probably about a year or close to it now. In my 30 Things Before I Turn 31 list I vowed to finish one of my unfinished paintings. This is the one I decided to tackle.

The white you see in the picture is some molding paste I'm going to be using to create texture. I'm going to try to stay with the original idea. I may give up and paint over it but we'll see how it goes first.

Memoir Monday - Cirque du Soleil (Beware of Spoilers)

I was thrilled Saturday morning when I saw the post on Facebook that the Cirque du Soleil was having their show this past Saturday. Cory and I were getting nervous since they had cancelled three or four nights in a row due to in climate weather.

I've wanted to go see the Cirque du Soleil for what seems like forever. I had just planned on seeing one of the shows when I eventually took a trip to Las Vegas. I wouldn't have even known it was in town if one of my coworkers hadn't mentioned it.

I made sure I bought decent seats for the show. I figured if you were going to go to something like this you may as well get the best you can afford.

Holy crap the tickets are expensive though! I was a little skeptical when I shelled out $200 for two tickets but now I'm glad I did. I don't think I have seen anything quite like it.


Ants gathering food. Photo credit: Weather Underground
The show that came through town was OVO - "an imersion into the teeming and entergetic world of insects". It centered around this huge egg one of the insects brought in.

I was warned not to sit any closer than the seats I purchased as the actors come out and pick on you. I'm very thankful for that warning too. The woman two seats in front of me got surrounded as they "picked" bugs out of her hair.

I think I missed part of the story somewhere because I'm still not really sure what the huge egg was all about other than the eggs are a center of life for insects. I just know everyone wanted it.


Grasshoppers and Black Widow climbing around a wall filled with eggs. Photo credit: San Francisco Citizen
I had three definite acts that were my favorite out of all of them. The grasshoppers on the wall is the finale and rightfully so. You should see the height some of these guys get on the trampolines!

The Grasshoppers are followed closely by the ants gathering food and the contortionist spider lady. The ants has such energy and the girls played their parts very well. The entire crowd cheered them on as one girl almost lost her balance but was able to regain it.

The contortionist spider was very cool. I think contortionists are one of those things you don't really appreciate until you get older. I remember being bored to tears seeing contortionists when I was younger. This time I was just amazed.


Spiders inside their web. Photo credit: City's Best
You'll notice none of these pictures are my own. Understandably so, you aren't allowed to take pictures inside the big top. I'm kind of glad too. I think if I were trying to take pictures I would have missed some of the experience of the show.

I can't wait until the next one.

Blog Giveaway - Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed Media Artists

Time for another giveaway! This week's giveaway is for Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed Media Artists by Ann Baldwin.



Explore composition, abstraction, texture, layering, using found objects, encaustic, integrating text, and adding digital imagery.



To enter just leave a comment at the bottom of this post
by Saturday, February 12th at 6pm Central Standard Time!

Want TWO chances to win?

Just copy the code in the box below and paste it in a new blog post on your blog. Once it's posted come back here and leave a separate comment with the exact link.

<center><a href="http://www.blueskysunburn.com/search/label/Blog%20Giveaways" target="_blank"><img src="http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt213/blueskysunburn/b11158c7.gif"></a></center>
Rules of participation: Giveaway is open to everyone. All residents (USA and overseas) are welcome to apply. If the chosen winner does not reply within 7 days a new winner will be selected.

Good luck to all who enter!

Now, onto the the winner of this giveaway.

The winner is...



Congratulations Patricia! I will be contacting you this evening for your address. I hope you enjoy your prize!

Also, a big thank you goes out to everyone who took the time to stop and leave a comment.

Ownership of Techniques

I've followed CapricornArtist73 for a couple of years now on Youtube and have even taken one of his online classes. Recently he did a little rant in one of his video's about people claiming ownership over techniques and I couldn't agree with him more.

I try to post weekly about current WIP I have in the works and over the years have received emails here and there from other artists claiming I am violating copyright by using their technique. Not stealing their images or imitating their art work mind you but using their technique.

So just to clarify...because someone else has used texture mediums or burned wood or splattered paint or drawn lightly with a pencil I can't do it and create my own unique artwork? It's like saying you have too many of the same friends on Facebook or you both like the color green.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

WIP Wednesday - The Blue Car and the Rusty Fender

I'm picturing an old abandoned car painted a brilliant blue but I'm more interested in the rust and oxidation forming on it's front fender.

Can you see it?

Weekend Warrior

So the biggest news of the weekend? I did pretty much NOTHING and it was great!

Saturday morning I had my annual eye exam and I was saddened to discover my vision is no longer 20/15 - it's now 20/20. Now to some of you that's not a big deal but to someone that couldn't see without glasses before lasik to find out her vision is worsening again only two years later is a pretty big deal.

I told Cory if I have to get glasses again that I'm going to get my lasik redone instead. I will not be going back to glasses unless forced.

After that I unsuccessfully tried to find a watercolor block in the size I wanted and came home instead to paint. I didn't want to waste the beautiful weather we had that day running around looking for something I can order online.

Sunny and 79 degrees in the middle of winter. Can you believe it?!?! I spent the rest of the day working on paintings with the house windows open. You can see the beginning stages of the paintings above.

There is something so peaceful about leaving the windows open, hearing birds singing and children playing. I think the animals enjoy it as much as I do. They spent the entire day by the windows.



We went out to dinner with some friends Saturday night and then Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday except it was a little cooler and we got a quote from a painter to get our hallway done.

Now, that being said am I one to just stop and get a quote for only the hallway when I can get a quote for the kitchen and ceilings too? No. Flat contractors paint be gone and good riddance!

The quote for all of it was only $435! Not bad at all. Granted we'll probably have to wait a bit on the kitchen and ceilings but I'm planning on getting the hallway done next paycheck. Yea!

Side note: We just announced our newest giveaway and this week’s giveaway winner, click here to see if it’s you.