Meet my new buddy.

This is a little sketchy character i’ve been developing for a children’s story i wrote. She is my constant companion these days as i sketch her over and over again from every angle and across many ages. i’m making it my business to really get to know her.

How many freckles are on her nose? Does she always wear braids? Why does she love stripes so much?

Anyways, it seemed like a fun idea to start injecting her into some of my paintings by way of digitally overlaying her sketchy self onto some of my abstract acrylics.

i’ll be offering the result as prints in my etsy shop as i complete them and then….someday…..if she gets her sweet self published and onto bookstore shelves, i’ll retire the prints and all you folks who own one will have limited editions : )

Pop over to my etsy shop where you’ll find them.

Happy thursday! -xo

This painting was created especially for my dear friend, MaryJane who is adopting her 2nd little girl from China. MJ and her husband felt the tug of a child in need sooner than expected after their first adoption and lots of us are feeling blessed to help with some of the financials by donating to a silent auction.

Her sweet Talia Mei will need some medical attention once she comes home. The auction will help the family defray some costs and give a beautiful start to a beautiful girl.

This painting is 18×24 x 1.5″ deep and is ready for hanging and signed on the side.

Check out the auction from tonight at 8EST thru next week ( i think my painting debuts in its auction spot tomorrow though several items are posted already!)Info can be found here and here.

Just for fun….make some reversible face pillows. Cute for a little girl, or quirky for a big girl who likes a bit of whimsy. Some of my Facebook buddies suggested the cases would be great slumber party crafts/favors or even a nice gift to mail to your little girl if she is at sleep away camp.

Use fabric paint to wing it and give it your own spin or download my full size printables to trace or transfer. i’d highly recommend Super Soft Transfer Paper from Dharma Trading if you go the iron-on route. It cannot be beat.

If you want to trace, use a lightbox or sunny window and tape the template pieces inside the case. Then trace and fill in with soft fabric paint. i like this kind from Tulip.

Piece of cake!!

i’ve been dreaming of a little girl’s room inspired by my Mermaid’s Waterfall painting ever since the last stroke of paint had dried.

Here is a little collection of decor items found on etsy and the web that i’d love to use in my fictitious room. The metallic gold swooshes in the painting are my favorite bit to pull out!

i’m also envisioning loosely woven linen type curtains with a bit of coral fisherman’s net swag at the top and some driftwood inspired, weathered furnishings with a touch of white paint. ahhh…girls. a whole different kind of inspiration than my boys (who are cool too!) – just different. : ) (click the collage to enlarge)

1. ombré ruffle bedspread by urban outfitters

2. sandcastle pillow by gypseanurse on etsy

3. sea urchin candleholder (flameless candle for a kiddo of course!) by beautifuldetailswed on etsy

4. capiz shell chandelier by Lou Lou & Company on etsy

5. ocean plait nautical manila rope mat by mystic knotwork on etsy

6. starfish drawer pulls by juxtapositionsc on etsy

7. sea coral in aqua pillow by gypseanurse on etsy

8. Nate Berkus gold sequin throw pillow – sadly, a discontinued product from HSN, but possibly DIY?

9. cast iron round mermaid mirror by carol & andrew on etsy (choose your own color!)

i will continue to build inspiration boards around my paintings to give ya’ll my insight and vision for how the art might fit into or inspire a room!

Volume 2 of  The Sandbucket Magazine is out and i got to be a part of it!They are so graciously allowing me to gift a digital copy to one of my dear readers. i will also be giving that winner a digital file of some doodles i created especially for the “Raising Good Ones” article in the mag. You can take a little mini-peek at the issue here.

Just leave a comment here telling me you’ve gone and LIKED The Sandbucket’s page on Facebook. Comments will close on Wednesday, May 16th 2012 at midnight EST!

The Sandbucket Volume 2 is filled with fun and lovely ideas for families. In this issue, we celebrate the women that came before us, the women we are now and the women we are becoming. This volume is packed with beautiful photography, wise words, DIY projects and more.

