December Adventures

I hope everybody had a wonderful Holiday Season!

The beginning of December was pretty quiet. We were saving for our Holiday Bahama Getaway! You can read about that here.

My niece received her present and loved it:

I went to the eye doctor because my eyes started feeling strained, especially when being on the computer for long periods of time. My eyes aren't to bad but he did prescribe me some reading glasses. I picked out some cool Converse glasses. You can't really see it in the picture to well but the outside color is Dark Blue and the inside color is a Lime Green.

If you didn't see the blog post, this is the only painting I finished this month. Also look for this coming to the Etsy Store soon.

Here are my sunsets for the month, there are some really pretty ones.

I am looking forward to a New Year! I did sign up for the LifeBook 2014, so you can look forward to see some art journaling coming from me from this course. I am very excited about starting this.

Holiday Bahamas Vacation

I have never been a huge fan of the Holiday Season and all the commercialism that is included in it. This time of year has even been harder since dealing with my Mom in the situation she is in. So talking to the boyfriend we decided, instead of buying each other material gifts we would split the cost of a cruise and get away for the holidays. I did some research and we decided on the Bahamas Celebration Cruise since it is only a 2 day cruise (mainly because I get motion sickness and I wasn't sure how I would handle the seas). We took off Christmas Eve and returned the day after Christmas.

Once we boarded the ship we weren't able to go right to our rooms so we walked around and explored the ship.

We were able to go to our room around 2pm. The room wasn't spectacular but it was comfortable.

Our room was on the 8th deck. Here is a picture looking down where the elevators go up and down.

Then we went outside to wait for the boat to take off. This is a picture of the Port of Palm Beach while we were docked and waiting to take off.

By the time we took off we had to get to our room and change for dinner. We decided to eat at one of the restaurants you had to pay a little extra. The restaurant is called The Rock and they bring your food out raw on a 800 degree volcanic rock to cook at the table on. It was such a neat experience and the food was really great.

By the time we were done with dinner the boat was out on the open waters and the seas were rough. The boat was swaying so much you couldn't walk straight. We decided while we waited for the shows to start that we would go get our pictures taken, since we were all dressed up. I wish I could show them because they came out great (the boyfriend just doesn't like the idea of sharing on the internet, and I respect his wishes on that). After that we went to catch the shows. They had a woman sing, then a few people performing Cirque Du Soleil, then there was a comedian. All the performers were entertaining, I especially liked the Cirque performers. While watching the show the ship was really swaying and I started to feel a little queasy. After the show was over we decided to go lay down.

When we got up in the morning we were just pulling in to the Bahamas. We got ready and went down, ate some breakfast, then proceeded to head off the ship. We decided not to do any excursions and wanted to explore the island. We took a taxi down to the main shopping area and beaches. It was neat because they drive on the left side of the road. We walked around the market for a little bit but some of the stores didn't open until 10am.

We walked across the street to explore the beach a bit. The water was beautiful but cold.

After exploring the beach we walked back over to the shopping market.

There was this beautiful mosaic in the middle of the marketplace.

I found this beautiful sea blue gemstone necklace that I fell in love with, so the boyfriend bought it for me. I love natural gemstones. This stone is called Larimar and is only found in the Caribean (the Dominican Republic to be exact). It is such a gorgeous teal color.

Since it was Christmas there were a lot of shops that weren't open. We took a taxi back to where the boat was docked to check out that area.

We decided to stop in at Senor Frogs and get a drink and something to eat.

This was the only alcohol we had the whole trip.

After that we walked around the little shopping area near the boat. Then decided to board the boat and went to the room and laid down for a bit. We ended up falling asleep and didn't wake up until dark. We got ready and went outside to see how far we had got from departing from the Bahamas.

We decided to catch the early show and it was a different show. There was a comedian magician and he was a trip. After the show we went to the little Italian restaurant and ate pasta and pizza. We then walked around the ship. The seas were definitely calmer so we were able to walk around outside. We had some dessert and then went back to the room to go to bed. When we got to the room we found this little guy on the bed.

All together the trip was nice and relaxing. It was great to just get away for a little bit.

Holiday Greetings!

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes in the New Year!!!

I thought I would also share my favorite song of the season:

Watercolor Hedwig Painting

Yesterday I ended up painting all day and actually finished it in one day!

I took the Hedwig & Hogwarts drawing I did for my 13 Drawings of Halloween Challenge and painted it in watercolor. I wanted to make it a winter scene because we are coming up on winter, even though it isn't much of a winter here in Florida.

Here is the original drawing:

Here is the completed watercolor painting:

I think watercolor is difficult to work with but the more I work with it the more I am enjoying it.

