Good bye 2009

Today we say good bye to a weird year, and we'll keep our fingers crossed to a better, healthier, more stable, encouraging and prosperous new year.
May all your dreams come true! ...Well, I better say, may all your well thought dreams come true. In a positive, harmonious way.
With a cherry on top. :o)

Networks, reworks, resolutions...

There are tons of online Networks, and tons of online Media Marketing.
I am just now learning about RSS feeds.
I know... some people live on it, but I go slow and by small drops.... and still manage to spread thin, LOL
For those of us that like creating things, selling our craft and/or meeting like-minded friends on the internet, life can get very tricky!
Some time ago in a workshop they said that in order to create and sell, you have to spend 75% of your time advertising and 25% creating. Huh? Well...
Maybe my percentages have been more like 10%/90% at times... then reversed to 98%/2% in the past few months :oP

Some serious organizing will have to be done to stay in the "create" side and not only live in the "online" part of this equation.
I have limited my online activities to what I consider the most bang for my effort (yeah, I go for free when I can, so "buck" doesn't apply here) lol
Had to leave many groups, websites and networks for that reason. And I have not joined another bunch that I have been invited to, for that same reason.
Oh, and just when you think you know the game... all the websites "update" and "upgrade" and "upmess" their format!! agh!!

With that in mind, my new years resolutions should be something like:
Ahem ahem...
-Reorganize my menu in the blog.
-Plan my schedule of my on/off line activities.
-List on regular basis so the networking makes sense! lol
-Clean the kitchen... Meh! scratch that.
How did THAT get in my list??
That's probably my subconscious, always so conscientious :oP

Well nevertheless.
Something else I want to include in my plan is:
-Make more tutorials, tips and videos.
Oh, and the typical "I will start my diet" resolution. What would be a new year without one of those! Well, actually, I am serious on it. I will not eat chocolate until February 14th. It's going to be hard, but thank goodness for cake!! (Did I say that??)

Now, for the visual part of this posting:
This is a sold ACEO art card. It was painted, frowned at, and reworked long time ago. The reason I want to share this, is to inspire at least one person to go dig on your frowned at art, and revive it with new colors, elements or perhaps new techniques learned recently. It is so satisfying!



I am SOOOO thrilled to see I *almost* have 100 followers!!! To think I started the last 4 years with only 3 readers, and one of them was my cat!! (well, he was only here for the pictures)



Update:
How many Networks are out there, I wondered? so I went to see and bumped on a list of more than 200... WOW! I'm sure many are in different languages.
I know a few of them, but never heard of most of them... how about you?
Click on the pic to see better.

Winter preparations and more Re-works

I know in many States and Countries, the snow has been falling for a while now, but here in my little spot of the world, the Winter actually started today. So I made preparations for it as follows:

-Get the yard ready for winter... check

-Replant a rose bush to a sunnier spot... check

-Scream like a lil' girl after finding a nasty spider in my glove... check

-Asking son for help... check

-Holding up the words" I told you not to..." when the son walks with muddy shoes in the house... check

-Cleaning the mud and changing driveway light that were supposed to be replaced weeks ago... check

-Losing the stoopid screw of the light fixture in a bushy plant of the flowerbed under the light fixture... check

-Forty minutes around the bushes looking for the screw with a magnet, while cursing in English and Spanish... check

-Getting bandages for all the arm scratches.... And feeling really shtoopid realizing that magnets won't ever attract brass screws... check

Asking son for help finding the screw (and putting up with jokes like "so you're missing a screw", "do you need a bigger magnet?".... check

-Washing the other light fixtures while son looks around the flower bed trying to find the lost screw... check

-Looking in disbelief as son has dug out half of the flowerbed, and still no screw.... check

-Making a list of things for HomeDepot (outside light fixtures, light bulbs.... new plant for flowerbed).... check

Making a call to yell at DH because really, he should've change the light bulb weeks ago..... pending

:oD

And well, I can't leave before showing a picture of my paperclay heads I am reworking on:

Before and After; Nose bridge softened; cheeks and forehead added to take the bulgy look of the eyes; lips sanded down to a more realistic proportion.
I made this head probably 2 years ago, and left them on the side because I just knew I was doing something terrible, I just didn't know how to fix it. Forward 40+ months and I have learned enough things to see where the mistakes are and how to change it.
This heads will not have a "baby" look. I guess adding enough clay they could look like that, but I think I want them more for a fantasy looking doll.

