Sooo Sari....

The hubs, dog and I just got back from another road trip to Georgia - that drive just beats the snot outta me even though all I do is sit in the passenger seat (I'd love to have a turn at driving but noooOOOooo, that just wouldn't do for hubby). It was really nice at any rate once we got there - mom was really with it this Christmas, she was bound and determined that most of the food and ALL of the gifts would be prepared and wrapped and what a fine job she did! It is always so awesome to be with the family at Christmas. My trips are never long enough though, it would have been nice to pop in on a friend or two or maybe see an old friend that was playing at the Foxes Lair but alas..just couldn't squeeze it in, maybe next time.

So I got home to find a bag full of amazing color in my mailbox - I'd ordered some sari silk scraps from India off Etsy, they are just eyepopping, the colors, embroidery and embellishments are really amazing..do take a look (yes, crappy pic taken from the Blackberry again):

Yummmmmm! No idea what I will do with them yet but whatever it is it will be good to be sure!

Another first for me was I painted a goat. I've never painted a critter before but I was in a WTA (winner takes all) and the winner picks the theme of the ATC, it was:

~GOATS~

Well, I was a bit horrified at the thought - I mean animals are just not what I paint but after finding a photo I liked I set to work, I blasted Christmas music (the fun kind like Elvis, Aretha and the like) I sang and smiled through the whole process and here you see my sweet goat:

IS THIS THE CUTEST EVER?!?!?!

It was another one of those pieces that I was heartbroken to part with and the only reason I did was because the person who won would appreciate it and take care of my lil guy without a doubt.

So now I am missing my goat.........................at the Shores

Shalom

Wooohooo! I shopped online for all my Christmas stuff on Sunday, here it is Wednesday and almost everything has been delivered already....truly amazing - everything had free shipping to boot (I SO hate shopping, unless I am in an art supply store book store or Home Depot - I was born without "the shopping gene")

Ok - I am getting sooooooo close to completing all my swaps for December WOOT! Starting in January I am going to be a little pickier about what I do (not to mention I have a TON of things to get done renovationwise around the house still). So anyway, I did a painting where my partner likes "Indie", yellow and likes the Hebrew alphabet so here's what I came up with:

"Shalom (Peace)"

Like it? I'm happy with it - it'd make nice notecards maybe, I'll think on that one. No more for today, tuckered out...............at the Shores

Mentoring

I finally got the backdrops for the childrens Christmas program finished and delivered to church today...they were waay huge to paint - 4 king size sheets, tough to find a place that's big enough to work on them and painting on fabric is not exactly easy. The kids were great - I miss going to things like this since my kids have up and grown on me :o/

I am in a swap with a young 16 year old that wanted to learn to make ATC's, her mother asked if I would since her daughter saw some of mine and wanted to learn more about them and I really believe that mentoring is something everyone should do at some point or another in their livesif the opportunity arises. After reading a little about what she likes I decided to do these for her - I did not want to send first to inhibit or make her nervous so we were to send them out the same day:

She likes grunge music and since the only one I was familiar with was Kurt Cobain that is what I did. I used photo paper and alcohol inks for the background then cut a stencil of Cobain and used flat black spraypaint. The quote I found was perfect for this...and for her - she'd mentioned that she'd never be as good as me and I was hoping to encourage her to be herself, not to worry about what others do.

The second one is from a photo of Kerouac Alley in San Francisco near Chinatown, Jack Kerouac used to hang around here back in the day - the reason I picked this for her was in reading about her she said she reads Kerouac. I was completely surprised, really, I mean how many 16 year olds even know who Jack Kerouac IS?!? I hope she likes them and can be inspired to go on and do her thing...I look forward to seeing what she has for me.

Welp...this old girl is off to bed, got a busy day tomorrow trying to get my 2nd tree decorated and work on a painting that needs to go out Tuesday........making some ZZzzzzzzzzz's.........at the Shores

So Much to Do, So Little Time

I hope everyone has had a great kick-off to this holiday season! We drove 11 hours to Georgia for Thanksgiving to be with my family...how wonderful it was - always is and worth every minute of the travel!

A couple things I've been working on, I've just sent the last in the Puccini swap - I did the original opera poster of Turandot (I scanned it before it was complete, I still added Giacomo Puccini's name to the top):

Next I was in a Warhol swap which was number 5 in the art lessons series. My partner loves Boston Terriers so I cut a 2 layer stencil and figured since the stencil was cut I may as well pop two out for her:

They're pretty Warhol-ish eh? I hope they LOOK like Boston Terriers since I am not too familiar with the breed.

Gotta run, tons to do today.............................at the Shores