Glad it Over!

It's New Years Eve.   Tonight, we will be spending the evening enjoying the company of  family, friends and neighbours.  Lots of great conversation and a feast of delicious Chinese food.  For the finale, a round of spectacular explosions as the fireworks are blasted off at midnight.  The kids love it almost as much as the guys who are setting them off!

The holidays are finally winding down to a close.  I love Christmas and New Years, but I can't say I am not glad to see them sneak out the door.  The excitement and hectic craziness of it all makes me long for normalcy.

The glow from the candles in the window, the glimmering Christmas tree and the soft shimmer of  the garland on the stairs.  These all made me smile the first night I had all the lights out but, in between rounds of gift wrapping, scrubbing walls and floors and running here there and everywhere!













And what a wonderful time we had!  We had a little party for the kids, and you'll never guess who stopped by for a visit!























My awesome cousin Ron was visiting from Houston with my aunt from New York!  We had a fabulous time.  Ron was hoping to get some skiing in.  That didn't quite work out, but instead, we managed to sneak in some sledding and the Two Rivers Wildlife Park.

I had barely enough time to paint some wine glasses which were to be gifts for some of my favorite people :)  I'll post a tutorial if there's interest....leave a comment!

For me, the real finale is not the fireworks but the calm that follows on New Years Day.  Ahhh....peace and quiet!

I will be enjoying it thoroughly, since it will after that that I plan on going full speed ahead with those New Year's Resolutions.  But that's another post!

Why Not Art?

If you are like me, you are always looking for something different and unique for Christmas and Holiday shopping.  Well, why not art?

I just relisted one of my giclee prints on Etsy.  This is one of the first crows I ever painted, and it's probably the most popular, too :) Sorry, but the original is already sold...it's happily residing in the home of a crow lover in beautiful British Columbia. But the print is still available, and now I am offering free shipping on it, too :)

It is printed on GORGEOUS heavy weight archival watercolor paper which is 8x10 inches.  The actual image size is 7 1/2x6 inches.


So, if you'd like to have free shipping on ANY item in my Etsy shop, all you have to do is enter the code HAPPY HOLIDAYS when you are checking out.

Don't leave it too long to order though, especially if you would like to receive your item by Christmas!  According to Canada Post's website, parcels to the United States need to be shipped by December 8th and items within Canada by December 12th.  (This is by regular post.  Sorry, but I can't extend the free shipping to Express Post, but if you do need your parcel in a hurry and it's past the deadline, just email me and we will work it out :)

Holiday Craziness and Work in Progress

The winter holidays are quickly closing in...are you ready?  It is only the first week of December, and already you can feel the rush and bustle in the air!

Things here at the house are getting pretty hectic, too...I have lists everywhere and calendars are filling up with schedules, activities for the kids and Christmas parties all over the place.  No wonder it's hard to keep up with it all :)  That's not to mention the cleaning and shopping.  I love cyber Monday :)

My youngest son, Ethan did his solo in his Christmas concert beautifully...we were all so proud!






They also enjoyed the Christmas parade :)







Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Google Plus, Etsy, Fine Art America...Anybody else find it hard to keep up with it all?  As an artist, I think it's important to be on at least some of these social media sites.  It's a  way of getting your work out there and seen and also see and enjoy other artists's work.  I like to start my day by checking my email and putter around with all these different social media sites.

Here's my problem...I get on all these sites, and it's fun...meeting other artists and chatting and having a look at all the amazing artwork out there.  The next things you know, hours have gone by and I haven't painted a darn thing! Anybody else experience this?   I'd love to hear how other artists and bloggers balance it all. (Yes, I know I have been slow updating my blog here!)

So that being said, in spite of all the craziness going on around here, I have got a bit of painting in:) Here is a sneak peek of my latest work!  It's a work in progress, still a bit more work to be done.

I plan on adding some collage elements to it.  It's based on a photo of my grandfather when he first came to Canada from Poland.  I collaged in some letters from his mother in Poland, some pay stubs and some receipts of money he sent back to the mother country.  A lot of these got painted over, so I will print these off on rice paper and collage them back in, distress it a bit, too.  Any thoughts?

Thanks for stopping by!