So... Never give up! and Happy Winter solstice! :oD

Reworking, relisting and rethinking

Based on a video from Deb Company HERE in youtube, I decided to do some reworking on a painting that I had sitting on a drawer for a while. I liked her eyes and shadowing, but nothing else. So.... I went to repaint, change the idea, colors and the good thing is that I remembered on time to take a picture. This is the result, what do you think?



I also will be listing more on Etsy, as opposed to be relisting on ebay... which by the way, have you seen THIS etsy store? I think Cat makes the sweetest polymer babies and now she is offering painted artistic boxes.

Do you have your list of goals for next year? I am still working on mine. :oD
But I am rethinking about eating more chocolate...
can that actually be a goal?? LOL

Random stuff

OK.... I just bumped into Melancholy Dollies blog and she is having a Giveaway that runs from 12/06 - 12/13.... so if I Mention her giveaway in my blog (which officially I am doing ;oD) I have a chance to win. Now, don't spoil it and crowd in front of me... I want to win! lol
In other quick news, I fixed my angel dolly from my secret partner, that I guess I am not supposed to say who it is yet.... but the beautiful doll is like new, I am so happy!
The friend I sent my art to, told me she loved the dog painting I made for her. I felt all warm and cozy to read her nice words.... sugar to my ears! :oD

I listed another elf, an albino. I am very happy the way the pictures turned out. It's been a long road for me to manage to take something I like.
My light box is not roomy enough so I dropped the walls, then the light was not quite right... so out doors I went.

We decorated our Christmas tree. I always had to do the top because my kids couldn't reach.... well, this year my daughter can reach. I just cant believe it... last year she needed a stool to climb on, and now she just stretched out her arms to decorate the tree top. She is as tall as me. I guess next month I will be the shortest person in the house, at 5'5" (i.67 mts). I don't mind at all, that was supposed to happen.... but I was not ready for it. Made me smile :o)

Now we only need to clear the other table to have our Nativity in there.

Bunch of mini-dramas

I had all kinds of mini dramas happening to me this past week.
First, the new attic door project.
That was such a messy business! plaster all over the place, insulation fluff everywhere, tools and chaos till it was done and painted (and little me doing the picking up of course :oP)

See the anime on the ceiling? That was my kid, she turned into Michael Angelo when she knew she had a chance to doodle with her pencil on the walls lol

Then it was the shocking surprise to see my favorite doll attacked by Panzon, who thought he didn't have enough toys I guess. All her hair was gone :oC


Just look at that face! like saying "What? I'm a cat!"

Also, I participated in a Christmas secret-friend, and the beautiful doll sent to me arrived here broken. :o( I swear we have gorillas and rhinos managing my postal office. Gosh! Fortunately I think I can fix her, but it was a sad thing to see.


This is what I made for my Christmas secret-friend. A portrait of her doggy that went to doggy heaven few weeks ago.

Hope she likes it!! I had not been painting for a while and almost forgot the pleasure of dragging the brush on the canvas...

Another mini drama was last night when my DH decided to have a bit of peanut butter and dropped the slippery glass jar on the floor... agh! there were shards of glass miles away from the jar, took lots of cleaning. I have you know, it's not a fun thing to do late at night LOL.... at least no one was barefooted!

On the lighter side, I listed some items online in Etsy, and ebay.(See the right side bar) Let's see how that goes. :o)

I took some outside pictures of my tiny fairies and I am very happy with the results, so I will have more listings soon.... Wish me luck!

What do you think? I love the tree bark texture!