House Tour!

YEAAAAAH TOUR!

Ok so it's probably not nearly that exciting. But still, you get to see where I live now. I moved in here in October, and I was hoping to have the place perfect before a tour on the blog, but I got impatient, so here it is now. I was going to wait and take pictures on a nice sunny day (this place is so pretty with the sun coming in) but then I figured that I'd spent a few hours cleaning, so I might as well do things now. Plus, I tried to capture the awesome of the daytime light the last time I lived here, and it didn't really work out, so this is about as awesome as it's going to get.

This is pretty much the center of the house, the dining room. That in the background is my bedroom (we'll get there,) and the side slice of doorway on the left is the bathroom (which I'm not going to show you because it's tiny, tough to photograph... and it's a bathroom.)

Turning around from the former shot, here is the living room. Wall space in here is a little empty right now, I'm anticipating a few paintings coming up and leaving room for them.

And yes, that is a hammerhead shark on the back of the couch. His name is Lurch. I made him about a year ago, he was a project for Folkmanis Puppets that never got put into production. He was a little too cool to get shoved in a closet and looked really odd in my bedroom. So I figure if I'm going to be a grown woman with a stuffed animal on her sofa, it had better be something hardcore.

EDIT: For some reason Lurch is cut out of the shot, if you click on the picture it will pop out larger and then you can see him in all of his sharky awesomeness.

Another pic of the living room. Dang, the walls are super empty, I have to get working on that. The front door, by the way, is over to the right out of the picture.

And for that shot I'm standing in the doorway of-

The studio.

Other side of the studio.

Hey look it's my bedroom! I know you're all jealous of that wood paneling. It's pretty sexy.

Another shot in my bedroom. Anyone who's thinking they'll rob me for that jewelry hanging right there- almost all of it is from Target. Specifically, the clearance section. Pretty sure none of it is worth more than $5.

And a quick shot of the kitchen, which is (predictably) off of the dining room. Not shown are the fridge, oven and dishwasher, which are on the wall opposite this. I was going to include that shot, but I figure most of you have seen appliances before, these aren't special.

Thats about it! Way to go sticking with me, this was a long post. Better go get yourself a drink and a snack :) And come visit me soon!

Lucas County Art Festival

Some photos from this past weekend in Chariton, Iowa. I realized only after I got home that I never took a photo of my own setup (headdesk!) but I've posted plenty of pictures of my setup from past shows here, and it didn't look a whole lot different than usual.

It was a great day! Check out most of these awesome artists at Grassroots Gallery.

Doggies!

Just as Interrupting Pug promised, more paintings of dogs! The terrier is my Aunt and Uncle's dog Tommy, an adorable little rat terrier/jack russell mix ( 6" X 12"), and the Golden retriever is now up for sale and part of my regular show and sale collection (16" X 20").

Interrupting Pug

Is interrupting this blog to inform you that more dog paintings are coming soon :)

Fall Flowers

I've had these done for a little while, just haven't had a chance to post them yet. They will all be up for sale this weekend, at the Lucas County Art Festival in Chariton, Iowa. I'll have them posted to Etsy shortly after this weekend if they are still around.

I'm Alive !

Holy Cow you guys, I haven't posted in a long time. But things in my life got pretty nuts there for a little bit. Here, I shall run through them really quick

-I applied to graduate school at Iowa State University

- I got accepted to grad school, I'll start in January getting my MFA in Graphic Design. The plan is to teach at a four year or university.

- I looked at apartments in Ames, seeing as my lease on my Des Moines apartment ended at the end of October and it made no sense to stick around for another two months and move durning December.

- Found an apartment- actually the exact same one I shared with two awesome roomies the last year of my undergrad. Great location, cute place, and an awesome landlady. WIN.

- I moved.

-Then I did the Market Day show in Des Moines for October. If I ever think that a show plus a major move in the same week is a good plan ever again, someone please slap me.

So all in all, life got pretty insane there for awhile. Now I'm back, comfortably settled into my Ames apartment (which I'll probably post a virtual tour of soon, 'cause it's awesome) and getting back to regular posts, regular artworkings, regular updates to the Etsy shop, and regular sleep (I think I like that last one best.)

Catching up on some of my latest work, here are some stepping stones that were completed last month- well, the ones that are not Christmas gifts, anyway. I don't want to spoil things for anyone :)

Cake in Blue

My friend Kelly's birthday is tomorrow, and we decided to have some cake at my place tonight with some friends. I don't decorate cakes very often these days, so this was a lot of fun to do. I had been thinking for awhile that I wanted to try doing an undercut tiered cake, and this gave me a perfect opportunity. I LOVE the way it turned out! The cake was raspberry and lemon flavored. I believe the conversation about that choice went about like this-

"what flavor do you want your cake?"

"yummy."

"OH kay, little more specific maybe?"

"... what all can you do?"

"Well, there's chocolate and vanilla, obviously, and then there's the more custom ones I've done, strawberry vanilla, lemon, raspberry..."

"THAT! Back up, what was that last one?"

"Lemon Raspberry?"

"YES I WANT THAT!!"

It was yummy :)

Really, cake is a pretty good medium for me because it teaches me to take things less seriously. I can't get too anal about cake, especially when I'm not being paid to do it. It'll look great for a few hours, but at the end of the day it's going to be eaten, it's going to be gone. Life as an artist can be unpredictable and frustrating, and cake is a good exercise in letting go and enjoying the process and the moment. I've thought about doing it full time in the past, but I think I prefer doing it on occasion instead- Too much sugar osmosis tends to be a bad thing !