I'll admit it . . .

Well, by now it is obvious that I have not ben running to paint. My capricious diva-ish muse went to take a brake, after the marathon of the last challenge.
Art is like that. Some days you are flooded with ideas, some other times you are not even in the same room as the paints and brushes. I actually have several ideas simmering in my mind, but for whatever reason I have not sat to paint them. Is that still creators block? Maybe not. Maybe is some kind of artistic procrastination? Or maybe just not enough of an itch to paint. I can't really pin point what it is.

My husband was gone a week (in which I did not sleep) then he took some days off (in which I hardly connected online, or did anything artsy) and although I absolutely love to have him around (It's the best thing in the world to me, not even second to chocolate) that pretty much took off the edge or balance of my very fickle muse. (Well, I did sculpt a polymer baby, and was shipped for a baby-tour).
Then there's the other thing, some funky problems within my extended family that are splashing a bit too close home, I won't bore you, but it can be draining...

I guess I could talk about it all day, and dissect the feelings for weeks. But that would not resolve a thing, so instead, I will grab my paint, brushes and camera. See what I come up with. I always tell my kids "it doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be done on time"

One hour later: I just finished the polymer baby visiting me, took pictures and will post about it in the other blog.
Ta ta for now and thanks for stopping by!

Cleaning, reorganizing (again!) and letting go

You would think that by having the kids (and their errands) out of school, one would have more time to do art. But is not the case. Never is. My schedule (and household) is messed up, crazy and upside down. I know I am not the only one so guess find comfort in numbers right?  I like to box, to put behind doors and inside drawers etc all the stuff in neat little groups.
Well, everything is poured everywhere. 3 people against me LOL (I won't even mention the pets. They are a whole other post altogether....)

So, in my effort to be able to control chaos and claim back some territory, have been reorganizing at least MY stuff. Well, I already went through their closets to donate all the clothing and gadgets they are not able or willing to use again. ☺

Now, slowly, I am listing crafty goodies HERE starting all at 99 cents. Call it separation anxiety, but I just can't go and take artsy/craftsy items in a box to be left abandoned at the donation center. I have to see that it goes to someone that really wants it and ship it to them. ♥

You can expect to see paper goods, cloth, yarn, polymer, wood, even fur and feathers! Heck I'm ready to put the dog and the cat there too LOL
I will list older work as well, so keep an eye and wish me luck!

Last night we were still at 93F / 33C hot weather at 9 PM, goodness gracious. How's your summer going so far?

Random fun pictures

Here in my family we love to go in short trips whenever we can. And we all love to take pictures. My son is awesome to catch cloud forms and trees. My daughter takes amazing close ups in unusual angles. They have not takes any class, that's the way they are. My husband likes to take pictures of people when they are not looking, so he has a large collection of me, looking goofy. I have to remind him, I don't need any help top do that :o}
 I, in the other hand, am the one that centers everything and make straight angles. I hate that LOL And I'm the one that took a class ok?  So yes, you will get a picture from me, but it's not going to be dramatic, unless of course it's a picture of someone falling or something.
No... scratch that. I would have to center the fall and there's not time for that. LOL My thing is stills I guess  :oP I have been working actively to get away from centering.
Well anyway, here are some fun pictures of textures and other stuff. I hope you like them :o)

Heart on black top road

Click to see larger

Tuesday, tuesday....

I'm having a Monday feeling on Tuesday. Why oh why you might ask. Well, we spent the Monday as a Sunday, doing all kinds of fun things, and the result is that today the kids are smashed on their beds still LOL I am just happy they don't have a class today, because they are completely and totally tired.
We went to my MIL (3 hours driving north), then went south shopping in another town (hours walking) then like if we had all the time in the world (which always feels like that in summer) we went to Tehachapi. Now let me tell you, we were 102 in my little hot part of the world... but in the mountains they were 71. And it smells so good! The only thing is that mosquitoes seems to think the same when they see me and try to bite me every where at the same time, (most have been all that ice cream I ate on father's day!) so today is a scratchy Tuesday. :oP
News! The adobe house painting found a home in Mexico with Naomi! It was a fun painting to do, lost of soft smoothing, then lots of impasto. Rich dessert colors, inspired on an image I wish I knew from where...

