Psssssst.........

hey, look over there..... no not there, over there to the left.....down a little bit....see that! It's me! I'm on Etsy!!! Don't know what that is? Well you should find out! It's a great site for amazingly wonderful, handmade things. A huge setup just for people like me, living a dream, making things on our own, at home. I'm so excited! I have a shop! Come visit me!

Little Miss Manners

Look who finished her first basic manners class at doggy-training school...

Look who got a squeaky present from her instructor for doing such a swell job....

Look who knows she's adorable despite all the naughty things she does....

Fa la la la la....the Christmas Cards!

Well, here they are....

The Christmas turtle drawings turned into cutle little holiday cards. What fun they were to make! I really am quite proud of them. There are so many other ideas I have but this Christmas season was already upon us, maybe next year there will be even more to choose from! Thanks again to Wendy, Frank, and Bob & Carrie for choosing to send out cards from Elena's Easel this year!

Christmas Time

Last Saturday we had our first snow of the season! It was a delightful surprise (I don't pay much attention to weather forecasts, so I'm always surprised...) and when Kita and I went out for a morning walk this is what greeted me....

I know this doesn't look like much to most of you, but my first thought was "Aha, a shoveled walkway...I love condo living!" We didn't have to shovel, salt or do much of anything. We'll be spoiled in no time.

We also set up our Christmas decorations. We're pretty minimalistic (on purpose) so it's not much but just some little touches to celebrate the season.

You'll notice the glowing-eyed Siamese has already appointed himself the tree guardian. Yoshi's not the only one who loves the tree. Lighting up the tree is the first thing Joel will do when he comes home. He just loves to look at it. Makes him feel happy. We are suckers for light. Winters can be especially hard for us light-inspired summer babies. We get through it by turning on lots of lights, drinking way too much hot chocolate and eagerly anticipating summer!

It's always a challenge for me to be content in the holiday season. I enjoy the music, the food, the friendship and family time. But I always feel discouraged by the commercialism and selfishness that is encouraged in our country. I enjoy giving gifts but it is really hard for me to make decisions and I don't like the feeling of having to prove my love through a gift. Family and friends...if you're reading this....I love you very much, even if my gift stinks!

We hope to start creatively making up our own family traditions (in addition to some that we have from our childhoods). This year Joel and I will each be recording our 5 favorite passages about/with Jesus and then sharing one with each other each night leading up to Christmas. Sort of our own advent countdown. This will hopefully help us keep our focus on Jesus and help us get to know each other's hearts a little more! I'm looking forward to it. What Christmas traditions do you have? Any that I can borrow?!

Walkin' in a Turtle Wonderland!

And here they are! The Christmas turtles....

Just a few of the many ideas for Holiday turtles. Thanks to the enthusiasm of a couple of people at the Fitch Craft Fair, these guys are being turned into cards! They wanted a unique and turtle-ly note sent to their family this year! Thanks guys! I'll let you know when the cards are done, I think they're going to be really quite fun!

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

when we strive to overachieve!

After a whirlwind driving tour of New England visiting family for Thanksgiving weekend we jumped headfirst into another busy week without taking a breath. Filled with work, doctor's appointments, work, driving to work, getting ready for another craft fair, driving home from work....well you get the picture. All I can say is, it's a good thing our dog can go 10, 11, sometimes 12 hours in between potty breaks (wow, that's awful) and that we have nothing really expensive to ruin when the cat realizes he's not getting enough attention.

So on the agenda for this weekend....I'll have some collages up starting tomorrow in The Lighthouse Voc-Ed Center Gallery. This is a first time opportunity for me. This exhibit will be up December 5th-29th showcasing various local artists. The open house is Friday the 5th from 12-7pm. Stop by if you have the chance, there's a lot of art to look at and you just might find a special Christmas present for someone!

This Saturday, Dec. 6th I will be at Fitch High School for their Holiday Craft Fair. Stop by if you're in the area!

I have some other surprises I've been working on that I hope will be ready soon! Stay tuned for more.....because I certainly don't know how to stop! I think I should go to bed now....yeah, that's what I'll do....

Turtle Tot Collection

Since you can't see them up close from the Fair photos, here's the Turtle Tot Collection so far!
Next up, Christmas Turtles!

Elena's Easel Goes to the Fair!

Check it out! My first Holiday Craft Fair Extravaganza!!!

Katie, me, my mom and Carissa - Mom had a profitable day at her Sonata Soap booth!

Katie and me - goofin' with the turtles!

So we had a wonderful time at our first fair. It was fun to talk to people, see how they reacted to my artwork. Many people were interested in the hand drawn portrait raffle. Thank you everyone! Look me up and I can still do a portrait for you! But the grand prize winner of the raffle is:

LISA FREEGUARD

Congratulations Lisa, hope to get working on your portrait soon. Should make a wonderful Christmas present for someone special!

If you interested, I'll be in another holiday craft fair coming up on December 6th. If you're in the area come by Fitch High School to see many more amazing artisans and homemade gifts!

Craft Fair Fun!

