Illustration overload!

Here's some commissioned pieces I just recently finished up. I've been working like a crazy person trying to finish them in time to get to the recipient for Christmas. I just have to print and mat them, and they're good to go!

Lia


Lillyanne


Junelouise


Joanne

shop update

I've been working like a mad woman in between custom orders and coffee breaks, to get my Christmas ornaments finished in time for the holidays! I have 10...count em...ten!...ornaments ready to list. The "starlight mint" figurines are the ones that take the l o n g e s t. So much detail. But I love them the most!

I'm finishing up the photos now, and will hopefully have them all listed by this weekend. A few today...a few tomorrow...etc etc.

Check it out!

updates for the new year!

Well a million things have happened since my last post. I wanted to dedicate an entire clutter-free post to my first craft show experience, but I still have yet to go through and organize the photos. So that can be for next time.

For Christmas, I tried to make most of my gifts this year. I think it went pretty well. I always feel a little funny giving people things I've made. I don't know why.
For the men in the family, who are terribly impossible to shop for, I made some mixed nut concoctions. They were SO good and really easy to make with basic ingredients like brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc etc. And look how pretty they pack up!




I also found time to bake some cookies. I made some cinnamon chocolate cookies. They tasted AWESOME right from the oven because they had a chewy inside and a crunchy outside. The best. They're kind of all crunchy now, but the flavor is still tasty.



For my nana I drew a caricature picture of her. I also drew one of my mom but I forgot to take a picture of it. She mentioned she'd blog about it, so I'll link to it when she does.



My sister and my friend Yesenia got these little trinket boxes that I painted and attached all kinds of clay goodies on top of. The first picture is the one for my sister and the second for my friend.




Thankfully the holidays are all over and done with and now I can get back to work! I have a mountain of things I'd like to list and another mountain of things I'm in the middle of working on. And lest we not forget I have a mountain of sketches I'd like to turn into finished pieces. One of these days I'll get prints made. I finally ordered some more printer ink, so maybe that's not too far off!

Chicken Soup for the crafter

The holiday rush kicked in and I've been missing in action from the blog world for a while now. But things are calming down...somewhat! Now that I've almost caught up on all of my custom orders, I have time to stress over Christmas present buying (which I haven't even begun yet). *sigh*

I did find time to make myself some homemade sunday chicken soup. (there's always time for food in my book...) It simmered on the stove for a good three hours and was done just in time for dinner. Why don't they make a chicken soup air freshener? I must say...the smell of chicken, celery, onions and carrots simmering is a heavenly aroma.



Here's the recipe:
(I got it from my mom..tweaked a little to my liking. Is this recipe a family secret? oops..I hope not!)

4 chicken legs (this time around I used 5 chicken thighs)
1 large onion, sliced
5 celery stalks, sliced (I like to include a pile of celery leaves chopped)
8 chicken bouillion cubes (I ended up using 10)
2 to 3 carrots
egg noodles or rice (egg noodles are my fave)

Cover the chicken w/ water in a large pot and boil. When cooked, remove, cool and pick off the pieces and put back in the pot. Save all the juices in the pot.

Add all but egg noodles and simmer at least 2 hours. I like to add a few more cups of water as it's simmering to replace some of the lost liquid from evaporation (which accounts for the extra bouillion I used).

Add noodles 1 hr. before serving. (I've actually found that a half hour is enough for the egg noodles, as any more and they fall apart too much).


Finally...the skin that I pulled off of the chicken legs earlier, instead of discarding that I put it on a cookie sheet and baked them with garlic salt and pepper until slightly crispy. A delicious (and probably very unhealthy) snack!

bah.

I went to a temp agency today. Just another reason to be discouraged with my art. I'm a good artist goddammit. I just need to market myself better...or something. I need someone to tell me what to do. I can't live on hopes and dreams forever. So perhaps a temporary job can help keep me floating. I don't want to stay in Delaware forever after all.
I finished a few more Lil Dumplins. I'll probably photograph them all together soon. They look so cute all in a group. I think I might need a shot to show their size better also. The tallest one I've made is less than 2 inches, but you can't really tell from the photos.

My inspiration for this one...christmas. See the little mints on top of her head?

It's over!

Christmas, that is. Thank god it's over because I'm super tired. But I got the most amazing gifts. First off I got a 3 in 1 printer/scanner/copier which I'm so relieved to say will be wonderful for printing out my paypal shipping labels. I'd like to go to the post office as little as possible. It's a Lexmark brand, which I've heard isn't that great. But I'm not using it for high end stuff, so I should be fine. I haven't tried out the scanner yet, but I really hope it's decent because that brings into play my other gift. $600 in cold hard cash! I'm going to put it towards an Epson art printer so I can make prints of my artwork. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, the scanner attached to this Lexmark printer is capable of making decent scans of artwork.
Now I just have to jump on creating some more art!
Besides that stuff, I also got a mountain of beads (seriously, I'm not even joking), clay (also in mountain size), a pair of shoes (that don't fit as well as I'd hoped, I'll have to look into that), videogames, and a huge pots and pans set. Cool right? I was literally JUST talking with Lou about how I wish I had a nice new set of pots and pans and then my uncle goes and buys me some. He must be spying on me. But wait...that's not all...I also got a 26" flatscreen tv! I was a good girl this year, obviously.
And now it's time for some relaxation with the game Eternal Sonata that Lou was so kind as to aquire for me...on my spiffy new television.

A day late, but that's ok.

I must admit I give myself more guilt in not finishing something knowing I documented when I planned on finishing said thing. I finished the painting I said I was going to finish.....yesterday. That's pretty damn good for me. Plus I'm almost done with the cupcake painting I mentioned before. I just have to add some background goodness.

So anyways, I was thinking of naming this painting after my friend Ashley because she's all Miss Snowboarder. Not that this character has anything to do with snowboarding, but she is in snow...and that's the first step.

And also, to document another project and give myself grief in not finishing I'm going to be whipping up a big batch of candy necklaces. They seem to be selling well, and with Christmas time approaching at warp speed, it'd probably be best to list some of my favorite items while I can. I don't plan on listing these paintings in my Etsy shop until after the holidays anyways.

Click that to see what the candy necklace looks like -- Candy Necklace