OWOH Welcome!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog that I call ArtsyFartsyMe! This is my first year to participate in the One World One Heart tour. Sadly, it's also my last, as you all know that this is it's last year. I'm so glad you've stopped by. Let me introduce myself to you...

My name is Jaime and I have many different hats that I wear (just like most women). It's kinda hard to label them all but I'll go through a few and these are not in any particular order. I am an artist, I like to draw, take a zillion photographs, paint, create things and also design, paint and draw on the computer. My background is in Graphic Design because that's how you get paid! The term starving artist is one I understand, but if the average gal wants to actually make a living then unfortunately you gotta work for the man. I do try to sell my artwork through the normal venues that are now available to us all. You can see the sidebar if you want to see stuff I've created.  I say this as I am currently staying at home with my almost 5 year old son. He turns 5 in March. Now that he'll be in all day school come August I have the opportunity to jump back in the race if I choose to. Thankfully, I have that choice.

I'm a Mommy to my very energetic and funny son, Asher. Having him later in life has been a joy. I wasn't sure I wanted to have kids when everyone else was having them which would've been in my early twenties, but God has a plan and I had a change of heart around 32 or so. I had put the age 35 in my mind that I wanted to have a child by then and it all worked pretty much as planned. I had Asher one month before I turned 36. On the other hand... I am exhausted, haha. If I knew how much fun he is and how much love I have for him, I would've done it 10 years sooner. Also, if I had known that my mom would've only had 3 years with her grandson, whom she waited so patiently for, I definitely would've done it sooner. That is one of my greatest regrets in life. My mother was my best friend. She was a great lady and my best teacher of life. I lost her to cancer October 20th, 2009 and I miss her terribly everday and it shows a lot, especially on my blog where I unload a lot of my thoughts and everyday life. Of course I am thankful for the 39 years I had with her, but can't help but feel cheated in not having her here with me now. I'm kinda selfish that way. I'm also an only child, so enough said ;)

I love flowers and am an avid gardener. I live in zone 6b (Indiana, USA) and am sick to death of winter so I'm really looking forward to Groundhog Day because even though I know it's just lore, I know that spring is close. Every year I grow from seed Heirloom Tomatoes and sell them as plants. It's very small time, but I love to do this. I have a local following and I just ordered my seed this last week. So it's almost tomato planting time... a very busy time for me. I'll be posting about that soon. I always go overboard and plant waaaay to many tomatoes in my own garden especially considering I'm the only who eats them. Last year I had 20 plants, just for myself. I do give some away to family and friends but I also make a mean salsa and can the rest. I also grow and put up corn, green beans, jalapeno's, peppers, watermelons and cantaloupe. I was born in city but have become a country girl. We live way out in the boonies and have 10 acres and a small lake.

I'm a Christian, and believe in God and that He loves us all. I believe that I will see my mom and my loved ones that have passed again someday in Heaven. I'm not a Holy Roller, but I am strong in my beliefs and I have to ask for forgiveness everyday as I know I'm a sinner (some days worse than others! haha). I tend to have a potty mouth but try to curb it especially here for my blog.

I don't post everyday, it comes in spurts. Sometimes a week goes by without a peep from me. I'm kinda moody and sarcastic but funny too. I'm loyal and consider myself a "helper". I get myself into things without thinking them through sometimes, but that's how I am and as much as I try to change, I realize that I am a Taurus and dang, I can be stubborn. I'm naturally a night owl and stay up waaay too late most nights so that means I am a very slow starter in the morning. I tend to be very messy, something I try to fix, but end up doing anyway. *notice huge mess in background on above photo* Ah well.

I have a bunch of fur babies that I complain about and brag about all the time. My sweet baby Glove, my 19 year old big fluffy white kitty, Zoey, my new faithful companion (doggy) and the newest members are twin boys, Thunder and Lighting who are mess making havoc wreaking monster like ninja kittens. And somehow this one lone Cichlid fish has managed to stay alive while all the others ended up either being eaten or flushed. I have more messes in my life than I have time for!

I love dark humor, a good steak (Medium Rare Ribeye please), Mexican food, Stuffed French Toast from IHOP and Pina Colada's. I've got about 16 sweet tooths (teeth?) and give in to them almost daily. I love ice cream, milk chocolate and I hate to exercise unless it's digging a hole to plant something in or dancing to a good beat. So as you can guess, there's a little bit of a weight issue here... Oh and I just love to listen to music, I feel it just sings to my soul. A song can make me cry, laugh, think deeply and all of the above. Music inspires me to create, to love, sometimes to hate and most of all music inspires me to live. I love all kinds of music, not just one genre. Some old stand-bys are Rock, blues, Spanish guitar (If I believed in reincarnation, I would swear I was Spanish at one time!). In my player right now I've got some Audio Slave, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Romantic Spanish Guitar, Blues Traveler, Sigur Ros and Little Big Town.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back and see what's new around here and I can't wait to learn more about you and read your blog! I'm not always this chatty, I promise. If you are so inclined, join me and become a treasured new friend (follower - I hate that term). I hope to meet all kinds of new friends to keep in touch with, learn from and maybe teach something to or perhaps I'll have to be a terrible example of what not to do... Hahaha! My door prize for getting this far and commenting on this post is a set of gift cards (see below) which are blank inside. Winner will be announced February 17th. Just make sure that I can get back in touch with you by leaving your email on the post or by having your bio filled out with your email on it in case you're the winner.

Special thanks to Lisa, creator of OWOH for this incredible idea of fellowship. I'm betting someone may be willing to carry the torch.

So long for now!