Well, the November 8th Holiday Craft Fair was definitely a success. So many people turned out to see about 125 Crafters featuring holiday items, jewelry, ceramics, wreaths, quilts, pet items, scrapbooking, fudge, candles, woodcarvings, and so much more! Even more exciting for the kids was the Children's Winter Wonderland with photos and storytime with Santa and Mrs. Claus!

If you were there in those crowded hallways enjoying all the local artisans, it was great to see you! Thanks for coming out. Stay tuned for pictures from the show and the grand prize winner of my portrait raffle!!!

The therapeutic love of animals

If you know me at all, you know that I am ridiculously drawn to animals and kids. I will make a complete fool of myself to make a child smile and I love to be around animals because they always snap me out of seriousness.

Kita is our adopted pet, we inherited a lot of trouble when we got her....let's just say she has some special needs. BUT she is absolutely the most lovable, loyal, amusing dog you'll ever meet...the only dog I've ever had. She makes me laugh and I love her.

Thought you'd like to see some of her crazy antics. This is how hyper she gets when Joel plays with her!

Still workin'!

Got a new shipment of art supplies...watch how the "kids" help me unpack them....

Turtles, Turtles Everywhere

So, I've been working on an idea that has developed into an all-out obsession. Quite a few months ago I drew a little turtle character. He turned out quite cute. Then I started thinking of all the things I could illustrate the little turtle doing. And because I'm particularly exhilarated by alliteration all of the scenarios sounded something like this, "Turtle Trapeze", "Turtle Tots", "Turtle Teeter-Totter", "Turtles Tobogganing", etc. etc. Okay, stop shaking your head like I'm crazy or something.....this is just how my mind works if left unattended!

So I happened to show these turtles to a friend of mine. This isn't just any ordinary friend, she is the kind of spirit that comes along when you don't have confidence in yourself, when you can't quite see your talent or strength or worth. Everyone should have friends like these. My friend, Katie, immediately noticed that I had dreams, I had ideas, but I lacked self-esteem and was letting everyday life take up all of my time. So at her insistence we've started having weekly "art-dates." We've set aside a night and we get together, talk, have dinner, and jump into artwork. She has now also become a little obsessed with the turtles...they do become so lovable!

Now, in all my free time I'm trying to draw these guys. There's a local craft fair coming up in November that I'm going to try to debut at. It's a scary idea for me....will I have enough to bring? will people like them? will I really make any money? Who knows. That's all part of the learning process I guess.

Here's a pic of the first one I drew....his name is Toby. He picked a dandelion for you and he wants you to blow on it and make a wish...isn't he a sweet turtle!

It's 6x6" on a very rough paper so I purposely used crosshatching light strokes with colored pencil. I'm still thinking children's art here...so....what do you think?

It's been hard to find frames, square frames are hard to come by. And there are some turtle's that require a larger wider frame, hopefully I'll have some of those to show soon. Here's some more that I have started....

So what turtles would you like to see? If you wanted to hang one in a little girl's or boy's room, what would that turtle be doing?

Stay tuned for many more turtles to come!

A visit to PA

Joel and I recently took a trip to visit my sister and her husband in Pennsylvania. We had a great time hanging out with them despite the fact that they had just been robbed!

Cristi and Ben after the police recovered their stolen car and they got new keys!

I'm glad we were able to be there and help them out as they had to deal with this invasion of their privacy. I'm very proud of my sister who is a "military wife" and has had to adjust to constant change, sacrifice and unexpected goodbyes. Now add to that list, having her house dusted for fingerprints, a field trip to the city impound, and going to a job interview with no make-up or personal ID!

The morning we left, right outside their house.

Ben and Cristi inspire me. Cristi was always the romantic dreamer, running around in dress-up clothes looking for her "kindred spirit" and Ben likes to wield swords, wear capes and be the hero. I hope they never lose these qualities, the world needs more lovers, dreamers and heroes.

Something old, something new

On occasion, my darling husband rescues something headed for the garbage and brings it home. He's a wonderfully simple man who can find use in things that are "perfectly good" even if they are out of date and old. I am a simple girl who refuses to spend money on new-fangled stuff but loves to reuse old things, thereby making them new, cheap and exactly what I want!

The newest project (it's sometimes these kinds of projects that distract me from sitting down and working on real art!) turned out quite nicely, I think. Joel brought home two ottomans, I hated the cloth and the color clashed with the living room, but they were still very squishy and in good shape. Here's what they looked like:

I went off to a wonderful cloth store nearby and for $6.06 plus the cost of staples made two new ottomans that are so pretty in the living room! I'm very happy about this as I spent probably a half hour in the cloth store deliberating over which cloth I should get. I think they turned out well. Sometimes one man's trash really is another man's treasure!

Starting off!

Woohoo! I'm blogging! We'll see if I can keep this online web log going longer than I did my childhood journals. I wrote wholeheartedly, just sporadically!

For the past few months I've really been looking into children's room art. I love the idea of helping people decorate their child's room or the nursery for their new baby with beautiful, peaceful, fun artwork. I started painting some cute little jungle animals. It seems to be a popular theme among my friends who are having babies. This is the second time I've painted these little guys. This set I did with acrylic paint on an 11x14" canvas. Then gave them to my friends Sam and Beth at their baby shower. I was working so hard on them for a few weeks, I was almost sad to let them go!

Let me know what you think!