November Adventures

Hello Fellow Art Enthusiasts!!!

I am going to just start off with the Biggest News First! I opened an Etsy Shop. I am so excited about being able to provide prints and original art online now. I don't have to much in there right now but I am hoping to get some more artwork in there after the first of the year. I am also thinking about putting some of my Sun a Day originals and maybe some prints in there for sale. Let me know what you would like to see in my shop.

To celebrate the shop opening I am going to be doing a Giveaway of a 8x10 Tink Print. I will be holding the Giveaway on my Facebook Page to start Monday December 2nd.

Well November wasn't all to exciting but there were a few highlights throughout the month.

A couple of weeks ago the boyfriend took me to this cute little quaint Italian Restaurant. We actually got all dressed up to go to dinner. It has been so long since we have done anything like that. The decor in the place made me think of what an italian grandmothers house would look like. The carpet had a filigree type pattern and there were lace curtains hanging in the windows. The food was delicious.

I got a bug to cut my hair and had quite a bit of it cut off.

I took this great shot of my dog looking very intent! He really doesn't like his photo taken. Every time I pull out the camera or my phone and start snapping pictures he usually will walk away from me. He is such a brat.

With the time change I get to see the sunset on my way home from work. I got a bunch of great shots to show you.

We went and saw Hunger Games: Catching Fire the weekend it came out. The movie was great and stayed pretty close to the book from what I remembered. I read the books back in March of 2012.

I just finished the book Ever After by Kim Harrison. I just love this series of books. You can't beat a bad ass witch, who pairs up with a vampire and a pixy to start their own bounty hunting business out of a church. There are all kinds of paranormal beings in the books. This series is such an easy read and keeps you on your toes.

A few things I am excited and looking forward to:

The movie Maleficent!!! I am not a huge Angelina Jolie fan but this movie looks amazing!



Something else I am looking forward to and plan on signing up for is LifeBook 2014! This year long art course looks like so much fun, and how great is it to learn from so many different artists.

Well I fell off the wagon with my running challenge and I haven't been able to motivate myself to get back out there and start again. I am hoping after the holidays to try and get back at it!

Skull and Roses Completed

I finished the Birthday present for my Niece. The more I work with watercolor the more I understand how it works. I am pretty proud of the way this turned out.

WIP Skull and Roses

Tonight I worked on the Skull and Roses painting for my niece. I am working in watercolor and still learning as I go with this medium.

Skull and Roses Sketch

Here is a sketch I worked on over the weekend. My niece had asked me to do a drawing for her for her birthday. She knew exactly what she wanted and I tried my best to make it work. She wanted 3 roses going from bud to bloom and she wanted a sugar skull in it. She has seen it because I wanted to make sure she liked it before I decided to paint it. I am thinking about painting it with watercolors. I will post the finished painting soon!

School Library Journal Fall 2012 Advertising

I realized I haven't been showing any of my Graphic Design work enough. I am going to try and do this more often.

I designed this last fall to announce our new books coming out. This one is really colorful!

WIP Hummingbirds #4

Some more progress on the Hummingbirds, well one of them anyways. It still needs some details and a bit more work, but its a start.

Also don't forget to head over to the Facebook Page and enter the Giveaway!

October Adventures

October has been a very creative month for me! I made myself a challenge to create 13 Drawing by Halloween and I surprised myself and completed all 13 by Halloween. (You can check them out here: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13). I am loving most of these drawings and I am looking to paint them.

You might have noticed that the blog has a new look!

Here are some of the photos I have taken throughout the month:

Some work doodles while I was waiting on my computer.

While I was in Salem I bought this cute little cauldron and finally used it to burn some incense.

My sunset pictures for the month.

We decided to checkout the Food Truck Invasion in a different location. The moon was just gorgeous that night over the river. Pictures never truly catch the sense of awe and the size the moon looks in person.

I came across one of these Marimo balls on Etsy and I just loved the way they looked. I started looking into them and what they really are. Then I went to the pet store to pick up dog food, and they had one. So I bought it and found it a cool home. Right now I just call it my little fuzz ball.

When I was leaving the house one morning there was an eagle sitting on the wire right outside my house. Then the same day on my way home from work I saw a bunch of birds on a wire.

GIVEAWAY TIME!!! For Halloween we don't really get any Trick or Treaters, so I usually make little treat bags for the kids in my family. This year I also made them for my coworkers. I made a couple extra and decided they would be a great giveaway. The special thing about these Treat Bags is that it features artwork by myself on the front, and there is candy and some other goodies inside. I think the best place to do the giveaway is on the Facebook Page, so stop by there to Win. Good Luck to everybody!