It All Started with a Doodle.

Do you doodle when you talk on the phone? I do. I was aware that I was making a flower that kept getting bigger as the shape repeated. I decided this could be an interesting painting, so I added lots of bright colors and started painting. It made my eyes blurr some, but I liked the effect of the colors next to each other. I love the turquoise color, so I added as the background to create more pop. The question at the end was whether to do black or white in between each color. I usually pick black, but I wanted a batik fell, so I went with white. It is a powerful painting done in acrylics on a 8 X 10 canvasboard, so I named it Flower Power. Here is the link to it on my Etsy store: Flower Power Original.

Birthday Months Are a Good Thing!

My family has this tradition of celebrating birthday months. I think it is a wonderful idea! Your birthday might not be a great day, so now you have a whole month to do the things you enjoy.

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was a great day! I turned 49 which isn't a great thing, but I heard 50 is the new 30! I'll see if I believe that next year! I got to spend the day with my favorite person, my BFF, my soul mate, the one who gets me, and that person is my mom. We have the same quirky sense of humor, the same klutsiness, the same kind heart, but my mom is a truly beautiful soul, so she is my mentor too. I call her my Angel Mom. Everybody who has the opportunity to meet my mom, becomes a fan of hers. She is one of the kindest, gentlest, funniest, sweetest, good hearted, loving person I know, and do you know what the blessing of that is? I got her as a mom on June 9, 1961 at 7 pm! How lucky and blessed am I?

So, yesterday we went to a new lunch place called the Yellow Deli in Vista, walked along Creekwalk where I have some craft shows, went to T.J. Max, took naps with my cats, and met my dad at the Beach House in Cardiff-by the Sea. It was a great day!

I got a new camera for my birthday. It is a Nikon Coolpix. I have a Canon A530 which is a little long in the tooth. I wanted a camera to put in my purse. I want to be able to take pictures when I see something inspirational and/or beautiful. I am still getting use to it. Here are some pictures with the new camera from yesterday:

The Yellow Deli in Vista.

The walk at Creekwalk.

New sculpture at Creekwalk. Great inspiration!

This weekend my sister and niece come down on the train for more birthday month fun!

Next birthday (the big 50 (gasp!)), I am off to Kauai to visit my aunt!

Nikki Gets Her Debut on Etsy

After I finished painting the picture of my newest fanciful cat, Nikki decided to jump up on the counter and stretch out right next to the painting. I thought it was an adorable photo so I snapped a picture.

The ecourse that I am taking from Kelly Rae Roberts says that blogs are important to increasing your sales. If fact she says that "blogging is the MOST important thing you can do to cultivate an online presence for your creative biz". So, I asked for some critiques about my blog. It use to have a dark background, and a banner like the one is my Fanciful Art shop. I received the same comments; that it was hard to read my blog with the dark background and my pictures weren't big enough. The picture problem was easy to fix. The blog design was another story. I picked a pre-made one from The Cutest Blog on the Block. It was green and brown, and it was very cute, but it didn't really match the style of my art. I felt as though I was compromising. So, I obessed, spent 4 hours, and now I have a new blog background and banner.