Now as for the angel painting. That is too muted I think. I wanted like always go and add strong color, but my instructor at that workshop wanted all muted colors. I'm always looking for some contrast, even if I like soft calm paintings as well. When you see it by itself it is a very pretty face of an angel. Not too closely resembling the original picture I took of my broken sculpture over a rug (Oh! for those asking about the angel, it did get the wing back! it is a wooden sculpture and I hammered it to place).
This could be one I can keep painting on top, as it is very lean oils. If by the end of the month it is still here, I think I will play with the sky color and highlight a bit more.

OK, I never click publish post so here I am again. It is 105 (41C) out here.... No wonder I was feeling kind of tired! I still went around doing some errands just before it was oven hot and now I have dinner ready. I should have made just sandwiches, but I had planned on turkey "guisado". Here's a picture:

Turkey cooked on olive oil, add 1 bag of frozen green beans, tomato sauce, and simmer for 20 mins.
I am not crazy about cooking so everything I make has to be fast, yummy and easy to clean :o)

Now I will enjoy some well deserved ice tea! Cheers!

Will hearts Kate

I was planning to watch live the Royal Wedding, but alas, the pillow had more pull on me. It was around 1 or 2 AM California time and I thought a re-run was just as good and still warm just a few hours after the fact. Why didn't they marry a bit earlier??

So in my dreams I was wearing a fancy little hat, and danced with William, then with Harry. I ignored Charles because I never really forgave him after Diana. Yeah, whatever...  Oh! and also I caught the bouquet from Kate ;o)

Unfortunatelly I did not have internet earlier so I couldnt post till just now. Well, I hope everyone had a nice Friday and celebrated like if it was your own very important day. Only that it did not cost you 80 million pounds :oP

Insert Reasonable Title Here

Note: skip this if you don't like to read strange postings.

I had been in a "sad and blue" mood for a few days, which is unusual as I am a happy and silly person, and love to laugh. But due to many little (and not so little) things happening around me, I had been feeling deflated and droopy. I don't like to blog about negative stuff so I have been avoiding posting.

I am better now, but from my little negative corner I even started to question my art. Why to do it? Why to even bother. I got depressed. Then I got angry.

I prefer to be angry in any case, you know? Because when we are sad we just plop and melt... but when we are angry we DO things (hopefully good things!) So I went all angrily stomping to clean my mess... Which made me feel better because I could finally see my stuff.
It was quite a bumpy road, and I am happy to be back to my normal self. Well, maybe "normal" is not the best word to use but whatever ;o)

Then next day I sold a doll and a painting in my Etsy shop... and next day I sold an ACEO in my ebay. That sure put a big smile on my face.

Seriously, it means the world to me! I printed that in stickers and and put it in my art pieces. It means the world to me.
I really mean it. Xo)

And in that cheerful mood, I will leave you with a cute picture:

In retrospect...

I am bad at keeping blogs, I have to admit.
Guess that's why I never really kept a diary either lol
I think of writing something, updating, share with the world (ok, the 3 people who read my blog :oP)
But then life happens, kids need help with homework, or need to run errands and you know, the whole stuff that people have to do during a week, and by the time I turn around, it's been FOREVER since I last updated.

OH! and something else! When you type and hit preview, you see all the wonderful stuff you typed right? Then if you want to go back, you delete ALL your text if you are not careful!!!
That happened to me a couple of times in the past months and I was so discouraged, I just did not re-type the entry.
Yup, that's me, the disappearing text master. :oP

Now that we clarified that point, I could say that since the past February (my last entry to this blog) we had a nice March, April, May.... then summer fell on top of my head.
Just now I went to dig all over the place for my password (I know, I keep loosing the darn pass, I'm just glad is not my house key!) and came here to merrily type with no goal or purpose.... so if you get bored, you are free to click your browser's back button :oD

OK, in more detail I'd say through this months I painted like a maniac... left a bunch of drawings half done... found a new passion for my oils, so I started to cut a lot of canvas in ACEO size, and painted some more.

Here's a painting I made of Frida. Acrylics on canvas:



I also have several paper dolls in different stages of creation. Some just need a few touches to be ready, but since we re-organized this room, somehow I think I packed my creative muse as well.

Then I craved fabric, so I went to get a bunch of colorful cuts of fabric and made different patterns to make dolls.
If I like what I make, you'll see it online, if I don't like them, the dog will have a lot of new toys lol.