Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

12 inches! We finally have a beautiful blanket of snow on the ground. It started last night as we left the final holiday party of the evening, and continued through the night. It's so much fun to watch Rylee walk out of her room in the morning, still half asleep, dragging her feet, eyes barely open...then she looks outside...and immediately, the smiles, the squealing, the happiness. Can we go outside, can we go outside? And of course we did, twice. We made snow nests, played "hide the treasure" in the drifts, made snowballs, snow angels, took a walk before the snow plows came through...Eventually we made it back inside, to warm ourselves with hot tea and piles of blankets. It was a very very good day.

quickie post

*As of Jan. 15th, these 2 two originals will be available in my Etsy shop!

I just dropped 3 originals into my Etsy shop. I was going to do it in the morning, but have decided to reserve that time for digging out Christmas goodies. Yippee!!!
I added "The Goose That Laid a Golden Egg"(from several posts ago), "Bright Idea", and "My Favorite Purse".

"Bright Idea" came from that ridiculous cartoony image of someone having an idea, and this little light bulb appearing above their head. Anyhow, I was thinking instead of a single puny light bulb, I'd like to have big Nelson Bubble Lamps spinning around my noggin. I love love love those. So I went with a classic color palette, and used Lily Cole as inspiration for the porcelain-skinned lovely in the graphic printed dress. I love how it turned out, a bit modern looking I think.
"My Favorite Purse" was inspired by Anthropologie ads, vintage purses, and fluffy white kitties. Look at the kitty's sweet smile, definetly worth getting a little cat hair on your dress.

Hope everyone had a lovely Wednesday, we had a wee bit of snow (smiling)...

pages from my sketchbook

I want to be painting right now. But the little one's nap is almost over, no time left. I've been making thank you notes with Rylee, cut, paste, color, sign, lick, seal. Repeat. Many gifts arrived for her birthday, she was thrilled, of course. Is there really anything left to get her for Christmas? I saw a cute doll tent over at Etsy. She loves to pretend they are camping. And perhaps an apron, for all her crafting moments. Maybe this would prevent another pair of pants from being speckled in paint, glitter, glue, and playdough. Have you started your Christmas shopping? Not me. I've started "the list" which is half the battle I suppose...maybe I should shift my focus, start decorating, distract myself from the shopping.

Last night I curled up with my sketchbook and laptop. Scribbling little faces of cute models I found over at style.com. I always tell myself that, if I were better at drawing, my paintings would also be much better. But drawing is not what I'm good at, or what I like. I honestly think painting is the easy part. So I've committed myself to more sketching, more drawing. I like sweet ethereal faces, delicate features, kind of messy hair. Gemma Ward has a great face. Anyway--I'm trying to let my style evolve. I don't feel I have reached my definitive style yet. Does one ever? For a long time I painted just what I thought I could. I didn't really push myself, probably because I didn't have that much confidence in my artistic abilities. I'm working on that too. In the past several months I've found myself , wanting to paint things I love, not just things I think will make a pretty picture. I think the closer I get to finding out what I like, the more my paintings will reflect my real style. Does that make sense? There should be a book entitled " How to be an Artist", because mostly I feel like I'm just blindly stumbling along, trying to figure it all out, trying to put the pieces together. What have you done as an artist to find your style? How long did it take? (yes, sometimes I'm impatient.) I picked up some different things at the art supply this week. New pencils, oooo, wood panels, ahhhh, watercolors, whoa! Here I go, trying new things....

p.s. For those of you that have inquired, tomorrow with any luck, I'll get some things done, and will be dropping a few originals into my Etsy shop Thursday-ish. Hopefully. :)