“Mermaid’s Waterfall” is a fresh, new painting i just finished. It measures 36 x 36 x 1.5″deep. It has lots of very loose brush work and sweeping strokes of metallic antique-y gold paint. It was my “reset” painting after several weeks of commissions and more “scheduled” artwork. i just gave myself permission to go a little crazy and just paint whatever i wanted. i guess my brain is overrated, because i always end up connecting with these guys a whole lot.

hmmm….i guess its because i truly relate? i don’t second guess any choices when i paint like this so it must be sorta like looking at my true self – no filter?

What about you guys? Are there projects you dashed off without a plan or end-product in mind, that you ended up really LOVING!?

oh! and if you like and want to hang this little girlie in your house….go here. : )

Two craigslist acquisitions have joined the party in the form of a GINORMOUS easel and a much smaller, but still cool drafting table…more on the table later bc it is being all kinds of gussied up right now.

Can you believe the size of this easel? haha. its much, much more than i set out to find…but it was such a great deal, i couldn’t help myself. Its 4 feet wide with 2 masts and a stinkin pulley and crank system to hoist the main sail, me hearties! argh! i feel like a pirate when i turn the crank.

We will definitely need to blow out the ceiling to make it vaulted now, because what you’re seeing is the full height of the UN-extended masts nearly hitting the ceiling already?! : ) i love to work large…but i do paint small on occasion and my husband and i were cracking up at how a 12×12 canvas will look on this behemoth. We are getting hardwoods in this space…but we actually HAD to put the easel together IN the room even with the carpet still down, because 1) its the only place we could fit it, and 2) it won’t make it through the door assembled.

aaaaaanywhoooo….just marking the progress! onward we go!

Sorry guys…i couldn’t resist. i’m not expecting. i just mean literally….our family is growing.

And now we have physical documentation of the fact!

i’ve made so many growth charts in my day. Always for customers. And my son always asks for one when i do. i’m such a slacker when it comes to creating for our own house though. Soooo, he’s six. He’s just over 4 feet tall and we finally have a growth chart in place. Sort of.

Coop and Nick found this cool, twisted branch that had fallen in a storm a few years ago when we first moved to this house. They wanted to keep it, but i was afraid of buggies. So it lived in the garage for a year. No bugs. Then it lived in the basement for a year. Still bug free. Then it migrated to a corner of my office…..you get the picture. Since i’m satisfied no bugs are inhabiting the cool twisty stick, we decided to make it a permanent memory.

We mounted it to the wall with some leather and i marked each foot with a white pencil. For our first measuring session, i notched the boys’ heights into the stick and then tied tags with some hemp that sits nicely in the notch and documented their name, height, and date. i added a drop of crazy glue under the knot to make sure the tags will stay in place over the years.

i may change out the tags to something smaller and maybe even color code the tags for each child. Coop actually wants nick and i to mark OUR heights. Great. i can watch myself shrink! haha!

But we finally have a growth chart!! yay! i’m only about 6 years late getting that going. : ) Not too shabby.

All kinds of changes going down here lately. But the biggest is more than a little bit scary.

I’m cutting down my safety net and giving my art business my full attention….cutting back my graphic design clients and workload by about 60%. its terrifying. we have a mortgage to pay and mouths to feed after all. But after a lot of conversation with my husband and a lot of soul searching, i know the time is now or never.

Did you ever imagine your life in a year? 5 years? 10? i do it all the time and i just can’t believe i will be happy doing anything besides making art and other beautiful things, plus having the time to really enjoy my family. its the only vision i see. And i figure, if i’m not moving TOWARD that goal today, right this second….then how in the heck will i ever get there?

The pendant shown above, by My Bella on etsy, bears a quote that i always think of when i consider taking a risk: “to reach the horizon, you must first lose sight of the shore.” i think that i’ve been keeping my eye on the beach too much lately, when everything i really want is off on the horizon in the sunset. Time for my family not chained to the office, time to rest more instead of burning the candle at both ends every day and time to be creative when i’m not too wiped out to actually create.

i hope that being a little bit scared will be good for me. i hope i rise to the occasion and set a good example for my kids. i want them to be happy, and see ME happy in what i do each day. That alone is a goal worth swimming toward.