Say a prayer

Dear friends, my Uncle Rob died last night. It is a sad day today. We knew it was coming but that doesn't make it any easier. He died peacefully in his home surrounded by people who loved him. He was a great and kind man. Please say a prayer or send positive thoughts today for his only daughter Marissa and my dad as well as all the family. My family is dying off. It is so hard to take. My dad is taking it especially hard as they were very close.

I'd like to take a moment to urge you all to go and hug your family today. Let them know you love them and care about them. We never know when a loved one will be taken from us. Even if you don't see eye to eye or if you haven't spoke in a long time, take the time now. Your heart will be at peace if you do. I can say my heart is at peace, can you?

God bless you,

FREE Wordpress video lessons

Happy Humpday! As you may know, I'm switching to Wordpress very soon. I'm almost there, I hope you will come visit me when I announce my grand opening. It will contain my blog and my website all in one. 

Did you know Wordpress is FREE? There are also two versions. One .org and one .com. The .org one is if you already own your own domain name, like I do. It doesn't cost anything to move your site over to Wordpress to create and manage your site all on there with their many FREE, customizable and beautiful themes. It has a great, easy to understand interface. The .com one is for blogging only. Again, it's FREE and easy to use. The features are so much better than Blogger in my opinion. But I've enjoyed using Blogger these past years, so I'm not knocking it. This is just a natural transition for me to help build my art business.

If you are interested in Wordpress yourself or just would like more information about what all Wordpress can do (It is a very powerful and versatile program), there are currently FREE video lessons going on right now at Lynda.com from Wordpress expert Morten Rand-Hendriksen here.  You don't have to sign up, get a user account or even leave your e-mail for this FREE lesson. Just click from the beginning and watch to learn. 

Hurry though, because the FREE lessons are only up until 8/24/12. It contains 6+ hours of very valuable content. It is broke up into chapters and range from 3 minutes to 24 minutes each and you can watch the last one first if you choose or pick any to watch. Very easy to understand. 

I've used Lynda.com before. It is a great way to learn about programs and other stuff all online. If I hadn't been told about this FREE lesson (thanks Barbara!), had I found it, I would've paid for it, it's that good. I am learning so much.

School has begun and a new fall painting

Today my little man had his second day of school. He is in the first grade and I can hardly believe it. You may be wondering why I'm showing the 2nd day of school picture instead of the first. Well, that would be because the bus came ten minutes earlier than he said he would yesterday! He was honking his horn as Asher was getting his shoes on. So here is the first day... running late.

I didn't even get a "bye Mom" or a kiss or nothing. He didn't either. All he got was "run, baby run!" haha

So today we had a re-do. Here it is...

there goes my baby

He was up in a flash today. Good thing, because the bus came 5 minutes earlier than yesterday! But he loved riding the bus, although I can't imagine it will last. He is on it for a long time, about 45 minutes I'd say. Then he has to wait around in the school for it to begin. I'll probably soon be taking him, once the newness has wore off and he wants to sleep later.

In other news, I have managed to paint a fall painting. I haven't named it yet, but am thinking of Dreaming Amber... not sure. What do you think?

I also want to mention to my Blogger friends that I am soon leaving Blogger and moving over to Wordpress in order to get all my art business related stuff together on one site, you know things like my website, shop, etc.. I sincerely hope you will come over there and continue stay in touch with me. I'll have a link to get there, more about it later. It's a work in progress at the moment, but it's coming soon. I've even got a newsletter in the works. Busy times.

Dreaming Amber?

Well with all this new found time, I'm off to do more creating! Have a happy day...

Sun series beginning

I've started sketching some ideas for a new sun series that I plan to paint. I like the way this sun's face turned out. I always find myself doodling suns, moons and stars on things while I wait. Just out of curiosity, how many of you like suns and would want suns or other celestial type subjects in your home for artwork? My mom got me into them and I've always loved them. She had them around her house and I treasure the ones I have from her home.

I made fish and veggies for dinner tonight and just look how pretty they came out. If you are trying to lose weight, this is such a low calorie meal that fills up your belly. Came together super quick, too. Here's what I got in there...  

About a cup and a half of zuchinni, tomatoes, onions, peppers that I sauteed up in a teaspoon of olive oil with a fair sprinkling of Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy. Scrape all that on the plate. Using the same pan, I added a little non stick spray and then added 8 oz Tilapia (frozen, thawed) and a little more seasoning. Cook till it flakes with fork easily, just a few minutes turing once. That's it. Quick, yummy and uses up your garden veggies. You could add any veggie you like. I thought about mushrooms after the fact. Oh well, next time.

The total calories for this entire plate, which really could serve 2, is only 288. I ate almost all of it because I thought I was really hungry, but I couldn't eat it all.

I've lost 20 pounds since the first of May. I've been using My Fitness Pal which is a free program for your computer and/or your phone. It has made it so much easier. If you've got any weight to lose, I highly recommend it.

New Goodies & Art Studio Update

Look at my new goodies! I made a trip into town yesterday and bought myself some new paint brushes at Blick. Aren't they beauties? Although, I always think they look better once they've been used and have touches of paint stained on them.


I wanted to share some more pictures of my art studio that has come together enough for me to work in. 

view into studio and pretty much the final layout

even got to work in it the other day, yippee!!

I've been slowly adding things that I like to make it cozy.

I've need more work to be done as far as getting it to reflect my style, but these colored bottles are a start. Aren't they pretty in the light? This window looks out to my lake and koi pond. I added a plant that needs a little tlc.


Remember the re-purposed TV cabinet? Well it needed a couple more shelves, so my hubby made them for me. Can't tell they weren't always there, can you? It is serving now as my flat file. Someday I hope to get a real flat file, but this will do for now. And do you know I cannot find these great little plastic drawers anywhere? Glad I've got these. I used to get them at the Dollar Store for five bucks, but not anymore. They are so handy for the small stuff.

Here is the cabinet before, perfectly fine but...

Isn't this even better?! 4 more shelves were added

I'll show more later... I've got more painting to do!!


Have a great weekend!